Pumpkin Muffins

A very good friend of mine gave me this recipe for pumpkin muffins with a few variations. This is a great muffin for snack or breakfast during the fall weather. Picture this muffin with your morning coffee. It is yummy warmed up with a bit of butter or honey on it.



Pumpkin Muffins

1/4 cup soft butter or margarine
1 cup sugar
1 cup fresh or canned pumpkin
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups milk
3 1/2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin tins or place paper liners in muffin tin. Cream butter (or margarine) and sugar until fluffy. Beat in pumpkin and eggs. Mix in milk. Sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a separate bowl. Make a well in the middle and pour in pumpkin mixture. Add raisins. Mix just until dry ingredients are moist. Spoon into muffin tins and bake 20 minutes. Insert toothpick into center and it is done when it comes out clean.

NOTES:
- DO NOT over mix, if this happens you get tunnels in your muffins and they become very dry and tough. Mix just until dry ingredients are moist, and then stop stirring. It may look like there are lumps of dry ingredients but it will even out in the oven.
- If you use fresh pumpkin, I suggest getting what is called a sugar pumpkin (they are smaller then traditional pumpkins and usually made into pies and other dishes) and then either steam it or bake in the oven until it is fork tender and then cool and mash to use in recipes. It does make the dish taste much better despite the fact that canned pumpkin is much more convenient; it just becomes a toss-up whether you have the time or the desire to use fresh pumpkin as it is a bit time consuming preparing it for the recipes.

VARIATIONS:
- You can substitute finely chopped carrots or zucchini for the pumpkin for a different flavor of muffin or if you do not have pumpkin available.
- For a nutty struesel topping: Mix together 1 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup butter or margarine, and 1/4 cup chopped nuts. Mix until mealy and then put on top of muffin batter in tins before baking and bake as directed.
- Maple Oat Topping: Mix together 1 cup brown sugar, 2 Tbsp maple syrup, 1/4 cup rolled oats in a bowl until mealy. Top muffin batter with topping before baking and bake as directed.