Pumpkin Muffins

It's a glorious first day of autumn here in Toronto.   The temperature has climbed to at least 24 degrees Celsius (which is just over 75 degrees Fahrenheit), and once the rain stopped the day was fantastic.

Looking out in my back garden, I can see the signs of winter coming - the leaves are turning on our trees and our plantings are starting to look a little sad in places.  We purchased what we thought was a squash plant at the garden centre this spring, but it certainly looks like a pumpkin now - big and orange and round.   It made me think of pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie, and all things pumpkinny, and so I though I would make my pumpkin muffins which I adapted from a recipe on the PETA website:  http://www.peta.org/living/food/pumpkin-muffins/

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees

1 3/4 cups of all purpose flour
1/4 cups of rolled oats (not steel cut)
1/8 cup of hemp hearts
1 tablespoon of non-aluminum baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon of ground ginger
3/4 cup of chopped walnuts

1 1/4 cups of pureed pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup of soy milk (I used soy milk but I have made this recipe with almond milk and rice milk)
1/3 cup of mild vegetable oil (I used canola, but sunflower oil would work)
3 tablespoons of maple syrup

Prepare your muffin pan: if you use paper liners, place them in the muffin pan.  If you prefer to cook without liners, lightly grease your muffin pan with your favourite oil or shortening.

Put all of the dry ingredients, except for the walnuts, in a large mixing bowl and stir them together.



Here is the flour waiting to be joined by the other dry ingredients.




Here I've added the oatmeal.



The rest of the dry ingredients.

Put all of the wet ingredients into a medium mixing bowl and stir them together until they are well mixed and the oil is completely incorporated and not floating on the top.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until you don't see any white flour sitting at the bottom or on the sides of the bowl.

Add the walnuts and stir them in.

Fill your muffin cups to the top, put the pan in the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a tester inserted into the muffins comes out clean.



Variations - you can use pecans if you prefer them to walnuts.

I usually add cranberries but I forgot I used them for the cookies I made last week, so I was all out of them.

A handful of shredded coconut is also nice in these muffins

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