Pumpkin Donut Mini Muffins

It's fall, yall! But quickly approaching winter so that means time to get in all the pumpkin we can!

 























































 

Fall, to me, means caramel apples and Thanksgiving turkey and sweet potatoes. But most of all, fall to me is all about pumpkin!

I gotta say, I love being a grown up (well, sometimes). Do you know how many times I would have gagged at the thought of pumpkin when I was a picky kid and teenager? Now, I know better. I'm so glad I'm willing to try more foods these days because if not, I wouldn't have discovered my love of pumpkin. 

Not all pumpkin flavored-things, let's be clear. But whether it's sweet or savory, I'm definitely on the pumpkin bandwagon.

While we enjoyed these, they didn't scream pumpkin flavor to me. Still good either way!




Pumpkin Donut Mini Muffins
adapted from Martha Stewart

For the Batter:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
• 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
• 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 1 and 1/4 cups canned pumpkin puree
• 1 and 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs

For the Sugar Coating:   

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour mini muffin cups. 

To make the batter: In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin spice. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down bowl as needed. With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions pumpkin mixture, and beat to combine.

Spoon batter into each muffin cup and bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean, checking at 12 minutes. It may take up to 17 minutes to cook through.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl combine granulated sugar and cinnamon. Let muffins cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Working with one at a time, remove muffins from pan, brush all over with melted butter, then toss to coat in sugar mixture. Let muffins cool completely on a wire rack.

Note: May need to use 2 mini muffin pans.


Printable Recipe

So how about you guys? How do you feel about pumpkin? Do you guys stock up on canned pumpkin like I do?

Linking up here. 

Peace, and bacon grease!

Blueberry Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling {Crazy Cooking Challenge}

Hey yall! 

I'm back for April's Crazy Cooking Challenge, and this month's theme was blueberry muffins!

So many to choose from in this big blogging world! But I eventually decided on Baking Glory's Blueberry Muffins with Cream Cheese. These muffins were amazing. I loved the cheese cheese filling, and the light lemon flavor from the zest. I initially just looked at the ingredient list and didn't read the note about blueberry jam too, so next time I'd definitely try the blueberry jam addition.

  

Blueberry Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling

from Baking Glory

• 1 and 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup sugar
• zest from 1 lemon
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 3 tbsp cream cheese, softened
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp zest from 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place muffin liners on the bottoms of the muffin tray. If you don't have liners, just butter or spray the tray well to prevent sticking.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Add sugar and zest from 1 lemon to the flour mixture and mix well. 

In a separate small or medium bowl, mix vegetable oil, egg, milk, and vanilla extract together. Slowly incorporate wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, but don't overmix. Mix in the blueberries.

For the cream cheese filling, in a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, 1 tbsp sugar, and 1 tsp lemon zest until smooth. 

Fill each cup up halfway with half of the muffin batter. Next add 1 tsp cream cheese filling into each cup and cover with the remaining muffin batter. 

Bake for 20 minutes, until muffins are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in comes out clean. Let cool on rack. Makes 12 muffins.

Printable Recipe

This was a great breakfast treat for our lazy Saturday morning, without school or work. I usually prefer savory breakfast foods over things like muffins and pastries and such, but these muffins will change a girl's mind. Oh, and they're perfect with a little butter too. 

Check out all the other blueberry muffin recipes in the blog hop below:


Linking up here.

Peace, and bacon grease!