Pumpkin Cravings! | Muffins w/ Homemade Cream Cheese Frosting |

If you're a regular around these parts, you'd know this recipe was comin'! As part of my Musings of The Week I decided to try my hand at making these bad boys + they turned out delicious! I found the recipe for them on VeryBestBaking.com. The result of the recipe are muffins that are spongy on the outside + have a nice soft center on the inside, bottom line they are hella good! Wanted to share it with ya as is, although I did include a few little notes of what I plan on doing different next time I make them. Get your ingredients together + let's make some muffins! 

Ingredients 

* 3 C. Flour

* 1 T. + 1 t. Pumpkin Pie Spices

* 2 t. Baking Soda

* 1 1/2 t. Salt

* 3 C. Sugar

* 1 15oz. Can Pumpkin  

* 4 Eggs

* 1/2 C. Vegetable Oil

* 1/2 C. Water

How To 

- Preheat oven to 350

- Grease/line muffin tin

-Combine flour, Pumpkin Pie Spice, baking soda + salt

-In separate bowl combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, oil + water, mix well 

(will be runny but don't fret)

- Slowly add flour mix to pumpkin mix, stir well

- Spoon batter into cups filling them about 3/4 full

- Bake 25 minutes

- Cool + enjoy as is or...

-Add some frosting!

Tips: I'm one of those people who are constantly wanting to improve things. Like I said these are delicious as is, but next time I make these I'm going to add a little more Pumpkin Pie Spice + some Nutmeg to add a little more flavor. I would also like to add raisins + nuts next time I make these, as I think they would just put these muffins over the top!

Now the Cream Cheese frosting wasn't part of the original recipe I looked up, but after eating a muffin plain I decided they needed a little more kick of sweetness to them. (I am a confirmed sugar-holic after all)

Cream Cheese Frosting

This was my first time making Cream Cheese frosting from scratch, but as there are very few ingredients needed it was super easy + quick to make. I found the recipe for this frosting here. As this is not commercial cream cheese frosting the muffins will need to be refrigerated after being frosted. 

Ingredients:

* 1/2 C. Unsalted Butter, softened
* 1/2 C. Cream Cheese, softened
* 2 C. Powdered Sugar
* 1 t. Vanilla Extract

How To:

- In a large bowl combine butter + cream cheese together with a mixer
- Slowly add powered sugar until smooth
- Beat in vanilla extract

- Frost your favorite dessert! In this case the muffins :)

They taste great both cold + warmed up! 

Hope you enjoy these bad boys as much as my family + I have! :) 

Until next time friends...Cheers!!!

<3 Noonie

Fresh Baked: Vegan Pumpkin Bread

As I may have mentioned I eat a small amount of bread each and every morning, typically I bake these little goodies myself (as is the example here), and I make a bunch of them at once so I will give a few away but baking 40 at a time means that I won't need to make another batch for 40 days or so.

I have a bad habit of needing to try everything! Its pretty bad, if I go to the same restaurant over and over I'll always get something different + I always ask my friends if I can taste what they ordered (Of course to save me from having to order another item).

So for this go round I found Pumpkin Bread from Detoxinista. I modified the ingredients based on what I had in the house.

When I bake I keep a few things in mind, partly based off the way my body reacts and partly based off my ideals. I eat gluten every morning because it helps coat my stomach for the day and makes me feel better. I (almost) always bake vegan. Not because I am vegan, but because I want to spend my money wisely. I am not a fan of eggs, butter, or milk, so, if I were to purchase these items to bake they would expire before the next time I baked. Which means I'd end up throwing away perfectly good food and I feel guilty. When I bake vegan all of the ingredients I use I will eat +/or they store longer than animal products, so, they will still be around by the next time I bake.

On this round of baking I made 2 batches of muffins. The original recipe called for 1 cup of pumpkin, but the can holds 1 3/4 cup of pumpkin so in my effort to waste less I made an experimental batch; which turned out to be super delicious! 

Plus this way I get to keep my variety and I'll switch off between muffin types each day.

Ingredients (traditional):

1 cup flour

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 tbs cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

1/2 cup honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup water

1 tsp baking soda

1 tbs apple cider vinegar

Ingredients (experiment):

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup corn meal

1/8 cup flax meal

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

1 tbs cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1/8 cup coconut oil, melted

1/8 cup olive oil

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup apple sauce

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup oats

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Mix: Flours + Spices

3. Mix in Pumpkin + Liquids (wait for vinegar)

4. Mix in Vinegar

4a. Mix in oats (use as many or few as you like)

5. Put into muffin tins (or parchment paper lined loaf pan)

Yield:

I used mini-muffin tins so the traditional recipe made 24, and the experiment made 19 for a total of 43.

Tips:

This recipe was awesome because I only used one bowl, which means less cleaning!

The traditional muffins are moist, bready, and a touch heavier than the experiment. This has a lot to do with the amount of honey + oils used. The apple sauce in the experiment helped them to be lighter and fluffier. But honestly, they are both delicious!

ENJOY!