Pumpkin muffins with oats and cranberries

You must have noticed by now that I like pumpkin and love pumpkin desserts (cake, bread, pie). Because I always make such big batches of fresh pumpkin purée, I constantly search and think of new pumpkin-based desserts to bake.

This time I made pumpkin muffins filled with oats and cranberries, and covered with cinnamon and pumpkin seeds. These muffins are great for breakfast and can be easily frozen down and thawed at a later time. Oats make muffins less cake-like and you can easily replace white flour with wholewheat flour if you prefer a "healthier" muffin. Cranberries make an interesting, slightly acidic contrast with the pumpkin and pumpkin seeds (or pepitas) add a crunchy side to these pumpkin muffins. Try them, I love them as snack!

Recipe for about 16 muffins:

Wet ingredients
1 egg, beaten
1.2 dl milk
4 dl fresh pumpkin purée
100 g butter, melted
1.5 tsp vanilla extract

Dry ingredients
1.2 dl brown sugar
5 dl flour
2 dl oats
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
a pinch of cloves
a pinch of nutmeg
a pinch of ginger
1/2 tsp salt
2.5 dl cranberries

Topping
1 dl roasted+chopped pumpkin seeds
0.6 dl brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix wet ingredients. In a separate bowl mix dry ingredients and add cranberries once mixed. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix only until incorporated. Line a muffin pan with muffin paper forms and fill them with dough to 3/4 of volume.
Mix ingredients for topping and sprinkle on top of muffins. Bake approx. 20 min at 190C (until toothpick comes out clean).

Classic pumpkin bread

After looking for it for a month now, I finally found the pumpkin (courge musquée) I would bake and use this Fall. I baked it in the oven and made fresh pumpkin purée with it to use as base for my pastries and soup. I made a classic Pumpkin Bread (could easily be classified as cake) that was moist and spiced with ginger and cinnamon, spices I love in Fall/Winter cakes. Once you have the pumpkin purée at hand, it takes less than 10 min to prepare the cake (sorry bread) so don't be afraid of trying this recipe even if you think you're not good at baking, you can't fail it.

If you like pumpkin based desserts, I suggest you check out my Pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting and Pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, they are both delicious. Enjoy!

Recipe for a 28cm long pumpkin bread:

1.2 dl canola oil / melted butter (I do half butter half oil)
2 eggs, beaten
2.5 dl fresh pumpkin purée
2 tsp molasses
0.5 dl water
3.6 dl flour
2.4 dl sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix wet ingredients (butter, eggs, pumpkin purée, molasses and water) in another bowl. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until barely incorporated. Transfer to a greased and floured cake pan. Bake at 180C for about 60 min (start checking at 50min, a toothpick should come out clean).