Modern Notebook

I made these really good pumpkin muffins around the beginning of October. I adapted a recipe I found from another blogger, doubling the recipe and tweaking a few things here and there. While making the muffins, I thought it seemed like it had a lot of butter, but I just went with it. They baked well and tasted great. These muffins are big and fluffy, sweet but also have that unique pumpkin flavor that is almost nutty, and the chocolate chips make it that much more special.

However, when typing up the recipe, I had to do a double take, and start some research. The original recipe was meant to make 6 muffins and used 6 tablespoons of butter. Doubled, that means 12 muffins with 12 tablespoons of butter in them. That’s 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp of butter total. Apparently, that’s not normal. The majority of recipes I have seen call for 1/4 cup of butter or oil. Also, it seems that most muffin recipes have milk, buttermilk, sour cream, yogurt, or more than one of the aforementioned in them. This recipe had none of those. I found it reassuring that the Sally’s Baking Addiction pumpkin muffins have 1/2 cup of oil, although they also call for milk.

As I said, they baked well and tasted great. My mom tried one and approved, not knowing the recipe, so we had some outside oversight.

The question is: Does it matter? Does it matter that these pumpkin banana muffins have more melted butter than most other recipe, but no milk? I wonder if it it ups the calorie count and although I don’t actually count every calorie, I care in the grand scheme of things. But these are good. It can’t be said enough. I’ll continue to test and tweak. If I find that they benefit from less butter or some added milk, I’ll let you know and adjust this post accordingly.

Here I am showing my naivety in this post in all its glory. I wish I could come across as more of a baking expert today, as it has long been one of my favorite hobbies. I was just thinking earlier how if I were to ever have a cookbook out, I would want it to either be all on muffins, or at least have one chapter on muffins. Maybe that will happen one day. Expertise comes with practice though, and it’s okay not to know everything. I’m learning each time I bake and pour over recipes.

Pumpkin banana muffins

Adapted from a recipe by Peas and Crayons.

Yield: 12 to 15 muffins, depending on size

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt

2 overripe bananas
1 cup pumpkin purée
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350° F. Lightly spray or grease a 12-cup muffin pan. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together. Set aside.

In a large bowl, add banana, pumpkin, and sugar. Beat together with a hand-mixer until the mixture is smooth. Beat in the melted butter, egg, and vanilla. Mix well. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.

Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and beat on low speed until just about combined. Be careful not to overmix.

Use a tablespoon or cookie scoop to fill the muffin tins evenly. Fill muffin cups about 3/4 full. Bake for 20-23 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the muffins. Oven temps and times will vary. Allow muffins to cool in the muffin tin for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack and allow to fully cool.