Pumpkin White Chocolate Muffins

A small, sweet, dense & moist muffin that tastes a lot like pumpkin pie

My oldest son is a wicked picky eater, but he really likes these muffins. Pumpkin in a muffin counts as a vegetable serving, right? Ditto for zucchini muffins - right? Ah well, these are quite tasty and a healthier snack than some other options. They are also great for breakfast. And they will have your kitchen smelling so inviting and holiday-spicy.

A note about baking egg-free

These muffins rise without eggs due to a chemical reaction between the baking soda and the buttermilk. If you don’t use buttermilk, or need to avoid dairy, experiment with using vinegar to create the same reaction. I haven’t tried this yet in this recipe, but I use 1 Tbsp of vinegar in my wacky cake recipes, which call for 1½ cups of flour. The oil and the pumpkin puree help to add binding and moisture.

A note about chocolates and baking chips

For these muffins, I use white chocolate chips made by the Vermont Nut-free ChocolateCompany. (Check out their website here for complete disclosures and ingredient lists.) They are a nut-free/peanut-free designated company & processing facility. However, they do use dairy in their white and milk chocolate varieties and the dairy poses a cross-contamination risk in all products, due to shared processing equipment. Additionally, they make truffles and fudge products that contain eggs. However, their solid chocolate products, including their baking chips, are not processed on the same equipment with eggs. So I feel safe using them for my son, with his peanut, treenut & egg allergies. Every family has different sensitivities and different comfort levels, so please use your own judgment or check in with your allergist if you have questions or concerns.

If you need to avoid additional allergens, try the Enjoy Life brand for chocolate chips – they avoid the top 8 allergens and are gluten-free. (See their website here) Or look for a vegan variety of white chips. There are several brands on the market which offer vegan white chocolate chips; however, I wasn’t able to find one that didn’t have cross-contamination warnings for other major allergens. We don’t use any products that pose cross-contamination on peanuts or treenuts; so “processed on shared equipment” or “processed in same facility” are off limits for my family. Read labels carefully.

 A note about something entirely different – the legend of the jack o’lantern

Photo from MarthaStewart.com; Turnip Lanterns, 2007.

 The tradition of carving a jack o’lantern originated with the Celtic peoples. The folks over at Education.com posted this educational article sharing an Irish folktale, about stingy Jack trying to outwit the devil - and getting burned in the deal - along with some history and details of how the vegetable lantern morphed over time. Based on the ancient folktale, Irish and Scottish folks carved out vegetables like turnips, beets, rutabagas, potatoes or cabbage cores, with enough space to drop in a glowing coal ember for a portable lantern. When the Irish and Scots immigrants came over to America, they brought their jack o’lantern tradition with them, but discovered the native pumpkin squashes much easier to carve. I have many fond childhood memories of carving jack o’lanterns, especially to set out on the porch on Halloween night. With real wax candles and spooky flickering faces lit up. Didn’t appreciate the seeds and goopy, stringy pulp so much, but always found it worth digging out to get the final product. 

I also highly recommend reading the children’s book The Night of the Pumpkinheads by Michael Rosen and illustrated by master carver Hugh McMahon. The humorous story features line drawings and photos of  artistically thrilling jack o'lantern creations using orange, green & white pumpkins, along with a variety of vegetables. (One illustration can be previewed here). Not only does the author get really creative with the jack o’lantern names, but you just won’t think about vegetables the same way!

Now on to celebrating pumpkins and spice and Halloween:

Recipe adapted from Isa Chandra at Post Punk Kitchen Blog - originally posted on November 8, 2009.

Makes 12-14 small muffins.

 

Pumpkin & White Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:

1-3/4 cups wholewheat pastry flour

3/4 cups demerara sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 Tbsp baking powder

3 pinches coarse or kosher salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1/8 tsp ground cloves

1 cup pureed pumpkin (canned or fresh)

2 Tsp molasses

1/2 cup light olive oil

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Put in paper liners or lightly grease muffin tin/s.
 
2. Whisk together dry ingredients, including spices in medium to large mixing bowl.
 
3. In a second bowl, pour in wet ingredients. Whisk together to smoothly incorporate.
 
4. Turn out the wet ingredients into the dry mix bowl. Use spatula to mix and combine to form a batter.
 
5. Fold in white chocolate chips, using spatula.
 
6. Fill the muffin cups pretty much full. My muffins did not rise much.
 
7. Put muffin tin in oven, close door, turn down the temp to 400° for baking.
 
8. Bake for ~20 minutes, until they’ve risen and a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

ALLERGEN INFO: contains wheat and milk – both the buttermilk and the chips.

ALLERGY ACCOMMODATIONS: The original recipe called for soy milk; I haven’t tried it, but rice or coconut milk may work as well. To replace wheat use a gluten-free baking mix. To replace chips - there are some vegan white chocolate chips on the market, but I wasn’t able to find one that didn’t have cross-contamination warnings for other major allergens. Read labels carefully. Or use a milk-free version of chocolate chips, like Enjoy Life brand.

Pumpkin Vegetable Soup

An earthy & hearty meal in a bowl, with a zing of ginger  

I bought a cute little pumpkin from a local farmer (see photo above) and then picked up 3 more at my sons’ school fall festival. Now I need to figure out how best to use them... I’m reminded of one of my family’s favorite books about Halloween – The Runaway Pumpkin by Kevin Lewis. Two brothers find and loose a HUGE pumpkin from its vine on a steep, steep hill. It proceeds to roll and bump (and mow down) a couple family members who are too slow to get out of the way, distracted as they are by thoughts of what Granny will make out of the pumpkin – pie, soup, or bread? The rhyming story has a melodic, repeating refrain that is so very fun to read aloud: “…came that thumpety, bumpety, thumpin’, bumpin’, round and roll-y runaway pumpkin!” Irresistable.

So, I’m going to make soup first. Since my pumpkins are still on display, I’m going to cheat and use canned puree. But you can use fresh if you have it. I’ll experiment with roasting and pureeing later in the season.

Before my sister introduced me to this vegetable soup, a decade ago, I really only thought about pumpkin for Thanksgiving pie. And the occasional seasonal muffin. But after opening the door to savory possibilities, now I really enjoy experimenting with different spices and flavors and using pumpkin in its veggy, squash state.

For this particular soup, I do use some pie spices, however I don’t sweeten the pumpkin. I find the sweetness of the carrots, corn, and sweet potatoes are a great complement to the earthiness of the squash. And the distinct color of the pumpkin really comes through in the broth. This is a chunky, hearty soup that easily shines as the main course. Feel free to complement it with a salad and/or cornbread. I did serve it once as a starter on Thanksgiving Day and found it to be a bit too filling, since we had turkey and all the fixings. It could be a great addition if you’re planning on a vegetarian Thanksgiving feast. I like making it to go with Thanksgiving leftovers instead – serve it with a turkey sandwich or throw some chopped turkey and celery slices into the broth.

(Adapted from a recipe for Harvest Pumpkin Soup, given me by my sister - Thanks, Beth!)

 

Pumpkin Vegetable Soup

Ingredients:

½ red onion, chopped

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 cups fresh pumpkin puree or 1-15oz can

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp ground allspice

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

4 cups broth*

2 yukon gold potatoes, finely diced

1 sweet potato, finely diced

~1/2 lb of baby carrots, sliced

1 14oz can of kernel corn (or 2 cups frozen)

Several cranks of black peppermill

*NOTES: For a vegetarian version, use vegetable broth. I use Celefibr™ bouillon cubes, which are both vegetarian and gluten-free; either the chicken flavor or the vegetable medley works well for this soup. For a non-vegetarian version, use chicken broth.*

Directions:

1. Saute onion in olive oil. Add pumpkin, garlic, and spices. Stir with wooden spoon.
2. Dilute pumpkin mixture with the broth. Stir until smooth.
3. Bring up to boil, then add in potatoes and carrots.
4. Add in corn (with liquid if using canned corn.) Simmer for 30-40 minutes, until veggies are fork tender. Add salt/pepper to taste, if desired. Black pepper recommended.

Optional Creamy Variation – my sister Beth sautés her onion in butter and adds 1 Tbsp of sugar to the pumpkin puree and only a ½ tsp of paprika. She leaves out the sweet potato. She adds in ½ cup of cream at the very end, right before serving.

ALLERGEN INFO: contains corn; creamy variation contains dairy

ALLERGY ACCOMMODATIONS: omit corn, could replace with finely diced parsnip or other sweet vegetable; omit dairy, can leave out entirely or replace butter with margarine and cream with coconut milk