Pumpkin-Apple Muffins

I am SO ready for it to be fall! Summer is my least favorite season--yes, I like winter better than summer! (Winters here in Virginia are a much milder version than what I experienced growing up in Northern Illinois and Indiana.)

Pumpkin is one of my favorite things about fall. I found a wonderful recipe in my 1996 Southern Living cookbook for Pumpkin-Apple Muffins. (By the way, the quilt in the photo above is called "Richmond", it's from a Jo Morton Little Women group.)

Gather your ingredients. Combine in a large bowl:
1-2/3 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1/4 tsp. baking powder, 1/4 tsp. salt and 1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice. Because I love cinnamon, I added 1/4 tsp. King Arthur Flour's cinnamon (don't waste your money on any other brand of cinnamon--this has THE best flavor!). Combine these ingredients and make a "well" in the center of the bowl.

Combine in another bowl:  1 cup canned pumpkin, 1/2 cup melted butter, 2 large eggs  (lightly beaten). Add these ingredients to the dry ingredients, combining until just moistened.

Prepare 1 Granny Smith apple:  peel, core and cut into small pieces. Fold the chopped apple into the batter. Spoon the batter evenly into 12 greased muffin cups.

Combine in a small bowl:  3 tablespoons sugar, 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly over the mufins. Bake them at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, until a pick inserted into the muffins comes out clean. Remove them from the pan immedietly and cool on a wire rack.

We enjoyed ours with a dollop of butter and a hot cup of Gevalia coffee.  I've tried many pumpkin bread/muffin recipes over the years. I prefer the ones that use butter rather than vegetable oil. I somehow can never get the oil mixed in completely, and the final product just seems greasy and dense.

On the top of the cookbook stack is my Susan Branch Autumn cookbook. It's a wonderful coffee-table cookbook. I LOVE her artwork, don't you?!

I'm working on my Generals Wives quilt blocks and my Happily Scrappily Irish quilt today. I'm making great progress on both of them. Hopefully, I'll have something to show you soon on both of them.

Till next time, keep stitchin' or bakin'!
Mary