Jordan's Pumpkin Muffins

Good afternoon you guys! Did everyone have a FABULOUS weekend? I hope it was great for you because it was great for us! We had house guests for 6 days and over the weekend we did a LOT of cooking and baking! Fun times! Over the last few days I received a comment on one of my instagram food photos. (by the way, if you're interested, follow me on instagram.. i post a lot of food photos and recipe snippets there as well. my username is sidneyhelou) Her comment was something along the lines of, "you need to give us a recipe with real pumpkin!" SO ERIN! @lovisahanphoto .... here it is! My sister just HAPPENED to fall in love with this Pumpkin Muffin recipe from The Pioneer Woman! She adapted it quite a bit though so I'm going to share with you Jordan's recipe... from reading the original ingredients, I know I like Jordan's better. ;) These were DELISH and SO perfect for the season. Just wait 'til you SMELL the BATTER, let alone the actual baked puffs of pumpkin-y goodness! So who's with me?!

FOR THE MUFFINS YOU WILL NEED:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 & 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger **
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg **- i love nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 Tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
• 1 cup (heaping) pumpkin puree- you can make your own puree by simply blending your fresh pumpkin until smooth or use a can of FRESH PUMPKIN, NOT pumpkin pie filling
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk (if you don't have any, you can make your own, put about 1 cup milk in a small saucepan and stir on high heat, but keep it under a boil, until its thicker and about 1/2 cup... this can be tricky so i highly recommend just buying a can for $1.20)
• 1 egg
• 1 & 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup of regular or golden raisins (we left these out- we like to taste the muffin for how the muffin tastes)

** if you don't have that ingredient, you can use pumpkin pie spice

FOR THE TOPPING YOU WILL NEED:

• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg **

** if you don't have that ingredient, you can use pumpkin pie spice

These are EASY and fun and SO great... let's get into it!

1. First step, preheat your oven to 400 degrees and grease your muffin pan (12 muffins).
2. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt.
3. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or 2 knives. (everyone remember what "cut in" means?) ;) The mixture should look like course crumbs now.
4. In a separate bowl, (small-medium sized) mix together the pumpkin puree, evaporated milk, egg & vanilla. 
5. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the flour/butter mixture and mix away! (i like to fold everything together instead of using an electric mixer here but either will do)
6. If you chose to use raisins, now is the time to stir those babies in.
7. In a small bowl (really small) mix together the ingredients for "THE TOPPING."
8. Fill in the muffin tins, half-full to start with and if you have extra, fill up to 2/3 full.
9. Sprinkle the topping on top of the UNBAKED muffins.
10. Bake for 22-26 minutes! I recommend the full 26 minutes... also, don't be fooled! THE TOPPING WILL MAKE YOU THINK THE TOPS OF THE MUFFINS ARE BURNT, since its brown and sugary- so before you get all nervous and pull them out too early, stick a toothpick or knife in one to see if the inside is cooked!
11. Let cool for about 15-20 minutes.... they will be tempting so RESTRAIN yourself! :)

(as you can see, i kind of ruined mine, i pulled them out early to see what they would taste like with more of a gooey, bread pudding center and they were too flat- still GREAT though) ;)

Here's Jordan's- they were perfect :) She followed the recipe!

And there you have it! All I'm saying is.... why NOT have a pumpkin carving party at your house just so you can have fresh pumpkin puree AND impress people with your ridiculous baking skills?? I don't see a reason why not either, so party on! AND IF ANY OF YOU MAKE THESE GOODIES, LET ME KNOW & SHARE THE PHOTOS! I'd love to see if you're finding yourself making these and loving them and I'd LOVE to feature you and show all of our friends on here! 

SPEAKING OF FEATURING OUR FRIENDS and their goodies...... WAY TO GO ANDREA BAUGUESS for making the Ultimate Brownies recipe and SUCCEEDING! She texted me photos of those sinful little things and said her boyfriend went crazy over them! She also said, "I can definitely tell a difference between homemade and store bought- these are so much lighter! I want to make everything from scratch now!" YES! THAT is what I love to hear! I love that you guys are feeling empowered and EXCITED to make things ON YOUR OWN! There's no feeling like it! So here are Andrea's fresh- outta- the- oven and frosted chocolaty treats:

How DELICIOUS do those look? SO loving this you guys- keep the updates and photos coming and let me know if I can help you along the way! 

Enjoy your day today and think about sending a pumpkin carving party e-vite out. ;)

LOTS OF LOVE!