Pumpkin Muffins

Fall is officially here and pumpkin has recently become my new best friend. It sucks for pumpkin because I know myself and I'll soon trade him/her in for peppermint come December...or chocolate. Who knows what the future holds, but for now, pumpkin is my pal. It all started last week when fall set in and I put on my first sweater of the season. It was a glorious morning:  it was crisp, cool and the feeling of putting on a soft sweater in the early morning had me giddy.

I was ordered by Ryan to head to Noah's Bagel to get a pumpkin muffin--he swore by them. So I followed orders and man, am I glad I did. It was sort of a surprise to me because Noah's isn't, well, the best known place for pastries, muffins, etc.--it's an unpretentious bagel shop, so the fact that they had mastered the art of the muffin was a bit of a shock. Good for them! If they could do it so could I, right? And now you can, too. So go put on a sweet, cozy sweater and bake these up!

Pumpkin Muffins

Recipe by Gourmet Magazine 2006

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1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
⅓ cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pumpkin-pie spice (a combo of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and allspice)
1 ¼ cups of sugar
1 tablespoon sugar (for the topping)
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon (for the topping, which of course you can skip)

Place muffin liners inside the muffin cups. I prefer to have all of them one color, but I'm a little neurotic so do as you please. Preheat oven to 350F.

Whisk together flour and baking powder in a small bowl.

Note: Here's the deal with pumpkin-pie spice: they sell it at most grocery stores right now. But I'm not a fan of a one purpose type spice so I put in ⅛ of a teaspoon of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and allspice. So if you don't have pumpkin-pie spice you can do what I did.

Whisk together pumpkin puree, oil, eggs, pumpkin-pie spice, 1.25 cups sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined.

Stir together cinnamon and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in another bowl.

Divide batter among muffin cups (each should be about ¾ full), then spinkle tops with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake until puffed and golden brown and a wodden pick or skewer inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

Cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.