Three pumpkins, grown in a tiny backyard in Hamburg triggered this post. My nephew visited a few weeks ago, was enamoured of my pumpkin muffins, plundered the recipe (such as it has substance or can be described), and sent me a photo of his harvest on his return home. By his estimate (because it exceeded his weighing instruments) the big one is 7.5 to 8 kilograms.
That's potentially a lot of muffins (kiwi kind; English muffins are bread, round, about an inch thick and 4 inches in diameter, flat on both sides).
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| These were made with wholemeal einkorn flour so were a bit more 'textured' than normal. It worked. |
some mashed cooked pumpkin (some could be a cup, or 2 cups, or a small lunch box full, or whatever it was I froze the cooked mashed pumpkin in).
Then I add
1 or 2 eggs,
some oil (this time some might be half a cup, depends on how fast your oil bottle gloops; it's about "gloop gloop gloop")
Half a small jar of whatever variety of homemade jam isn't currently popular, or a dollop of honey if you are trying to use up jars of the stuff crystallising in your top cupboard
Mix all that together well and add any interesting stuff you find in the cupboards (like pumpkin seeds, raisins, coconut flakes, other dried fruit, chopped nuts... It might be possible to overdo this bit but I usually use two or three kinds)
Sift in 1 to 1.5 cups of flour
1 to 1.5 tsp of baking soda and about 3/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 generous tsp of mixed spice
Mix all that together and add a bit of milk if it is too stiff.
Dollop it into paper muffin cases which I use to line the muffin pan tray and bake about 20 minutes at 160-170 degrees C
If that was all a bit difficult to follow then you get the idea that my idea of baking, these days, is 'use whatever is available and throw it together'. What I have discovered about mashed pumpkin is that with a bit of flour and leavening it behaves like a proper cake ingredient. The muffins are moist without being cloying and stay tasty for a couple of days. They don't 'stale' as fast as regular bakes.
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteFor some strange reason all I could think about as I read this was Flo Bjelke-Petersen's Pumpkin Scones... a recipe I have adapated over the years in a similar manner to your more free-flowing baking style! Pumpkin is indeed a great ingredient and very versatile. Certainly something I can have a bash at in the air fryer! YAM xx
Perhaps you can share the recipe for pumpkin scones - I need some variety.
DeleteI love the measures you use - I shall remember 'gloop gloop gloop'.
ReplyDeleteI've never eaten pumpkin - I mean to every year and always forget.
Don't eat halloween pumpkins they tend to be bitter in my experience. Eating pumpkins are also called squash in this country. 'Pumpkin' where I come from is the generic word for all such vegetables whether you can eat them or should feed them to the cows. Use peanut squash - or any that you can get that produce a fairly dry mash when cooked. Sloppy mashed pumpkin/squash works but you will need to adjust other wet ingredients or use a bit more flour and leavening.
DeleteI should have said 'edible pumpkins' are also called squash. It makes better sense. Anyway the point is when I say pumpkin, I mean sweet edible ones (not bitter Halloween ones).
DeleteNow that's my kind of recipe! Gloop gloop gloop , unpopular jam and whatever is in the cupboards. I've got some pumpkin puree in the freezer. It'll make perfect muffins!
ReplyDeleteI love using whatever is around to make something I really think I missed my opportunity to be a mad scientist. The kitchen is kinda like a science lab, dont you think?
ReplyDeleteyum! even better with cream cheese icing.
ReplyDelete