Pumpkin Muffins

When weekends morning happen here and we don't have plans, we like to be super lazy and catch up on the DVR, but we still like to make a yummy breakfast.  This past fall there was discussion of another great pumpkin shortage, so whenever I saw pumpkin in the store I bought at least 2 cans of it.  After only making pumpkin blondies and a pasta dish, we had a whole lot of canned pumpkin sitting in our cabinets!  So, on a recent Saturday morning I decided pumpkin muffins would make the perfect breakfast - who said pumpkin was just a fall food!

Pumpkin Muffins!

Using my mom's trusty 70's edition of the Joy of Cooking, I found a recipe for Quick Pumpkin Bread, which turned into muffins (because they are so much better then bread!)



The necessities...

• 1 3/4 cups of flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves
• 1 1/3 cups of sugar
• 1/2 cup of shortening
• 2 eggs
• 1 can of pumpkin
• 1/2 cup of water (or milk)
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

I sorta bagged the whole "sifting together the dry and then mixing the wet ingredients separately" thing and just went ahead and added everything to the same bowl!  I know, I am such a rebel!

Dry Ingredients (including sugar)

with shortening and eggs

With everything else!

After the batter was nice and smooth and the ingredients were fully incorporated I poured it into greased muffin tins and filled them about 3/4 of the way up.  I placed them into a 350 degree oven for about a half hour.

Baking Muffins!

Once 30 minutes had passed the muffins were done.  I had to double check with a toothpick because they looked a bit under-cooked, but it came out clean!  These muffins were great - super moist and flavorful.  On a colder March day, these muffins were the perfect breakfast.

Muffins!

Such an easy breakfast for a lazy weekend morning!

What do make for an easy weekend breakfast?