Tuesday, October 21, 2008

TWD: Pumpkin Muffins


This is the time of year that as I peruse through various other foodie blogs, I usually end up saying to myself.... "ewwwww..." because every freaking blog out there loves pumpkin recipes and puts like a gazillion pumpkin recipes on their blogs. Pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cakes, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin. And for someone who doesn't like pumpkin flavored anything... this is all very disappointing.

So, when Kelly of Sounding my Barbaric Gulp picked this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie recipe... Pumpkin Muffins, I just threw my hands up in the air and said... what the hell... I'll give these a whirl.

You see... my hope was that I just thought that I didn't like pumpkin. As a kid... we never had pumpkin pie or pumpkin anything... and the smell of nutmeg, cloves, etc... just doesn't do it for me. So, I just always assumed that all things pumpkin were... well... gross. But, I couldn't actually remember a time when I've had anything pumpkin. And I adore spice cake flavors, so it only makes sense that I'd like pumpkin (yes, even with nutmeg, which I realize I've sworn off on here many times before, I realize that maybe I've given nutmeg a bad name for nothing). So... it was time to test out my taste buds.

For this recipe, I went ahead and bought some whole nutmeg and some whole cloves. I mean... if I'm going all out... I might as well go all out in style, right?

The recipe came together very quickly... but I will say this.... it's really hard to measure cloves and nutmeg when you are grinding whole ones with a microplane. Any tips?

The verdict? Well... first let me say... that I didnt think these were overwhelmingly pumpkin-y. They were very mild in flavor (I probably didn't get enough of the spices in there), but they were some of the best muffins I've ever made. Very moist with a tender crumb. They could have been a little sweeter for my tastes (I mean, I realize... it's a muffin, it's not supposed to be a cake, but... what can I say, I've got one helluva sweet tooth). But the flavor was pleasant. And so, I've decided to expand my horizons and give some other pumpkin, nutmeg, clove recipes a try in the future!

Because of the muffins mild flavor.... I whipped up a little bourbon glaze: bourbon, confectioners sugar and melted butter and drizzled over them to jazz them up. (And jazz them up, it did!).

So, if you want to make these, check out Kelly's Blog for the recipe. Thanks Kelly for showing me that I don't have to shun pumpkin anymore!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

bourbon glaze?!!!! hell yeah! what a great idea.

Sarah said...

the glaze sounds super good! glad you have come around to pumpkin things...at least a little bit!

chocolatechic said...

A glaze sounds wonderful on these.

Glad that you liked them.

Anonymous said...

I don't have a microplane, but rather that little grinder specifically for nutmeg. What I did once, when I had time, was actually grind into a bowl, and counted my turns, so that I could figure out how many turns equaled 1/4 tsp. It was time consuming that first time, but works okay now.

~Kimberly said...

I left out the nuts and raisins, so a little bourbon glaze sounds lovely to add a little 'sweet' to these lovely little gems! Great job!

kimberly salem said...

love the glaze drizzle!! :) i don't know about the nutmeg, i just winged it, it was my first time using whole nutmeg.
glad you liked these despite your aversion to pumpkin;)

Anonymous said...

The bourbon glaze sounds divine. I made a buttermilk glaze, but that's child's play compared to yours. YUM!

M.K. said...

Ooooh these look great, I adore pumpkin. My current pumpkin muffin recipe consists of a can of pumpkin and a spice cake mix - nothing else, so I think it's time to step up to something with more ingredients!

Your glaze looks so pretty too - whenever I try and do that it turns out so messy!

Engineer Baker said...

Whoa, bourbon glaze? Awesome. Simply awesome. Glad you liked them, although how could you not? There's bourbon on them!

Sihan said...

i'm so glad you've gotten over your pumpkin-phobia. See.. it's not so bad after all huh?

Shelby said...

Bourbon glaze....yum!

I generally like nutmeg - but there was one thing I did not care for it in and that was the Black and White Banana loaf!

Tina Butler said...

Those muffins look so good and the glaze is to die for. I found your blog through The Foodie Blogroll. I am a Texas girl and love southern food so you blog makes me feel right at home.

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