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!
