Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

 

These muffins sounded really good, so I made them even though I didn't have all the ingredients on hand (story of my life). I substituted, optimistically thinking they'd turn out anyway...

It wasn't that they didn't turn out, as you can see from the photos. They look like a perfectly normal muffin. But something was a little off inside. The texture of them was more like an old marshmallow than the tender-crumbed, yet hearty oaty muffin-ness I was imagining. I will make them again, this time with all the right ingredients and see. That said, they weren't a bad muffin anyway, so you should still make them. Especially if you have a half-can of pumpkin you need to use up pronto!

(But stay tuned: I've got a recipe for apple coconut muffins that did meet my oaty/tender expectations, even with substitution, coming up.)

 

Pumpkin Streusal Muffins

 

set your oven to 375, and grease a 12 muffin pan or use paper liners

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2/3 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons molasses (I didn't have any, so I used table syrup:/ it would be a lot better with molasses, methinks)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup oat flour (I used only all-purpose because that's all I had. Perhaps this was the proverbial "missing ingredient" that ruined my muffins.)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• pinch of allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Streusel Topping:

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tbsp rolled oats
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 2 tablespoons cold butter

Cream the sugar and the butter, and then beat in the eggs, pumpkin, buttermilk and molasses. In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients together. Make the streusel topping in a third bowl, using a pastry blender to cut in the butter until the whole thing is thoroughly combined and crumbly.
When you're ready to bake, mix the dry ingredients into the wet, stirring just enough to combine. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full, and sprinkle the streusel topping liberally over the muffins.
Bake for about 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let them cool for a few minutes in the pan before taking them out.

WaBash 2012

For those of you who came out Saturday to enjoy Wa"Bash", here are a few pictures (you are probably in some somewhere...) to peruse.

For those of you who didn't, these will make you want to come next year (always the last Saturday in September)!

The little "bluebird" train enjoyed by the little ones.

Fun on the bikes. This bike guy comes every year with his contraptions. I think he's the biggest hit with the tweenagers.

I think my favorite part about Wa"Bash" is the community feel. An impromptu game of football. Cousins hanging out. Forrest-Strawn-Wing alumni reconnecting with classmates after years of not seeing eachother. The whole town out for the festival.

A little Jeremiah Sundown.

 Great food: cotton candy, Amish hand pies, Wabash cannonballs, pineapple-bacon pork burgers, teriyaki chicken, corndogs (whether that's great food can be discussed off the blog...), ice cream.

Apple Granola Crisp

I can usually tell if I'll like a recipe just from reading the ingredients. Unless it's from smittenkitchen. In which case, I don't even have to read it. The names themselves are enough to sell me. "Apple granola crisp." All the right words for an autumn breakfast. The best part? You can make a whole 9x13, and the eat apple granola crisp for breakfast every morning for a week. It's just as good cold as it is hot out of the oven.

I modified the recipe somewhat for my Hotel guests. I enjoy utilizing individual serving sizes (it takes less bake time, and wastes less when you only have 2 guests. Plus it just looks cute and makes them feel special. "What? I get my own little ramekin of apple granola crisp? You are too kind!"), so I cut the recipe in half.

I accidentally made an extra. Two extras actually. So I ate one for breakfast along with my guests and had the second one for lunch. (Love when that happens!) They smelled so scrumptious baking, getting all bubbly and aromatic. The textures were fabulous. The right amount of crisp with tender apples. It was tres facile, and it's got "apple" and "granola" in the name so we can pretend it's healthy, too.

 

Apple Granola Crisp - serves 4 (if you want the 9x13 recipe, go here)

 

4 apples, peeled, cored, and cut into chunks ( I used Gala apples, and they worked well)

1 T lemon juice

1.5 T sugar

1 T corn starch

1/2 t. cinnamon

salt

4 T unsalted butter (if you don't have unsalted, just dial back on the salt you add in...kind of obvious, but it took me a few years to figure that out. I almost always just buy unsalted butter now)

1/8 c. honey

1/4 c. flour

1 c. oats (I used quick oats, but I doubt it matters)

1/4 c. sliced almonds

1/4 c. shredded coconut (I used sweetened)

 

Preheat oven to 400. Mix apple chunks with lemon juice, sugar, corn starch, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. Divide among 4 ramekins (I'm not sure what size mine were. They held 12 oz of water when I tried to figure it out for you, so I'm going to call them 12 oz ramekins. You're welcome.). In a small sauce pan, melt the butter with the honey. Stir in the flour, oats, almonds, & coconut. Sprinkle evenly over the apple mixture and bake for 35 minutes or until apples are bubbly (and you can hardly stand the smell!). If the granola starts to brown before it's done, cover them with foil until the last few minutes of bake time so the granola is nice and cripsy when you eat it. Let cool. (Or don't.) Eat with yogurt and in the time it takes you to polish off one ramekin, admire the orange foliage of the sugar-maple out your living room window.