This week, we took down yet another leaf from our tree and baked some pumpkin muffins. It was a wonderful experience and R (4) was engaged throughout the entire process. We played a "Wee Sing For Halloween" CD for a little atmosphere, and R loved the CD so much that he was dancing as he measured and stirred. It was a lot of fun! And it was a fantastic learning experience. We spoke about wet and dry ingredients, measurements, and various baking terms. We smelled each spice as we added it to the mix. He measured everything. And on top of it being a lot of fun and a fantastic learning experience, it also produced some very delicious, seasonal muffins!
I modified the recipe in the above link by using a couple of substitutions. Here is the recipe I used.
- 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1 cup pureed pumpkin (from a can)
- 1/2 cup 2% milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- Pre-heat oven to 400 F and lightly grease a 12-muffin tin or use liners. I used liners.
- Sift together dry ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, milk, oil and molasses.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix.
- Fill the muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean. My baking time was right at 18 minutes.
