After I had my third daughter I was the happy recipient of several meals brought to me by ladies from the church we were attending at the time. Not familiar with this tradition?? It is a fantastic blessing to the family of a physically exhausted, sleep deprived and preoccupied new mom. Even if church isn't your thing, start the practice among friends and family. Trust me, that new mom will be incredibly grateful for the break from her husband making pasta and scrambled eggs to fill the void during her postpartum blur O_o ...Oops...oh look at the bunny (you may see me say this a lot. It's a reference to a t-shirt my kids and I saw that said "I don't have ADD it's just...Oh look at the bunny". So now every time I randomly go off on a tangent (sometimes mid sentence) my kids say "Mom, oh look at the bunny" ;) .....back on track Jen.
One of these lovely meals included a dessert of the most incredible quick bread I had ever tasted. My entire family devoured the moist and delicious pumpkin bread and quickly asked if I could make more. I called the woman who made it and she graciously shared her family recipe with me. Over the years I have tweaked it to our tastes because I can rarely leave a recipe alone lol. The result is glorious! I know right now it is the season of pumpkin EVERYTHING, but honestly I make this year round. My kids eyes light up every time I come home with a can of pureed pumpkin.....{insert screeching tire noise} ...yes a can. Ok people lets talk reality here. I LOVE to make absolutely everything from scratch. Truly I do. And in the past I have roasted, cleaned and pureed my own pumpkin. Honestly, there was little to no difference in taste and it was much more expensive than the canned pumpkin puree. That is a big consideration in a large family. Maybe if I grew my own pumpkins (which is nearly impossible to do here without pesticides we are unwilling to use in our home garden due to the plague that is squash bugs in VA) I would be more likely to make my own. In parenting and cooking you need to choose your battles. For me, this was not a battle worth fighting.
Where were we...right...make it all year long. Don't limit your enjoyment of these little beauties to fall. They are perfect any time. See that, I knew right where I was even after the bunny ;)
Here's what you will need:
29 ounce can pumpkin puree
6 eggs
¾ cup oil (canola or vegetable)
¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup water
1 ½ cups brown sugar
3 cups white sugar
3 cups unbleached ap flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
3 tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp salt
2 ¼ tsp cinnammon
¾ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp ginger
1 1/2 cups mini semi sweet chocolate chips
As always I am baking for a large family (and love to give food to my neighbors) so as written this recipe makes a lot. For this blog post I made 4 dozen mini muffins and three loaves. You could make two if you want taller loaves. I tend to stretch it so they have a chance of surviving our family for just a little bit longer lol Mini muffins cook quickly and they will disappear just as quickly. They are perfect for little kid hands :)
First get all of your ingredients gathered and measured out. Mise en place people...embrace it, practice it, love it. It makes baking or cooking much more enjoyable.
You will combine your soft butter with both of your sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or in a large mixing bowl using a hand held mixer.
Beat these together until well incorporated. Because the butter isn't your only fat it won't be creamy at this point but you want it to look well combined like this.
Next add your oil and mix and then add your eggs and beat until light and fluffy.
Pumpkin and water are next. Mix slowly in pulses or that water will splash out of the bowl...not fun.
Time for the spices, add your cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger and mix until well incorporated. Go ahead and add half your flour, all of your baking soda, salt and your chips and mix in pulses so you don't cover yourself, and everything in your kitchen, in a cloud ;) Typically you would toss chocolate chips in flour before adding so they don't sink in your bread or cake but I have found that adding them with the flour achieves the same goal. Once that is safely mixed (not throughly) add the remaining flour in the same way. Scrape your mixer bowl to make sure no ingredients are left clinging to the bowl and then mix until well combined.
You now have a big bowl of beautimous batter....grab a spoon...ummm I mean prepare your pans ;)
Spray your pans with Baker's Joy....the end. One day Baker's Joy will let me be their spokesperson. I LOVE my Bakers Joy. I am never without my Baker's Joy. Don't touch my Baker's Joy.......(clears throat awkwardly) I meant you should go get some Baker's Joy ;)
For the mini muffins I used a cookie scoop and it was the perfect portion. For the loaves (or larger muffin tins) fill 2/3 of the way with batter.
Bake at 350 until skewer inserted comes out with no crumbs (it may have some melted chocolate on it). The mini muffins took 18 minutes to be perfect in my oven. The loaves take much longer...approximately 50 minutes. If you notice your edges getting very brown before the center is done you can back the heat down to 325 to finish them.
Turn finished loaves or muffins onto a wire rack and in a perfect world you would let them cool. Our house is not a perfect world and these are amazing warm. My children typically descend like a swarm the minute the ovens open. If you are able to resist, these muffins and loaves also freeze beautifully and make wonderful gifts for friends and neighbors.
I hope you enjoy them as much as we do! Have a blessed day and come back tomorrow for Real Baked Macaroni and Cheese :) !!!!!!!
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