On the road again….

My sister Chris is a wonderful baker – pies, cakes, confections, muffins, you name it – and now she’s gone Gluten Free!  Which means we can eat anything at her place and not have to worry.  Yay!  The Mister and I travelled to Richmond Hill last week for a family reunion, sort of, (not all the family was there) and Chris’s birthday, sort of, (her actual birthday past before anyone arrived – and that’s just how we roll in this family).  It was an all together delightful time, lots of stories, laughter and, of course, food, glorious food!

When it was time to go, Chris included a couple Gluten Free Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins in our lunch, and I couldn’t wait to get at them.  We left early in the morning, and I took the first shift driving, as is my custom.

“How ’bout breaking out those muffins?” I asked The Mister, trying not to salivate too noticeably.

“Uh, no,” he replied.

“Beg pardon?” I rejoined.  “Why not?”

He made that wincey face he makes sometimes and said, “Because you’ve only just backed out of the driveway.”

My turn to make a face.  “Let me remind you that you said we could get into the muffins when we were on the road.  Kindly observe, all four tires are on the road.”

“Drive.”

“But did you kindly observe?  The tires?  All four of them?  Touching the road?”

“Drive.”

As it would have meant taking both my hands off the wheel to simultaneously grab the lunch bag and throttle him, I decided to wait for an more opportune moment, not realizing that my beloved of 24 years was not going to let me have so much as a taste until we reached London, two hours later!  The nerve!

The idea of calling a lawyer when I got home did cross my mind, but one taste of those wonderful pumpkin muffins put me in such a good mood I decided to let it go…this time.  And that feeling of magnanimity still burns in my heart, so I’m going to share the recipe for these magic muffins with you, my gentle readers to read, create and enjoy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins Preparation

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a muffin tin or line with paper cups.

In a large bowl, mix flour, brown sugar, chocolate chips, pecans, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt.

In a separate bowl, add pumpkin, milk, melted butter and eggs and mix. Add this mixture to you dry ingredients and mix just until all ingredients are moistened and incorporated. Add 1 cup of frozen cranberries.  Spoon into muffin cups about 2/3 full.

Bake for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Transfer muffins to a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes. These muffins are delicious eaten warm.

I also add about one-third of a cup of ground flax to the dry ingredients as well – up to you.  My muffin pan makes fairly large muffins and I don’t really worry about only filling them 2/3 full, but it’s up to you what size of muffies you would like.

I also find that canned pumpkin – not pumpkin pie filling – only comes in a large can, so using only one cup is a real waste.  So I make a double batch, but I find it works best to make two seaprate batches rather than a double.  Some things only seem to work well when not doubled up.  That way I am using a little more than half the can, so don’t feel quite so bad about getting rid of the rest.  Perhaps you and The Mister could find a use for the rest of the pumpkin.

The GF flour tends to make for a drier batter, so you may want to add more oil or almond milk.