To be honest, I’m not really sure what this month’s Smart Cookies recipe could be classified as. They are made like muffins, but are kind of dense like a cake doughnut. Hmmm… Doughins? Muffuts? Doesn’t matter, they are delicious!
Since we all have pumpkin on the brain with Thanksgiving on the way, I was thinking what do people eat for breakfast the morning of Thanksgiving? You don’t want to eat too much, and since the whole day is a celebration (totally justifying eating this much sugar in the morning) I thought it might be nice to have a little treat. I found a few recipes online for Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins, and I combined what I liked about all of them and made my own.
When it comes to Pumpkin flavored things, I like that pumpkin lends itself to being a little spicy. However, I am not a cloves or allspice person. For whatever reason, cloves, which is a very traditional pumpkin pie ingredient, sometimes overtake the taste of the pumpkin for me. I always say, “I’m here for the pumpkin, not for the cloves.” So, I have been substituting with ground ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon. So far I love that it is warm and autumn like, but not too spicy.
Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins
4 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 sticks of unsalted butter softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 15oz can of pumpkin puree
2 extra large eggs
Sugar Coating
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 stick of melted unsalted butter
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray 2 muffin thoroughly with cooking spray and set aside.
In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, and set aside.
In a mixer with paddle attachment or large bowl with beaters, beat butter and brown sugar until creamed together. Then, slowly add eggs one at a time. With the mixer on very low speed, then add buttermilk, and mix until well incorporated. Finally, with mixer still on low, add 1/3 of the flour mixture, and half of the pumpkin. Mix until just barely combined. Then, add 1/3 more of the flour mixture and the rest of the pumpkin, followed by the remaining flour mixture. Mix until just combined. (NOTE: Do not over mix)
Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the batter into the muffin tins, and bake for 25 – 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
While the muffins cool, melt butter in a small bowl and set aside. Then, mix together sugar and cinnamon for sugar coating.
When muffins are cool, dip the top of each muffin into the melted butter and then into the sugar coating mix.
The perfect breakfast for Thanksgiving morning!
For past Smart Cookie recipes, check out the links below:
Oatmeal Dark Chocolate and Dried Cherry Cookies, Lucy Cookies, White Chocolate and Cranberry Blondies, Chocolate Dipped Vanilla Biscotti, Italian Butter Cookies with Lemon Glaze, and Salted Carmel and Dark Chocolate Truffles, Irish Creme Delights, Erin’s Light Lemon Squares, Salted Caramel Brownies, Cran Apple Cookies, Pumpkin Cookies with Cinnamon Glaze.
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