I was looking forward to making these because my husband, Jeff, loves pumpkin. Pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread are his favorites. I made them first thing this morning so we could eat them while they were still warm from the oven.
I made these exactly as the recipe was written, using pecans, golden raisins and sunflower seeds. Other bloggers substituted dried cranberries and chocolate chips for the raisins. I had thought about using cranberries, but I wanted to try Dorie's version first since I happen to like golden raisins.
I decided to try out my silicone muffin cups that I bought last year at Williams-Sonoma, but have never used. Plus they're orange and black in the spirit of Halloween.
The verdict: These are great! The cups allow you to handle each muffin individually, they bake evenly and the muffins slip out easily when they're done leaving no stuck on pieces or residue behind. This makes cleanup easy-peezy.
See?
Sorry for the fuzzy picture. I was dizzy from pumpkin fumes filling my kitchen.
These are delicious. Jeff gave them a thumbs up too. They would make a nice addition to any breakfast or brunch. Or a simple cup of coffe or tea. I enjoyed mine with a cup of chai tea. The flavors of the chai complemented the muffins perfectly.
I will definitely make these again and again! And I might try adding cranberries or chocolate chips in the future. Thanks Kelly for this week's recipe. Even though it's forcasted to be 89 degrees here today, it smells and tastes like fall inside at least.
Edited to add: A lot of TWD members mentioned that baking for 25 minutes was too long and it only took them 17 minutes. So I set my timer for 17 minutes just to be safe. Mine weren't done yet, so I baked them for another 5 min. for a total baking time of 22 min.
