Pumpkin Muffins

I bought what they call a "pie pumpkin" not too long ago. I'd intended on doing this with it but the pumpkin had other ideas. Okay, so the pumpkin didn't have any ideas, but when I attempted to move it the other day by the stem, it separated and fell to the floor. And cracked. So I had to cook it right away.

So I just roasted it as I would any other gourd and stuck the meat in the fridge until I could figure out what to do. I drained and re-drained it, but it was still very wet, so there were a few things I knew would be out of the question.

But this morning I decided to look for a recipe for pumpkin muffins that would easily accommodate my wet pumpkin. I found this lovely vegan pumpkin muffin recipe and got going.

I made a few changes, though. First, I opted out of the yogurt and soymilk and instead used a single egg. In retrospect, I don't think that was necessary given the amount of oil. Or I could have added some ground flax seed. So this wasn't vegan, which is a bit of a disappointment (particularly since it could have been). I also left out the allspice; I'm not a huge fan of it. And I, of course, used whole wheat flour.

As I was preparing the mix, I noticed it was really dry and dense. So I took out some of the pumpkin juice I'd saved and added it in until it reached a consistency I was pleased with. I also grated a little crystallized ginger and mixed it with some (unrefined) sugar and sprinkled it on top. Nice touch, if I do say so myself.

The verdict? These muffins are quite tasty! I'm sure that following the original recipe would produce an almost identical tasting muffin and I'll probably do that next time (with canned pumpkin), but I do recommend adding the ginger sugar on top. It looks pretty and tastes great.