Recipe #287
I’m not a pumpkin fan. I don’t crave pumpkin pie around Thanksgiving, nor do I get excited when Starbucks rolls out their pumpkin lattes every year (I wish they would bring back their maple lattes!). It’s not that I hate pumpkin, it’s just that I’m indifferent towards it.
My husband on the other hand loves pumpkin pie, but has a thing against whole pumpkins. Strange. I bought two miniature pumpkins to use in my photos and he wanted to make sure I wasn’t using them in the muffins and that he didn’t like seeing them on the counter. He never ceases to amaze me. After 14 years of knowing the man, you would think I would know all his idiosyncrasies. He certainly keeps me on my toes.
The offending pumpkins
Kelly of Sounding My Barbaric Gulp chose this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Pumpkin Muffins. You can find the recipe on her blog. So for the first time in my life I bought canned pumpkin.
The original recipe called for golden raisins and instead I used orange-flavored dried cranberries. I also used 1/2 white whole-wheat flour and 1/2 whole-wheat pastry flour, so the muffins could be 100% whole-wheat without being dense. I learned this trick from making these pancakes.
The recipe also called for using raw unsalted sunflower seeds as a garnish on top of the muffins. Because I have a no-nuts husband (shhh…I used walnuts in the batter just chopped them up super-tiny 😉 ), I decided to garnish my muffins with a buttermilk icing. The icing was super easy to make: 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of buttermilk, and 1/2 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. I found the orginal recipe on chow.com. I whisked the ingredients directly in a sandwich bag and snipped of a corner to pipe the icing onto the muffins. It wasn’t the neatest method, but I didn’t want to dirty another bowl. I’m lazy like that. 😛
These muffins were good, not outstanding. My husband loved these (walnuts, pumpkins, and all). I loved the icing, though. The tang of buttermilk with the apple-cider vinegar works well.
Pink Stripes 
These look perfect! I love the buttermilk icing, I will have to give that a try, I love just about anything buttermilk. Too funny about your husband, they are fickle creatures, aren’t they? Mine doesn’t like nuts in baked goods either. Great job plugging through this week, even though you aren’t a big pumpkin fan 🙂
i agree with you! good, but not outstanding. i do love the buttermilk glaze you drizzled, what a great idea.
I love the idea of a buttermilk glaze. Especially with the little bit of AC vinegar. I’m definitely going to give it a go! The muffins look extra yummy with that drizzle.
Ciao ! nice looks ! and the icing must have been really tasty ! I’m making these again so I’ll put it on !
I’m with you on the good, not outstanding…but I love your buttermilk glaze. I have an applesauce quick bread recipe that just needs a little help…I think I found it!
Audrey
Not a pumpkin fan either, but husband and sons are, so I played nicely this week and baked them up…and I loved them, not too pumpkiny (am so sure that is a word…LOL). You know, though, I am thinking this little icing recipe of yours can only bring happiness to the table…so going there next time, thanks for the suggestion and recipe. Yours look wonderful.
Glad that your hubs was able to get past the presence of whole pumpkins on your counter and enjoy the muffins anyway! Gosh, they keep us on their toes with their food quirks, don’t they? Your buttermilk glaze looks FABULOUS — I think I will find a multitude of uses for that!
HAHA! Funny, I love this post. Our hubs sound similiar. I used Trader Joe’s pumpkin pie spice in mine. It tasted great, like pumpkin pie without the crust. I love the glaze on your muffins. Nice touch!
I like frosting idea better than the seeds. I didn’t use seeds either.
Your muffins look great!! YUM!
Ooooh I love the buttermilk drizzle on top of yours! They look and sound divine. Would love to come share one with you with a cup of latte! 🙂 Thanks for your sweet comment on my blog too.
Hmm, that glaze definitely nudges these muffins closer to “outstanding”. They are so cake-y that a glaze or frosting approach seems to be fitting (rather than the nuts-and-seeds approach). I’ll have to remember about the whole wheat pastry flour. I did use half white whole wheat.
Apple cider vinegar in the glaze sounds really interesting and with the buttermilk, I bet it really balances out the sweetness from the sugar. I will give that a try. Thanks! The muffins look so pretty with a drizzle of glaze.
These look amazing! I love the glaze on the top. Aren’t husbands funny in the things they do and do not like?
The buttermilk icing sounds divine and thanks for sharing the tip about mixing it up in a sandwich bag! Your muffins look great!
I like the idea of adding the icing. I suspect it takes the taste up a notch for these muffins.
yumm! i love the icing:) and i had a good laugh at the “offending mini pumpkins.” i too am not a pumpkin fanatic, but love these muffins!
Dear Wendy,
I prefer to think of your icing bag trick as efficiency. You can toss it after use. Way to go. Don’t you just love when you pull one over on those guys. How fun is that? Go Nuts! Thanks for the tips on the flour, I am going to add those flours to my already abundant collection of flours for future “Real Pumpkin” muffin adventures. I am one of those crazy people who loves the flavor of pumpkin. oops sorry. :~)) Great Job
AmyRuth
I love the addition of the glaze. I have found the icing/glazes are always the best part. And I wished I would have thought of the whole wheat angle…totally awesome!
These are just beautiful! Great call on the orange-flavored Craisins! I dislike pumpkin pie – it’s the only pie I cannot eat, really, I can’t make myself eat it! – but I love other pumpkin baked goods, so I was looking forward to these. I ditched the raisins and was planning on Craisins, too, but was outvoted by my kids, who are a little Craisin-ed out. I put in broken-up walnuts and did the sunflower sprinkle on top, but I just love the look of your pretty glaze. Nicely done!
the icing sounds fabulous. I’m gonna have to try that someday!
Oh, I can just imagine how great these are with a tangy ,sweet icing. Fabulous idea, and great-looking muffins!
I love the sound of that buttermilk icing! Definitely going to bookmark it for future reference. It could go well on so many things.
I think the pumpkins are oh-so-cute and unoffensive. I love the icing that you made – they really make these special. Thanks also for the photo of the canned pumpkin – we don’t get it here.
Love the drizzle of icing!
That drizzle of apple cider frosting just makes these even more tempting. I bet it adds a nice complement to the spices in the muffin!
The icing drizzle looks like a wonderful addition. It never would have occurred to me to use buttermilk, rather than regular milk. I’m going to have to give it a try. I picked up a little pumpkin a few weeks ago to use in fall pictures, and my daughters are fascinated by it. =)