I know what you’re thinking. Enough with the pumpkin, lady. While I can’t make any promises, I can assure you that I am running low on canned pumpkin with no pending plans to purchase more.

I also realized, recently, that even though I have recipes here for low-fat banana muffins, banana muffins with tart lemon icing and chocolate chip banana muffins, if you come here for a muffin recipe but you don’t like bananas, well, you’re out of luck.

So the mission: create a recipe that did not include banana of any kind. The pantry ingredients: pumpkin, golden raisins, walnuts and more whole-wheat flour than I’ll be able to use in the next two weeks.

The solution? Pumpkin-Apple Muffins. Of course, since I can’t leave a perfectly delicious recipe well enough alone, I adulterated them with golden raisins and walnuts. I’m glad I did. Consider this an obsession, consider it my last pumpkin hurrah, whatever. Fall is dwindling and I’m holding on to every last bit of it.

Pumpkin Apple Harvest Muffins

Make 12 large muffins.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin puree
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup peeled and diced apples
2/3 cup olive oil
3 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon all spice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease your muffin tin with PAM or another baking spray.

2. In a large bowl combine the pumpkin, sugars, olive oil and eggs, whisking until thoroughly combined. Fold in the diced apples. Set aside.

3. In a medium bowl combine the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices, mixing well.

4. Add half the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing to combine. Add the remaining half of the dry ingredients and combine. Fold in golden raisins and chopped walnuts.

5. Divide the batter evenly among your muffin cups. Bake regular sized muffins for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Bake jumbo muffins for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

6. Allow muffins to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then remove to a cooling rack.

Did you notice that I’ve been posting more frequently than usual this week? In celebration of National Novel Writing Month, some bloggers choose to commemorate November with NaBloPoMo,
or National Blog Posting Month. I’ve challenged myself to post daily
this month and hope that you’ll challenge yourselves to read them all!