Pumpkin Muffins

Yesterday in my opening post, I hinted at my slight obsession for anything pumpkin flavored.  Coffee, cake, drinks, or a classic pumpkin pie are always favorites in the fall.  My sister Lindsey and I quickly discovered this year that finding canned pumpkin in our area (Maryland & DC) was nearly impossible.  Apparently everyone loves the season as much as us.  I would've opted for using a real pumpkin but the prices in the city are expensive compared to what I paid weeks later at the pumpkin patch in Pennsylvania.  Canned pumpkin is also much easier to keep on hand.  Eventually, after much searching, my local Harris Teeter was stocked up so I bought a few cans.  I took no chances in getting left out again!  My first baking project was healthy pumpkin muffins with cream cheese icing (which probably took away the healthy part, but they were delicious nonetheless).  Following this recipe here, I substituted 1/4 cup of vanilla egg protein and 1/4 cup of oatmeal for 1/2 of the whole wheat flour the recipe called for.  I had a run-in with a bad batch of red velvet cupcakes the day before so I decided to use the cream cheese icing I got from this recipe (the cupcakes were too oily).   The results were amazing and next time I will double the recipe or bake the batter in a bread pan and go without the icing to make a breakfast loaf.

100 % pure pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling!!)

 

To create the "swirly icing" effect place your icing in a Ziploc bag and cut the corner off

Finished product!