Pumpkin-Palooza!

First, let me begin by saying that I will never drink anything filled with pumpkin, spice or frankly that much sugar. I like my coffee very strong and very black. So if you’re already tired of hearing about the latte of the season, never fear.

This post is all about how I spent my weekend as the Quick Bread Queen, pumpkin-style!

I am a huge fan of quick breads, particularly as the mornings get darker and my people get harder and harder to get out of bed. I love that I can just hand them a slab of buttered, fruit-filled bread and half an apple or some cheese sticks and head out the door on running-late days (we have a lot more of those this year as the nine-year-old flirts with tweendom and the five-year-old just loves his covers more than me).

I had already made one-too-many batches of banana bread and wanted to embrace the seasonal shift. Ergo ... pumpkin bread! Then low-fat pumpkin muffins! Then dark chocolate chip pumpkin muffins!

Wanna guess the winner?

First of all, I LOVE The Fanny Farmer Cookbook for traditional quick breads. (In fact, I love it so much that my first paperback version fell completely apart and my mom had to buy me the hardcover version). There are pages of quick bread recipes, and they generally have about five ingredients, all of which I have on hand, and every recipe I’ve experimented with can be whipped up in the time it takes for the oven to preheat. (BTW: getting the batter made and the kitchen cleaned up before the oven beeps is my own personal, crazy-lady Olympic event. It gives me the weirdest, most satisfying thrill. Sad, right?).

So, recipe #1 was my first batch of Fanny Farmer pumpkin bread ... so moist and delicious and simple. It makes the house smell amazing and it makes everyone who walks through the door a) ravenous and b) more likely to think you’re crushing it as a mom that day. Go me!

The problem? I had about ½ cup of pumpkin purée left. Which bummed me out, because what was I going to do with it? Enter the Interwebs! I googled “leftover pumpkin purée” and found the most amazing list, compiled by some genius at 52 Kitchen Adventures, of recipes to use up your leftover pumpkin. Truly. Genius.

Which leads to recipe #2: Happy Herbivore’s Single-Serving, Whole-Wheat, Low-Fat, Vegan Pumpkin Muffins. The recipe makes a single muffin, which in itself is fairly brilliant, and overall these are much tastier than they sound. I had enough purée left to quadruple the recipe, and I did not go vegan, because I only had 2% milk, but otherwise followed the recipe faithfully. These are a little too cinnamon-y and a little dry. But I loved the idea of muffins, if only because it makes it very easy to calculate calories accurately. (I’m all about My Fitness Pal right now – down 30 lb. and counting).

THEN: I realized, I’m in charge of Saturday morning soccer snack! Anyone who tells you this isn’t a competition is lying. And my kids are unapologetic foodies, doubling the pressure. So, back to the Interwebs for recipe #3, courtesy the Nestlé website of all places: Kid’s [sic] Favorite Chocolate Chip Muffins ... must be one lucky kid who gets to eat all of those muffins!

A few notes: I didn’t use Toll House semisweet chips – I used Ghiradelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Baking Chips. They’re darker, more delicious, higher quality and they’re HUGE. You don’t get as many per muffin, but they create craters of melty dark chocolate goodness. You’re salivating now, aren’t you? Buy these – your people will love them and you’ll thank me!

Did you wager on a winner? There is still ⅓ loaf pumpkin bread on the counter, I haven’t repeated the vegan muffins, yet I’ve made THREE batches of dark chocolate chip muffins already. Dee-lish!

So, get in the spirit of the season ... just don’t forget the chocolate. And these muffins are absolutely perfect with a hot mug of very black coffee.