Posts tagged muffin

secret-ingredient:

Do you have a recipe that you are super confident about? A recipe that works every single time and is foolproof? And, one that consistently receives compliments? I know, it certainly is a tall order, and not surprisingly such a recipe is very special when you encounter it.

Well, I am sharing one of those recipes now. Before this blog, I kept all of my recipes on paper (what? paper!), minimally organized in a blue binder. Some are hole-punched and some are tucked into the pockets. There are scraps of paper with recipes I jotted down while on the phone with my mom, learning how to cook childhood comfort foods; there are printed recipes from emails or the internet with my handwriting in the corner, pulled pages from a magazine, and a few papers with a friend’s handwriting recording his favorite recipe. As I flipped through this binder, I was flooded with tiny memories attached to each recipe.

I have baked this pumpkin quick bread every Thanksgiving for the last 6 to 7 years. There are not many other recipes that I have share such a history. As as Amanda Hesser mentions in Cooking for Mr. Latte, it belongs to my “repertoire” of recipes, something that represents “who I am, what I find pleasurable, how I live.”

This quick bread is comprised of oil, sugar, and flour, spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Its simplicity stems from the use of canned, packed pumpkin instead of roasting your own. It remains moist (from all that oil!), the firm loaf or muffin top yielding to a softer texture the next day. I made one dozen muffins and a loaf with the recipe below, enough to share with our friends, co-workers, and of course our bellies.

Recipe:

From the archives of epicurious.com (Bon Appetit, November 1995)

3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 16-ounce can solid pack pumpkin
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two 9x5x3-inch loaf pans, or line muffin tin with paper cups. Beat sugar and oil in large bowl to blend. Mix in eggs and pumpkin. Sift four, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt, and baking powder into another large bowl. Stir into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions. Mix in nuts, if desired.
2. Divide batter equally between prepared pans or muffin cups (2 dozen muffins or 2 loaves). Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 15 minutes for a loaf and 30 minutes for muffins. Transfer to racks and cool 10 minutes. Using sharp knife, cut around edge of loaves. Turn loaves out onto racks and cool completely.

Makes 2 loaves or 2 dozen muffins.