Pumpkin Pecan Chip Muffins

I’ve been making these muffins for years now, and they are invariably hailed by my friends as “the best muffins ever.” They’re moist, tender, with plenty of flavor from the pumpkin and spices, and studded with white chocolate chips and pecans as nice surprises in the middle. I tend to make them in fall (our freezer always has a batch ready to defrost for snacks at this time of year) but have been known to make them on a whim out-of-season– they’re that good! Make them yourself if you don’t believe me, and you will be converted!

I will note that the recipe below makes 12 muffins, but if you don’t want to find yourself with half a can of leftover pumpkin and half a bag of leftover chocolate chips, you may as well make a double-batch. You won’t regret it!

Pumpkin Pecan Chip Muffins

1 2/3 cups flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ginger

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. salt

4 oz. melted butter OR 3 oz. vegetable oil and 1 oz. water

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup canned pumpkin

6 oz. white chocolate chips

1 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Mix together dry ingredients (everything before the butter) in a bowl.

3. In a separate bowl (or 2-cup measure) combine your fat (butter or oil/water mixture) and sugar and mix well. Add eggs and pumpkin and stir until smooth.

4. Combine wet and dry ingredients, then stir in chocolate chips and pecans. Batter will be thick.

5. Divide into 12 muffin cups (with paper liners) and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Notes:

1. I’m giving you the option of butter or oil because I’ve used both. I started off using just butter, but found that if I didn’t eat or freeze the muffins in about 2 days they started to get a little hard on the outside. Still moist inside, but I wanted to keep them soft so I tried using the oil/water mix (since butter has more water in it) and it worked well. So whatever you have on hand is fine– the spices in the muffins prevent you from tasting any loss of flavor if you don’t use butter.
2. That being said, I would not try substituting applesauce for the fat in these muffins– they’re already chock-full of pumpkin and I worry that reducing the fat further would make them gummy. If you really must try it, maybe only substitute in 2 tbs. of applesauce and let me know how it goes!
3. When I say to use paper liners, I mean it– otherwise the white chocolate chips tend to melt and stick to the metal pan, which isn’t good. Also the liners help keep the muffins from going stale as quickly on the sides.
4. These do freeze beautifully– just pop one in your microwave for 25 seconds to warm it back up again for a quick breakfast.

 

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