Easy Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins
There is something about the month of October that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside – hot cider, cozy clothes, fall spice candles, cool weather, ugg boots and leggings, the colors, endless hours of baking, squash and pumpkin in literally every recipe you come across, the grin on my dogs face when the realize they are going to get to walk longer than 5 minutes because it isn’t scorching hot out…. basically all of my favorite things are packed into this season.
This past weekend, I got to visit my sister at school in Lawrence, Kansas, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky the entire time, the weather was leggings, boots, and a sweatshirt in the morning ( because I describe weather by my clothes, but for you normies it was about 45 degrees), and still leggings and a light jacket in the afternoon (70 degrees). The leaves were all changing, the air smelled cool and fresh, and I have to say it was the perfect weather to get us into the fall mood very quickly. And… what says fall more than pumpkin muffins? The answer is nothing… so we made them and oh my goodness… her entire house ended up smelling like a cider mill, and we barely even got the muffins in the tins before we ate all the batter. Actually, I really wanted to ice them at the end with the leftover batter, but my more self-contained little sister nixed the idea. At least one of us was born with self-control.
Well… about that self-control… we started the weekend off by doing one of our favorite things ever – visiting a pet store… and were dangerously close to buying these two babies, and even gave them names.
Excuse the snapchat timer on this photo, but it’s the only one I have left of my should have been dog.
Alas, we had to let Pumpkin and Phoebe go, which was made a little easier when this cute lil buttercup threw up all over my shirt, new purse, shoes, and hair. And so we got on with the rest of our weekend, and tried to distract ourselves from the cute little dogs we wanted to take home. This is where these gorgeous fall treats came in. What better way to take our minds off everything than baking!
This is a really basic recipe for pumpkin bread (which we made into muffins because I like the idea for convenience sake). You can also add a ton of variations to this recipe, add nuts, nix the chocolate chips (or add more if you are like me), top with oats if you want, ice them with cream cheese frosting… use your imagination!
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3 eggs
- 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
- 2 3/4 cup flour (can sub whole wheat if you desire)
- 1/4 + 1/8 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tbsp. baking soda
- 1 tsp. kosher salt
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
- 1/2 cup 2% milk
- 1/2 tbsp. vanilla bean paste
- 12 oz. chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F. Line 2 cupcake tins with cupcake liners, or spray with baking spray.
- Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add in pumpkin and mix well.
- In a separate bowl mix together all the dry ingredients except the chocolate chips and pecans. Add dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, and mix well. Add in the eggs, milk, and vanilla, and beat on low until combined. Then, fold in the chocolate chips and pecans if desired.
- Place the batter into the cupcake tins, fill about 3/4 of the full. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, testing for doneness with a fork (make sure it comes out clean).
Yummy!
Puppies and chocolate chip pumpkin muffins…my ovaries are about to explode. This is amazing