Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins

If you recall on a recent blog posting I wrote about a visit from Audrey Helbling, a blogger friend from SW Minnesota https://mnprairieroots.com/ She and her husband Randy were on an up north vacation and stopped by for a visit.  

Lucky me to be gifted with a plate and Pumpkin Cookbook.

Today I made good use of both gifts with a plate of Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins.

Cranberry Pumpkin Nut Bread

Cook's notes: These muffins are moist, flavorful with added spices and a burst of tart cranberries. Recipe makes 16-17 muffins. 

that leftover pumpkin puree can be frozen. -I suggest placing it in a bag, with all the air pressed or sucked out that you can manage - rather than a plastic box so that you don't have ice crystals forming, It can be frozen for a few months-be sure to label the bag. 

 Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter (softened) 
• 3/4 cup brown sugar 
• 3/4 cup white sugar 
• 2 large eggs 
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling
• 2 TB orange zest 
• 3 TB fresh orange juice  
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour 
• 1-3/4 cups white flour 
• 1 tsp. baking powder 
• 2 tsp. baking soda 
• 1/2 tsp. salt 
• 2 tsp. Saigon cinnamon 
• 1-1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice mix
• 1 cup chopped walnuts 
• 1 cup fresh cranberries (coarsely chopped) 
• 2 TB. sugar mixed with 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• Coarse sugar for topping

Directions:

• Preheat oven 400 degrees. 
• Place cupcake liners in standard muffin pan. 
• Toss coarsely chopped cranberries in 2 TB. sugar mixed with cinnamon and set aside. 
• Cream butter, sugar and 1 egg. Add in second egg, pumpkin, orange zest and orange juice. Beat all ingredients together. 
• In another bowl whisk together flours, spices, baking soda, baking powder. Add in cranberries and nuts. 
• Add flour mixture  to pumpkin mixture but only stir just to moisten ingredients. 
• Sprinkle with coarse sugar or a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.
• Bake for 16-17 minutes or until center comes clean using a toothpick. 
• Cool muffins in pan a few minutes then remove them to a cooling rack.
  

Autumn Ablaze

by Sue Ready

The season starts with a slow burn

as feathery grasses turn buff

and Tamaracks a mustard yellow.


A red- tailed hawk soars above

carpets of persimmon and bittersweet,

Monarch butterflies mob

a burnished bush.


Geese veer so low

you can hear

beating of their wings

as they swoop the lake.


A crackling bonfire

releases clouds of red-orange sparks

flying into the cold night sky

our laughter fades into

contented silence

as embers flicker

and smolder.


Autumn stretches ahead

like a winding country road

with maples and sumacs

bursting into flames.


Autumn is ablaze.