These little guys look very rustic but geez they taste good.
A friend dropped in the other day. Luckily, I had some muffins in the freezer so it was just a matter of zapping them for a few seconds to create an impromptu morning tea. The situation reinforced to me how useful a few muffins the freezer can be. When my friend left, I thought I would grab the opportunity to replenish our supply.
The trick with muffins is to combine the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients with a minimum of mixing. The mixture may look lumpy, but as long as the dry ingredients are incorporated, the mixing is complete.
This recipe comes from a wonderful little booklet entitled Muffin Magic by Diana Linfoot. Diana is from Western Australia. The book was published in 1989 when muffins were all the rage. Everyone seemed to have this booklet at the time – maybe it was just a Perth thing, I am not sure.
There are piles of muffin recipes in the booklet and then there are variations on the theme. This recipe is one of the variations on the basic pumpkin muffin recipe.
Ingredients:
Wet mixture:
- ¼ cup butter (at room temperature)
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup golden syrup (The recipe actually called for treacle but I had golden syrup in the cupboard so that is what I used.)
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup pumpkin puree (according to a note, the puree is made from 300g of pumpkin cooked in ¼ cup of liquid. I had some pumpkin puree in the freezer, so I used that.)
- ¼ cup milk (This is not in the recipe but I found I needed it and looking at the weird shape of my muffins, I could have added a bit more. See how you go, and use as much milk as you need.)
Dry mixture:
- 2½ cups self-raising flour
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp bi carb (baking) soda
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
Topping:
- Equal parts cinnamon and sugar (about ½ tsp of each) mixed together.
Method:
- Preheat your oven to 200°C and prepare your muffin pans.
- Mix together, the butter, sugar and golden syrup.
- Beat in the eggs and then the pumpkin puree.
- In a separate bowl, sift all the dry ingredients (except the walnuts) together.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.
- Stir in the walnuts.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared pans.
- Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar.
- Bake in your preheated oven for about 15 minutes.
Passion Fruit Garden 
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I’m just now sitting down to catch up with all of my favorite blogs and as always, you have something that gets my tastebuds going. Aren’t you the clever one though – having little stashes of these in the freezer. I guess I just never think to do things like that but now that it’s a new year, maybe that will be my resolution (I don’t really make resolutions so maybe I should just call it a potential goal).
Happy new year to you.
Thanks so much Diane. Happy new year to you too.
Glenda I usually have some baked goodies in the freezer too. Bet your friend was very happy with your lovely freezer stash of rustic muffins. Best wishes to you and Maus and have a wonderful Christmas 🙂
Hi Moya, Best wishes to you too.
Almost everybody loves muffins! and I do like yours, pumpkin and walnuts is such a great and tasty combo! 🙂
Thanks so much. I do like that combo.
I always have muffins in the freezer, Glenda. You cannot bake just one or to, so, when I bake a dozen, 10 go into the deep freeze as soon as possible. Out of sight, out of mind. Never tried a pumpkin muffin, though, but it looks like it might be time. These sound very good!
John we try to do the same but somehow 10 don’t make it. More like 6 😦
Yum 🙂 Lovely flavour combination… I do pumpkin and walnut salad or pasta.
Hi Ella, it is a great combo.
Muffins are so so versatile, and a stash in the freezer never lasts long. This looks like a great combo Glenda, thanks for sharing
It is Sandra but I am afraid, it isn’t gluten free.
Muffins are very forgiving Glenda and adapt very well to flour changes. The pumpkin assures success. Thanks