Powerhouse Pumpkin Muffins

Powerhouse Pumpkin Muffins

Today is Sunday and it is time for confession.

"It has been one week since I last ventured into my own kitchen".

As a foodie I have committed the cardinal sin, but I have been "down and out" with a cold so I suppose I can forgive myself. Compound that with starting a new job, working 6 days a week and just being overwhelmed, today I finally immersed myself back into the kitchen for some baking therapy. My body however was not craving sweet, sugary, chocolate treats but nutritious powerhouse dishes. I have a butternut squash chowder on the stove for some TLC  and also baked a batch of these Powerhouse Pumpkin Muffins. They are packed with dates, cranberries, raisins, sunflower seeds, pumpkin, walnuts and  flax for some antioxidant and body rejuvenating goodness. I will be back to my old self before you know it, obsessed with "all things foodie."

Today is also World Food Day which gives us pause to think about the world beyond our own kitchens. A few years ago a group of foodies around the world and I got together to create a cookbook to raise awareness. This cookbook is still for sale through Create Space.

These are not sweet and delicate muffins but firm, really more like a heavy biscuit.

**Powerhouse Pumpkin Muffins**

recipe from Readers Digest

• 1 cup (250 mL) multi-grain flour
• 1 cup (250 mL) all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons (10 mL) baking powder
• ½ teaspoon (2 mL) baking soda
• ½ teaspoon (2 mL) kosher salt
• ¾ teaspoon (4 mL) ground cinnamon
• ¾ teaspoon (4 mL) ground ginger
• pinch freshly grated nutmeg
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup (125 mL) brown sugar
• ½ cup (125 mL) vegetable oil (olive oil)
• ¾ cup (175 mL) unsweetened canned puréed pumpkin
• ¼ cup (50 mL) yogourt
• ½ cup (125 mL) each of chopped dates, raisins and dried cranberries
• ½ cup (125 mL) chopped toasted walnuts
• ¼ cup (50 mL) sunflower seeds
• 2 tablespoons (25 mL) flax seeds or sesame seeds

1. In a large bowl, stir or sift together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.

2. With a mixer or in a food processor, combine eggs with brown sugar, oil, pumpkin purée and yogurt.

3. With a wooden spoon or spatula, stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients until just mixed. Add fruits, nuts and seeds and barely mix in. (Or use mixer on low until just combined.) Cover batter and refrigerate one hour before baking.

4. Divide batter into 12 muffin cups (an ice cream scoop works well for this) that have been buttered or sprayed. (Muffins can be sprinkled with additional sunflower seeds, sesame seeds or coarse sugar.) Bake in a preheated 400°F (200°C) oven for 25 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

5. Cool muffins on a rack.

Back to the Future....

Over four years of blogging I have found many wonderful recipes to share on these pages. Some from my own kitchen, some from your creative blogs and web sites, and some from well known celebrities and chefs. I have been feeling a little nostalgic and was browsing these very pages just the other day, creeping back to the very beginning in 2006 when More Than Burnt Toast was in it's infancy and no more than "knee high to a grasshopper". We all have those stellar recipes from when we first started when we were lucky enough to find one comment and have maybe one reader; in my case even before I was taking photos of the dishes I prepared. My other motivation for reconnecting with the past is to create uniform formatting on this blog and this is a fun way for me to revisit past posts.

So here are a couple of flashback recipes from the very first baby steps here at MTBT with...

Souvlakia with Tzatziki Sauce
Saganaki 
Spaghetti Squash Ole
Feta Cheese Pancake (Tiganopita me Feta)
Black andWhite Chocolate Fondue Infused with Lavender

You are reading this post on More Than Burnt Toast at http://morethanburnttoast.blogspot.com. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author and or owner of More Than Burnt Toast. All rights reserved by Valerie Harrison.