Multigrain Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

I hope everyone is having a great week so far!  It’s been a stressful week around our house – but mostly self induced so I have no one to blame but myself.  I’ve been working hard in the kitchen, which has only resulted in a couple recipes and a literal ton of dishes for me this week.  Again, my own fault.  So this morning I took a break from my regular experiments and made a treat for myself and the kids.  I was debating calling these multigrain – can I consider quinoa a grain?  How many grains do you have to use before it’s considered multi?  Yeah, those are the thoughts going through my head.  I was also going to go with “Ancient Grain Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins” but then “ancient” looked weird to me so I changed it.  Welcome to my brain.

If the quinoa and kamut(also known as khorasan) freak you out a little – no worries!  You can just use whole wheat pastry flour which I’ve used in the past.  This recipe actually originally used all purpose flour so you could also use that if you really want – I promise they’re delicious either way.  If you do use these grains in particular, you’ll notice that the muffins seem rather greasy on the bottom when they first come out.  I have considered bumping the pumpkin up a 1/4 cup and reducing the butter by a 1/4 cup but I haven’t tried this, and the whole grains absorb the oils by the time they’re completely cool anyways.  Speaking of the whole grains, these muffins don’t get very big but they are incredibly soft and almost fluffy.  Definitely not your average dense whole grain muffin.

I realize pumpkin is more of a fall thing and here we are in January, but a sudden craving hit and I just happened to have pumpkin in the freezer.  These also have more butter and sugar than I usually like to put in muffins but they’re so good for a treat.  I’m hoping you don’t mind 🙂

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Yield:  12 muffins

• 3/4 C quinoa flour or quinoa ground in a mini food processor or magic bullet(or replace with wheat flour, all purpose or whole wheat pastry flour)
• 3/4 C kamut flour (or substitute whole wheat pastry flour)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 C butter, softened
• 3/4 C brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 C pumpkin puree
• 3/4 C chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line a muffin tin with paper liners or spray with oil or non-stick spray and set aside.

In a small bowl combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and all spices including the salt.  In a medium sized bowl cream together the butter and sugar until creamy.  Add each egg, beating well after each addition.  Mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree.  Once combined, add all the dry ingredients and mix until fully combined.  Add in the chocolate chips and stir to distribute.   The batter should be fairly thick.

Divide evenly between the 12 muffin cups and place in the oven.  Bake for 19-21 minutes or until barely golden on the tops and until a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and let cool in the tin for 5 minutes before removing and placing on a cooling rack to completely cool.  Muffins will be soft and break apart easily while hot so remove from the pan gently, using a spoon or knife to gently lift them out if needed.

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