Hodgson Mill Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins

For me, it is such a treat to have a muffin in the morning. Or in the afternoon. Or before bedtime. Or while in bed.  Okay, for me it is such a treat to have a muffin anytime, especially in the morning. It is always nice to have something special alongside your morning cup of coffee.

Today, I decided to bake some muffins using this recipe I discovered on the side of my Hodgson Mill Whole Wheat Graham Flour bag.  I made two substitutions: 1) Apriva (Kroger sugar substitute) for the sugar and 2) pecans for the walnuts.  I wish I had made a third substitution, applesauce for the oil. I usually substitute half of the oil with unsweetened applesauce when I am baking. This substitution makes recipes low-fat, as well as, low-calorie. I also added 2 tbsp. of Hodgson Mill Milled Flaxseed to this batter. I wanted to soup these babies up to a higher level of nutrition awesomeness. 

This is how I did it:

First you preheat oven to 400F and grease your muffin tins. Then, you mix sugar (or substitute) with all the wet ingredients in a large bowl.

Next, you mix all the dry ingredients in a separate, smaller bowl.

Then, you add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients until combined.

Lastly, you stir in the raisins and chopped pecans to the batter until combined.

Your batter will not be anything close to pretty. In fact, it looks like mushy, brown oatmeal. It has to sit around for a while, an hour to be exact. That ugly.

But, after a quick bake in the oven for 15-20, the batter magically transforms into baked beauties. An extreme makeover.

The recipe says it will make 24 muffins. I got 18. I filled my tins 2/3 full.

These muffins are dense, moist, and are perfectly spiced. They go great with hot coffee or Chai tea.

They also look great when accompanied by a flower.