[Recipe] "Fall for Fall" Pumpkin Surprise Muffins

It snowed the other day.  Just a light flurry, but it reminded me that autumn and, with it, pumpkin season, is coming to an end (a travesty).  I tend to stock up on ingredients, though, and canned pumpkin puree is no exception.  So there are still a few autumn recipes left in me!

I bought these beautiful autumn silicone molds on a whim a few weeks ago and have been dying for a chance to use them.  Muffins topped with streusel might not be the prettiest way to showcase the designs, but it was more an excuse to use them than a reason.

And if anyone else is also looking for an excuse rather than a reason to make these, they'd be perfect for breakfast the morning after Thanksgiving.  Or for any morning, really, because I think you'll discover that these need no excuses or reasons at all.

Happy Thanksgiving, dear reader, and stay warm and toasty :)

"Fall for Fall" Pumpkin Surprise Muffins
an original recipe by tammiest (the Passionfruit Fashionista)

Cream Cheese Frosting Filling (Optional) - Ingredients
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioner's (powdered) sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
1.  Cream together the cream cheese, confectioner's sugar, and vanilla extract until smooth.
2.  Put the cream cheese frosting mixture onto a large sheet of plastic wrap.  Roll into a log, then freeze the log for a few hours before using.

Muffin and Streusel Topping - Ingredients
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats (for better flavor, I use instant apple cinnamon oatmeal)
4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup cinnamon applesauce
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons rolled oats (for better flavor, I use instant apple cinnamon oatmeal)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Directions
1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Grease or line 18-20 muffin cups (18 if making without the cream cheese filling; 20 or more if making with) with paper liners.
2.  Combine 2-1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup oats, the pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl.

3.  In a separate large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup white sugar, the vegetable oil, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla extract.

4.  Stir the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture and mix well.  Fold in the raisins.
5.  Beat 1/4 cup brown sugar with butter in a bowl until smooth and creamy.  Whisk 2 tablespoons oats and 2 tablespoons flour, using a fork, into the sugar-butter mixture until the streusel topping is crumbly.

6.  Pour the batter into the prepared muffin tin, about 3/4 of the way full.  Remove the frozen cream cheese frosting from the freezer and slice into slim cylinders, short and slim enough to be slipped into the center of the muffin batter.  Slip the frozen cream cheese cylinders into each filled muffin cup and make sure the batter covers the cream cheese frosting.

7.  Sprinkle each muffin with streusel topping.

8.  Bake in the preheated oven for 25-35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean (but be careful of the cream cheese frosting in the center).

[Recipe] "Summer's Kiss Goodbye" Strawberry Nutella Muffins

I love autumn.  This, dear reader, you know.  I love the colors and tastes of fall-- so warm, inviting, and bright but muted.  I love my fall wardrobe—sweaters and leggings and peacoats, at once slouchy and sleek and sexy and oh-so-comfortable and chic.  I love the crispness of the air in fall, so crisp and brisk it has its own scent but not yet so cold as to have bite.  Autumn, to me, is sugar and spice, warmth and family.

Autumn makes me wax poetic.

But all this is not to say that there aren't things I love about summer equally as well.  Top of that list are sundresses, sandals, and summer fruits.  Like strawberries.

Growing up, my mother had a beautiful garden, but it consisted almost exclusively of flowers.  The only type of fruit she grew was strawberries.  They were inevitably tiny and carried off by my neighborhood's resident rabbits, but they always signaled the beginning of summer to me, and all during the hottest months of the year, I'd eat strawberries with fresh cream, white sugar (so simple, so delicious), and strawberry shortcake.  Summer strawberries are sweet romance to me, gorgeous and juicy and red, the fruit of simultaneous innocence and seduction.

When this recipe, courtesy of Two Peas and Their Pod, popped up on my Facebook newsfeed, I just knew I had to make it.  I can't think of a better way to kiss summer goodbye than with strawberries and nutella in breakfast pastry form :)

"Summer's Kiss Goodbye" Strawberry Nutella Muffins

a recipe by Two Peas and Their Pod

There's something ephemeral about summer and in particular summer romance.  Both are bright and beautiful but also, in a way, delicate.  I'm not sure why this is, except that maybe everything seems bright and beautiful in the summer, before they wilt or fade in the autumn and winter cold.  But their somewhat doomed, delicate nature makes them no less beautiful, and they should be embraced—if only for a little while (and if only in the form of this muffin).

My sweetest summer romance was tall, dark, and sensitive, with a musician's voice, a philosopher's soul, and blue eyes that could pierce through all my defenses and lay all my secrets bare.  He was going one way, and I was going another, and we were doomed the moment we smiled and said, "Hello."

How about you, dear reader?  Do you have a particularly bittersweet summer romance?

Soundtrack: Jon McLaughlin feat. Sara Bareilles - Summer Is Over

Autumn never seemed this cold before

Here I am sleeping on the floor

We changed just like the leaves

Outside my house

And my phone lay silent by the couch

I remember June

Back when I met you

And your eyes were green

And we were, too

But summer is over

We were tangled in the morning sun

Felt you getting colder

And we knew that we would come undone

And it's back to my town, back to your life

Gray skies are blowing a kiss goodbye to the lovers

'Cause summer is over...

Yield: 10 muffins

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup canola oil

1 large egg

1/3 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup chopped fresh strawberries

1/3 cup Nutella

Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling on top of muffins

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line a muffin tin with paper liners or grease well.  Set aside.

2.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar.

3.  In a small bowl, combine the canola oil, egg, buttermilk, and vanilla.  Use a fork or whisk and mix until well combined.

4.  Incorporate the wet ingredients into the flour mixture.  Add slowly and gently stir-- but don't over-mix.  The batter will be thick.  Carefully fold in the strawberries.

5.  Fill each muffin cup half-way with batter.  Next, add a small spoonful of Nutella to each muffin cup.  Cover the Nutella filling with the remaining batter.  Sprinkle each muffin with Turbinado sugar.

6.  Bake the muffins for 17-20 minutes, or until they are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove the muffins from the pan and let cool on a cooling rack.