Pumpkin Muffins

Today my favorite teenager in the whole world came over to bake pumpkin muffins again with me. Remember those cute, little pie pumpkins in our patch? Alas, they are no more. We boiled them all up and converted them to mashed pumpkin for baking. The seeds were saved for planting and many are already in the ground (thanks to Farmer C's friend, Jaxon). They will probably be too late for Halloween, but they should be just in time for November pumpkin pies.

Angelica and I made a double recipe of these delicious muffins, so there were plenty for eating right away and plenty for sharing later.

You can also used canned pumpkin if you don't have garden fresh ones. If you'd rather have a loaf of pumpkin bread, bake 1 1/4 hours and do the toothpick test to be sure the center is cooked through. I like muffins because they're so portable and make a great single serving snack to grab on the go.

PUMPKIN MUFFINS

5 1/4 cups flour
3 tsp, soda
2 1/4 tsp salt
4 1/2 cups sugar
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
6 eggs
3/4 cups water
3 cups boiled, mashed pumpkin

Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Build a dent in the middle of the dry ingredients and add all wet ingredients. Beat eggs and fold mixture together to form batter. Mix well.

Ladle batter into papered muffin pans and bake at 350 degrees for thirty minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean.