Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Just in case you haven't figured it out yet, my kids and I are big fans of anything pumpkin chocolate chip flavored.  It amazes me a little because a lot of people don't like pumpkin flavored things and my kids tend to be picky, but anything I make that is pumpkin, they devour.  Our latest favorite is this muffin recipe from http://www.melskitchencafe.com/ .  Here's the link for her recipe. 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

from Mel B.

1 2/3 c. flour

1 c. sugar

1 T. pumpkin pie spice**

1 tsp. soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 c. canned pumpkin puree

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 c. chocolate chips

Mix ingredients well and then add chocolate chips. Pour into greased muffin tin (or use muffin liners). Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Don’t overbake or they will be dry!

**My tip: if you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, use the following combination: 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ginger, 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon cloves. Mix together and woila! – you have the equivalent of 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (and it is much cheaper than buying it premade). So for this recipe, you would need to triple the above amounts to equal one tablespoon pumpkin pie spice.

My own tip with this recipe, be sure not to overbake these.  They get dry really quickly and they cook much faster in my oven than the recipe suggests.  I think you only want to cook them 17 or 18 minutes.   My kids go through these so quickly, that the last batch I doubled and there were no problems with doubling.  I always buy the big cans of pumpkin because they are cheaper and I still only used half a can, so I may try quadroupling the recipe next time to use up the entire can of pumpkin and then just freeze them.