Day 130-- Trader Joe's Pumpkin Muffins recipe

Prologue:

Ok, yes the weather outside was a warm 81 degrees in San Diego today, but damnit, I was determined to make it a Halloween kind of day.   I went down all the festive aisles of Target imaging the house in cobwebs, orange lights, plastic skeletons and pumpkins, and at the bookstore today I bought a mystery thriller by Andrew Klaven. 

[as a sidenote, my book fetish has gotten worse with all of these books sales.  I've bought 13 books in two weeks].

My roommates have also been getting the Halloween itch and we're planning out when we want to go to a pumpkin patch, which slutty costumes to be this year, which days to go clubbing and which day we want our Halloween dinner.  We've also had this pumpkin bread mix lying around the past week and decided tonight was the night bust it out.  Here's the recipe via Trader Joe's.

Pumpkin Muffins via Trader Joe's

Prep time: 5-7 minutes

Cook time: 18-24 minutes

Servings: 12 muffins

Ingredients:

1 box Trader Joe's Pumpkin Bread Mix

2 large eggs

1/4 cup vegetable oil (we used canola oil which is really similar) 

1/2 cup water

1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Meanwhile mix off of the ingredients together in a large bowl.

2.) We don't have a bread pan but we do have a muffin pan (dark aluminum).  To be honest, I love things in muffin form, like brownies and rice crispie treats because it's the perfect size and I like crispy edges.  It also cuts down the time of baking.  Anyway, pull out a muffin pan and spray the cups with some non-stick spray like Pam.

3.) Personally I tend to put muffin cup liners in only half of the pan.  As long as you spray Pam or whatever inside of the cups they slide right out so I prefer not to use liners most of the time.  However, when I take a muffin in the morning for work, it's easier to have a liner/wrapper.  To each his own.

4.) Fill each cup with your pumpkin butter.  Fill to the top of the cup where it levels off.  When it bakes, the muffin top with pop up.

5.) Bake for 18 minutes and poke through with a toothpick to see if it's done.  If the stick comes out clean, then it's ready.  If not, bake for 4-6 more minutes.  Enjoy!

Review:  

Holy fuck, these were good.  They smelled like pumpkin pie going into the oven and they came out like the best kind of muffin--firm, sweet, a little chewy, and makes you sad when you finish it.  We paired ours with chocolate/vanilla ice cream (a surprisingly good match), and some milk for me, white wine for one of them, hemp oil for the other.  We put on Charade with Audrey Hepburn, lit some candles, and had a fine October night.  Happy October to you all, and happy cooking!