Thanksgiving muffins

Thanksgiving Muffins

These muffins have ALL the flavors of Thanksgiving and are great for breakfast or a dessert.  Yes those are white chocolate chips in the inside along with cranberries and crystallized ginger.  I have made these with all the original ingredients from the King Arthur Flour recipe and I have also made them gluten free, dairy free and rice free.....all are fabulous.  I hope you try some version for your Thanksgiving celebration:

mise en place

Winter squash harvest

Recipe:  Thanksgiving muffins

1 cup pumpkin puree - you can see I have a supply to last all year

2 large eggs

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3 Tbs vegetable oil

1 Tbs molasses

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup milk

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup crystallized ginger- cut into small pieces- use kitchen shears

3/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

3 Tbs sparkling sugar

                Substitutions:

for a gluten free muffin I substitute equal amounts of "cup 4 cup" flour or oat flour

for dairy free muffins I substitute 1/2 cup apple juice or cider for the milk and omit the white chocolate chips or find a dairy free white or cinnamon chip

Directions

Grease 12 wells of a standard muffin pan; or line with papers, and grease the papers.

In a large bowl whisk together the pumpkin, eggs, brown sugar, oil, molasses, salt, spices, milk, and white chocolate chips.  Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl

Whisk the four, baking powder, and baking soda together.  Stir in the dried cranberries and crystallized ginger.  Add all at once to the wet ingredients and mix until all ingredients are well combined.

Cover the bowl and let the batter rest for 30 minutes while you preheat your oven to 400 deg.F

Use a 1/3 cup  measuring cup and scoop batter into each well or paper lined well.  Sprinkle the top of each muffin with about 1/2 tsp sparkling sugar.

Bake the muffins for 20-21 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean

Remove muffins from the oven, and tilt them in their individual wells to cool; this prevents their bottoms from steaming and becoming tough.

Serve warm or at room temp.

cinnamon chips, sparkling sugar and great flours (including gluten free varieties) can be purchased from King Arthur Flour.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

ready to eat

Salsa time - to save for later

This is the end of my garden harvest.  I have about 8 pounds of tomatillos- both green and purple, some ugly but tasty tomatoes, purple and green Jalapeño peppers and some onions and garlic from the garden.  Let's make some salsa; can it up and have it on a cold January day.

ready for a cold January day

I started with my tomatillo salsa

4 pounds of tomatillos- hulled, washed and chopped
1 cup onion- chopped
4 Jalapeno peppers - seeded, chopped
4 cloves garlic - minced
1 Tbs ground cumin
2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup bottled lime juice- remember this is going to be preserved so we need the acid
1/4 cup fresh cilantro - chopped fine

mise en place

Combine the tomatillos, onion, jalapeños, and garlic in a large pot.  Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer 10 minutes.  Add the cumin, sea salt, lime juice and cilantro.
Cook and additional 10 minutes.  Taste the salsa and add more salt, cumin, or lime juice if necessary
Ladle the hot salsa into 1 pint jars that have been heat/water processed,* leaving 1/2 inch headspace.  Wipe the rims, apply sterilized (boil in water bath 10 minutes) lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.  When the processing time is up, remove the canning pot from the heat and remove the lid.  Let the jars sit in the pot for an additional 5 minutes.
Makes 4 pints

This recipe is taken from Food in Jars by Marisa McClellan - a great little book for small batches of yummy processed food.

NEXT:

End of harvest tomato salsa:

uncooked salsa

So I had a basket of vegetables that I had picked from my garden- the end of everything,  mostly tomatoes, a variety of peppers- mostly Jalapeños,  red onions, a few tomatillos I missed , young garlic I had to dig for- you get it.  I am going to list a basic tomato salsa recipe from "Food in Jars" for the guideline of ingredients but it was basically whatever was left:

makes 4 pint jars:
6 cups tomatoes ( about 3 pounds) chopped
2 cups onions - chopped
1 cup bell pepper- chopped( 1 large pepper)
1 3/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
3 Jalapeno peppers, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbs lime juice
1 Tbs sea salt
1 cup fresh cilantro - chopped

Prepare a boiling water bath and 4 --1 pint jars.  Place the lids in a small saucepan, cover them with water, and simmer over very low heat.

Combine the tomatoes, onion, chopped red pepper, vinegar, sugar, Jalapeños, garlic, lie juice and salt in a large pot.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until the salsa no longer looks watery.  Stir in the chopped cilantro.

Taste and add additional jalapeño, lime juice or salt if necessary.

Ladle the hot salsa into the prepared jars, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace.  Wipe the rims, apply the lids and rings, and process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

When the procession time is up, remove the canning pot from the heat and remove the lid.  Let the jars sit in the pot for an additional 5 minutes.  This helps to prevent the salsa from reacting to the rapid temperature change and bubbling out of the jars.

NOTE:  I live a mile high and must add 10 minutes to my procession time because of the altitude.

If your last jar is a little shy of salsa place it in the fridge and it will keep a couple of weeks - I didn't say it would last a couple of weeks

Goodbye garden 2016