pumpkin pecan muffins

The weather is finally cooling down in NC and that means it's finally pumpkin season! I've never been a huge fan of pumpkin pie but I can't resist pumpkin breakfast sweets like pumpkin donuts, muffins, oatmeal and scones. Oh and I love love love pumpkin beer. I went to a bar a few weeks ago and they served their pumpkin beer with a cinnamon sugar rim, seriously best idea ever. All pumpkin desserts (and beers) are healthy right? It's a fruit... and it has vitamin A, iron, fiber, vitamin C and potassium.  All the more reason I can easily justify an extra muffin or or a few more beers with all that healthiness. These muffins are super moist, loaded with pumpkin and topped with a crumb crust.  These don't even need a crumb topping they are so good but a little extra butter, sugar and nuts never hurts anything. I'm always on a mission to find or create a recipe better than the last and I don't think that a basic pumpkin muffin gets much better than this. 

Pumpkin Pecan Muffins

makes 28 muffins 

for the pumpkin muffins:

1/2 c. butter, softened

1 1/2 c. sugar

15 oz can of pumpkin

3 eggs

2 1/2 c. all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

for the streusel topping:

1/2 c. all purpose flour

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. light brown sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

5 tbsp butter, melted

2/3 c. pecans, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350°F. 

In a large bowl, blend the butter and sugar together with a mixer until smooth and creamy. Add in the pumpkin puree and the eggs, blend on medium speed. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, ginger, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin/butter mixture and mix on low speed until combined. Spoon mixture into greased or lined muffin tins. 

To make the streusel, combine the flour, both sugars, cinnamon and butter until it comes together. Stir in chopped pecans. Add mixture to the top of the muffins before placing the muffins in the oven. Bake muffins for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean. 

banana muffins with crunchy pecan topping

Monday morning I started boot camp at the gym, I can't believe I am actually able to roll out of bed before 6 am and get my butt to the gym. Luckily I'm a morning person and the hardest part about boot camp for me is getting out the door. After finishing an hour of boot camp torture (in a good for me kind of way) I can't wait to eat! I am always looking for a grab and go breakfast I can eat on my way to work and the dozen bananas I had in the freezer were begging to be used. The eggless banana bread I posted a couple weeks ago was delicious but I couldn't resist making these banana muffins to have for a quick breakfast. But while I was scooping the mixture into the muffin tins I realized that these needed something extra.  And that's when the crunchy, sweet, buttery topping came in. This topping reminds me of the pecan pralines you can buy or sample at those candy stores on Market St. in Charleston, SC. These banana muffins aren't necessarily as healthy as I first intended but they do have lots of banana in them. Make these muffins with or without the topping but if you make them with it, you won't regret it! 

Banana Muffins with Crunchy Pecan Topping

recipe adapted from: Joy the Baker

for the muffins:

1 1/4 c. all purpose flour

1 c. old-fashioned oats 

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder 

1 tsp cinnamon

3 tsp canola oil

1 egg, beaten

2 egg whites, beaten

3 large bananas, mashed

for the crunchy pecan topping:

1/4 c. butter (1/2 stick), softened 

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. chopped pecans 

1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350°F. 

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, oats, brown sugar, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. In a smaller bowl, mash bananas and then add the canola oil and whole egg into the same bowl and mix. Add the banana mixture to the flour mixture and mix well. In a separate medium sized bowl, beat egg whites until medium stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the batter in three additions. For the crunchy pecan topping, mix together the butter, sugar, pecans and cinnamon in a clean bowl and add it to the top of each muffin before putting them in the oven. Grease muffin tin and bake muffins for 20-25 minutes or until a the toothpick test comes out clean. If you want to make this into banana bread, bake for 45-50 minutes. This made 13 regular sized muffins for me. 

eggless banana bread

My usual choices for breakfast are smoothies, oatmeal, cereal with vanilla almond milk or an omelette with salsa. To change it up, I decided to bake some banana bread for a quick breakfast. I always have frozen bananas in the freezer because they are great in smoothies and you can easily bake with them. If you are using frozen bananas for baking, pull them out of the freezer and thaw for 15-30 minutes. Just make sure when you put the bananas in the freezer they have brown spots on them because that means they are more sugary. 

One of the best things about banana bread is you can freeze individual slices if you can resist eating the entire loaf. I usually cut the loaf into thick slices and individually wrap each one so I can grab a slice and go. If you want to freeze the slices, tightly wrap each slice in saran wrap and then put slices into an air tight freezer bag. The banana bread thaws pretty quickly but can be warmed up using a microwave or toaster. 

My favorite part of the banana bread is the top crust so when I used to make banana bread my brother and I would make a deal. If I could eat the entire top off the banana bread then he could have the bottom portion all to himself. I always thought I got the better deal but I'm not so sure anymore. The top, bottom and middle of this banana bread was worth eating so I'm not making that deal anymore. I was a little worried about how the texture of this bread would be without the eggs but it was fluffy and sweet with lots of banana flavor. 

Eggless Banana Bread

2 1/2 c. self-rising flour

1/2 c. white sugar 

1/4 - 1/2 c. brown sugar, depending on banana sweetness (browner = sweeter) 

1/2 c. (1 stick) of butter, softened 

1/2 c. milk

1 tsp. vanilla

4 medium sized bananas, mashed

1 c. nuts, optional 

Preheat the oven to 350°F. 

Blend sugar and butter in a large bowl. Add in bananas, milk and vanilla and beat together until smooth. Stir in flour. Fold in nuts. Pour into one 9x5x3 loaf pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. 

cinnatoast twists

A perfect Saturday morning breakfast! Actually, these are easy enough to make on any day of the week but breakfast always tastes better on the weekends. These are fake-out cinnamon rolls made with wheat toast (healthy, right?) and a buttery, cinnamon sugar coating. Once you bake these they have a slightly crispy outside and a soft inside just like a cinnamon roll. Drizzle these twists with a little cream cheese frosting right before serving and you have a quick, easy breakfast in less than 30 minutes. 

Cinnatoast Twists

for the twists:

loaf of soft, fresh white or wheat bread 

melted butter 

mixture of cinnamon & sugar (I used equal parts brown sugar and white sugar)

for the frosting:

4 oz cream cheese, room temperature

3 tbsp butter, room temperature

1 1/2 c. confectioner sugar

1/2 tbsp vanilla

1/4 juice of lemon

1-2 tbsp of milk 

Preheat the oven to 375°F. 

Cut all edges off the bread. Roll out each slice of bread as thin as possible (without breaking the bread). Brush butter on to each side of slice. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture on each side of the bread. Fold in two sides of the bread to meet in the middle of the slice and then roll up. I baked these in a mini muffin pan for 20 minutes. 

For the frosting, blend cream cheese and butter together until smooth. Slowly add in 10x sugar and once combined add in vanilla and lemon juice. Blend together and add milk to reach desired consistency. This frosting will stay good in the freezer for months so if you double the frosting recipe you will have enough to make these cinnatwists over and over again. 

breakfast casserole muffins

Once a month I have a breakfast party at work where my team gets together to celebrate birthdays and catch up. I always volunteer to bake something and realized for the past couple months I have brought in some type of banana baked good.  I wanted to change it up this month so I decided to create a breakfast muffin with croissant, sausage, velveeta and eggs because everyone at work loves breakfast casseroles. These may not be the prettiest breakfast but your first bite will make you forget all about that!

Breakfast Casserole Muffins 
makes 12 muffins

1/2 lb of ground sausage (I used hot)
1 tube of crescent roll dough
12 slices of velveeta cheese (or crumbles off a block of velveeta)
6 eggs, beaten
1/8 c. of milk

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line or grease 12 muffin cups. 

Brown the sausage until no longer pink and drain. Spread and line the bottom of each muffin cup with a portion of the croissant dough and press down. Put a spoonful of browned sausage on top of the croissant dough. Then put a slice or a spoonful of velveeta over the sausage. In a bowl, beat the eggs and milk together. Divide the egg mixture evenly between the 12 muffin cups. Make sure not to fill the egg mixture to the very top of the muffin cup or else they will get very messy. Bake 30-35 minutes or until golden brown on top. These are really easy to make and a great breakfast on the go.