Winter Squash Spice Muffins

Rita~'s Note:

Spicy sweet muffins. A nice treat for Halloween or Thanksgiving. Wrap them up for a gift.

• Total Time: 35 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 12 muffins

• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon clove
• 1/8 teaspoon ginger
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 cup cooked mashed acorn squash or 3/4 cup butternut squash or 3/4 cup pumpkin or 3/4 cup buttercup squash
• 1/2 cup golden raisin
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 1 cup buttermilk
• sugar, for tops as garnish

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Grease muffin tin with butter.
3. Mix flour, sugars, spices, baking powder and salt in large bowl.
4. Cut in butter with pastry blender (I use food processor pulsing till crumbly) or knives until mixture is like fine crumbs.
5. Beat egg in a medium bowl; stir in squash, peel, raisins, and buttermilk.
6. Add to flour mixture until just blended.
7. Fill muffin cups 3/4 cups full.
8. Sprinkle tops with sugar.
9. Bake 20-25 minutes until lightly browned and center is done when tested with a toothpick.
10. Makes 12 muffins.
11. Serve with Pecan Honey Butter Pecan Honey Butter or what ever you like.

Reviews

[Kree]

I'm sorry, Rita, but no one in my family was crazy about these muffins. They were very heavy, and even with all the spices in them they somehow tasted bland. They were also not nearly as sweet as I would have liked. I did use soy buttermilk and Eggbeaters in place of the eggs, but I've made these substitutions many times without any problems.

[Chef Lil' Momma Jenn]

I doubled up on the nutmeg, allspice,cloves & ginger but I think I really needed to add more sugar because I like mine sweet. I also only had yellow squash but it worked well enough. I was going to throw so cream cheese frosting on these to get my family would eat them faster but instead we split the muffins in half, buttered them & sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar. This was pretty good. I also added chocolate chips in some of the muffins & those muffins went 1st.

[Mouskawitz]

I was making butternut squash puree for my son, so I thought I'd give this recipe a try. I found these muffins to be okay. Due to the comment about the bland flavour, I doubled all the spices except the cinnamon. I would try this recipe again, and increase the spices even more. They do smell very nice when baking & are very moist. I didn't have any orange zest, so I put in a spash (maybe 1 Tbsp or so) of orange juice. This is a nice muffin, just not that exciting on its own. I'd like to try them with the Pecan Honey Butter that Rita reccomends.