Wednesday, Nov. 04, 2009

Yum! A sweet tradition is born

What's Cooking

Ginger-pumpkin muffins will forever be linked in my mind with the Toys R Us catalog.

You know, the one that comes out ages before you think about Christmas shopping. Uh, before Santa thinks about Christmas shopping. Or toy-making. Or whatever.

The catalog was tucked inside the paper Sunday morning, the same morning I made the muffins. My kids tore through the pages, circling toys to put on their lists for Santa.

Somewhere during this process my 5-year-old convinced herself that Santa will, of course, bring her everything she asks for. This includes the Baby Alive Woopsie Doo doll (it leaves surprises in its diaper) and a Power Wheels Lightening McQueen Super 6 (otherwise known as a toy car) that costs more than my monthly car payment.

While they had the catalog spread out on the floor, I went about making the muffins.

I chose this recipe because it screamed fall. Ginger, pumpkin and brandy ... what could be better?

The muffins were good — very good — but a tad complicated. Mince the ginger. Soak the raisins. Sift the flower. Wisk the pumpkin.

I wonder if the sifting and whisking was really necessary, because everything gets blended together at the end.

Another thing about this recipe: It uses a lot of bowls and utensils. There's quite a bit of dish-washing to be done while the muffins are in the oven.

But, oh, the smell of the muffins while they are in the oven. It overtook the house. It was like Thanksgiving, only better. A little sweet, a little spicy. Yum.

That's what I think about the muffins, too. Incredibly moist, they had a strong but pleasant ginger flavor.

The raisins (I used golden raisins because I had some left after last month's rice pudding recipe) sank to the bottom, probably because the batter was so thin.

Still, I'd make them again. Maybe next year, when the kids are occupied with another edition of the Christmas catalog.

Bee staff writer Kerry McCray can be reached at kmccray@modbee.com or 578-2358.

I added chopped pecans because we prefer a nutty crunch in our muffins. The muffins were very moist and fluffy, and were even better the second day. They reminded me of gingerbread.

For this many ingredients, steps and the cleanup, I hope the muffins are outstanding. I did have two substitutions. Instead of light molasses, I used ¼ cup dark molasses and ¼ cup light corn syrup. Also, for the pumpkin pie spice I used ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon plus ¼ teaspoon ground ginger plus ‹ teaspoon each ground cloves and ground nutmeg. That is from the substitutions guide from McCormick Spices. My mix made 20 muffins and they did stick a bit to the paper liners. I thought they turned out well, but my husband pronounced them great.

You had to use so many bowls to mix the ingredients. The muffins were heavy, not light. My family really didn't care for the taste.

Finally, a use for that crystallized ginger I purchased for a long- since-lost scone recipe. My family and I liked the taste and texture of the crystallized ginger in the batter, where it's been slightly rehydrated by the brandy and other moist ingredients. On top of the muffins, however, it was a bit too strong. In the future, I'll use less ginger in the topping, and add some walnuts and a pinch of cinnamon to the brown sugar and make it more streusel-like. I want to try them with dried cranberries instead of raisins, too. I found that I used my ‹-cup (2 tablespoons) measure more in this recipe than ever before — it seemed like everything was "plus 2 tablespoons."