Buckwheat pumpkin muffins

April 13, 2014 at 9:38 am (breakfast, B_minus (2.5 stars), Dessert, Muffins and quick breads)

This was the second recipe from The Splendid Grain that I chose to use up my buckwheat flour. In her recipe head notes Rebecca Woods says that the recipe is reminiscent of carrot cake, only better. That sounded so good that I willingly sacrificed my very last butternut squash of the season.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups coarsely grated pie pumpkin, winter squash, or sweet potato
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup milk or soy milk
• 3 Tbs. unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tsp. freshly grated orange zest
• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Sucanat or packed light brown sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. ground gigner
• 1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Grease two 12-cup muffin tins.
2. Combine the pumpkin, pecans, eggs, milk, butter, and orange zest in a medium mixing bowl. Put the buckwheat flour, all-purpose flour, Sucanat, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg and salt in a bowl. Stir to combine and then sift into the pumpkin mixture, a bit at a time, stirring to blend after each addition.
3. When all the dry ingredients are incorporated, fill the muffin tins about two thirds full. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until lightly browned and a cake tester inserted in the centers comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from tins and serve warm or cool thoroughly on the rack.

My notes:

I followed the recipe carefully except that I used pre-ground nutmeg and less than 1/2 tsp. salt (it seemed like an awful lot). Derek grated half of my small butternut squash for me, which ended up producing a bit more than 2 cups of grated squash. I didn’t want to waste it so I put it all in, which was maybe a mistake. Also, I only made 12 muffins. And they weren’t particularly large either. She must have really tiny muffin tins? Since my muffins were twice as big as instructed, I left them in the oven a few minutes longer. Still, though, they were quite dense and almost gooey inside. I like moist cakes but this was a bit too wet. The flavor was good, but nothing stellar. I couldn’t detect any buckwheat flour. Derek liked them more then me, but he said they weren’t sweet enough. He ended up eating his with rosemary pumpkin jam. I brought the rest to a party for our German class and everyone said that they liked them. I wasn’t so excited by the recipe, and so let people take home all the extras. When Derek found out I hadn’t saved him any, he was disappointed. A friend from my German class wanted the recipe, and I still had the other half of my butter squash left, so I suggested we make another batch together.

The second time I put in the full amount of salt and a bit more spices, stayed closer to the 2-cups of grated squash, and subbed in walnuts for the pecans (since pecans are a rare, expensive commodity here in Europe). I actually liked the muffins more this second time. I think part of why I liked them better was that they are better on the second day, and the previous time they were all gone by the first day. The orange zest and nuts are dominant–the buckwheat and pumpkin, in contrast, aren’t really noticeable. I think perhaps they should be renamed.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about this recipe. I won’t seek it out, but if I have buckwheat flour and winter squash to use up at some point, I may make it again.

Derek: B (B+ with the pumpkin jam)
Rose: B