In the Presence of Pumpkin

We’ve been stocking up on pureed pumpkin, buying a can or two every time we make a run to the grocery store. My husband read somewhere that there’s supposed to be a shortage of it this year, and we wanted to make sure we had a can ready for Thanksgiving’s traditional pie.

Of course, now I have to get creative with canned pumpkin, since I have in my cabinets six or seven times as much as I’ll need for that fourth Thursday in November. Pumpkin muffins are obvious, but I hope you’ll try these anyway, because the apple amps up the moisture and the flavor. The scent of these baking, along with the scent of the grapefruit that we sliced for breakfast, grapefruit from our neighbor’s tree, swung us fully into fall.

And now I’m off to brainstorm—pumpkin soup with toasted pumpkin seed kernels, pumpkin butter, smashed potato and pumpkin with maple and sour cream, and maybe a pumpkin-pecan cheesecake. What are your favorite pumpkin treats?

Pumpkin-Apple Muffins

Be sure to grate the apple on the small holes of a box grater, not the large ones.

1¾ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon salt
1 egg, separated
¾ cup buttermilk
¼ cup butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup canned pumpkin
1 small Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and grated (about ½ cup)

Heat the oven to 400˚. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and salt. In a small bowl, whisk the egg white and the buttermilk. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolk and the melted butter. Pour the egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture and stir. Add the sugar and vanilla. Mix well. Stir in the pumpkin and the grated apple.

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients. Stir just until combined, about 10 seconds. Do not over-mix. Divide the batter among the muffin cups. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until golden. Remove the muffins from the tin to a cooling rack. Serve warm.