Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins

Alright, with Halloween over, it means that Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and Thanksgiving is, by far, my favorite holiday!  So, I thought I'd share one of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes; Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins!

Each Thanksgiving morning, as soon as I wake up, I make Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins.  Not only are they yummy, but I've found that if I don't eat something first thing in the morning, I'll get busy with cooking and wind up not eating anything until 3:00 when it's meal time!  Not good (for me or anyone else, I get really crabby when I don't eat)!  So, if I make some muffins, I'll eat them and everyone will be happy!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups cranberries, cleaned and halved (or dried and re-hydrated)

Process: 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a large bowl combine the flours, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, allspice and salt.  Stir to mix well.
• Add the butter, pumpkin and eggs.  Stir until ingredients are just moist.
• Stir in cranberries.
• Spoon batter into 24 greased muffin cups (two regular muffin tins) and place in hot oven.
• Bake for 40 minutes, or until a tester (toothpick) comes out clean.

Notes:

• I usually make 12 large muffins and 24 mini muffins.  This gives us plenty of muffins to eat over a couple of days and gives us some mini muffins to put out for guests as they wait for everything to be ready on Thanksgiving.  I bake the mini muffins for about 15 minutes.
• I did not create this recipe.  I found it online in January of 2005 (yes, I still have my original print off of the recipe), but just checked for the website and it no longer exists. Weird. If this is your recipe, or you know of it's origins, please let me know so I can give it proper credit.

Enjoy!

xoxo,

M