Pumpkin banana muffins with a cinnamon swirl

Okay, so after making the pumpkin oatmeal, I had about half a can of pumpkin puree left and I felt compelled to use it. I know, what was I thinking? Pumpkin is not a favorite thing of mine, but I don't like to see it wasted. I also had a ripe banana and it too needed to be put to use.

Enter muffins. Sweet, sweet muffins with a sweet, sweet cinnamon swirl. All brown sugary and autumnal. Yes, autumnal. What can I say? I gave into seasonal flavor madness and now have TWO pumpkin recipes on my blog. You gotta problem? Take it up with the Self-Taught Bakers Union. They'll get to it, right after they address our obsession with steel-cut oats and sea salt. Godspeed.


Back to muffins. They're easy and they come together in a snap. Just get your ingredients together:

You see that baking powder? I didn't actually end up using it. And guess what? I didn't need it anyway.

You mix everything up, pour them into muffin tins, sprinkle them with cinnamon sugar, and then top it with a little more batter before sticking them in the oven.

I wiped on some cooking spray on the rims of the muffin pan, because I didn't want to the tops to stick to the pan.
Muffin wrappers only do 85% of the job, nonstick-wise.

Bake the muffins in the oven and they will puff and smell amazing and you will be thrilled. Or, at least, you should be. Because they are soft and sweet and a little spicy (not hot spicy, but the other kind of spicy). I ate two muffins and had this ham sandwich for dinner:

Dinner forage. I couldn't bring myself to cook anything else, after making these muffins.

Make these muffins and prepare yourself for bliss. Autumnal bliss.



























Pumpkin banana muffins with a cinnamon swirl
(makes 12 regular-sized muffins plus 12 mini-muffins)
adapted from The Kitchen Snob

Preheat the oven to 350F. Get out a muffin tin or two and either line it with cupcake wrappers or spray it with cooking spray.

In a small bowl, whisk together 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tbsp cinnamon, 1 tsp cardamom, and 2 tsp Chinese five spice (which you can skip and/or substitute with ginger and nutmeg if you want). In another small bowl, mix 3 tbsp brown sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon together. In a large bowl, beat two eggs, one large mashed banana, and 3/4 cup pumpkin puree until smooth. Beat 1 1/2 cups brown sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract into the egg mixture and then beat in 1/2 cup canola (or other neutral-tasting) oil and 1/2 cup water. Dump the flour mixture into the bowl and stir it in until everything is incorporated. The batter will be on the thin side.

Pour 1/5 cup batter into each muffin cup and then sprinkle a little of the cinnamon sugar mixture onto the batter. Top with a couple more tablespoons of batter. Sprinkle again with a little cinnamon sugar, if you're feelin' wild.

Bake the muffins in the oven for about 20-22 minutes (for the regular-sized muffins) or about 12-14 minutes for mini-muffins. A toothpick should come out clean when inserted. Serve warm or at room temperature.