I. Love. Muffins.  Show me a muffin and I will eat it.  Show me a pile of muffins and I will eat as many as I can.  There’s just something about a well-made muffin that makes my taste-buds sing with approval.  One of my favorite muffins to eat is a corn muffin.  Now, I am probably not a cornbread purist, because I prefer my cornbread sweet- I add sugar to mine and enjoy it every single time.  Recently though, I heard of an even greater twist on cornbread, and I just had to try it, as well as turn it into muffin form.  I was going to figure out how to make Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins.

Had you asked me a year ago if I would be interested in trying such a muffin, I probably would have said no, not really.  Pumpkin and corn together just didn’t make sense.  But then I had some delicious Black Bean Enchiladas with Spicy Pumpkin Sauce, using corn tortillas, and I couldn’t believe how well those flavors went together.  So I took my favorite corn muffin recipe, added the pumpkin and a few spices, adjusted the liquid, added more whole wheat flour, and I came up with a rather fantastic incarnation of a Pumpkin Cornbread Muffin.  They are moist, with a nice coarse crumb, and are simply packed with flavor.   My only caution with this recipe is that because the muffins are nicely moist, they spoil quickly.  Eat them within a day, or freeze them for re-warming another time.  I could eat an entire batch of these muffins myself, but thankfully, my kids enjoy them as well, so even the picky eaters devoured these ones.  Add a little apple butter for the ultimate taste of fall.

Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins

1 1/2           cups  cornmeal

1/2           cup  whole wheat flour

1/4           cup  all-purpose flour

1         tablespoon  baking powder

1/4           cup  sugar

1           teaspoon  cinnamon

1/8      teaspoon  ground nutmeg

1           teaspoon  salt

1                     egg

3        tablespoons  vegetable oil

3/4           cup  canned pumpkin

1 1/2           cups  milk

Preheat oven to 350ºF.  Spray a 12-cup standard muffin tin with cooking spray.

In a small mixing bowl, combine the cornmeal, flours, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.  Mix well to remove any lumps, sifting if necessary.

Beat the egg lightly in a mixing bowl.  Add the oil, pumpkin and milk to the egg and beat together until well-combined.

Gently mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, stirring just until combined. Some lumps may remain, this is okay.

Divide the mixture evenly among the 12 muffin cups.

Bake at 350ºF for 20-25 minutes, checking at 20 minutes to see if they are done.  They will be done when a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 12 muffins.