Here we go.  The season of Everything Pumpkin has arrived.  Are you ready?  Do you have your pumpkin game face on?  Pumpkin pie!  Pumpkin spice lattes!  Pumpkin lasagna!  (Pumpkin lasagna?)  I’m even ready to declare September “National Pester Your Mother to Make Pumpkin Muffins Month” because that’s exactly what my kids have been doing: pestering me to make pumpkin muffins.

OK gang, I’m ready.  Let’s do this.

When I looked at my pumpkin muffin recipe from a couple years ago my first impulse was to cut down on the amount of sugar the recipe calls for – but I knew I had to tread carefully.  I’ve come to learn that it’s best not to mess with success.  If something tastes even slightly weird or different, complaints will be filed, protests will be made, pumpkin muffins will not be eaten.

(Our next homeschooling lesson will be called First World Problems.  The lesson formerly know to our generation as Don’t You Know There Are Starving Children in Africa?)

I am delighted (and honestly a little surprised) to report that I successfully got away with pumpkin muffin murder!

Well, not murder.  Just less sugar.  And less flour and more pumpkin too.  Although I suppose a pumpkin did die in order for me to make these muffins.  Now I’m a little sad.  Please pass me a muffin.

What’s not sad is how quickly these muffins are disappearing!  Given that the muffins you don’t see here were gone before I could even wonder about getting my camera out should tell us all that no one really noticed anything was different.

These do have some sugar, but less than they have in the past.   These turned out perfectly sweet and enjoyably dense, this is officially my new go-to Pumpkin Muffin recipe.

Pumpkin Muffins v2.0

print this recipe!

29 oz canned pumpkin (the BIG can!)
4 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 c butter, melted
1/2 c milk or water
3 c flour
1 c sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger

(optional 2 – 3 apples, peeled and cubed.)

Pre-heat oven to 350. Grease and flour 2 bread pans or line muffin pan with muffin tins.

Mix together pumpkin, eggs, butter, sugar and banana until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients and slowly stir into wet ingredients and pour into prepared pans. Muffins (filled with 1/4 c batter) will be ready in 20 to 25 minutes. Bread will be done in about 50 minutes.

The quantities above made nearly 2 dozen muffins AND 1 loaf of bread.

This is a lot of baked pumpkin goodness, you can definitely cut this recipe in half as needed.  But if you’re feeding a crew of kids or going to a pot luck, it’s nice to have a bunch on hand.

The first dozen muffins and the loaf of bread were plain, but with the remaining batter I threw caution to the wind and added some chopped apple.

Big chunks of apple are obviously not going to go unnoticed, but that actually worked out well.  The addition of apple has give some muffins protective powers!  These have been a little slower to disappear.

Let it be known though that 1 out of 3 children did not mind eating pumpkin muffins with apple chunks.  2 out of 2 adults did not mind either.

So whether you’re celebrating The Season of Everything Pumpkin or Pester Your Mother for Pumpkin Muffins Month, I hope you eat something with pumpkin in it today.  Or find a mother to pester.  That’s a fine way to celebrate too.