I know I made those blueberry muffins the other day. Less than a week ago, actually. And, I'm sorry for not posting any muffins since February. But these will make up for it, I promise. Plus, it's time to start making holiday recipes! These would be good as something to serve your guests the morning after Thanksgiving. Also, if you make them with less molasses, and make them like Dana did (below), they'd probably make pretty good stuffing.
This is Dana's version, she used less molasses and made bread instead of muffins
My sister Dana emailed my mom and me with a recipe for pumpkin cornbread. She (loosely) based her recipe off of Mark Bittman's that was featured in the Times in September. This is her recipe, except I baked mine as muffins instead of a regular loaf of cornbread. They are moist, dark, and almost cake-like, but not overly sweet. None of the flavors are very overwhelming, so they're really good with jam, butter, or if you have a lot of cranberries lying around, cranberry butter. If you have a fiance who doesn't like corn bread like things, or pumpkin, this is something he will probably like.
Also, if your fiance (or you) don't like goat cheese, yesterday I sampled a goat cheese that tastes almost like a blue cheese. It's called Cana de Cabra and it really delicious and sharp and heavy and would be a good substitute for blue cheese if you can't find Rosenborg anywhere. Read about it here.
PS- Libby's canned pumpkin says 'naturally gluten-free' on their label! I wish other companies thought that things should be 'naturally gluten free' instead of adding weird stuff so we gluten-freers can't eat it.
Pumpkin Corn Muffins
1/4 c milk, yogurt, or buttermilk
1 c canned pumpkin
2 eggs
a scant 1/4 c molasses
1 1/2 c cornmeal
1/2 c rice flour mix (but I bet you could substitute, Dana made them with 1/4 c rice flour and 1/4 c millet flour)
a scant 1 t salt
1/4 t xanthan gum
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
2 T butter
Preheat oven to 350. If you have a cast iron muffin pan (or regular, if you want bread), put it in the oven now. Otherwise, grease your muffin tin with butter. Combine the milk, pumpkin, eggs, and molasses in a small bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour mix, salt, xanthan gum, baking powder and baking soda. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. If using cast iron, pull it out of the oven now and divide butter between muffin cups. Let the butter melt, then carefully fill the muffin cups 3/4 full. If you don't have enough batter to fill all the cups, fill the remaining ones halfway with water, to keep your pan from burning and the muffins cooking evenly. Bake in the middle of the oven about 20 minutes. Cool in pan, serve with butter or jam.
Cranberry Butter
From the NY Times
2 c cranberries, fresh or frozen
1/2 c sugar (less for tarter butter)
1/4 c liquid (I used tea, but water or orange juice or wine would be great)
2 sticks of butter, softened
Cook the cranberries with the sugar and liquid for about 20 minutes, until all the berries are softened (and have popped) and the liquid is cooked out. Let cool, then beat into the butter until smooth. Keep refrigerated.
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