Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Spice Muffins

I was feeling much better yesterday evening, thanks to all the cold medicine I've been taking. While I was waiting for Amanda to get home from work I did a brief clean out of the fridge and discovered a bag of fresh cranberries I had bought but not used over the last few weeks.

I discarded the berries that had become squishy and rotten, but I had an overwhelming number left. I didn't feel like cranberry sauce/relish and I wasn't sure what else to do with them. I chatted online with Erica (former roommate/current graduate student/baking goddess) who suggested rolling them in confectioners sugar and drying them. Kevin (co-worker/vegetarian cooking master) was stranded in Indianapolis due to the weather and suggested a vegan pumpkin muffin recipe he had used.

As it turned out I had a leftover can of pumpkin puree in my cabinet, along with some chopped walnuts from Thanksgiving. I figured I could spruce up these muffins a bit and they'd be a nice, relatively healthy (compared to some of the things we've all eaten the last few weeks) treat to share with people post-holiday.

Cranberry Walnut Pumpkin Spice Muffins

1 3/4 cups flour

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1 can pureed pumpkin

1/2 cup soy milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

2/3 cup fresh cranberries, halved

This is a sift dry ingredients together in one bowl, mix wet ingredients together in another bowl kind of recipe. Add wet to dry, then mix in the cranberries and walnuts (see photo above).

Fill the muffin cups 2/3 way full (these do puff up, so overfilling them is a bad idea). Amanda had bought these cute blue and yellow silicon muffin wrappers for a dollar (!) at Target and I've been excited to use them. (See below.)

Bake on 350 degrees for 20 minutes (may take less in a gas oven, my electric one seems to take a bit longer to bake everything).

They turned out really beautifully, a little moist (I suspect a whole can of pumpkin puree was too much).

Here they are "naked". I snacked on them last night (and I've had one so far this morning). I will be passing some along to Ashley today, I think we're going to explore the Botanical Gardens since the weather is decent.

Here's to feeling better! And happy eating!

-Robin-