Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins are yet another autumn treat - dense and very moist, in an intense orange colour. The preparation is fast as with any other muffins. There's one condition: you need to have already prepared the pumpkin puree. I used the butternut squash puree for these muffins and it worked really well. The addition of dried cranberries makes the pumpkin much more interesting and reduces the need for sugar in the batter, especially if your cranberries have been sweetened with a maple syrup. The recipe comes from the Ultimate Muffin Cookbook by Bruce Weinstein Mark Scarbrough - expect few more coming soon... out of 600 recipes that are in the book, I limited myself to only around 20 to be tried out in the future... ;)

Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

250g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons bran
25g (1/4 cup) white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
50g (1/2 cup) brown sugar (I used demerara sugar)
425g (1 1/2 cup) pumpkin puree
100g dried cranberries, chopped into small pieces
180ml (3/4cup) buttermilk*
85g (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Makes around 12 medium / standard size muffins (5cm in diameter).

Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Prepare the muffin tins: line them with paper muffin cups or cut pieces of baking paper.
Whisk the flour, white sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl until well combined.  In another large bowl, whisk the eggs until lightly beaten, then whisk in the brown sugar. Continue whisking until the mixture is thick and pale brown, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the pumpkin, cranberries, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract. Once the mixture is smooth, stir in the prepared flour mixture until incorporated. Do not overmix.
Fill the prepared tins (mine are pretty shallow and I filled them almost to the brim, instead of the usual three-quarters full). Bake for 22 minutes, until the muffins have rounded, slightly cracked tops. The muffins are ready when the toothpick or cake tester comes out almost clean - it can be wet, as these muffins are very moist. Set the pan onto the rack and let the muffins cool down for 10 minutes before taking them out and serving. I recommend it with black cranberry tea or green Japanese sencha with cranberries (in our Przystanek Tango Cafe under the name 'sencha americana') as well as a glass of warm milk. Bon apétit!

*If you don't have buttermilk, you can replace it with the same amount of full fat milk, kefir or plain natural full fat yoghurt. 

Both Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins and Apple Raisin Muffins (about which I wrote yesterday) were taken to our milonga - an evening party during which people dance Argentine tango. Even though the milonga wasn't crowded, they all disappeared quickly and were highly praised to my satisfaction. Viva tango & food :)