With fall officially here, it is again acceptable to make anything and everything that contains pumpkin. Every year, and not just during fall, sometimes during winter, we make pumpkin bread/muffins. Usually, we use a different recipe each time because while all we have tried are good, none are spectacular. So when we decided to make pumpkin muffins recently, we chose to use our new King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion Cookbook.

This recipe was absolutely ideal! The muffins are tender, sweet, and full of a pure pumpkin flavor. We chose to add a delicious pecan streusel to the top that completes these muffins nicely. Another happy bonus is that the batter for these muffins is made completely in one bowl (a very large one though! This recipe makes a lot of batter), so less clean-up is involved.

Pumpkin Muffins with Pecan Streusel

Pumpkin Muffin slightly adapted from The  King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion Cookbook, Pecan Streusel from Ezra Pound Cake

Makes about 36 muffins, or two loaves of pumpkin bread

Ingredients:

For the Muffins:

1 cup vegetable oil

2 2/3 cups sugar

4 large eggs

2 cups (1-15 oz. can) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

2/3 cup water

3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the streusel:

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled (feel free to brown it if you’d like- we did)

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 cup toasted pecan pieces

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 °F.

In a large bowl, cream together the oil and the sugar. Beat in the eggs, pumpkin, and water. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla, stirring to blend.

To make the streusel, stir the brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, and pecan pieces in a medium bowl. Spoon the pumpkin batter into 36 greased or lined muffins tins, or two greased loaf pans.  Top each of the muffins with 1-2 tablespoons of streusel.  Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into one of the muffins comes out clean (if you are making pumpkin bread, bake for about an hour). Let cool. Enjoy!