Recipe review: Company’s Coming’s Pumpkin Muffins

Okay, so maybe it’s a bit late in the season for pumpkin-and-spice-flavoured foods. But I had a craving, so I went looking for a recipe that I thought might be good.

The Company’s Coming Pumpkin Muffins (found on page 34 in their Muffins and More cookbook) looked like the ideal solution for my craving. They promised lots of pumpkin and spice flavour, and seemed pretty easy to make. It sounded like a win-win.

Well, the recipe definitely delivered on the “easy to make” promise. Most of the ingredients called for were things I had on hand, so there wasn’t much shopping involved (although finding just canned pumpkin – not pumpkin pie filling – wasn’t quite as easy as I would have hoped), and I was able to get everything together fairly quickly. And, better yet, there was no need for a mixer; everything was easy to mix by hand.

Once I had brought all the ingredients together, I was left with a light, delicious-looking batter. And, even though I felt a bit guilty about it because of the egg, I let myself of a quick taste of the batter before filling my muffin tins. It tasted pretty good, so I was all set.

Oh, and a quick note that I left the raisins out of my muffins. I’ve never been a fan of raisins, so I knew they wouldn’t do anything to improve the taste for me.

This is where things get a little less enthusiastic on my part. First off, I didn’t get quite as many muffins as I would have liked. Filling the muffin tins to the usual three-quarters-full mark left me with only 11 muffins, and I thought I would be getting at least a couple more then that (most muffin recipes I make leave me with about 15 muffins). But I passed over that bit of disappointment, knowing that soon I would have some wonderful, spice and pumpkin muffins to enjoy.

So, I let the muffins bake (they only took about 20 minutes at 400 F) and then pulled them out of the oven to cool. I noticed instantly that they didn’t rise at all – they hadn’t even evened out. They were the exact same shape that the batter had been when I put the tray into the oven. Which isn’t a big deal, it’s just that most muffins change shape at least a little once they’re baked.

Anyway, again, I passed through that. What did the muffin shape matter if I was getting something yummy, right?

The muffins cooled off. I took them out of the muffin tins to cool a bit further, and then bit into the first one.

What I discovered was a muffin that didn’t taste nearly at all like I was hoping. It didn’t even have the wonderful taste the batter had – in fact, it didn’t have much taste at all. Needless to say, I wasn’t very happy about that.

But, to give this muffin recipe some credit, they’re not terrible if you add some butter. And the muffins freeze okay – although the bottoms do get a bit hard when you rewarm them. I think with a bit of tweaking, this recipe could end up being pretty good. But, currently, I’m a bit too discouraged by my initial results to play with the recipe, so I’ll have to save that for another time.

*As I can’t find the recipe online and my scanner doesn’t want to cooperate, I’ve typed up the recipe for you below. As mentioned, you can find it on page 34 of the Company’s Coming Muffins and More cookbook.

Company’s Coming’s Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup cooking oil
• 1 cup cooked pumpkin (without spice)
• 1/4 cup milk

Directions

1. Combine first eight dry ingredients in a large bowl. Stir thoroughly. Make a well in center.
2. In small bowl beat egg until frothy. Mix in sugar, cooking oil, pumpkin and milk. Pour into well. Stir only to moisten. Batter will be lumpy. Fill greased muffin cups 3/4 full. Bake in 400 F (200 C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Let stand five minutes. Remove from pan. Serve warm. Makes 14.