[Sorry, no photos. Can't find the damn camera cable. #oldtechnology]
I had some butternut squash puree left over from earlier in the week when I'd roasted one for a pasta dish, and remembered that you can add pretty much any "wet" ingredient in place of the milk in a standard muffin recipe. I checked out the Flavor Bible for thoughts on what spices would pair well with squash and also suit a sweet, rather than savory preparation. Starting with Mark Bittman's basic muffin recipe in How to Cook Everything, I added the squash i had (in my case, 3/4 cup, but you could substitute more for all the milk if you have it) and brought it to a full cup with milk -- it turned out to be a bit too dry, so I added another 1/4 cup milk to get it to a thick but pourable muffin batter consistency.
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp cloves, ground
1/4 tsp nutmeg, ground
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 tbsp oil or melted butter
3/4 cup butternut squash puree
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4-1/2 cup milk
Preheat oven to 400. Prepare muffin pan with spray oil.
Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, brown sugar and spices) in a large bowl.
Mix egg, oil, squash, maple syrup and 1/4 cup milk in another bowl, pour into dry ingredients and stir to combine. Depending on how watery your squash is, you may need to add additional milk to make it the right consistency. It should still be thick but should pour.
Pour or scoop into muffin cups to about 3/4 full. I made 6 regular muffins and 12 mini muffins. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean, but check often -- mine were done rather quickly.
These muffins puffed up right away and were slightly dense and moist, nice with butter or without. The mini muffins are perfect for my little ones, since it's just big enough to take two bites, leaving less chance for crumbs to wind up everywhere as happens with 3 year olds and full-size muffins.
This recipe could be easily adapted to use other fruit or vegetable purees. Next I plan to make sweet potato muffins with lots of cinnamon, inspired by the Jeni's ice cream flavor.
