Muffins for What Ails Us
Well, at the very least they're nutritious and taste as if a Linzertorte met a pumpkin spice muffin.
Writing with a new puppy around is reminiscent of having a newborn baby. The dog just dug himself a little nest in my couch and coiled himself up as if to protect his body from the wind, so I’ve reached for my computer, in the hope I can finally write up this wintery muffin recipe for you.
I was never the mum who had a baby that effortlessly napped. Nor was I the mother I see all over insta and TikTok, who, while their darling babies nap, prepare homemade puff pastry for the evening’s beef Wellington, harvest the baby Portobellos growing in the family’s mushroom cave for the duxelles, and then make a TikTok of their 20-minute strength workout that has given them flat abs like they had in their 20s.
I never was much good at time management. I believed that when the baby napped, momma should nap. A habit I still hang onto even if my kids are in college and no longer napping. They **should** nap. I think of myself of a reiki master of naps. If I nap, I can send my positive napping energy into the world and bring peace through napping. Obviously it isn’t working quite yet, so I will continue to work on my technique.
Enough chat! Recipe time! Today’s recipe was a response to the icy cold wind that is seeping through cracks and crevices I didn’t know I had in my house. While we didn’t get any of the fun part—snow—we have gotten frigid temperatures. What with making heaps of chocolate chip cookies non-stop throughout the Christmas season, I’d only had a chance to make a few Christmas cookies, brown sugar shortbread and chocolate Linzertorte bars. Those Linzer bars disappeared quickly and I found myself chilly and in need of something comforting and reasonably nutritious to eat. I conjured up this pumpkin muffin, which tastes as if it were born in a village at least near Linz, if not in Linz proper. Made with pumpkin, whole wheat flour, hazelnut flour and loads of friendly pumpkin pie spices, I also loaded it up with chocolate chips (which is automatic by now) and some frozen cranberries on hand.
You can make the muffins as the recipe states or:
substitute an equal amount of almond, pecan or oat flour for the hazelnut flour.
add frozen raspberries instead of cranberries for a more traditional linzer taste.
I suppose you could leave out the chocolate chips.
A hazelnut streusel wouldn’t go amiss either.
In other news, thank you all so much for your kind words about our new pup, who is (thankfully) still snoozing as I write this. I think I can hear him growing. You get a supposed Aussie-Newfie mix and can only wonder which side of the genes will win out.
Linzer Pumpkin Muffins
Makes 12 muffins
What You’ll Need:
1 cup (96 grams) hazelnut flour
1 cup (113 grams) whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (180 grams) chocolate chips
1 cup (110 grams) fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup ( 240 grams) pumpkin puree
1/2 cup (120 ml) maple syrup
1/2 cup (120 ml) vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
What You’ll Do:
Heat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Grease and flour a muffin pan, or use paper cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together the hazelnut and whole wheat flours, the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, baking powder and salt. Add the chocolate chips and cranberries and toss to coat.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, maple syrup, oil, eggs and vanilla until well-blended. Pour the mixture over the dry ingredients and gently fold to combine. Do not over mix, or else the result will be bouncy muffins. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan, filling each about two-thirds full. Bake for about 25 minutes until a toothpick inserted the middle of a muffin comes out clean (save for any chocolate goo).
Cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove the muffins to a wire rack to cool further. These keep well at room temperature for up to 5 days and reheat nicely with a quick 20-second blitz in the microwave.
My brother wrote a thoughtful piece about what the upcoming presidency could mean for us. Give it a read if you’re in need, as it were. You can read it here.
And how are you holding up? Are you on a kale-only diet for your health this January? Or a news blackout? Let me know what’s up.
If you’re looking for me on the blue sky app, I’m marissarothkopf@bsky.social.
Those muffins sound delicious! Thanks!
Thank you! Great recipe. Adorable growing pup.