Last November I visited my sister in New York and took a little trip to Trader Joe’s to pick up a jar of my favourite sunflower seed butter. Whilst languishing in the ridiculously gigantic queue I spotted a tin of organic pumpkin puree and realised that I’d never baked with pumpkin before.

It’s not exactly easy to find tinned pumpkin in England (although I have seen it in Tesco recently) and despite the proliferation of pumpkin spiced lattes around here, we’re not really pumpkin baked goods kind of people as a general rule. But I thought I should give it a go and see what the fuss was all about.

However, last year I didn’t find the right recipe, nothing tickled my fancy and the tin of pumpkin remained unloved in my kitchen cupboard until I moved house, when it moved with me and stayed unloved in a whole new cupboard.

That is until this autumn when every blog I came across was going nutty for pumpkin and I realised I could actually get in on this celebration of all things autumnal. A quick bit of recipe searching and I fell upon this completely gorgeous recipe from Pinch of Yum. What really drew me in was the maple glaze. I’ve never glazed anything before in my life so in the Scaredy-Cat spirit of this blog I thought I’d give it a go. Let me tell you, there’s a serious risk of all of my teeth falling out in the near future as I’m going to be glazing everything in sight from this point on.

These muffins are soft, fluffy and a teeny bit savoury, which works perfectly with the super sweet glaze. They’re healthier than your average muffin with a good helping of wholewheat or spelt flour, maple syrup compensating for a reduced sugar content and olive oil instead of butter. However, the glaze is a pure, unadulterated treat and believe me, you don’t want to skimp on it.

I think you could call these muffins breakfast, you could even add a little dried fruit if you think that’ll help with the justification. You can definitely call them a mighty fine afternoon pick me up or the perfect elevenses. Whenever you decide to eat them just make sure you don’t forget that glaze!

Maple Glazed Pumpkin Muffins
From Pinch of Yum
Makes about 14 (I made 12 muffins and popped the rest of the mix into a loaf tin)

Ingredients:

For the muffins:
2 cups wholewheat or spelt flour
1 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup golden caster sugar
1 tin pumpkin puree or 2 cups of homemade puree
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
3 tbsp milk
3 large eggs

For the glaze:
2 tbsp (28g) butter
1 1/4 cups of icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 – 2 tbsp cold water

Preheat the oven to 175C / 165C Fan / 350F and grease or line a muffin tin (at least 12 hole).

In a large bowl mix together the 2 types of flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices, salt and sugar. In another large bowl mix together the pumpkin, olive oil, maple syrup, milk and eggs. Then simply tip the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined and no flour is visible,

Fill each muffin cup almost to the top with the batter and pop them in the oven for 20 minutes, until the tops are lightly browned and are springy to the touch. Remove them from the tin and cool on a rack.

Once they are cool you’re ready to glaze. Melt the butter in a small saucepan, add the sugar and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add the maple syrup and mix again. Then add the water a little at a time until you get a smooth and fairly pourable texture. Spread the glaze onto each muffin with the back of a spoon and let it drip down the sides a little. Enjoy!