Pumpkin-Seed Muffins

I bought a BIG can of pumpkin puree last week as I was in charge of dessert for our Thanksgiving meal. I ended up with some leftover so for breakfast this morning I decided to make myself a batch of muffins. I had to dig wayyyyyy back in my Everyday Food Magazines to find this recipe. It is from issue #16, October 2004 in the "have you tried?" section.

PUMPKIN-SEED MUFFINS

1/2 cup raw green pumpkin seeds (pepitas)*

1 1/3 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup packed light-brown sugar**

1 cup pumpkin puree

6 Tbsp melted butter

2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350. Spread seeds in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet; bake until puffed and browned, about 10 minutes. Set aside. Raise oven heat to 375.

In large bowl mix together flour, baking powder, allspice and salt. Reserve 3 Tbsp seeds for topping; mix remaining seeds into flour mixture. In a medium bowl whisk together brown sugar, pumpkin puree, butter and eggs. Add to dry ingredients; mix until JUST incorporated.

Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Divide batter among cups (the Pampered Chef large scoop is PERFECT for this); sprinkle with reserved seeds. Bake until muffins are lightly browned, 25-30 minutes.

RATINGS:

Heather -10 - "I don't even like pumpkin but these are good"

Brad - ? - "Unrated at this point since he isn't home from work yet to try them"

NOTES:

* I didn't toast the pumpkin seeds. The ones for inside I just tossed in raw and the ones for on top I used the Brown Sugar Spice Pumpkin Seeds I made last week.

** I didn't have any light brown sugar, I used it all up this weekend, so I used 1/2 white and 1/2 dark brown and it worked fine.