I all too happily kiss bathing suit season goodbye and embrace these colder, darker days because for me, it means more time in the kitchen!! I have been making these pumpkin muffins for (believe it or not) 20 years. My mom got the recipe for the muffins when I was in pre-school and came home from a play date with a full belly and an orange tint to my skin. My friend’s mom shared her recipe and we’ve been friends ever since. Around the same time, we discovered the pumpkin cookie recipe. It’s a Libby’s recipe and was found in the newspaper, diligently cut out, and glued into our cookbook of family favorites. It is ALWAYS a challenge to decide whether to make the pumpkin muffins or the pumpkin cookies because they are both so amazingly good. The cookies are soft and chewy and have a generous helping of chocolate chips, which can almost sway my decision because who can say no to chocolate, but then I remember the light and fluffy muffin texture that comes with the perfect cinnamon-clove-nutmeg flavor.
I finally figured it out this year. Why not make BOTH recipes, at the same time. The recipes call for almost all of the same ingredients, so I set up two different bowls (and tried not to forget which one was which) and mixed away! Now you may be thinking, what am I going to do with 3 dozen cookies AND 3 dozen muffins, but have no fear, somehow five people can devour these in (I’m embarrassed to tell you) ….a week. I wasn’t lying when I said we were excited to kiss bathing suit season goodbye.
Pumpkin Muffins (or Bread)
- 3 cups white sugar
- 2 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 3 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 2 cups canned pumpkin
- 1 cup water
- Preheat oven to 350F. Sift first 8 ingredients, then add eggs, oil, pumpkin and water. Mix with beater. Bake for 15-20 minutes for muffins or 1 ½ hours for 9 x 5 loaf. Makes approx. 3 dozen muffins.
Fun tip: If you have different muffin pan shapes, these are VERY versatile. I have used both a muffin top pan and a mini muffin pan and they both turn out great. Just make sure to spray the pan if you aren’t using a liner!
Libby’s Old Fashioned Soft Pumpkin Cookies
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp cloves
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 1 ½ cups white sugar
- 1 cup canned pumpkin
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 350F. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt, set aside.
- In large mixer bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla, beat until light and creamy.
- Gradually add dry ingredients until well blended.
- Drop rounded tablespoons onto cookie sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool on racks. Makes 3 dozen cookies.
Helpful Tip: If you are wary of overloading your kitchen with pumpkin, you can refrigerate dough up to 3 days or freeze up to 3 weeks.
