Ivy Arts

Pumpkin and chocolate chip muffins?

I never thought of such a thing. First, I like my chocolate pretty much unadulterated. Second, I’ve been searching for more than 10 years for a pumpkin muffin recipe that can come close to the ones I used to get at a little coffee shop in Foster City, CA when I worked there. Nothing has been close so far.

But this pumpkin/chocolate combo kept coming up. There are several recipes on Allrecipes and then I saw them here. The tipping point was that I wanted a new snack for the kids and I thought the chocolate would be just the thing to get them to try a homemade treat.

One word. YUMMY! (and yes, the caps lock is well deserved.)

The flavor and texture of the pumpkin muffin is excellent, as close to the ones I remember as I’ve ever had. And a little semi-sweet burst of chocolate? Umm, ummm, good. I followed the recipe pretty closely but I did use four whole eggs. I don’t care for cloves that much so I put in a pinch of cardamom instead. Still a bit healthier than the original version. I made two pans of mini-muffins along with the regular size ones and let me warn you, they are far too easy to gobble up in one bite. The boys like them pretty well. The chocolate chips caught their eye like I thought and I simply neglected to mention the pumpkin part, lest the big boy think vegetables were involved. (Actually, I think pumpkin is technically a fruit.)