In the kitchen with Renee

Maybe someday that will be a program on the Food Network! Well, as we waited this morning for our furnace to get repaired (and knowing that cooking with the oven would help warm our chilly house) we decided to make pumpkin muffins. I found a good recipe for pumpkin muffins on the Epicurious website. But we made a few changes of course. Renee even had a suggestion, she wanted to put marshmallows in the muffins! So after my initial concern about catching the oven on fire by burning marshmallows, I decided what the heck- it sounds good! Here's *our* version:

Pumpkin Muffins

2 Cups flour
2 Tbsp baking powder (yes tablespoons)
1 Tbsp baking soda
6? Tbsp ground cinnamon (for all spices I just shake a lot until I think it's enough)
2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt
1 stick of butter, melted and cooled
3/4 Cup packed light brown sugar
1/8 Cup honey
3/4 Cup pumpkin (I used the pumpkin from the farmer's market I had already cooked and run through the food processor- but you can use canned pumpkin)
1/2 cup (mostly milk with about 1 1/2 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar to make 1/2 cup- well stirred) *note that original recipe calls for "1 /4 Cup buttermilk", and buttermilk would probably be a little better, but I didn't have any on hand, and I wanted to make the batter more moist so I used 1/2 Cup.
2 large eggs
3 Tbsp vanilla extract (a large splash)
1/2 Cup? mini marshmallows

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper cups to make 12 regular size muffins.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt in large bowl.

3. In a separate bowl whisk together butter, brown sugar, honey, pumpkin, eggs and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Then add marshmallows.

4. Divide batter among 12 muffin cups (try to keep marshmallows below the surface). Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool on rack.

Notes: My observation was that the marshmallows near the surface did pop through, and brown, but nothing burned or caught on fire! However the marshmallows that melt over the edge onto the muffin tin will become very hard as they cool and be difficult to clean. There is no evidence of marshmallows inside the muffins.. they seem to melt away. The muffins taste great (if you like a lot of spices like I do!) Maybe the marshmallows help the muffin puff up as it bakes, because there are just a few small pockets of air inside the cooked muffins, and the muffins are not too dense. The muffins cups were very full prior to putting them in the oven, and they look and taste great after they are all done! Watch out because the hot marshmallows on the top can burn your fingers. Overall- a very easy, very yummy recipe!

Also cooking with marshmallows reminded Renee of a book we got from the library about a month ago called: The Adventures of Max and Pinky: Best Buds. Pinky is a little pig who *loves* marshmallows!