Last 2006 weekend in France

Today Maddie and I made some low fat pumpkin muffins to use up some of the pumpkin puree leftover from the pie. This is a great recipe for kids. It only requires simple hand mixing and has lots of mixing steps that keep a 4.5 year old happy. The adult is in charge of measuring and spooning into the cups (and of course, the baking). This recipe is supposed to make 6 muffins, but I ended up with 7, putting the extra bits in a mini tart pan (that took the same amount of time to bake).


Pumpkin Raisin Muffins
These muffins rise over the top of the pan, so be sure to grease the surface of the pan. They are very moist and low fat! You can sprinkle the tops with pumpkin seeds or slivered almonds as well.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup light olive oil or canola oil
1/3 cup brown sugar (lightly scooped)
1 egg
1/3 cup yogurt (plain, vanilla, non-fat or full fat all OK)
1 cup fresh pumpkin puree
1 cup raisins, plumped

1. Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C). Grease a 6-cup muffin tin with butter or oil spray.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt.
3. In another bowl, whisk together oil, sugar and egg. Mix in yogurt. Stir in pumpkin until mixture is smooth. Fold in raisins.
4. Incorporate wet ingredients into bowl of dry ingredients, and mix just until blended.
5. Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling them to the top. Bake about 25 minutes, until muffins are lightly colored and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Cool 5 minutes in pan, then unmold from pan and allow to cool completely. If you didn't use muffin liners, then you may need to wait for the muffins to cool completely before being able to remove them easily.

While we were waiting for the muffins to cook, we played a simple game with markers, paper and a divider. We took turns saying an item to draw and a location on the paper to draw it (on the left, in the upper right corner, to the left of the flower, etc). The divider kept us from looking at each other's work. We also had to share markers and each time one of us wanted a color the other had, we would have to give a marker in return. After a few items we would remove the divider and look at each other's work. There was enough time to play three rounds of this and Maddie really seemed to enjoy the game.

After dinner, bath and stories, I had some time to use the rest of the pumpkin puree leftovers. This time I made a loaf of bread and the recipe follows...

Pumpkin Raisin Bread
This recipe has a much lower sugar content and much less oil than a typical pumpkin bread recipe. It also uses whole wheat flour for some extra nutrition. If you don't have any, you can just use all white.

1 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 t soda
1 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
1/4 t ginger
1 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
2/3 cup brown sugar, lightly scooped
1/2 cup milk + 1/2 t lemon juice
1 egg
2 T butter, softened
1/2 cup raisins

Mix dry ingredients (up to ginger) in a large bowl. Mix remaining (wet) ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix wet into dry, stirring just until flour is moistened. Pour into 8x4 greased bread pan. Bake at 350 F/175 C for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until done.