Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Mini Muffins

My Thanksgiving cooking this year was remarkably simple. I made a couple of breakfast casseroles for brunch at my one set of grandparents, and carted along seven loaves of Amish bread that I had hanging out in the freezer. Then for the other grandparents all I made were sweet potatoes and some mini butterscotch pumpkin muffins from this recipe. The original recipe wasn't bad, but I thought that the spices and butterscotch completely overpowered the pumpkin flavor, which is not what I was looking for. Plus the butterscotch chips stuck to the muffin tins, leaving little empty holes all over the muffins when I pulled them out, so I definitely did not take pictures of them!

Today I made another batch of them, halving the spices and using mini chocolate chips instead of butterscotch chips, and they are awesome! They are moist, evenly spiced, and they have a rich delicious pumpkin flavor interspersed with little bits of chocolate. I highly recommend using the mini chips, it spreads the chocolate flavor out more evenly, and it makes for much less mess--this batch came out of the pans beautifully.

The muffins are ridiculously easy to make. It took me maybe five minutes to mix them up, another five minutes to spoon them into the muffin tins, and then just ten minutes to bake. They're a beautiful orange color before they bake, and they come out orangey-brown and fragrant. I think they'd be perfect for anything from brunch to a late night snack with a glass of milk, especially this time of year. There's just something particularly satisfying about pumpkin and cinnamon and ginger flavors during the holidays....I can't wait to start baking! Stay tuned for TONS of cookie recipes!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Mini Muffins

adapted from allrecipes.com

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup canned pumpkin
4 oz mini chocolate chips (about 2/3 cup)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease mini-muffin pan with cooking spray. I got about 40 muffins the first time, the second time I filled them a little bit more full and got 36, so make sure you have enough space for 36, or plan to make these in two batches.

In a large bowl, sift together the first nine ingredients, set aside. Whisk together the eggs, butter, and pumpkin in a separate bowl. Stir the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into the mini muffin cups, just slightly less than a tablespoonful into each cup.

Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 10 to 12 minutes. If your pans don't all fit on one shelf of your oven make sure to rotate them halfway through. Let cool in pans for about ten minutes, then carefully remove muffins to wire racks to completely cool. Store in an airtight container.