Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins

This week's recipe is founded upon the weatherman's promise of cooler air towards next weekend. Florida has been under an unprecedented weather pattern whereby a high pressure ride of hot air is keeping away cold fronts and leading to day after day of record breaking high temperatures. I've been waiting months to begin the Fall baking season and can't wait any longer. I started this baking journey with my signature pumpkin muffins, so it is fitting that nearly a year later I'm also making pumpkin muffins to kick off Fall. This recipe is a bit different in that it should be lighter and I've added chocolate chips to appease the sweet teeth at the office. The instructions say to add up to 1 cup of extra flour if your batter is runny but I didn't add any and think that 3 cups may even be too much batter. In any event, here is the recipe. It can also be used for bread, but I think the consistency is better suited for muffins.

Ingredients

• 1 15 oz. can pureed pumpkin
• 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 3 eggs
• 3-4 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 cups mini chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Combine the pumpkin, brown sugar, butter, and eggs and mix until creamy. In a separate bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients except the nuts or chocolate chips.
3. Mix 3 cups of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then add as much of the 4th cup as necessary to achieve the proper consistency (moist, but thick enough to stand a spoon in).
4. Add the nuts or chocolate chips and stir in.
5. Pour or spoon the batter into greased muffin tins or bread pans. Bake on the center rack until a toothpick poked into the center comes out dry.
6. Muffins should take between 20 and 25 minutes to bake, small loaves between 25 and 30 minutes, and full sized loaves between 50 minutes and 1 hour.