Recipe Review - Pumpkin Streusel Muffins

One of the few catalogs I love to see in our mail box has got to be the spice catalog from Penzey's Spices. We received a gift box from them as a wedding gift, and I have become an addict ever since. One of the things that I love about the catalog is the recipes they include. The recipes are from fellow Penzey fans and illustrate how to use their spices in the dishes. This last issue was all devoted to Fall and Thanksgiving. I am a fall fiend, and I love all the flavors of fall. Pumpkin is decidedly one of my favorites, so when I spied their recipe for Pumpkin Streusel Muffins from Kathy Ness, I had to make them. They looked too good to pass up. The recipe is quite easy to make. The hardest part is remembering to take out the butter to soften! The big advantage to this recipe for me this particular week is that it does not need paper cups! I somehow ran out of them, so this was a perfect morning muffin for both flavor and no need for anything other than ingredients. In fact, after eating them this morning, I would say that the paper cups would take away from the wonderful texture of the crust on the bottom half of the muffin. It is very similar to making a pumpkin pie as it needs both pumpkin as well as evaporated milk, and this is where I have the smallest of dislikes for the recipe.


The recipe calls for only a 1/4 cup of evaporated milk. This is such a small amount that it makes me wonder what to do with the rest of the can of milk. I am planning on making a mini pumpkin pie with the left overs of the pumpkin and the milk, but there will still be too much milk, plus it would be great to be able to make this with out opening up a can of milk if I wanted to as I can freeze the pumpkin for later or use it in a pumpkin spice coffee. So to the internet I turned, and I found out that you can in fact substitute out evaporated milk for powdered milk and water. I will test the recipe some day soon and let you know how it all turns out  in a Follow Up Friday. For now though, I highly recommend these super tasty muffins! If you try making them with the substitution, I would love to hear what your results were. Until then, happy baking, and I hope you are enjoying fall.