Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

The lentil/potato soup begged for a sweet and spiced carby item to go with it. So I sated the soup with these:

Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

Makes 1 dozen regular size muffins or 30 mini muffins.
Active time: 9 minutes if you are in a rush, 15 minutes if you aren’t on hyperdrive.

INGREDIENTS:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour or 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour (or the white/wheat blend)
1 teaspoon baking powder (slightly less if at a high altitude like me)
*optional* 1 tsp dough enhancer 
1 15 ounce can solid-pack pumpkin (yes, dump in the whole can)
1/3 cup canola oil
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pumpkin-pie spice              

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

Topping (optional):
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tablespoon sugar

Equipment:
12 foil or paper muffin liners; a muffin pan with 12 (1/2-cup) muffin cups or a mini-muffin pan.

DIRECTIONS:

Put oven rack in middle position. Preheat oven to 350F. Put liners in muffin cups or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
1. Whisk together flour and baking powder in a small bowl.
2. Whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, pumpkin-pie spice, sugars and honey, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined.
3. Stir together cinnamon and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in another small bowl for optional topping.
4. Divide batter among muffin cups (each should be about 3/4 full), then sprinkle tops with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake until puffed and golden brown and a wooden pick or skewer inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes for regular muffins, 15-17 minutes for mini-muffins.

Cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes, and then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

This recipe is somewhat altered from it's founder, the orriginal recipe can be found HERE.
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I didn't have any pumpkin pie spice so I looked up recipes online and found this combo of spices: 

Pumpkin Pie Spice

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves

Preparation:

Combine all ingredients. If you make extra, store in an airtight container

  
Since I only had whole cloves I decided to make it even more authentic and grind up whole cinnamon in my grinder too. I really think this made a big difference in the final product.

Whole cloves

Cinnamon stick and about an inch of one ground in the coffee grinder

Pumpkin Pie Spice

Ok so for the rest of the recipe in pictures:

Whole wheat flour, baking powder, and dough enhancer

Pumpkin, oil, eggs, pumpkin-pie spice, sugars and honey, baking soda, and sea salt

Everything combined

After about 25 min in the oven at 350 degrees

 I had some leftover batter so I added some chocolate chips and made 2 little loaves for Brett.

About 30 min at 350 degrees

What I learned:

1. When recoiling from the heat wave from opeing the oven door, don't also reach your hands in further (ouch).
2. It always makes me feel good when Brett says something like, "that pumpkin bread is really good!," when I know that it's made with whole wheat flour and oil and less sugar...