I’ve been on the lookout for a pumpkin quick bread recipe for a couple of years. I like quick breads to have some textural contrast with add-ins, but I couldn’t think of anything that seemed to fit with the flavors of the pumpkin. Of course Dorie could, as Kelly’s choice for this week’s TWD recipe made evident.
Dorie adds raisins and walnuts (or pecans) to her pumpkin muffins. Like I almost always do, I replaced the raisins with something else; in this case, dried cranberries. I wasn’t sure if the flavors would get along – they’re both common fall ingredients, but I don’t often see them together. I topped the muffins with pumpkin seeds instead of sunflower seeds. I’m not sure why Dorie calls for sunflower seeds; pumpkin seeds seem so perfect for these muffins.
The muffins were good. The walnuts and dried cranberries were fine as additions. However, shortly after I made them, one of my friends told me about a pumpkin muffin recipe she makes that has a lot of ginger in it, and then it occurred to me that the perfect add-in for pumpkin muffins is crystallized ginger. Now I’m looking forward to trying this combination.
Dorie’s recipe is posted on Kelly’s blog.
These look beautiful! I bet crystallized ginger would be a great addition. The pumpkin seeds look so pretty on top.
Yum! cranberries sound delicious in these!
Wow, those colors are fantastic.
What wonderful photos of your yummy muffins! Cranberries sound fantastic. And I’m going to try ginger on my next batch.
I agree – ginger would be wonderful. But those look pretty amazing too.
I’ve been reading your blog for a while now (I love it, by the way!) and haven’t commented until now. I just wanted to say that my favorite combination for add-ins to anything pumpkin is dried cranberries and chocolate chunks. I make a pumpkin spice cake/loaf/muffin recipe and almost always put either one or the other or both into it.
crytallised ginger would indeed bump it up a notch. Good thinking!
Yours came out beautiful, what great color! I was really happy with mine and will definitely make this recipe again 🙂
Other TWDers did try crystallized ginger and they seemed to like it! I also didn’t understand why in the world Dorie called for sunflower instead of pumpkin seeds, so strange. I love that top photo especially!
MMmmm…I hope you share the ginger pumpkin recipe! Yum!
oooh crystallized ginger would be amazing in these- great idea!! I also wondered why Dorie didn’t call for pumpkin seeds instead of sunflower seeds (the sunflower seeds were good though!)
Yours look just delicious. I think ginger was a great addition.