Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Muffins

(recipe, Caroline Cummins)

Introduction

My children attend a preschool where one of the teachers is a baking fiend. She makes this pumpkin-bread recipe as muffins (for the faster cooking time) and adds chocolate chips (a reliable preschool crowd-pleaser). Warm from the oven, moist and spicy with little oozy spots from the melting chips, these are always a hit.

Ingredients

3½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1½ tsp. salt
3 tsp. pumpkin-pie spice (see Note, below)
1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin purée
4 eggs
1½ cups white sugar
1½ cups brown sugar
½ cup neutral vegetable oil, such as grapeseed or canola
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted
1 bag (10 ounces) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

Steps

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 7-by-3-inch loaf pans, or two 12-muffin trays.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, eggs, sugars, oil, and melted butter. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet until just blended. Add the chocolate chips.
Divide the batter between the prepared pans. (You may have some batter left over, about 4 muffins or 1 small loaf pan's worth.) Bake for 50 minutes (for loaves) or about 25 to 30 minutes (for muffins), rotating the pans halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a loaf or a muffin comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes before inverting the loaves or muffins onto racks to finish cooling.

Note

You can make your own pumpkin-pie spice blend; try the version used in Grand Central Bakery Pumpkin Bread. Combine ¼ cup cinnamon, 2 tablespoons ground ginger, 1 tablespoon ground nutmeg, 1 tablespoon ground cloves, and 1 tablespoon ground allspice in a small bowl and stir with a fork until well combined. Store in a cool, dry place for up to 3 months.