it's the most wonderful time of the year.

Ally, here.

That's right folks. The most wonderful time of the year is upon us. It's pumpkin season. And all of the greatest holidays seem to fall into pumpkin season. Halloween (beloved only for the freedom to increase my chocolate consumption), Thanksgiving (hello, buffet of delight!), and Christmas (and Christmas cookies, and Christmas pies, and Christmas brownies, and Christmas coffee cake...). Like I said, it's the most wonderful time of the year.

I've been craving pumpkin ever since Starbucks brought back the pumpkin spice latte (speaking of which, if anyone knows where I can buy my own pumpkin spice syrup, I will bake you anything you want). So now I've stocked my shelves with pumpkin and I'm ready to dive into fall/winter baking. (I am willing to completely ignore the fact that it is currently 86 degrees in Kentucky.)

So this brings us to today's culinary delight. Pumpkin-cranberry muffins. I've adapted this recipe from a Betty Crocker Fall Baking book that my mom sent me in a fall gift package at some point in my college career. Thanks, Mom!

Here's what you'll need:

-2 cups whole wheat flour
-3/4 cup sugar
-3 teaspoons baking powder
-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
-1/4 teaspoon salt
-1 cup canned pumpkin
-1/2 cup canola oil
-2 eggs
-1 cup craisins
-1/2 cup chopped pecans
-sugar in the raw, for sprinkling

Here's what to do:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare 12 muffin cups with cooking spray or muffins cups.

2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and salt in a bowl. Stir in pumpkin, canola oil, eggs, craisins, and pecans until well-moistened. Divide batter among muffin cups.

3. Sprinkle with sugar in the raw.

4. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Enjoy a delightful taste of fall! You're going to love it!

and the apple strikes again.

Ally, here.

I returned to the apples this week after my mother-in-law sent me a link to Southern Living's favorite apple recipes. After drooling over all of them, I decided on the caramel-apple muffins. And what a great decision that was!

We've been suffering from a bit of a drought here in Lexington, but the heavens finally opened at the beginning of this week and the rains came down. So the husband and I awoke on Monday morning to the beautiful sound of rain falling on the trees and a wonderful temperature far below 90 degrees. A cool, relaxing morning such as this deserved a warm, slow breakfast. So I got to baking.

And let me tell you, these muffins were good. And warm. And gooey. And I consider them a health food (an apple a day keeps the doctor away).

I adapted the recipe to meet my needs (and to keep the husband and myself from consuming 24 muffins in two days).

Here's what you'll need:

for the muffins:
-1 cup sugar
-1/2 cup canola oil
-2 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
-1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-shake of salt

-1 1/2 cups finely chopped apple (about 1 large apple)
-1 cup pecan pieces (you can add more or less pecans as your taste buds permit)

for the frosting:
-1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
-1/4 cup light brown sugar
-1/4 cup butter
-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Here's what to do:

the muffins:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan.

2. Peel and finely chop apple(s).

3. In a large bowl, stir sugar, canola oil, eggs, and vanilla.

4. In another bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Once combined, add this to sugar mixture and stir.

5. Fold in finely chopped apples and pecans.

6. Divide into muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes.


the frosting:
1. Put all frosting ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until the frosting reaches a pudding-like consistency.

2. Remove from heat.

3. Poke a hole (about the width of your finger) in the top and the muffin drizzle the frosting over muffins. The hole will catch more frosting and add some extra excitement to every bite! Sprinkle with pecan pieces.

I used a super cute mini-bundt cake pan to make my muffins extra fun. Feel free to do the same! You're going to love it!