Marble Pumpkin Muffins

These Marble Pumpkin Muffins are perfect treat on Thanksgiving morning. They combine the best of two worlds: chocolate and pumpkin!

When I was a little girl, I was in love with pumpkin pie. Even now, as an adult, I’m still in love pumpkin pie. I don’t care if it’s a fancy pumpkin pie, or a store bought pumpkin pie, I just love pumpkin pie. Without a doubt, it’s always the first thing that I am waiting for after the turkey has been cleared from the table.

Growing up, Thanksgiving was my Gram’s territory, and each and every year she made the entire dinner from scratch in her tiny little kitchen. From the moment you walked in the door, you were greeted with the smell of turkey and sweet potatoes cooking away in the oven, and a big hearty hug from both my Gram and my Pop.

The best thing about Thanksgiving – aside from the pumpkin pie – was that year after year the day’s events always unfolded the same way. My mom would busy herself in the kitchen with Gram. My Dad and Uncle would get all rowdy watching the football game with our cousins and Pop. My sister and I would fight over who could help my Gram the most and my brother would run around starting all sorts of trouble.

The familiarity of the day’s events was always comforting. There were rarely any surprises to be had – and it was never a stuffy occassion. It was simply a day of togetherness for our family – with some really good, homecooked food thrown in.

As we got older and started creating families of our own, Thanksgiving evolved a bit, but for the most part, it’s remained the same. And although our Grandparents are no longer with us now, Thanksgiving is one of those times that I think of my memories with them. Their love, and their open arms, are always with me on this day of giving thanks.

So this year, when our family realized that we might not get to be together due to conflicting schedules, we decided to throw tradition to the wind. Instead of getting hung up on everyone sitting down to “dinner”, we decided to host a Thanksgiving Brunch instead. This way, we could all sit down together for a meal and then go our seperate ways.

To help plan for this new tradition, I decided to find a few pumpkin-inspired recipes on Pinterest. One of the first recipes I stumbled across was this recipe by Serious Eats for Marble Pumpkin Chocolate Bread. It sounded right up my alley and I was exited to see if I could turn this recipe into some truly yummy muffins.

As a pumpkin-pie lover, I wanted to make sure that they would keep my pumpkin-loving tastebuds happy and I have to say, I am really pleased with the results. I have no doubt that these muffins will rapidly disappear off of the table!

MARBLE PUMPKIN MUFFINS

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup (12 1/4 ounce) granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup canola oil
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) Libby’s canned pumpkin
• 1/4 plus 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups (10 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 plus a scant 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground clove
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease muffin pan.

Step 2: Whisk sugar, oil, pumpkin, eggs, pumpkin, and salt in a large bowl until combined. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove to the batter, and then whisk until completely combined.

Step 3: Spoon batter into muffin pan fill halfway. Spoon 1 cup batter into measuring cup and reserve.

Step 4: Whisk cocoa and milk into remaining batter and spoon into pan. Using a butter knife or small offset spatula, swirl the batter a few times, lifting pumpkin batter from the bottom. Then spoon reserved pumpkin batter over the top and swirl a few times more (see note).

Step 5: Bake until top is just set and skewer inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs, 25-30 minutes. Let cool in pan, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Thanks for reading,

Daniele

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