Two-ingredient Muffins with optional chocolate chips

Pumpkin Muffins         

It seems that everyone I’ve talked to is eager for autumn temperatures.  After such a sweltering summer, it’s no wonder that we all want cooler days and nights. 

To celebrate the arrival of fall, I decided to bake pumpkin muffins for breakfast.  One of my friends made these and gave me her recipe: "Two ingredients: cake mix and pumpkin.  Add chocolate chips if you like."  What?!  Only two ingredients, plus optional chocolate chips?  “Skeptical Me” had to see this for myself.  I bought a cake mix and the pumpkin puree and found a bag of chocolate chips in the pantry.  So far, so good.  I 'GOOGLED' this recipe to make sure I wasn't dreaming and found several.  One of the comments on one recipe site said that the mixture was too stiff and lumpy and didn’t yield the dozen as noted.  I decided to keep a little milk close at hand just in case.  However, after mixing the cake mix and puree together, the mixture was quite moist.  I put in half a bag of chocolate chips (about 1 cup). I filled each muffin liner 2/3 full and found that I had batter left over. 

Only two ingredients!!

 

I added a few spices, just in case, because my cake mix was plain white.

The batter, sans chocolate chips

With chocolate chips, about 1 cup--minus the few that I snacked on

The batter was a little stiff, but I pushed it down slightly into the liners.

My husband asked for brown sugar on top, so I obliged.

 

This is how many was left from the original dozen. 

When hubby came in for breakfast, he seemed quite pleased to find something new to have with his morning coffee.   He watched as I mixed the batter--and could hardly believe that I only added a can of pumpkin.  Of course he agreed that a few spices might be good.  He also wanted a little brown sugar on top. 

Once the muffins came out of the oven, he took a gallon-sized zipper bag and filled it with muffins for his co-workers.  That left me with one. But wait! I have more batter.  I was able to get three more muffins for a total of 15!  Friends who have made these before sometimes bake them as mini-muffins.  Either way is wonderful.

Three for me!

Good morning, Autumn.  Nice to see you at last.  Have a pumpkin muffin, won’t you?

Recipe:

1  box cake mix (I used a white mix, but yellow, butter, or spice can be used)

1  15-ounce can pumpkin puree (not pie filling)

Chocolate chips, optional (about 1 cup; I used semi-sweet)

Mix cake mix and pumpkin together until mixture is no longer dry.  Add chocolate chips, if desired.

Spoon mixture into muffin liners and bake as you would for cupcakes or muffins following directions on package.  (I baked mine at 350 for 10 minutes and then at 400 for another 10 minutes.)

Note: I added about ¼ teaspoon each of allspice, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, and nutmeg because I wanted a little bit of zing.  The spice was barely noticeable, but gave just the right amount of something extra. Hubby wanted brown sugar on top of his. We never seem to leave well enough alone.  The left over muffins made a nice cupcake type dessert with after-dinner coffee.

I added this to StoneGable's tutorials and tidbits at http://www.stonegableblog.com/

What a wonderful site!

 

Hugs to all,

Linda