Weekend Recipe - Ginger Pecan Pumpkin Muffins

When gathering recipes for the recent Advent Calendar, I discovered this one.  I ran out of room in the calendar to use it, but i just thought it was still worth sharing, especially if you have that extra can of pumpkin lurking in your pantry.

Ginger Pecan Pumpkin Muffins (Makes 12 muffins)

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (make it gluten free with 1 cup rice flour and 1 cup oat flour)

1 cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1 cup pumpkin puree (be sure to get the unspiced, unsweetened plain puree)

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt

2/3 cup chopped pecans

1/3 cup chopped crystallized ginger

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder and soda, sea salt and spices. Set aside.

In a separate, large mixing bowl, mix the pumpkin puree with the beaten eggs, olive oil and yogurt. Whisk thoroughly. Slowly fold the dry ingredients into the wet, stirring until just combined.

In another bowl, combine the chopped pecans with the crystallized ginger. Reserve 1/4 cup for topping muffins. Fold remaining mix into muffin batter.

Grease 12 muffin tins. Divide the batter equally. Top each muffin with a few pieces of the remaining crystallized ginger and pecans.

Bake at 350 degrees until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.