Using My Leftover Pumpkin

I decided to make these simple muffins to use up some leftover pumpkin I had from the previous recipe. These are quite tasty, unadorned muffins with just the right amount of spice.

I used the recipe from the Muffin Top blog, but didn't pay close attention while making it, and mixed all the sugar and spice in instead of saving some for the top. I didn't use pumpkin pie spice - I just used ground cloves and a little less cinnamon than called for (I pinched some out of the mixing bowl once I realized that I added ALL the spice at once)

I also overfilled the pan (I consider a muffin top a GOOD thing in baked goods ;) ) and ended up with 7 generously sized muffins.

This recipe is going in the permanent collection - it's very easy to whip up, and would take well to additions - cranberries, raisins, cinnamon chips, etc. Next time I'll definitely follow the instructions and put the cinnamon sugar mixture on top - the Muffin Top blogger's photos look delish!

Pumpkin White Chocolate Macadamia Bars

Today was an absolutely GORGEOUS day in Washington, DC, and it put me in the mood to bake something fall-ish. I found this recipe on the Nestle website, and decided it would nicely take care of my pumpkin craving.

These pumpkin bars are very tasty, but if I make them again they're going in a 13x9 pan. I used my jelly roll pan, but as you can see from the picture, the bars are super thin. These aren't good bars for a bake sale, or for mailing. They're fragile, and would be great served as a warm dessert with vanilla ice cream.

Hopefully I'll have another pumpkin recipe up tomorrow, as I have a lot of pumpkin left over from this. The grocery store was sold out of the regular sized cans of pumpkin, so I bought a huge one knowing I'd use it.

Have a great Monday everyone!