Whole Wheat Acorn Squash Muffins

Sunday afternoon, while walking through the produce section of the grocery store, I was overcome with the urge to bring home a winter squash.  It may not feel like fall outside here, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to pretend and eat fall foods! I picked out a nice Golden Acorn Squash, and took it home with me.

I was going to be spending the afternoon in the kitchen making potato soup, so I figured I'd look up a recipe to make use of my squash.  I really want to try out this one, but I knew I didn't have the time for a yeast bread.  Eventually I came across this recipe for Acorn Squash Muffins.   I wanted to use whole wheat flour instead of white because, well, that's just the kind of girl I am.  I also was a bit disappointed by the lack of fall-ish seasoning in it, so I added a bit of that to the mix.  Then, as I combined the ingredients I discovered that it was FAR too dry.  I couldn't even get all the flour to work into the mixture.  I had something of a looming disaster on my hands.  I recalled seeing a comment on a squash bread recipe elsewhere about someone adding Chai concentrate to their bread, and I thought, "Hey, why not?  It's a mess anyway!"  Well, my friends, they turned out pretty good!  I took them with me to my Bible study group that night, and have been told that they were pretty tasty.   So, I'm going to write down my version of the recipe for you in case you ever care to try them.

2 1/2 cups sifted whole wheat four
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
2 eggs, beaten slightly
1 cup mashed acorn squash
1 Tbsp. margarine
1 cup sugar

1/2 cup liquid chai concentrate (Or somewhere around that.  I just added it in at the end until the batter was wet enough to incorporate the flour.)

 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease or line muffin pans. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice in large mixing bowl and mix. Add eggs, mashed squash, butter, sugar, and chai and beat until mixed - the batter should not be smooth. Fill muffin cups almost to the top by spooning in batter. Bake for about 15 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven and serve warm.

Sorry I didn't get any pictures this time.  I never thought they would turn out, so it didn't really occur to me to take pictures until it was too late.  My mom wants me to make them for her, so I'll try to take some pictures then and add them to the post.