Pumpkin Cranberry Muffins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray.

Note: Prep the cranberries and the pecans before mixing other ingredients.

For the streusel topping:
In a medium size bowl, mix together the sugars, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cut in the softened butter until mixture is crumbly. Set aside.

For the muffins:
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs with a whisk or fork. Add the sugar, pumpkin, applesauce, oil, and vanilla. Mix well.

Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir lightly just until the ingredients are combined. Over-mixing causes gluten to form from the flour and will make a tough, chewy muffin.

Gently fold in the chopped cranberries and pecans.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups. This batter will make 12 beautiful muffins. The muffin cups will be full. Do not smooth out the tops – a peaked muffin looks great.

Sprinkle the streusel topping over the top of each muffin. (The streusel recipe actually makes enough for 24 muffins – so you’ll have extra).

Bake on the middle rack in a 375-degree F oven for 20-25 minutes. These muffins take about 23 minutes in my oven. Your oven may cook differently, so test the muffins for doneness with a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins. The toothpick should be clean – no raw batter clinging to it – when it’s done.

Let the pan of muffins cool for 5 minutes, then carefully remove the muffins and place them on a rack to cool.

Eat a warm muffin with a little butter on it before anyone else in the house gets their grubby paws on them. It’s called Cook’s Rights and you shouldn’t feel guilty about getting first dibs anything you bake.