Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Around Thanksgiving time, I get the urge to make something pumpkin so I end up buying a couple big cans of pumpkin.  Well, mine were still sitting in the pantry and I wanted some pumpkin pancakes.  So, I opened up that lovely can and made some pancakes.  Not the best pumpkin pancake recipe ever, so I won't post that, but I wanted to know what to do with the leftover pumpkin.  So, I found this great recipe on My Kitchen Cafe.  I had plenty of pumpkin leftover, so I doubled the batch.  I froze half of the cooked muffins and then pulled them out for our trip to Utah for a family reunion.  They froze and thawed great!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
from Mel B.

1 2/3 c. flour
1 c. sugar (As always, I reduced the sugar to a little less than 3/4 C)
1 T. pumpkin pie spice**
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 c. canned pumpkin puree
1/2 c. butter, softened (I used half butter, and half applesauce to try to decrease some of the fat!)
1 c. chocolate chips

Mix ingredients well and then add chocolate chips. Pour into greased muffin tin (or use muffin liners). Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Don’t overbake or they will be dry!

**My tip: if you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, use the following combination: 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ginger, 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon cloves. Mix together and woila! – you have the equivalent of 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (and it is much cheaper than buying it premade). So for this recipe, you would need to triple the above amounts to equal one tablespoon pumpkin pie spice.