Pumpkin "Scone" Muffins

id="recipetitle"class="fn">Pumpkin "Scone" Muffins

Right off the bat you're probably saying "what the f*&$ is a scone muffin?" Well you see, I invented it by mistake and now it's going to be the next "cronut".

This is what I see when Stephen asks me for muffins

It started out with Stephen begging for muffins (nothing new), so I started my usual quest of looking at recipes on Pinterest for inspiration. I knew I wanted to make pumpkin muffins, and all of the recipes I came across called for butter. I always put oil in my muffins, and there was a voice inside my head saying "don't use melted butter!!" but I wanted to live dangerously. I opted for the melted butter in spite of the risks.

My main concern was the order in which I would add my wet ingredients. I knew that I could not add the egg to the butter first as it would make scrambled eggs. An intelligent human being would put the sugar in next because that is the standard procedure for most baking recipes. Nope I thought, "I will cool the butter down by adding the milk next. Well cool the butter down I did into nice tapioca sized balls.

I had no idea how they would turn out. The batter was thick, and oddly sticky. Nonetheless I popped them in the oven. I wondered if they would turn out pastry like because of the butter chunks, and man did they ever. The result was flaky, pull-apart scone muffins!


INGREDIENTS

1 cup melted butter (cooled to room temperature)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 cup pumpkin
3 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg


DIRECTIONS

1) Preheat oven to 325F. Line two 12-cup muffin pans with liners. There exists a muffin pan with 24-cups. I need this for Christmas.

2) Begin by melting the butter in the microwave on 30 second intervals until completely melted. Allow butter to cool to room temperature. Here you have two options:

- Whisk in the cold milk next for "scone" muffins. I'm literally laughing out loud at how unorthodox this is, and that I'm actually suggesting it.
- Whisk in the sugar next for "normal" muffins.

If you added the milk first, add the sugar next. Then add the egg, and the milk if you haven't already done so.

3) Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a separate bowl. Add in the wet ingredients and the pumpkin. Stir just until combined. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a test muffin comes out clean.