And I made loaves instead of muffins.
I don't know what it is, but for some reason I'm not crazy about muffins, although I may like the same concoction in loaf form. I have no explanation for this peculiarity.
But anyway. This week's recipe was chosen by Kelly of Sounding My Barbaric Gulp!, and you can find the recipe on her site or in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours on page 13.
Now, though I don't like muffins all that much, I do make an exception for pumpkin muffins. I love pumkin. Pumpkin pie. Pumpkin muffins. Pumpkin cheesecake. A good pumpkin ale. You get the pumpkin - err, the point.
So I was looking forward to trying out Dorie's version today.
The only problem? I didn't have any pumpkin in the house. I have two on my front steps, but they're purely Halloween decor and they kind of belong to my kids. So they're way off limits.
I did, however, have plenty of butternut squash. We grew a lot of them this year, so we've got a nice little supply down in the basement, just waiting to be peeled and roasted and made into soup or topped with a bit of butter and salt and pepper, or made into ravioli...or - hey, maybe into muffins!
I didn't think Dorie would mind.
We grew a mini version of the butternut, and I picked out two of the smallest ones to peel and roast.
I also decided that, instead of the sunflower seeds Dorie suggests (which I didn't have anyway), I'd use the squash seeds.
So I set those aside while I chopped up and baked the squash and assembled the rest of the ingredients.
After the squash was cooked through and had cooled a bit I ran it through the food processor and voila - faux pumkin puree.
No one would ever know the difference. Bwahahaha.
Ahem.
I also made a couple other little changes to Dorie's recipe, all due to what I had on hand and what I didn't. I used dark sugar instead of light. And I used (forgive me) a pumkin spice blend because I didn't have any nutmeg to use along with all the other individual spices. I know. It's no excuse. Oh, yes, and I was out of golden raisins so I used the black ones. And I used the pecans, not the walnuts. OH, yes, and I was out of vanilla. So I just left that out. And I thought I had two eggs, but it turned out one of them had cracked in the package. So I used one egg and a little vegetable oil to sub for the other egg. I know. I'm a rebel. I bake on the wild side.
Apart from my wild subbing, the rest of the procedure went without incident.
I combined and mixed and blended and added and scraped....
And I greased pans and divided batter and sprinkled pumpkin - oops, butternut - seeds on top.
And then I baked. Checked progress and rotated and baked a bit longer.
And then they were done.
They cooled. I removed them from their pans. They cooled some more.
And then, after dinner (which also included butternut squash, in case you were interested), it was time to slice and sample.
My opinion? Yum!!
But my opinion pales in comparison to Alex's.
He ate the first thick slice and came back for another one.
I asked if he liked it, and he nodded vehemently and rhapturously crooned "...with the pumpkin seeds...and the raisins...in the brrrrrrrreadddddd!!!!"
I'll assume that meant yes.
Julia and Bill haven't tried any yet. I can predict that Bill will like it and so will Julia but she'll only want a couple of bites. She's like that.
Now, as always, if you want to see who else did what else with this week's recipe, start working your way through the massive blog list on the Tuesdays with Dorie site. Should keep you busy for a few whiles, as my daughter would phrase it. Happy reading!
yum, your loaves look delicious! very cool that you were able to use your own butternut squash. glad it was such a hit! :)
Posted by: kim | October 22, 2008 at 12:07 AM
Hehe, those definitely sound like a winner. Seriously, I need to make these with the butternut I have in my kitchen. And I'm 100% with you on pumpkin. It's one of the most amazing things ever.
Posted by: Caitlin | October 22, 2008 at 01:05 AM
Your boy is just adorable.
I like your substitutions.
Posted by: chocolatechic | October 22, 2008 at 07:23 AM
the substitution sounds great! butternut squash all the way!
Posted by: Sihan | October 22, 2008 at 08:14 AM
awwww.....that little boy chest and ribs, those pics make me swoon remembering my own little boy chest and ribs, back when he was that age. now he's a grown-ass man. so very weird. but your transformation of the pumpkin muffins into the butternut bread is amazing!
Posted by: Lori | October 22, 2008 at 08:39 AM
I thought about using another squash for this recipe. Your version is wonderful and creatively driven.
Posted by: rainbowbrown | October 22, 2008 at 09:46 AM
amazing loaves and cute son! great photos of the butternut squash. it is the perfect orange color!
Posted by: food librarian | October 22, 2008 at 12:44 PM
ohhh! Good sub! I may have to give this a try soon!
Posted by: Heather B | October 22, 2008 at 09:44 PM
Little boys are so cute because they just are boys and make faces and don't stop moving and love to burp, snips and snails kind of stuff. I really miss my kids being little. You are a rebel, I just kept cracking up at change after change after change. I just bought the book for $9.00 at Ross so I plan to join this week.
Posted by: Amber | October 22, 2008 at 10:37 PM
I never would have guessed that you used butternut squash if you hadn't said so. Great idea. And I like the mini loaf shape. That's one thing that I still have on my equipment wishlist--I only have full size loaf pans.
Posted by: Di | October 23, 2008 at 09:43 AM
Love all your changes, glad they worked out!
Posted by: Barbara | October 24, 2008 at 01:38 AM
Lovely loaves! I like that you used butternut instead of pumpkin, I am curious how that might taste. And the seeds to boot. Great job!!!
Posted by: Gretchen Noelle | October 24, 2008 at 12:04 PM