Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins

All fall and winter I am constantly incorporating pumpkin flavors into my dishes - I love it and it gives such a strong flavor to the recipes you use it in. With baking, it also adds a great moistness - and so it's an obvious addition to something like muffins or cakes or breads. My usual problem is that I open up a can of pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling!) and only use some of it - and then have to find another recipe to use the rest in before it goes bad. This was what happened here - we were having a staff breakfast for the holidays at work and I knew I wanted to make muffins - and thankfully, I had about a 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree in my fridge that needed to be used - and viola! Pumpkin mini muffins!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins
2 cups whole wheat white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
dash of ginger
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 TB butter, melted
3/4 cup whole milk
1/2 cup plus 1 TB pumpkin puree
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/4 tsp vanilla balsamic vinegar
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp honey
1 TB oil
1 cup chocolate chips

I am well aware that there are 18 ingredients in these muffins - and I swear it's completely unnecessary! The recipes I was checking out had a variety of different things and I realized I didn't have some of them - apple cider vinegar for example and vanilla extract! So I substituted a little regular white wine vinegar and vanilla balsamic vinegar, but also wanted to make sure I had sweet flavors - so that's where the almond extract and honey came from. They came out great - but I think if you omitted the balsamic and almond and instead used 1/2 tsp vanilla they would probably be very much the same.

Just like any muffin recipe, you mix all of the wet ingredients together and then mix all of the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.

Mix the wet into the dry just until moistened, but be careful not to over mix so that the muffins don't become dense and heavy. The last step is to add the chocolate chips, so again, don't mix too much! I usually lightly spray my muffin pans with a little pam, but if you're choosing to use muffin pan liners that works too. Feel free to fill the cups almost completely, especially with the mini muffins because they are pretty mini so the more they're filled, the more they'll puff up and seem less mini!

For making mini muffins (perfect for sharing!) - bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. The usual toothpick test applies here too - make sure there's no batter on the toothpick and they're done! Also be careful because mini muffins are much easier to burn quickly.