Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

You may remember my rant about loving Fall and all things pumpkin in this Fall Fever post. Tonight I shall share with you my recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.  There are SO many recipes out there for these, and many people claim that theirs is the best.  I haven't tasted enough to know if my recipe is the best but I know that 24 muffins in our little house of 3 (keep in mind Leeland is only 17 months old) only lasts about 2 days.  Plus, from being married to Daniel for so long, a pickier eater and one who orders the same thing off the menu every time we go to a restaurant, I have learned, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."  Seriously though, one of the things that I love about this particular recipe is it's simplicity.  I can whip them up in no time and they don't require a ton of ingredients that will break the bank. (This recipe makes 24 muffins) So here it goes:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

3 1/3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 tsp pumpkin spice*
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 can pumpkin**
1 cup butter
2 cups chocolate chips***

Super easy recipe-- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  First mix all of your dry ingredients in one bowl, and then in a separate bowl you mix all of your wet ingredients.

*Note about pumpkin spice-- spices are expensive, and times are tight.  A perfectly good substitute that I have used for the pumpkin spice that turns out fabulous is a dash of ginger, a couple dashes of nutmeg, and a few dashes of cinnamon. (That's more like a ratio, just make sure all those dashes add up to 1 teaspoon.)

**Note about the pumpkin-- make sure you are using pure 100% pumpkin. You don't want to use pumpkin pie filling, that is different and has sugar and stuff already added to it.

Once both are mixed, mix them together and add your chocolate chips. You shouldn't even need to bust out the electric mixer.

And your gonna want to mix the chocolate chips in.... :0)

***And a note about the chocolate chips-- the recipe calls for 1 cup. Honestly I use the whole 11 ounce bag of chocolate chips.  There is no shame in a little extra chocolate!  We use milk chocolate chips, I'm sure that others may work just as well. To each his own and to each his own taste.

After that, you just add the mixture to your greased muffin tins (or you could use cute little wrappers).  And you bake them for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Or if your cheap like me, and don't buy toothpicks, bake them until a chop stick comes out clean. Yes that is how I test all of my baked goods are done.

Toothpick? Chop stick? Same thing right!

Happy baking everyone! Enjoy your tasty pumpkin treats!!