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Pumpkin Pecan Streusel Crunch Muffins

Happy Day After Halloween! I hope that your coffee mug is filled to the brim as you recover and your little ghosts and goblins (or big ghosts and goblins) had a fun time trick or treating.

For us, it seems that Halloween was a 3 day event this weekend. I participated in our church’s 1st ever Trunk or Treat, and in true Aimee form, went a bit overboard….but clinched the 1st place prize! For those who don’t know, a Trunk or Treat provides a centralized, safe location for trick or treating, with decorated trunks in lieu of porches. Kids go from truck to truck gathering candy. It was a LOT of fun seeing people get excited about how fabulous you can make the trunk of your car. And it was especially nice for the kids still displaced from the summer floods to have a place to go.

Pumpkin Pecan Streusel Crunch Muffins

Now that Halloween is over, though it appears everyone is going straight to Christmas. I hate that. I’m a personal fan of Thanksgiving and refuse to let it just get pushed aside. While everyone else in blog land is ho-ho-ho’ing, I’ll still be rocking the pumpkin.

Pumpkin Pecan Streusel Crunch Muffins

Speaking of pumpkin, these Pumpkin Pecan Streusel Crunch Muffins are so good, y’all. Perfect for Thanksgiving morning nourishment while you bake your buns off in preparation for your family to arrive. Or, have them ready to go for the day after Thanksgiving as you head out the door for the Black Friday sales. They’re large enough to keep you full all morning. And? They are so, so good with coffee!

Pumpkin Pecan Streusel Crunch Muffins
Recipe Type: Breakfast
Author: Aimee
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • For the Muffins:
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (see recipe for homemade)
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • For the Streusel:
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • 4 tablespoons butter- melted
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a gumbo muffin pan with 6 liners (or 12 regular muffins). In a medium size bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and pecans. In a larger bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, milk, melted butter, eggs and vanilla. Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture and mix just until combined and the flour disappears. Divide the batter into the muffin liners.
  2. For the topping:
  3. Combine the dry ingredients then add in the melted butter. Stir with a fork until crumbly.
  4. Add a heaping amount of topping to the muffins. Bake for 25 minutes for the jumbo muffins and about 18-20 minutes for the regular size.

I made them in my jumbo muffin tin, but if you need more than 6, feel free to bake them in a regular muffin tin. The magic is in the streusel crunch. It’s very similar to the crunch topping I use for my sweet potato casserole. The highlight of my Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin Pecan Streusel Crunch Muffins

 See? I can’t stop thinking about Thanksgiving food long enough to concentrate on Christmas right now.

One more thing about pumpkins before we go. As you are picking up and putting away your Halloween decor, did you know that you can donate your unwanted pumpkins to local farms? I did not, and I’m not even sure where you can do it locally but a friend posted a farm in NY was collecting unwanted pumpkins to feed to the abused and abandoned animals at a rescue farm.

And I did find  THIS helpful article on how to recycle Halloween pumpkins for wildlife.

Spread the pumpkin love, y’all!