Pumpkin Oat Muffins

Tonight I decided to try a pumpkin muffin recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks Moosewood Restaurant Low-fat Favorites. I have made quite a few changes to the original recipe, not because I didn't like it or thought I could make it better, but because I just wanted to use the ingredients I have. So I will post the original recipe here with my substitutions/additions in pink. Makes 12 muffins.

1 1/4 cups unbleached white flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup rolled oats
1 whole egg
1 egg white
3/4 cup pumpkin, winter squash, or sweet potato puree (I used Libby's canned pure pumpkin)
3/4 cup evaporated skimmed milk (I used reduced fat cultured buttermilk)
1/2 cup unsweeted pineapple juice (I used unsweeted orange juice)
2 tablespoons canola or other vegetable oil
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
4 to 5 tablespoons apricot preserves (I used my own homemade apple butter)
1/4 cup currants (or you could use raisins, or nuts or whatever you like)
2 tablespoons demerara cane sugar or other coarse granulated sugar

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a standard muffin tin with paper liners, cooking spray, or a light coating of oil. Put currants to soak in a cup of warm water for about 10 minutes. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Whirl the oats in a blender or food processor until they reach the consistecy of cornmeal and add them to the flour mixture.
• In another bowl, lightly beat the whole egg with the egg white. Stir in the pumpkin puree, evaporated skim milk (or buttermilk), pineapple juice (or orange juice), oil, and brown sugar. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined. Drain the currants and stir into the batter.
• Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin and dot the center of each muffin with a scant teaspoon of apricot preserves (or apple butter). Sprinkle the top of each muffin with coarse sugar. Bake 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean and dry. Cool in muffin tin for about 5 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.

I am very pleased with how these muffins turned out. They are moist and only mildly sweet with a little pumpkin flavor and a touch of orange flavor. The apple butter really tops them off nicely. The original recipe did not suggest adding any dried fruit or nuts, but I had some currants to use up and I think they go well in these muffins. I would caution against using paper liners, I had trouble with the muffins sticking to the paper even after they were cool. Greasing the muffin cups and using no liners or maybe spraying the liners lightly with cooking spray should solve this problem. I would also like to try the recipe the way it is written sometime, I think the apricot preserves would be delicious. These muffins are 150 calories each the way I made them.