time for a snack...

After replacing a new element in our stove-(to go along with the half dozen other things in our home which have expired in recent weeks), I've been eager to bake again. It's been almost a week and it's like there was nothing to round out the lunch boxes with no baked goods in the cupboard. There's lot's of un-knowns in mass produced baked good, ingredients such as "tartaric acid esters of mono and diglyerides", sound scary. Just for giggles, I googled that item and this was my findings....
Functional uses:
It is usually used as the additive in bread, cake, butter, hydrogenated vegetable oil and vegetable oil powder, and has the functions to emulsify, increase stabilization, improve preservation, protect fresh etc.
1. Strengthen the toughness, elasticity of dough, enlarge the physical volume of the bread. Improve the structure of tissue, prolong shelf life and increase the soft feeling and pliability.
2. Complex compound can be formed by starch and DATEM to avoid starch from swelling and losing.
3. It is used as the emulsifier, dispersion agent to improve emulsification and the intermiscibility between oil and water.
4. It is used in butter to make the taste better.
sooo, to translate, it just keeps the bread on the shelf longer.

So, onto the good stuff,  I made some fabulous pumpkin muffins.

Recipe has been adapted from  www.smittenkitchen.com for one who wanted a "cleaner version"

Pumpkin Muffins
Adapted from the American club, in Kohler, Wisconsin via Gourmet Magazine

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin (from a 15 ounce can)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup of egg whites
1 teaspoon pumpkin-pie spice (or a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves)
1 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon sucanat*
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Put oven in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Put liners in muffin cups.

Whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, 1 1/4 cups sucanat, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined.

Stir together cinnamon and remaining 1 tablespoon sucanat in another bowl.

Divide batter among muffin cups (each should be about three-fourths full), then sprinkle tops with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake until puffed and golden brown and wooden pick or skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 15 to 18 minutes.

Cool in pan on a rack five minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

* sucanat is the product that is the result of a process of hand paddling the crystals derived from natural sugar cane juice. It has a lower sucrose value than white sugar.

Enjoy!