Butternut Squash Muffins

Butternut Squash Muffins 

Oh my goodness, these muffins are so delicious you will not want to stop!  Similar to a carrot cake, but even better! 

Taken from Jamie Oliver's recipes on the Food Network.  

• 14 ounces butternut squash, skin on, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 2 1/4 cups light soft brown sugar
• 4 large organic eggs
• Sea Salt
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 heaping teaspoons baking powder
• Handful of walnuts, chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup olive oil

For the Frosted Cream Topping:

• 1 clementine, zested
• 1 lemon, zested
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 heaping tablespoons icing sugar, sifted
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped out
• 1 TBSP vodka

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line your muffin tins with paper cups.

Grate the squash in a food processor until finely chopped.  Add the sugar, and crack in the eggs. Add a pinch of salt, the flour, baking powder, walnuts, cinnamon and olive oil and stir together until well beaten. You may need to pause the machine at some point to scrape the mix down the sides with a rubber spatula. Try not to overdo it with the mixing - you want to just combine everything and no more.

Fill the paper cups with the muffin mixture. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes. Check to see whether they are cooked properly by sticking a wooden skewer or a knife right into one of the muffins - if it comes out clean, they're done. If it's a bit sticky, pop them back into the oven for a little longer. Remove from the oven and leave the muffins to cool on a wire rack.

As soon as the muffins are in the oven, make your runny frosted topping. Place most of the clementine zest, all the lemon zest and the lemon juice in a bowl. Add the sour cream, sugar, and vanilla seeds and mix well. Taste and adjust the amount of lemon juice or icing sugar to balance the sweet and sour. Put into the fridge until your muffins have cooled down, then spoon the topping onto the muffins.

Serve on a lovely plate (on a cake stand if you're feeling elegant, or on a rustic slab if you're more of a hunter-gatherer type!), with the rest of the clementine zest sprinkled over. For an interesting flavor and look, a few dried lavender flowers or rose petals are fantastic.

I am taking these muffins to a Christmas Party tonight.  I served them to some friends for lunch- they were a hit!

A few quotes from "Thoughts" in Whole Living Magazine.....

"The holiday sprit-especially the nice part-doesn't have to end with the holidays."

"Here's to focusing less on how people see us-and more on how we see them."