Gabkins’ Whole Wheat Pumpkin Coffeecake Muffins

Gabkins. Gabbeecake. Gabby pie. Gabberroo. Glably. Punkin. Gabby. Pumpkin Pie. Sweetcheeks. Gabbybear. Boogabble. Gabbypear. Gabbylou. Fluffernutter. Gabs. Sweetie Pie. Princess. Gabmuffin. Gabserella. Gabzilla (when she’s mad). Gabbypoo (when she’s dirty). Chub-chub choo train. Drooly-bear. Gabba-Gabbo-goo.

These are just a few of my daughters’ many nicknames that we have come up with.

The other day I must have called her Gabbeecake and Punkin really close together because all of the sudden I really wanted to make Pumpkin Coffeecake Muffins.

And THAT, is the story of my Thursday morning.

 

 

~M

Pumpkin Coffee Cake Muffins

adapted from Crumbs And Chaos

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

15oz can pumpkin

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour { I used 1 cup whole wheat flour & 1 cup AP flour.}

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

 {or you can use 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice instead of the cinnamon,ginger, nutmeg, salt & cloves}

Topping:

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

4 tablespoons cold butter

Cream together butter, sugar, and eggs beating well after each egg is added. Combine pumpkin and vanilla and set aside. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, and pumpkin pie spice. Gradually add flour mixture and pumpkin mixture to creamed sugar, alternating between wet and dry.

For the streusel, add all topping ingredients into a food processor and pulse until combined.

Grease a muffin tin and spoon one dollop of the batter into each muffin slot- then layer a spoonful of streusel. Cover layer of streusel with more batter until 2/3 full- then top again generously with streusel.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes and enjoy hot!

English Muffin French Toast

Before I get to the good part, I need to take a step back and talk to you about a few things. Have a little heart to heart.

Don’t be nervous, this is all on me. It has come to my attention that I have developed a nasty habit of ‘mentioning’ recipes, promising to ‘get back to you’ about them, and totally NOT getting back to you. It’s amateur hour over here, folks. Anyways, next week will be a redeeming blog week and I’ll make sure to get all of those to you! I’ll start by adding (today) the bomb-diggity Oliebollen recipe that was given to me by a dear family friend. This is her grandma’s special recipe that has been handed down the generations– so I hope you try it and treasure it! I wanted to get her permission before posting it to the Internet, of course. In her words, “My grandma would be honored!!”. I felt honored she would share such a special recipe!

 

Moving on! This morning I was about ready to default to the usual yog/bluebs/cereal bowl that has been my breakfast for ages- but then my eyes rested on a lonely english muffin that was sitting by our toaster. And I remembered that we only had ONE egg left in the fridge… all this lonely food in our house! Ah-HA! My mind jumped immediately to an idea I saw somewhere… but can’t remember where, so if this was your idea, let me know so I can give you credit!

I give you: English Muffin French Toast.  It truly is ten times better than plain ol’ french toast. So good in fact, that I may or may not have licked my plate clean.

 

Grody- I totally did lick it.

~M

 

English Muffin French Toast

serves one

Ingredients

1 english muffin, separated

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon maple extract

 

Plain Greek yogurt for topping (optional)

Syrup for topping (optional, or use honey)

Directions

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, maple extract, and cinnamon. Separate the english muffin into halves, and soak in the egg&milk mixture, flipping to soak both sides. Cook in a small pan over medium high heat until browned on both sides.

Top with greek yogurt and syrup, and enjoy!

Easy Pull-Apart Monkey Bread

Hands-down, the best thing to wake up to on a Sunday morning is the smell of monkey bread baking in the oven.

One could argue that cinnamon rolls have the same effect- I wouldn’t deny that either. But I just love the tiny little bite size pieces you can tear off of this melty cinnamon-y goodness! Each little piece is doused in melted butter, then rolled in cinnamon sugar, and then baked to perfection… whereas with a cinnamon roll, let’s face it. All you really are going for is the little nugget in the middle where all the gooey deliciousness is.

As you can see, I burned these slightly. I popped them in the oven on Sunday morning and then hopped in the shower, hoping my timing would be about right… which it would have been, if I hadn’t tried to quick blow-dry my hair before checking on them too. Anyways, ended up with a few er, crispy ones which happen to be my favorite! Joey cannot understand why I like things slightly burned- and neither really can I. So I just go with it.

This lovely treat is so simple to make. And very cheap! Just pop open a can of those Pillsbury Buttermilk Biscuits, tear each round into 4 chunks, and then dip in melted butter, then cinnamon sugar, and throw into a pan!

It is so hard not to munch on these all day long… just a warning that these have somewhat of an addictive quality! However, they work like a charm to win over a sibling that you may or may not have snapped at earlier the night before. They really help the apology process. “I’mreallysorryIoverreactedlastnightpleaseforgivemeImadeyouMonkeybreadanditsstillwarm!!!”

Works like a charm.

Either way, these are a super fun and easy treat for your husband, kiddos, roommates, siblings, or houseguests on relaxing mornings- they’ll be sure to impress!

~M

Easy Pull Apart Monkey Bread

serves 4-5

Ingredients

2 cans Pillsbury Buttermilk biscuits

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon

1 stick butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Melt one stick butter in the microwave, set aside. In a separate bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon until mixed.

Open the cans of biscuits and tear each biscuit into 4 pieces- drop each piece into the melted butter to coat, then into the cinnamon/sugar mixture to coat. Then place into a greased pan (you can use a loaf pan or cake pan!) until all pieces are covered.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, keeping a close eye on them at the end!