Pumpkin Cinnamon Streusel Muffins

yum.... I love when the weather changes to fall don't you?  Being in the south here in Tennessee has been driving me crazy with the 100+ degree weather this summer, so when it took a the plunge south last week I took full advantage!  I self cleaned the oven and baked like mad woman.  Today's recipe I am sharing with you is from two peas & their pod .  This is such a great recipe to sneak in those alpha and beta- carotene, vitamins C, K, and E, and lots of minerals, including magnesium, potassium, and iron.  And the best part Handsome Hubby and the Fire Team just think they are plain ole good!  Of course I can't just take a recipe as is and use it, I have to tweak it to my standards whatever ingredients I have on hand (I'm a perpetually bad preper) I've linked up to their original recipe and posted my altered recipe below with * to differentiate the alterations

Pumpkin Cinnamon Streusel Muffins

 Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup wheat flour*
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder*
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
2 teaspoons ginger*
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar*
1/2 cup canola oil
1/3 cup water
1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Filling:
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Streusel Topping:
1 1/4 cup oats
1 tablespoon flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Dash of nutmeg
Dash of ginger*
6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into chunks

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two (6 cup )muffin tins with paper liners or spray with cooking spray. Set aside. ** I recommend spraying the liners as mine stuck.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder*, salt, cinnamon, ginger* and nutmeg. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, water, pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth and combined.
4. Slowly stir in the flour mixture. Mix until ingredients are combined.
5. For the brown sugar cinnamon filling: in a small bowl, mix the brown sugar and cinnamon together. Set aside.
6. For the streusel topping: in a small bowl mix together the oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger* and nutmeg. Mix in the butter with your hands until the mixture is crumbly. ** I used my pastry knife and it was SO much easier.  You could use a fork too.
7. Fill muffin cups half way full with the pumpkin batter. Sprinkle the brown sugar cinnamon filling over each half filled muffin cup. **There's a lot of filling so don't be stingy!  Fill the muffins cups with the remaining batter. Top each muffin with streusel topping.
8. Bake for 20-23 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove pans from oven and cool on a wire rack. Remove muffins from tins and enjoy.  **Be careful not to over bake, pumpkin does not taste good rock hard.

Tips, Tricks and Trades:
1. Store these in an air tight container so the pumpkin doesn't dry out, or place in a ziplock bag in the fridge.
2. If you don't have ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon on hand use pumpkin pie spice.  It should be readily available within the next month or so at all grocery stores.

3. Trade ... trade a muffin for a cup of coffee at a neighbors house, or take a few over to someone you don't know, just because you can.
4. Important if you have kids: These muffins are crazy time consuming so I prepped the night before.  I ended up having 4 different containers but it made the work at 5am so much faster.  I placed all dry ingredients in one container, all the wet to include oil and pumpkin in the second, and finally I split the topping and filling into their respective containers.  That being said it still took a good 1/2 hour to mix, divide, fill and top in the am.  SO leave plenty of time to make, bake and cool.  My kiddos ate the crap out of these before school, even asking for 3rds!

As always feel free to comment and let me know how you enjoyed them!