Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Brownies

1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 whole egg
2 egg whites
1 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line an 11″- x 7″-inch pan with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine pumpkin puree, eggs and oil until smooth. Set aside.

In a separate medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, spices, salt and brown sugar. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until thoroughly incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until passes toothpick test. Cool completely before cutting.

Spiced Chocolate Muffins

The measurements on this one are dumb-must have originally been metric or something. Recipe from my muffins cookbook.

3 1/2oz butter, softened
5oz superfine sugar (I just used regular)
4oz brown sugar
2 large eggs
5oz sour cream
5 tablespoons milk
9oz flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon allspice
7oz semisweet chocolate chips

Line a 12-cup muffin pan with muffin liners. Place the butter, sugar, and brown sugar in a bowl and beat well. Beat in the eggs, sour cream, and milk until thoroughly mixed. Sift the flour, baking soda, cocoa, and allspice into a separate bowl and stir into the mixture. Add the chocolate chips and mix well. Divide evenly into muffin liners, bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

**I think cayenne would be REALLY good in it-I'll try it next time! Also, the chocolate chips all sank to the bottom. Next time I'll stir in half, bake the muffins for a few minutes then sprinkle the rest on top.

Cupcake Brownies

So I wanted brownies, but yet I wanted something cute like cupcakes. So voila, an idea popped into my head. It's nothing original. I googled and found a million recipes but didn't really have time to make them from scratch yesterday (I know, shame on me). After a lot of finger crossing I actually got it right-and on the first try!

What I did was get the yummiest looking box of brownies the store had to offer... hey what can I say, I'm a sucker for packaging and it showed Hershey's syrup on the box... as well as a claim that the brownies are bigger! So Betty Crocker was the winner.

I split it up between 12 cupcake liners and baked it at 300 degrees for 45 minutes, until a toothpick came out crummy but not runny.
As for the frosting, I saw a picture of really pretty brownies and knew I could recreate it... so I grabbed some chocolate buttercream, stuck it in my Pampered Chef accent decorator tool, it was done. I was going to put mini M&M's on them-I did it with two but didn't like how they looked.
Maya was my little taste tester before the frosting. I honestly don't know what she thought of it, she gave me some funny looks (though she's never had a brownie before) but she ate the whole thing!

Sugar daze... then we put her to bed :)