Recipe Review: Pumpkin Pecan Muffins

Last week Micah and I made Pumpkin Pecan Muffins from Feeding the Whole Family: Recipes for Babies, Young Children, and Their Parents, by Cynthia Lair, page 219.  It was the first time I had baked anything with Micah, and from that angle it was a definite success.  We had lots of fun, didn't make a big mess (which I  fully expected), and the muffins turned out.

The recipe itself wasn't great.  Maybe that was because I substituted natural peanut butter for the molasses?!  Not a substitution I would recommend.  But in a pinch, it worked.  I read that honey is a good sub for molasses, but the recipe already has brown sugar and honey in it, so I didn't want to add more sweetener, and my natural peanut butter was a similar consistency to molasses... so why not?!  The muffins were edible, for sure.  We made one dozen "normal sized" muffins, and two dozen mini muffins.  The mini muffins made a great snack for Micah, and as a result they are all gone.  About half the bigger muffins are still sitting on the counter, now stale.  Clearly more of a hit with Micah than with Stew and I.  In my opinion that means it's not worth making again!  But I will for sure keep making mini muffins (of other varieties) as a snack for Micah.

In general, if you are into whole foods and eating healthy, this cookbook is full of good meal ideas for the whole family.  Each recipe lists suggestions of how to adapt it for babies.  The Pumpkin Pecan Muffin suggests reserving some of the baked pumpkin and serving it pureed for your baby six months or older.  Not exactly a profound idea, but sometimes it helps to be reminded to set things aside for your baby as you cook.  For me, Feeding the Whole Family lists too many unusual ingredients.  It may be really healthy, but many of the recipes included ingredients that I either don't keep in my house, or have never even heard of.  This one I will be returning to the library and probably never checking out again.