Friday, October 17, 2008

What To Do With Butternut Squash

I know it's been a while, and I can't promise that I'll get committed to posting frequently or anything, but I'm going to try and keep better records of what I'm cooking -- if only so I can recreate things that are truly yummy. After I got home with my CSA share yesterday, I realized that I've got to get focused on cooking lots of dishes with winter squash in them or else I'm going to have to move somewhere with cold storage so I have a place to put all of these beautiful squash! Don't worry -- for now, I'm just going to cook them :)

Butternut Squash Muffins
makes 18 muffins
adapted from Jamie Oliver's Butternut Squash Muffins with a Frosty Top
I stumbled across Jamie Oliver's recipe while searching for squash muffins. We have some new neighbors down the hall and a friend was coming for a play-date this afternoon, so I thought that some muffins would be a perfect "welcome" gift, as well as a tasty treat with tea. I cut down on the oil, subbed some whole wheat flour for the white flour and skipped the frosting, but these muffins came out deliciously moist and sweet, even with my modifications.

Ingredients:

  • 14 ounces butternut squash, skin on, deseeded and roughly chopped
  • 2 1/4 C light brown sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 C all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 C whole wheat flour
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • Handful of walnuts, chopped
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Directions:
  1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease muffin tins or use paper liners.
  2. Pulse squash in food processor until chopped.
  3. Add sugar, eggs, olive oil and salt and pulse just until combined.
  4. Add flours, baking powder, walnuts, and cinnamon and pulse until batter comes together.
  5. Transfer batter into muffin tins.
  6. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.