Butternut Squash Muffins

I got back from a six week study abroad program in Spain two weeks ago and have been itching to get back in the kitchen ever since. I had some down time before work today, so I decided to bake some muffins. I had a can of butternut squash to use up and a quick internet search led me to a recipe by Jamie Oliver. His recipe calls for a frosting on top, but I didn't feel it was necessary. Below is the recipe with my modifications.

Ingredients:
15 oz can butternut squash
2 1/4 cups light brown sugar
4 large eggs
Pinch of sea salt
2 1/2 cups gluten free all purpose flour, unsifted
2 heaping tablespoons baking powder
Handful of walnuts, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients in a food processor until well-beaten (I just added everything one-by-one in an electric mixer, but the original recipe says to use a food processor). You may have to pause at some point to scrape the sides with a rubber spatula. Do not overmix. Fill  your muffin tins with the mixture. Bake in the preheated oven 20 to 25 minutes (I ended up using the full 25 minutes). Check with a toothpick in the center to see that they are done. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.

One note about the muffin tins: the original recipe says to use paper cups, but I personally prefer to just grease the tins. I used5 Spectrum organic shortening to grease each individual tin before I put the mixture in and the muffins came right out of the tins after I let them cool. The original recipe says it yields 12 muffins, but that's only if you use jumbo- sized tins. With the smaller tins I used, I was able to make 24 muffins.

I hope to do some more baking soon. Glad to be back in the kitchen!