Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Bittersweet Chocolate

My new favorite muffin - spicy and sweet and crunchy all at the same time. YUM!

• 2 cups pumpkin puree
  
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup canola oil
• 2 1/2 cups
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 tsp each cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves (sometimes I run out of one of these and add ginger in its place)
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 bar Ghirardellis Bittersweet chocolate bar cut into chunks (I usually make 1 1/2 times this recipe and use 2 bars which can usually be found in the baking isle above the chocolate chips.
• sanding sugar (large granule)
  

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 24-cup muffin tin or two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.

In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla, spices, and salt until everything is well combined.

Hold a fine-mesh strainer over the bowl with the pumpkin mixture. Add the flour, baking powder and baking soda to the sifter, then sift the dry ingredients over the wet. Whisk gently just until the flour mixture is incorporated. Add the chocolate and stir to combine.

Fill the muffin tins most of the way up, dividing the batter evenly. Sprinkle the tops of the muffins with lots of sanding sugar. Bake about 25 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven, let the muffins rest 2 minutes, then turn the muffins out onto a rack to cool.

Makes 24 muffins.