Spicy Winter Squash Muffin

Happy autumn to all !! this is my first fall in this US and i am absolutely  exhilarated with the riot of colours around.....so inspite of  my exhaustion  at week forty of pregnancy i have been venturing outdoors to capture the colours as much as i can.......   and while indoors i have also been looking for ways to distract myself from all the worries and pains that accompany a mom-to-be at this stage....  baking it was this morning... and since i am not the greatest cook on the block... i got quite excited with the little triumph i had in the kitchen  and thought it might be nice to share with you all this spicy winter squash muffin recipe that i conjured up inspired by Tarla Dalal's banana muffin recipe and tips from several eggless cake recipes from Madhuram's Eggless Cooking..... 

so here's the recipe if you like........ 

Ingredients :                   

1/2 cup butter                       

1/2 cup castor sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla essence         

1/2 cup winter squash puree

3 tbsp apple sauce

2 tbsp milk

Dry ingredients  :                 

3/4 cup all purpose flour        

1/2 tsp  baking soda

1/4 tsp  baking powder          

3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spiece

pinch of ground cinnamon      

pinch of nutmeg powder

sesame seeds

Method : 

preheat oven to 350F  and lightly grease the cupcake baking tray.  sift the flour, mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and keep aside.

bring butter to room temperature and beat it well. then add the sugar to it and stir till the mixture until soft and creamy. add winter squash puree, apple sauce and vanilla essence to this mixture and stir the batter till all the ingredients have mixed well. now fold in the dry ingredients into this mixture and beat till it is creamy. 

finally add the milk to the batter to make a dropping consistency.  pour batter into the baking tray and sprinkle the surface with sesame seeds. 

bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. (mine was done in 24mins). Cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack before removing the soft spicy winter squash muffins from the pan and gorging on them !!