Autumn Bakes

I did some baking last week.  I was trying to use some seasonal veggies in sweet baked goods.

I had some canned pumpkin and fresh sweet potatoes sitting around from making some super-awesome savory meals and snacks lately.

That first picture is Sweet Potato Muffins!  So delicious!

Here's the original recipe from about.com :

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup evaporated or regular milk
1 1/2 cups peeled finely shredded sweet potato
2/3 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Preparation:
In a large mixing bowl with hand-held electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla until well blended.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Stir into the butter mixture alternately with milk, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in sweet potato and chopped nuts. Spoon batter into greased muffin cups, filling about 2/3 full. Bake at 375° for 25 to 30 minutes, or until centers spring back when pressed with fingertip. Cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes. Remove from pan and serve muffins warm. Makes about 1 dozen sweet potato muffins.

I subbed in Earth Balance Original (contains corn products) for the butter and plain soy milk for the milk.  I used walnuts because that's what I had.  I did put a little extra of the walnuts in because I like them.  I also had to leave the muffins in the oven for about 5 extra minutes.  Just wait until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

The second picture is of Pumpkin scones.  I found a recipe adaptation here.  The only thing I changed with it was the pumpkin pie spice.  I used 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg and cloves mixed and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.  The scones were still a little bland.  I'm probably not going to try them again, but I didn't hate it!