Are you saddened when the coffee shops take the spiced cider off of the drink menu and the eggnog (or coconut nog) disappears from the grocery store shelves? Does your heart drop when you realize the last of the gingerbread cookies and panettone are gone? Well then why don’t you join me in keeping the tastiness of holiday baking alive through January? I just didn’t get my fill of cinnamon, clove, cardamom, ginger, pumpkin, and citron to justify putting these recipes away until next Thanksgiving, so I’m going to keep the holiday baking recipes coming. January is a tough month for me – I strongly dislike the cold (we don’t use the “h” word in this house, but if we did, I’d use it for temperatures below 55 degrees F). So you could say that I’m just trying to make the month a little warmer by keeping my oven on and my taste buds delighted – a happy distraction until the warmth of spring shows up.

Tonight I had a hankering for pumpkin and cloves – and chocolate always seems to go nicely with those two – so I used a quick bread recipe to make a week’s worth of muffins. I made them in two sizes – mini and jumbo – to meet a variety of on-the-go breakfast needs. The minis are great for lunch boxes and my jumbos will get me through a hefty morning commute.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chunk Muffins

3/4 C water

1/2 C ground flax meal

1 1/2 C brown rice flour

1 1/2 C sweet sorghum flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves (I add a touch more because I like it so much)

1 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking powder

2 C granulated sugar

2/3 C canola oil

(1) 15-oz can solid pack pumpkin puree

(1) package Enjoy Life chocolate mega chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease one mini muffin pan and one jumbo muffin pan with canola oil.

In a small bowl, mix the water and flax meal and allow to thicken for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, salt and baking powder.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the oil and sugar. Add the pumpkin puree and beat for about one minute. Add the flax mixture and continue to beat on low speed, scraping down the sides as needed. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined – about one minute. Scrape down the sides and fold in the chocolate chunks.

Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pans. Bake until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Times will vary based on the size of your muffin pans, so keep an eye on them – and trust your nose! The minis will take around 15 minutes. The jumbos will take around 45 minutes.

Let the muffins cool completely in their pans on cooling racks before turning them out.

Store them in the refrigerator for the week or in the freezer for the month.