The Moistest Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Muffins EVER!

Before you start asking me, What? Pumpkin muffins in March? Let me counter with, Hey, man. Any time is pumpkin time!

Now that we have that out of the way, you should know these muffins were a total fluke. And that they were really, really good. They even elicited this heartfelt compliment from my friend, David, "I have to say these are really, really good! (Grabs another muffin) And you know I don't like your cookies." Thanks, friend. ;P

Back to the muffins... The story of how I made them starts at 7:17 am on Saturday morning. 

7:17am is the time my alarm is programmed to go off. It wasn't set for Saturday, but my body woke up anyway (also, I heard my roommate opening/closing her door). I remembered it was David's birthday, and I sent him a quick b-day text. (HBD, DBB!)

Then I lay in bed for a while, thinking about whether I should go back to bed or just get up. For some crazy reason, I decided to get up. 

I ran some errands (here's a little tip from me to you: the grocery store is totally EMPTY at 8am on a Saturday. ie- no crazy long lines. SCORE!) and came home to clean our kitchen. As I was cleaning, I noticed our Tupperware was all over the place, so I decided to organize all the cupboards. That led to me basically emptying most of our kitchen shelves, wiping everything down, reorganizing, and giving every item a home. Success!

At some point, I also started cooking, which led to more cleaning, which led to hey, I should bake something to take to David's game night tonight! I was gonna make banana muffins. But then I remembered I still had pumpkin butter from the time I went to an orchard near Harper's Ferry last autumn. And I thought hey! Bananas are squishy, pumpkin butter is squishy... Surely they're interchangeable? (spoiler alert: they ARE!)

I tweaked my favorite banana bread recipe, and these muffins were born!  Here's how I made 'em:

1/2 c melted butter
1/2 c sugar
1 c pumpkin butter 
2 eggs
1/2 c sour cream*
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 c flour

* I didn't have any sour cream, so I substituted 1/2 c milk + a few squeezes of lime to curdle it + 1.5 tablespoons of extra butter

Mix everything together, pour into greased muffin pans, & bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes (keep an eye on them!).

Thanks to the PUMPKIN BUTTER, these are the softest, moistest (I don't think that's a word) pumpkin chocolate-chip muffins I've ever eaten. Enjoy!