Praline Pumpkin Muffins

I made these muffins the other morning to use up my left-over canned pumpkin that has just been SITTING in my fridge. We had them for breakfast and they were so-so. Around 8 that night, I was having a sweet tooth craving so I tried another one. It was like trying a whole different muffin! It was a little piece of pumpkin heaven in my mouth! If you like pumpkin, TRY THESE!

Praline Topping:
3 T. butter, cut into pieces
1/3 c. flour
3 T. light brown sugar
1/3 c. finely chopped pecans

Muffin Batter:
2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. sugar
2 T. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1 t. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 t. salt
1 c. canned pumpkin
1/3 c. unsulfured molasses
1/3 c. vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/4 c. milk
1 t. vanilla extract
1 c. mini chocolate chips. optional

Directions:

Combine all the topping ingredients in a small bowl and use your fingers to rub them into a crumbly topping. Set it aside. Heat oven to 400 degrees and grease the bottoms only of 12 standard muffin cups.

In a large bowl, whisk together both flours and the sugar, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, molasses, oil, eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Stir the pumpkin mixture into the dry ingredients just until the batter is blended. Divide the batter among the muffin cups and sprinkle on the praline topping.

Bake the muffins for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one come out clean. Let the muffins cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 to 10 minutes before removing them.