Pumpkin Muppins

I know I spelled muffins wrong, but I just love how Josh calls them muppins!  After I had Sam my friend Tania brought me the most delicious pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.  Those suckers got scarfed down pronto.  I got the recipe from her and tweaked it slightly to make it a healthier snack that wouldn't riddle me with guilt when my kids asked to eat two (or three) a day.  Since I don't want to keep digging back through my FB archives for the recipe (though I almost have it memorized from the four or five times I've made it over the last two months) I thought I'd post it here.  Josh and I always make these together.

Josh's Healthy-as-can-be-under-the-circumstances Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muppins

1/2 cup of sugar (brown or white)
1/2 cup of plain applesauce
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin or fresh puree (if using fresh be sure to drain well first, I do a big heaping 1 cup and if you don't think you'll use the rest of the can right away you can freeze the rest.  I've also used leftover roasted acorn squash.)
1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour (sometimes my measurements come up closer to 2 cups, but it always turns out fine.)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I prefer the mini ones.)

Mix the wet ingredients plus the sugar together, then add the dry ingredients.  Pour into a greased cupcake pan (you can use liners if you like, but the muffins stick pretty bad until the following day) and I normally get 14-16 depending on how generous I was with my flour and pumpkin amounts.  Bake at 325 until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  This is usually around 18-20 minutes for me, but the cooking time can really vary, as to be expected when I mess around with the ingredients and differences in how full I fill my muffin pan.

These are pretty moist muffins and tend to get a rather slimy top when kept in a sealed container.  I normally leave the container lid loosely sitting on top and slightly cracked open during the day and then seal it up at night.  They never last more than two to three days before we've eaten them all, but I would guess they'd be prone to molding quickly if left for too long in more humid environments.  I haven't tried freezing them, but I think that they'd do just fine.

UPDATE:  I had leftover mashed yams from Thanksgiving and decided to give it a try in this recipe since the texture and moisture is pretty similar.  It worked out great, though they were a bit drier than normal.