The Fort's Pumpkin Walnut Muffins

Submitted by: jej
Last Updated: 8/18/2008

People love these muffins, and ask for the recipe!

• "Sam Arnold, chef and owner, sent the recipe (which the Milw. J/S requested for a reader). He said he originally received the recipe from a friend's mother in the form of a pumpkin bread. He then converted it to a muffin recipe, adding additional pumpkin to make it more flavorful.

• "His staff now makes 500 muffins to serve the 300 to 500 customers that come to the restaurant each day. Arnold said his restaurant, which is located in the foothills overlooking Denver, is a full-size adobe replica of Bent's fort, Colorado's first fur-trading post, and that it also sells more buffalo meat than any other restaurant in the country.

• "The muffin recipe -- as well as other recipes from the restaurant -- will be published in a cookbook by HarperCollinsin the fall of 1997, Arnold said. It will be called "The Fort Cookbook -- The New Foods of the Old West," by Sam Arnold.

• "Text in the upcoming book reads: 'The pumpkin nut muffins are a closely guarded secret; the recipe is asked for nightly but never revealed. The secret ingredient is no secret at all; it's the pumpkin. These muffins contain about twice as much as any other recipe. Because of that, they're cooked for a long time at an unusually low temperature, and turn out especially dense, moist and flavorful.'"

• The Fort's Pumpkin Walnut Muffins (about 4 dozen muffins)**

• [Note: The capital T (below) stands for tablespoon(s).]

• 5 c. flour
• 1 c. sugar
• 2-1/2 c. dry powdered milk
• 4 T. baking powder
• 3 T. cinnamon
• 1 T. salt
• 1-1/2 c. packed brown sugar
• 1-1/2 c. walnuts
• 4 large eggs (don’t sub another size!!)
• 1-1/4 c. veggie oil (I use canola)
• 1-1/4 c. water
• 2 cans (30 oz. each) pumpkin (don’t use pie filling!!)

• Preheat oven to 325°F.

• Mix together all ingredients* in extra-large bowl. Batter should be easily scoopable. If it is too thick, add a little more water.

• Fill greased or paper-lined muffin tins three-fourths full and bake 40 to 45 minutes.

• Note: Because these muffins are very moist, they reheat well.

• * I whisk all the dry ingredients together, including the walnuts, then mix all the wet ingredients together, including the pumpkin. Then I put the two mixtures together.

• **As you have noted, this is a BIG BATCH. I have reduced it to HALF and QUARTER SIZES, thus can make only 1 or 2 dozen at a time. My oven will hold only 1 large muffin pan at a time (which is ridiculous, of course!!!), so I would rather mix up the two batches separately, baking eash small batch as they are mixed up and ready for the oven. Dividing this recipe is particularly easy, as the BIG RECIPE calls for the 4 large eggs.