What I love most about the Fall season is Pumpkins! Pumpkin carving, pumpkin pie, pumpkin waffles, everything that has to do with pumpkins! It’s what brings warmth to the season and really gets you in the spirit. With that said, these Spiced Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins are the perfect treat to get this season going!

Every week I do my weekly shopping at Trader Joe’s or, if not there, Pavilions. As the seasons change, new items come in and when new items come in, I stock up on them! Pumpkin puree, ground cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, apple cider, just to name a few. These items are seasonal so its all always good to have some stored in the pantry when you are in need of them.

A popular one at my house is canned pumpkin puree, you can never get enough of it. Making your own pumpkin puree takes too much energy and time so buying the canned version is a life saver! I use it to make waffles, cookies and of course, pie. But I do have to say that my most favorite thing to make with them is these scrumptious muffins! You will be lurring hungry mouths to the kitchen with the scent of cinnamon and spice. Not to mention, the yummy morsels of chocolate melted in the muffins. Perfect combination with the season!

Spiced Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins (Makes 12-14)

2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1 Tbsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
2 Large Eggs
1/2 Cup Milk
1 Cup Golden Brown Sugar, packed
1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter, melted
1 Cup Canned Pumpkin Puree
3/4 Cup Chocolate Chips

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Place the first 6 ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, sugar, butter and pumpkin puree.
4. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients into the wet until combined.
5. Fold in the chocolate chips until thoroughly incorporated.
6. Pour the batter into greased muffin cups 3/4 full.
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick tester comes out clean.
8. Cool and serve.

Chef Alina
Los Angeles, CA

Most weekends, I try to get out of Bondi on the hunt for a better wave. Over the years, I’ve been on a lot of little roadtrips with my friends. Quite often it ends up a mixed group of guys and girls. I’ve also been on countless roadies, where I was the only girl, squeezed in the back between lots of sweaty guys (can be a good or a bad thing depending on how hot your surfing mates are). It’s not always an advantage if you know them quite well, because if you do, they tend to forget that there is a lady in the car and whilst the conversations you get to overhear are quite amusing, the farting and the bad dad jokes are sometimes hard to come by with.

Anyway, last weekend, it happened to be girls only. Four gidgets squeezed into Amy’s little car. I have to say we were pretty efficient. Ames and I did a coffee run first (I took pre-coffee orders the day before via email) and in no time we had four boards strapped to the roof. At 7.30 we were on the way to the National Park. First notable point of difference, a car full of girls smells much better than a car full of guys. They don’t fart (at least they don’t admit it) and none of us was hung over – I swear if it were a car full of guys, at least one dude would have been hung over and make the car smell like a brewery. Second point of difference, Jules surprised us with home-baked muffins she’s made the day before. That never happens on a trip with guys. 

So far – excellent start to the surfing trip. Conversations on the way to the surf ranged from serious work stuff to not so serious conversations about boys. Let me tell you being back in the dating game after years, made for some entertaining stories for the more settled gidgets amongst us. Everyone was cringing with laughter (I think I might have to start another blog on that topic…).

In good spirits, we arrived at our destination. We were in even better spirits when we saw the perfect conditions. No difference there to the guys. Frothing and keen to get into the water, we got changed into our wetsuits.

Determined as we were, we must have looked like a little gidget surf gang heading to the water. We even came up with a mean name for the gidget gang…’Bondi Girls’ did not quite have the same ring to the ear like say the ‘Bra Boys’ so we’ve settled for ‘Bondi Bitches’.

It was a tad crowded but most guys looked friendlier than they would have if it had been four guys paddling out. There were heaps of peaks up and down the beach so there were enough waves for all. We also discovered a new tactic on how to get a peak to yourself… Just start talking about baking and periods and guaranteed the guys around you will move to the next break further down the beach.

I have to say I was pretty proud of all my gidget friends who came with me that day. We were all ripping and caught heaps of waves. You rock girlfriends. Quite tired but super happy, we’ve headed to a café for brekkie. After reading the menu, we decided to try another café instead. We pretty much left because we were after healthy brekkie, but all they had was greasy burgers. Go and figure the difference to a guys trip there…Surely, they would have stuffed their faces with the greasy burgers or would have been on the hunt for a meat pie.

The drive back was pretty uneventful. Well for me anyway, because I was asleep. That always happens, no matter, who I go on the surf trip with. And, the girls thought they would be really funny by trying to get a photo of me asleep drooling with my mouth open. No difference to guys here. Well, at least they did not try to draw cocks on my forehead…

Eventually, we all made it back to Sydney safely. We even managed to bring all the boards back too… which was rather lucky. When we tried to take the boards off the roof, we did not even have to loosen the straps; you could just slide the boards out. They could have been flying off the roof while driving. Oopsies someone has not fastened the straps properly…now that’s something that would have never happened on a boy’s trip…