Pumpkin Praline Muffins

I'll begin my first post with a real KEEPER. These muffins are so awesome. They didn't last long enough for me to even take a pic.

Praline Tipping:
3 T. butter cut into small pieces
1/4 C. Flour
3 T. Light Brown Sugar
1/4 C Finely Chopped Pecans

Muffin Batter
1 C. Whole Wheat Flour
1 C. All-Purpose Flour
1/3 C. Sugar
2 t. Baking Powder
1 t. Baking Soda
1 t. Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/4 t. Salt
2/3 C. Canned Pumpkin
1/3 C. Unsulfured Molasses
1/3 C. Canola Oil
2 Eggs
1/4 C. Milk
1 t. Vanilla Extract

1) 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 bottom only of 12 standard muffin cups. I used muffin cup papers, it makes for ease of clean up.

2) Next, make the batter: 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 (I used Olive oil because I was out of Canola, not sure what affect this had on the original recipe, but they definitely went quick), eggs, milk, and vanilla extract. Stir the pumpkin mixture into the dry ingredients just until the batter is blended. This is very important because it makes for a much fluffier muffin. If mixed too much, the muffin will be quite dense and tough.

3) Divide the batter among the muffin cups and sprinkle on the praline topping. I found it very easy to use a smaller ice cream scoop to make the equal. Then bake the muffins for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean. I had to bake my here in Utah at a higher elevation, for approximately 20 minutes. Let the muffins cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 to 10 minutes before removing them.

Yield: 1 Dozen