Fairy Cottage Pumpkin Muffins

Was I the only kid that spent a significant amount of time crushing random plants into pastes and acting like a medicine woman living in a magical forest? Well, long story short, those long hours of imaginary play finally paid off with this muffin. Crispy almond flavor top, glorious coffee and spice walls, and a moist pumpkin muffin inside. And to top it all off, each muffin looks like a tiny fairy cottage. Easily the most magical treat you'll see this year. 

Click here for the video!

Fairy Cottage Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients:

• moss crumble topping:
• 80 grams fresh spinach
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 cup almond flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• muffin batter
• 1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 chia or flax eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• cottage walls:
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2-6 teaspoons water
• 2 tablespoons espresso ground coffee
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon 
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• decorations:
• doors: large pecans, toasted and cut in half so you have two pecan arches.
• chimneys: cinnamon sticks cut to ~1 cm rounds

Directions:

1. The day before you bake your muffins, make the moss topping:
1. On a skillet over medium heat, melt the coconut oil and sauté the spinach until it is all wilted. 
2. Place the wilted spinach in a blender bottle with 1/4 cup of water and puree. 
3. Mix the puree with the remaining ingredients and spread the resulting paste thin onto a piece of wax or parchment paper. 
4. Place the spread out paste into your oven with the light on and the heat OFF. Your goal it to let it dry out some so if you have other methods for drying things, they should be fine.
5. The next day, mix the spread up on the paper so the dry and wet parts are combined.
   
2. Now make the muffin batter. Mix together the pumpkin puree, oil, sugars, and chia eggs in a large bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together all of the dry ingredients and add it to the wet mixture until there are no clumps.
4. Spray your muffin tin with nonstick spray and spoon the batter into the wells until the batter is gone and they all look equal. 
5. Now it is time to add the moss topping. This process is quite time consuming and annoying but since the rise in these muffins is made by baking soda, you must work quickly. If you can find a method that works for you and is faster than my suggestions, use it! (and let a gurl know plz)
1. The moss paste doesn't really crumble so you have to spread it into an even sheet manually to add it to the muffins. I found that pressing the paste flat onto a metal spatula or my fingers and then flipping the spatula/fingers over the batter you wish to place it on and carefully peeling the paste off of the surface using another spatula or bench scraper worked best. 
2. Once you have most of the muffin covered, you can fill in with small globs of the mix as well. Don't worry about using all of the mix we will be using the leftovers later.
6. Once the muffins are covered with the moss, bake at 350ºF for 22-27 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Remove the muffins from the oven and let them cool completely before decorating.
8. Take the leftover moss mix and spread it onto dry parchment paper to dry completely. I placed it into the oven as it cooled after baking the muffins to dry mine.
9. Now it is time to decorate.
1. Take your one cup of powdered sugar and mix in the water 1 teaspoon at a time until you have a thick glaze.
2. Mix together the coffee, sugars, and spices in a small bowl.
3. Take one of the muffins and brush the glaze onto the sides of the muffin and then dip it into the coffee and spice dust. Make sure all of the sides get covered with it. 
4. Remove from the dust, brush off the bottom and set aside while you cover the rest.
5. Now take the completely dried moss paste and blend it to a dust in a blender or coffee grinder. Sift it onto your muffin tops to cover up and cracks and boost the green color.
6. Dab a bit of glaze onto the back side of a pecan half and press it into the side of your muffin so that the flat cut part of the pecan touches the plate. Repeat with the rest of the muffins.
7. Finally, use the glaze to glue on the cinnamon stick chimneys.
10. Enjoy!! These are a lot of work but they are the cutest things I have EVER made and they taste really good on top of that. The moss top and coffee walls work perfectly with the pumpkin in the muffins making them a perfectly magical fall treat.