When it comes to a gardener’s pride of harvest, size matters. 

The pleasure of picking a handful of cherry tomatoes pales in comparison to the childlike glee felt when it’s finally time to pick the pumpkins from the scraggly vines you’ve tended all summer. 

You have to bend your knees to pick up a pumpkin. You have to carry it with two hands. And when the excitement of the harvest has worn off, you have to wonder, ‘What the heck am I going to do with all that pumpkin?” 

We made jack-o’-lanterns for Halloween, three of them, and they were fabulous. 

We roasted the seeds and ate them with much satisfaction. 

But then there were still three left. 

I could have set them outside as festive holiday décor and later, without guilt, shoveled them into the compost pile to fuel next year’s effort. But instead, I roasted them.

Roast pumpkin just as you would any winter squash. Cut them in half, scoop out the seeds and stringy bits, then put them face down on a cookie sheet that you’ve lined with aluminum foil and oiled a bit. I roasted mine in a 400-degree oven until they were very soft, easily pierced through the skin with a plain old dinner fork. 

Mine took about 30 minutes. OK, they weren’t that big. Maybe the knee-bending thing is a bit of an exaggeration. 

When they were cool enough to handle, I scooped out the flesh and froze it in 1-cup portions.

Weeks later, I remembered that pumpkin and I thought I had all the ingredients to celebrate the harvest by making pumpkin muffins but, as often is the case, I was wrong. 

The recipe calls for turbinado sugar, which I never have, so I reached for the granulated but found only a couple of tablespoons. I decided to substitute light brown sugar. 

I was well into the process when I realized I didn’t have any vegetable oil, so I used olive oil, a trick I learned from “The Pink Ribbon Diet” by Mary Flynn, a book that offers breast cancer survivors a weight loss plan based on the Mediterranean diet. Flynn creates delicious baked goods using olive oil, so I figured it was worth a try. 

Next I found that I hadn’t measured my pumpkin puree carefully before freezing, and was about ¼ cup short. I compensated with an additional ¼ cup of yogurt. 

Finally, I didn’t have any walnuts. I had pecans, not 1½ cups, but I decided what I had would do the trick. 

And it did. My muffins were delicious, light, and full of pumpkin flavor. Were they better than if I had used canned pumpkin? Probably not. But it made me happy to think that I had grown those muffins. 

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Muffins 

Makes 12 giant muffins (1-cup capacity muffin tin) or 20 regular size 

¾ cup vegetable oil, plus more for pan (I used olive oil for the batter and baking spray for the pan) 

1½ cups whole-wheat flour 

1½ cups all-purpose flour 

2 teaspoons baking powder 

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (I made my own. See note.) 

½ teaspoon baking soda 

¾ teaspoon salt (Original recipe did not call for salt. Feel free to use less or omit.) 

2 cups pumpkin puree (I used less, 1¾ cups) 

1 cup plain low-fat yogurt (I used more, 1¼ cups, and I used nonfat) 

3 large eggs 

1 cup turbinado sugar, plus 2 tablespoons more for sprinkling (I used brown sugar and regular granulated for sprinkling) 

1½ cups coarsely chopped walnuts (I used less, about 1 cup) 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush 12 jumbo muffin tins (each with a 1-cup capacity) with oil; set aside. 

In a medium bowl, whisk flours, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt; set aside. 

In a large bowl, whisk oil, pumpkin puree, yogurt, eggs, and 1 cup sugar to combine; add 1 cup walnuts and reserved dry ingredients. Mix just until moistened (do not over mix). 

Divide evenly and spoon batter into muffin tins; sprinkle tops with remaining walnuts and sugar. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in pan. 

Note: Use a ratio of 8 parts cinnamon, 4 parts powdered ginger, 2 parts ground cloves and 1 part freshly grated nutmeg to make a pumpkin spice blend. To make the amount for this recipe, I mixed 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ginger, ½ teaspoon cloves and ¼ teaspoon nutmeg. I used 1 tablespoon here, then sprinkled the leftovers into my coffee pot the next morning. It was delicious with my grilled pumpkin muffin. 

Original recipe from marthastewart.com. Jill Blanchette is the multiplatform production manager at The Day. Share comments and recipes with her at j.blanchette@theday.com.