Tastes Like Fall- Land O' Lakes Cinnamon Sugar Butter Spread and Giveaway (Closed)

I'd love to give you a list of things I've been creating in the kitchen but the list would be embarrassingly short and laughable. My days are all running into each other and I only know what day it is if I happen to leave the house, which is about once a week. I can tell you I make excellent breast milk 8 times daily- Hayden's one happy camper :-) Despite all that, I did manage to bake these awesomely gooey sticky-bun pumpkin muffins today. It took twice as long as usual since I had to stop every five minutes to rock Hayden back to sleep, but they eventually got made.

These beautiful pecans are from my in-laws pecan trees!

My MIL subscribes to Southern Living magazine and when she's done reading it, she gives it to me. Except this week, Mr. H read it first and pointed out this recipe in their "Nuts About Pecans" recipe section. Last month's magazine was all about apples and this one was about pecans- both have me drooling. I chose to make these muffins though because I needed to incorporate a special ingredient into them. Land O' Lakes now makes a Cinnamon Sugar Butter Spread and they sent me a couple coupons to try out their new product. It really is delicious and creamy and loaded with cinnamon. It's a sweet buttery spread but not overly so. I can imagine this spread on toasted bagels, pancakes and even baked sweet potatoes. Since it is so new, I had difficulty finding it at my local grocery stores. I searched 4 different locations before finding it at Wal-Mart.

For this recipe, I used the Land O' Lakes Cinnamon Sugar Butter Spread in place of canola oil. It worked out very well and intensified the cinnamon flavor in the muffins. I halved the recipe, made 12 muffins and had a little leftover batter to make a couple mini loaves. The pumpkin muffins were tender and moist while the nutty topping was sweet and sticky. They're definitely sweeter than the average muffin and would make great individual desserts. Mr. H and I shared one shortly after coming out of the oven and he declared that they tasted like Fall. I would agree and couldn't be happier that Summer is finally over. It was brutally hot these past few months and I gladly welcome cooler weather. I just hope it gets here soon because it's almost October and it was still over 100 degrees today!

Sticky-Bun Pumpkin Muffins adapted from Southern Living- October 2011

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• 1 cup pecan halves and pieces
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp. light corn syrup
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground all-spice
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 8 oz. canned pumpkin puree
• 6.5 oz. Land O' Lakes Cinnamon Sugar Butter, room temp.
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup* muffin tin with non stick cooking spray and set aside.

Stir together melted butter, brown sugar and corn syrup. Spoon 1 teaspoonful butter mixture into each muffin cup. Spread 1 Tablespoon of pecans over melted butter.

Stir together flour, sugar, spices, baking soda and salt in a large bowl, and make a well in the center of the mixture.

Whisk together pumpkin, Land O' Lakes Cinnamon Sugar Butter, eggs and water. Add to dry ingredients and stir until just moistened.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin pan, filling 3/4 full.

Bake at 350F for 22-28 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Invert pan immediately to remove muffins, then arrange muffins on a cooling rack. Spoon any remaining toppings in muffin cup over the muffins. Let cool 5 minutes.

*Makes 12-18 muffins

Alternatively, you could omit the sticky buttery nutty topping and just bake the bread with the pecans mixed in or you could place the chopped pecans on top of the batter and top with cinnamon sugar and bake in muffin tins or loaf pans. Bake until the center comes out clean.

Now onto the giveaway part of this post! The folks at Land O' Lakes have graciously sponsored this giveaway. They would like to offer one of you lucky readers the chance to win this "Make Breakfast Better" prize pack including a non-stick waffle skillet, flexible spatula, stainless-steel spreaders and more.

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me how you'd use the Land O' Lakes Cinnamon Sugar Butter Spread. One comment per person please and be sure to leave your contact info or link back to your blog should you be chosen as the winner.

I'll announce the winner early next week. Good luck to you all and thank you Land O' Lakes for the cinnamony goodness and the giveaway offer.