A while back, a reader wrote for help using up a sudden excess of sunflower seeds, a brief and random correspondence that I filed away in my brain, until all of a sudden the seasons changed and it was fall. (For some reason the end of the year always seems to take me by surprise. I feel like I just took down the 2017 Christmas tree.)

Anyway, fall is the time of pumpkins and earth tones, nuts and seeds. That — and a sudden excess of sunflower seeds at my house — brought my thoughts back around to these hardy little bits that I’ve only ever used as a snack food or garnish.

A muffin, I thought, with pumpkin for autumnal spirit, and sunflower seeds for crunch.

First stop: the National Sunflower Association at sunflowernsa.com, a vault of information. For example, although the sunflower was first domesticated by Native Americans who ground the seeds into flour, it was the Russians who commercialized the crop, and the English who figured out how to extract oil from the seeds.

Fast forward through decades of agricultural and culinary history to the advent of low-carbohydrate, high-protein diets and the sunflower seed finds new usefulness. Typical of its positive traits is a high level of vitamin E, a powerful antioxidant. The sunflower association says an ounce of the super seeds contains 11.3 milligrams of vitamin E, just short of the recommended daily allowance of 15 mg — compared with 7.24 mg in the same amount of almonds, and a mere 0.28 mg in that superfood blueberries.

The association also provides recipes for the use of the kernels and the oil, from granola bars to a lamb loin crusted with sunflower seeds. One recipe, handily, is for a pumpkin muffin with sunflower seeds, which was the starting point for the recipe that follows.

The muffins are light, slightly reminiscent of pumpkin pie, but leaning more toward a tender scone. The recipe uses a half cup of sunflower kernels, about 2-1/2 ounces. Which means if you eat six you’ll just about meet your recommended allowance of vitamin E.

Tip: The recipe uses about half of a 15-ounce can of pumpkin puree to make 12 muffins; double the recipe to use up a full can. You’ll probably want two dozen anyway.

PUMPKIN MUFFINS WITH SUNFLOWER SEEDS

By Betty Shimabukuro

• 2 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3/4 cup canned pumpkin (puree, not pie filling)
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup water or milk
• 1/2 cup roasted and salted sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Place paper cupcake cups in a muffin tin.

Whisk together flour, baking powder and spices.

In a separate bowl, mix pumpkin, egg, brown sugar and butter until well-combined, then add water and stir until smooth. Gradually stir in flour mixture to make a thick batter. Fold in sunflower seeds and chocolate chips.

Divide batter among 12 muffin cups. Sprinkle more sunflower seeds on top, if desired. Bake 20 minutes, until a pick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

>> Variations: Spices may be replaced by 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, chocolate chips may be replaced with chopped nuts, 1 cup of flour may be replaced by 1 cup rolled oats.

Nutritional information unavailable.

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