Years ago I bought small, sweet “sugar” pumpkins, cut them, baked the pieces and mashed the roasted flesh to make pumpkin soup, quickbreads, pie, cake and muffins, and so on.

When I’m not busy I still do that, but these days, more often than not, I buy canned mashed/pureed pumpkin. NOT pumpkin pie filling (which has mixed-in spices).

Yes, I know that most canned “pumpkin” is a mixture of different varieties of winter squash. That’s fine with me — pumpkin is just a variety of winter squash after all. The point is, it tastes good and it works.

Canned pumpkin worked perfectly for the muffins in the photo, they’re dotted with mini-chocolate chips. These are a really good nosh for kids and parents coming in from the cold night out Trick-or-Treating.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

• 3 ounces semisweet chocolate

• 1 cup pumpkin puree

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• 1/3 cup coconut milk

• 2 large eggs

• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon grated fresh nutmeg

• 1/2 cup mini-chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 10 muffin pan cups. Melt the chocolate and set it aside to cool. Combine the pumpkin puree, sugar, vegetable oil and coconut milk in a large bowl and whisk the ingredients for 1-2 minutes or until thoroughly blended. Whisk in the eggs. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and add them to the pumpkin mixture. Whisk the ingredients for 1-2 minutes or until thoroughly blended. Fold in the melted chocolate, creating swirls — do not blend it in completely. Fold in the chocolate chips, reserving some for the tops. Spoon equal amounts of the batter into the prepared cups. Scatter some chocolate chips on top of each muffin. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.

Makes 10 muffins