Pumpkin Bread Muffins with a Twist

The other day I started to make some pumpking bread. The recipe makes two loaves so I decided well I'll make one loaf and the rest into muffins. Also, when I went over the ingredients for my recipe I noticed I was out of nutmeg. So I went to my spice shelf and started taking out spices and giving them a good old "sniff". When I came across garam masala I knew it was the one. So I used the garam masala in this recipe instead of the nutmeg. And I don't think I will ever go back to the nutmeg again. These things are so good. I froze the loaf to use at Christmas but the muffins...uh, well, let's just say those are gone.

Okay here are the ingredients:
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 16-ounce can solid pack pumpkin

3 cups all purpose self rising flour
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg ( I used garam masala)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts (optional, I used pecans)

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350F/175C Butter and flour two loaf pans. Beat sugar and oil, in large bowl to blend. Mix in eggs and pumpkin. Sift flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg (or garam masala), baking soda, salt and baking powder into another large bowl. Stir into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions. Mix in walnuts if desired.

Divide batter equally between prepared pans. As I said above I made one loaf and the rest into muffins in my muffin pan using the muffin liners (easy clean up). Bake until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. (note the muffins will not take that long). Transfer to rack and cool for 10 minutes. Using sharp knife, cut around edge of loaves. Turn loaves out onto rack and cool completely. Freezes well.