Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Doughnuts and Muffins

Unless you've been avoiding Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, walking down the sidewalk and talking to other people, you know that "Pumpkin Spice Season" is upon us. You can't turn the corner without seeing a PSL (or a pumpkin spice latte, if you want to be formal) in a death-grip or browse Facebook without seeing a love poem to some pumpkin spice. While I pretend to mock them, let's be real, I am one of them.

Smelling cinnamon coated apples basking in the warmth of my oven makes me giddy and apt to spread some baking joy. Hoarding canned pumpkin is a seasonal tradition and unearthing it again in July is always a shock. So yes, I roll my eyes at all the "#PSL" hype… but I partake is a more homemade fashion.

To any co-workers who are reading this post, yes, these are the baked goods I brought into the office! 

Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Doughnuts & Muffins

Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin purée – not pie filling
• 1/2 to 1 tsp salt (see note above)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder (see note above)
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon plus a heaping 1/4 teaspoon each ground nutmeg and ground ginger
• 8 oz (1 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp) all-purpose flour

For the cinnamon-sugar topping:

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F.  Grease the muffin tins and doughnut pan with a little bit of butter and flour.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the oil, eggs, sugar, pumpkin, salt, and baking powder on medium speed until the mixture is smooth.
3. Lower the speed of the mixer and stir in the cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, as well as the flour until they are completely incorporated. Do NOT over mix - this can lead to a tough texture.
4. If you're making doughnuts, fill the wells of the doughnut pans about 3/4 full, using a scant 1/4 cup of batter in each well (a small cookie scoop works well here). 
5. If you’re making muffins, fill each well about 3/4 full.
6. Bake the doughnuts for 15 to 18 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. If you’re making muffins, they’ll need to bake for 23 to 25 minutes.
7. While the doughnuts/muffins bake, stir together the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl until well mixed; set aside.
8. Dip the warm doughnuts and muffins in the cinnamon-sugar topping. The muffins will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 to 3 days and may need a cinnamon-sugar refresher before serving. 

Pumpkin Swedish Pancakes

Sometimes, just sometimes, a recipe is so delicious that it doesn't need an expertly shot photo to prove its worth. I didn't whip out my light box, teeter on the edge of my bar stools or clear off the candles on my window ledge to bring you the perfect shot. Heck, I didn't even have my darling D7000 (seriously, I take better care of that camera than I do myself) within a 5 mile radius.  Instead I was equipped only with my iPhone (and not even the new fangled 4S at that), a sunny Sunday morning and a delicious well-past-noon brunch. You know what? I'm ok with that. Sure, these pictures won't make it onto Tastespotting but you would be a fool not to make these.

While the Swedes aren't known for putting pumpkin on their plates, I say these Swedish pancakes are still authentic as they were made by a halfsies Swedish boy. I actually think that means these pancakes are  perfect, as they are half Swedish half… not. He adjusted the traditional Swedish pancake recipe by adding in one more egg, omitting the butter, adding agave, mixing up the spices and obviously adding about half a can of pumpkin.  The only issue he had is that some of the pancakes tore a little too easily as the moisture content was bumped up. He theorized that throwing in some vital wheat gluten next time might help but I'm asking you, dear readers, do you have any suggestions?

I personally am excited to try these out again and maybe use different purees in place of the pumpkin. They may or may not work but to anyone who knows me, breakfast food is my favorite meal genre and I'm pretty much up to eating or trying anything that is thrown into said category. 

Bonus to this post: a sneak peak into how I blog. Under the coves, the presence of pants is questionable, big cup of joe at my side, All Songs Considered podcast playing and handwritten recipe propped up. Sure, it's not fancy but as it is rainy and cloudy right now, it's pretty much the perfect place to be.

Pumpkin Swedish Pancakes

Invented by Andy

Ingredients:

• ~⅓-½ can pumpkin puree
• 4 eggs
• dash of: cinnamon, all spice, ground cloves, nutmeg 
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup soy milk
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar
• ⅓ cup whole wheat flour
• ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
• Goat butter (to fry in)

Directions:

1. Whisk together all ingredients, except butter, until the batter is smooth and no lumps remain.
2. Heat cast iron skillet and melt butter. Add one scoop of batter and cook on one side until lightly browned.  Flip and continue cooking on the other side.
3. Serve warm with a cup of coffee and some pure (Grade B people, please) maple syrup.

Pumpkin Tangerine Chocolate Truffles

Sooner or later I promise I will get to a healthier selection of recipes, but for the time being its going to be a little bit on the side of later.  At least you can rest easy knowing that this is my last Christmas cookie recipe!  Yes, there were other cookies on my plate, but they were either tried and true favorites or, quite honestly, the pictures were way less than stellar or I wasn't a big fan of the cookies themselves.

That's right, I failed miserably and I will (slightly hesitantly) confidently admit that.  I. Failed.  I tried making "bulls-eye cookies," alternating rings of red, green and white sugar cookie dough rolled up and cut into medallions.  To jazz it up a little, I thought I might roll the logs in chocolate sprinkles or crushed up candy canes.  Chocolate sprinkles were a good idea (they held up to the temperature of the oven) but the crushed candy canes melted everywhere.  This made the edge of the cookies sticky and to add insult to injury, the outer ring of those cookies were green.  You can guess what that looked like… toxic green Christmas sludge cookies.  Yum.  As I've mentioned earlier, my oven is a little finicky and sometimes things come out burnt even if I baked them 5 minutes shorter than the recommended time.  Ironically, these cookies were way under-baked even though I kept them in for almost 8 minutes longer than suggested.  I bet you really want to keep reading my blog now, but hey, I think admitting my defeat makes me a more credible source, no?

You aren't here to read about my failures,  you want to eat with your eyes and find delicious recipes!  Cut to these Pumpkin Tangerine Chocolate Truffles, in the words of an unnamed and slightly annoying Food Network television personality "DE-LISH" (I can't believe I just said that, but this is post of banishing norms).  I had originally intended to use a recipe I found on Annie's Eats, but I soon realized I had no oranges nor did I have any white chocolate.  Instead, I had over a pound of dark chocolate and more tangerines than I could ever need.

I was slightly disappointed that the truffles didn't have a stronger pumpkin flavor, but I did like that they took on the flavor of the traditional Christmas chocolate orange.  Even though the pumpkin flavor was more of a afterthought, the puree did help contribute some 'lightness' to the texture.  If you want to make the original recipe, head on over to Annie's Eats: http://annies-eats.net/2010/12/08/pumpkin-spice-truffles/

Brown Butter Pumpkin Layer Cake

Yes, that IS snow on the table outside!

Did this recipe deserve the cover of Fine Cooking magazine?  Yeah, I'm pretty sure it did.  Once again, I am behind on posting and I even pushed this one up in the cue because I really liked the picture and I feel like I need to redeem myself from the previous two posts.  I know I've whined about this before, but really Seattle?  You really have to make the sun start setting at 3pm?  When I was sick this last weekend, I didn't even get UP until 3 pm (I was sick!)… let alone try and take pictures of food.

I made this cake for Thanksgiving this year, my first one away from Michigan.  I could tell you a sob story about it (there really wasn't one…), but instead I baked my feelings away during the Snowpocalypse that happened just a few days before T-Day.  To all my Michiganders out there, please feel free to be disgusted, but the whole city of Seattle shutdown for almost two days before of 3 (THREE!) inches of snow.  I couldn't get to work on Monday or Tuesday and to get ingredients for this cake, I had to walk over a mile, half of it up and down a huge ice covered hill, to the Interbay QFC.  I then found out that one of the Thanksgivings I was going to didn't have power (they eventually got it back on in time) over on the Olympic Peninsula.  Say it with me now, SERIOUSLY Seattle?

I brought this over to my first Thanksgiving of the evening, hosted by my neighbors Doug & Elspeth!  I know they read my blog, so I'll only say nice thing about them, but honestly, there are only nice things to say about them!  Soon after moving in they greeted me and invited Rachel and I over for some wine.  We regularly go over to their place and I feel comforted knowing they're my neighbor!  Thanks guys!

Anyways… this cake is delicious!  I mean, actually plate licking delicious.  The cake portion is so moist and soft, but still has a tight enough crumb that frosting it isn't difficult at all.  Topping wise, I couldn't have thought up of a more perfect combination.  The toasted nuts contrast perfectly with the heat of the ginger while the pepitas provide an unexpected but welcome crunch.  To finish it off, the frosting is wonderful but I think the recipe developers were a little skimpy with the ingredients - I barely had just enough frosting.  Next time I'll make a little more.  However, it was nice that there wasn't much sugar in the frosting.

I know the pumpkin season is ending as we move into the non-stop feast on holiday cookies, but I swear this will be worth your while.

Pumpkin Fudge

Oh pumpkin, how you infiltrate my life for a few months every year.  Your warming goodness is just too enticing - I cannot resist!  Regretfully, the pumpkin season is slowing coming to a close for most people, but at least I have enough frozen pumpkin puree in my freezer to last me through a nuclear war.  So sit tight with me while I continue to publish posts that pertain to pumpkin for a few more months.  It'll be worth it… I think.

I assume you've already heard enough about my Friendsgiving feast I had a few weeks back so I'll spare you and just get onto what this fudge tastes like.  I did bring it to the party for the dessert portion of the meal, so you could ask everyone in attendance, but you'll most likely have to trust my word.  However, I think you do need some photographic evidence to prove that this blessed meal actually happened.  This would be our "awkward family photo."  I also have one of everyone recreating the Last Supper, but everyone is just so much prettier in this one:

Fudge.  Right, the main course of this post.  Obviously it's delicious, and that's saying a lot coming from me!  I was spoiled with the World Famous Mackinaw Island Fudge growing up and little can live up to it for me.  The original recipe called for chopped walnuts and white chocolate (so I guess you can add those in if you want) but I'm a purist and like my chocolate dark... just like my...coffee!  If anything, I can make the logical excuse that dark chocolate is actually healthy for you!  Don't mind the fact that the recipe also has butter, marshmallow and evaporated milk… just think of that as "extra warmth for the winter."  Right?  The initial flavor note in the fudge is pumpkin, but is soon diluted by the soft flavor of chocolate.  Texture wise, it almost melts in your mouth, which if you're like me, leads to eating a lot of little squares of fudge.

Pumpkin Fudge
Adapted from: Sweet Pea's Kitchen
Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk
• 2/3 cup pureed pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon allspice
• 2 cups dark chocolate chips
• 1 jar (7 oz.) marshmallow crème (I couldn't find any, so I chopped up large marshmallows)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Line a 13 x 9-inch baking pan with foil letting the foil extend up the two short sides of the pan and overhang slightly on both ends.
2. In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar, brown sugar, evaporated milk, pumpkin, butter and spice. Bring to a full rolling boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil, stirring constantly, for 10 to 12 minutes or until candy thermometer reaches 234° to 240º F (soft-ball stage).
3. Quickly stir in dark chocolate chips, marshmallow crème (or mini marshmallows), and vanilla extract. Stir vigorously for 1 minute or until morsels are melted. Immediately pour into prepared pan and top with remaining 1/4 cup walnuts. Let stand on wire rack for 2 hours or until completely cooled. Refrigerate tightly covered. To cut, lift from pan; remove foil. Cut into 1-inch pieces.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

I have some sad news to break to you about Seattle weather in combination with Daylight Savings Time: the sun starts to set at 2:30… and the winter has only just begun.  This wouldn't be a huge issue if I wasn't such a foodie and a food blogger.  My kitchen starts up around 6pm every night, oh you know, about 2 hours after it has gotten dark here.  And that's on a sunny day.  Days when it's cloudy and grey, it starts getting darker a lot sooner.  Being that my blog is dependent on photos, it hard to take pictures in my florescent kitchen.  Or at 3 o'clock when the sun is setting on a cloudy day.  Or when I have to reheat and photograph my food the next day (it's never as pretty).  So please, hold steady with my during the long Seattle winter.  I will try my best to photograph is decent light or I may have to build a lightbox.  Who knows.  Either way, I will still keep cooking.

But, what bothers me the most about this weather is my eating schedule is all out of whack.  I wake up and eat my oatmeal and coffee… this is good.  Then I eat some lunch around 1 or 2 pm - pretty normal for me.  But when the sun starts setting, the stomach in my brain starts screaming "whaaa?  DINNER TIME!"  and I am suddenly overcome with the urge to make myself a nice dinner and pour myself a glass of wine… at 4 o'clock.  I swear, I don't have a problem… but I have the willpower to resist until at least 6 o'clock because I am a respectable lady.

Regardless of my complaints, here is a recipe for pumpkin granola bars.  More pumpkin?  I know, trust me.  The interwebs are full of pumpkin themed foods right now, but I swear this one is worth your time.  I may be a little bit biased, as I love pumpkin (I have bags of frozen puree in my freezer) and homemade granola bars.  But oh boy, these were so good.  They are moist but still have a nice firm texture… and the slight bitterness of the dark chocolate compliments the smooth texture of the pumpkin.  My favorite part?  These aren't sweet.  The honey and applesauce are nice because when I scarfed them down for breakfast in the morning, I didn't feel guilty about it!  WIN!






NOTE: I doubled this recipe and make it in a 9x13 pan (trust me, these go fast)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
Adapted from: Two Peas in a Pod
Ingredients:

• 3 1/4 cups old fashioned oats

• 1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 
¾ cup brown sugar
• 
½ cup pumpkin puree
• 
¼ cup applesauce

• ¼ cup honey

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray an 8 by 8 baking pan with cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk oats, spices, and salt together. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk brown sugar, pumpkin, applesauce, honey, and vanilla extract until smooth. Pour over oats and stir well, until all of the oats are moist. Stir in chocolate chips.
4. Evenly press oat mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. The pumpkin keeps the bars moist, so make sure they are golden and set-you don’t want them to be under baked. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes.
5. Using a sharp knife, cut into bars. Remove from pan and let cool completely.

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Fresh Spiced Whipped Cream

Happy Thanksgiving!  This year our group was even smaller than usual - just my mom, dad, grandma, grandma, and me. Caroline was in Oregon spending Thanksgiving with her roommate, Sarah.  BUT they were able to go to this bridge that was in the Twilight movie.  Along with the other two pies on the table (pecan and pumpkin, made by my mom), my mom requested that I make this cheesecake.  Of course I didn't complain because, one, I love cooking.  And two, it's more material for the blog because I know I've been lacking posting an material lately. What can I say?  It's my senior year of college right at the beginning of finals and term papers… I've been eating one too many cans of soup and peanut butter sandwiches that I'd like to admit.

I must say, I really did love this cheesecake.  In fact, I am eating the last little bit as I type (now there is some of the filling on the keys of my keyboard…).  The pumpkin flavor wasn't overwhelming, but was just enough.  It also gave the cheesecake a wonderful golden color.  While I did use a a graham cracker crust, I think a gingersnap crust would compliment the cheesecake well.  Just substitute the same amount of ginger snaps as graham crackers. 

I also did use homemade spiced whipped cream to top the pies with.  Just a general rule of thumb for making whipped cream: start of slow (for about 3 to 5 minutes) and work up to beating at a higher speed.  Only whip until the peaks hold their shape, no longer, or the cream will begin to curdle.  Also, while I used a hand-mixer, if you are whipping by hand, make sure that you incorporate air into the cream by lifting the whisk out of the cream as you are beating… otherwise it will take forever to transform into whipped cream.

And as a side note, sorry for the awkward color and quality of the photo.  For obvious reasons, I didn't take my light box home to my parents house and had to shoot at 800 ISO under compact fluorescent lights; not really a winning combination for food photography.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ingredients:
Crust:

• 1 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
• 1 stick melted salted butter

Filling:

• 3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 (15-ounce) can pureed pumpkin
• 3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For crust:

1. In medium bowl, combine crumbs, sugar and cinnamon. Add melted butter. Press down flat into a 9-inch springform pan. Set aside.

For filling:

1. Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add pumpkin puree, eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, sugar and the spices. Add flour and vanilla. Beat together until well combined.
2. Pour into crust. Spread out evenly and place oven for 1 hour. Remove from the oven and let sit for 15 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours.

Spiced Whipped Cream

• 1 cup whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmet 
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Add all ingredients and whip until peaks hold their form.

Roasted Pumpkin Pie with an Easy No-Roll Pie Crust

Dear Les Voyageurs & Others who were at The Cabin tonight,

As promised, here is the pumpkin pie recipe… posted as SOON as possible.  I made this earlier today using some pumpkin puree I had frozen a few days earlier.  However, I had two different varieties of pumpkin puree - which I think added a little something to the pie.  One was a small (early autumn) Sugar Treat pumpkin I bought at the farmers market in the middle on September and made into a puree and froze.  The other was from a Small Sugar pumpkin I bought at Trader Joe's on Monday (and once again, made into a puree and froze).  While I recipe I used called for the pie to be baked for 55 minutes, I had to bake it for about 25 minutes longer (I'm starting to think it's because of my shoddy student housing kitchen, not the recipes).  But what really matters is that the center of the pie is "firm" when you take it out of the oven.  ALSO - I used a no-roll pie crust.  It is literally as easy as just mashing it into the pie pan.  So please, never ever buy a pie crust from the store again.  Now, little LV's/other people at dinner tonight, go and make this pie ASAP and impress your mother when you can make it for Thanksgiving dinner!

Love,

Kat

No-Roll Pie Crust

Adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients:

makes 1 9-inch pie crust

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup (4 Tablespoon) frozen butter that has been grated on a cheese grater
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used almond oil)
• 1 Tablespoon cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 Tablespoons cold milk

Directions:

1. In a medium sized bowl combine flour, salt, baking powder and sugar.  Whisk together.  
2. Add frozen butter that has been grated on a cheese grater and tablespoon of cream cheese.  With your fingers, work the cream cheese and butter into the flour mixture, breaking the butter and cream cheese up until they're in well incorporated into the flour.  I like to think that the texture was comparable to "wet sand."
3. Combine the milk and oil.  Whisk together.  Add all at once to the flour and butter mixture.  With a fork, begin to combine the ingredients, making sure that all of the flour mixture is introduced to the liquid.  The mixture will (and should) be shaggy; just dump the dough into a clean 9-inch pie plate.  With your fingers,  press the dough evenly into the bottom of the pie plate and up the sides.  Try to get the dough as even as possible.
4. Place the prepared crust in the freezer while you preheat the oven and prepare your filling.  DONE!  That easy!

Roasted Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

• 2 cups pumpkin puree
• 1/2-1 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2  teaspoon salt
• A dash or so of apple pie spice
• A splash or so of vanilla

Directions:

1. Combine all filling ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and whisk until combined.
2. Pour into pie crust
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes, or until filling is firm, and a knife, when inserted in the middle of the pie is clean when removed.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

As you can see from the previous post, I made my brownies using freshly made pumpkin puree.  What's another byproduct of pumpkins?  Pumpkin seeds!  Here is a quick way to make a nice snack out of the innards of your pumpkin.

(Side Note: When I brought these over to my neighbors house, NONE of them had eaten pumpkin seeds before.  What deprived people....)

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Ingredients:

• Seeds from one pie pumpkin (adjust the rest of the ingredients depending on what kind/size of pumpkin you use)
• 3 tablespoons of butter (unsalted), melted
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Kosher Salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a bowl, pour melted butter over clean pumpkin seeds.  Toss together with kosher salt and black pepper.
3. Spread out on a prepared baking sheet and cook for about 20 minutes, or until the seeds look "roasted" and are crisp when you bite into them.

Spiced Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

While the name of these brownies is a mouthful, nothing about the taste of these brownies is unpleasant. I guess you could say I went on a "baking binge" on Monday (it was fall break and I needed a study break) and I had been wanting to try these brownies for quite sometime.  I did have some difficulty getting the brownie batter to "swirl" into the pumpkin cheesecake batter; the brownie batter was much thicker in comparison to the pumpkin batter.  Also, the center of the brownies did not firm up in 40 minutes - so when making these I would allot more cooking time.

When I brought these over to my neighbors house (along with cookies and pumpkin seeds), I'm pretty sure the brownies were inhaled in less than 5 minutes.  Someone at work even asked me "Why have you never made these before??"  So, I dub these a success!

Spiced Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownies

Adapted from Beantown Baker

Brownie Batter Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Cheesecake Batter Ingredients:

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened 
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 Tbsp + 2 tsp flour
• 2/3 cup pumpkin puree (I used freshly made pumpkin puree - it's a much different texture than puree out of a can)
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract 
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/3 tsp each ground ginger and ground cloves (I substituted a dash of allspice for cloves)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8x8" square metal baking pan.
2. Beat together melted butter, sugar, and vanilla, then beat in eggs one at a time. Combine dry ingredients and then gradually stir into butter mixture with a wooden spoon. In separate bowl, beat together cheesecake batter ingredients.
3. Spread about 2/3 of chocolate batter into prepared pan, and spoon cheesecake batter over. Dollop remaining brownie batter over cheesecake batter. Swirl the batters together by running a butter knife back and forth through the pan.
4. Bake for 40 minutes, or until center is set (I had a difficult time getting the center to set - I set my timer in 5 minute increments, after the 40 minutes were up, until I noticed that the center was firm… it was maybe more like… 55 minutes?).   Cool completely on wire rack and chill before cutting and serving.

Spiced Apple Pumpkin Muffins

Here is the second pumpkin puree inspired recipe!  These muffins are absolutely fantastic!  I over processed the streusel a little bit too much, so it wasn't as crumbly as I wish it'd be.  But it still baked well and firmed up nicely.  A tip for baking muffins - don't ever beat the batter!  Fold in the ingredients lightly until their just combined.  This will ensure that the muffins come out light and fluffy.  While that is a general tip for all muffins, for these muffins I fill the tins 3/4 of the way full.

Spiced Apple Pumpkin Muffins

Adapted from Inn Cuisine

Ingredients:

• 2 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup cooked or canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cups canola oil
• 2 cups peeled apples, finely chopped

For the streusel topping:

• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup and 1 tsp. flour
• 4 tbsp. butter, cubed
• 1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine the first seven ingredients. In a small bowl, combine eggs, pumpkin and oil; stir into dry ingredients until just moistened, taking care not to over-mix. Gently fold in apples. 
2. To make the streusel topping, combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Mix together with a pastry blender or two forks until crumbly.
3. Fill well-greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. 
4. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the top of the batter.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes, or until muffins test done (toothpick inserted near center comes out clean). Cool for 10 minutes before removing muffins from pan.

Spiced Pumpkin Cookies

I finally have my lightbox!  Well, a DIY lightbox that my dad made for me, but it is still fantastic!  Sadly, my cameras ISO was still set to 800 when I was taking pictures... so they are much grainer than I wish they'd be.  These cookies (along with the apple pumpkin muffins) were made with the fresh pumpkin puree that I whipped up yesterday.  These cookies have the texture of cake (see the picture!) but are definitely still a wonderful cookie!  Both my housemates and neighbors loved them (especially the Mickey Mouse shaped cookie for Zenka)!

Spiced Pumpkin Cookies with Dark Chocolate and Butterscotch Chips

Adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup canola or corn oil
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup butterscotch chips
• 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven . Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and butter the paper.
2. Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices together in a medium bowl and set aside. 
3. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar until smooth and lightened in color, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. 
4. On low speed, mix the oil, pumpkin, and vanilla until blended.
5. Mix in the flour mixture to incorporate it. Mix in the chips. 
6. Place heaping teaspoons full on batter on the prepared cookie sheet.
7. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, about 14 minutes. 
8. Cool them on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

HOW TO MAKE PUMPKIN PUREE:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Snap the stem off of a pie pumpkin and cut down the middle.
3. In a large rosting or baking pan, place the cut side of the pumpkin down and roast for an hour, or until the pumpkin is soft.
4. Wait until the pumpkin is cool enough to hold and peel off the skin.  Place the pumpkin meat in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth.
5. Line a colander with cheese cloth and place pureed pumpkin in the colander and drain for at least 4 hours.
6. Use the pumpkin puree right away or freeze in freezer-safe bags and defrost before using.

Pumpkin Bread

This is a pretty easy recipe for pumpkin bread; you mix the dry ingredients (sifted together) into the wet ingredients (beaten together). Of course, you have to get the balances of spices just right (I'll try to give you approximate measurements, but honestly, I mix spices until it "smells right" to me). I made this pumpkin bread for my manager, Pam.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of pureed pumpkin (more on how to make that in a later post, if you absolutely have to, use a 16 oz can of pumpkin puree)
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3.5 cups AP Flour
• 2 cups of sugar
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 1.5 tsp allspice
• 2 tsp nutmeg
• SO MUCH CINNAMON (maybe 3 tsp?)
• 1.5 tsp apple pie spice
• 1 tsp baking powder

Direction:

1. Combine pumpkin, vanilla, eggs, and oil together in a large bowl. Beat until well combined
2. Sift together dry ingredients. Slowly combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, with the mixer still running
3. Pour into 2 greased 9x5x3 inch bread pans and bake at 300 degrees for an hour and a half (however, depending on your oven, the time may be more or less. Sometimes when I have baked this bread, it only takes an hour and 20 minutes, sometimes an hour and 40 minutes. Just keep an eye on the bread in the later part of the cooking process.)

And if anyone was wondering the "cook it low, cook if slow" method keeps the bread moist and fluffy. If you would have baked it at a higher temp for a shorter period of time, the bread would have gotten dry and crumbly.