Pumpkin Bundt Cake

While we are solidly in the Christmas creep season, I might as well throw in a Halloween treat to balance things out. I will never be one of those food bloggers who post their themed food in a timely fashion. Laziness takes over and I make every excuse to not edit photos or write a post. Motivation seems to hit me a few weeks down the road and way outside of the timeframe of the holiday at hand. 

As I am officially on the office Fun Committee, I decided to turn our work Halloween party up to eleven with some homemade cake. While most people won’t consider bundts to be “fun,” I do live in the Midwest kids. Things are different here and I embrace it. The cake was attacked with gusto and I barely managed to save a sliver to take home to “A.” There were few leftovers to speak of, but this cake is so moist, you wouldn’t have any issue letting it sit around for a few days. 

So here I have a Halloween cake for you. Complete with chocolate spiderwebs and spooky stars. Maybe store it away for next year or forgo the black & orange coloring and call it a Thanksgiving cake. Keep this blog post a secret and no one will know the difference. 

Pumpkin Bundt Cake

Adapted from Whipped The Blog

Ingredients:

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) EarthBalance “Butter”, softened, plus additional for greasing the pan
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional for dusting the pan
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups (or 1 15 oz can) solid pack pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 3 large eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. “Butter” and flour bundt pan.
2. Make your “buttermilk”: combine the almond milk and apple cider vinegar in a bowl. Let stand for at least 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, combine together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, pumpkin spice and salt in a bowl. Whisk together pumpkin, “buttermilk” and vanilla in another bowl.
4. Beat EarthBalance, oil and sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes, then add eggs and beat 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until batter is just smooth.
5. Spoon batter into pan. Shake a few times to be sure to remove any bumps then bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 15 minutes, then invert rack over cake and invert cake onto rack. Cool 10 minutes more.

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.

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.

Farmers Market Zucchini Bread

I went to the A2 Farmers Market last weekend and bought a bunch of Zucchini, in hopes that I'd be able to make a whole bunch of food with zucchini in it. However, life got in the way. My zucchini was beginning to reach the end of its life and I decided I needed to make something ASAP. Having scoured the internet to find a recipe that could use up all my zucchini in one fell swoop, I found 101Cookbook's "Special Zucchini Bread" recipe and I decided I couldn't pass it up! I made a few changes, but here is the recipe! I must say, this is some of the best Zucchini bread that I've had in a long time - the flavors were very rich and deep and it's not too sweet.

Zucchini Bread

Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts, plus a few to sprinkle on top
• 1/3 cup poppy seeds
• zest of two lemons
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups grated zucchini (about 3 medium), skins on, squeeze some of the moisture out and then fluff it up again before using
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon curry powder

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Butter the two loaf pans, dust them with a bit of flour and set aside.
2. In a small bowl combine the walnuts, poppy seeds, and lemon zest. Set aside.
3. In a mixer, beat the butter until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat again until mixture comes together and is no longer crumbly. Add the eggs one at a time mixing well and scraping down the sides of the bowl between each addition. Stir in the vanilla and then the zucchini.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and curry powder. Add these dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two batches, stirring between each addition.
5. Fold in the walnut, poppy seed and lemon zest mixture. Save a bit of this to sprinkle on the tops of the zucchini loaves before baking for a bit of texture.
6. Divide the batter equally between the two loaf pans. Make sure it is level in the pans, by running a spatula over the top of each loaf. Bake for about 40-45 minutes on a middle oven rack. I like to under bake my zucchini bread ever so slightly to ensure it stays moist. Keep in mind it will continue to cook even after it is removed from the oven as it is cooling. Remove from the oven and cool the zucchini bread in pan for about ten minutes.