Tag Archives: pumpkin

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies with Maple Frosting

30 Wednesday Sep 2015

Posted by in Baking, Cookies, Desserts, Holidays, LuLu's Classics

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Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

While my cookie decorating skills aren’t really getting any better with the sugar cookie of the month, I at least got to try out a fun experiment in altering the recipe: swapping out the sour cream for canned pumpkin. I’m happy to say…success!

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies with Maple Frosting

These cookies have a very subtle hint of pumpkin and fall flavors along with maple icing. You can save these for Halloween, or skip the pumpkin shape and decorations altogether. As you know by now, I’d rather have a tasty cookie than a pretty one.

Recipe
Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
By Baked Northwest
Makes about 32 pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies (you will only use half of the cookie dough)

Ingredients

For the Cookies:

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
  • 1 ½ cups sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • ½ cup canned pumpkin
  • 4 cups flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • ½ tsp. baking soda
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (can sub cinnamon)

For the Maple Frosting:

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup maple syrup
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons milk (nonfat is fine)
  • orange food coloring, or a mix of red + yellow food coloring (optional)
  • Black tube frosting (we used store bought, and this is totally optional. If your decorating skills are like mine you may want to skip this).

Directions

For the Cookies:

In a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla, mix thoroughly. Add pumpkin, mix thoroughly.

Sift together flour, salt, soda, baking powder, nutmeg, and pumpkin pie spice. Add to butter mixture in two parts and mix thoroughly.

Divide the dough into two parts and wrap each in wax paper. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. For the amount of frosting we are making, you will only use half of the dough. You can freeze the 2nd batch of dough for another use, or just double the frosting recipe!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

On a clean, floured surface, roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Roll the dough so it’s about 1/4 – 1/2 inch thick, and use your favorite cookie cutters to cut out shapes of the dough. For these cookies, I used a pumpkin cookie cutter. Use a cookie spatula (better known as a pancake flipper) to move your cookies from the floured surface to a well greased baking sheet. Ungreased silicone baking sheet liners work great here too.

Bake the cookies at 400 degrees F for 8 minutes. You never want them to get too browned around the edges, or they’ll be super crunchy. We like ours on the softer side. Baking time depends on what shapes you cut your cookies into – we have adjusted baking times from 8-12 minutes depending on the size of our cookies. Let cool completely before frosting.

For the Frosting:

Combine butter, salt, maple syrup, vanilla, and 1 cup of the powdered sugar. Add milk and remaining sugar, alternately. Mix until smooth & creamy. Add the food coloring to make the frosting orange, if using.

Frost the cooled cookies. If desired, decorate the pumpkins with fun jack-o-lantern designs. We used store bought black frosting for this, and it’s totally optional. Cookies keep well in the fridge for a up to a week, a few days at room temperature. Enjoy!

NOTE: I made a full recipe of the dough and only used half. This cookie dough freezes really well and can be saved for another use, or you can double the frosting recipe and go crazy and bake all of the cookies!

Pumpkin Cornbread

29 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by in Baking, Breads, Holidays, Side Dish

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Pumpkin Cornbread

My obsession with cornbread runs deep. I’ll try just about any variation, but as long as there’s cornmeal in something, it’s pretty much guaranteed I’m gonna love it. This pumpkin cornbread was super easy and totally festive for this time of year.  Continue reading →

Pumpkin Bread (with some special add-ins)

21 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by in Baking, Breads, Desserts, Easy, Holidays

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Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin bread is kind of a ‘duh’ thing to be making right now. I mean…………it’s time for pumpkin EVERYTHING. This year is worse than any other year. I have never seen so many ridiculous flavored pumpkin things…but that didn’t stop me from buying some “Limited Edition” Pumpkin Spice flavored “morsels” (do you HATE the word morsels too?).

Pumpkin Mini Loaves

Yeah – I just had to. But thankfully, I found a pumpkin bread recipe that will last for years to come. It will still be good even after these pumpkin chips get discontinued forever and ever. It will taste good in July, considering the way things are going these days Halloween stuff will probably start hitting the stores mid-summer in the years to come.

Pumpkin Bread

The reason this pumpkin bread recipe is great is because you use an ENTIRE can of pumpkin. Nothing is worse than opening a can of pumpkin and having half of it sitting around with you twiddling your thumbs, not knowing what to do with it. Yes – this recipe makes 3 loaves, but the bread freezes great, and ’tis the season to start pawning off all of your baked goods on family and friends.

tasty fillings

Loaf and mini loaves

Side note: I really like using a mini-loaf pan for these sorts of things because they are super fun. If you don’t have a mini loaf pan, use the cheap store-bought foil ones – they work WAY better than my fancy Le Creuset loaf pan (sad but true).

Pumpkin Bread

Until next year, pumpkin bread. I’ll definitely be revisiting this recipe. Do you have any favorite pumpkin bread recipes you would like to share? I’d love to find the ultimate recipe, and for now this one is close!

Recipe
Pumpkin Bread (with pumpkin chips and walnuts!)
makes 3 (7×3 inch) loaf pans, or about 24 mini loaves
adapted from All Recipes

Ingredients

  • 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 2/3 cup water
  • 3 cups white sugar
  • 3 1/2 cups flour
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/4 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 cup chopped, roasted walnuts (optional)
  • 1 cup (or about 10 oz, aka a whole bag) of pumpkin flavored morsels (can sub white choc chips too)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour 3 (7×3 inch) loaf pans, or use a mini loaf pan if you have one.

2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Add the chips and walnuts, if using. I roasted my walnuts in a skillet on low heat for a few minutes before adding, just to amp it up a little. Pour into the greased pans.

3. Bake for about 50 minutes in the oven, only about 25-30 minutes if you are using a mini loaf pan. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool and invert bread onto a wired rack if desired.

Pumpkin Cheddar Bread and Meeting the Fabulous Beekman Boys

05 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by in Baking, Breads, Entertaining, Events, Vegetarian

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Last year, I bought my mom the Beekman 1802 Heirloom Cookbook for her birthday. Lo and Behold, a new Heirloom Dessert cookbook is out by the Fabulous Beekman Boys and this year I got to take my mom to their book signing for her birthday!Beekman Boys Heirloom Dessert CookbookJosh and Brent were so cute and sweet in person. It was great seeing my mom chat with them – she has been a fan forever and has watched their TV Show and their stint on the Amazing Race (which they won). When I started watching the show I realized halfway through that I had read one of Josh’s books, I Am Not Myself These Days. It’s a quick and hilarious read and I recommend it in addition to any of their cookbooks.Beekman Pumpkin Cheddar BreadTo get ourselves “pumped up” for the book signing, we made the Beekman’s Pumpkin Cheddar Bread. I haven’t made much bread in my life, since any recipe with yeast in it makes me nervous…but after making this I am nervous no more! I have found it takes time to make bread…but not much effort if you are going with a classic, timeless recipe. Along with my Pumpkin Soup, I think this bread will become a yearly fall tradition around here!Pumpkin Cheddar Bread

Recipe
Pumpkin Cheddar Bread
Barely Adapted from the Beekman 1802 Heirloom Cookbook

Ingredients

  • 3 3/4 cups All-Purpose Flour, plus more for surface and bowl
  • 1 tablespoon Packed Light-Brown Sugar
  • 1 package Rapid-Rise Yeast (1/4 oz envelope)
  • 2 teaspoons Salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
  • 3/4 cups Unsweetened Pumpkin Puree
  • 4 ounces Shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
  • 1 tablespoon Unsalted Butter, softened, for buttering pan
  • 1 large Egg yolk, lightly beaten with 1 teaspoon water

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, stir together 3 1/2 cups flour, brown sugar, yeast, salt, and cayenne. Add 1 cup water, pumpkin, and cheese; stir to combine. (Dough will be slightly sticky.)
  2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until it forms a smooth ball. (Add up to 1/4 cup more flour if needed.) Sprinkle a large bowl with flour and add ball of dough, turning to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
  3. Butter a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan with 1 tablespoon butter. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and use hands to flatten to a rectangle, about 9 by 10 inches. Roll dough into a log and place seam-side down in loaf pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let rise at room temperature until almost doubled in volume, 1 to 1 1/4 hours.
  4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Using a sharp knife, slash loaf down center. Brush loaf with egg wash. Bake until loaf sounds hollow when tapped, 40 to 50 minutes. Turn out of pan onto a wire rack to cool.Pumpkin Cheddar Bread

Happy Halloween!

31 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by in Events, Holidays

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Happy Halloween everyone! Today marks the first holiday in our new house and we are very excited to see all of the cute trick or treaters tonight!Carved PumpkinsTonight we are making these cute pumpkin and bat shaped ravioli – I found these at the store and screamed out “CUTE!” like a weirdo in front of everyone and had to pick up the package and awkwardly walk away.Halloween RavioliHere are some other Pumpkin recipes that would be festive and great to enjoy around this holiday (most people are too busy eating candy, but why stop there?)Pumpkin Gingersnap TartThis Marbled Pumpkin Gingersnap Tart is a total winner – it’s almost like a pumpkin cheesecake, but it’s a bit on the lighter side.salted caramel pumpkin cheesecake with a chocolate crustThe more decadent side is this Pumpkin-Orange Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust and Salted Caramel. Try saying that 5 times fast! Or just make it to impress all of your friends.Pumpkin SoupAnd then there is this year’s new fave – Pumpkin Soup with Bacon and Croutons. If I didn’t have the cute pumpkin ravioli, I would be eating this for dinner as I waited for trick-or-treaters. By eating this soup you can feel a little better about following it with tons of Halloween candy…I mean what?Wheelbarrows at Pumpkin PatchSee you next year, Halloween!

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin Soup with Bacon and Croutons

30 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Entertaining, Events, Holidays, Main Dish, Soups

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Nothing says Fall like a warm, hearty bowl of soup. Pumpkin Soup with Bacon and Croutons, however, takes Fall to a whole new level.Pumpkin SoupI was blown away with how this soup turned out. Normally I associate the canned pumpkin with sweet treats and desserts, but this soup has changed my mind. I also couldn’t help but think baby food as everything was cooking down (aren’t I super good at convincing you to try my recipes?)…but dammit, it’s a really freakin good adult version of baby food that I would be proud to feed my baby/kids someday (showing them this blog with all the swearing probably won’t be on my list though).Pumpkin SoupAnyways, Pumpkin Soup ended up being a huge success! The bacon and croutons are a must – so was the sprinkling of goat cheese on top. Another thing that blew my mind was the soup was even better the next day. I think this soup will become a yearly October tradition in our house. Next time I will likely double the recipe since the soup is great as leftovers. I also see new versions of this soup surfacing in the years to come, and I can’t wait!Pumpkin Soup

Recipe
Pumpkin Soup with Bacon & Croutons
Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 cup chopped carrots
  • 1 (15 oz) can unsweetened pumpkin
  • 2 cups cooked, diced bacon
  • pinch nutmeg
  • 32 oz (2 lbs) low sodium chicken broth
  • dash thyme
  • dash red pepper flakes
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 4 – 6 slices day old bread, depending on what size of loaf you are using (I used a few slices of a crusty artisan loaf)

Additional Garnishes:

  • Goat cheese or sour cream
  • Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the chopped onion and carrots and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 – 10 minutes or until softened. Add a few dashes of salt and pepper while the veggies are cooking down.

2. While the vegetables are cooking, dice raw bacon into small pieces and add to a separate pan. Cook on medium until bacon pieces get slightly crisp. Set aside and drain on paper towels. Leave remaining grease in pan for the croutons. To make croutons, cut bread into small squares and cook on medium-low in the bacon pan until brown and crisp. Set aside to drain on paper towels.

3. Add the pumpkin, half of the cooked bacon (about 1 cup), and nutmeg to the carrot and onion mixture, stirring well. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5 – 10 minutes.

4. Pour in the chicken broth, increase the heat to medium, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for at least 15 minutes. Add a few dashes of thyme and red pepper flakes, season to taste with more salt and pepper if needed.

5. Remove the pan from heat and let cool slightly. Use an immersion blender to blend up the soup until smooth. If you don’t have an immersion blender, I highly recommend you get one…but transferring the soup to a food processor or blender and blending in batches also works fine. If so, return it to the pan and reheat.

6. Serve soup with the reserved bacon bits and croutons. Soup is excellent with a few sprinkles of goat cheese on top, or sour cream. Toasted Pumpkin Seeds add a nice seasonal flair as well.

Marbled Pumpkin Gingersnap Tart

24 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by in Baking, Desserts, Easy, Entertaining, Events, Holidays, Thanksgiving

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Basically, a delicious pumpkin cheesecake with a graham-gingersnap crust.

A perfect (and easy!) Thanksgiving dessert. Also amazing for fall in general. This dish looks complicated, but I couldn’t believe how quickly it came together when I made it on Thanksgiving morning. I might need to work on my ‘marbling’ skills a bit, but taste always trumps imperfections in presentation. This is also the first of many recipes I will make from my new Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. It’s an absolutely wonderful and beautiful collection of recipes. I can’t wait to share more with you!

Recipe

Marbled Pumpkin GIngersnap Tart

From the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

yield: one  9-inch tart, serving 8 (I used a 10 1/4 inch tart pan, things still worked out great, slightly less time in the oven).

Crust 

  • 4 ounces gingersnap cookies (about 16 cookies), coarsely broken
  • 3 ounces graham crackers (five and a half graham cracker sheets)
  • ¼ cup (½ stick) salted butter, melted.

Cheesecake batter 

  • 4 ounces cream cheese, well softened
  • 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg yolk

Pumpkin batter 

  • 1 large egg
  • 1 large egg white
  • 1¼ cups (about ½ to ¾ of a 15- ounce can) pumpkin purée
  • ¼ cup granulated white sugar
  • ¼ cup brown sugar
  • ½ teaspoon table salt
  • ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
  • Few fresh gratings of nutmeg
  • 1 cup heavy cream

Make crust – Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Finely grind the gingersnaps and graham crackers in processor (yielding 1½ cups). Add the melted butter, and process until the cookie-crumb mixture is moistened. Press the mixture firmly into the bottom and up the sides of  9- inch- diameter tart pan with removable bottom. (I like to use the bottom and outer side of a measuring cup to help pack the crumbs into the base and neatly up the walls of my crumb crusts.) Place pan on rimmed baking sheet. Make cheesecake batter.  Mix together the ingredients in a small bowl until smooth.

Make pumpkin batter.  Beat the egg and the egg white lightly in a large bowl. Whisk in the pumpkin, sugars, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. Gradually whisk in the cream. Assemble tart  Pour the pumpkin batter into  gingersnap graham crust. Dollop the cheesecake batter over pumpkin batter, marble the two together decoratively with a knife. Try not to pierce the bottom crust as you do.

Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 30 to 40 minutes, or until a knife or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the tart completely on a rack, or in the fridge if you prefer it cold. We made this early in the morning, cooled it, put it in the fridge, then served it for Thanksgiving dessert. It was great, and I’m thinking it’s even better on day 2!

Pumpkin-Orange Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust and Salted Caramel

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Baking, Desserts, Entertaining, Thanksgiving

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…If the title of this recipe isn’t a mouthful, I don’t know what is. When you say it out loud, it almost sounds ridiculous. But when I saw the recipe in Sunset Magazine, I thought this creation may be too good to be true. I wondered before making it, “too many ingredients?”

The Holy Grail of Thanksgiving Desserts

No. They are all amazing flavors that were obviously made for each other. We first made this as a unique Thanksgiving dessert, and it was so good I think we’ll be making it this year, and the next, and the next…

Recipe

from Sunset Magazine

Pumpkin-Orange Cheesecake with Chocolate Crust and Salted Caramel

Ingredients

  • CRUST
  • 1 package (9 oz.) chocolate wafer cookies
  • 1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
  • FILLING
  • 3 packages (8 oz. each) cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • 4 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 cup canned pumpkin
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • Zest of 2 medium oranges
  • 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
  • TOPPING
  • 6 tablespoons store-bought caramel topping
  • 1/8 teaspoon table salt
  • 1/2 cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans
  • Flaked salt* (such as Cyprus sea salt flakes or Maldon salt), for garnish

Preparation

  1. 1. Make crust: Preheat oven to 350°. Whirl cookies in a food processor until finely ground. Whirl in butter just until incorporated. Pour crumbs into a 9-in. springform pan and press over bottom and about 1 in. up inside of pan. Bake 7 minutes, then let cool on a rack. Reduce oven heat to 300°.
  2. 2. Make filling: In a large bowl, with a mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese, sugars, and flour until smooth. Beat in eggs on low speed 1 at a time. Add remaining filling ingredients and beat until just blended. Wrap bottom of pan with foil, pressing it up the outside.
  3. 3. Set springform pan in a roasting pan and pour filling into crust. Pour enough boiling water into roasting pan to come about halfway up side of springform pan. Bake until cheesecake barely jiggles in the center when gently shaken, about 1 1/4 hours. Let cheesecake cool on a rack 1 hour, then chill until cold, at least 5 hours.
  4. 4. Whisk caramel topping and table salt in a bowl and spoon over cheesecake. Arrange pecans around rim and sprinkle flaked salt over pecans.
  5. *Flaked salt has large, hollow, crunchy crystals. Find it at well-stocked grocery stores and online.
Note:For a fissure-free cheesecake, beat your filling just until it’s blended–no more. (Too much air in the mixture will make it deflate, and then crack, in the oven.) Find pumpkin pie spice in your baking aisle, or make your own: 4 parts cinnamon, 2 parts ground ginger, 1 part nutmeg, and 1 part ground allspice.