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In Pursuit of Pumpkin: Battle of the Breads

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When fall comes around, I go pumpkin crazy. I’ve always loved the pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, but I’m not sure I ever thought about enjoying pumpkin outside of that one day a year until Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes came into my life. Now, I’m one of those people who gets excited when it’s featured on their menu again every year (though one of my coworkers reminded me that you can get whatever flavor drink you want at Starbucks all year round). Even though we don’t usually get much of a fall in the South, once the calendar hits September, I have pumpkin on the brain. When I realized I had a preposterous number of pumpkin recipes pinned, I decided to share them here. Here’s the 9th of 10 different pumpkin recipes for your gustatory pleasure–all that’s left is the pumpkin pie!

I’m not much of a baker, but I’ve come to enjoy making quick breads, i.e. breads that don’t need to rise and be kneaded. They really are quite quick to pull together! I’ve had Trader Joe’s boxed pumpkin bread mix before and thought it was really tasty, so I decided to do a comparison between it and “real” pumpkin bread.

 

I went with a recipe from my trusty Fannie Farmer cookbook (on the left above); the one in Baking at Home a) made 2 loaves and b) required ingredients I didn’t have on hand. Plus, ole Fannie has stood me in good stead for similar products, so I trusted her. The recipe basically included flour, sugar, water, oil, spices, and pumpkin puree: simple! You can see from the Trader Joe’s box that it’s basically that, as well, only with added preservatives, and pumpkin flakes instead of pumpkin puree. Yum?

Unfortunately the Fannie Farmer recipe called for 1 cup of pumpkin instead of a whole can (probably because she assumes you’ve made your own), so I was left with another partial can of pumpkin. :-(

The batters mixed up pretty similarly, though obviously the Fannie Farmer involved more measuring (and “sifting” again).


Fannie Farmer batter mixed up


Trader Joe’s batter mixed up

The batter from the Trader Joe’s mix was a little runnier, and not quite as pretty of an orange hue. You can see from the two pictures below that it evened out a little better into the loaf pan:

But the true test is the taste test, right?

First of all, when I cut the Trader Joe’s bread, it ended up like this:

Boo! It had developed somewhat of a sugary crust on top, though I didn’t add any sugar or anything to it, and the bread inside was so soft that even my sharp knife had trouble cutting through it cleanly.

I heated the breads up with colored toothpicks so I would know which was which (though actually, I could tell), and had Andy help me taste them. It was a real hardship on his part, you know.

The one on the left is Trader Joe’s. You can see it’s not as orange-y and not as fluffy. It was a little drier and a little sweeter, though I felt like it had perhaps a bit more flavor. With no prompting from me, though, Andy chose the “real” recipe as the winner. It was moister and just seemed like a better bread all around. It’s also probably nice that it doesn’t have all the preservatives of the boxed mix. The Trader Joe’s mix is only $2.99, but if you have the ingredients in your pantry for the Fannie Farmer bread, it’s surely cheaper. I’d say turn to Joe in an absolute pinch, but if you can stomach a brief stint of baking, the from-scratch bread is worth the bit of extra effort.

In Pursuit of Pumpkin: Sausage, Pumpkin, and Arborio Soup

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When fall comes around, I go pumpkin crazy. I’ve always loved the pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, but I’m not sure I ever thought about enjoying pumpkin outside of that one day a year until Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes came into my life. Now, I’m one of those people who gets excited when it’s featured on their menu again every year (though one of my coworkers reminded me that you can get whatever flavor drink you want at Starbucks all year round). Even though we don’t usually get much of a fall in the South, once the calendar hits September, I have pumpkin on the brain. When I realized I had a preposterous number of pumpkin recipes pinned, I decided to share them here. Here’s the 8th of 10 different pumpkin recipes for your gustatory pleasure!

This week’s recipe is a savory change from all the sweets and baked goods I’ve featured lately. Pumpkin soup was one of the things I made a few falls ago when Andy and I cut up a pumpkin to cook with, but it was a strange recipe and I wasn’t a fan of the final product. But I decided to give it a try with another recipe: Rachael Ray’s Sausage, Pumpkin, and Arborio Soup.

The object lesson from this week’s recipe is not to be intimidated by ingredients you don’t have or don’t know. I hardly used any of the specific things that were actually called for in this recipe! I didn’t want to spend $6 on a tub of arborio rice to get the 3/4 cup I needed for this recipe, so I decided to use regular white rice. Kroger was out of bulk Italian sausage except for the “hot” flavor when I shopped this week, so I bought mild Italian sausages and removed the casings (which was so weird, by the way, but easily doable!). I didn’t have the called-for sage, and my sausage didn’t have fennel in it, and I used ground nutmeg instead of fresh. I didn’t know what Tuscan kale was, nor did I see it at the store, so I just bought kale. But *gasp* most surprising of all, I actually made the recipe with the alternative of butternut squash instead of pumpkin because there were none at the store! I guess now that Halloween was over they were all rotten or sold. So, this week’s In Pursuit of Pumpkin recipe doesn’t actually have pumpkin in it, but it could, so I’m counting it.

The ingredients look pretty different from previous weeks!

  • 2 tablespoons EVOO, plus more for drizzling
  • 1 pound bulk Italian sweet sausage with fennel
  • 3 to 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 large bay leaf
  • 1 butternut squash or small pumpkin (2 pounds), peeled and cut into 3/4-inch dice
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
  • Freshly grated nutmeg
  • 6 cups chicken stock
  • 2 cups half-and-half
  • 1 small bunch Tuscan kale, stemmed and chopped
  • 3/4 cup Arborio rice
  • A few fresh sage leaves, torn
  • Shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano, for serving

I chopped up the onion and garlic, wrestled the butternut squash into something resembling cubes (those things are hard…literally!), and peeled off the sausage casings.

Then I browned the sausage in a little bit of EVOO, as Rachael calls it, adding the onion and garlic once it was fully brown. Those cooked together for 5 minutes.

I chopped the kale while this was simmering. I had a giant bunch, so I only used a portion of it to approximate the “small bunch of Tuscan kale.”

Next, add the squash to your pot and season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

Finally, pour in the chicken stock (I used broth) and half-and-half and bring to a boil. It starts looking pretty weird at this point!

Stir in the kale and reduce heat to low, simmering for 20 minutes or until the squash is tender.

Somehow it looked much more appealing to me once the kale was thrown in the mix. The  liquid looked pretty weird while it was boiling, but otherwise it seemed to do what it was supposed to do. If you’re serving it right away, you would add the rice at the end of the 20 minutes and simmer another 18-20 minutes, or until the rice is tender. I prepared this a day ahead minus the rice as the recipe says you can, and when I pulled it out of the fridge the next night was able to skim off a layer of sausage fat from the top. Yum. But if you’re wanting to make a not health-conscious recipe slightly healthier that might be a way to do it. :-)

This soup sounds fancy and looks pretty nice, but it really couldn’t have been much easier! It has good flavors and is a nice colorful addition to your fall dinner table.

 

In Pursuit of Pumpkin: Pumpkin Scones

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When fall comes around, I go pumpkin crazy. I’ve always loved the pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, but I’m not sure I ever thought about enjoying pumpkin outside of that one day a year until Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes came into my life. Now, I’m one of those people who gets excited when it’s featured on their menu again every year (though one of my coworkers reminded me that you can get whatever flavor drink you want at Starbucks all year round). Even though we don’t usually get much of a fall in the South, once the calendar hits September, I have pumpkin on the brain. When I realized I had a preposterous number of pumpkin recipes pinned, I decided to share them here. Here’s the 7th of 10 different pumpkin recipes for your gustatory pleasure!

Scones have been oversimplified for me by the “just add water” mixes we’ve gotten from Andy’s family in Ireland, but when I told my mom I was making these pumpkin scones recently, she reminded me of the couple of scone fails she and I have had. Oh, right. Scones are not the simplest baked good! And yet, with this recipe from The Shoebox Kitchen (originally on http://sweetpeaskitchen.com/) I was able to easily turn out a batch of beautifully glazed, light and fluffy scones. Success!

The cast of characters looks pretty familiar by now:

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
  • 3 tablespoons half-and-half
  • 1 large egg

Coincidentally, I had EXACTLY 3 tablespoons of half and half left in my carton, which I hadn’t known until this point in the recipe. (I was going to substitute milk up to the right amount if needed.)

Spiced Glaze

  • 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • Pinch of ground ginger
  • Pinch of ground cloves

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. (I never actually do the preheating bit until later on. I’m not sure why. It just stresses me out a little bit if the oven is hot and I’m not ready to put my stuff in it yet!)

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, half-and-half, and egg.  Set aside.

There’s that beautiful orange color I’ve come to know and love!

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger together into a large mixing bowl.  Add the cubed butter on top. (I don’t actually have a sifter, so I rigged the contraption below. Worked just fine!)

The recipe I followed called for the mixing to be done with a pastry blender, stand mixer, or food processor, but I happen to know that your fingers can work just as well (which is good, since I only have one of the above electronics and didn’t feel like getting anything else dirty by using it). With a light hand, pinch the pats of butter between your fingers until the dry ingredients mixture begins to stick to them. You eventually want a coarse mixture of butter and bits of flour, etc.

Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix gently. You want to stop mixing as soon as all the dry ingredients are moistened–scones get tough if you work the dough too much!

This batter is STICKY! I started mixing with a spatula and then tried to use my hands, but I got so much goop on my fingers that I ended up washing my hands and switching back to the spatula.

I don’t have pictures of the next few steps because, well, my fingers were covered in the aforementioned goop. Having a co-pilot might be helpful if you decide to make these scones, because it’s awkward when you need to grab something but your hands are all batter-y!

On a well-floured surface, flatten and form the dough into a 12″ x 4″ x 1″ thick rectangle. (Emphasis on the WELL FLOURED, and you’ll probably want to flour your hands, as well.) Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, divide the rectangle into three equal pieces, then slice each piece into four triangular pieces by making an “X” through them.

My rectangle didn’t quite make it to 12″, and it was thinner than 1″ thick, but I decided that having it not quite the right size was better than working the dough too much. (And I see now that it was probably more than 4″, so that was my problem! And yes, that’s a ruler you see over there. I measured…but clearly only one direction! Whoops!)

Place the triangles of dough on the parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for just 15 minutes, or until light brown.  Remove to a cooling rack and let cool before icing.

I mixed up the sugar glaze while the scones were baking. The original recipe called for a double glaze: one plain sugar and the other spiced, drizzled in a nice little pattern. I decided for simplicity’s sake to just make the spiced glaze and use it as the primary. It’s amazing how easily powdered sugar and a little bit of milk mix together to make a liquidy glaze!

Not the prettiest color, but it tasted delicious!

 The scones turned out beautifully, and thanks to the parchment paper there was neither sticking nor clean-up. :-)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, they’re all slightly different shapes…

I let them cool for a bit and then used this weird plastic brushy thing (I guess maybe it’s a pastry brush of sorts, or a grill basting brush? Whatever, it worked.) to slather the glaze all over them. I put some newspaper under the wire rack at this point so that my counter wouldn’t become glazed in the process.

After a little more cooling, the glaze hardened up nicely. The scones themselves aren’t super sweet, so the glaze adds a nice bit of sugar and spice. I think the pumpkin makes these a bit cakier than your typical scone, which is perhaps why they seemed easier. No dense, dry scones here! I enjoyed one as an evening snack and one for breakfast the next morning, which was delicious reheated for about 20 seconds in the microwave.

Bon appetit!

In Pursuit of Pumpkin: Pumpkin Custard

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When fall comes around, I go pumpkin crazy. I’ve always loved the pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, but I’m not sure I ever thought about enjoying pumpkin outside of that one day a year until Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes came into my life. Now, I’m one of those people who gets excited when it’s featured on their menu again every year (though one of my coworkers reminded me that you can get whatever flavor drink you want at Starbucks all year round). Even though we don’t usually get much of a fall in the South, once the calendar hits September, I have pumpkin on the brain. When I realized I had a preposterous number of pumpkin recipes pinned, I decided to share them here. Brad and Debby are back with the sixth of 10 different pumpkin recipes for your gustatory pleasure!

Still caught up in the excitement and glamor of the “Pumpkin Paroxysm”, I decided to try pumpkin custard.  How might it differ from good old pumpkin pie filling?  I didn’t know, and thought I would find out.  I drew inspiration from this recipe on Taste of Home but made several modifications.

Preheat oven to 350 °F.

Ingredients

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
2 eggs
1 cup 2% milk
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
Spice mix (1/2 teaspoon ginger, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ground cloves, ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg)
½ teaspoon salt

Topping: ¼ cup brown sugar, ¼ cup chopped pecans, 1 tablespoon melted butter

Directions

(Start some water (1-2 quarts boiling); it will be needed soon.)

1.  Combine all of the ingredients and mix until smooth.  It looked like this:

2.  Pour mixture into custard cups.  How many depends on their size.  I needed five.  Place these in a baking pan.

Now the tricky, and potentially dangerous, part – pour the hot water around the cups.  The water should have a depth of about 1 inch – it need not be exact.  About half way up the cups.  What is the point of this?  I don’t know exactly, but probably the water serves to distribute the heat more evenly.  The professor in me can now pontificate!  An unusual property of water compared to other liquids is its heat capacity.  Heat capacity is a unique physical property for  every substance and is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of an object or substance one degree.  For water, it takes 1 calorie to raise 1 gram 1 degree.  That is a lot compared to other liquids (for ethanol, for example, it takes only 0.58 cal to raise 1 gram 1 degree).  Because of this heat capacity, water resists wild swings in temperature.  It takes a lot of energy to heat or cool it.  Anyway, once the water is in the pan, carefully put it in the preheated oven.  KLUTZ ALERT!  You are moving a large pan with a lot of hot water.  Don’t burn yourself or anyone around you. Try not to drop it!

3.  Bake the custard cups, uncovered, for 20 minutes at 350 °F.

4.  In that 20 minutes, mix up the topping.

5.  After the 20 minutes, CAREFULLY slide the oven rack out to gain access to the cups, and sprinkle the topping on the custard.  Be careful!  There is nothing to fear, but there are hot surfaces and hot water that could burn.

6.  Bake for another 30-35 minutes once the topping is on.  The custard is done when a “knife inserted near the center comes out clean”.  I hate that particular instruction.  I can never decide what clean is, and call in Debby for a consultation.  She usually says “I don’t know, leave it in a little longer…”,  then the process is repeated a few minutes later.  Eventually , I just take the stuff out.  The same applies here.

7.  CAREFULLY remove the pan (with the hot water!) from the oven.  Now another problem presents itself.  The individual cups need to be removed from the pan of hot water so they don’t keep cooking.  How?  I don’t know the best way.  If your fingers are tough I suppose you could quickly grab the cup by the edge and move it to the counter.  Might burn… I tried one this way and while I wasn’t even slightly injured, I wouldn’t recommend it.   I then used a spatula with holes and a second tool, a large spoon, to lift them out.  Slide the spatula under the cup (right hand) while stabilizing with the spoon (left hand). Lift out and slide onto counter.

8. Done!

The custards can be eaten immediately or after they cool.  We liked the recipe!  It is much lighter than the typical pumpkin pie filling, less dense and fluffier.  Debby liked the fact that there is no crust, unlike pie.  The custard could be topped with whipped cream.  Not having any around, I whisked together some plain yogurt, maple syrup and vanilla extract as a topping.   It added some creaminess and contrast.

I think these could be great if someone has just gotten their wisdom teeth out around Thanksgiving and can’t eat the real stuff! And I guess if you foolishly don’t like pie crust (which I happen to love), these would be a delightful option. Though I’m not sure they’re much lower carb…

In Pursuit of Pumpkin: Pumpkin Oatmeal

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When fall comes around, I go pumpkin crazy. I’ve always loved the pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, but I’m not sure I ever thought about enjoying pumpkin outside of that one day a year until Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes came into my life. Now, I’m one of those people who gets excited when it’s featured on their menu again every year (though one of my coworkers reminded me that you can get whatever flavor drink you want at Starbucks all year round). Even though we don’t usually get much of a fall in the South, once the calendar hits September, I have pumpkin on the brain. When I realized I had a preposterous number of pumpkin recipes pinned, I decided to share them here. This is the fifth of 10 different pumpkin recipes for your gustatory pleasure!

I have a love/hate relationship with oatmeal. Well, if I’m honest, it is mostly hate. I want to like oatmeal, because it seems so wholesome and warming for a cool morning. But in reality, the texture almost always turns me off. Yet I keep trying it and trying it…so of course when I saw this pumpkin version from Peak 313 Fitness, I knew I’d eventually give it a try. I had a partial can of pumpkin left after making my pumpkin smoothie recently, and as most baked goods call for the entire can, I was excited to find a recipe that would use some of it up.

The ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup rolled oats
  • 1/4 cup almond or skim milk
    (Mine was vanilla almond milk)
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmug
    (I used 1 tsp of my home-mixed pumpkin pie spice.)
  • 1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
  • 1/2 tablespoon ground flax seed
    (I didn’t have this, so I left it out.)
  • 1 tablespoon chopped nuts (walnuts, pecans, or almonds)
    (I used pecans.)

I didn’t take a picture of them all assembled like I usually do, because I stumbled out of bed one Saturday and decided to make this on a whim. But I think you know what all of those things look like.

First you put the oats, milk, and water into a small saucepan and bring to a boil:

Doesn’t look so good yet!

Once it comes to a boil, stir in the pumpkin, spices, and pecans.

Simmer for another 2-3 minutes or until the oatmeal is done.

As all the pumpkin things I’ve tried so far, this comes out to be a beautiful color! If nothing else, pumpkin is good for a color. Plus, I considered the pumpkin to be the fruit part of my balanced fall breakfast.

I probably cooked this a bit too long, as I honestly mostly ignored it while I fixed my tea and peeled my egg. But actually, the more solid consistency helped me get over some of my oatmeal squeamishness. This didn’t have a TON of flavor, and I thought it could have been sweeter, but it was warm and satisfying as I had hoped. I saved about half in a bowl and reheated it the next morning with an added splash of almond milk. I think I might have liked it even better that way! It was creamier and sweeter, and I liked how the almond milk made it a little squishy. Plus the spices seemed to have intensified overnight. Maybe I’m weird, but I’d recommend making this and then eating it the next day!

I’m not an oatmeal convert, but I’d throw this into my fall breakfast rotation in years to come.

Here’s a bite for you!

How do you like your oatmeal (or do you sort of hate it like I do)?