Pumpkin Muffins

These muffins were made to use up half a can of pumpkin puree. This recipe makes dense spicy muffins studded with raisins and pecans. They are great for a quick snack or breakfast. This recipe also works really well with shaped mini bundt pans.
Case in point, these adorable pumpkin shaped moulds. These are just sweet enough to satisfy a craving for baked goods while being wholesome enough for everyday. You could even slick them with a brown butter glaze or frosting but I don't because that would veer too far into cupcake territory, and sometimes you just don't need any adornment.


Pumpkin Nut Muffins

This recipe works well in shaped muffin pans, such as the pumpkin mini-bundt pan.

Ingredients
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup light brown sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin or cooked pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ¾ cup milk
• ¾ cup whole wheat flour
• 2/3 cup pecans, roughly chopped
• 1 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
2. Lightly grease a 12 cup muffin pan or line with muffin paper cups.
3. Beat the butter until fluffy.
4. Add the flour, sugar, pumpkin, egg, cinnamon, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and milk. Beat until well combined.
5. Add the whole wheat flour, pecans, and raisins and fold until just combined.
6. Fill the prepared pan until each muffin cup is about two-thirds full. Bake in 375 degree F oven, 25-30 minutes until risen and golden. Remove from oven and let cool on wire rack.

Makes about 12-16 muffins.

Time: about 1 hour

From: Good Kitchen Magic by Carol Tennant

Pumpkin Cranberry Loaf

This quick bread is my new favourite thing to do with leftover pumpkin puree. I've made pumpkin muffins before and they are always dense and hearty but other than being hearty they generally are not the most exciting muffins around. But this moist pumpkin loaf with its generous amounts of orange zest, tart cranberries, a hint of vanilla , and warming spices has a more complex flavour and is just as satisfying as any of my muffin recipes.

This loaf is so tender, delicate, old fashioned and wintery. It is the perfect comfort food for this shitty Maritimes December day. It is raining! Not even a respectable snowfall..... but if rainy days mean I get to stay in and bake, I guess I cant complain that much...especially after a few slices of this pumpkin loaf.

Pumpkin Cranberry Loaf

Dairy

Makes one 9x5 loaf

Time: 2 hours

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon cloves
• ½ teaspoon ginger
• ½ cup butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 tablespoon orange zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1-1/2 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan with butter.
2. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices and set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and stir in pumpkin puree, orange zest and vanilla. Stir in orange juice. Add dry ingredients in 2 additions and blend just until incorporated. Fold in cranberries.
4. Spoon batter into a greased 9x5 loaf pan and bake in centre of oven for 60-75 minutes until a tester inserted into the loaf comes out clean. Allow to cool before slicing.

Adapted from: Sugar by Anna Olson

Pumpin Raisin Scones

When the Internet revealed to me that pumpkin scones existed I knew I would track down a recipe and devour these elusive scones with relish.

Pumpkin is one of my food obsessions. It bridges the gap between sweet and savoury and you can use it in just about everything. At the risk of sounding like Forrest’s good friend Bubba—you can make pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin soup, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bars, pumpkin risotto, pumpkin bread and these here pumpkin scones.

behold the scone circle of unity:

Pumpkin just screams fall. It is the quintessential autumn food, and it melds perfectly with other traditional autumn flavours, be it spices like cinnamon and ginger, or herbs like sage and rosemary.

While I’m not so keen on the whole “back to school” season, I’ve always seen fall as a renewing season. Spring and summer are more for shedding the baggage of winter but fall is the beginning, the time to start preparing yourself for a new year and the trials of a new winter.

Anyways this digression into my love of fall is related to these pumpkin scones because to me scones mean tea parties! And tea parties are rarely ever Fall themed. Now why is that? As far as I am concerned Afternoon tea should occur year round. This recipe is my attempt to rectify this dire situation, as these scones are fall personified; they represent the gentler aspects of fall. They are tender and soft, flecked with fall spices and studded with raisins. These scones are a great addition to a teaparty menu or just on their own with a chai latte. (Or a regular latte, whatever you like) I like these best dusted lightly with confectioner’s sugar and served with honey and butter. They are the perfect addition to a crisp fall afternoon.

Pumpkin Raisin Scones

Dairy

Prep time: 20 minutes

Bake:12-15 minutes

Makes: 8-12 scones

• 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp ginger
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp cloves
• 1/8 tsp allspice
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ cup chilled butter
• 1 egg, beaten
• ½ cup canned pumpkin
• 1/3 cup milk
• ½ cup raisins
• extra milk for brushing
• granulated sugar and icing sugar for sprinkling

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a mixing bowl combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and salt. With a pastry blender cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in the centre of dry mixture; set aside.
2. In another bowl, combine egg, pumpkin, and milk. Add egg mixture all at once to dry mixture. Stir in raisins. Using a wooden spoon, stir just until moistened.
3. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Quickly knead dough by folding and pressing gently for 10-12 strokes or until nearly smooth. Pat dough into an 8-inch circle. Cut into 8-12 wedges.
4. Place wedges 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Brush tops with milk and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden. Remove scones from baking sheet and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with icing sugar. Serve scones warm with honey and butter.

In Lieu of Pie.....

So thanksgiving has come and gone and I didn’t get pie… but I got my pumpkin fix anyhow (and really, my mom is better at pie making anyways, hi mom!). Instead, This recipe from the Autumn 2009 LCBO Food and Drink intrigued me. As luck would have it I had all of the ingredients in my pantry to make this pumpkin butter shortbread torte. Think of it as a sexed up version of pumpkin pie. Tender shortbread flavoured with orange zest and Chinese five spice powder, gets sandwiched with a sweet and spicy pumpkin butter full of fresh ginger. The shortbread gets baked into disks and layered with the pumpkin butter then left to chill so that the cookies soften into a cake-like texture, and the orange and spice flavours meld together into something far tastier than the sum of its parts.

But lets talk about its parts anyways.

The cookie layers: The orange five spice shortbread, was a simple shortbread that came together easily. My only change to the recipe was to substitute milk for the cream. The dough tasted really good, with the bright orange zest being a good counterbalance to the warm spices and slight fennel aftertatse. The cookies had a good texture and I would love to make these on their own as individual cookies. The only issue is that the original recipe said the dough would make 7 layers for the torte and I only got 6 layers, which were quite thin. Not that I am complaining, 6 layers is a lot of cookie. I don’t own a 8 inch tart pan, mine is 9 -inches so I did not get pretty fluted edges for my layers because I had to trace around a circle to get my cookie layers even. I think that next time I make this, I might try making mini tortes using my 3-ich tart rings or even pumpkin butter sandwich cookies. The baking time was originally 12 minutes, I had to reduce to 10 minutes because the cookies were quite thin and my oven is crazy hot. Some of my layers got a bit browned on the edges. Of course, those layers ended up being placed on the bottom when I assembled the torte, but that is our secret.

The pumpkin butter:

Pumpkin butter tastes like a cross between pumpkin pie and a spicy jam. It is sweet and thick and spicy, liberally flavoured with fresh ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and orange juice.

The recipe called for 4 cups canned pumpkin. I suppose fresh would work, but canned is more convenient, and I find has less liquid in it and I decided that it might be better for the torte to have a firmer filling. The pumpkin and spices get cooked together for 40 minutes to intensify their flavour.

3 cups of pumpkin butter gets used for the torte, which means you will have extra. That’s ok because this stuff is also great on my cranberry scones or, you know, by the spoonful.

When it comes together, this torte is tall, sleek and modern and if you make this spread out over a couple of days, takes very little effort. I threw together the pumpkin butter and shortbread dough the night before, baked the cookies in the morning, assembled the torte before running off to class, and it was ready for that evening.

The layers softened up nicely, the torte easily sliced open to reveal sexy pin-striped insides. It has the nostalgic flavour of pumpkin pie, but the exotic hint of citrus and anise, made it much more mysterious and elegant than mere pie, the ingénue of pumpkin desserts.

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Pumpkin Butter Shortbread Torte

Makes about 5 cups pumpkin butter (3 cups get used for the torte the rest is great on scones)

Makes 6-7 shortbread discs (you could probably make smaller cookies out of these)

Serves 12

Dairy

Pumpkin butter:

• 1 (796 ml) tin pure pumpkin puree or 4 cups
• ¾ cup orange juice (about 2 oranges)
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Shortbread layer

• ½ cup butter, room temperature
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
• 1-1/2 tablespoons half and half cream or milk (I used 1% milk)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• icing sugar for dusting

1. For pumpkin butter: stir all ingredients together in a heavy bottom saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium low heat and simmer for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool to room temperature before chilling completely. Makes about 5 cups of which 3 cups will be used for the torte.
2. For the shortbread layers: beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg, orange zest and cream. In a separate bowl, sift flour, 5 spice powder, baking powder, and salt and add to butter mixture, stirring until, combined. Shape dough into a log, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
4. Cut dough into 6 equal pieces. On a lightly floured surface, roll out 1 piece of dough to just over 1/8^th inch thick. Use the fluted edge of an 8-inch remove-able bottom tart pan to cut out a large disc, reserving scrap pieces of dough. Transfer the disc to a parchment lined baking tray (you can use the flat bottom portion of the tart pan to lift the disc. Repeat with remaining discs of dough , rolling a seventh disc with the scraps (for some reason I didn’t have enough left over for a seventh cookie layer I only got 6 really thin ones). Bake for 10-12 minutes (fitting up to 2 cookies per baking sheet) until just the edges brown. Let cool before assembling.
5. To assemble torte, lay one shortbread disc onto a plate. Spread about ½ cup pumpkin butter evenly over disc and top with another shortbread disc. Repeat until all layers are assembled. Chill for at least 6 hours or overnight before slicing, so that the layers will soften and slice evenly. To serve, dust top of torte with icing sugar.