VP Care to post a couple of pumpkin recipes? My mother wants to buy a couple for decoration and asked me if I knew any good recipes, since the soup my dad made of them in the past was horrible.
I thought of this thread immediately, since in N-A it's quite a popular thing for Halloween right? I'd be most interested in sweet dishes if possible, cakes cookies and muffins sound good to me!
Pumpkins are carved for Hallowe'en here, but I'm not really sure if they're the cooking variety, I'd check on that before attempting to bake with one you've bought for carving.
Here are the recipes I used. In my opinion, and according to others who had my pumpkin creations, the cake is the best. It's really dense and moist, sort of like a carrot cake.
Pumpkin Spice Cake Recipe & Photo - Joyofbaking.com
Pumpkin Spice Cake:
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups (270 grams) light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup fresh or canned pure pumpkin (about 1/2 of a 15 ounce can)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups (200 grams) sifted cake flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup (120 ml) buttermilk, room temperature
Note: To make your own buttermilk combine 1/2 cup (120 ml) of milk with 1/2 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice. Stir and let stand for 10 minutes before using.
Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 ounces (228 grams) cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup (56 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup (preferably Grade A dark amber)
2 cups (230 grams) confectioners' (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted
For Garnish:
1/2 cup (50 grams) toasted and chopped walnuts or pecans
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Butter and flour (or spray with Baker's Joy) two - 8 inch (20 cm) cake pans.
Cake: In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the pumpkin puree and vanilla and beat until incorporated.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and spices. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to the pumpkin batter, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Divide the batter in half and then pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake for approximately 25 - 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes and then invert and remove the cakes from their pans. Cool completely before frosting.
Frosting: Place the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of your food processor (or use a hand mixer) and pulse until smooth. Add the maple syrup and confectioners' sugar and process to combine. Adjust syrup or sugar until you have the right consistency.
Assemble:
Place one of the cake layers, top side down, on a serving plate. Frost with a layer of icing. Place the second cake, top side down, onto the first layer and frost the top and sides of the cake. Garnish with chopped nuts, if desired. Refrigerate but bring to room temperature before serving.
Here are the cookies. These make really large, moist, puffy, cake-like cookies.
Pumpkin Cookies Recipe With Picture - Joyofbaking.com
Pumpkin Cookies:
2 cups (160 grams) all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 1/4 cups (260 grams) light brown sugar
1/2 cup (120 ml) canola oil or corn oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup (215 grams) canned pumpkin puree
Cream Cheese Frosting:
4 ounces (115 grams) room temperature cream cheese, regular of low fat
2 tablespoons (25 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (55 grams) confectioners' (powdered or icing) sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Note: Instead of frosting the cookies, you can add to the batter either 1 cup of chopped nuts (pecans or walnuts) or 1 cup of chocolate chips (semi sweet or milk)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) and place oven rack in the center of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cloves, and salt.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until light and smooth (about 2 minutes). Beat in the oil, vanilla extract, and pumpkin puree. Add the flour mixture and beat just until incorporated. Using 1/4 cup of batter (can use a small ice cream scoop or measuring cup) place small mounds of batter onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches (5 cm) apart.
Bake for about 15 - 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cookie comes out clean. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
Frosting: Beat the cream cheese and butter until soft and creamy. Beat in the confectioners' sugar and vanilla until the frosting is soft and creamy.
Makes about 18 cookies.
Pumpkin Cheesecake Recipe | Cheesecake Recipes
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Crust:
1/4 cup margarine or butter
1 1/4 cup graham crackers or ginger snaps, crushed into crumbs
Melt butter in a saucepan and stir in crumbs. Press into ungreased 9"x9" springform pan and bake 350°F for 10 minutes. (NOTE: when I made this, I didn't bake the crumb crust prior to baking the cheesecake, and it turned out perfectly.)
Filling:
2 - 8 ounce packages cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 - 14 ounce can pumpkin
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
Beat cream cheese and sugar together well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Mix in remaining ingredients. Pour over crust Bake 350ºF for 1 hour or until firm.
Chill and garnish with whipping cream. Sprinkle a bit of nutmeg or ginger on the whipped cream if desired.
Serves 12.
A couple of cheesecake making tips: make sure that the cream cheese comes to room temperature before mixing it, that makes it much easier to work with. Put a pan of water in the oven on a rack below the rack the cheesecake is on. This helps to keep it moist, and prevents it from cracking. I know this recipe says to bake until it's firm, but practically every other recipe I've seen says to bake till the edges are firm and the inside is still a little jiggly, it'll set completely as it cools.
General pumpkin baking tip - you can buy two kinds of canned pumpkin, one is just pure pumpkin with nothing added, the other is pumpkin pie filling which has spices and sugar added to it. I've used both, but if I use the pie filling, I either add no extra spice, or very little (usually just a little extra cinnamon), and I also adjust the sugar accordingly.
I've also made muffins and pumpkin loaf, but seriously, the pumpkin spice cake batter I posted above blows them all away. That'll now be my go-to mix for any sort of pumpkin-based cake/loaf/muffin thing. It should have its own fan club, it's that good.