Pumpkin Pasta

We love east weeknight meals in our house, and my son loves his Mac and cheese, or anything with cheese and pasta in it. This is the perfect elevated ‘Mac and cheese’ type dinner, and what’s even better there some pumpkin in it!

What you will need:

1 pound fusilli pasta

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 tsp sage

2 tsp rosemary 10 tbsp (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons) unsalted butter

1 tsp ground ginger

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

15 oz pumpkin puree {recipe here} or 1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin puree

2 tsp dark brown sugar

¾ cup finely grated Parmesan

Salt & black pepper

Directions:

In a large pot, bring 6 quarts of water to a rolling boil. Add a generous amount of salt. Add the pasta to the pot and stir so it doesn’t stick to the bottom as it cooks. Cook the pasta according to package instructions, 8 to 10 minutes. Reserve some of the pasta cooking water. Drain the pasta in a colander and hold it there until the sauce is finished.

While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a large, high-sided skillet over medium heat until it shimmers. Add 8 tablespoons (1 stick) of butter until it starts to turn light brown. Add the ginger and garlic and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. add in the sage and rosemary. Add the pumpkin, sugar and some of the reserved pasta water. Stir in about ½ cup of Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the cooked pasta to the skillet and warm gently, tossing to coat the pasta with the sauce.

Top with the remaining Parmesan. 

Enjoy!

Cranberry Pumpkin Loaf

I love everything pumpkin and any excuse to use pumpkin! And my new favorite combination is pumpkin and cranberry. The earthy, deep flavor of pumpkin combined with the fresh, tart pop of the cranberries in this pumpkin loaf is so unexpected. Festive enough for New Years dessert!

What you will need:

½ cup canola oil (or 1 stick unsalted butter)

1 cup pumpkin puree (recipe for homemade here)

1 cup loosely packed light brown sugar

¼ cup maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or extract)

2 large eggs

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice

¾ tsp kosher salt

½ tsp baking soda

½ cup frozen cranberries

2 tbsp turbinado sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper and grease, or grease a loaf pan and dust with flour.

Combine the oil, pumpkin, brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl. Whisk until smooth.

Whisk together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda in a separate bowl. When I don’t have whole wheat flour on hand, I use all-purpose flour and it works well too.

Add the dry to the wet ingredients and whisk until smooth (but don’t overmix).

Scrape into the loaf pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Press cranberries into the top and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.

Bake for 50-55 minutes, until the top is browned and crusty, and a toothpick inserted in comes out clean. Let cool.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Biscotti

It’s almost Thanksgiving, and this weekend I did a bit more pumpkin baking. I baked pumpkin bread to bring to the Thanksgiving meal, chocolate scones for snacks for the week {I will share my recipe adaptation to my pumpkin scones hopefully later this week} and my new obsession, pumpkin biscotti.

It’s still fall here, but it is undeniable that winter is approaching. As I was baking, grey clouds crept across the sky, and the chilly wind was howling outside my window scaring the leaves right off the trees. This is the kind of weather where you just want to stay in, snuggled under a warm blanket with hot cocoa and some freshly baked biscotti. What else?

My biscotti are packed with flavor and hints of warm spices, and great for dipping!

While in the oven, they made the house feel so warming and rustic.

My recipe is very adaptable, swap out the pumpkin puree for chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruit, or any other flavor you are craving.

Baking Tip: When swapping out the pumpkin puree, use less flour as it will be drying without the moist pumpkin puree. When making my chocolate chip biscotti, I used 2 cups of flour instead of 2 ½ cups.

What you will need:

2 1/2 cups of flour

1 cup of sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Pinch of salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/2 cup of pumpkin purée

Preheat oven to 350°F. 
In a large bowl add flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, and spices.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, pumpkin purée, and vanilla extract. 

Pour the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture.  Give it a quick stir to incorporate all of the ingredients, the dough will be a little crumbly.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Form the dough into a long log, roughly 16 inches long by 6 inches wide.  The log should be relatively flat, only about ½ inch high, otherwise you will have really big sliced of biscotti.  

Baked for 20-25 minutes at 350°F, until the center is firm to the touch.You can also make two smaller logs for mini bite-size biscotti, just cut the baking time down to 15-20 minutes.
Let biscotti cool for 15 minutes.  Use a serrated knife cut the log into 1 inch wide pieces. 

Turn the oven to 300°F and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes. Allow to cool completely.

Biscotti may be still be a little moist and chewy, so if you prefer it crisp let it sit uncovered overnight in a dry space. 
Enjoy!

Dreamy Pumpkin Bread

Have I said lately how much I love pumpkin? In case you missed it…I LOVE PUMPKIN! I don’t think I will ever get sick of it.
With that said, I want to share my pumpkin bread recipe. It started out as my banana bread recipe when I first made it a few years ago. This weekend a light bulb went off in my head as I was trying to think of new ways to incorporate pumpkin in my life….I can substitute mashed bananas for my pumpkin purée! I absolutely love Starbucks pumpkin bread, but at $2.25 a slice and some 300+ calories later I always regret it. My version has less than half the calories per slice and I can eat it more often {more pumpkin=more happy.}

What you will need:

1 ½ cups flour
1 ¼ tsps. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. salt
2 slightly beaten egg whites
1 cup pumpkin purée
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup canola oil
Nonstick spray
8x4x2” Loaf pan

  
In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

In a large mixing bowl whisk together egg whites, pumpkin, sugar, and oil. 

Stir flour mixture into pumpkin mixture until well incorporated.

Liberally spray a loaf pan with nonstick spray {you do not want your bread to stick to the pan, so really spray it!} Spread batter into pan and bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Let the bread cool in the loaf pan for 10 minutes to set up. It was so hard not to take it out and have a taste of it at this point!

Remove from the pan and let cool thoroughly. Wrap in plastic wrap for storing.

Enjoy!

Thankful Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving is coming in just over 2 short weeks! What better way to get in the spirit {and tune out the way too early Christmas music} than getting the house to smell like warm spices and homemade pumpkin pie. I spent a good part of the weekend baking and DIY-ing cheap thrift store finds {which I will share within my next few posts}
I always make 2 pies at a time and freeze one for the next week {such a time saver.}

What you will need:

2 cups of pumpkin puree {recipe here} or canned pumpkin puree

1 ½ cup heavy cream or 1 12 oz. can of evaporated milk

½ cup packed dark brown sugar

¼ cup flour

2 eggs plus yolk of a 3^rd egg

2 tsps. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. ground nutmeg

½ tsp. salt

2 good graham cracker crusts {or any good crust of your liking, I personally like the texture of the graham crumbs against the smooth pumpkin filling}

Preheat the oven to 425°.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugars, salt, and spices.

Beat the 2 eggs and yolk of a 3^rd egg in a separate bowl, then incorporate into the dry ingredients bowl.

Stir in the pumpkin puree.  Stir in the cream/milk.  Whisk the whole mixture together until well incorporated.

Pour half the mixture in each pie crust.

Optional- add some brown sugar crumbles to the tops of each pie for a more caramelized coating.
Bake at 425° for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, reduce the temperature to 350° and bake another 40-50 minutes, or test readiness by inserting a toothpick {if it comes out clean, it’s ready!}
Let cool for 2 hours.

Enjoy!

Bakery Hack ~ Pumpkin Scones

I know what you’re thinking, scones sound so fancy and foreign they must include tons of ingredients and a thousand steps to the finish line…That’s what I thought as well when I first heard them…Well I was completely WRONG! They are actually quite simple and require only a few ingredients that you probably already have.
I also wanted to prove to my husband that they are dirt cheap to make, so I calculated the cost of my ingredients used per batch, it came to roughly $3 for a batch of 8 scones…that’s only 38 cents per scone! WHOA!! Bakeries charge like $4 a pop, they ain’t going to fool me twice!

What you will need:

½ cup packed light brown sugar

2 tsps. baking powder

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

½ tsp. salt

2 to 2 ½ cups flour, plus more for dusting

6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

½ cup roasted pumpkin puree {recipe here}, or canned pumpkin puree

1 large egg

½ cup milk

Preheat oven to 400°.
In a medium bowl combine the dry ingredients; sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

If using roasted pumpkin {recipe here}, add 2 ¼ cups of the flour; if using canned pumpkin puree, add 2 cups of the flour.

Cut in the butter into the dry ingredients using a bowl scraper until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.

In a separate bowl combine the wet ingredients; the pumpkin, egg, and milk.

Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in the wet mixture. Fold until just combined. (If using roasted pumpkin you may need to add up to ¼ cup more flour to prevent sticking.)

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Form into a flat disc, about 8 inches wide. Cut the disc like a pie into 8 pieces and place on a parchment-lined sheet.

Bake until golden brown, roughly 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet.

Enjoy!

Fall Obsession: PUMPKINS! Roasted Pumpkin Recipe

Hi all! Welcome to my blog!! So happy you landed here. I thought I would start my first post with my new obsession, PUMPKINS!!!!
This is just the first of many posts that will include something edible with pumpkins.

First thing you need for any pumpkin recipe is roasted pumpkins! {soo much better and cheaper than the canned puree}

The hubby and I went apple picking a few weeks back and happen to pick up one large pumpkin on impulse for Fall decoration…It served its purpose, and I don’t like for anything to go to waste, so I came up with a few ways to utilize the pumpkin in some Fall inspired recipes {stay tuned more recipes to come!}

The base for all my pumpkin recipes is this really easy way to roast and puree my pumpkin.

You will need:
1 3-4 pound sugar pumpkin
Oil for drizzling
Some salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Slice the pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds into a bowl {save the seeds!}

Place pumpkin, cut side up, on a baking sheet. You can cut the pumpkin in quarters, but halves do the trick for me.
Drizzle with some oil, I use olive oil but vegetable oil will work if you don’t have olive oil, and some salt to season.

Roast until the pumpkin is softened, roughly 35-45 minutes.

Let the pumpkin cool completely before scooping it from the flesh and mashing. I just use a fork to mash it up a little.


The pumpkin puree will last up to 5 days covered in the fridge, or you can even freeze some in an airtight container to use later.

Stay tuned for how to use the seeds!