Pumpkin Pecan Pie

Thanksgiving dinner came a little early this year. I really can't complain. Now I get to go ahead and start listening to Christmas music. And decorate…although I still need to get a tree…Anyways, I made our pie. I did some Pinterest-ing and Google-ing, and somewhere I came along this Pumpkin Pecan Pie with, what I'm calling, an Egg Nog sauce. It's completely perfect. My most favorite holiday flavors all in one bite. Bonus: I physically cannot digest it, so the absurd amount of calories don't count. Perks of not having a gallbladder? 

Pumpkin Pecan Pie

Pumpkin Filling:

1 cup pureed pumpkin

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 TBSP granulated sugar

1 large egg, beaten

1 TBSP unsalted butter, softened

1 TBSP vanilla 

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp all spice

Pecan Filling:

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup corn syrup

2 large eggs, beaten

1 1/2 TBSP unsalted butter, melted

2 tsp vanilla

1 pinch salt

1 pinch cinnamon

3/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 325*F.
• Prepare your favorite pie crust or use a pre-made pie crust dough. Grease an 8-inch springform pan. Place the dough inside, pressing it up the sides. Place in the fridge to chill while you make the filling.
• In a medium mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients for the pumpkin filling. Mix and set aside.
• In another medium bowl, combine all the ingredients for the pecan filling. Mix and set aside.
• Pull your crust out of the fridge. Pour the pumpkin mixture in, spreading evenly across the bottom. Pour the pecan mixture over that. 
• Place in the oven and bake for about 2 hours or until set.

Egg Nog Sauce

4 TBSP unsalted butter

1 large egg

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 TBSP very hot water

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup bourbon or whiskey

Nutmeg & cinnamon to taste

Directions:

• Melt the butter in the top of a double broiler set over gently simmering water.
• Beat the sugar, egg and vanilla in a small bowl until blended. Add to the melted butter.
• Add the hot water and stir until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon (about 7-8 minutes).
• Remove from double broiler and cool to room temperature.
• Mix in the cream, bourbon, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

If you want to avoid the alcohol, but like egg nog, I'd recommend serving this pie up with some egg nog ice cream. Yum! 

Bourbon Pumpkin Pie

Happy (late) Thanksgiving! We celebrated on Friday this year because I worked Monday-Wednesday night…and slept all day Thursday. Fortunately, all I had to make was a pie. I decided on a Bourbon Pumpkin Pie from Serious Eats. I will admit that despite my love for all things pumpkin, I do not generally go for the pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving or Christmas. I'm very picky about the texture, and I feel like it's often lacking in excitement. This pumpkin pie, well, it's not boring.    

This is by far the most flavor-packed pumpkin pie I've ever had…and it's got a smooth, creamy texture. You can use bourbon or bourbon extract. The bourbon adds a nice depth of fall flavor with some vanilla, oak, and caramel notes. The ginger in the filling gives this pie another punch. If you're not big on ginger, I'd definitely cut the amount down…maybe add in some cinnamon. You've got another layer of flavor with the toasted chopped pecans. And then, the whipped bourbon maple mascarpone really tops it off. Delicious. 

You can snag the recipe by clicking here. I used Paula Deen's flaky pie crust recipe from her Southern Cooking Bible. If you do not have this, you are missing out. Mostly because she has written comments at the bottom of every recipe, which are very entertaining. It's like you can hear her saying what you're reading. The brother does a great impression. 

Fair warning: this pumpkin pie is quite rich. It's as rare for me to say that as it is for me to not be able to finish a piece of dessert. It's practically unheard of. Really all you need is like half a normal piece! 

Chocolate Pumpkin Cake

I love any reason to make cake, and today is the mother's birthday! Score! There were several recipes to choose from, but the winner was this Chocolate Pumpkin Cake with chocolate ganache and pumpkin whipped cream from i am baker. By the way, i am baker is one of my favorites for sweets. Great stuff. I'm generally against cake without frosting. I don't see the point. However, this cake is definitely the exception. The cake itself is perfectly moist. The pumpkin whipped cream is spectacular. And how can you go wrong with ganache? Deliciousness.  

I didn't really change anything from i am baker's recipe. My cake is just round instead of square. Mostly, well, all because I don't have a square plate…and a square cake on a round plate would really mess with my OCD. Here it is:

Chocolate Pumpkin Cake

For the cake:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 TBSP vanilla

4 eggs

1 cup pureed pumpkin

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 cups AP flour

2/3 cup cocoa

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

• Preheat the oven to 350*F and prepare two round or square baking pans.
• In a small bowl, mix together the pumpkin and buttermilk.
• In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, powder, soda and salt.
• In a mixer, beat the sugars, butter, and vanilla until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated. 
• Alternating, add the flour mixture and pumpkin mixture to the sugar mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix for about a minute on low, until fully combined.
• Divide the batter evenly among your pans. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Let cool in the pans about 10 minutes before inverting one onto your plate or cake stand, and the other onto a cooling rack or whatever you want to use!

For the Ganache:

12 oz Velata milk chocolate

6 oz heavy whipping cream

• Place your chocolate in a heat-safe bowl.
• In a small sauce pan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from heat and pour over the chocolate.
• Mix together until smooth. Let it sit for just a few minutes to thicken.
• Pour over the top of each layer of cake. Spread to the edges &/or let it run over the edges. Let it sit for at least an hour.

For the Pumpkin Whipped Cream:

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

1-2 cups powdered sugar

1 cup pureed pumpkin

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp all spice

• In a small bowl, combine pumpkin and spices. Mix together.
• In a mixer, beat the whipping cream on medium-high until soft peaks are formed. Add 1 cup of the powdered sugar (1/2 cup at a time). Mix until combined.
• Fold the pumpkin mixture into the whipped cream.
• Beat in the remaining powdered sugar (1/4 cup at a time) until the desired texture is reached. I ended up using a total of 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar. 
• Let it chill in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

When you go to assemble your cake, I recommend using placing straws through the whipped cream and bottom cake layer to support the top layer. It'll keep the top layer from squishing out all the whipped cream!

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Nutella Bars with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

I'm loving that it's pumpkin everything season! And it's feeling a little more like fall outside too. Perfection. This tasty pumpkin treat is a Pinterest find. Actually, I saw that the brother had pinned it, so I made these for him because I'm a great sister. Most of the time. The bars are nice and moist. Have great flavor. And while they're not super healthy, my version did cut out 1 cup of oil, 1 cup of granulated sugar, 1 cup of powdered sugar, and 1/2 stick of butter. And I don't feel like they are lacking on sweetness at all. Next time around, I would probably take out more of the pumpkin batter before mixing in the Nutella (I've adjusted the directions below). Then, they might actually come out "swirled." 

Pumpkin Nutella Bars

Inspiration from The Gunny Sack

4 large eggs

1 1/2 cups pureed pumpkin

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

2 cups AP flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 cup sugar

1 cup Nutella

• Preheat the oven to 350*F and prepare a jelly roll pan (16x12x1) with nonstick spray. 
• In a large mixing bowl/stand mixer, beat together the eggs, pumpkin and applesauce. 
• Add all the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
• Pour half the pumpkin batter into your prepared pan.
• Mix the Nutella in with the remaining batter.
• Drop spoonfuls of the Nutella mixture over the pumpkin batter. 
• Gently swirl with a knife.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz reduced fat cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

3 cups powdered sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla

• In a large mixing bowl/stand mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy.
• Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, beating until smooth.
• Mix in cinnamon and vanilla.

I went ahead and put my frosting on with the bars were still warm. I feel like it makes them a little more moist. Also, I had just worked for 13 hours and didn't feel like staying awake for them to cool down… Enjoy!

Pumpkin, Sausage & Spinach Calzones

I came across a recipe for pumpkin, sausage and spinach calzones in some magazine. Since I couldn't pin it, I lost track of the actual recipe. But what I ended up making was pretty stinking good. Totally delicious. Decently healthy. Yummy goodness.  

I decided on using the spicy/hot Italian chicken sausage from Sprouts. I like a little kick, but if that's not your thing, sweet Italian sausage would work too. Of course, you can go with turkey, pork, or whatever meat you like. You can also use your cheese of choice. I went with a white extra sharp cheddar. Again, I like things that have a little extra bite or whatever. For time's sake, I rounded up a recipe for no-yeast WW pizza crust from Kristin in Her Kitchen. I also saved some time by using frozen chopped spinach. 

Pumpkin, Sausage & Spinach Calzones

Ingredients for the crust:

1 1/2 cups WW flour

1/2 cup AP flour

1 tsp garlic salt

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup water

1/4 cup EVOO

Ingredients for the filling:

EVOO

8 oz Italian sausage

2 cups frozen chopped spinach

Salt & pepper

4 heaping TBSP pureed pumpkin

3-4 oz cheese, shredded 

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 450*F and grab a non-stick cookie sheet.
• In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients for the crust; whisk together. Add the water and EVOO. Mix well. Set aside.
• In a saute pan, add some EVOO and heat it up on high. Add the sausage. Cook thoroughly. Remove the sausage from the pan. Turn the heat down to low.
• Add a tad bit more EVOO to the pan (may not be necessary if you're using a sausage with more fat). Add the spinach, salt & pepper. Saute for a couple minutes, or until the spinach is warmed up. Remove from heat.
• Divide your dough for the crust into 4 equal parts. Roll out into like 7-8" circles. Place 1 heaping TBSP of pumpkin and spread it around (leave about 1/4" around the edges). Divide up the spinach, sausage, and cheese between the circles. Fold each circle over. Use a fork and go around the edges to seal them. 
• Place the calzones on your cookie sheet. You can spread a little EVOO on top. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until slightly golden. 

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips

And on my days off, I get on Pinterest and bake... It's kind of great how many things you can get done when Monday is your day off. Everyone else is working, so the day is yours. I slept in. Watched "Once Upon a Time" while I had my coffee and breakfast. I vacuumed and mopped. Did P90X-2. Showered. Made lunch. Ran errands (got my watch fixed, got part of my Halloween costume, went to Sprouts). Baked. Got some paperwork done. Pinned a million things. And I'm going to make kickboxing. Exciting stuff. 

So...Peanut butter. Pumpkin. Dark Chocolate. Score. The original recipe is from Crazy For Crust via Pinterest. I really hadn't intended to change anything...but it turned out that I only had 1 cup of AP flour on hand. Thus, I ended up doing 1 cup AP flour and 1 cup WW flour. Not bad. Generally, you can go half-and-half and not change things too much. Using all WW flour will change the texture. Of course, you can use whatever kind of chocolate chips you like...but I'm a dark chocolate kind of girl.

Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips

Ingredients: 

1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt

3/4 cup pumpkin puree 

2 eggs

1/2 cup natural peanut butter

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 1/2 TBSP pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup AP flour

1 cup WW flour

1 cup chocolate chips, divided

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350*F and prepare a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.
• In a large bowl (or your KitchenAid), mix together the yogurt, pumpkin, eggs, and peanut butter until smooth. Add sugars, pumpkin pie spice, and soda and mix. Mix in the flours. Stir in 3/4 cup of the chocolate chips. 
• Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. It's thick so you'll need to even it out. Sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips on top.
• Bake for about 30-35 minutes, depending on if you want it a little gooey in the center or baked through. 
• Let it cool in the pan for a few minutes before transferring to your cutting board.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Muffin Makeover

Here's one I've been meaning to put up for a long time! I made these yummy muffins towards the end of Christmas break. I took a recipe I found (my mom's mom's) for pumpkin bread. Then, I totally messed it up (eliminated the sugar, all-purpose flour, shortening, and water). I really had no idea how they would turn out. The batter was pretty good, which is always a good sign. They smelled good while they were baking, another good sign. When I finally tried one, I was impressed. I was kind of hoping that the brother would think they tasted too healthy, so then I would have leftovers to take to school...but no. He didn't even noticed. He loved them. The mother loved them too. Definitely a success for replacing processed ingredients with more natural ones!


Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup honey (local) 
4 eggs
1/3 cup all-natural applesauce*
2 cups all-natural canned pumpkin
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon (I probably added a little extra) 

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 
Grease or line a 12-cup muffin pan.
Mix honey, eggs and pumpkin
Add in dry ingredients and mix
*Add applesauce until the right moisture is achieved
Divide batter into muffin cups
Bake for...15-20 minutes or until done.

I think that's about right! It's been awhile since I made them... and of course I didn't exactly write everything down.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

All my cookies for this year's Holiday Bake-A-Thon are new.  And considering this fact, it's impressive that this year's production took much less time then year's past.  I think I finally figured out multitasking.  Ha.  I wanted to incorporate the season's flavors: pumpkin, peppermint, and eggnog.  (I probably could have added something gingerbread-y too...but I didn't want to be too ambitious!)  I chose this Pumpkin Snickerdoodle recipe from the Six Sister's Stuff blog (there's lots of great stuff here).  These cookies, of course, turned out tasting delicious!  They're so soft and pumpkin-y.  I love it.  

   
Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Ingredients:
1 stick margarine (I used real butter...Paula Deen would be proud)
1/2 cup shortening (I used the butter flavored kind because that's what we already had)
1 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup unsweetened pumpkin puree (do NOT use pumpkin pie filling!)
1 large egg
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

*Topping:
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger (or more to taste...I went with a whole tsp) 

*Note: You probably will not use all of this, but it's okay!  I used the extra up in a recipe for scones, which I'll be posting soon.      

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix together the margarine/butter, shortening, sugars, pumpkin, and egg, beat well. Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and mix until well-blended.
Chill dough until it's a better consistency for rolling into balls.  (I cheated and put it in the freezer so it would go faster.)
Roll into balls the size of small walnuts.
In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, cinnamon, and ginger. Roll dough balls in sugar mixture until completely covered.
Place dough balls about 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 7ish minutes until lightly browned, but still soft.
Makes a ton of cookies (at least 4-5 dozen).

Pumpkin Sheet Cake

One of my favorite fall things is baked treats that involve pumpkin.  I love pumpkin.  Except for pumpkin pie.  I made this pumpkin sheet cake for my Gamma family night, and then took the leftovers to class the next day.  I thought it was really pretty good.  Very moist.  I think the only things I did differently than the original recipe were adding a little extra cinnamon and basically doubling the cream cheese frosting recipe.  (I generally double frosting recipes just on principle.  I would rather have too much than be skimpy. I like frosting.)  Also, I elected to not put nuts on top.  Get the recipe by clicking here!

Not much else going on, except obviously nursing school is taking over my life.  However, I am done with clinical for the semester!  And I've got Thanksgiving break from last Wednesday afternoon through the 27th...then just a week and a half before finals!