Categories
Breads Dessert Pumpkin Uncategorized

Pumpkin Gingerbread

    Pumpkin Gingerbread
    Pumpkin Gingerbread

    It’s day 11 of 31 days of pumpkin and I’ve decided to try something new. I’ve never added pumpkin to gingerbread, but it seems like a natural combination, so I’ve decided to go for it. The tagline of this blog is after all, “We risk disaster so you don’t have to.” Combining pumpkin and ginger isn’t even that big of a risk, but you never really know how something is going to turn out until you taste it. This risk yielded success. A moist, light, fluffy cake with a spicy bite to it, I would say this gingerbread is traditional with a twist.

    Of course, writing this post feels a little bit like the time I was 8 years old and I told my family I had invented a new drink: half apple juice, half grape juice. Then, while watching tv that night, we all saw a commercial for Welch’s new Apple-Grape drink. While working on this post, a quick Google search for “Pumpkin Bread” has yielded a pretty long list of recipes. Duh.

      Categories
      Breads Breakfast/Brunch Pumpkin Uncategorized

      Pumpkin Hazelnut Muffins

        Pumpkin Hazelnut Muffins
        Pumpkin Hazelnut Muffins

        Day 8 of 31 days of pumpkin brings us to the pumpkin muffin: a true classic. This was the perfect recipe for me today because this week, it is my responsibility to bring the daily afternoon snack to my son’s kindergarten class. I can’t wait to drop these off tomorrow. Since they’re not iced and there aren’t any chocolate chips in them (although, chocolate chips would probably be great in these), I don’t feel too guilty when it comes to the children’s health meter. I hope they can’t tell!

        The recipe worked just as I’d hoped. They are fluffy and moist and not overly sweet.

          Categories
          Breads Breakfast/Brunch Pumpkin Uncategorized

          Spiced Pumpkin Drop Biscuits

            Pumpkin Biscuits
            Pumpkin Biscuits

            It’s day 5 of 31 days of pumpkin, and I’m excited to share this recipe for pumpkin biscuits with you. I grew up on the Eastern Shore of MD where sweet potato biscuits were popular, so this seemed like a natural next step. I was tempted to let the pumpkin stand on its own in this recipe, but in the end, I couldn’t resist adding just a hint of the traditional spices we’ve all come to expect with pumpkin flavor. I showed restraint though in both quantity and array, so that there is just a hint of the pumpkin pie rather than the full effect.

            In this version, I dropped the biscuits in spoonfuls onto a “greased” (nonstick cooking sprayed) sheet, rather than rolling out the dough and cutting the circles. I just don’t have the patience for such things, although I readily admit that rolled biscuits are much more beautiful. Maybe next time.

            Drop biscuits
            Drop biscuits

            Spiced Pumpkin Drop Biscuits
            Makes 12 large biscuits

            Ingredients

            2 cups all purpose flour
            2 tsp salt
            3 tsp baking powder
            1 tsp baking soda
            1/4 tsp cinnamon
            1/8 tsp allspice
            pinch nutmeg
            5 Tbsp cold butter
            1 cup canned pumpkin
            1/2 – 3/4 cup plain yogurt

            Method

            1. Preheat oven to 450˚F. Mix together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Cut the butter into tablespoon slices and then cut the butter into the flour mixture. Blend thoroughly.

            2. With a spoon, stir the pumpkin purée into the dry ingredients. Add enough yogurt so that a ball of dough forms. Do so by adding a couple of tablespoons at a time. Knead the ball of dough 8-10 times until everything is thoroughly mixed together.

            3. Spray cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Drop large spoonfuls of dough onto cookie sheet. There should be about a dozen spoonfuls altogether. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until tops are just turning golden brown.

            Pumpkin Biscuits
            Pumpkin Biscuits
              Categories
              Breads Breakfast/Brunch Uncategorized

              Zucchini Bread

                Zucchini Bread
                Zucchini Bread

                I’ve been making this Zucchini Bread recipe my whole life. Although, it has been awhile . Zucchini was on sale for $0.49/lb the other day, so I knew that I was going to revisit this old favorite. I’ll never forget making this recipe in France in 1987. I was a 16 year-old student staying with a French family for the summer and I was eager to share my American culinary culture with them. I made Maryland Fried Chicken one day and another day, I made this zucchini bread. Their impression of it? Trop sucré. (Too sweet). I was baffled at the time, but my adult taste agrees and I’ve cut 1/2 cup of sugar from the original recipe. My French hosts also couldn’t understand why I wanted to spend time cooking for them, when I had an opportunity to experience French gastronomy for six weeks. Well, then as now, I guess I just couldn’t help it.

                My Childhood Recipe Notebook
                My Childhood Recipe Notebook

                Zucchini Bread
                Makes 2 medium loaves

                Ingredients

                3 eggs
                1.5 cups sugar (in 1987 it was 2 cups)
                1 cup vegetable oil
                2 cups grated zucchini
                1 Tbsp vanilla extract
                3 cups flour
                1 tsp salt
                1 tsp baking soda
                1/4 tsp baking powder
                1 Tbsp cinnamon
                dash of freshly ground nutmeg

                Method

                1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Beat eggs until foamy. Add sugar, zucchini, oil and vanilla. Mix lightly but well (with a spoon).

                2. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients.

                3. Add dry ingredients to egg mixture (in batches) until blended. Don’t over mix.

                4. Bake for 1 hour.

                Zucchini Bread
                Zucchini Bread
                  Categories
                  Breads Breakfast/Brunch Uncategorized

                  Fuzzy Navel Tea Bread

                    Fuzzy Navel Tea Bread
                    Fuzzy Navel Tea Bread

                    A few over-ripe bananas recently prompted me to think about making banana bread, but I also had a couple of over-ripe peaches and I thought, “I love my banana-peach-oj smoothie. Why not make a banana-peach-orange tea bread?” and Fuzzy Navel Tea Bread was born. To give it a real orange punch, I included orange zest from an entire (albeit small) orange. This bread works as well during the summer as it would as a Christmas gift. The orange zestiness of it is reminding me of Christmas. You could healthy it up a bit by reducing the sugar and substituting a portion of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour, but I was really going for a sweet, delicate quick bread best enjoyed with afternoon tea (or at breakfast or brunch, of course).

                    Fuzzy Navel Tea Bread
                    One loaf

                    Ingredients

                    8 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature (+ butter for greasing pan)
                    2 cups All-Purpose Flour
                    1 tsp salt
                    1 1/2 tsp baking powder
                    1 cup sugar
                    2 eggs
                    2 very ripe bananas
                    2 very ripe peaches
                    zest of one orange
                    2 Tbsp fresh orange juice

                    Method

                    1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Use butter to grease one medium loaf bread pan and set aside.

                    2. Mix dry ingredients and set aside. Put peaches in a blender and pulse until well mashed. Transfer to a bowl and mash in the bananas using a potato masher or a fork. Add zest of one orange (I used a microplane zester/grater) and mix thoroughly with bananas and peaches. In a medium bowl, cream the butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time and then beat in the fruit mixture and orange juice.

                    3. Gently stir the wet mixture into the dry ingredients. Don’t over mix.

                    4. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes. Test with a toothpick, which should come clean when inserted.

                    Tools I used in this recipe can be found at Amazon.com:

                    Fuzzy Navel Tea Bread
                    Fuzzy Navel Tea Bread
                      Categories
                      Breads Uncategorized

                      Apple-Pomegranate Spice Bread

                        Apple-Pomegranate Spice Bread
                        Apple-Pomegranate Spice Bread

                        Ingredients

                        3 cups all-purpose flour
                        1/2 tsp salt
                        1 Tbsp baking powder
                        1 tsp cinnamon
                        1/2 tsp ground allspice
                        1 pinch ground cloves
                        1 generous pinch fresh ground nutmeg
                        3/4 cup sugar
                        1/4 cup brown sugar
                        2 eggs
                        1/2 stick (1/4 cup) melted unsalted butter
                        1 1/4 cup milk
                        1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
                        1 cup finely diced apples
                        1 cup pomegranate arils

                        1. Mix all of the dry ingredients. Stamp the mixture with a whisk to break apart any brown sugar clumps.

                        2. Melt the butter by placing it in a microwave-safe ramekin and microwaving it for about 30-40 seconds. Mix the melted butter with the applesauce to cool it down. Beat the eggs and milk together. Beat the applesauce/butter mixture into the egg/milk mixture.

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