These are the lightest, fluffiest cupcakes ever. It must be the buttermilk, my new favorite baking ingredient.
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
3 extra large eggs
1 can (15 ounce) pure pumpkin
1 cup buttermilk
Maple Frosting (recipe below)
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 24 muffin tons with paper and spray with cooking spray
2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice n nutmeg, and ginger in a medium bowl and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter for 3 minutes until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and combine each one well.
3. In a separate medium bowl, stir together the buttermilk and the pumpkin. In alternate batches, add the pumpkin and buttermilk mixture and the du ingredients to the butter mixture, combining well after each addition. Spoon batter into prepared cups, 3/4 of the way full.
4. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to cool completely.
Maple Frosting: Beat 1 1/2 sticks of softened butter. Add a large slug or two of Vermont Maple Syrup and 1 tsp of vanilla. Beat until blended. Gradually add 3 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, beating until creamy and fluffy. Add a tablespoon of milk if you need to soften the Frosting.
5. Put the Frosting into a piping bag or a ziplock bag with a corner cut off and pipe in circles into the cupcakes. Top with sprinkles.
Now that it almost October, I’m starting to go pumpkin crazy again. This month’s issue of Fine Cooking features Holiday Pumpkin Desserts on the cover, and I was inspired by a Bundt cake featured inside. I adapted this recipe from that one, pumping up the spice a bit and making other little tweaks. The result is a moist flavorful pumpkin cake that was a hit at the church coffee hour this morning. Bundt cakes are so rewarding because they always come out looking great and aren’t that difficult to pull off. Powdered sugar is the perfect finish and a lot easier than frosting!
The filling includes crystallized ginger mixed in with the cream cheese and sour cream. Don’t skip it. It makes it have real zing. To finely chop it, I just dumped it in this MiniPrep:
And to grind the nutmeg, I used a microplane grater, like this one:
Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake With Peekaboo Cream Cheese Filling
12 oz. cream cheese, softened (1.5 packages of Philadelphia)
½ cup sour cream
½ cup granulated sugar
½ tsp. ground ginger
¼ tsp. salt
2 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
½ cup finely chopped crystallized ginger (I used a Cuisinart Mini Prep to chop mine)
2¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 Tbsp. ground ginger
1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. freshl ground nutmeg (I use a microplane grater)
½ tsp. ground cloves
1 15-oz. can pure pumpkin purée
1½ cups granulated sugar
¾ cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Instructions
For the cream cheese filling:
In a stand mixer beat the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, ginger, and salt on medium speed until well combined.
Add each egg, one at a time, beating after each addition until mixed thoroughly.
Chop the crystallized ginger in a Cuisinart MiniPrep. It will glom together because it's sticky, but don't worry. Once added to the cream cheese mixture, it will distribute.
Add the vanilla and the crystallized ginger to the cream cheese mixture and blend. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
For the cake:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a Bundt pan generously with nonstick cooking spray.
In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
In the bowl of the stand mixer, blend the pumpkin, sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla until smooth.
Add the ⅓ of the dry ingredients, and whisk until well blended. Then add another third and blend and repeat.
Fill the prepared Bundt pan with about half of the cake batter.
Stir the filling to distribute the chopped ginger.
Create a trough in the batter with the back of a large spoon and then try to pour the cream cheese filling into the trough. Don't worry if it spills over.
Spoon the remaining batter on top and spread to evenly over the top.
Bake until a sharp knife inserted to the bottom comes out clean, about 50 to 60 minutes.
Cool on a rack for 10 to 15 minutes and then invert onto a serving plate and remove the cake pan.
Cool completely.
You can refrigerate the plastic-wrap covered cake for up to 2 days.
When ready to serve, dust the cake with confectioners’ sugar.
Fall is my favorite time of year and these cupcakes are just what I need to get in the mood. The shadows are lengthening and out here in San Francisco, the air is more humid than usual and it’s warmer. When I lived on the East Coast, the arrival of Fall was all about feeling a cold nip in the air. Here in San Francisco where the summers are freezing, it’s quite the opposite. The weather heats up as the leaves are turning brown.
Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Line cupcake tray (24) with paper liners.
In a standing mixer, cream the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar on high speed until fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla and mix at a medium speed until well blended.
In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to wet, alternating with the milk, until all are incorporated. Add pumpkin puree and mix well.
Fill cupcakes two-thirds full and bake for 18 – 22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Remove from oven and let stand for a couple of minutes. Then remove from muffin tin and let cool completely.
To make the frosting:
Let the cream cheese and butter soften before creaming them together on high speed with a mixer. Cream in the sugar, vanilla and cinnamon until smooth and light. Chill in the fridge overnight (or at least for a few hours) to let it set.
Spread on cupcakes and garnish with a pinch of cinnamon.
I have been having so much fun baking with yeast this month. Today is no exception. I decided I wanted to make a coffee cake type pastry with icing and filling that would feature fall pumpkin flavors. I grew up with Entenmann’s pastries from the grocery store, and I was looking to emulate their various Danish rings with this recipe.
I ended up constructing this wreath in two ways. One way was a traditional circle. For the other, I cut little slits all the way around before baking it, and the wring came out a little more decorative – though less tidy. Totally up to you for how to make yours, but the recipe does make 2 loaves, so play with it!
The recipe calls for 2 rises. One for the dough and then another one once the dough is stuffed. If you want to refrigerate your dough after stuffing it, you can refrigerate it overnight, then pull it out, let it come to room temperature, rise and then bake it so it comes out of the oven warm just in time for brunch.
I kept this dish nut free because of allergy concerns, but sliced almonds or pecans are a great addition to the topping.
5.0 from 2 reviews
Pumpkin Coffee Cake Wreath with Pumpkin-Spiced Cream Cheese Filling
Fall pumpkin flavors infuse this danish ring with yumminess
Author: Amy Wilson
Recipe type: Dessert, Brunch Pastry
Serves: 20
Ingredients
1 package dry yeast (2¼ tsp)
¼ cup warm water
3½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cups canned pure pumpkin
½ cup milk
¼ cup butter, melted
1 Tbsp sugar
1¼ tsp salt
½ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
---
2 8oz packages cream cheese
½ cup canned pure pumpkin
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp butter softened
1 tsp cinnamon
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1 Tbsp butter, melted
¼ cup sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
---
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp milk
¼ tsp vanilla
Instructions
Dissolve the yeast in warm water in a mug and cover with a plate. Set aside for 5 minutes. When you lift the plate, it should be foamy. If it's not foamy, it means that the yeast is no longer active and you'll have to start over with new yeast.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the dough hook, combine 3 cups of the flour, the pumpkin, milk, melted butter, sugar, salt, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and cloves. Once it has taken on a crumbly texture, add the water and yeast mixture and continue mixing with the dough hook until a ball forms. Scrape the sides as necessary to ensure complete mixing. If the dough is sticky and not well-formed, add a Tbsp or so of flour and continue kneading with the dough hook. Knead for 3 minutes on medium speed, adding flour to ensure a springy, well-formed ball.
Add a tsp of oil to the bowl and knead for 30 seconds. Remove bowl and cover with towel. Set in a warm place and let rise for 45 minutes to an hour until doubled.
After the dough has risen, punch it down and turn it out onto a floured cutting board. Let rest for 5 minutes, then cut in half.
To prepare the filling, go back to your stand mixer (wash that bowl), but this time you will use the wire whisk to beat at high speed, the cream cheese, pumpkin, sugar, butter, and cinnamon. Beat for 2 minutes until fluffy.
Now roll out one ball of dough into a flat rectangle that is about 10x12 inches in size. Spread the cream cheese mixture over the dough leaving space around the edges. The cream cheese will be about ¼ inch thick. Now roll the long side of the dough up to make a tube. Bend the tube into a circle and press the ends together firmly. If you'd like to try cutting slits in the wreath, go ahead and do so. Repeat with the other ball of dough. You will have left over cream cheese mixture. It can be refrigerated for up to 3 days and used as icing on cupcakes.
Transfer the rings to a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan sprayed lightly with cooking spray. Cover with a cloth and set in a warm place. Allow them to rise for 45 minutes. (Alternatively, you could cover them in plastic and refrigerate them over night before allowing them to come to room temperature and to rise the next morning)
Preheat the oven to 375˚F.
Using a spoon, spread melted butter over the tops of both rings. Use the back of the spoon to coat them evenly. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top of each ring. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool on the baking sheet before transferring them to platters.
Once the rings are cooled, make the icing by stirring together the sugar, milk and vanilla in a bowl with a fork or a wire whisk. If the icing is not going to hold the shape of its drizzle, add more sugar to thicken. Drizzle onto the rings and allow the icing to set for 5-10 minutes before serving.
The basis for these Pumpkin Pull-Apart Cinnamon Buns comes from a recipe I did during an earlier Pumpkin recipe marathon, when I featured Pumpkin Yeast Rolls. For this recipe, you start by making the dough for the Pumpkin Yeast Rolls and then form smaller balls to dip in melted butter and a sugary cinnamon mixture. Then you mush them into a bundt cake pan for baking. It’s a day’s project, but no one part of the recipe is that difficult, particularly if you have a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer, which does most of the work. These are truly to-die-for. I took them into work and everyone went crazy for them! The pumpkin flavor in the rolls is subtle, so you could make them this way all year long.
In a coffee cup, mix the brown sugar, yeast and warm milk. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes white becomes foamy and you prepare the flour.
In the mixing bowl of your stand mixer with the wire whip attached, add 5 cups of the flour and the salt. Set the mixer on Level 2 and add the pieces of butter, one at a time, mixing all the time. Mix until the flour becomes course.
Add the egg and continue mixing until well blended.
Change the attachment to the flat beater and add the pumpkin and spices, mixing gently until incorporated.
Change the attachment again, now to the dough hook. Dump in the cup full of yeast, milk, and brown sugar. Kneading on Level 2 for about 8 minutes, watch as a ball of dough forms. Have a cup of flour at the ready to add 1-2 Tbsp at a time until dough takes on a smooth, springy form that's not sticky. After you've added enough of the flour, let the dough hook continue kneading until the 8 minutes is done.
Spray a large bowl with nonstick cooking spray. From the dough into a big ball and place in the bowl. Brush melted butter over the ball of the dough. Cover with a dish towel and let rise for about an hour. The dough should double in size.
In the meantime, make your cinnamon-sugar dip by mixing together in a medium bowl, the sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Preheat the oven to 350˚F and spray a Bundt cake pan with cooking spray.
Melt the butter in a microwave safe bowl and set aside.
Turn the dough out onto a large cutting board and cut the big ball in half. Continue cutting the balls in half until you get down to a size that is about the size of a golf ball. Roll the dough between your fingers so that it forms a little perfect ball. Dip into the melted butter, then roll in the sugar mixture and place in the bottom of a bundt cake pan. Continue rolling, dipping and dredging until all of the little sugar-coated balls of dough are pressed into the bundt cake pan.
Bake at 350˚F for about 35 minutes.
Allow to cool for about 10-15 minutes before turning the bundt cake out onto your serving plate.
With a fork, mix together the confectioner's sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth. Keep adding sugar until mixture coats the back of a spoon and just drips down slowly. Drizzle over the top of the sticky buns and allows to drip down the sides.
The most popular post on this blog, hands down, is My Ultimate Pumpkin Bread post, and one of my personal favorites is my Zucchini Bread post, so now that it’s October, I thought, why not do a mashup? The spices for pumpkin and zucchini bread are so similar, it seems like a marriage made in heaven. And, I’ve been getting a lot of zucchini in my weekly produce box from Full Circle lately.
This version came out perfectly moist. Make sure you squeeze the excess water out of your shredded zucchini. Just press between paper towels before adding to the mixture. I used this kind of grater to prepare the zucchini:
Play with the sugar to meet your tastes. I’ve tried it with 2 cups and it’s perfect for folks who don’t like their quick breads too sweet. I prefer it with 2 1/2 or even 3 cups of sugar.
Preheat the oven to 350˚F and spray 2 9-inch loaf pans with cooking spray.
Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl (including the sugar).
In the bowl of a large standup mixer, cream the butter. Then add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until fully incorporated. Add the milk and beat until mixed. Add the pumpkin and zucchini and mix on medium until blended.
Take bowl away from standup mixer. Add bowl of dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until all is moistened. Do not overmix.
Bake for 45 - 60 minutes or until top is golden brown and a knife inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before removing from the pan.
It’s the 4th anniversary of StreamingGourmet today! Celebrate by watching some classic pumpkin and Halloween videos in StreamingGourmet’s video collections.
It’s time for another pumpkin blogging binge at StreamingGourmet. You see, I’m a little pumpkin obsessed and even more, Halloween obsessed, so this won’t be the first time I publish a slew of pumpkin recipes in October. There’s always something new to try with pumpkin, so check back often over the next few weeks for pumpkin recipes that are sweet, savory and everything in between.
This time, I’m starting with pumpkin bars. There is a pumpkin bar recipe that has truly made the internet rounds, usually with pecans. I’ve done some tweaking here to make these my own, including swapping in hazelnuts for pecans. You might also like them with a dolup of whipped cream on top or perhaps with a serving of ice cream. The trick to getting these right is to make sure you give the bars time to set before sprinkling the nut mixture on top. Otherwise, the nuts will just sink to the bottom.
In this recipe, you’ll need to chop hazelnuts. I found my little mini-prep Cuisinart to be a champ. Click through to find it on Amazon:
Combine flour, oats, and brown sugar in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter and mix until crumbly. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan.
Bake for 15 minutes.
In the bowl of a standup mixer, beat together the granulated sugar, pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs and spices. Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes until frothy. Pour over crust.
Bake for 25 minutes. While the bars are baking, toast the hazelnuts in a dry sauté pan over medium heat until they start to turn dark brown. Toss them around to ensure they are toasted on all sides. Chop hazelnuts in a small food processor. Combine chopped hazelnuts and brown sugar in small bowl. Cut in the butter and mix until crumbly. Sprinkle hazelnut topping over filling. Continue baking for 15 to 25 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars.
There’s nothing likely whipping up a little quick bread (muffin, cupcake, bread, whatever) to satisfy the baking need. Mix the wet ingredients. Mix the dry ingredients. Put them together without overmixing, bake and voila! A sweet, sumptuous little treat in no time.
October = pumpkin for me, in case you didn’t know. Psst. There are like 40 pumpkin recipes in this blog. I’ve done pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies before, but never pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (or cupcakes as the case may be). Some people love the combo, and I am one of them. These are equally good with or without the icing, I think. So if you can’t be bothered with the icing, don’t be!
The Best Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Yummy pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes - perfect for a Halloween party.
Author: StreamingGourmet/Amy
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 18-20
Ingredients
4 eggs
1½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
2 cups canned pure pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
pinch ground cloves
1 tsp salt
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
For the frosting:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
¼ cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners' sugar
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Prepare muffin tins by either spraying them with cooking spray or lining them with paper liners.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, white sugar, brown sugar, pumpkin, vanilla extract, and vegetable oil. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.
In three batches, add the flour to the wet ingredients and stir to incorporate. Don't overmix, but incorporate thoroughly.
Fold in the chocolate chips. Fill muffin cups at least ¾ of the way full. I like to create a big muffin top, so I fill them almost all the way.
Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown on top and a knife inserted comes out clean. If you have to have two layers of tins in your oven, rotate them halfway through the cooking time for even baking.
To make the icing:
While the muffins are baking, you can make the icing. With an electric hand mixer, cream together the cream cheese, butter, vanilla and confectioner's sugar until completely smooth, Allow to chill if need be.
To ice the cupcakes:
Once the cupcakes come out of the oven, they will need to cool before you can ice them. Once they are cooled, you can fill a pastry bag with your icing and pipe it out into large concentric circles.
Pumpkin is kind of a thing around here if you haven’t already noticed. What better way to put canned pumpkin to good use than to make it into ice cream? Well, making it into sorbet maybe if you’re vegan or lactose-intolerant. I’ll have to try that next, but for now, I just couldn’t resist making a full-throttle, (read full-fat) ice cream.
Hey, do you know about Cardamom? It’s a Indian spice with an aromatic flavor. It’s a truly unique taste. You can buy it in pods, which keep longer, or you can buy it already ground. I used the ground version in this recipe for simplicity’s sake. It’s on the pricy side (actually, it’s the most expensive spice on the market, even more than Saffron. Isn’t that cool)? It can be left out, but if you want to try something new, you can also use it in this recipe for Pumpkin Cardamom Crackle Custard and in lots of Indian dishes.
This is kind of a 2-day process unless you start early in the morning, so be prepared to wait to sink your teeth (ouch)! into this ice cream.
5 egg yolks (large eggs)
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup 1% milk (it’s what I had)
1/3 cup plus 2 Tbsb granulated sugar (the white kind)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg (I like nutmeg. You could cut back on this)
1 whole cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin purée
Method
1. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks and set aside.
2. Make an ice bath (ice and water in a big bowl) and place another bowl in it.
2. In a medium sauce pan, mix together the heavy whipping cream, milk, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, cinnamon stick, and salt. Gently heat until the edges are bubbling. Add about half of the liquid to the egg yolks, stirring constantly. Pour that mixture in a steady stream (stirring all the time) back into the saucepan. Continue heating and stirring until mixture thickens and coats the back of a spatula. If you have a thermometer, the temperature of the liquid should be about 160˚F – 170˚F. Pour mixture through a fine strainer into the bowl nestled in the ice bath. Add the brown sugar and stir to mix and dissolve. Allow to cool and then cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Chill the canned pumpkin too while you’re at it. Make sure that the bowl of your ice cream maker freezes overnight too.
3. Mix together the chilled custard, the pumpkin and the vanilla. At this point, you could press the mixture through a fine-meshed strainer (David Lebovitz did), but I skipped that step to see if I could and it came out great. Pour the mixture into the ice cream maker and run for about 25 minutes or until ice cream stops looking like a custard and starts looking like ice cream. Remove immediately to a storage container and continue to freeze in the freezer.[/print_this]
Pumpkin month continues here at StreamingGourmet. I love to make savory pumpkin dishes and this is one of my favorites. You can use this sauce with Gnocchi or Ravioli stuffed with squash or pumpkin, or penne, shells or spaghetti. You can make a vegan version (see the link at the bottom) or you can load it up with butter, cream, and cheese. Either way, go easy on the nutmeg. A pinch goes a long way. You could add a little cinnamon, but I don’t like it when these sauces start to taste like pie. We’ll get to pie later.
Pasta with Pumpkin Sauce Serves 4
Ingredients
1 lb pasta (spaghetti or penne or shells)
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp chopped fresh sage or 1 tsp dried sage
1 large onion, chopped
2 large carrots, finely diced
1/2 cup white wine
I cup canned puréed pumpkin
3/4 cup vegetable stock
1 tsp salt
Pepper to taste
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
Additional Parmesan cheese for garnish
Additional fresh sage for garnish
Method
1. Heat the oil in a heavy-bottom stock pot over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and sautée for one minute. Add the sage, onion, and carrot and sautée until softened and slightly browned, about five minutes. Add the white wine and simmer until reduced by half. Add the pumpkin and vegetable stock and stir well to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.
2. While the sauce is simmering, cook your pasta according to package directions.
3. Once the sauce has simmered, reduce the heat even further. Add heavy cream and nutmeg. Stir well and heat through for about 3 minutes. Add Parmesan cheese and stir. Add pasta to the pan and allow the sauce to soak in. Spoon into bowls. Garnish with additional Parmesan cheese and sprigs of fresh sage.