Categories
Breads Dessert Pumpkin

Fluffiest Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Maple Buttercream Frosting

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Maple Frosting
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Maple Frosting

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.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
Categories
Breakfast/Brunch Dessert Pumpkin

Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake With Peekaboo Cream Cheese Filling

[pinterest]

Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese
Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese

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 Cream Cheese
Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese

 

Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake With Peekaboo Cream Cheese Filling
 
Prep time
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Total time
 
Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 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
  1. For the cream cheese filling:
  2. In a stand mixer beat the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, ginger, and salt on medium speed until well combined.
  3. Add each egg, one at a time, beating after each addition until mixed thoroughly.
  4. 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.
  5. Add the vanilla and the crystallized ginger to the cream cheese mixture and blend. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
  6. For the cake:
  7. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a Bundt pan generously with nonstick cooking spray.
  8. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
  9. In the bowl of the stand mixer, blend the pumpkin, sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla until smooth.
  10. Add the ⅓ of the dry ingredients, and whisk until well blended. Then add another third and blend and repeat.
  11. Fill the prepared Bundt pan with about half of the cake batter.
  12. Stir the filling to distribute the chopped ginger.
  13. 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.
  14. Spoon the remaining batter on top and spread to evenly over the top.
  15. Bake until a sharp knife inserted to the bottom comes out clean, about 50 to 60 minutes.
  16. Cool on a rack for 10 to 15 minutes and then invert onto a serving plate and remove the cake pan.
  17. Cool completely.
  18. You can refrigerate the plastic-wrap covered cake for up to 2 days.
  19. When ready to serve, dust the cake with confectioners’ sugar.

Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Filling
Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Filling
Categories
Breads Dessert Pumpkin Uncategorized

Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

[pinterest]

Pumpkin Spice Cupcake
Pumpkin Spice Cupcake (photo by Shimelle Laine)

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
 
Prep time
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Perfect for a Halloween Party
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Serves: 24
Ingredients
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar, packed firmly
  • ⅓ cup granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • ½ tsp ground nutmeg
  • ¼ tsp ground cloves
  • pinch of salt
  • ½ cup milk
  • 1½ cups pure pumpkin puree
  • For the frosting:
  • 1 package cream cheese
  • 1½ sticks (12 Tbsp) unsalted butter
  • ⅔ cup light brown sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 tsp cinnamon, plus extra for garnish
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Line cupcake tray (24) with paper liners.
  2. In a standing mixer, cream the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar on high speed until fluffy.
  3. Add eggs and vanilla and mix at a medium speed until well blended.
  4. 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.
  5. Fill cupcakes two-thirds full and bake for 18 – 22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  6. Remove from oven and let stand for a couple of minutes. Then remove from muffin tin and let cool completely.
  7. To make the frosting:
  8. 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.
  9. Spread on cupcakes and garnish with a pinch of cinnamon.

 

Categories
Appetizers Breads Breakfast/Brunch Pumpkin

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread
Pumpkin Zucchini Bread

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.

This recipe makes 2 loaves!

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread
Pumpkin Zucchini Bread

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread
 
Prep time
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My two favorite quick breads - in one!
Author:
Recipe type: Bread
Serves: 20
Ingredients
  • 3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • ⅛ tsp ground cloves
  • ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
  • 2½ cups granulated sugar
  • 2 sticks butter, softened
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1½ cups grated zucchini (about 2 medium zucchini)
  • 1 15 oz can of pureed pure pumpkin
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F and spray 2 9-inch loaf pans with cooking spray.
  2. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl (including the sugar).
  3. 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.
  4. Take bowl away from standup mixer. Add bowl of dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until all is moistened. Do not overmix.
  5. 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.

 

Starbucks® K-Cup® Packs
Categories
Dessert Pumpkin Uncategorized

Hazelnut Pumpkin Bars

Hazelnut Pumpkin Bars
Hazelnut Pumpkin Bars

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:

 

Hazelnut Pumpkin Bars
 
Prep time
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Total time
 
It's like pumpkin pie in a bar.
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 18-21
Ingredients
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup old-fashioned oats
  • ½ cup packed brown sugar
  • ½ cup butter, softened
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 2 (15 oz.) cans Pure Pumpkin
  • 2 (12 oz.) cans Evaporated Milk
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
  • ¼ tsp ground cloves
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ½ cup hazelnuts, chopped
  • ¼ cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 Tbsp butter, softened
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
  2. 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.
  3. Bake for 15 minutes.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.

Hazelnut Pumpkin Bars
Hazelnut Pumpkin Bars
Starbucks
Categories
Appetizers Vegetarian

Halloween Party Starter: Jack O’Lantern Puking Guacamole

[pinterest]

Halloween Party Dish

Halloween = parties for me, so I’m always on the lookout for inspiring buffet food. I can’t remember where I first saw the idea of having guacamole come out of pumpkin as if the Jack O’Lantern is throwing up, but I thought it was hilarious. If you know the source, please tell me and I will attribute it. **Update: I first read it in the book, Extreme Halloween: The Ultimate Guide to Making Halloween Scary Again by, Tom Nardone. Check out his website, ExtremePumpkins.com. **

The recipe for guacamole here is a little different than what you might usually see. Here, it is prepared the Guatemalan way (our Guatemalan friend showed me how to do it). She leaves the avocado in big chunks and chops the tomatoes in large cubes. This approach seemed particularly appropriate for the presentation and turned out to lend great flavor. Now when I make guacamole at home, I always do it this way. Luckily, the pumpkin vomiting guacamole doesn’t inspire any real vomit.

Guacamole the Guatemalan Way
 
With the avocado in big chunks, this guacamole really stands out and is perfect for the puking pumpkin rendition.
Author:
Recipe type: Appetizer
Cuisine: Guatemalan
Serves: 8-10
Ingredients
  • 2 ripe but not mushy avocados, chopped in large cubes
  • 1 medium tomato, chopped in fairly large chunks
  • ¼ cup finely chopped red onion
  • 1 fresh green chile, chopped
  • ¼ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
  • 1 tsp salt
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 1 Bag of Multicolored Tortilla Chips
Instructions
  1. In a large bowl, gently toss (so as not to mush the avocado), the avocado, tomato, red onion, green chile, cilantro, salt and lime juice. Leave the pit in until you are ready to transfer to the platter. Chill in the fridge until 15 minutes before guests arrive.
  2. For the presentation: Carve a small pumpkin to have a face that looks like it is puking. Haha. Place it on a large platter with a candle inside. Spoon the guacamole onto the platter in front of the jack o'lantern's face. Distribute multi-colored tortilla chips around the perimeter of the guacamole. Enjoy! Happy Halloween!

 

Categories
Breads Breakfast/Brunch Dessert Pumpkin Uncategorized

The Best Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

[pinterest]

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

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!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

 

The Best Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Yummy pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes - perfect for a Halloween party.
Author:
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
  1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Prepare muffin tins by either spraying them with cooking spray or lining them with paper liners.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, white sugar, brown sugar, pumpkin, vanilla extract, and vegetable oil. Set aside.
  3. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.
  4. In three batches, add the flour to the wet ingredients and stir to incorporate. Don't overmix, but incorporate thoroughly.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. To make the icing:
  8. 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.
  9. To ice the cupcakes:
  10. 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 Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
Categories
Dessert Pumpkin Uncategorized

Cardamom Spiced Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

Cardamom Spiced Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

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.

Custard in the Ice Cream Maker
Starting to freeze
Ice cream churning

[print_this]Cardamom Spiced Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream
Serves 8? or 2
This recipe was inspired by David Lebovitz’s Pumpkin Ice Cream post, but then I kind of changed it. He adapted a recipe from the book The Craft of Baking: Cakes, Cookies, and Other Sweets with Ideas for Inventing Your Own by Karen DeMasco & Mindy Fox.

Ingredients

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]

Cardamom Spiced Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream
Categories
Dessert Uncategorized

Pumpkin Pudding

Pumpkin Pudding
Pumpkin Pudding

It’s day 30 of 31 days of pumpkin, my friends, and I’ve gone back to basics and back to the book that inspired me as a young home cook so many years ago. My mother gave me this book when I was a junior in college and I cooked from it religiously back then. Now it’s funny. Some of the recipes feel a bit dated. There’s even a recipe in there for a pumpkin mold: a kind of custardy, pudding-like thing that you chill in a bundt cake pan and turn out. I didn’t have the energy to actually make it, although I considered doing so just for the retro appeal and possible shock factor of the resulting photograph. (Tastestopping, here we come)! It will have to wait until next year.

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.

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