Spicy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Oh man, remember when you were eating lots of pumpkin pie and other pumpkin related things? Did you make delicious and spicy pumpkin seeds? I did. And then totally didn’t blog about it. So here you go friends! Hopefully this will help you out in the future because they were very, very good.

Spicy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds from Serious Eats:

1½ c. pumpkin seeds

2 Tb. olive oil

1 Tb. red pepper flakes

½ tsp. smoked paprika

¼ tsp. cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Scoop out the inside of your pumpkin, and separate seeds from pulp. Don't worry if there's a little pulp left on the seeds when you roast them—it only adds flavor. Just remove the biggest pieces so that the seeds are easy to toss.

In a bowl, toss the seeds with the oil, coating thoroughly. Add salt and seasonings. Spread seeds in one even layer across a greased baking sheet (or you can use a cookie sheet covered in aluminum foil).

 

Bake for 30 minutes, or until the seeds are golden brown. Stir the seeds every so often while they're baking, so that they toast evenly. Cool and serve. And see how long they last (hint: not very.)

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Merry Christmas Eve everybody!

Last year, Corey and I made pumpkin cupcakes. This year, we decided to continue the tradition with a twist. I had plenty of leftover pumpkin puree (from my awesome pie) and had that in mind while we browsed recipes. When we came across this one, I knew we had a winner. These made the house smell so good.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies slightly modified from Joy of Baking:

Makes far too many

For the cookies-
3 c. flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tb. ground cinnamon
1½ tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. allspice
½ tsp. salt
1 c. unsalted butter, room temperature
2 c. brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
15 oz. pumpkin puree

For the filling-
¼ c. vegetable shortening
¼ c. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 c. confectioners'sugar
1½ tsp. pure vanilla extract
½ c. light corn syrup (I tried finding golden syrup instead, but with no luck)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place oven rack in the center of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cloves, nutmeg, allspice (the last two were our additions), and salt.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and pumpkin puree. Beat in the flour mixture just until incorporated. Drop heaping tablespoons of the batter onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing about 2” apart. With moistened fingers or with the back of a spoon, smooth the tops of the cakes. Corey totally rocked this part. Bake for about 10 - 12 minutes or until the tops of the cookies, when lightly pressed, spring back. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

While the cookies cool, make the filling. Beat the shortening and butter until soft and creamy. With the mixer on its lowest speed, gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar. Increase the speed to high, and beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Then, with the mixer on low speed, beat in the vanilla extract and slowly drizzle in the corn syrup. Continue to beat until the filling looks like soft mayonnaise. It really did. It was weird.

After the cookies have cooled and the filling has been made, it’s time to assemble. Take one cookie and spread a heaping tablespoon of the filling on the flat side of the cake. Top with another cookie. The assembled cookies can be stored, covered, in the refrigerator for several days. Bring to room temperature before serving.

These are so moist and delicious and wonderful. The only thing I think we would have done differently is make them smaller. They’re not quite unwieldy, but would be better from cookie plate distribution at a smaller size. Still, these are amazing and well worth the multi-step effort.

Roasted Pumpkin Pie

I mentioned Mix Magazine in my last Thanksgiving dessert post and here it is again for the next one. I decided to do pie this year. Though last year rocked and I’m really proud of my desserts, pie definitely has a place at the table. Plus, when I saw this recipe, I really wanted to make a pie that involved roasting my own pumpkin. It’s so simple, but the flavor is just superb.

The original recipe uses a frozen pie shell, but I just don’t roll like that. So I cobbled together this recipe plus my first pumpkin pie plus my apple tart from Rosh Hashanah. The crust didn’t overbake or get too dark, even though I forgot to put foil around the edge at the beginning, like I usually do. This is a perfect holiday dessert or really, for any fall occasion.

Roasted Pumpkin Pie from Mix Magazine:

Makes a beautiful 9" pie

For the puree:
At least a 4 lb. pumpkin

For the pie:
Full recipe galette dough
1½ c. roasted pumpkin puree
1 c. buttermilk
3 large egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tb. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
¼ tsp. ground cloves
¼ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ c. granulated sugar
½ c. lightly packed brown sugar
Whipped cream, for serving

To make the puree, roast the pumpkin by cutting it in half and place it cut-side down on a foil-lined baking sheet. The original doesn’t have you scoop out the seeds first, but I think it’s easier to do it before roasting. Roast in a 400 degree oven until you can easily plunge a fork into the squash and twist it easily, about 1 to 1½ hours, depending on the size and thickness of the squash. Scrape out the roasted flesh and put in a food processor. Pulse a few times until it resembles a puree. Refrigerate the puree in an airtight container for up to two days or freeze for up to three months. My pumpkin was fairly large, so I had extra, which was put to good use. Oh no, extra pumpkin puree? Not a problem for me!

For the pie, make the galette dough (this can be done a couple of days ahead of time), and press into a pie dish. Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, buttermilk, egg yolks and vanilla. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, salt, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and whisk to combine.

Pour into the pie dish and place the pie on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees. Continue baking until a knife inserted about 1 inch from the center comes out clean, about 35-40 minutes. The pie can be made up to one day ahead, which I did. It’s much easier to deal with Thanksgiving when the pies are already done. Cool completely, cover with plastic and chill.

I am not exaggerating when I say that this is the best pie I have ever made. Ever. It was perfect in so many ways. Roasting your own pumpkin is so easy and the flavor really is just that much better. The crunchy galette dough was perfect with the sweetness of this pie and it looked beautiful. Though we did have a lot of dessert on Thanksgiving, this one has stolen my heart. I may never make a different pumpkin pie again. Okay, I might, but this one is really, really good!

Curried Pumpkin Seeds

I have one final bit of baking extravaganza. This isn’t a cookie/baking recipe, but rather part of the snack we had in the middle of sugar time. I had made it prior to bake day after doing all that pumpkin business for Thanksgiving. It’s not much of a change on pan roasting pumpkin seeds, but it’s tasty nonetheless.

Curried Pumpkin Seeds:

Clean, dried pumpkin seeds
Olive oil
Sea salt to taste
Ground pepper to taste
Curry powder





In a medium skillet, heat a bit of olive oil over medium to medium-high heat. Add pumpkin seeds, ground pepper, and sea salt. Roast in pan, stirring constantly, until pumpkin seeds begin to puff up and brown. Allow to cool. Transfer to a container; add a bit more ground pepper and sea salt. Add the curry powder to taste. Stir to coat.

I love pumpkin seeds and I really like the curry-pumpkin flavor combo. This is a fantastic little snack.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Frosting

All I really want to say about this one is heck yes, pumpkin cupcakes! Also, I am in love with this frosting forever and ever and ever. I used the cinnamon amount from the original recipe and even though cream cheese frosting is pretty fantastic, I just had to use this one.

Okay, one more thing. I think we probably should have called baking extravaganza powdered sugar extravaganza. Seriously, so much powdered sugar was used. It was kind of ridiculous.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Frosting modified from A Pookie Pantry:

Makes 12 cupcakes

¼ c. firmly packed brown sugar
¼ c. granulated sugar
4 Tb. unsalted butter, room temperature
2 Tb. molasses
1 egg
½ c. pumpkin puree
1 c. all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
Pinch of allspice
Scant ½ tsp. kosher salt
½ c. buttermilk
The best frosting in the world plus 1½ tsp. ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with 12 liners. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine brown and white sugars. Using a mixer on low speed, mix together to remove any lumps. Add butter and beat until fluffy (one to one and a half minutes). Add the molasses and egg and mix to combine. Add pumpkin puree and mix to incorporate fully.

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture in three batches, alternating with buttermilk (start and end with flour). I was a little uneven here, but it worked out well. Mix well after each addition, but don't overbeat.

Fill the cupcake liners. Tap pans against counter to level out the batter. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 5 minutes and remove to cool completely on wire racks before frosting.



Make the super rad frosting, mix in the cinnamon. Frost the cupcakes and possibly decorate with leftover dyed raw sugar. Regular raw sugar would also be very good on these. They are super moist and super delicious.

Vanilla Panna Cotta with Pumpkin Cherry Compote and Pumpkin-Caramel Sauce

This is probably one of the most involved desserts I have ever made. It’s not often I make something I’ve never made before plus a compote I’ve never made before PLUS a caramel sauce I’ve never made before. But it was all worth it just because it was that amazing.

I love panna cotta, but gelatin freaks me out. I think it’s just a creepy product in general. I had some at Ciao Vito the other day for happy hour and it was so tasty I thought that maybe I should do that for Thanksgiving instead of pie. For whatever reason, I decided to go pie free this year. I think it worked out. Anyway, on my search for a panna cotta recipe, I was getting a little frustrated with all the gelatin in it when I found this one, which uses agar flakes instead. Agar agar is derived from seaweed and is completely vegetarian and not creepy. It’s also better than gelatin as far as being able to reset it by reboiling the liquid. Yeah, rad. So while that recipe did use agar flakes, I didn’t want to use whole milk and buy vanilla beans, so I searched some more and found this recipe. Combining the new one, with tips from the first one, and advice from this website, I got a solid panna cotta recipe. Good deal.

But you can’t just have panna cotta! You need some sort of fruit thing and a sauce. So I searched from pumpkin recipes on epicurious.com, as there would be no pumpkin pie, and found this compote and this sauce and as a result, made a dessert. I made all three the day before Thanksgiving and I think it worked out really well. It’s also really easy to veganize. Just replace the heavy cream with soy cream for the panna cotta and the sauce and oil based margarine for the butter in the compote and sauce.

Vanilla Panna Cotta with Pumpkin Cherry Compote and Pumpkin-Caramel Sauce from my brain and David Lebovitz as well as Gourmet and Bon Appétit via epicurious.com:

Serves 6 and makes a ton of extra compote and sauce

For the panna cotta:
4 c. heavy cream
½ c. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4½ Tb. agar flakes
6 Tb. cold water

For the compote:
½ c. dried tart cherries
2 Tb. unsalted butter
½ c. packed brown sugar
¼ c. granulated sugar
2 Tb. lemon juice
¼ tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. salt
2 c. fresh pumpkin (preferably sugar or cheese pumpkin), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch dice

For the sauce:
¼ c. unsalted butter
½ c. sugar
1 c. heavy whipping cream
½ c. canned pure pumpkin



Heat the heavy cream and sugar in a saucepan. Once the sugar is dissolved, stir in the vanilla extract. Bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, lightly oil six cups with a neutral-tasting oil. Sprinkle the agar over the cold water in a medium-sized bowl and let stand 10 minutes.



Whisk in agar and simmer, whisking, until completely dissolved, about 15 minutes. Cool panna cotta slightly. Pour into glasses and chill until set, at least 2 hours.

To make the compote, deal with your pain of a pumpkin first. Seriously, peeling, seeding, and dicing a pumpkin is ridiculously involved. It took me forever and probably would have taken longer if I hadn’t remembered my mini-prep food processor part way in. After that is all set, soak cherries in hot water to cover until softened, about 15 minutes, then drain.





Melt butter in a large skillet over moderate heat. Add sugars, lemon juice, cinnamon, and salt, then cook, stirring until smooth. Add pumpkin and drained cherries and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until pumpkin is tender, 8 to 12 minutes.





The sauce is really easy, but kind of weird. I’ve never made caramels or caramel sauce, so this was all new to me. Melt butter in heavy small saucepan over medium heat. Add sugar and cook until mixture is deep amber, stirring constantly, about 8 minutes. The mixture will be grainy. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add cream. It was at this point that my caramel mixture became solid and freaked me out. It says in the original recipe that the mixture will bubble, but that took a little while. Stir until caramel bits dissolve, about 2 minutes. Add pumpkin and stir until heated. Refrigerate until cold, about 2 hours.



To assemble, run a sharp knife around the edge of each panna cotta and unmold each onto a serving plate. Drizzle with sauce (I took mine out a little before serving) and scoop on compote.

I thought that this was ridiculously delicious. The panna cotta was a little more solid that I would have liked, but for my first time making it and messing with a couple of different recipes, I thought it came out rather well. The compote was sweet, but not too sweet and the sauce was just dang delicious. I may never make the compote again just because of how difficult it was to deal with that pumpkin, but I might modify it with apple or something like that. This is such a pretty dessert and I’d love to show it off again.

Curried Pumpkin Soup

As you may recall, I was a little short on pumpkin puree when making my pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. My husband and his sister bought a large can under the possible intention of using it to make pumpkin pancakes or something of that nature. When that didn’t happen, I was left with a large can of pumpkin and the need to do something with it.

Fighting the urge to just make pumpkin ice cream, I searched through my cookbooks until I found something exciting and different: curried pumpkin soup. I found a great recipe in my Alice Bay Cookbook, given to us from my husband’s oldest friend and our wedding officiant, Kai. Kai lives up in Washington’s Skagit Valley, where the recipes come from. I’ve only tried a few recipes out of the book, but they’ve all been good. I’ll have to look to it more.

This soup is pretty easy and it tastes amazing. The only note I’ll make is that when it has you transfer the soup to a blender or food processor to make smooth, make sure it is in small batches. I didn’t and I burnt my hand when the soup shot up through the top of the blender lid. Plus, I made a huge mess. Despite the mess and my hand, this was worthwhile.

Curried Pumpkin Soup from Alice Bay Cookbook:

Makes 6 portions

¼ c. butter
1 large onion, sliced
¾ c. green onion, sliced, white part only
2 c. pumpkin puree
4 c. chicken broth (I used 2 cups of my veggie stock and 2 cups leftover boxed chicken broth)
1 bay leaf
½ tsp. ginger
½ tsp. curry powder
¼ tsp. nutmeg
Few fresh parsley sprigs
2 c. half-and-half
Salt
Freshly ground pepper

Garnish:
½ c. sour cream or yogurt (I used yogurt)
½ c. minced green onion or chives (I used green onion)



Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and sauté until soft and golden brown. Stir in pumpkin, chicken stock, bay leaf, ginger, curry powder, nutmeg, and parsley. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat and continue simmering, for 15 minutes.



Transfer the soup in batches to blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Return to saucepan and add half-and-half. Add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 5 minutes, but do not allow to boil.



To serve hot, ladle into individual bowls. Float a dollop of sour cream on each and top with green onions of chives.

To serve cold, chill soup thoroughly, serve in individual bowls and garnish with sour cream and chives.

This was a really good soup. I had mine with some of the Italian feather bread and that’s it. This would be a great starter for a fall/winter feast.

Pumpkin and Apple Pies

For last year’s Thanksgiving, I decided to do the pumpkin pie. Having never made pie on my own before, I called (who else?) my mom for a pastry crust recipe. It turned out wonderful, so I decided to do pie again this year. I was only going to do apple because my husband isn’t really into pie and he thought he’d like apple better, but when my folks visited, they gave me homegrown pumpkin puree. So I had to do another pumpkin pie. Last year came from a can, this year my parents’ farm (plus a little from a can. I was about ¼-½ c. short on the homemade pumpkin). Still, how cool is that?

The pastry recipe my mom sent me last year is designed for a Cuisinart. I only have a mini prep I got from my wedding registry (thanks mom and dad!), so I do it by hand. The pastry recipe reflects my modifications for that and my mom’s notes as well. I’m listing both the single and double crust as the pumpkin pie was single and the apple was double. For the ice water, I find it easiest to fill a small bowl with water and ice and keep it in the fridge until it is needed. Everything needs to remain cold.

Pastry Dough from Cuisinart via my mom:

For a single crust pie or tart -
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. baking powder
8 Tb. (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut in 1/2" pieces and kept well chilled
2 Tb. vegetable shortening (you can use a natural soft butter in the tubs or substitute with butter)
2 to 4 TB. ice water

For a double crust pie -
3 cups of flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
16 Tb (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut in 1/2" and kept well chilled
2 Tb. vegetable shortening
5-8 Tb. ice water

Pumpkin Pie filling from Joy of Cooking:

2 c. cooked or canned pumpkin (if you are using cooked pumpkin that has been frozen, make sure to drain it of the extra water first).
1½ c. undiluted evaporated milk or rich cream (I used evaporated milk)
¼ c. brown sugar
½ c. white sugar
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ginger
¼ tsp. nutmeg or allspice (I used nutmeg)
1/8 tsp. cloves
2 slightly beaten eggs

Apple Pie filling from Joy of Cooking:

5-6 c. apples (I used more like 8 cups. Each apple was about a cup. I used Granny Smiths and Jonagolds. It’s good to use a mix of very tart and sweet apples. Too many sweet ones become applesauce, according to my mom)
½-2/3 c. white or brown sugar (I used brown. The difference is for the type of apples you are using. Tarter apples get more sugar, sweeter gets less. I used the max.)
1-1½ Tb. cornstarch (Juicer apples get more. Flour is a good substitute as well and according to my mom, it tastes better. I used cornstarch because I happened to have it.)
¼ tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg (these two are optional, but I really like them, so in they went)
1½ Tb. butter

For the dough:

Sift the flour, salt & baking powder.



Add the well chilled butter & soft butter (also well chilled). Use your finger tips or two forks (I used my fingers) until the mixture resembles coarse corn meal and no pieces of butter are larger than a "pea" remain visible. Sprinkle half the maximum ice water on the flour & butter mixture and mix in with fingers or forks. The dough will be crumbly, but should begin to hold together when a small amount is picked up and pressed together. Sprinkle on more water, a teaspoon at a time (two for a double crust), with a few quick mixes after each addition, adding enough water for the dough to hold together easily when pressed into a ball. Add the liquid sparingly so the dough is not sticky. Do not over process or the pastry will be tough, not tender and flaky.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Press together into a ball, and then flatten into a disc about 6 inches in diameter (two discs for a two pie crust). Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour before continuing to allow the gluten in the flour to rest. The dough will keep refrigerated for up to 3 days or may be frozen (double wrapped) for up to a month. Thaw at room temperature for an hour before using.

I ran out of plastic wrap and because I did the dough on Monday, I wrapped the dough in parchment paper and put them in a large Ziploc bag. It actually worked out really well and made for easier clean up. It kept very well too. It was really easy to keep together. So next time I’ll just do this and skip the plastic wrap because I always make a mess out of it anyway.

For the pies, I pulled out the dough, let it get to room temperature and rolled them out. Flour a surface and a rolling pin and roll it out to desired thickness. I find that a spatula is helpful in peeling it off the counter. I then formed the crusts in the pie tins (except the top crust for the apple, which I rolled out and put back in the fridge) and put them in the fridge while I made the fillings. This was a very, very good idea.

After making the filling I took out the top pie crust and attempted to make a pretty top. I cut ovals and used the extra dough to make an apple relief. It kind of looks like an apple. Anyway, I tried, even if it is all off center.

For both pies, I placed a ring of aluminum foil around the edge of the pie crust for the first 20-25 minutes of baking. This prevents it from browning too quickly.

For the pumpkin pie:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Mix all ingredients until well blended. The Kitchen Aid makes this ridiculously easy. If you have a hand electric mixer, this would also work very well.







Pour mixture into pie shell. Bake 15 minutes at 425, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake about 45 minutes longer or until inserted knife comes out clean. It will look like well set Jello. Don’t worry; the pie will set out of the oven.

For the apple pie:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Pare, core and thinly slice apples.



Combine and sift the sugar, salt, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg over the apples. Stir the apples gently until they are well coated. Place them in layers in the pie shell. Dot with the butter.



Cover the pie with a pricked upper crust. Bake in a 450 oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake until done, 35-45 minutes or until golden brown. Mine was more like 55 minutes at 350.

For both pies, I whipped up some whipped cream and that was it. They were both so very good and a big hit. I’m really impressed with the apple pie. The pumpkin was also super delicious.

I had planned to post my recipe for stuffing tomorrow, but as I kind of improvised as I went, modifying the 2nd Ave. Deli book into something unrecognizable, I decided to pass. Plus, I hardly followed their recipe at all. I will say that it was very tasty though and is now almost all gone. Next year means I need to make two loaves of challah.

Happy Thanksgiving!