Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins

This is definitely not for the gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, or corn-free crowd, as it has wheat, dairy, eggs, and cornmeal in it. My muffin tin holds about a half cup per muffin and made 18 muffins. The cornmeal I used is stone ground from the local grist mill.

Ready to eat: pumpkin cornbread muffins

Makes: 12-18

Wet Ingredients:

1 c pumpkin puree
1 c half 'n' half or whole milk
2 eggs
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
4-6 tbsp raw honey

Dry ingredients:

1.5 c yellow cornmeal
3/4 c all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Mix wet ingredients together in a large bowl. Sift in dry ingredients. Whisk gently to combine. Use a 1/3 c measuring cup to fill greased muffin tin.

Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown on top.

Let cool on a rack.

Kitchen Notes: Everything Pumpkin

Last year's T-day desserts featuring pumpkin were clearly winners: pumpkin pound cake and the pumpkin roll with candied ginger in the cream cheese filling. Here's a listing of all the pumpkin recipes-to-date on this blog:

pumpkin pie spice
pumpkin spice scones
pumpkin fried rice
pumpkin bread with yogurt
pumpkin bread with tofu
pumpkin soup
pumpkin pound cake
pumpkin roll with candied ginger
pumpkin spice latte
pumpkin muffins
pumpkin cranberry biscotti

Should kabocha squash be included in the pumpkin recipes? After all, it is pumpkin-like in shape, cooking methods, and color. If so, here are those recipe links:

Spicy Sweet Roasted Kabocha Squash
pumpkin potage

With the autumn season close by, pumpkins will soon be available at local farms and the produce market. Here are some recipe ideas that I'll be toying with for this year's T-day:

Southern Living's Pumpkin Chips (deep fried)
Pumpkin Butter
Pumpkin Cornbread
Pumpkin Bread Pudding
Serious Eats' Pumpkin Liqueur

Pumpkin Spice Scones

Just like how Starbucks makes them, well, not really. I really did try to replicate the taste. Except, I forgot to add the vanilla extract to the dough so I added it to the spiced icing instead. This scone tastes less sugary than what you can get at Starbucks. There's only a third of a cup of brown sugar in the whole batch, plus whatever icing that was squiggled on top of the scones. These taste really good when eaten the same day they're baked. They're slightly less fresh the day after. And, the scones have dried out somewhat after that but a good complement to tea and/or coffee.

Pumpkin Spice Scones, glazed and all for me...!

This dough was really, really wet and sticky. I was concerned that it wouldn't form into the triangles after baking. If you want easier cleanup, place a silicone mat under the rack that the scones are cooling on before glazing.

Scone Ingredients

2 c unbleached all purpose flour
1/3 c light brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground cloves
3/4 tsp ground ginger
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 c organic pumpkin purée
1 large egg
up to 3 tbsp organic half'n'half
1 stick (8 tbsp) cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks

Spiced Glaze Ingredients

1 c powdered sugar
1 tbsp organic half'n'half
1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

To make the dough, blend together all the dry ingredients and the butter in a food processor. Next, add all the wet ingredients (egg, pumpkin, half'n'half). Pulse until it just comes together. It'll be sticky and wet.

Turn dough out onto a silicone mat. If the dough is too sticky, wet your fingers with some water and gently press the dough out into a rectangular shape. You're aiming for an even block of dough that is 1/2" tall. If you're as good as a Starbuck's baker, you can pat this dough out to be 10" x 7". But, if you're not, it'll look like some rectangular blob.

Use a pastry knife and cut the triangle in half and in half again. Of the smaller triangles, cut these diagonally to make triangle wedges. Don't try to break these apart when they are wet. It simply will not work.

Bake on a rimmed or unrimmed baking sheet for 15 minutes. Try to break out the wedges as individual pieces and cool on a wire rack.

To make the spiced glaze:

Combine all the glaze ingredients together in a bowl. And use a spoon or sandwich bag to create zig-zag lines on top of the scones.

To make a simple sugar glaze:

Combine all the glaze ingredients except for the pumpkin pie spice and glaze accordingly.

Pumpkin Pound Cake

This was my favorite dessert for this year's T-Day holiday. Not only was it delicious the day I made it, it was just as tasty the next day and the next. What can I say. I love pound cake. I had a hard time spreading the sugar glaze and it seemed as though the glaze could handle a lot more liquid than what the recipe originally called for.

Pumpkin Pound Cake with a Sugar Glaze

Cake Ingredients:

3 3/4 c unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 c organic pumpkin pureé
3/4 c whole milk
6 large eggs
1 1/2 c organic granulated sugar
1 1/2 c unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Cake Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and dust with flour a 12-cup Bundt pan.

1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, spice, baking powder and baking soda.

2. In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar together until creamy. Add an egg, one at a time and beat until combined.

3. Alternate flour and milk while mixing into the egg/butter/sugar mixture until everything is combined.

4. Spoon into a prepared Bundt pan and bake for an hour. If a toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done.

Sugar Glaze Ingredients:

1 1/2 c powdered sugar
3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
3+ tbsp whole milk

Put glaze ingredients into a bowl and whisk together with enough milk until it is thin enough to pour on top of cake. 

Pumpkin Roll with Candied Ginger

This is another dessert I made for Thanksgiving. It's also really easy to do if you're pressed on time. Party guests will enjoy the presentation of this one. Use a wet knife to cut this into 3/4" slices. Pumpkin and cream cheese go well together, candied ginger brings the element of heat and warm spice to the filling. While I only put a handful of chopped candied ginger in, I think the filling can accommodate much more...maybe up to a half cup of candied ginger? Guests who tried this only remembered the ginger after having been told there was candied ginger in the filling.

Pumpkin Roll with Candied Ginger

Cake Ingredients

3/4 c unbleached all-purpose flour
2/3 c canned organic pumpkin pureé
3 large eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 ts baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp kosher salt or sea salt
1/2 c organic granulated sugar (can add up to 1 cup if you like sweeter cake)

Pumpkin Spice Latte (Coffee or Tea)

If you like bits floating around in your tea, you can certainly skip straining the liquid before drinking. I strained it because I didn't want the spices to steep longer than they should. I would caution that you shouldn't drink this at night or before going to bed. These spices, while warming, are also stimulants. First time making this and after tasting, the recipe still needs some tweaking. Recipe can be doubled, as necessary.

Makes 1 cup.

Ingredients

1 cup organic milk (whole cow milk, coconut milk, almond milk, etc.)
1 tbsp organic pumpkin puree
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
1 tsp loose leaf black tea or green tea (instant coffee, instant espresso, or 2 tbsp freshly ground coffee)
sweetener to taste (I used 2 tsp organic sugar)
ground cinnamon for garnish (optional)
organic whipped cream for garnish (optional, only 8 calories per tbsp!)

Directions

Heat milk, pumpkin, and pumpkin pie spice in a small saucepan. Don't let it scald or boil, a gentle simmer until the milk starts to foam. Remove from heat and pour through a mesh strainer into a mug. Stir in vanilla extract and sugar. Enjoy.

Pumpkin Fried Rice

This recipe is a homage to a dish of the same name from Ginza, a downtown Bellevue restaurant. I can only hope that I can get the presentation close to how Ginza serves this up (inside a cooked kabocha squash).

Ginza's Pumpkin Fried Rice

From looking and tasting the dish, it has these noticeable ingredients: green onions, bacon, short grain white rice, caramelized onions, and chunks of kabocha squash. It easily serves 2-3 adults. Except for the rind and stem, it's all edible. I only have one sugar pumpkin on hand for this recipe; so no fancy presentation for me. You'll need to have two small sized kabocha squash on hand to replicate Ginza's plating for this dish. I think Ginza finishes the dish in the oven or steamer for the last ten or so minutes of cook time.

I only had five slices of bacon on hand, and while I could have taken more out of the freezer, I didn't. This recipe ratio definitely needed ten slices of bacon for the amount of rice cooked and prepared diced pumpkin. I used 1/4 cup less water when making the rice since I wanted the cooked rice to have more texture when frying. I also stirred the freshly made steamed rice until it cooled.

Ingredients

2-3 stalks green onions, sliced green parts only
1/2 medium white onion, small dice
5 garlic cloves, minced
10 slices of bacon, fried to a crisp then coarsely chopped
4 c. cooked white rice (2 c dried + 1 3/4 c water)
1/4 c. light soy sauce (optional)
1 tsp kosher salt
2+ c. diced sugar pumpkin (or kabocha squash)

Directions

1. With a rice steamer, cook two cups of rice in 1 3/4 cups of water. This will give the short grain rice a firmer texture for fried rice. Long grain white or brown rice can be used, if you prefer.

-or- Have four cups of cooked rice. White rice works better than brown rice. Long grain is the preferred American style of fried rice; while short grain is typically used in Asian cuisine.

2. In a large nonstick skillet, fry bacon over low-medium heat until all the strips are crispy. Pour out all but two tablespoons of bacon grease. Let the cooked bacon cool on paper towels before chopping up.

3. In the same skillet, turn heat to medium and saute onions and garlic until onions have turned translucent and begin to brown; about 5 mins. Add diced pumpkin and stir mixture occasionally until the pumpkin is fork-tender, about 10-15 minutes.

4. If you intend to add a saltier taste to the rice by using soy sauce, add it before the rice and stir until the pumpkin is mostly coated with it; instead of adding it to the rice which gives the rice an uneven color. Then, add the cooked rice and stir to evenly distribute ingredients. To preserve the green color of the scallions, these should be added last and about 10 minutes before serving. Add bacon and green onions. Stir to combine.

5. Turn off heat and cover until ready to serve.

This is how my version came out. It really did need more bacon; and the pumpkin could have cooked for longer:

Pumpkin Fried Rice, first attempt

Pumpkin Potage

"Potage (from Old French pottage; "potted dish") is a category of thick soups, stews, or porridges, in some of which meat and vegetables are boiled together with water until they form into a thick mush." --Wikipedia

This recipe comes from the Cooking with Dog video series on YouTube. It can be made in just under an hour, prep and cooking time; and it is really easy to make. I used a whole kabocha squash that was just under a pound. I also used turkey broth since it was available that day; you can also use chicken broth, water + a chicken bouillon cube, or vegetable stock.

Also called: kabocha squash soup

Ingredients

One medium kabocha squash, peeled, seeded and diced
One yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 tbsp unsalted butter
sea salt, to taste
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
1 c. broth
3/4 c. whole organic milk
2-3 tbsp heavy cream

Directions

1. Cut squash in half and scoop out seeds with a spoon. Carefully peel the green rind from the kabocha squash using a sharp knife and vegetable peeler. Cut squash into chunks.

2. In a skillet, add butter, onions, and squash. Sauté over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until the onions are about to caramelize. Add broth and simmer covered for 20 minutes.

3. When the squash is fork-tender, use an immersion blender to blend the squash and onion into a thick mixture. Add milk. Blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Bring potage up to a boil over medium heat. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper. Remove from heat and stir in 2-3 tablespoons of heavy cream.

Serve while hot.

Pumpkin Bread (with yogurt)

Whole pumpkins keep for a very long time, it seems. I harvested two sugar pumpkins from my yard in October and only just now hacked one open for this recipe. The pumpkin yielded 1 1/2 cups of pumpkin meat and a ton of seeds that I'll be using to trade for other seeds at neighborhood seed exchange later this month. These pumpkins are the second generation from the same pumpkin source. Two years ago I purchased sugar pumpkins from Trader Joe's, cooked the pumpkins and saved the seeds. Last year I planted some of those seeds down and of the surviving plants with my inept ability to gauge when pumpkins should be planted into the ground, I managed to only harvest two sugar pumpkins. Each pumpkin yields a lot of seeds. I suppose these could be also eaten raw or toasted. I don't know how the original sugar pumpkins were raised, but mine were raised by organic farming methods.. y'know.. water, sunlight, dirt, mulch, pruning, etc. No fertilizers and certainly no growth enhancers like Miracle Gro.

While I have another pumpkin bread recipe on this blog, that one is made with tofu. This one has plain yogurt in it since my tofu seems to be a bit frozen in the freezer. This loaf didn't rise as much as I had hoped, but it smells delicious and tastes great.

Ingredients

1 c. all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 stick of unsalted butter, melted
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. fresh sugar pumpkin, cooked
1/4 c. plain, organic whole milk yogurt
1 egg
3 tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp each: sea salt, ground ginger, ground allspice

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Use unsalted butter to grease a loaf pan and set aside.

2. Whisk together egg and vanilla extract. Gradually whisk in brown sugar, melted butter, plain yogurt, honey, pumpkin puree, baking powder, spices, and flour.

3. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes, until the top has a golden brown color and a tester comes out clean.

Pumpkin Muffins

I suppose I could have made pumpkin tartlets with the leftover canned pumpkin from when I made the biscotti. It would have meant actually calculating how much tart crust to make. I just wanted something sweet and easy to nibble on. These won't win any bake contests, but they're easy to make and when they're warm, the muffins are pretty good on a cold, breezy weekend. 

Ingredients

1 1/2 c. unbleached flour
1 c. brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp each ground cloves, ground nutmeg, ground ginger

1 c. cooked pumpkin
2 eggs
1/3 c. olive oil

For this batch, I used the entire leftover can of pumpkin which was roughly 11 oz (from a 15 oz can).

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. Whisk the dry ingredients together so that the spices are evenly disbursed.

2. Stir in pumpkin and eggs until the mixture neither looks runny nor like there's egg white everywhere.

3. Fill prepared muffin tin (either use paper muffin cups or lightly butter the muffin pan) so that each muffin opening is 3/4 full.

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until they look done. Let cool on a rack.

This batch didn't get to cool and I'd already eaten two of the muffins before remembering to take photos, which eventually will get posted.

Pumpkin Cranberry Biscotti

This isn't the cookie-like Americanized textured biscotti that Trader Joes has; this "cookie" is rather hard and is best dipping it with hot tea or coffee. It's a pretty simple recipe with simple ingredients and simple steps. It's certainly different than the super sweet treats that are typically made for T-day weekend.


Ingredients

3 c. unbleached wheat flour
1 c. brown sugar, packed
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (see below)
1/2 c. cooked pumpkin, fresh or canned
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1/2 c. dried sweetened cranberries
1/4 c. raw pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp butter, melted (optional)

Pumpkin Pie Spice

Lots of websites and cookbooks give different ratios for this spice blend. This blend works for pies and cookies.

1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices.

2. In a smaller bowl, whisk together pumpkin, eggs, vanilla, and melted butter.

3. Add in pumpkin seeds and cranberries. Mix together wet with dry ingredients until well combined.

4. Take a large glob of dough and shape it into a log. Flatten it on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough. The "logs" should be about 3-4" wide (this will become the length of the finished cookie) and no longer than 12" long (so all the dough will fit on one baking sheet). 

Unbaked "logs" of biscotti

The dough logs should not be touching each other as the baking powder will cause the biscotti to rise slightly. Bake for 25 minutes and remove when logs are slightly browned on top.

Slice logs diagonally (?) using a very sharp knife or serrated knife, the latter will cause tears in the dough if you rush cutting these.

5. Place slices cut-side down onto the same parchment-lined baking sheet and bake 12-15 minutes or until dry. Can let cool in oven on the baking sheet or removed to cool on a wire rack.

Biscotti ready for second baking session

Pumpkin Soup

Somehow I think a regular jack-o-lantern pumpkin would be better for this recipe than a sugar pie pumpkin. But, most squash-like objects will work for this soup in lieu of the pumpkin. Butternut or acorn squash seem likely suspects as a substitute. This recipe is fairly generic, with the exception of steaming the raw pumpkin instead of baking it. I like to steam pumpkin since it cooks much faster. If you wanted to make this vegan, you can always omit the butter and replace the chicken broth with a vegetable broth.

You'll find that fresh cream or crème fraîche (not really the same dairy "product") just adds to the robustness of the flavor and does very little to thicken the soup. Often I find that restaurants put way too much cream into the soup. Anyhow. Cheers!

1 small pumpkin
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup shallots, diced
1 tbsp olive oil
2 medium rose or yukon gold potatoes, cut into chunks
3 1/2 c. chicken broth
a sprinkling of salt, pepper, nutmeg, dried oregano (to taste)
crème fraîche or fresh whipped cream (optional)

Cut pumpkin into quarters or halves and remove the seeds and fibers. Steam in a steamer for 45 minutes or until malleable. Let cool. Scrape pumpkin meat into a bowl and set aside. Discard the rind.

Melt butter and olive oil in a large pot on medium heat. Add diced shallots and sauté until the shallots turn slightly translucent (about 2 minutes). Add the pumpkin flesh, cubed potatoes, and chicken broth.

Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30-40 minutes. Using an immersion blender, purée soup until smooth. Season the soup to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Serve with a dollop of crème fraîche and/or a toasted wedge of French or sourdough bread.

Pumpkin Bread (with tofu)

This is a pretty good dessert to bring into one's workplace. People always like eating healthy things, mostly.

Dry ingredients:

3 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp. each cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, salt
2 tsp baking soda
2 c. granulated sugar

Wet ingredients:

2 c. pumpkin flesh, mashed
One 10.25 oz pkg. soft tofu, any brand
2/3 c. milk
4 eggs, beaten

Directions

1. Mix wet with wet. In a separate bowl, mix dry with dry. Gradually add dry to wet and mix until blended thoroughly.

2. Grease bread pan with olive oil and dust lightly with flour. Fill bread pan with mixture and bake at 350 F for 1 hour.

3. Let cool on rack before emptying the pan.

Makes 2 loaves.