Several Ways to Get Rid of Last Year's Pumpkin (or How to Make a Frighteningly Delicious Halloween Treat!)

So, you've seen me bake pumpkin cupcakes recently, and I had a lot of pumpkin puree left over.

Now this is something I enjoy using, and during this time of year, I bake with it a lot, and I buy various pumpkin flavored/themed things...like beer.

(This is Saranac Seasonal...quite good!)

But I had to think of another way to use it.  For one thing, I used it in a savory fashion by making "Yuko's Dream Curry" from http://www.johnnywander.com/ .

Quite tasty!

I also made another batch of the pumpkin cupcakes, but I baked it in a bread and iced it with cream cheese frosting, adding candy black cats and pumpkins!

Finally, my last installment of pumpkin for now will be something I call "Jack'o'lantern truffles."  This is a super easy recipe, and you can make any truffle with this, just remove the pumpkin from the equation, and any other flavor options.

First pour 1 bag of good chocolate chips into a metal mixing bowl.

Next heat up 1 cup of heavy cream with 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree until it simmers.

Pour into chocolate and let it sit for a few minutes.

Whisk vigorously adding 1 tsp vanilla

As well as a generous helping of pumpkin pie spice.

Let cool for 45 min in the fridge.

Using a cookie dispenser, or a set of spoons, scoop out and shape little balls of the chocolate mixture.

Place in the fridge once more, and should you have a Bryan on hand, allow him to clean up the chocolate mess left in the bowl.

Now it's time to coat this ball of goodness in...something.

Could be cocoa powder.

Melted chocolate.

Or nuts.

I chose cocoa powder.

(yes that is pizza in the background...please don't judge...)

Enjoy these deceivingly ugly, absolutely delicious treats, and Happy Halloween!

Themed Sweets

It's fall, and Halloween is in a couple of weeks, and while I was shopping, I saw a rather large bag of a popular candy coated chocolate, appropriately themed for the season.

Bryan, my roommate, was unhappy to see me taking pictures of candy.  This was only worsened by the fact that I had come back from the store with bags of Halloween candy that he could not eat, so I made cookies.

I used the Ghiradelli recipe I've used in blog posts past, but in addition to the candy I added a bit of pumpkin pie spice, just for an extra autumnal flavor.

The pumpkin pie spice was, sadly, barely tasted in these cookies...maybe I need a new jar.

Bon Appetit!

Pumpkin Bread/Cupcakes/Muffins

So, as you can tell by the title, this next baked good is...confusing.  The original recipe is for Pumpkin Bread from the Better Homes and Garden's Cookbook.  I usually make them as muffins, hence the muffin in the title.  But in this case, I added icing, making this a cupcake.  These cupcakes were for a staff member at my afterschool program.

I halved the recipe, otherwise I would have ended up with 4 dozen cupcakes, instead of 2.  I mixed 1 1/2 cup of granulated sugar with 1 cup of oil.

Next add 2 eggs and beat to combine.

In a separate bowl combine 1 3/4 cup of flour, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and 1/2 tsp of nutmeg.

Alternate between the flour mixture and 1/2 cup of water into the oil and sugar mixture until fully combined.

Next, add 1 cup of pumpkin puree.  This was frozen last year, it's very easy to make, but that's another blog post...

Bake for 25 minutes.

Now for the icing.  Take 1 8 oz package of cream cheese at room temperature and beat until "fluffy."

Add 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

Now, comes the part that I guess with.  Typically 1 cup of powdered sugar is added gradually, but I don't measure this out.  I do it by sight, and I like tasting the tartness of the cream cheese in the icing, so I don't use 1 cup.  I add enough to give the cream cheese the appearance of icing.

Next, I decided to add cinnamon.

Once the cupcakes are cooled, it's time to ice and decorate.

I put the icing in a zip top bag with a piping attachment.  It's much neater than a regular piping bag, and it makes the finished product look really nice!

See?

Now for some sprinkles...I happen to have autumn themed as well as pumpkin shaped sprinkles and a nice autumn themed sugar topping as well.

Done!  Lovely little cupcake/muffin/things!