Brown Butter Pumpkin Brownies

You can make these chewy, fragrant brownies by browning the butter, but you don't have to. They'll be delicious either way. The perfect dessert for a beautiful fall day! Oh, and eat your first one when they are still a little bit warm. 

1 cup browned or melted butter, let cool to room temperature 

1 1/3 cup brown sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons cornstarch

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (you can buy it or make my recipe HERE)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350. Place two strips of parchment paper going in opposite directions in a metal 9" baking pan.

If you choose to brown the butter, place in small saucepan and melt on medium heat. Continue to heat the butter until it becomes foamy and starts to turn golden brown. Be careful, it can easily burn! 

Place melted or browned butter in large glass mixing bowl and let cool to room temperature. 

Mix flour, cornstarch, spices, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. 

Dump brown sugar into the cooled butter and stir together. Whisk in pumpkin and vanilla until smooth. 

Add dry ingredients and stir until just combined. The batter will be thick! 

Carefully and evenly spread into paper-lined pan. 

Sprinkle the top evenly with a mixture of: 

3 Tablespoons white sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until center is no longer jiggly and a pick inserted into the center comes out with a few crumbs on it, but not wet batter. 

Cool on wire rack for at least 30 minutes. Lift out using the parchment liner. Cut into small squares.

Spiced Caramel Apple Cider Doodles

 I really wanted to combine caramel and spiced apple cider into a cookie. I could get the spice and the caramel but the apple part was eluding me. So how would I get that intense apple cider flavor I wanted? Boil down some of our hand-pressed cider into a dark, syrupy goodness. Then combine it with butter, sugar and cream and make caramel. Place on top of a mulling spice snickerdoodle. Yup. That's it...

I used the Smitten Kitchen recipe HERE but only make a half batch for this recipe with a couple of changes.

First... make the snickerdoodles.

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 3/4 cups flour

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp soda

1/4 tsp salt

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1/4 cup sugar

3 tsp cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves & allspice

Heat oven to 400.

Mix butter, shortening, sugar, and eggs thoroughly. Blend flour, cream of tartar, salt, and soda. Stir into butter mixture. Mix well. Shape dough into 1” balls and roll in spiced sugar mixture.

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes. Before removing from pan and while still warm, press an indentation in the top of each cookie. I used my wooden tart shaper from Pampered Chef, but you can be creative.

Then remove and let cool on wire rack. (the cookies in the picture aren't the ones I used for these cookies, so no indentation for caramel... 😊)

Now to make the caramel. And this takes a while. Oh, and prep all your ingredients while you're reducing your cider. You won't have time later...

Reduce 2 cups of cider to 1/4 cup. 

You can't use just any cider for this. It needs to be the real stuff. Not the one you get at the grocery store. This needs to be hand pressed with the sludge at the bottom. Look at your local natural grocer or farmer's market.

Pour 2 cups of cider into a heavy saucepan and turn on a fairly high heat. Not your highest setting but close. And then just let it boil, hard. Stir it every once in a while. This is going to take a bit of time. Like maybe a half an hour. When it starts to get foamy, you know it's getting close. So keep an eye on it, it goes much quicker at this point. Have a heatproof measuring cup for liquids nearby so you can check your amount. 

Ingredients to prep while reducing cider:

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

Mix together in small bowl.

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

scant 1/4 teaspoon of salt

Mix in small bowl

3 Tablespoons of heavy cream

Pour into small glass

4 Tablespoons margarine (I don't use butter because it makes a stickier caramel and I hate caramel that sticks in your teeth)

Cut the margarine into smaller cubes

When your cider is down to 1/4 cup, immediately pour it back into your saucepan and remove from the heat. Stir in sugars, margarine and cream (in that order) and stir until margarine melts. 

Place back on burner and reduce heat just a bit (still med-high). Put a candy thermometer into the pan. Bring the mixture up to 252 degrees that can't be stirred down, while stirring constantly. You don't want it to burn. 😬

Stir in cinnamon and salt.

Carefully pour the caramel into a bowl and stir until it cools and begins to thicken a bit. 

Then carefully fill the centers of the cookies with the caramel. 

Let cool completely before eating. 

Pumpkin Butter Muffins

 I really love this muffin! I know this sounds strange, but I was inspired by this soap I bought at Bath & Body Works. Don't worry... It doesn't taste like soap. LOL

It was also my first time using my new silicone muffin cups, which, by the way, work great! 

These taste a lot like mini pumpkin coffee cakes. They stay moist for days and have a hint of coconut... You know, the soap. ;) 

1 3/4 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Mix dry ingredients in large mixing bowl. Make a well in the flour mixture. 

2 cups pumpkin butter (or pumpkin puree)

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1/2 teaspoon coconut extract (can substitute with vanilla)

/1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk the wet ingredients together and pour into the flour well. Mix until just combined.

Fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 full.

Combine brown sugar with a little white sugar. Mix with pumpkin pie spice, to taste.

Sprinkle generously on top of muffins.

Bake at 425 for 5 minutes. Then lower oven temperature to 350 and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until a pick comes out clean. 

Cool in wire rack. 

These are good warm or at room temperature. 

5 Spice Pumpkindoodles

I bought Chinese 5-spice this week and discovered that it goes beautifully with pumpkin. I've always wanted to try pumpkin cookies, so I took this opportunity and used my homemade 5-spice pumpkin butter and made snickerdoodles with it. YUM! The warm spicy mix is perfect on sugar cookies warm from the oven...

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup pumpkin butter (see recipe HERE)
2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsp Chinese 5-spice
Heat oven to 400.
Mix butter, shortening, sugar, and eggs thoroughly. Blend flour, cream of tartar, salt, and soda. Stir into butter mixture. Mix well. Shape dough into 1” balls and roll in 5-spice sugar (1/4 cup sugar and 4 tsp 5-spice mixed together).

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes

Ginger Blondies

I have enjoyed blondies (aka Butterscotch Brownies) since I was a kid. But in order to make them taste a bit more like Fall, this time I made them with dark brown sugar and crystallized ginger. Perfection!

1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9” square baking pan.

Melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, egg, vanilla and almond extract. Mix in flour and salt. Fold in ginger pieces.

Spread into prepared pan. Bake 20 minutes or until set and golden brown.

Cool on wire rack.

Chai Cider

Chai tea tastes like India and Autumn. On cold rainy days, a hot, creamy sweet chai tea warms you from the inside. But on warm sunny fall days,a chai cider hits the spot. What is chai cider? Cold chai tea and apple cider.

Mine was made with my homemade chai and the cider we pressed on Saturday.

To make chai, simmer 3 black tea bags in 6 cups of water with your favorite blend of spices for 15-20 minutes. I haven't found a combination I didn't like...

Choose from these spices: (always use whole spices, not ground)
cardamom
allspice
black pepper
cloves
cinnamon
nutmeg (whole grated)
star anise
fennel
ginger root

Serve hot with cream and sugar or cold with apple cider.

Pumpkin Butter Scones

A crisp fall day of watching BBC with a friend calls for a cup of maple cream tea and a batch of pumpkin scones. I have a freezer full of pumpkin butter, so I made up a recipe for these little gems. Just the perfect thing for the Call the Midwife Christmas special!

2 cups flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cold butter

1/2 cup pumpkin butter (I used this orange bourbon recipe. But you could use this one or this maple one or any of your favorites.)

1 egg

Preheat oven to 400.

Mix dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Cut in cold butter until the flour mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Whisk together pumpkin butter and egg. Add to flour mixture. Stir well to combine.

Knead a few times on a floured surface.

Place on greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Press into a circle about 1/2” thick. Cut into 8 wedges. Separate them slightly from one another.

Bake for 15-17 minutes.

Let cool on rack.

Make a orange spice glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Add orange juice until it becomes a good consistency for drizzling over the top of the cooled scones.

Drizzle over the scones when they are warm but no longer hot. Eat right away or wait until the scones have gotten to room temp and glaze has set.

Bourbon Orange Pumpkin Butter

This is the darkest and most flavorful of the three pumpkin butters I made. It is my favorite to throw into pancakes or yogurt!

4 cups pumpkin puree (see how to make your own HERE)

1/2 cup apple cider

1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (see my recipe HERE)

1 cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon bourbon

1 teaspoon orange juice

Combine pumpkin, cider, sugars, and spice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered, still stirring often, until it reduces down and gets thick. You can make it as thin or thick as you want.

Remove from heat and stir in bourbon and orange juice.

Let cool in fridge. Pour into jars or freezer containers. Store in fridge for up to 3 weeks or in freezer up to a year.

Pumpkin Pie Butter

No, it isn’t made of pumpkin pie… But it does have pumpkin pie spice in it and is yummy enough to eat from a spoon!

First you need to make pumpkin puree (you can try this method HERE)

3 cups pumpkin puree

1/4 cup apple cider

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (my recipe HERE)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 Tablespoon orange juice

Combine pumpkin, cider, sugars, and spice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered, still stirring often, until it reduces down and gets thick. You can make it as thin or thick as you want.

Remove from heat and stir in extract and orange juice.

Let cool in fridge. Pour into jars or freezer containers. Store in fridge for up to 3 weeks or in freezer up to a year.

Maple Pumpkin Butter

I decided to tackle the pile of pumpkins sitting on the hot tub today!

First step was to get them all baked and pureed. Super easy using this oven method!

Before I knew it, I had 25 cups of pumpkin! Fifteen cups went into the freezer and the other 10 got made into pumpkin butter. I’d never made it before, but from the recipes I saw on-line it didn’t seem too difficult. So, I made it up as I went along and am pretty darn pleased with the results!

spiced bourbon orange, pumpkin pie & maple

My mind is reeling with all kinds of ideas to do with them! If they work, I’ll post them here. But first, the Maple Pumpkin Butter recipe:

3 cups pumpkin puree (see recipe HERE)

1/4 cup apple cider (I used our homemade cider)

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 Tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon maple extract

pinch salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine pumpkin, cider, sugar and syrup in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered, still stirring often, until it reduces down and gets thick. You can make it as thin or thick as you want.

Remove from heat and stir in extracts,, salt and lemon juice.

Let cool in fridge. Pour into jars or freezer containers. Store in fridge for up to 3 weeks or in freezer up to a year.

Gingerbread Pear Cake

A chilly fall evening. A cup of hot tea. A good book by the fire. How could it be more perfect? A piece of moist gingerbread cake, studded with candied ginger and topped with sliced pears and brown sugar, that’s how.

1/4 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

2-3 pears, peeled, cored and thinly sliced

2 cups flour

1/3 cup chopped candied ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

Heat oven to 350. Butter a 10” ovenproof skillet.

Combine brown sugar and butter in small saucepan. Stir until combined and continue stirring until butter melts and syrup comes to a boil. Pour into bottom of skillet. (it will be rather thick)

Arrange pears on top of syrup in skillet.

Mix dry ingredients and make a well in the center. Whisk together the remaining ingredients and pour into the well. Mix until just moist. Pour over pears in skillet.

Bake for 45 minutes or until pick inserted into center comes out clean. Remove from oven and immediately run a knife along the edge of the cake. Invert onto large serving plate.Let sit for about 5 minutes before removing the skillet.

Serve cake warm or cold with whipping cream.

Easy Pumpkin Muffins

I found a recipe for easy pumpkin muffins on Pinterest but was rather disappointed that the recipe did not call for any spices at all… None! Pumpkin, in my book, must have the warm and spicy blend of cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg… So, while I liked the idea of the ease and simplicity of the muffins, I had to change it!

Then, yesterday we made a stop at a Wal-Mart just south of us and found their holiday baking display full of baking chips that I had never seen before but HAD TO HAVE! I can’t believe I spent $12 on baking chips, but I knew they will be worth every penny! The cinnamon chips inspired me to make one more change to the recipe. And this morning’s muffins proved I was correct!

Here is my version of easy pumpkin muffins:

1 box yellow cake mix

15oz pumpkin puree (see how to make fresh pumpkin puree HERE)

1-2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice (here is the recipe for my blend)

1/2 cup of cinnamon chips (see picture above)

Mix cake mix, spices and pumpkin together. Stir in cinnamon chips. Spoon into muffin tin and bake at 350 for 15-25 minutes, or until pick comes out clean.

They are moist, light and just the thing to go with a pumpkin spice latte!

Perfect Pumpkin Pie Spice

I love the spicy smell of pumpkin pie! Instead of buying pre-made pumpkin pie spice, I made my own. And to make it even better I added orange zest! It makes all my fall pumpkin desserts taste even yummier! And they smell… Mmmmm!!!

First dry the zest to two oranges in your oven on the lowest temp or in your food dehydrator, until dry. Be sure to zest your oranges right onto the tray you will dry on to get all of the lovely orange oil flavor.

Mix:

3 Tablespoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground nutmeg

1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

dried zest from two oranges

Place them in a jar and use in your favorite pumpkin recipes.

Pie Pumpkins

I have been drooling over the pumpkin recipes floating around the internet and aghast at the price of canned pumpkin at the grocery store. Thank goodness our local produce stand had lovely sugar pie pumpkins! I bought six of them…

Here’s all you need to do to have “better than canned” pumpkin for all your favorite fall recipes:

Wash a pie pumpkin (not a carving pumpkin).

Place it in your oven at 350.

Prick them with a fork every 30 minutes until they are tender.

Remove from oven. They will have turned this gorgeous brownish-orange color!

Pop off the stems.

Cut the pumpkin in half. Scrape out the seeds and “guts”.

Scoop out the pulp with a spoon.

Let pulp cool in fridge. Then puree in food processor.

Measure into 1-2 cup portions and place in freezer bags.

Use in your favorite pumpkin recipes!