Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread

Thank goodness I sort of had my wits about me during my holiday baking frenzy! I took as many pictures as I could, but I haven't posted too many of my recipes thus far. I guess I've been saving them for a rainy day. Now, it looks like I'll be posting those for the next little bit, because my camera seems to have disappeared in the packing chaos! I hope it resurfaces before too long, or I'll be in a tight spot!
Anyway, I made lots of mini loaves of bread this Christmas to give away as gifts. I like the idea of giving mini loaves for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I assume most people I'm giving food to are in the same predicament as me. I figure they probably love food, but that they've got way too much of it at Christmastime. The mini loaf is just a perfect little snack. It can be consumed in one sitting either alone (Hogatha!) or with a friend. There are no leftovers to feel obligated to eat. I also like mini loaves because I can give a kind of "variety pack" to people with several different flavors. That seems to be much appreciated, at least by my family and friends!
So here's one of my favorite quick bread recipes. Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread. When I first read the name of the recipe, I was a little uneasy about it. I'd never eaten peanut butter and pumpkin together. But I thought about it, and decided that peanut butter makes anything better, so I took the plunge. And it is delicious! It's a very moist bread, and the peanut butter stands out, but not too much. The pumkin is a perfect accent flavor. This recipe makes two loaves, and they freeze really well. If the pumpkin shortage hasn't hit your area, give this recipe a try!

Peanut Butter Pumpkin Bread

Anita Chicke

3 cups sugar

1 can (15 oz) solid-pack pumpkin

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup water

2/3 cup peanut buter

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine the sugar, pumpkin, eggs, oil, water, and peanut butter; beat well. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg; whisk well. Gradually add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture. Mix until just combined. Pour into two greased 9x5x3-inch loaf pans. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

*Makes 6 mini loaves.

Pumpkin Caramel Pound Cake

Baking is my thing. If you're having an event, and you invite me over, put me down to bring dessert. I'll bake a pie, a cake, cookies...whatever you want. Just let me do dessert.
Thanksgiving was no exception. I told Mom that I would bring sweet potato casserole and a dessert. I cut this recipe for Pumpkin Caramel Pound Cake out of the Louisville Courier-Journal over a year ago and hadn't made it yet. The recipe comes from Chris Weppler, who's Pumpkin Caramel Pound Cake won a ribbon at the state fair. I had high hopes for this one. I was honestly kind of disappointed.
The cake was simple enough to make, but the flavor just didn't have as much "oomph" as I thought that it would. And parts of my cake never baked completely through, even though I rotated the cake halfway during the baking time. (But maybe that problem was due to operator error...who knows?) The cake was fine, but it wasn't as special or tasty as I hoped it would be for the Thanksgiving holiday. But I guess that's what you get when you make an untested recipe for a family gathering!

Pumpkin Caramel Pound Cake

Chris Weppler

Cake:

2/3 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter

3 cups sugar

3/4 cups caramel ice cream topping

1 cup canned pumkin pie mix (not pure pumpkin puree)

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. ginger

1/4 tsp. cloves

1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

5 eggs

Glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar

3 tbs. caramel ice cream topping

4 tsp. water

Pecan halves for garnish, if desired

Finely chopped (or crushed) pecans for garnish, if desired

For the Cake:

Grease a 10-inch tube pan. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine shortening, butter, and sugar, and beat to blend evenly. Beat in caramel icecream topping and pumpkin.

Combine and sift flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and other spices. Add eggs and dry ingredients to creamed mixture, alternating eggs with dry ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.

Bake 70 to 80 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove and cool completely.

For Glaze:

Combine sugar, caramel topping, and water, and beat until no lumps remain. Drizzle over completely cooled cake. Garnish with nuts if desired.

Pumpkin Pie Dip

Last Saturday, I took this Pumpkin Pie Dip to a get-together at a friend's house. My friend Leslie said, "Is that that pumpkin dip?!" She'd had it at a party at my house last year, and I took it as an ultimate compliment that she remembered it that well over a year later! But this Pumpkin Pie Dip is absolutely delicious, so I shouldn't be surprised. It's a breeze to make, and everyone loves it. It's the perfect dessert to take to any holiday party! And the leftovers also made a delicious swirl in my Double Pumpkin Cake! It's got all of the flavors of pumpkin pie, but it serves a crowd. Plus, you don't have to make a pie crust. It's a winner!
There are actually two ways to make this yummy dip, and I've used both of them. Which one I make mostly depends on whether I happen to have a can of pumpkin pie filling in my pantry or not. I think I actually prefer the recipe made with the pumpkin pie filling, but both are delicious. You choose! But if you're not sharing this dip with lots of friends or family, either be prepared for leftovers, or cut the recipe in half.

Pumpkin Pie Dip I

recipe by ratherbeswimmin'

8 oz cream cheese, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

15 oz pumpkin pie filling (not pure pumpkin puree)

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground ginger

apple slices, for dipping

gingersnaps, for dipping

cinnamon graham crackers, for dipping

Beat cream cheese and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth.

Add pie filling, cinnamon, and ginger, beating well.

Cover and chill 8 hours.

Serve with gingersnaps, apple slices, and graham crackers

Pumpkin Pie Dip II
recipe by Yvette Swearingen

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

15 oz. canned pumpkin

2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

2 cups powdered sugar

4 oz. Cool-Whip

Gingersnaps, for dipping

Cinnamon graham crackers, for dipping

Apple slices, for dipping

Using an electric mixer on low speed. Blend the pumpkin and cream cheese until smooth.

Add pumpkin pie spice and powdered sugar and blend with mixer until smooth and creamy.

Fold in the Cool-Whip and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Serve with gingersnaps, cinnamon graham crackers, and apple slices.

Double Pumpkin Cake

Happy National Bundt Cake Day...a day late! I've been mesmerised by Mary the Food Librarian's Thirty Days of Bundts leading up to yesterday's big day. Seriously, the lady baked a different bundt cake every day for thirty straight days! I really enjoyed checking her blog every day for the latest bundt, and I've got quite a few new recipes I'll have to try now! Anyway, I'm a day late posting my bundt, but I figure now is better than never!
Since it's fall, I decided that I wanted to make some kind of a pumpkin bundt, but it needed to be pretty quick because I had lots of stuff to get done this evening. I pulled out my Citizen's Union Bank cookbook (it's my husband's workplace, and they made cookbooks as fundraisers for their Relay for Life team last year) and found a recipe to use as a starting point. I knew I was going to "doctor" whatever recipe I chose. You see, Saturday, David and I went to the 10th Annual Waford Bowl at our friend Brett's house. For the past 10 years, a bunch of our friends have been getting together to play football each fall. When we were young and carefree, all the girls played, and we played full tackle footbal with the guys. Now, the guys are getting older, and most of the girls have babies, so the game is now all guys, and it's flag football. Anyway, we always have more food than we can eat. My contribution was my Pumpkin Pie Dip with gingersnap cookies and graham crackers. We had lots of dip left over, but no gingersnaps or graham crackers. I didn't want to throw my dip away, so I decided to use it as a filling in my cake. It was just an experiment, but it worked out pretty well!

See that line that looks like it's not quite set? That's the pumpkin dip filling. I knew it wouldn't really show up, seeing as how it was pumpkin-colored, but you can taste it. It makes a nice addition to the cake. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. A quick drizzle of Dorie's maple glaze finished it off and made a nice little snack for David while he watched the UK game.

Here's the recipe for the Double Pumpkin Cake...I'll post the Pumpkin Pie Dip tomorrow (TWD will have to be WWD this week). Enjoy!

Double Pumpkin Cake

adapted from Lisa Mullins' Pumpkin Bread recipe

1 box spice cake mix

1 can pumpkin

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

3/4 cup (more or less) Pumpkin Pie Dip

Maple glaze:

6 tbs. powdered sugar

2 tbs. maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Do not use mixer. Stir cake mix, pumpkin, sugar, water, oil, and eggs together. Pour 1/2 of the batter in a well-greased bundt pan. Top batter with Pumpkin Pie Dip, then cover with remaining cake batter. Swirl with a knife. Bake for 1 hour, or until cake tests done with a toothpick. Glaze cake with maple glaze.

TWD: All In One Holiday Bundt Cake

I love bundt cakes. Maybe not quite as much as Mary, The Food Librarian, but they do have a special place in my heart. They're a homey dessert. Simple, not fussy at all. You can frost them, or just dust them with powdered sugar. They're perfect. And I've had my eye on this one ever since I got my copy of Baking: From My Home to Yours...the Dorie Greenspan cookbook that inspired the Tuesdays With Dorie baking group. I love fall flavors, and I love bundts, so this was perfect.
It's full of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger...fall spices that I adore. And diced apples, fresh cranberries, pumpkin puree, and pecans. All of the flavors of our favorite holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas!) are in there. What's not to love?! As is the case with all bundts, this one is very simple to put together. Britin, of The Nitty Britty, made a great choice...it's probably what I woudl have chosen, if I didn't happen to be the 251st person in the recipe rotation!

Anyway, I'm very thankful that Laurie has given us permission to bake the recipes out of sequence this month. I wouldn't have had time to make (or acquire the ingredients for) the Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake this week, but I could throw this together in my spare time Sunday night. If you visit the other TWD bakers this month, you'll see that we're all probably baking out of sequence, which I think will be pretty fun and interesting. You'll notice in my pictures that I didn't make the maple icing... and that's because this beautiful bundt is going in the freezer for a future date.

There it is, all wrapped up. I loved the scent of this bundt baking, but it's killing me to not know what it tastes like! I'm keeping it for any number of upcoming holiday events. It might end up at CUB's Thanksgiving potluck, or I might keep it myself for our Thanksgiving dinner. I can't decide. But I do have plans on making another batch of the batter and baking it in my mini loaf pans for Christmas gift. Yum!

Pumpkin Pie Latte

It's that time of year again...Starbucks has rolled out their Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and they are delicious! I look forward to those and the Gingerbread Lattes (at Christmas) all year long. But, of course, those Starbucks drinks sure are budget busters. And, believe it or not, there are people who don't live anywhere near a Starbucks and may not have ever experienced the beauty and deliciousness of a Pumpkin Spice Latte! So, for those who are pinching pennies and for those who don't have a local Starbucks, here's a simple and tasty knockoff that you can probably create with the things you have in your kitchen right now! I'll post the recipe as it was originally written, but I recommend that you don't use this quantity of pumpkin pie spice. Cut it in half, then if you want more, add it a tiny bit at a time.

Pumpkin Pie Latte

adapted from a recipe in Family Circle, November 2008

2 cups fat-free milk

2/3 cup water

1/3 cup pumpkin puree

3 1/2 Tbs. sugar (or Splenda)

4 heaping tsp. espresso powder or instant coffee

2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (but this is way too much)

1 tsp. vanilla extract

In a small saucepan, whisk together all ingredients and simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Serve immediately. Makes 2 smallish servings.

Pumpkin Muffins

More muffins! Last Saturday afternoon, I got onto a serious muffin-makin' kick and made three kinds of muffins to take to church the next morning. You saw the Allspice Crumb Muffins, which were delish, even though there was a puddle of butter in the bottom of each cup of the muffin tin. I made some apple muffins, too, which will be coming to the blog soon, but these were my favorite...
Pumpkin muffins! When I was planning my muffin-baking marathon, I didn't want to have to go buy any ingredients, and I wanted to use up some things I had on hand. I happened to have some pumpkin puree on hand, and since it's fall (the most wonderful time of the year), I knew I needed to make pumpkin muffins. I thought about searching the Internet for a good recipe, but I thought I'd check Dorie's cookbook (Baking: From My Home to Yours) first. Lo and behold, there on page 13 was a recipe for pumpkin muffins, and I had all the ingredients right here in my little kitchen! Score! They were a breeze to put together, and they came out beautifully!

I loved these muffins. They're full of goodies...spice, pumpkin, golden raisins, and pecans. Yum! The batter was very dense, and it made for beautiful muffins. The tops didn't spread out and get flat around the edges like a lot of muffins do...these were the best-looking muffins I've ever made. I only made one tiny substitution...Dorie says that you should sprinkle raw sunflower seeds over the batter in the muffin cups, but I didn't have those. I did, however, have pepitas (a fancy word for pumpkin seeds). They worked well and gave the final product a nice look.

These muffins were the perfect compliment to a nice warm cup of coffee on a crisp fall morning. For those of you who haven't purchased Dorie's wonderful book, I'll post the recipe and hope she doesn't whip me. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Muffins

Dorie Greenspan

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/8 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

pinch of ground allspice

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup canned unsweetened pumpkin puree

1/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup moist, plump golden raisins

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

About 1/3 cup unsalted raw sunflower seeds (or pepitas), for topping

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups. Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups. Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed until soft. Add both sugars and continue to beat until light and smooth. One by one, add the eggs, beating for a minute after the eggs are incorporated, then beat in the vanilla. Lower the mixer speed and mix in the pumpkin and buttermilk. With the mixer at low speed, add the dry ingredients in a steady stream, mixing only until they disappear. To avoid overmixing, you can stop the machine early and stir any remaining dry ingredients into the batter using a rubber spatula. Stir in the raisins and nuts. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and sprinkle a few sunflower seeds (or pepitas) over the top of each muffin.

Bake for about 25 minutes, or until a thin knife insterted into the center of the muffins comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the pan, then carefully remove each one from its mold and finish cooling on the rack.