Give Thanks...I'm BACK!

Well hello there, dear friends!  A thousand apologies for the almost solid year disappearance, but you know how things go.  A few very big things have happened to me, most notably that I have returned to my roots and am no longer a Yankee in the South, but never fear!  Confessions of a Yankee Baker will still be chock full of delicious recipes and adorable crayon sketches.

It's Thanksgiving here today, but Yankee Momma had to work, so instead of stressing all day cooking a dinner she may or may not be home in time to enjoy, I made the Yankee Parentals a Thanksgiving brunch.  In honour of the day we celebrate the things we are most happy to have in our lives, I present a couple recipes I made this morning that you can use and be thankful for because they are delicious.


Pumpkin Muffins

Yes, I know what you're thinking (if you read last year's October posts): pumpkin?  Really?  Well, the nice thing about taking an 11 month hiatus from your blog is that you have plenty of time to repair your relationship with the big orange gourd.  We're friends now.  It's cool.

Preheat your oven to 400.  If your muffin tin is not nonstick, spray it to make it so.  Melt a stick of butter and set it aside to cool.  Soak about 1/3 cup sultanas in hot water till you're ready for them (patience, grasshoppers).  In a large bowl,  whisk together 2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/8 teaspoon allspice, 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves and 1/2 teaspoon salt.  In a separate bowl, blend together your melted butter, 3/4 cup packed brown sugar, 2 eggs, 1 cup pure pumpkin, 1/3 cup buttermilk (or, more likely, 1/3 cup milk [2% or higher] and 1 teaspoon white vinegar stirred together--let it sit 5 minutes before using) and 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Add your wet ingredients to your dry and mix till just combined.  Now it's time for your sultanas-drain them and chuck them in the mix.  Spoon your mess into your muffin tin and bake about 20 minutes (use the toothpick test to ensure they're done).  These delightful little fellows will certainly help mend any residual rifts between you and pumpkins, I promise.

I'm glad we're friends again, pumpkin.

Fluffy Fruit Salad

This next recipe is a staple for Yankee Baker's family, usually at Thanksgiving, though we've started doing it for Christmas since my sister and I have been scattered about the country for the last few years.  We always called it Waldorf salad till my grandmother was with us for Turkey Day one year and informed us that proper Waldorf salad involves celery, which is gross, so apparently this isn't actually Waldorf salad.  I think some people probably call this ambrosia, but I have decided to title it "Fluffy Fruit Salad" because alliteration.

There are no measurements involved--go wild!  Make as much or as little as you want, but I encourage making a lot because it is flippin' delicious and you will want to eat loads of it.  Basically, you toss some red delicious apples, red grapes, chunk pineapple, chopped walnuts and mini marshmallows in a bowl.  Then throw in some sour cream and whipped cream in a roughly 50/50 ratio and mix it up real good.  Ta-da!  Delicious.
 

Recipe for scrumptious.

Yankee Dog wishes everyone out there on the interwebs a very happy Thanksgiving!

The 13 Days of Pumpkin: In Which We Get a Little British With Our Desserts

So I slacked a little the other day--long day at work and just too stinking tired to bake and blog.  So I shall make up for it today with Pumpkin Cheesecake Trifle and Pumpkin Scones.  Makes me want to brew up a nice cuppa and settle in to wait for the hurricane that's about to take out my homeland (and with any luck, my piece of junk car).  I will also make up for it by sorting out the picture issue!  Check it out guys, pictures in not only this post, but all the ones from the rest of this month that were missing!  YEEHAW!

Get ready guys!  NEW PICTURES WILL HAPPEN IN THIS POST!

First, the trifle.  This one is pretty easy to whip up and lovely looking to serve at a party.  I do strongly recommend investing in some tall, clear glasses (trifle glasses, for example) to show off the loveliness of this tasty delicacy.  Naturally, I don't have such a thing.  I do have highball glasses though--short and squat but got the job done.  The recipe I found told me to use Biscoff cookies.  I have no stinkin' clue what the heck a Biscoff cookie is, nor could I find them in the stores.  So ginger snaps it is!  Put about 12-15 cookies in a plastic bag and smash them like they just insulted your mother.  Mix the crumbs with 1 tablespoon melted unsalted butter and press the crumb mixture into the bottom of each glass (4-6, depending on the size of your glasses) as a crust.  With a mixer or a whisk, beat together 8 ounces softened cream cheese, 1 cup pumpkin, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/2 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice till well blended and smooth.  Fold in half a tub of whipped topping and blend until there are no streaks.  Spoon or pipe some of the cheesecake mixture atop the crust, then a layer of whipped cream and continue alternating the two till the glass is filled.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.  If you want to dress them up, sprinkle some cinnamon or cookie crumbles over the top and enjoy!

Don't let the name fool you, these things are a seriously tasty dessert!

And now, everyone's favourite accompaniment: scones!  Combine 2 cups flour, 1/3 packed brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda and 1/4 teaspoon salt with a whisk.  Cut 1 stick unsalted butter into chunks and cut it into the dry ingredients until you've got coarse crumbs no larger than peas.  Mix in 1/3-1/2 cup butterscotch chips.  In a small bowl or large measuring cup, combine 1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk with 1 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar--let it sit 5 minutes before moving along), 1/2 cup pumpkin and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.  Add the wet to the dry, mixing till just combined--don't overwork the dough, or you'll end up with tough scones (I feel like there's a double entendre to be made there.  I'll leave it up to the classiest of my readers to do my dirty work).  Slap your messy, sticky dough onto a baking sheet covered in parchment paper (or foil) and shape it into a large circle.  Bake at 400 degrees for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Allow the scones to cool to room temperature before cutting into slices like a pizza.  Then prepare a glaze by whisking together 1 cup powdered sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, and a dash each of ground nutmeg, ground ginger and ground cloves.  Add 2 teaspoons milk to start with; blend it in, adding tiny amounts of additional milk as needed until you have a nice thick glaze.  Drizzle the glaze over your scones and allow it to set before serving.  Om nom nom!

Scone.  Rhymes with gone.  As in, all gone in my belly!

The 13 Days of Pumpkin: #9

You guys, I've gotta be REALLY honest right now: I'm starting to get very tired of pumpkin.  It's friggin' everywhere in my kitchen.  I have eaten so much pumpkin...well.  Let's just say Yankee Best Friend knows the gory details.  The 13 Days of Pumpkin seemed like such a GREAT idea in the beginning, and now I'm just glad we're close to done.  I do it for you, folks, you better love me for it.

This haunts me in my dreams now.

Recipe #9: Pumpkin Snickerdoodles!  I've made plenty a cookie in my day, but never a snickerdoodle, so this was an adventure for me.  A very sticky and delicious adventure.  Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper (or foil, as I did) so they're ready to go when you are.  Whisk together 2 3/4 cups flour, 2 teaspoons cream of tartar, 1 teaspoon baking soda (I am at this point in time mad broke and couldn't justify spending $4.99 on a tub of cream of tartar for one recipe, so I substituted 1 tablespoon baking powder plus 1/4 teaspoon baking soda), 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice in a large bowl.  In a separate bowl, cream together 2 sticks unsalted butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until light and fluffy.  Add 1 egg and stir.  Then add 3/4 cup pumpkin and stir.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined.  In a shallow bowl or pie tin, combine 1/4 sugar and 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon.  Taking heaping globs of dough (my dough was super duper ridiculously sticky--I've consulted with my resident snickerdoodle expert to find out if this is normal) and roll them around in the cinnamon-sugar blend.  Plop your tasty little goo balls on your prepared sheets, leaving plenty of space for them to expand (another confession: I'm crap with spacing.  My cookies always end up morphing together), and toss one pan at a time in the oven for about 5 minutes.  Give the baking sheet a spin and bake another 6 minutes.  Your cookies should be set at the edges but still soft and puffy in the middle.  Let them cool on the cookie sheet about 5 minutes, then use a metal spatula to transfer them to a metal rack (I used a broiler tray, it's all I have!) to continue cooling.  I got about 20 nice big cookies out of this; probably would have had more, but a lot of dough (and I do mean a LOT) stuck to my fingers, so I quite possibly licked as many cookies off my fingers as I rolled the little goobers into creation.  Enjoy the delicious!

It doesn't translate so well in crayon, but they bake up looking a little like hot cross buns.

The 13 Days of Pumpkin: In Which I Discover My Piping Skills are Terrible

Hello again!  Tonight we continue on the birthday theme from Friday, celebrating with pumpkin cupcakes!  And this recipe comes with a bonus recipe for applesauce, which is a delicious and easy and seasonally appropriate thing to make this time of year (and let's be honest, a nice break from pumpkins at this point).

This picture is getting quite the workout.

Let's start with the applesauce.  I prefer making applesauce with McIntosh apples, but there weren't any last time I went to Trader Joe's (apparently the weird weather this spring was rough on this year's apple crops; they're already predicting higher prices for apples, so I suppose it follows that there may be a shortage of certain varieties--though I certainly hope I won't be entirely without my Mackies!) so I had to settle for honeycrisps, which have a bit of tartness like a McIntosh but are much tinier.  If you've got tiny apples, use about 8 of them; about 6 if you've got bigger ones.  You can peel your apples at the start or, if you're feeling particularly adventuresome, you can fish them out after the sauce is done.  Slice and core your apples and toss them in a large pot.  Throw in about 3/4 cup of water, 1/4 cup brown sugar and a pinch or two of ground cinnamon.  Set it on the stove over medium heat to simmer 15-20 minutes, then mash the apples and voila!  Throw the sauce in a mason jar while it's still warm and store in the fridge.

A recipe for delicious!

Hokay.  So.  CUPCAKES.  Start by throwing 24 paper liners into your cupcake tins.  Toss half a Golden Oreo (the creamed side) into each liner.  In a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup oil, 1/2 cup applesauce, 3 eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla with a whisk.  Add 1 1/2 cups white sugar and 1 cup brown sugar and stir a few minutes till well blended.  Then add 1 can pumpkin.  In a separate bowl, stir together 2 3/4 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon salt.  Add your dry ingredients to your wet and stir till just blended.  Fill your cupcake liners about 3/4 of the way full (I found the 1/2 cup measuring cup worked nicely for this) and bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Allow the cupcakes to cool completely, then you can frost them. 

To make the frosting, whip 1 pint heavy whipping cream till stiff peaks form (if you're doing this by hand, I recommend doing this in halvsies, or you'll likely end up with carpal tunnel).  Then blend in 2 teaspoons vanilla extract and 1 cup confectioner's sugar.  If you don't have the swanky proper icing bag and fancy pants tips, just spoon the frosting into a gallon Ziploc bag and give a corner a snip and it does the job just fine.  Dress up your tastycakes with a little sprinkling of pumpkin pie spice or ground cinnamon.  Aren't they pretty!  (They are, trust me.  I sent a picture to my parents today, they'll corroborate.  And once I fix the scanner, you'll see too!)

The icing is white in real life.  White crayon sadly doesn't show up real well on white paper.

The 13 Days of Pumpkin, Continued--or, My Misadventures with Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin recipe number three is chocolate chip pumpkin bread.  Here's the deal: it's delicious, and it's still baking.  How does this work, you ask?  Well, I followed the instructions and baked the loaves at 325 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick came out clean, specifically 50 minutes and the toothpick came out clean.  So I removed the bread, let it cool, and when I went to cut a slice, figured it'd be easier to remove said slice if I had the bread out of the pan.  So I flipped the pan over, the bread slid out, the slice came off, I ate it, and it tasted like manna from heaven.  And then I went to pick up the loaf to wrap it in foil.  And the bread fell apart.  By the time I finally managed to flip it over into the foil, there was a massive gaping oozing hole in the middle of the loaf--the outer regions of the bread were done, but the middle was still as liquid and unbaked as the batter I poured in the pan. 

So I cranked the oven back on, threw both loaves back inside for 15 minutes.  Still gooey.  10 more minutes.  Gooey.  Up the temp to 350, 10 more minutes.  4 minutes in, I start smelling burning.  Run into the kitchen.  The sliced end of the one loaf is getting overdone.  The rest of it?  Goo.  Stress eat a pumpkin popper.  Let the bread go the last 6 minutes on the timer.  Slightly less goo than before, but still goo.  10 more minutes on the timer. 

Oh praise cheesus.  This seems to have done the trick!  Let's see, that was an hour and 10 minutes at 325 and 20 minutes at 350.  My recipe was communist lies!  Basically, just bake this puppy till it decides to be done.  At least you get your exercise getting up and down to check on it.  You won't have to feel guilty about eating a lot of this bread.



I would have been angrier if the unbaked part wasn't so tasty.

All right, so what goes into this delicious yet annoyingly difficult to bake creation?  3 1/2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 2 teaspoons baking soda and 1 teaspoon baking powder, sifted together into a mixing bowl.  In a separate bowl, cream together 2 2/3 cup sugar and 2/3 cup butter (this is equal to one stick plus 2 2/3 tablespoons).  To this mixture, add a total of 4 eggs, but add them one at a time, mixing after each egg.  Then add 1 can pumpkin.  Now alternate mixing in portions of the dry ingredients you sifted together in the beginning and 2/3 cup water.  Add in 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.  This is your lovely batter that just doesn't seem to want to bake after you pour into greased loaf pans (makes two loaves).  My suggestion?  Forget the baking.  Just eat the batter.

The 13 Days of Pumpkin--Day One

Here's a little insight to everyone's favourite Yankee Baker:

Autumn is my favourite season.

October is my favourite month.

Hallowe'en is my favourite holiday.

Pumpkins are my favourite gourds.

We're gonna bibbi-di-bobbi-di-boo this into something delish!

So needless to say, it's an exciting time of year in the Yankee Baker house.  And, as promised, today marks the official kickoff to THE 13 DAYS OF PUMPKIN!!  Yippee!!  Moving forward to the end of the month, I will offer thirteen different and (hopefully) easy things to do with those lovely orange fellows.  Today's post is chock full of hints and recipes to get you started.

First.  When I mention pumpkin in a recipe, I'm referring to pumpkin puree, which you can purchase in the stores (typically in the baking aisle, though this time of year stores sometimes have it out in more auspicious places) or, if you're feeling plucky, make yourself.  Use the small sugar pumpkins.  Slice them into chunks, clean out the innards, boil to separate the flesh from the skin, then run the flesh through a food processor.  I haven't done it myself, so I'm assuming this method works.  I find it WAY easier to just pick up a few cans of the stuff already done.  BUT--and this is Very Important--make sure you get PLAIN PUMPKIN PUREE.  Do not get pumpkin pie filling.  The can should say "100% Pumpkin" on it, meaning no spices or anything have been added.  Plain.  Simple.  Pumpkin goop.  Also, it can be good to note that one 15 ounce can of pumpkin puree is equal to about 1 1/2 cups.  If you're very accurate with your measurements, you may be able to eke out 1 3/4 cups, but I like to be generous with my pumpkin, so 1 1/2 cups for me.

100% pumpkin yes.  Pumpkin pie filling no.

Second.  Pumpkin pie spice.  It appears in several of these recipes (though not the ones I'm featuring in this post).  You can purchase pumpkin pie spice from the store, OR mix up your own batch, since the ingredients in pumpkin pie spice are probably already in your spice cupboard.  You need: 4 tablespoons ground cinnamon, 4 teaspoons ground nutmeg, 4 teaspoons ground ginger and 1 tablespoon ground allspice.  Mix 'em all together and store your magic in an old spice container until I post something that requires it.

Hokay.  RECIPE TIME!!!  Tonight we will feature TWO fabulous pumpkin recipes.  Number uno: Pumpkin Biscuitti.  Yankee Dog's birthday was last week, so I though we'd get The 13 Days of Pumpkin rolling with a little something for the four-legged critters we love.  Pumpkin is actually great for canine digestion (try mixing a couple tablespoons of pumpkin puree into your dog's food if he ever has an upset tummy), so this crunchy snacks are healthy and happy for your pooch!  The recipe is incredibly simple: in a bowl, mix together 2 1/2 cups flour (whatever kind of flour you want: oat, whole wheat, brown rice, whatever), 2 eggs, and 3/4-1 cup pumpkin.  The original recipe only called for 1/2 cup of pumpkin, but the dough is super duper dry and needed something more, so I added more pumpkin.  Stir the goods all together (do your best; as I said, the dough is dry but at least it's a good arm workout), then dump out onto a lined baking pan.  Shape into a log about 2" wide and 12" long; smooth the top out.  Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.  Slice into 1/4"-1/2" pieces and bake another 20 minutes.  Let them cool before feeding to Fido!  Store remaining biscuitti in an airtight container in the fridge.  Yankee Dog gives them two paws up!

Two paws!  That's a rave review!

And now, recipe deux: Pumpkin Poppers, aka "Pumpkin Donut Muffins Covered in Crack."  These things are mega awesome.  You need two mixing bowls.  In one, put 1 3/4 cup flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice and 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (I only had whole cloves to hand, so instead of buying ground cloves, I mushed some up in the mortar and pestle.  Yes, I'm too lazy to process my own pumpkin, but not to grind cloves.  Don't judge).  Blend your dry ingredients together with a whisk.  In bowl two, combine 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 3/4 cup pumpkin and 1/2 cup low-fat milk.  Add your mixed dry ingredients to your mixed wet ingredients and stir till everything is just blended.  Don't overstir.  This will be a nice thick, wet and slightly lumpy batter.  Slap heaping teaspoons of the batter into the cups of a greased muffin tin.  This should be enought batter to fill all twelve cups of a standard sized muffin tin--these would be great (possibly better) to make in a mini muffin tin, because then they'd be more like donut holes (I'll have to experiment with Yankee Mama's mini tin next time I'm in Yankeeland).  Bake 12-15 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven.  While your poppers are baking, melt one stick butter in a microwave safe bowl.  In another bowl, blend together 2/3 cup white sugar and 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon.  After the poppers are done, allow them to cool 5-10 minutes, then slather them in melted butter and roll them around in the cinnamon sugar.  And then try not to eat them all in one go.  OMMMMMMMMM NOMMMMMMMM.

Crayola needs to make a "cinnamon sugar sparkle" crayon.

Stay tuned, my darlings, for the next installment of The 13 Days of Pumpkin!