Pumpkin Spiced Pumpkin Seeds

Today I cooked my first pumpkin! I made this tasty pasta and then decided to experiment with the seeds. They turned out just as I had hoped, lightly sweetened and perfectly crunchy. These seeds are delicious on their own or may be a tasty addition to any fall salad.

Pumpkin Spiced Pumpkin Seeds 
1 cup Pumpkin Seeds
2 tablespoons Unsalted Butter, melted
1 tablespoon Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Pumpkin Spice
pinch of Kosher Salt
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with foil and top with a sheet of parchment paper (this makes for super easy cleanup). In a small bowl mix together the brown sugar, pumpkin spice, and salt, set aside until needed. In a separate bowl toss together the pumpkin seeds, melted butter, and vanilla then stir in the pumpkin spice mixture until all the seeds are coated. Spread the seeds out in a single layer on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 20-35 minutes, or until done, check seeds after 15 minutes.

Spiderweb Cake

Halloween in my absolute favorite holiday. I tend to start baking Halloween treats towards the end of September or early October. Usually I start decorating for autumn/Halloween around this time as well, but it has been incredibly warm here and I just can't bring myself to decorate until sweater weather officially begins. But that doesn't stop me from baking for the season. I used this cake recipe from Sweetapolita. It is a white cake with white chocolate frosting, which originally came from the cookbook Baked: New Frontiers in Baking.

Spiderweb Cake 

Step1: Start with a frosted cake.

Step2: Using black decorating gel, make evenly spaced circles starting in the center and working your way out to the edge.

Step3: Drag a toothpick from the center of the cake out to edge, creating six lines or so to create the spiderweb patten. You can also add a spider on top or crawling up the side of the cake.

For this cake recipe visit Sweetapolita.

Happy Baking!

Green Apple Streusel Bars

I bought five green apples with the best of intentions, but they ended up just sitting in a bowl on my dining room table looking pretty. I love green apples, lemons, and even oranges as centerpieces, but when the end of the week draws near it is time to put that fruit to good use. I decided to make these bars with three of the apples rather than eat them one by one. These bars are great with a scoop vanilla ice cream for dessert or with a cup of coffee as a morning treat.

Green Apple Streusel Bars
Streusel
1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, Melted
3/4 cup Light Brown Sugar, Packed
1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt
1 1/4 cup All-Purpose Flour

Mix together the brown sugar and salt. Pour in the butter and stir to combined, then add the flour and mix with a fork until large crumbs form. Refrigerate until needed.

Apple Mix
3 Green Apples, peeled and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
2 tablespoons Light Brown Sugar
1/3 cup All-Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon Nutmeg
Pinch of Kosher Salt

Whisk together the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Add the apples and mix to coat. Set aside until needed.

Cake
1 cup All-Purpose Flour
3/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Kosher Salt
3/4 cup Unsalted Butter, plus more for pan
1 1/4 cup Powdered Sugar, plus more for dusting
2 Eggs
3/4 teaspoon Almond Extract

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and the powdered sugar until fluffy. Add the almond and beat to incorporate. Beat in the eggs one at a time until well combined, scape bowl as needed. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir flour mixture into butter mixture and mix just to combined.

Assembly
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x9 inch square pan with parchment. Spread the cake batter evenly into the prepared pan. Distribute the apple mix evenly over the batter, note there will be some of the flour mixture left in the bottom of the bowl that didn't stick to the apples, just sprinkle it over the apples in the pan. Top the apples with the streusel. Bake for 50-55 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar if you like.

Pumpkin Gingerbread with Pumpkin Spice Buttercream

I know it is a little early for fall time desserts, but I have an obsession with pumpkin. I usually get the itch to bake with pumpkin in August and it continues through the end of November. Fall baking is my absolute favorite, so I tend to start baking treats with pumpkin, apple, and spice a bit before the fall season officially begins. I came across this amazing looking gingerbread on Oh She Glows, and I have been thinking about making it ever since. Not only does this bread look fantastic, but it is also vegan. I have not experimented very much with vegan baking but I am really interested in learning more about it and trying new recipes.

Pumpkin Gingerbread
1 cup canned Pumpkin
3 tablespoons Pure Maple Syrup
3/4 cup Organic Pure Cane Sugar
1/3 cup Coconut Oil
1/4 cup Blackstrap Molasses
1 tablespoon Ground Flax Seed
3 tablespoons Water
1 2/3 cups Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 1/4 teaspoons Baking Soda
2 teaspoons Pumpkin Pie Spice (or make your own)
3/4 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 cup Walnuts, Toasted and Chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coarsely  chop walnuts then spread them around on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Toast walnuts for 10 minutes, then set aside until needed. Prepare loaf pan with cooking spray. In a small bowl stir together the ground flax seed and water, then set aside. In a medium sized bowl mix together the pumpkin, maple syrup, sugar, coconut oil, molasses, and flax and water mixture. In a separate bowl whisk together all of the dry ingredients. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry, then stir in the toasted walnuts. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. Once baked allow loaf to cool completely before frosting.

Pumpkin Spice Buttercream 
1/2 cup Earth Balance Butter Stick, room temperature
2 cups Powdered Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 tablespoon Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 tablespoon Almond Milk (or enough to reach the desired consistency)

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment beat the Earth Balance butter stick until smooth. Slowly add the powdered sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and vanilla on low. Scrape the sides and bottom of bowl, increase the speed and beat again until smooth. Add almond milk if needed.  

Recipe slightly adapted from Oh She Glows where it was adapted from Fat Free Vegan

Chocolate Malt Ice Cream Cup Pies

Last weekend my brother had us all over for a barbecue for the 24th of July. The 24th of July is a state holiday in Utah called Pioneer Day. It is similar to the 4th of July in that there are fireworks and barbecues. My contribution to this barbecue was dessert. I wanted to make something easy that didn't require utensils or even a plate. I came across a recipe in sunset magazine for a malted milk ball ice cream pie and decided this would be the perfect dessert to make for the barbecue, only in cup pie form to eliminate the needs for plates and forks. The cup pies were a huge success! Although I will say they are a but tricky to travel with and are best eaten as soon as they come out of the freezer so they don't have much of a chance to melt.


Chocolate Malt Ice Cream Cup Pies 
Crust
20 Lorna Doone Shortbread Cookies (if using another brand of shortbread cookie, use 5 ounces)
1 tablespoon Unsalted Butter, melted
1 cup Malted Milk Balls, crushed

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line a standard 12 cup muffin tin with baking liners. Grind cookies into crumbs using a food processor, then stir in melted butter until combined. Distribute mixture evenly among cups. Press crumbs to form a crust in to bottom of each cup. Bake for 7 minutes. Once baked remove from oven and allow crusts to cool completely. When cooled, sprinkle a layer of crushed malted milk balls over the crusts. Reserve the leftover crushed malted milk balls to top cup pies.

Ice Cream 
2 1/2 cups Chocolate Ice Cream, slightly softened
2/3 cup Malted Milk Powder

Mix together the ice cream and malt powder until smooth. Pour ice cream into cups until they are 3/4 of the way full, then freeze for at least 3 hours. (Note: you will probably have some ice cream left over, which I would recommend eating while waiting for the cup pies to freeze :)

Ganache 
3 ounces Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1/4 cup Whipping Cream

Heat whipping cream to just a boil then pour over chocolate chips. Allow mixture to sit for two minutes, then stir until smooth. Allow ganache to cool. Pour the ganache over the tops of the frozen cup pies then return to the freezer to allow ganache to set, about 15 minutes.

Whipping Cream
1/2 cup Whipping Cream
1-2 teaspoons Granulated Sugar, depending on taste

Whip cream and sugar, then top cup pies with whipped cream and the remainder of the crushed malted milk balls. Serve immediately or freeze until ready to serve.

Recipe adapted from Sunset Magazine, June 2011

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