The Ghost of Muffins Past

It's pumpkin season, it's pumpkin season! Near where I live, there is a Kneaders. Throughout the month of September, they had a countdown posted on their Marquee of how many days until Pumpkin Bread was available, on October 1st. Being cheap, on October 1st I made some pumpkin bread, but I posted that last year, so I decided not to repeat. I also made some pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes in honor of General Conference this weekend. And then I had leftover pumpkin in the fridge, so I made these delectable Pumpkin Muffins. I love October.

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Maple Pumpkin Muffins

From Tasteofhome.com

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Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup canola oil
3 tablespoons maple syrup, divided
1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
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Directions
In a large bowl, combine the flour, 3/4 cup brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Whisk the eggs, pumpkin, milk, oil and 1 tablespoon syrup; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in pecans.
In a small bowl, beat cream cheese, remaining brown sugar and syrup until smooth. Gently stir into batter until mixture appears swirled.
Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups about three-fourths full. Bake at 400° for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Yield: 1 dozen.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Happy December! I am so happy it is December! I love this time of year, the Christmas music, the shopping, the decorations, the food, all of it! Mostly I am excited to go and see my family and friends over Christmas because that is what the holiday is about to me. The holiday season also brings to mind peppermint things. I think December is definitely a peppermint month, where as October and November are pumpkin months. Fortunately, I made these Pumpkin Whoopie Pies in November, and I am just now getting around to posting them, so I am safe.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies, isn't that a funny name? They basically tasted like pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting in between. Yumm. They were good, but this recipe made a TON so I gave a pan to one of my friends at work, as rent payment for my plant. It is still thriving, in case you were wondering. They are simple to make, simple to eat, what more could you want from a pumpkin treat (nice rhyming, eh?)?

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling
Adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

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Pumpkin Whoopie Cookies:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 TBSP cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground fresh nutmeg

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed

1 cup canola oil

3 cups chilled pumpkin puree

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare to baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and spices. Set aside.In a separate bowl, whisk to sugars and oil together. Add the pumpkin puree and whisk to combine thoroughly. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the pumpkin mixture and whisk until completely combined.Use a small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism to drop healing TBSP of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart.Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cookie comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool completely on the pan while you make the filling.

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Cream Cheese Filling

3 cups powdered sugar

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

3 TBSP milk

1 tsp vanilla

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until smooth with no visible lumps. Add the cream cheese an beat until combined.Add the powdered sugar, milk and vanilla and beat until smooth. Be careful no to overbeat the filling, or it will lose structure.

To assemble: Turn half the cooled cookies upside down. Pipe filling (about a TBSP) onto that half. Place another cookie, flat side down, on top of the filling. Press down slightly so that the filling spread to the edges of the cookie. Repeat until all the cookies are used. Put the whoppie pies in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to firm before serving.

And the pumpkin obsession continues...

Yes, as you can see I am still going through a pumpkin and square things obsession. This week I needed to make a cake for my cake decorating class that I am taking, and I decided that since EC and I don't really need a whole 8 in. cake I would make a 6 in. cake. This left me with leftover batter, so I made cupcakes, which we are eating, so now that I think about it, it is still the same amount of cake. Sigh, another good idea gone to waste. I guess I should have thought that through better.
To make these little gems I simply used one of the first pumpkin cake recipes that came up in my Google search. They are pretty good, but it is the cream cheese frosting that makes them amazing, I think. But I have also recently discovered that I really like cream cheese frosting, not as much as EC does, but it is pretty yummy.
Pumpkin Cake
From This Site

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups pumpkin puree or cooked mashed pumpkin

Preparation:

Combine sugar, vegetable oil, and eggs in a large mixing bowl; mix well. Sift dry ingredients into a separate bowl; stir into oil mixture, beating well. Stir in pumpkin puree.

Pour batter into two greased and floured 9-inch round layer cake pans (or two six inch cake pans and 1 cupcake pan). Bake at 350° for 35 to 40 minutes (less for cupcakes, be sure to check them often). Turn out onto racks to cool. Frost pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting and eat.

Waffkins

Interesting name, I know. That is what EC dubbed the Pumpkin Waffles that we had for dinner the other night. Can I just mention how excited I am about the fact that it is fall, which means it is pumpkin season? I love everything pumpkin - pumpkin cookies, pumpkin bread, and especially pumpkin bagels with pumpkin cream cheese from Einstein Bagels. So when EC suggested we make these for our date night, you can imagine my enthusiastic response.

They were pretty good, however I ended up putting in pumpkin pie seasoning, because I think you are supposed to use pumpkin pie pumpkin, and silly me, I just used plain pumpkin. But after I added the seasoning, ohh baby!

I definitely recommend eating them with ice cream. But I think that waffles should only be consumed with ice cream, unless you are in Europe, and then you can eat a Belgium Waffle with powdered sugar, or even better, Belgium chocolate, mmm.

Toasty Pumpkin Waffles

from Taste of Home

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1-1/4 cups milk
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
4-1/2 teaspoons butter, melted
1/3 cup chopped pecans

Additional maple syrup, optional
Directions: In a large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Whisk the egg, milk, pumpkin and butter; stir into dry ingredients until blended. Fold in pecans. Bake in a preheated waffle iron according to manufacturer’s directions until golden brown. Yield: 4 servings