Chewy chocolate chip pumpkin cookies

 

Chewy pumpkin cookies filled with warm spices are studded with chocolate chips for a delightful autumn time treat. 

Chocolate chip pecan pumpkin bread

Quick bread filled with pumpkin, warm spices, mini chocolate chips, and chopped pecans makes for a delicious autumn time snack, breakfast, or dessert. 

Sourdough pumpkin walnut muffins

Sourdough discard is used to make these lightly sweetened pumpkin muffins with walnuts and warm spices. They make a delicious snack or lunchbox item or side to a breakfast.

Pumpkin Alfredo pasta with chicken

Creamy and savory pumpkin Alfredo sauce with sage, chicken, and pasta is a delicious autumn evening dinner. 

Chocolate chip banana pumpkin muffins

Banana bread and pumpkin bread are combined into one in these delicious spiced muffins loaded with chocolate chips. 

Baked pumpkin oatmeal

A warm and inviting autumn breakfast - baked pumpkin oatmeal is delicious and easy, plus it makes your house smell like fall! My current obsession with baked oatmeal continues with this fall flavored version. Just last month I posted two baked oatmeal recipes - peanut butter and zucchini bread. We've been eating these a couple of times a week because all four of us love them. I knew a pumpkin version was in my future because pumpkin is amazing and also it's almost time for all things pumpkin also known as FALL! My favorite time of the year! We had a streak of cooler days, but now we are back to more summer-like weather, but cooler nights. Our big maple tree is starting to turn orange and red. We now have pumpkins and mums on our front stoop and I hung up a Halloween banner on the front door. So, I'm ready for fall-mode now! Let the apple picking, pumpkin spicing, blanket snuggling, leaf peeping, and everything else fall-fun related begin! First up, a tasty hearty breakfast.

Toddler pumpkin and banana egg pancakes

These little pumpkin and banana egg pancakes are simple to make and perfect for a toddler finger food. They are soft for eating whole and can be cut into strips or into bites as well.   

Pumpkin streusel muffins

Pumpkin muffins topped with a sweet, buttery streusel make a delicious autumn time snack or breakfast.

Three cheese-garlic pizza on pumpkin pizza dough

Well, here is my first post of 2015! I can't believe it's January again already. Winter time is a good time for pizzas (actually we eat pizza pretty regularly around here - homemade pizza is a common Friday/Saturday dinner!) 

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Ever since I saw this Pumpkin Pizza Dough recipe, I've been very intrigued by the idea of incorporating winter squash puree into a pizza dough. I was surprised by how nice the pizza dough turned out - I thought the puree would make it too wet or difficult to work with, but that wasn't the case at all! It turned out perfectly. 

You can't really taste the pumpkin/squash flavor in it, but it adds a depth of savory flavor to the crust. For a first try, I stuck with a cheese pizza to see how the crust tasted, but now I think you could put pretty much any pizza toppings on it that you'd like. 

This dough recipe will make two 10-11 inch pizzas. The pizza recipe is also for making two pizzas. I think the dough would also make terrific breadsticks or dinner rolls - something I will likely try in the future. Also, you can use pretty much any cooked and pureed winter squash in this dough. 

I used Long Island Cheese Pumpkin because we have so many, but others like butternut, regular pumpkin, hubbard, etc. would work as well. I used homemade pumpkin puree, but canned is perfectly fine.

Pumpkin spice granola

Granola is a staple in our household, though usually it's in bar form (I need to update that recipe as I've made many changes over the years, especially in reducing the sugar). We make granola bars almost every Sunday for our weekday breakfast. Every once in a while though, I crave granola cereal with cool creamy milk. It's usually happens around this time of year when there's pumpkin puree around because that's how I almost always make it. I love granola that is full of spices. It fills your home with wonderful aroma as it bakes. You can eat this granola just as is, but I like to eat it as cereal or with plain yogurt. I wanted to have it around for Thanksgiving week for quick, nutritious breakfasts that make me think fall! Plus, it's a perfect recipe for Week 4 of 12 Weeks of Winter Squash!

On a side note, it seems that the manual focus is working better on my camera, so I'm getting decent photos again now (autofocus is still toast). I love the little pitcher in this photo. My Grandmother made it and the matching plates in her ceramics class!

Pumpkin pie French toast

We started Long Island cheese pumpkins (in the photos) from seed this year and planted them over at my father-in-law's big garden. We were over there last weekend and checked on them and saw that we have a lot of pumpkins. A few were ripe so we grabbed a couple. The first thing I noticed is how adorable they are and what a lovely shade of orange they are on the outside. I roasted one up right away and froze a bunch of puree (and have a feeling I'll be doing more of that). I'm excited to give these pumpkins a try in pumpkin pie because they have a sweet, dense, bright orange flesh and according to some of my research they were historically a preferred pie pumpkin. Since we have a lot of pumpkins on our plants, you can probably expect even more pumpkin recipes this fall/winter!

One of my favorite fall weekend breakfasts is this French toast. The custard is full of pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spices. It's delicious, especially with an extra sprinkle of cinnamon, a good drizzle of real maple syrup, and some sage breakfast sausage. This recipe will make about 8 slices of French toast. 

Pumpkin spice loaf cake

Behold, my first pumpkin recipe of the season! I couldn't wait any longer! Over the weekend I decided it was high time to kick off pumpkin season with this pumpkin spice loaf cake. This loaf is pretty simple to make and while I usually love to toss in nuts and/or chocolate chips when I make pumpkin baked goods, I wanted this to be all about the pumpkin and pumpkin spices that we all crave in the fall. While baking, the whole place smelled of warm pumpkin spice, which was perfect for a crisp day. This is a lovely treat for after a day outside or with a hot cup of tea for an autumn weekend snack.

This recipe will make one 9 x 5-inch loaf. Most quick breads/loaf cakes have at least one cup of sugar in them, but I almost always cut down the sugar. Feel free to add more for a sweeter cake. I dusted it with powdered sugar only to make it look prettier for the photo - that's completely optional. A glaze would also be nice, or a smear of pumpkin butter on individual slices would be even better.

Have you made your first pumpkin recipe of the season yet??

Pumpkin swirl brownies

Autumn is my favorite time of year, as I have said many times before. I feel like everyone is rushing to Christmas the past few years as soon as Halloween is over. On my drive home from work on Halloween, I saw that the local mall had hung up all their outside Christmas decor and even a couple radio stations began playing nothing but carols the day after Halloween! That is unacceptable to me. It is still fall and there's still another holiday before we get to Christmas. I enjoy Christmas, but it's still harvest time, there are still leaves on the trees, it is still pumpkin and winter squash time. I'm taking back fall! I have no desire to rush away the autumn breezes and crispy leaves. Last weekend we had our nephew overnight and one of the things we had during his stay were these pretty wonderful brownies that combine pumpkin and chocolate together in one dense and chewy treat. These tasty brownies are adapted from Martha Stewart and were a big hit. I adjusted the spices because the original recipe calls for cayenne pepper and I didn't think a 5 year old would like that (I do use it in  these Mexican brownies though) and I lowered the sugar and changed the oil. I also changed the pan size which resulted in thinner brownies (but I thought they were a nice size).

Old fashioned pumpkin pie

Well, maybe it's not completely old fashioned because it's my slightly adapted recipe from the classic pumpkin pie. But it is a regular ole pumpkin pie - no fancy add-ins or anything. 

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I really like this version because it uses slightly more pumpkin puree and a bit less cream and sugar. I also like to keep the spices on the lower end so that the pumpkin flavor really shines through. I made the crust, the pumpkin puree, and freshly whipped up some unsweetened heavy whipping cream to top this pie. It was absolutely fantastic.

We bought a sugar pumpkin back in October and have used it as one of our decorations through the fall season. But when we bought it, the understanding was that it was to become a pie once its decorating duties were complete, as requested by my husband. He waited patiently until after Thanksgiving -- I wasn't going to post it because I figured that most people have had their fill of pumpkin by now and have moved on to more Christmas-like treats. 

But while I was making this pie, I was listening to some Christmas music and realized that many of these songs reference pumpkin pie (think: There's No Place like Home for the Holidays or Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree or Sleigh Ride). It made me wonder why pumpkin pie seems to have been relegated to Thanksgiving. 

I think that pumpkin pie is a completely appropriate dessert all through the fall and winter. After all, winter squash is stored away for the winter and would be the perfect thing to make into a pie when the mood strikes.

Pumpkin pie ice cream

I had my first taste of pumpkin ice cream a few years ago at a local ice cream shop. Ever since then, we go there each year in early October when they first have it available and get a dish.  

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When I got my ice cream maker this year, pumpkin pie ice cream was at the top of my list, even though it was only spring. I've waited patiently until now and finally made my own. 

This ice cream is fall in a dish - it's basically like frozen pumpkin pie filling without the crust. I read a few recipes and found that they were all really low on the pumpkin for my liking and all contained a lot of egg yolks. 

I decided to forgo the eggs and really pack in the pumpkin so I could taste it. The pumpkin is already creamy, and the end product was perfect for me in terms of pumpkin flavor. This ice cream is not super sweet, so taste the base before you freeze it and add more brown sugar or even a tablespoon of molasses if you want it sweeter.

I'm so glad to know that I can make ice cream now with only a few simple ingredients and not all the additives and artificial flavors that are in most commercial ice creams. 

I've been loving my ice cream maker this year and even have a wintery ice cream flavor or two that I'm hoping to try near the holidays. This recipe will make a bit more than a quart of ice cream. It's great topped with chocolate sauce (we had ours with a homemade chocolate sauce, not pictured) or caramel. I think that some ginger snap cookies broken up into it or on top would also be delicious (and act like a crust).

Pumpkin gnocchi in gorgonzola sauce

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My husband and I went to a wonderful restaurant a couple of weeks ago for our two year wedding anniversary. This restaurant specializes in a small menu comprised of as many local and seasonal ingredients as possible. I had a bowl of potato gnocchi in a gorgonzola sauce with three kinds of roasted squash and pancetta. It was delicious and it was also the first time I ever had gnocchi. 

I was inspired to make gnocchi at home and I thought that pumpkin gnocchi would be so seasonal and colorful. However, I had no idea how to make them. I searched all over the web and found quite a few recipes. I decided to use this recipe at Closet Kitchen as my guide. 

The gnocchi were not that difficult to make. I don't have a gnocchi board, so I tried to roll them on a fork to make the lines. It worked OK, but not great. They didn't look perfect by any means, by they tasted delicious and the orange color was lovely.

It just so happened that the recipe I found also had a gorgonzola sauce like I had at the restaurant. I made that and served it on top of the gnocchi along with some pieces of crisp applewood smoked bacon, fried sage leaves, and shallots. It was fall comfort in a bowl. 

The salty bacon paired nicely with the rich cheese sauce and the gnocchi were slightly sweet and nutty. I think some roasted cauliflower (maybe purple) or chestnuts would be a nice addition as well.  This recipe will make enough to serve about four people as a main dish.

Pumpkin pancakes

Pumpkin and pancakes -- two of my favorite things combined into one. I'm always experimenting with pancake recipes. Pumpkin pancakes are definitely one of my favorites and they are a wonderful way to use up pumpkin puree and to treat yourself and your family to a fall-themed breakfast. 

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I try to make them somewhat good for you by using whole wheat flour. These pancakes are very similar to my sweet potato pancakes. I think that you could use almost any winter squash puree in this recipe and they would be wonderful. 

I really love this time of year and I love to utilize the in season produce of fall. Plus, I think that weekend breakfasts are absolutely wonderful. This recipe will serve about 4 people. 

Thai sweet pumpkin

I never ate or even saw this dessert when I visited Thailand. I had this at a Thai restaurant near home as dessert for a New Year's Even dinner last year. It was really tasty. 

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I came across a recipe for this dessert while looking on the internet and it called for using a kabocha squash. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find that squash and sort of put the thought of making it out of my head for a while... Then I went to the market yesterday and sitting in this large display in the produce section was a whole box of organic kabocha squash. So, of course, I had to pick one up and get right to trying this dessert.

The squash was very difficult to peel! It was very bumpy. After that part though, this rest of the preparation is ridiculously simple and it has a great Asian flavor that I absolutely love - coconut milk. Coconut milk just screams Thai food to me.

Thai sweet pumpkin
One small-medium kabocha squash, peeled and cut into bite-sized strips
1 (15 oz.) can coconut milk
2 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons cane (or turbinado) sugar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

In a medium sauce pan add the coconut milk, honey, sugar, and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Add the squash and stir. Cover and cook over low heat until the squash is tender (about 10 minutes). Serve hot.