Pumpkin Muffins

Those who have been following my post, know that I have quite a few muffin recipes.    And you know for prior posts that I grow my own pumpkins and use the pumpkin puree in many recipes.  Now that fall is upon us, and pumpkin flavor is everywhere - I thought I would share my easy to make pumpkin muffins.  Everyone loves these, and my great granddaughter, (she's 8), gets so excited when she gets to help make them.  That's how easy they are to make, (no mixer required).  And she begs to lick the spoon and the bowl, (much to my protests).  Here's how I make mine;

You will need:
1 1/2 cup flour
1 teas. baking powder
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 teas. pumpkin pie spice
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teas. baking soda
1/2 teas salt
For the streusel topping:
1/2 Tabs. sugar
1/2 teas. cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Line a muffin tin with liners, and spray the liners with baking spray.  (My little one loves to do this job for me).

Note:  you can also omit the liners and just spray the muffin tin.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour and baking powder.  Make sure to mix the items together well. 

(I give this chore to my little one.  Just hand them a fork and let them stir it up well).

Measure the oil and add the eggs.  Then whisk well together.

In a medium bowl whisk together the sugar, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. 

(again, another job the little one can do with a fork).

Add in the oil and egg mixture, and stir in.

Add in the pumpkin, and stir in until smooth.

 Pour the pumpkin mixture into the flour and stir just until the flour is combined.  Don't over mix.

Spoon into the muffin tin.

In a small bowl combine the streusel toppings, (1 Tabs. sugar and 1 teas. cinnamon), and mix well.

Spoon over the top of the muffins.

The more topping, the better my grand kids and great granddaughter like them.

Bake in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes until the muffins are done, (a toothpick inserted comes out clean).

Let the muffins cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing from muffin tin.

And enjoy.

I like to have one for breakfast.  But, the rest of the family eat these all day long.  And because we grow our own pumpkin and keep the pumpkin puree in the freezer ready to cook with, we can enjoy these year round.

Grab some pumpkin puree and give these a try.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Rice Pudding

It's that time of year where everything is pumpkin flavored.  I love pumpkin flavoring in so many of my recipes.  And one of my favorite is rice pudding.  It takes so few ingredients, and your house smells so wonderful and fall like.  And it taste great served warm or cold, (I enjoy it cold the next day for breakfast).

You will need:
1/1/2 cup water
3/4 cup uncooked long grain white rice
1/2 teas. salt
4 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 teas. vanilla extract
1/2 heaping teas. pumpkin spice

In a saucepan over add the water.

Stir in the salt.

Stir in the rice.  Over medium high heat, bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes until water is absorbed.

Stir in the milk.

Stir in the vanilla extract.

Stir in the sugar.

 Stir in the pumpkin spice.

Continue cooking over medium heat for 30 to 40 minutes, (or until it starts to thickened).  Make sure to stir frequently, (so the rice doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan and burn).  Remove from heat and allow to cool, the pudding will thicken as it cools. 

And in less than 1 hour you have pumpkin spice rice pudding ready to eat.  YUMMY !   It's definitely "comfort food".

I don't think there will be much left for tomorrow.

Try this and your family will ask for seconds.

Enjoy !

Roasted Pumpkin

We grow pumpkins in our garden.  It's very inexpensive, (we save the seeds to replant the next year). And if you use a trellis, the vines take up very little space.  We save so much money processing our own pumpkin puree, (rather than buying it in the store), and homemade taste so much better.  I have previously posted the instructions, and also shown how to use the puree to make pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread, cookies, etc.  I have tons of recipes for my pumpkin puree.  I could do several months of posts on just using pumpkin.

Our freezer is full of pumpkin puree, and I have saved these last 4 pumpkins for roasting.  (By the way, our border collie and little bird just love cooked pumpkin, so I always save a few small chunks as a treat for them.)

Let me show you how I serve my roasted pumpkin.
You will need:
pumpkin, (preferably a small sugar pumpkin)
salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar
olive oil

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Wash the outside of your pumpkin.  Cut the pumpkin in half from top to bottom, remove the stem, scoop out the insides, and the seeds, (I save the seeds - some for replanting, some for roasting).

Cut the pumpkin into 1 inch thick slices.

Place the slices on a baking sheet, (I line my pan with parchment paper, for easier clean up, but it's not necessary).  Brush each slice completely with olive oil, (cover all the pumpkin flesh).

Sprinkle brown sugar over the pumpkin slices, (about 1 Tablespoon).

 Sprinkle cinnamon over the pumpkin, (about 1/2 teaspoon).

 Sprinkle nutmeg over the pumpkin, (about 1/2 teaspoon).

 Sprinkle salt over the pumpkin, (I like to use fine sea salt, but you can use whatever salt you have on hand - about 1/2 teaspoon).

Sprinkle freshly ground black pepper over the pumpkin, (about 1/2 teaspoon).

Roast for 20 to 25 minutes, until the pumpkin is tender.

It's been 20 minutes, and I test my pumpkin with a fork for tenderness.  The house smells wonderful, (like a pumpkin pie).

Remove from oven and let cool a couple of minutes - then slide off the skin, and serve.

  

Tonight, we're having roasted chicken, a tossed salad, and roasted pumpkin slices.

Any leftover pumpkin will be used tomorrow in our breakfast smoothies.


Note:  for a little variety, try adding just a touch of cayenne pepper to your pumpkin before roasting it.  The slight hint of heat is wonderful.

Enjoy !

Pumpkin Rolls

If you like cinnamon rolls, then your going to like pumpkin rolls.  Same concept, except I put pumpkin in the bread dough and pumpkin pie spice on the inside, (instead of cinnamon).  This recipe make 1 dozen rolls, and is great for breakfast, (or anytime).

For this you will need:
2 3/4 - 3 1/2 cups flour
1 package active dry yeast, (1/4 ounce)
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 Tabs sugar
4 Tabs butter
1/2 teas salt
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
pumpkin pie spice
nutmeg

In a large bowl combine 1 1/2 cup flour and yeast.  Give this a stir and set aside.

In a small saucepan, over low heat combine pumpkin puree, milk, sugar, salt, and 2 teas butter.  Stir until warm and butter is almost melted.

To the flour and yeast mixture add the milk and pumpkin mixture, the beaten egg, 1/4 teas and pumpkin pie spice and 1/4 teas nutmeg.

Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then on medium speed for 3 minutes.

Already you can smell the wonderful yeast begin to come alive, and the pumpkin puree has a wonderful fall aroma.

Now working in 1/2 cup increments, stir in your flour until you get a fairly moderate stiff dough.  The amount of flour you will add depends on several factors, (how much humidity is in the air, how much water your flour is holding, how compact your flour is in your measuring, etc.)  Today my dough took an additional 1 1/2 cups, (I live in a very dry climate and today our humidity was low).

So as you can see, after about 3 to 4 minutes, we have a nice workable dough.  Turn out onto a very lightly floured surface and knead the dough using your fingertips to pull the dough towards you, (gently folding the dough over), and your palms to gently push the dough away.  Knead your dough for about 5 minutes, working in any additional flour needed to achieve a smooth and elastic dough.

When you are done, your dough will look like this. Like a typical bread dough, but darker in color because of the pumpkin puree, (almost golden).

Spray a large bowl with baking spray, (or use butter), cover with plastic wrap, and a clean towel.  Place in a warm draft free place for 1 hour to rise.

OK - it's been an hour, and this is our dough.  You can smell the wonderful yeast of the dough giving life to the bread.  Gently turn the dough out on to a work surface, cover with a clean towel and let the dough rest for 5 minutes, (the carbon dioxide will deflate the dough slightly).

Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out in a 12 inch by 10 inch rectangle.

Melt the remaining 2 Tabs of butter.

In a small bowl combine the brown sugar and 1 1/2 teas of pumpkin spice.

Brush the dough with the melted butter.

Sprinkle the sugar mixture over the melted butter.  If you want, you can also add finely chopped nuts at this point, (pecans or walnuts are a really good addition).

Now, starting on the long side, gently roll the dough, (sometimes you might need to use your dough scraper to help ease the dough along - as you can see there is almost no flour on my work bench).

Now that you have the dough rolled up, this is what it will look like.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and spray the parchment paper with baking spray, (this will not only help with the clean up, but your bread dough doesn't come in contact with the metal and get that funny metal taste).

Using your dough scraper, or a sharp knife, cut the dough into 12 pieces.

Place the rolls on the pan, leaving room for expansion during the final rise.

Gently cover with plastic wrap, and a clean towel, place in a warm draft free area for about 45 minutes to rise.  If it's rather warm, you will find you might only need 30 minutes.

It's been 45 minutes, and see how much they have risen?  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees,  Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.

Our rolls are done baking, and now they are cooling on a wire rack.  Let's make something for the top of them.  Can't have naked rolls.

Today, I am going to use up this small amount of caramel sauce that I have, and just put a tiny drizzle over each roll.  You could make a caramel frosting from scratch:
2 Tabs butter, melted
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tabs milk
1/4 teas vanilla extract
dash salt
1/4 - 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
Cook over low heat stirring well to blend, until you achieve the desired consistency.
Sometimes, I frosted them with a cream cheese frosting - YUMMY

And there we have our pumpkin rolls.  You can store these on a platter covered with plastic to keep them nice a soft.

My husband likes to warm his rolls in the microwave for a couple of seconds before he eats them.  I can just eat them at room temp and enjoy.

So, we've probably used most of our pumpkin that we cut up and pureed,  We've made pumpkin bread, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin pie, and now pumpkin rolls.  And I haven't even begun to touch the dozens of other recipes I have for using my pumpkin puree.  Maybe I should put together a pamphlet of pumpkin recipes?

Enjoy, let me know how your rolls turned out.  Great way to start the Thanksgiving morning.