How to... Make your own Pumpkin Puree!

 There are so many delicious recipes out there right now that call for pumpkin puree - not canned pumpkin pie filling, plain old pureed pumpkin. But given that I have four pumpkins sitting around my house from our pumpkin carving party that didn't get carved and I don't want them to go to waste... I didn't think it would be appropriate to head to the store and pick up cans of the processed stuff while I have the real thing at home! Surely there must be some way to turn those pumpkins into pumpkin puree that orignarily just comes out of a can? Google gave me a resounding YES, there is a way to make your own pumpkin puree and its *gasp* easy!! Do you have a sharp knife? An oven? A food processor? Then, you can make your own pumpkin puree - it will taste better than canned because it is fresh! Go ahead, give it a try!

(Note - using a jackolantern pumpkin that has been previously carved is dangerous - it has been exposed to all kinds of things, not to mention growth of bacteria from exposure to air, that can make you sick - use a whole pumpkin that has not been mutilated in any way!!).

 First off, use a sharp knife and chop that pumpkin in half - starting at the stem (see top picture). Then use a metal spoon and scrape out all the seeds and stringy insides until you're left with a nice, clean pumpkin. While you're cleaning out the pumpkin, preheat your oven to 350F.

Oil a shallow baking dish and then place the pumpkin halves, cut side down onto the well-oiled dish. Roast in your pre-heated oven for 45-60 minutes, or until tender when pierced with a knife. Note, that the baking time is for a pumpkin that weighs approximately 4lbs - if your pumpkin is larger, adjust the cooking time accordingly.

 One other thing to note - the larger the pumpkin, the more bitter the flesh - try to stick with smaller pumpkins for roasting - especially if you're going to use them in baked goods where their flavour will really shine!

Let your roasted pumpkins cool until they are cool enough to handle. Then scrape out the soft flesh into a bowl and cool completely. Whirl in your food processor for a couple of minutes until it is smooth and silky. Refrigerate until ready to use (you can make this up to two days in advance if keeping in the fridge, or you can freeze it for longer periods).

 Use your delicious pumpkin puree in any baked goods that call for canned pumpkin puree - here are a few ideas from my blog archives:

Pumpkin Pie with Streusel Topping
Four Layer Pumpkin Cake
Pumpkin Doughnuts

You could also substitute this pumpkin puree for any roasted squash in soup recipes! It would sub in great for butternut or acorn squash.

Happy Cooking my Friends!

Pumpkin Pie with Streusel Topping

Happy Halloween! Hope you are having a spooktacular night. :) Tonight is my last post about anything pumpkin for a while, so rest assured, if you're getting a little sick of the halloween and pumpkin theme, it will be over as of tomorrow!

I made this pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving and it was a huge hit! The crust is made with whole wheat flour which really adds a depth of flavour and texture to the pie in a very unexpected way. The streusel topping adds a tasty crunch to the pie as well and was enjoyed by everyone - even the non-pumpkin pie eaters.

Whole Wheat Pie Crust

Recipe from Anna Olson

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup plus 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup cool, unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp whisked whole egg
• 1 tbsp cold water
• 1 tsp white vinegar or lemon juice

Method:

1. In a food processor (or by hand) combine both flours, sugar and salt. Cut butter into small chunks and add to the flour, mixing until the mixture is crumbly. Whisk egg, water and vinegar together and add to the flour mixture. Mix until dough comes together. Shape dough into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least one hour.
2. On a lightly floured surface, knead the pie dough slightly to soften, then roll out the dough into a circle just under 1/4 inch thick. Dust a nine inch pie plate with flour and place rolled pastry in the dish. Crimp the edges to make them look pretty. Chill the pie shell while preparing the filling.

Pumpkin Pie with Streusel Topping

Recipe from The Guy Can't Cook

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tbsp cognac or bourban
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 cup finely chopped pecans

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Whisk together pumpkin, eggs, first brown sugar amount, cognac, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, cream, milk and salt in a large mixing bowl. If you want a really fluffy pie, separate the eggs. Add yolks to batter, then in a separate bowl beat the whites until they form stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the pumpkin mixture.
2. In a small bowl, combine all the topping ingredients. Mix with your hands until butter is incorporated with the sugar and flour and the mixture is crumbly. Set aside.
3. Pour filling into prepared pie shell. Bake for 40 minutes, then sprinkle with topping and continue to bake 15 minutes longer, until center is set and topping is browned (this time took about 20 minutes longer for my pie, so keep an eye on your pie and make sure the center is set before you take it out of the oven). Remove from oven and cool thoroughly before slicing.
4. Serve wedges of pie with a dallop of sweetened whipped cream or a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. A few slices of candied ginger make a nifty garnish too!

Well, thats the last of the pumpkin recipes for a while. For those of you in the USA, you can try this pie recipe out for your Thanksgiving, which I believe is coming up in a couple of weeks!

Happy Baking my Friends!

4 Layer Pumpkin Cake

Since it's halloween weekend, I thought another post or two about some yummy things to do with pumpkin would be fitting. This cake received rave reviews from friends and family and I have to agree it is delicious. I didn't initially want to make it for a couple of reasons... but the main one being that it uses a package of cake mix. I don't like cake mix - I think its full of processed garbage that doesn't really belong in any one's mouth and I don't particularly like the taste of it. But after some convincing on behalf of my sister I decided I would try it out.

It really doesn't save you any time, but the recipe has so many other good things in it that you really forget you've put something from a box into the mix. So if you're skeptical after reading the recipe, take my word for it - it's delicious. This cake is even better after it sits for a night or two - be sure to make it a day ahead.

Luscious 4 Layer Pumpkin Cake

Recipe from Kraft Canada

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
• 1 can (14 fl oz/398 mL) pumpkin, divided
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/3 cup oil
• 4 eggs
• 1-1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, divided
• 1 pkg. (250 g) Philadelphia Brick Cream Cheese, softened
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 3 cups thawed Cool Whip Whipped Topping
• 1/2 cup caramel ice cream topping
• 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans

Method:

1. Heat oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans (I used parchment in the bottoms on the pans instead of flouring them). Beat cake mix, 1 cup pumpkin, milk, oil, eggs and and one tsp of the pumpkin pie spice in a large bowl until well blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
2. Bake 28-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks and cool completely.
3. Beat cream cheese in a small bowl until creamy. Add sugar, remaining pumpkin, and remaining spice. Mix well. Gently stir in cool whip.
4. Cut each layer of the cake in half horizontally. Spread cream cheese frosting between layers. Do not frost top layer. Drizzle cake with caramel sauce just before serving and sprinkle with toasted pecans. Refrigerate leftovers.

This is definitely a great way to use up any leftover pumpkin! Tastes delicious and the ingredients are really basic. I hope you enjoy it and I promise, after this weekend, no more pumpkin desserts for a while!!!! Happy Halloween Everyone!

The Daring Bakers October 2010 Challenge - Doughnuts!

Well, its that time again - time to post up the October 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge! And a challenge it was. The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious. It was my first time deep frying anything and I was so happy to have my good friend D there to help. It was nice to have two sets of hands as there was a lot of multi-tasking involved!

I chose to make two kinds of doughnuts - pumpkin cake doughnuts and a yeasted doughnut recipe called bombolini. The bombolini were filled with either lemon curd or raspberry jelly (both courtesy of D). Both types of doughnut were absolutely delicious and were devoured eagerly by hubby's friends who were at our place for games night while all this craziness was going on!

I'm not going to repeat the recipes here as I did not do anything significantly different from the original recipe and it would make for an awfully long post! So, you can find the pumpkin doughnut recipe here and the bombolini recipe here. This post will mainly be about photos! We got some great photos and these recipes literally made loads of doughnuts. I would highly recommend both recipes and the cinnamon sugar that the pumpkin doughnuts are rolled in is absolutely magical!

I've always been afraid of deep frying - mainly out of the fear of being burnt by the hot oil splashing up at me. But I feel like I really conquerred that fear during this challenge! The one thing I found very challenging was the temperature fluctuations... not sure if it is because I have a gas range or what, but I was adjusting the temperature of the burner every few minutes to maintain the recommended deep frying temperature. Any tips from you experienced deep fryers out there or do most of you have the same problem? Either way, we didn't have any doughnut disasters - they all turned out beautifully and D & I made a great team. I deep fried the doughnuts while she tossed the hot doughnuts in the cinnamon sugar mixture. We definitely had an assembly line going!

I hope you enjoy the photos of our adventure! D is joining the DBs for the November challenge and is really excited. Thanks for stopping by my blog to check it out and thank you to Lori for such a fantastic challenge! I'm already looking forward to next month's challenge!

Happy Baking my Friends!

Halloween Appetizers!

Can you believe that Halloween is this weekend already? Time just seems to be flying by. It seems like just yesterday it was a sunny summer afternoon. Now the temperatures have dropped, the mornings are frosty and the leaves are falling. A lot of families have really fun traditions for Halloween - some have a big halloween party and dress up in extravagent costumes, some carve pumpkins, and yet others set up a haunted house and hand out candy to neighborhood children. Growing up we didn't really celebrate Halloween and I always felt so left out. My favorite part of Halloween is the beautiful orange pumpkins so now that we are on our own, we have decided to start our own traditions! My hubby and I have started hosting an annual pumpkin carving party. We have our friends over, go to the pumpkin patch and pick our pumpkins, then come back to the house for carving and of course lots of food.

This year I made some really fun Halloween themed appetizers - Spider Web Dip and a "Pumpkin" Cheese Ball. They were so cute and deliciously festive. Since I'm posting a couple of recipes I'll keep my post short! Hopefully you are inspired to try these recipes out for your Halloween party this weekend! :D

Halloween Spider Web Dip

Recipe from Everyday Favorites by Canadian Living

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 onion chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
• 1 540mL pinto or white kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 avocados
• 1/4 light mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 2 cups salsa
• 1/2 cup light sour cream
• 2 black olives, halved and pitted

Method:

1. In a skillet, heat oil over medium heat; fry onion, half of the garlic, the salt & pepper until softened, about 5 minutes. Add beans; cook over medium-low heat until hot, about 5 minutes. Using a potato masher or fork, mash until almost smooth; let cool.
2. Meanwhile, cut each avocado in half and pit; using spoon, scoop flesh into bowl. Mash until smooth; stir in mayonnaise, lime juice and remaining garlic.
3. Evenly spread bean mixture in 8-inch pie plate or serving dish. Spread salsa, then avocado mixture evenly over top.
4. Spoon sour cream into plastic bag; cut off tip of 1 corner. Pipe in concentric circles over top. From centre to rim, pull knife through sour cream at even intervals to form web pattern. In center, place 2 olive halves end to end to form spider body. Cut out remaining olive halves into 8 slivers; arrange around body for legs.

"Pumpkin" Cheese Ball

Recipe from Everyday Favorites by Canadian Living

Ingredients:

• 1 pkg cream cheese, softened (250g)
• 2 cups shredded orange old cheddar cheese
• 2 tbsp each diced onion, carrot and celery
• 1 tbsp minced fresh parsley
• 1 tsp prepared horseradish
• 1 broccoli stem (3 inches), peeled

Method:

1. In large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth; stir in cheddar cheese, onion, carrot, celery, parsley and horseradish. Form into ball; wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour (or up to 3 days).
2. Unwrap ball and flatten slightly; insert broccoli stem at top to resemble pumpkin stem. Using handle of wooden spoon, draw verticle ridges at even intervals to resemble pumpkin.
3. Serve with crackers, and celery sticks.

Stay tuned tomorrow for my post about the October 2010 Daring Bakers Challenge! Its a good one.

Happy Cooking my Friends!