Joy's Vegan Pumpkin Walnut Bread

My manager, David, is a vegan.  Well, if you ask me, he's more of a vegetarian.  Anyway, every time I make a dessert and bring it to work he gets a little sad that it's not something he can really eat because it's not vegan.  So, I found this recipe for Vegan Walnut Pumpkin Bread from Joy the Baker and decided to make it for David.

Put all the dry ingredients together and give them a good whisk.

Mix all the wet ingredients together in a bowl.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and give them a good mix.

Stir in most of the walnuts.  Then pour the batter into the pan then sprinkle the top with a little of the nuts.

I gave David the whole loaf on Saturday morning and when I asked him if he had eaten it all on Monday morning, he said he had almost finished it.

No, I'm not a suck up.  I just want to spread my baking-goodness to all my peeps.

Joy the Baker's Vegan Walnut Pumpkin Bread

Joy's Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts with Maple Glaze

Like I said in my last post, I love Joy the Baker!  She's amazing and has the best recipes.  And the following is another one of hers.

I took them to work and a girl said to me: "You made your own pop tarts?"  I said: "Yeah."

Let's start with the dough.  Sorry to offend all you hardcore bakers with my "great value" flour and sugar.  We bake on a budget at my house.

Throw all the dry ingredients into a bowl.

Add lots of delicious butter.  I don't care what anyone says- butter is what makes the world go 'round.

It's best to crumble it together with your fingers until it's pea-size.

After you add the egg with the milk the dough is ready.

Mold the dough together then split it in half and wrap it up then put it in the fridge while you make the filling.

Put the pumpkin in a saucepan.

Sprinkle your spices in with the pumpkin and give it a good stir.  Heat it on medium for a few minutes until it becomes fragrant.  Then you will be tempted out of your mind to just sniff the heck out of the pan.

Whisk in the egg, sugar, and salt.  Then place it in a container and put it in the fridge while you work on the dough.

Dust the counter, or a board in my case, with flour for your dough.

Roll the dough out to a rounded rectangle and about 1/8 inch thick.

Trim the rounded edges off, so it's a perfect rectangle.

Cut the dough into smaller rectangles.

Pile up the pieces, wrap them up, and put them in the fridge while you work the other half of the dough.

Scramble an eggs up to the make a wash for the pop tarts.

Spread the egg wash over the entire bottom piece of dough.

Spoon a tablespoon of the filling in the middle of the dough.

Place the other piece of dough on the top then press the edges with the tines of a fork.

Bake them up and they smell and look delicious.

Maple syrup- yummy deliciousness.  It's glaze time.

Put the maple syrup, milk, and powdered sugar in a bowl and give it a good mix.

Mmmm, maple-y glaze!

Spoon the glaze over the pop tart.  Maple and pumpkin are a GREAT combination.

These are great.  I highly recommend them to the non-pumpkin pie eaters like me.  I don't know what it is about pumpkin pie that I don't like, but these are great.

Share them, or don't, it's up to you.  I share but if I didn't share the food I make I'd be as big as a house.

Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts with Maple Glaze

From Joy the Baker

Hiatus

I just want to check in and make sure you all haven't forgotten about me.

I plan to bake this evening.  Some Vegan Pumpkin Bread for my boss, David- recipe compliments of Joy The Baker- and some Pumpkin Pop-Tarts with Maple Glaze, also from Joy.  Then tomorrow evening I plan to make some S'mores Brownies from Joy, as well.  Are you noticing a pattern??  Yes, I do in fact stalk Joy The Baker.  If she only knew, right?  She just has the best recipes.  And interesting stuff, too.  It's not your mom's brownies, or your grandma's cookies.  They're original and AMAZING!

So, I just had to put this little post in to make sure you guys are still with me.  I'll be posting probably tonight when I should be in bed.

We had a Southern BBQ over the weekend and I didn't take any pictures of the food I made, so sorry.  I made some peach cobbler, which was fashioned after this, and a couple of these Flat Apple Pies.

Here's a picture of my friend, Belinda, and I at the party.

I have to add another reason why I've been away:  I've been exhausted lately and it's because my thyroid is on the fritz.  I had a blood test last week and once the doctor read it, he said I have to go on medicine to kick in back into gear.  So, let's hope that the medicine will kick in soon and I can get back to my old self.

Well, that's all for now.  I'll be back later to tempt you with yummy pumpkin recipes.

Pumpkin Cookies

My sister, Jessica, had a Lia Sophia jewelry party last night and she asked me to make some cookies.  Well, it being Fall and having lots of pumpkin lying around, I decided to make pumpkin cookies.

With cream cheese frosting, of course.

Here is our array of food we had set out for the party.  Unfortunately, there were five of us at the show: Jessica, me, our grandma, Nan, and the jewelry consultant, Megan and her sister-in-law, Marissa.

And now for the cookies:

First, mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.  Yes, another recipe that will have you dirty more dishes than probably necessary.

Blend together the eggs and sugar.  Did you know that breaking an egg on the counter will keep the yoke from breaking, compared to breaking the egg on the edge of the bowl?

Add in the pumpkin, vanilla, and oil.

Slowly mix in the dry ingredients.

The batter comes out not quite cookie and not quite cake.  But there's something about it that makes the cookies more cake-like than cookie, too.

I used a cookie scoop that's a little bit smaller than a 1/4 cup and space them about 2 inches apart.

Look at how tasty!  And they're not even frosted yet.

I whipped up the cream cheese frosting: cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla.  Then I had some chocolate frosting in the fridge so I decided to give it a try on the cookies.  For some reason a lot of people have recipes for pumpkin bread with chocolate chips, or pumpkin cookies with chocolate chips.  And I admit the cookies were good with the chocolate frosting.

And now 24 hrs after making the cookies, there are four left :)  I guess we kind of liked them.

 

Pumpkin Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2 eggs 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup canola or corn oil 1 cup canned pumpkin 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Position a rack in the middle of the oven . Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and butter the paper. Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a medium bowl and set aside.  In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar until smooth and lightened in color, about 1 minute.  Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing.  On low speed, mix the oil, pumpkin, and vanilla until blended.  Mix in the flour mixture to incorporate it. Using an ice cream scoop with a 1/4-cup capacity, scoop mounds of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing the cookies at least 2 1/2-inches apart.  You could also simply use a 1/4-cup measuring cup if you don’t have a  scoop.  Use a thin metal spatula to smooth and flatten the rounds. Bake the  cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, about 16 minutes.  Cool them on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool cimpletely. Cream Cheese Frosting: 1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened 2 tbsp butter, softened 4 cups confectioners' sugar 1 tsp vanilla extract Blend cream cheese, butter, sugar, and vanilla together.  Then spread over the cooled cookies.

Pumpkin Cake

I was going to make pumpkin cookies this evening, but The Chad asked if I could make a pumpkin roll instead.  I got a recipe and unfortunately I didn't have a jelly roll pan.  So, The Chad went to Target and looked for one, calling us in the process to make sure he knew what he was getting.  And when he brought it home it actually wasn't the right pan, but I tried to use it anyway.  Needless to say it made a cake instead of a roll.

Despite not being what I set out to make in the first place, it still looks really tasty.  And by the time I'm posting this, the cake is half gone.

Add three beaten eggs, sugar, and cinnamon to a bowl and give them a good mix.

I did make some pumpkin puree the other day, but I already had this in the pantry, so I decided to use it.

Beat the pumpkin puree with the other wet ingredients.

Add flour and baking soda to the mix.

Pour the mix into a greased pan then place it in the oven.

Yum!  You have to let it cool first, no matter how tempting it looks.

While the cake is cooling, beat together some powdered sugar, vanilla, butter, and cream cheese for the frosting.

Set aside until the cake is completely cooled.  Otherwise you're going to have cream cheese glaze instead of frosting.

The best way to frost the cake is to dump all the frosting in the middle then spread it out from there.  If you do a little at a time you'll get a ton of crumbs in your frosting- not good.

So, it is still thin, but not quite thin enough to make a roll.  Hence why I made it a cake instead.

I had to show you again.  Tempting?  You want some?  Too bad, it's probably already gone :)

More pumpkin recipes to come this month.  I have lots of pumpkin puree.  Lots and lots.

Pumpkin Cake recipe:

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs, beaten


• 1 cup white sugar


• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon


• 2/3 cup pumpkin puree


• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour


• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 2 tablespoons butter, softened


• 8 ounces cream cheese


• 1 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar


• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract


• confectioners' sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 375.  Grease a 91/2" x 13" cake pan.

Beat together eggs, white sugar, cinnamon, and pumpkin puree.  In another bowl, mix together the flour and baking soda.  Then add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture.  Then pour the batter into the greased cake pan.  Bake for 15 to 25 minutes.

When the cake is finished, place on a cooling rack.  While it is cooling, beat together the cream cheese, butter, confectioner's sugar, and vanilla.

When the cake is completely cool, add all of the frosting to the middle of the cake then spread out to the edges gently.  Careful not to get crumbs in the frosting.  The frosting will not harden.