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

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.

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

In this post I told you to scoop the seeds from the small pumpkin but not to throw them away.  And this is why.  Toasted pumpkin seeds are so good.  And I assume good for you because there's not much to them.

So, here's your pile of pumpkin seeds straight out of the pumpkin.

Separate the seeds from the gooey membrane.  And, yes, your fingers are going to be orange.

Rinse the seeds really well.  And be sure to pick out any pieces of pumpkin that may be trying to hang on.

Spread the seeds out onto a dish towel and pat them dry as best as you can.

Transfer the seeds onto a cookie sheet, or in my case a pizza pan.

Spray the seeds with oil, olive or canola.  Then sprinkle with a generous amount of salt.

After the seeds are oiled and salted throw them in the oven for 25 minutes.

Or until they are nice and light brown like this.

And they're done.

I put mine in a plastic bag and put them in the pantry on our "snack shelf," so hopefully we won't forget that they are there.

Pumpkin Puree

This being the season for Pumpkin and yummy fall recipes.  Let's talk pumpkin puree.  Pumpkin puree is good for pumpkin pies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies...and on and on.

Cans of pumpkin are hard to find any other time of year except right now.  So, buying a pumpkin and making your own puree is great if you want pumpkin goodies other times of year.

My cute little pumpkin.  It was a pretty reasonable price at Walmart.  Next week I'm going to an orchard and vegetable farm and I'm going to get another one...or two :)

Cut the top off the pumpkin.

Cut the pumpkin in half.

Scoop out the inside of the pumpkin.  I used a melon baller.  It worked perfect.

Scoop all the seeds and such into a bowl.  Do NOT throw them away.  Stay tuned for what you can do with them.

Cut the pumpkin into about 8 pieces.

Arrange the pieces a cookie sheet then put them in a 350 degrees oven for 45 minutes.

After the 45 minutes the pieces will look like this, but perfect for peeling off the skins.

If the peel doesn't come off easily then you can cut it off.

Yes, this is like the smallest food processor ever.  Anyway, cut the pumpkin into cubes after you peel off the skin then put it in the food processor and puree.

As I puree it, I add a little water with the pieces I process.

It's ready!

Grab 2 one gallon freezer bags.

Split the puree between the two freezer bags.

Flatten the bag of puree and make sure you get all the air out.  Then seal it and be sure to label it, so everyone knows what this weird orange stuff in your freezer is.

We seem to have this nifty little shelf next to our ice maker that is perfect for the bags of puree.

So, now you have your puree for March or April when all the pumpkins are gone and the cans of pumpkin puree are not on the shelf.  I expect you to puree some pumpkin and impress me with your goodies :)

 

Pumpkin Puree

Ingredients:

1 small pumpkin

water, as needed

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Cut the top off the pumpkin.  Then cut in half.  Use a spoon, ice scoop, or melon baller to scrape out all the seeds and the goopy membrane.  Place the seeds in a bowl.  Cut the halves into quarters (8 pieces total).  Place the pieces on a cookie sheet.  Bake for 45 minutes.

Place the cooked pumpkin on a cutting board and peel the rind from the pieces.  If the pieces will not peel then use a knife.  Cut the pumpkin into small cubes then toss into a food processor.  Puree until smooth.  Sometimes it is quite dry and hard to puree, so you may need to add 1 tablespoon or so to each batch you puree.

Split the pureed pumpkin into two one gallon freezer bags.  Label the bags and place them in the freezer if not going to be used right away.