Pumpkin Apple Muffins

Who likes substituting and making things up as they go?! I do. Whenever I make muffins, I throw a bunch of stuff in there, just to use up ingredients that are on their way out and to get interesting flavor combinations tested out.

I honestly can't remember what recipe I used for these, so here's one I found that looks about right, and then I just added in some diced apples because why not? Also there this SK recipe, so I'm sure that's delicious as well.

Our adopted kitty, Jonesy. He's aggressively cuddly and hangs out with me while I cook. He's the best behaved street cat on earth.

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp + 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (usually cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, cloves, etc)
2 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp salt
3 cups sugar
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
4 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I likely used melted butter instead - I prefer fats & sugars whose existence I understand)
1/2 cup water or orange juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl.
Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, oil, and water in a mixing bowl. Beat until blended.
Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture - stir just until combined.

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. 

Pumpking Cinnamon Rolls

I'm sticking with my pumpking typo as a thing. What of it?!

Anyway, in our fall cooking festivities, I ventured to try SK's pumpkin cinnamon rolls. It was a little challenging at moments, but teamwork is great help, and they were tasty. I didn't get a strong pumpkin flavor, but it was good. Plus it felt fun and fancy to have made them by hand. Also, I think my yeast wasn't great because it didn't rise as it should have, so I think that explains some discrepancies between her pictures and mine.

Fair warning: this is pretty involved and took me quite a few hours over the course of an afternoon and a morning. Just know what you're getting yourself into.

Dough
6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter, to be divided
1/2 cup (120 ml) whole milk, warmed (but not over 116 degrees)
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (from 1 .25-ounce or 7 gram envelope yeast)
3 1/2 cups (440 grams) all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out
1/4 cup (packed) (50 grams) light or dark brown sugar
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon (6 grams) table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2/3 cups (160 grams) pumpkin puree, canned or homemade
1 large egg
Oil for coating rising bowl

Filling
3/4 cup (packed, 145 grams) light or dark brown sugar
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons (5 grams) ground cinnamon

Glaze
4 ounces (115 grams) cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons (30 ml) milk or buttermilk
2 cups (240 grams) powdered sugar, sifted
Few drops vanilla extract (optional)

Make your dough: 
Melt your butter, and hey, if you’re melting it in a little saucepan, you might as well brown it for extra flavor. Once the butter has melted, keep cooking it over medium heat for a few additional minutes. It will become hissy and sizzle a lot, then take on a nutty flavor as golden bits form at the bottom of the pot. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.

Combine your warmed milk and yeast in a small bowl and set aside. After five to seven minutes, it should be a bit foamy. If it’s not, you might have some bad yeast and should start again with a newer packet.

In the bottom of the bowl of an electric mixer combine flour, sugars, salt and spices. Add just 1/4 cup (or two-thirds of; leave the rest for assembly) of your melted/browned butter and stir to combine. Add yeast-milk mixture, pumpkin and egg and mix combined. Switch mixer to a dough hook and run it for 5 minutes on low.

Scrape mixture into a large oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside for 1 hour in a draft-free place; it should just about double.

While it is rising, line the bottom of two 9-inch round cake pans (8-inch round should work too, as does an 8-inch square) with parchment paper and butter the sides of the pan and the paper.

Assemble buns: 
Scoop dough onto a very well floured surface and flour the top of it well. With a rolling pin, roll the dough to an approximately 16×11-inch rectangle. Brush reserved melted/browned butter over dough. Stir together remaining filling ingredients and sprinkle mixture evenly over dough. Starting on a longer side, roll the dough into a tight spiral. It’s going to make a mess because the dough is crazy soft and some stuff spills off the ends; don’t sweat it. It will all be delicious in the end.

Here’s how to cut cinnamon rolls without squishing their pretty spirals: With a sharp serrated knife, using absolutely no pressure whatsoever (only the weight of the blade should land on the dough) gently saw your log with a back-forth motion into approximately 1-inch sections. When a soft dough like this is rolled, it tends to grow longer, which means that you’ll have the option to either make more buns (say, 18 instead of 16) or just cut them a little larger (in generous inches).

Divide buns between two prepared pans. You can sprinkle any sugar that fell off onto the counter over them. Cover each pan with plastic wrap and let rise for another 45 minutes.

If you’re doing this ahead of time, you can now put them in the fridge overnight. In the morning, leave them out for an hour to warm up and finish rising.

15 minutes before you’re ready to bake them, heat the oven to 350°F. Meanwhile, you can make the glaze. Beat your cream cheese until it is light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Drizzle in milk until you get the consistency you’re looking for, either thick enough to ice or thin enough to drizzle.

Finish your buns: 
Remove the plastic and bake buns for 25 minutes, until puffed and golden and the aroma brings all the boys to your yard is like a snickerdoodle. Transfer pans to wire cooling racks and drizzle/schmear with cream cheese glaze, then have at them.

Pumpking Beer Bread

This was one of the first recipes I cooked for my now-boyfriend when we first started hanging out this summer/fall. It was starting to cool off, and stores were stocking up delicious fall treats for October. We decided to have a fall cooking weekend, so I pulled up this pumpkin beer bread recipe a friend showed me and decided to give it a whirl. Very yummy. I'm giving the recipe as I originally found it, but I made it a second time and doubled all the spices and really liked that better. 

Also I keep mistyping Pumpking instead of just pumpkin, so I'm officially just going with it and dubbing this bread Pumpking Beer Bread. King of the pumpkin beer breads. Why not?

[as I mentioned before, I doubled all the spices the 2nd time I made it because I love delicious spices]


Oil or butter for greasing the pan
1¼ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch ground nutmeg
Pinch ground allspice
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup pumpkin purée
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin ale

1. Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch loaf pan. Combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice in a large bowl.

2. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat (or in a medium bowl in the microwave). Remove from the heat. Stir in the pumpkin and brown sugar, then stir in the eggs. Finally, stir in the pumpkin ale. Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients and stir just until combined, then transfer the batter to the greased pan.

3. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool thoroughly, then slice and serve. (Leftover pumpkin bread can be wrapped in foil or plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to a few days.)