Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese

A few weeks ago I had some pumpkin leftover from other recipes and had to figure out what to do with it. I felt too guilty to throw it away. I remembered that I had some leftover cream cheese that also needed to be used up and this recipe came to mind. I'd printed it off along time ago and hadn't gotten around to trying it out yet. 

 

 

The recipe really couldn't be easier. Throw a few ingredients in a bowl, mix together, and enjoy! 

Pumpkin Spice Cream Cheese

Slightly Modified from Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes

• 8 oz light cream cheese
• 1/2 cup canned pureed pumpkin
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp honey

Combine all the ingredients in a medium bowl and beat until smooth.

The pita was not the best vehicle to show off how appetizing the cream cheese really is, but it was all I had at the time. It really was tasty. Unless you eat a ton of cream cheese, I would suggest making half the recipe. Pumpkin doesn't last too long once you open the can. I ate this all week and it was on its last legs.

As a total aside, here's what you can do with leftover pumpkin -  measure it out into freezer bags (I usually do it 1/2 a cup at a time), squish it flat to get out most of the air and stack it in the freezer to save some space. It comes out a bit wetter than it went in but, otherwise, it's just as good to use in any recipe you might have. 

What to you when you have canned fruit or vegetables from a recipe?

Serious Sweets: Pumpkin

My apologies to those of you linking over from Serious Eats and getting a Blogger error message. I've reposted the recipe, etc here for you. I hope you enjoy!

Originally posted September 19, 2011

I love pumpkin. I don't really know what it is about it that I love so much. For as long as I can remember, pumpkin pie has been one of my favorite foods. Every year I look forward to the Fall. Nothing goes with cool weather like pumpkiny treats. It's probably the spices that make everything so tasty, but I love it nonetheless. 

I've already posted one pumpkin recipe this season. On with number two - pumpkin cranberry cinnamon rolls from King Arthur Flour. This is the first recipe I've featured on here that uses yeast. I'll admit, I don't use it very often. It's as intimidating to me as pie crust (which I'll have to try soon) but I made this recipe once a couple of years ago and I knew the time and effort required was worth it for the results.

We all learn from our mistakes, right? The first time I made these I messed up big time. The King Arthur recipe calls for instant yeast and I used yeast from the Bulk Barn that must have been regular yeast. Poor choice. Since I hadn't dissolved the yeast in anything there were little bits left in the dough and it didn't rise well. This time, even though I was using instant yeast, I dissolved it for a few minutes in 1/4 cup of slightly warmed milk (substituted for the water and milk powder) before adding it to the rest of the wet ingredients.

Kneaded dough

The yeast definitely did its job this time. I left the dough to rise for a little more than an hour and it more than doubled in size. I added the post-it after a few minutes so I could mark where the dough started out.

Before rising

After rising

The recipe calls for the dough to be rolled up along the short edge and cut into nine rolls. I found this made for HUGE cinnamon rolls so I cut it in half to make 18 smaller rolls. I also decided to add cranberries to half and leave the second half plain. 
 

There was a lot of room left in between the rolls when I put them into a parchment lined 13"x9" pan. I was a little concerned that they weren't going to fill the pan but, after the second rising, everything looked great. 

Before the second rising - lots of empty space

After the second rising - nice and snug

Since I made smaller rolls, I reduced the baking time to about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. 

The finishing touch to these pumpkin beauties was the simple icing on top. 

• 1 cup glazing or confectioners' sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons milk, or enough to make a "drizzlable" glaze

I had some maple syrup in the fridge so I substituted half of the milk with syrup. I don't think it really added anything to the taste, so don't worry about trying to fancy it up. 
 

Yum

All in all, these took about three and a half hours to complete but I think they're definitely worth it. To quote one of my co-workers/taste testers, Andra - "That was, without a doubt, the absolute best cinnamon roll I have had the privilege of eating. EVER." If you're looking for a twist on a basic recipe, I recommend you give these a try. 

What's the one seasonal food you look forward to most?

Mini Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecakes

This past weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada. I knew I wanted to make something with pumpkin (shocking I know) and when I saw the Share Your Sweets theme for this week was cheesecake, I knew pumpkin cheesecake was it. I had never made any kind of pumpkin cheesecake before so I went looking for the perfect recipe. Turns out I couldn't find one that had all of the things I was looking for so I mashed a bunch of them together and came up with my own. 

I'm dying to make a "real" cheesecake but there are two main things stopping me: 1) they're really expensive to make because most call for at least three packages of cream cheese, and 2) I try to share my treats with as many people as possible and walking to work with a whole cheesecake seems daunting. Therefore, I made minis. A quick note - I actually made 12 super huge minis. I wrote the recipe below for 16 to 18 because there was more than enough crust and filling to make more than 12.

Mini Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecakes
makes 16 to 18

For the crust:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons sugar (brown or white)
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2 tablespoons melted butter (measured after melting)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and put 18 liners into your muffin tins.
• Mix together all ingredients and put about one tablespoon of crust mixture into each liner and pat down to compress.
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden brown.
• Let the crust cool a bit while making the filling.

 For the filling:

8 oz cream cheese (I used light)
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2/3 cup of pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/3 cup caramel or dulce de leche

• Using a stand or hand mixer, combine cream cheese, sugar, maple syrup, and pumpkin puree until combined.
• Add the eggs, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice.
• Fill prepared crust about 3/4 full.
• Add about one teaspoon of  caramel to the top of the filled crusts and swirl through the batter with a toothpick or skewer. 
• Bake at 350 degrees for 22 to 25 minutes until just slightly jiggly in the middle.
• Let cool on a rack and then refrigerate for at least two hours before serving. 

Crust

Batter

Dulce de leche from Costco - only $3.99! Find it near the peanut butter and jam

Adding the dulce de leche

After the swirl

Out of the oven

These were delicious. The crust was a bit too crunchy for my taste but otherwise, fantastic! I think that the crunchiness might have had something to do with the maple syrup and extra sugar in the crust. I haven't had anyone else taste test them yet but I anticipate they'll be a hit. These are a great alternative to pumpkin pie if you're not a huge fan. The texture is a bit firmer than pumpkin pie and I know that texture is an issue for some people. I'd never thought of combining pumpkin and caramel before but I'd certainly try it again.

Fellow Canadians, what did you have for dessert with your Thanksgiving dinner? 

Review From the Road: Georgetown Cupcake

Last weekend I got to join one of my friends (hi Lyndsay!) in Washington, DC. Given my love for all things baked, I was curious to check out a famous cupcake shop in town - Georgetown Cupcake.

Georgetown Cupcake (@GTownCupcake) has risen to international fame through their TLC reality show, DC Cupcakes. Friends kept telling me I had to take in Georgetown while I was in DC. Since I was going to be in the neighborhood anyway, I checked out their website to see what they had to offer. I was officially sold when I saw I could order ahead and skip the line. They are notoriously busy (ironically, not on the day I visited) and the opportunity to skip the line was the deciding factor. We also had a belated birthday to celebrate and cupcakes just seemed to make sense.

The shop

The cupcakes

I opted for an assorted half dozen. There are a number of standard flavors they carry every day, some rotating daily flavors, and a few seasonal flavors too. I'll be honest. I had my doubts. I had yet to be even mildly impressed by any "professional" cupcakes I'd tried anywhere so I really had no expectations. I was especially doubtful because, in my experience, foods and restaurants that get the most public hype are the most likely to disappoint. I will admit it...I was wrong. These were absolutely delicious. I kept thinking the next one would be crap, but they just kept getting better.    

Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl

Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl was the first I tried. I bit in expecting it to be dry and tasteless like most cupcakes I've tried. It was moist and chocolatey and delicious. The ganache topping had a great taste and texture and the peanut butter filling seemed to be straight up peanut butter possibly mixed with a bit of icing sugar to stabilize it. I could have eaten a dozen of these. 

The rest were equally delicious. All were nice and moist, almost on the verge of under done which is so much better than being overdone and dry. The texture was great and the frostings were all delicious. Not too sweet and definitely made with real butter and not shortening like some bakeries. 

Caramel Apple

Apple cupcake with dulce de leche filling and cream cheese frosting.
 

Coconut

Coconut cupcake with vanilla cream cheese frosting and coconut on top. This was the only one I didn't love. I thought the coconut flavor was a little fake and I didn't like the stringiness of the shredded coconut in the cake. 
 

Pumpkin Spice

Pumpkin spice cupcake with maple cream cheese frosting. It tasted just like pumpkin pie. Somehow even the texture seemed right. 

Key Lime

The key lime cupcake with key lime frosting tasted remarkably like my own favorite lime cupcakes.

Milk Chocolate Birthday Cake

Milk chocolate birthday cake consisted of really good vanilla cake and perfect chocolate frosting. As always, the addition of sprinkles makes everything better. 

I'm happy to report that I was thoroughly impressed with Georgetown Cupcake. If you're in the DC area, I highly recommend you go and check them out. 

What's the best place you've tried after seeing it on TV? 

Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes

I'm shaking things up here in the 'Burg. I think I'm going to start doing the logical thing and show you a picture of the finished product at the beginning of each post to pique your interest. There's no need to keep you in suspense until the bottom of the page to see what I'm talking about. The star of today's show - pumpkin oatmeal pancakes.

I had some pumpkin left over from another recipe and thought this might be a good way to use it up. I had a hankering for pancakes so I decided to try to modify a tried and true recipe to incorporate the pumpkin. My friend, Kristen, gave me her favorite oat pancake recipe (I'm not sure where her recipe originated) and they're always delicious so I thought it would make for a good starting point. 

Pumpkin Oatmeal Pancakes
(adapted from Kristen's Oat Pancakes)
Makes about 9-12 small pancakes

1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup oats
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Combine dry ingredients in one bowl and wet ingredients in a second bowl. Combine wet and dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Cook on medium heat until bubbles pop and the surface looks dry. Flip and cook for an additional 1 to 2 minutes. Serve with syrup and enjoy!

And here is the finished product. I thought they turned out quite well for a spur of the moment recipe modification. They could use a little bit more spice but otherwise they were quite tasty. A very easy recipe to pull together when you have some extra pumpkin kicking around. 

What's your favorite kind of pancake?

Plenty of Pumpkin: Cinnamon Rolls

I love pumpkin. I don't really know what it is about it that I love so much. For as long as I can remember, pumpkin pie has been one of my favorite foods. Every year I look forward to the Fall. Nothing goes with cool weather like pumpkiny treats. It's probably the spices that make everything so tasty, but I love it nonetheless. 

I've already posted one pumpkin recipe this season. On with number two - pumpkin cranberry cinnamon rolls from King Arthur Flour. This is the first recipe I've featured on here that uses yeast. I'll admit, I don't use it very often. It's as intimidating to me as pie crust (which I'll have to try soon) but I made this recipe once a couple of years ago and I knew the time and effort required was worth it for the results.

We all learn from our mistakes, right? The first time I made these I messed up big time. The King Arthur recipe calls for instant yeast and I used yeast from the Bulk Barn that must have been regular yeast. Poor choice. Since I hadn't dissolved the yeast in anything there were little bits left in the dough and it didn't rise well. This time, even though I was using instant yeast, I dissolved it for a few minutes in 1/4 cup of slightly warmed milk (substituted for the water and milk powder) before adding it to the rest of the wet ingredients.

Kneaded dough

The yeast definitely did its job this time. I left the dough to rise for a little more than an hour and it more than doubled in size. I added the post-it after a few minutes so I could mark where the dough started out.

Before rising

After rising

The recipe calls for the dough to be rolled up along the short edge and cut into nine rolls. I found this made for HUGE cinnamon rolls so I cut it in half to make 18 smaller rolls. I also decided to add cranberries to half and leave the second half plain. 
 

There was a lot of room left in between the rolls when I put them into a parchment lined 13"x9" pan. I was a little concerned that they weren't going to fill the pan but, after the second rising, everything looked great. 

Before the second rising - lots of empty space

After the second rising - nice and snug

Since I made smaller rolls, I reduced the baking time to about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. 

The finishing touch to these pumpkin beauties was the simple icing on top. 

• 1 cup glazing or confectioners' sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons milk, or enough to make a "drizzlable" glaze

I had some maple syrup in the fridge so I substituted half of the milk with syrup. I don't think it really added anything to the taste, so don't worry about trying to fancy it up. 
 

Yum

All in all, these took about three and a half hours to complete but I think they're definitely worth it. To quote one of my co-workers/taste testers, Andra - "That was, without a doubt, the absolute best cinnamon roll I have had the privilege of eating. EVER." If you're looking for a twist on a basic recipe, I recommend you give these a try. 

What's the one seasonal food you look forward to most?