pumpkin pie brulee

Everybody's doing it!  And I think with good reason - this is a tasty food fad.  Honestly, I have never enjoyed pumpkin pie until this pie.  What changed?  The crisp caramelized sugar top makes things so much more interesting and in this case it was paired with a chocolate crust.   If I haven't sold you yet, doing a brulee means you get to play with fire!  I used a recipe from Bon Appetit though next time I will make a less fussy chocolate crust.

pumpkin hummus

It's January and we still have lots of winter squash and pumpkin from the fall. We've made pumpkin soup and pumpkin bread but I wanted something new - something that doesn't rely on pumpkin pie spices. I found this recipe for pumpkin hummus and it is delicious. I will definitely be making this again. pumpkin hummus recipe

pumpkin soup with dollap of refried black beans

 

Here's a soup that is really good for those cold winter dark days! It is a basic pumpkin soup dressed up with a dollop of black beans that I re-fried myself.  The main ingredient was a small "pie pumpkin" that has been sitting on our counter since we got it from our Isabelle Farm CSA in October. Good job holding in there, little pumpkin!  I would also like to note my excitement about getting to use our very own coriander seed that we grew in our garden this past year.

Ingredients:
pumpkin
frozen green chile
frozen corn
onion
coriander (garden!)
carrot (not local)
turmeric (not local)
cumin (not local)
ginger (not local)
black pepper (not local)
salt (not local)
oil (not local)

I roasted the pumpkin in the oven, scraped it out and cooked it with the other ingredients. I like making refried beans from scratch by frying cooked beans in oil with spices and mashing with a potato masher.

pumpkin molasses chocolate chip cookies

And then the temperature dropped and I realized that summer is on its way out. I had sensed it was coming. The trees have been dropping crunchy leaves on the sidewalks for a week or more. Then yesterday it rained a cold drizzle most of the day with snow falling up on the mountain peaks while everyone in the grocery store crowded in the baking aisle. Hence the cookie post.

For the record, I initially intended to make plain old molasses chocolate chip cookies based on Joy the Baker's recipe, but you know tis the season for adding pumpkin to things.


Yield: 3 dozen cookies!

Ingredients:
3 c. all purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. kosher salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. ginger

1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/4 c. blackstrap molasses
1 c. melted butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 t. vanilla extract
1 c. pumpkin puree (from a pumpkin)
2 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine the dry ingredients (flour through ginger). In a separate bowl, mix together the granulated sugar and molasses. Then cream the sugar and butter for 3 minutes. Mix in egg, vanilla extract and pumpkin puree. Slowly add the flour mixture. Fold in the chocolate chips. Chill the dough for at least 20 minutes. Shape rough balls and drop onto a greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with a little bit of coarse salt. Bake for about 8 minutes or until golden.

Next time I make these I will try using chocolate chunks instead of chips and leaving out the baking powder so that the cookies are a little less puffy and a little more photogenic.

pumpkin pupusas

We finally slaughtered the larger of the two pumpkins we got back in October. It stored just fine on our kitchen counter. I say slaughtered because the process brings to mind the process of slaughtering a turkey (probably a bit easier and less messy though)--cut it open, take out the guts, and save the precious and tasty organs (seeds). The photo above is our 16 quart pot almost filled to the brim with pumpkin!

And what better way to celebrate the freshly processed pumpkin than with pumpkin pupusas! They are so easy to make. We used the recipe from the Vegetarian Planet by Didi Emmons. Basically you just mix masa harina with pumpkin or squash, grated cheese, and some water, form into patties and fry...very fast once the pumpkin is already cooked. Delicious with refried black beans, hot sauce, and sour cream!

pumpkin swirl brownies

Happy Thanksgiving! Perhaps these vegan pumpkin swirl brownies will satisfy your sweet tooth? I followed the recipe on Eating Appalachia.

pumpkin phyllo wraps

In fall we stocked up on potatoes and winter squashes from the farmer's market. We are still working our way through them all. We celebrated this particular pumpkin by turning it into gourmet pumpkin phyllo wraps complete with fancy pants local goat cheese, toasted pine nuts, and a balsamic reduction. The pumpkin puree filling included butter, honey, and sage. It should be noted that we got our pine nuts (piñons) from a roadside stand when we were in New Mexico. To remove the shells, we used Eric's favorite nut-cracking tool: vice grips. The vice grips are nice because you can adjust the final spacing of the jaws which helps keep the nutmeat intact.

pumpkin tartlets

I think I've said this before, but I think mini food is awesome. Maybe I like it because it is a self-contained single serving that I can take on the go. Maybe it's that I can eat an entire pie (or 2) all by myself without having to share. Or really it could simply be that mini food is super cute.

My friend Tom is particularly into mini pies. His mini pie passion inspired me to buy some tartlet pans (with removable bases). I decided to make pumpkin tartlets which are basically mini pumpkin pies. Tis the season! I actually had never made a pumpkin pie before (unwarranted childhood food prejudice) much less a tiny one much less one from scratch much less a vegan one. I modified this recipe for the crust and this recipe for the filling. Of course, without eggs in the filling, it doesn't seem as custardy as I vaguely remember. That's fine by me. Eric says he likes them a lot and that's all that matters in my world.

Makes: 9 tartlets

Crust Ingredients:
2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. powdered sugar
1/4 t. salt
3/4 c. very cold vegan margarine, cut into small pieces
2 egg equivalent in egg replacer

Filling Ingredients:
2 c. baked sugar pumpkin pulp, pureed
1 12 oz. can of coconut milk
1/2 c. packed dark brown sugar
1/3 c. white sugar
1/2 t. salt
3 egg equivalent in egg replacer
2 t. cinnamon
1 t. ginger, ground
1/4 t. nutmeg, ground
1/4 t. cloves, ground
1/4 t. cardamon, ground
1/2 t. lemon juice

Mix together the dry crust ingredients. Add remaining and mix until the dough forms crumbly chunks. Gather the chunks into a ball and refrigerate for a couple of hours.

Cut a sugar pumpkin in half. Scoop out the seeds and stringy mess. Save the seeds to bake for a snack later. Bake the pumpkin halves face down on baking sheets for 30 minutes at 450 degrees F. Let cool. Scoop out the pumpkin pulp and puree.

Mix the sugar and spices for the filling. Mix in the remaining filling ingredients. Take the dough out of the fridge. Divide. roll out, and form the crusts in the tartlet pans. Fill with pumpkin filling. Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees F and then 45 minutes at 350 degrees F.

pumpkin pancakes

Eric made me pumpkin pancakes this morning! We've been eating pumpkin non-stop this week because I baked and pureed the flesh of a 22 lb pumpkin. So far we've had pumpkin seeds, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin polenta, pumpkin chili, maple syrup pumpkin purée, and now pumpkin pancakes. Pumpkin pancakes were definitely a highlight. Anybody have any other pumpkin purée suggestions?

Serving size: 14 unconventionally shaped/sized pancakes (for 3-4 people)

(recipe borrows heavily from Cookography)

Dry Ingredients:
1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
3 T. white sugar
1 t. salt
1 t. ground cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
2 t. yeast

Wet Ingredients:
1 c. milk (we used soy)
1 c. pumpkin, puréed
1/4 c. oil
1/2 c. chocolate chips
1/2 c. water

Mix dry ingredients then mix in wet, adding 1/2 c. or more water for thinner pancakes. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Let sit out at room temperature for 30 minutes or more before cooking.