I know I know, it's fall. There are pumpkins everywhere. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin pumpkins. Ok maybe not the last one.
If you are anything like me, when you see the bright colors of fall you get very excited to well, to eat.
Up until about 2 years ago I wanted nothing to do with pumpkin thinking it was not for me, that was until I started drinking pumpkin beer. That yummy treat changed my mind to the whole pumpkin experience. Was it the cinnamon sugar on the rim of my glass?
Maybe. Whatever it was I was hooked and now couldn't wait till the next pumpkin season. So two weeks ago when I went grocery shopping and saw pumpkins everywhere I took it upon myself to try to bake pumpkin goodies from scratch!
Most of my friends and family will tell you I am a fantastic baker. I always feel a twinge of guilt when I make something from a box and people rave about it, but I always tell myself a lot of people can't even get that right! But nevertheless I always strive to try to make things from scratch instead. I feel far more accomplished about the whole thing, and love to watch as people eat what I've made and tweak my recipes.
My bffl
Kate and I want to start up a business someday in the near future.
Check out our blog here ourfrostedcupkates.tumblr.com
She too inspires me to try new baking adventures and get creative.
On our blog your can find all of our gluten free, vegan, and just plain yummy baking adventures.
But, I digress, this blog today is about my lastest pumpkin baking adventures, and it all begins here...
First things first when it comes to baking from scratch with pumpkins is well, baking the pumpkin itself!
Being a complete novice to the whole thing, I searched around the internet and pinterest and found the easiest way to do it for me personally.
Firstly, preheat your oven to 350.
I washed the outside of the pumpkins to get rid of whatever gross is hanging out on there.
Then cut open the pumpkin, I tried my best to cut through evenly but I just ended up ripping it open by hand.
Scoop out all the guts, ie. the stringy insides and seeds. I seperated all the seeds and saved them for later (i'm still looking for a good pumpkin seed recepie).
Take your pumpkin halves, slices, whatever, and place them in casserole dishes or baking sheets whatever you prefer.
The article i had looked at told me to put them in casserole dishes and put lids on them. This I did not do, and nothing went wrong so I leave that up to your digression . Anyhow, put your pumpkins in the oven and bake them for 40-90 mins. It really depends on your oven/pumpkins etc how long you will have to have them in there, just remember to check them and see if the guts are squishy and then go from there. This whole process is much like cooking spaghetti squash, so if you are a pro at that then you are pretty much good to go.
When your pumpkins are all nice and cooked on the inside, just use a spoon to scrape out the insides into a bowl and then puree them.
I used my Kitchen Aid and mixed it till i had a nice squash looking puree and i was good to go!
From there I was ready to start making my Pumpkin Pie!
I used
this recipe that I found on pinterest.
I have to admit, I did not have the evaporated milk that it called for, even though i thought I did. As i had already opened the can and was pouring it in i realized that i was condensed milk, and my thought process was oh crap its ruined. This was not the case, it was delicious! Crisis averted!
I also have to admit that I did not make my own crust from scratch, I was to lazy at this point and just made a boxed JIF crust, but i did add a bunch of cinnamon to the dough and it made it taste very homemade-y.
Cinnamon is always my secret ingredient.
Next I made Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting, also found on pinterest at
this blog
These were amazing.
And the frosting was to die for.
Definitely going to be making these again and again. Also going to look into making a gluten free version I think.
This weekend I made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.
These, we stupidly easy to make, and VERY lazy.
1box of yellow (or spice) cake mix
2cups of pureed pumpkin
1cup chocolate chips
oven at 350 and bake for 15min.
These were just amazingly delicious, I brought them to a friends house later that day and they were gone in about half and hour, I wasn't able to get any pictures since they were devoured!
Well there you have it, my recent baking adventures!
Let me know if you have any requests for any yummy treats I can concoct!
au revoir!
