pumpkin

I am a leftover – Traditional pumpkin pie

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Sometimes I feel a lot like leftover ingredients. You buy a bunch of stuff for a specific recipe you really want – but then you may be left with ingredients. You make something out of what’s left because you don’t want to waste it. It’s in your face, in your fridge or cupboard – but you don’t want the ingredients and don’t really want whatever it is you will make out of those leftovers. Whatever it is will suffice, but it’s not the plan, not the dreamt of piece.

Today someone I don’t even know mentioned something to me about how he likes me, and then said, “Can you imagine being your real self and still be loved and appreciated?” It’s a good and fair question. It sounds a bit self-pitying, but I can’t actually imagine that. I am always and immediately skeptical, and I suppose this stops the sense or belief that it is possible to be appreciated simply for being who I am in any given moment – in the now. For a bunch of different reasons, I imagine people “like” me for some other reason – not me. This is how I am like a leftover. Someone might turn to me (i.e. “like” me) in the absence of someone or something else that was the first choice. I have a complex about being the “side dish” or “consolation prize”. Who really knows me anyway? Anymore, probably not many – because why should I let them? It is a self-defeating catch-22.

This was not my point, though. The point is that leftover ingredients have led me to bake one of my traditional, original recipe pumpkin pies. I have a big container of cream, loads and loads of brown sugar, tons of eggs… so pumpkin pie seemed like a delicious plan.

pumpkin pie in the oven

pumpkin pie in the oven

“Nothing clings to you like laughter…” – Full list of 2013 holiday baking

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I started off today in the office exchanging messages on Facebook with a colleague who was on a bus – it was unintentionally stalker-like to see her progress as her public transport made its way to different parts of the city, and I could track her, thinking, “Oh, she must have stopped responding because she is walking up the path to the office now…”. In any case, our conversation started the day off on the right foot because it sparked laughter. And, as Robyn Hitchcock sings, “Nothing clings to you like laughter…“. Too true.

I also noted that the 24 kinds of baked goods that I brought to the office yesterday – the logistical nightmare that that was – has been reduced and fits nicely on two long tables instead of three. Progress!

Christmas 2013 spread - three full tables

Christmas 2013 spread – three full tables

The final list of stuff baked and brought along with links to recipes (where they exist – some I was making for the first time so will post in new posts in the coming days)…

COCONUT-MACADAMIA COOKIES

CHRISTMAS M&M COOKIES (I know this links to a white chocolate macadamia cookie recipe, but I have been using it for M&M cookies for a while – prefer it to the one I used to use. Just eliminate the macadamia and white chocolate and put M&Ms in instead!)

VANILLA ORANGE ALMOND BISCOTTI   

CRANBERRY PISTACHIO BISCOTTI

TART CHERRY & PINE NUT BISCOTTI      

GINGERBREAD

THUMBPRINTS (WALNUTS & CHERRY)  

RUSSIAN TEA CAKES (ALMOND)

SHORTBREAD                            

CHOCOLATE MINT COOKIES

SNICKERDOODLES                    

RASPBERRY OAT BARS

PEANUT BUTTER CUPS                  

CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES

OREO TRUFFLES           

MAPLE PECAN COOKIES

PUMPKIN PIE                             

RAFFAELLO CANDY CUPCAKES (ALMOND, COCONUT)

BROWN SUGAR CUPCAKES W/ MAPLE FROSTING AND CANDIED BACON

GUINNESS CUPCAKES W/ BAILEYS FROSTING

OREO CHOCOLATE COOKIES-AND-CREAM CUPCAKES

EGGNOG COOKIES                    

PUMPKIN DOUGHNUTS

HONEY ALMOND SHORTBREAD

Pie in the sky & all the chores I ignore

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The pumpkin pie for my mini, belated Thanksgiving is out of the oven, meaning its penultimate stage in pie life has been reached. (The final step in its short existence of course being its demise and disappearance.) Its appearance and vanishing is like magic, no?

the penultimate pumpkin pie step

the penultimate pumpkin pie step

No, we shall not be treated to pie in the sky – but pie in the oven and on the kitchen table. Dessert is served.

I saw today that musician Aimee Mann posted on Facebook that she has renamed pumpkin pie “squash quiche” in order to justify having more in the middle of the day for no reason. I think the season is the reason – and that is enough justification, but bonus points for finding good ways to trick oneself.

For right now, it is “pie in the sky” to imagine that I could tackle the fabled cherpumple cake. I considered attempting this baking feat – whole pies baked inside whole cakes in triplicate – yes, but it made no sense since my Thanksgiving will only be one other person and me. But one day I will take a stab at the impossible, improbable and disgusting cherpumple cake.

Pie in the sky is more like tacking four or five inches to your height when you are actually nowhere near the projected/stated height.

Reminds me of an excellent poem and highly appropriate way to close; take it away, Mike Topp:

Disappointment
6’5”
4”

Pumpkin spice cupcakes with pumpkin spice filling

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pumpkin cake

Pumpkin spice cake with pumpkin spice pudding

Pumpkin spice cupcakes are only improved with pumpkin spice pudding as a filling. Topped with the very yucky but totally necessary pumpkin marshmallowy candy, these really represent both Halloween and autumn.

candy corn and candy pumpkins

Yucky Halloween candy

Check out the pumpkin spice cupcake recipe. The only difference will be the filling and frosting.

pumpkin spice cupcakes

Pumpkin spice cupcakes all ready for Halloween

Pumpkin doughnut plans

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I have never made doughnuts other than an ad-hoc attempt one year at making chrusciki, which are not doughnuts per se but are a fried dough of sorts.Frying is a pain, and traditional doughnuts don’t really seem like the kind of thing I want to bother with (or transport to the office, which is the final destination for most of my baked stuff).

I found a pumpkin baked doughnut recipe recently and wanted to try it for Halloween. I went to considerable effort when I was recently in the US to get a few doughnut pans. And then I did not in the end get around to making the doughnuts. But the time is coming.

Pumpkin doughnut recipe

Doughnuts

1/2 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons flour

Preheat oven to 350F/175C.

Beat all ingredients except flour until smooth. Add the flour to the mixture, stirring just until smooth.

Lightly grease two doughnut pans. Fill the pan sections about 3/4 full.

Bake the doughnuts for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick placed in the center of the doughnuts comes out clean.

Remove from the oven, let sit for five minutes and loosen the edges of the doughnuts and transfer to a rack to cool.

Cinnamon-sugar doughnut coating

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

some sugar

Mix all together in a plastic Ziploc bag (for example). When doughnuts are warm but not fragile, place them into the bag of spice mix and gently shake to coat the doughnuts.

Ginger cookies with pumpkin spice kisses

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Somehow when you affix a normal chocolate Hershey’s kiss to a peanut butter cookie, as I often do, it does not come out looking like a boob/nipple or at least the nipple part of a baby bottle. But when I made ginger cookies with some specialty, seasonal pumpkin spice kisses, a “boob cookie” is exactly what I got. Did it make them any less yummy? I guess not. A few people did rave about them. I can’t imagine why because the idea of a pumpkin spice kiss sounds disgusting – like a ball of beige-colored wax. No accounting for taste – I only make things sometimes because they are novel.

How to make the ginger cookies yourself?

Recipe:

2 cups flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons ground ginger
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1/4 cup water (or more as needed)
1/4 to 1/3 cup of molasses
1/3 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder

Mix dry ingredients together and set aside. Mix butter, molasses, vanilla, grated fresh ginger and water together. (You can use between 1/4 and 1/3 cup of molasses. They have a strong flavor, so you can decide how much to use based on how strong a molasses taste you want to achieve.)

Combine the wet and dry ingredients and stir by hand. Keep stirring until a dough forms. If it is too dry, add more water, a couple of tablespoons at a time (do not overdo it) until the dough comes together and achieves a very soft clay-like consistency.

You can refrigerate the dough if you wish, but I didn’t.

Preheat oven to 375F. Roll dough in small balls and then roll in sugar. Press the dough balls flat with your hand or with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Bake 9 to 10 minutes.

If you top with kiss candies as I did, you will want to bake these for four or five minutes first, and then get them out, quickly press the unwrapped candies into the tops, put them back in the oven and bake for about four more minutes. These melt easier than their chocolate predecessors, so you don’t want to overdo it.

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Post-Thanksgiving food coma – Pumpkin curry soup

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Normally I make pumpkin curry soup, which is a serious fork in the road from the traditional Thanksgiving dinner road driven by my predecessors. We never had soup in my family, and if we did, it sure as hell would not have been pumpkin. My mom, the primary Thanksgiving cook, hates pumpkin, and I do not recall that my grandmother had any particular affinity for it either. When I decided to start a new tradition of making soup, I wanted something that incorporated pumpkin (one of the most important Thanksgiving ingredients in my opinion) but that was not dull or plain (as so many pumpkin soups can be). I used curry to give it its kick. Generally when I make this soup, I use coconut milk (making the soup vegan), but at Thanksgiving usually dose the soup with a generous few gulps of cream.

Pumpkin curry soup (You can use pureed butternut squash in place of pumpkin here if pumpkin is hard to find… might even be better that way. I did this year just for a change)
3 tablespoons butter or oil
1 cup finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon curry
¼ teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
3 cups water
3 bouillon cubes (I use vegetable)
15 ounce can pumpkin (or the “meat” of a baked butternut squash)
1 cup half-and-half or cream (can replace with coconut milk if you want a non-dairy option)
Sour cream garnish

Melt butter in large saucepan over medium high. Add onion and garlic. Cook 3 to 5 minutes til tender. Stir in curry powder, coriander, cayenne. Cook 1 minute. Add water and bouillon. Bring to boil. Reduce to low, cook, stirring constantly for 15 to 20 minutes to develop flavors. Stir in pumpkin. Blend until smooth. At this point, you could cover and refrigerate the soup for a day. This develops the flavors further and of course means you can plan ahead.

When ready to finish and serve, place soup on stovetop and mix in cream (or coconut milk or half and half). Cook 5 minutes or til heated through. Garnish with sour cream if desired.

the price of pumpkin

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Never mind the questionable availability of canned pumpkin, let’s focus for a moment on the wild variations in pumpkin prices depending on where you get it.

A regular 15-ounce can of the stuff will probably cost about 2 USD. In Sweden, if I can find it (usually in the “American section” of the grocery store, the same can is priced at 35 SEK (about 5 USD). It is next to impossible to find in Norway, but I found some the other day priced at an unbelievable and outrageous 59.something NOK (almost 11 USD).