Monday, October 1, 2007

Hooray! It's Pumpkin Season!

This weekend kicked off the pumpkin baking season. Oh, how I love all the pumpkin-y goodness in fall! It was hard to know what to start with--there are so many recipes out there--but it turned out that pumpkin bread was a delightful choice. I added chocolate chips because I like the chocolate/pumpkin combo. What was a little different, though, and a nice accompaniment, is the pumpkin butter I made to go with it. Yum! Not only is it good on pumpkin baked goods, but it rocks on your morning toast. Plus, as an added bonus, it uses up all those odd bits of leftover canned pumpkin you have hanging around after making the pumpkin bread (just scale back the recipe).




Pumpkin Butter (comes from Glamour magazine circa 1997)

1 15-ounce can solid pack pumpkin
1/2 c. apple cider or juice
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground nutmeg
1/4 t. ground cloves
pinch of salt

Place ingredients in a saucepan and stir together. Bring to a boil; lower heat to a simmer. Cook, stirring, 15 minutes or until butter has become dark and thick. Makes about 1 1/2 cups pumpkin butter.
This is most of our apple harvest from our backyard tree.
Which I turned into this apple tart. Looks good, but it was kind of disappointing. It was barely sweet--I sugared the apples too early and I think they sweated out all their juice, which I didn't add to the recipe. So it ended up being mostly plain apples and plain crust. Oh well. What does feel good is using more of our fresh produce from the yard. We're making a more concentrated effort to do that and we're so pleased to be partially feeding our family from food that we grow.

Any other pumpkin lovers out there? What are your favorite pumpkin treats?

7 comments:

Anne said...

I'm going to have to look through my recipe books and make something pumpkin now.

Felicia said...

I love the fall. And I love October. Your post is stuffed full of delicious fall things :)

Kimberly said...

I love to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies...ahh...link..here - this one will do:
http://radio.weblogs.com/0129978/stories/2004/10/14/pumpkinChocolateChipCookies.html
I just substitute more whole food/organic ingredients...
soo good.

Mama Said Sew said...

I love pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookes and pumpkin pie. But my favorite pumpkin treat is Pumpkin Cake Roll. This is pretty close to the recipe I use:
http://www.cooksrecipes.com/cake/pumpkin_cake_roll_with_cream_cheese_filling_recipe.html

And now I'm going to have to try making that Pumpkin Butter. :)

Gift of Green said...

Honestly I must be the worse time manager in the history of the world. Your energy and talents put me to shame!!

amanda said...

That apple dessert presents beautifully--who cares if it's a little on the dry side, that's what ice cream is for :)

I have a really yummy recipe for pumpkin cookies with caramel icing on my blog, in the October 2006 archives I believe. It's a good one, maybe I'll go get the link. And I love pumpkin-chocolate chip bread, too. Mmmmmm . . . in our house we call it "naughty bread" because it is so rich and decadent. That is one recipe that does not need any healthy substitutions.

I'm enjoying your blog! You have such adorable kiddos. I bet you all have lots of fun together.

amanda said...

okay, here's the link:
http://rowdypea.typepad.com/the_rowdy_pea/2006/09/fall_harvest_re_1.html

enjoy!