Pumpkin Bread

My boss recently turned me onto a wonderful online resource.  It’s called Pinterest.

They put a little button in your bookmarks bar so that whenever you see something fun on the interwebs you can pin it onto one of your cyber-boards.

You can also waste a gagillion hours looking through what other people have pinned.

How do I know?

Because I’ve done it.

I’ve been hooked on this thing for the past few weeks, and due to my endless browsing I can tell you what’s in style.

Pay attention, this is important.

Cake pops are in style.

Yellow and  gray are freaking everywhere:  on people, in rooms, on giraffes in baby shower invites.  Everywhere.

Stuff made from paint samples are totally hip.  Like lamps and bookmarks and name tags.  I don’t get it either.

S’mores everything is the next big fad.  S’mores cakes, s’mores cupcakes, s’mores cookies, s’mores cheesecake, s’mores Halloween costumes.  For the record,  I think s’mores are nasty.

Chalkboard paint and flowers made out of old t-shirts are most definitely in style.

Dressing your baby up like a piece of candy corn is cute, apparently…

Pumpkin bread isn’t in style yet.

But it will be after this.

PUMPKIN BREAD (based on the recipe in the NYT cookbook – that’s how you know it’s good)

• 1 3/4 c. white sugar
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 c. no sugar added applesauce
• 3 c. pumpkin
• 1 c. craisins (and/or 1 c. walnuts if that’s more your cup of tea)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground cloves
• 4 tsp. baking soda
• 4 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
• 1/2 c. wheat germ
• 3/4 – 1 c. soy milk

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Combine the sugars, applesauce, pumpkin, salt, cinnamon, cloves,  craisins, and baking soda in a large bowl.  Mix well.  Stir in the remaining ingredients.  Pour into loaf pans and/or muffin tins and bake 45 minutes to an hour, or until done (muffins bake for about 30 minutes).

Makes 3 loaves or 2 loaves and 12 muffins

Pumpkin French Toast

What is the measure of the crud-factor of a week?

The number of times you’ve smacked your head against a door jamb?  Number of bruises you have on your arms from running into bathroom stalls?  Number of frustrating emails you have in your inbox?  Or how many drafts you’ve discarded trying to sound calm, cool-headed, and tactful in your reply?

Maybe it’s the number of naps you had to take… or how many you weren’t able to take.  Maybe it’s the poundage of clay pots you threw away in the ceramic studio because you messed them up so bad; or the number of times you’ve dissolved into uncontrollable, unexplainable tears.

Classes you skipped?  Hours of sleep you were conned out of?  Meals replaced by LUNA bars while working in the studio?  Dozens of cupcakes you did not bake?  Crazy first-years protesting quiet hours? Recipes you’d like to blog but can’t because the food wasn’t photo-worthy?

Yep, I’d say that just about sums up the crud-factor of my week.

But that’s okay.

Why?

Because I made french toast.

Pumpkin french toast.

Pumpkin french toast with ‘butter,’ powdered sugar, and maple syrup.

In the same sentence?  On the same plate?

Need a visual?

There you go…

(Side note:  Yes, I had this for dinner.  Sometimes it’s good to have breakfast for dinner, especially when your week’s been such a mess.)

So, whip up some french toast, sit back, and let the rest of your week melt into buttery pumpkiny syrupy oblivion.

PUMPKIN FRENCH TOAST

• 1/2 c. pumpkin
• 1/2 c. – 1 c. vanilla soy milk (enough to thin out your batter to the right consistency)
• 2 tbsp. flour
• 2 tsp. brown sugar
• cinnamon to taste
• dash of salt
• about 6 slices of bread (I used potato bread)

Mix together the pumpkin, milk, flour, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a bowl (make sure it’s big enough to dip your bread slices into).  Lightly grease a pan with earth balance or whatever your preferred butter replacement is.  Dip the bread into the batter and let any excess run off – you don’t want too much batter on your bread, most of it should be soaked into the bread – and fry until golden brown.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar, top with butter, drizzle with maple syrup, or just eat them right off the pan.

Mini Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes

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Sunday is my baking day.  Today is Sunday.  So, naturally, I had to bake something today, or face the wrath of my floormates.  But today I had baker’s block.  Nothing sounded like fun.  First, I was thinking cinnamon rolls, since that’s on my to-do list.  But I’ve never done a yeast dessert before, and I don’t have a pastry brush to brush on the filling (lame, I know, but give me a break).  Then,I thought RAVIOLI!  I got a pasta roller a few weeks ago, and I’ve been wanting to make pasta for forever and a day.  But, if I wanted to make ravioli, I would need a sauce, and had no way to get my hands on some onions for a sauce.  Idea number two, slashed.  So then I thought homemade OREOs, but that sounded like way too much work.  Then I thought about a whole slew of different cupcake ideas, nixing each one because they weren’t creative enough.

Then it hit me.  Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes.  I always loved fall because of the coffee drinks that hit for the holidays.  I haven’t had a holiday season as a vegan yet, so I don’t know the low-down on all those floofy holiday drinks and whether or not they’re vegan.  BUT, I do know how to make vegan cupcakes.

BAM.  Problem solved.  (I also really wanted an excuse to take pictures with this mug…)

 

COFFEE CUPCAKES

• 1 c. soy milk
• 1 tsp. vinegar
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1/3 c. canola oil
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/3 c. all purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 2-3 tablespoons of instant ground coffee (note:  don’t you dare skimp here; the coffee flavor bakes off quite a bit, so the batter is stronger than your cupcakes will be)
• If you want, you can add in a couple tablespoons of pumpkin puree, but not too much because you don’t want to overwhelm the coffee flavor.

Preheat oven to 350°F and prep your mini cupcake tins.  Mix wet ingredients in a large bowl.  Add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix until combined.  Scoop into your tins and bake for about 10 minutes.  Let them cool and then top off with pumpkin frosting (Just a regular buttercream or cream cheese frosting, but substitute pumpkin puree for the soy milk).

Pumpkin Swirl Brownies

Mmmmmm… brownies.  The ultimate comfort food out of a box.  Make them cake-y, make them fudgy, make them with black beans instead of the eggs and oil and water for “healthy” brownies…

-OR-

Ditch the box altogether and make these awesome pumpkin swirl brownies.  First of all, let me apologize for all of the Martha Stewart spinoffs recently, but also tell you that this is one too.  Oops.  You may not like the lady, but she’s got some delicious baked goods up her sleeve, and the fact that I can veganize them makes them even better.  The chocolate batter is dark and rich, the pumpkin batter is cinnamon-y and lighter, and the two combine to make a super-rich brownie.  One tiny square is all you need to satisfy your sweet tooth.

 

PUMPKIN SWIRL BROWNIES

• 8 tbsp. (1 stick) non-dairy margarine, plus more for pan
• 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I used cocoa powder:  1 oz of bittersweet chocolate=3 tbsp. cocoa + 1 tbsp vegetable/canola oil)
• 2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 3/4 c. sugar
• Egg replacer equivalent for 4 eggs
• 1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 c. solid-pack pumpkin
• 1/4 c. vegetable oil
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 300̊F.  Butter a square pan, line the bottom wiht parchment paper, then butter the parchment paper.

Melt the butter (and chocolate, if you’re using the bittersweet stuff).  If you’re using the cocoa powder and oil method, just mix those in after butter is melted.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, and then set aside.  Put the stgar, eggs, and vanilla in another bowl and beat (with electric mixer) until fluffy and mixed (note:  it doesn’t actually get fluffy, just so you’re not beating and beating waiting for it to get fluffy.  It jsut doesn’t) – about 3 to 5 minutes.

Beat in flour mixture.

Divide the batter between two bowls.  Add the chocolate mixture to one bowl and pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and oil to the other.

Ok, at this point, Martha tells you to layer the two batters.  With all due respect, Martha is a liar.  The chocolate mixture is waaaaay thicker than the pumpkin, and doesn’t “layer” the way Martha tells you it should.

Start with about half of the chocolate batter, and plop it in little scoops on the bottom of your pan.  Then pour half of the pumpkin over it, smoothing it out a little.  Then plop the rest of the chocolate batter on top of that and the pumpkin on top of that (I sprinkled some chocolate chips in between the first pumpkin layer and the second chocolate layer for extra yumminess).

Then, run your knife through the mixture, swirling the batters together (but not too much, you still want to be able to see the two different batters).

Bake until set, 40 – 45 minutes. Let cool in pan.  Martha also tells you to sprinkle the brownies with nuts – I’m telling you that I hate nuts in my baked goods, as do a lot of people, so I sprinkled more chocolate chips on top when they came out of the oven.

Let cool, then cut into little squares and enjoy!

 

Pumpkin Cupcakes

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I have a friend from Texas who doesn’t like pumpkin pie.  WHAAAAT?  How can you not like pumpkin pie?  When I asked her how she could be American, she answered, “sweetie, I’m not American, I’m Texan.”  Fair point.  Anyway, I guess if you’re from anywhere besides Texas you’ll love these.  And even if you are from Texas, maybe you’ll be able to find a place in your heart for these little cakes –  adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe.

It took all I had while I was making these not to just eat the batter right out of the bowl.  It tasted just like pumpkin pie.  And when you top them off with cream cheese frosting?  It’s almost enough deliciouness to kill you.  Om nom nom.

PUMPKIN CUPCAKES (makes about 24)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) non-dairy margarine, melted and cooled
• 4 large eggs-worth of Ener-G egg replacer
• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree

Preheat oven to 350̊F.  Basically, just mix together all wet ingredients (except the pumpkin).  Then add the dry ingredients, then the pumpkin, mixing just until it’s all incorporated.  Bake for maybe 20 minutes or so, until they pass the toothpick test.  Top off with some cream cheese frosting and you’re good to go.