Tag Archives: Autumn recipes

Pumpkin Sticky Toffee Puddings

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Makes 6

Ingredients

Pumpkin Puddings

  • 1/4 cup orange juice
  • 1/2 cup boiling water
  • 1 cup pitted prunes, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 3/4 cups light brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 Tablespoon maple syrup
  • 1 cup natural pumpkin puree

Toffee Sauce

  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
  • 1/2 medium Tonka bean, finely grated (can be substituted with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
  • 2 teaspoons Rum (or omit for a kiddy-friendly version)

Method

Pumpkin Puddings

  1. Preheat oven to 350°. Grease, or spray with baking spray, 6 mini-savarin or mini-Bundt tins
  2. In a small heatproof bowl, pour orange juice followed by the boiling water over the chopped prunes; stir in the baking soda. Stir together to combine and set aside to soak for about 15-20 minutes until softened
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, pumpkin spice and salt. Set aside until needed
  4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the butter with the brown sugar at medium speed until fluffy and combined
  5. Beat in the eggs, one at a time until combined, followed by the maple syrup
  6. Reduce speed to low, beat in the flour mixture in stages until just combined, scraping down bowl between additions
  7. Add the date mixture (including liquid) followed by pumpkin purée, and beat at low speed until just combined
  8. Divide the batter into the prepared mini-pans, and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes*
  9. Remove from oven, and continue to Finishing Steps

Toffee Sauce*

  1. With about 5 minutes left on the pumpkin pudding baking time, in a small saucepan, combine the heavy cream, butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, finely grated tonka bean and the rum (if using)
  2. Bring to a gentle boil over moderate heat, stirring to melt the butter and sugar, cooking until slightly thickened and deep golden, about 3 minutes.
  3. Keep warm on a low heat until serving

To Finish

  1. Once you remove the puddings from the oven, using a skewer or toothpick, poke holes all over the exposed surface
  2. Spoon 4-5 teaspoons of the warm toffee sauce over the puddings, and let stand until absorbed, about 10 minutes
  3. Serve warm, turned out onto plates (they may take some gentle persuasion!) with some of the remaining sauce spooned over. Perfect with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Pumpkin Dutch Baby Babies

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Yields 12

Ingredients

Dutch Babies

  • 2 Tablespoons butter
  • 3 large eggs
  • ¾ cup milk, whole or 2% milk recommended
  • 5 Tablespoons pure pumpkin puree, not pie filling
  • ¾ cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 Tablespoon white granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
  • Generous pinch of cinnamon
  • Small pinch of allspice and nutmeg
  • Additional 2 Tablespoons butter, melted (for coating muffin tins)

Maple Mascarpone

  • 8oz mascarpone cheese
  • ¼ cup milk
  • 2 tablespoon maple syrup
  • ½ teaspoons pumpkin spice

Method

Maple Mascarpone

  1. Stir together the mascarpone, milk, maple syrup and pumpkin spice in a bowl until smooth. Refrigerate until needed at serving

Dutch Babies

  1. Place a 12-cup or two 6-cup muffin tins in oven and preheat oven to 425° F
  2. Melt the butter needed for the pancake batter and set aside to cool slightly. Meanwhile, combine pancake ingredients in a blender (or a medium bowl with an immersion blender), adding the cooled, melted butter last. Mix well, until frothy. Leave to stand in blender (or bowl) while oven finishes preheating
  3. When oven is pre-heated, carefully remove hot muffin tin(s) from oven and quickly pour a bit of melted butter into each muffin cup. Turn blender on for a few seconds to re-mix the batter, then quickly pour the mixture into the hot muffin cups, dividing equally between 12 cups, filling about ½ way full
  4. Place in oven and bake for 22-24 minutes, or until puffy and deep golden colour. Remove from oven. Remove from pan to a cooling rack to cool slightly before serving*. (If you find the pancakes sticking in your pan, run a knife around the edges, then use a fork to lift them out)
  5. Garnish with icing/confectioners sugar
  6. Drizzle or spoon on some of the maple mascarpone and some additional chopped walnuts or pecans, to taste

* Note: The Dutch babies will quickly deflate when you remove them from the oven. Don’t worry –  that’s what they do naturally.

Apple Fritters

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Makes 8

Ingredients

Apple Fritters

  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 tablespoons applesauce
  • 2 large Granny Smith apples or Honey Crisp apples peeled, cored and diced

Glaze

  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons Baobab Fruit Powder (optional)
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

  1. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in medium bowl. Make a well in the center and add 1/3 cup milk, eggs and applesauce. Stir just to combine. Fold in apples
  2. Heat 1 1/2 inches of oil in heavy skillet, Dutch oven or deep fryer to 375F degrees
  3. Drop about 1/4 cup of batter per fritter into hot oil; spreading it out as you drop
  4. Cook each side until golden brown; approximately 2-3 minutes per side
  5. Use a slotted spoon to remove to a cooling rack set over some paper towels to drain
  6. While the fritters cool, whisk together 1/4 cup milk, Baobab fruit powder, powdered sugar and vanilla. Dunk each fritters in the glaze to coat.  Place on wire racks to drip and air dry

Freezing & Reheating

If you’re making your fritters for later, they keep really well in the freezer compartment. Freeze for up to 2 month for best taste. You’ll need to remember not to glaze them though! Allow your unglazed fritters to cool completely before wrapping individually in cling wrap, popping in freezer bags and storing in your freezer.

The best way to thaw frozen apple fritters is to remove them from the freezer, unwrap them and place them into the fridge. It is best to leave them overnight to ensure they thaw all the way through.

If they have not thawed all the way through by the time you want to eat them, you could leave them out on the counter for up to an hour to speed up that process. 

To reheat, and to ensure you get a nice crisp apple fritter, you can either use a toaster oven or a conventional oven. Place the thawed fritters on a baking tray and reheat them at 375F for 5 minutes.

Once they’re reheated you can glaze them as Step 2 above.

Smoked Pumpkin Cheesecake & Bourbon Brownies

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Are we sitting comfortably? Yes? Good…because here’s another pumpkin recipe. In the spirit of the season, and let’s face it impending CV-19 induced re-lockdown, I’m going to be trying out the wide and various ways of using that seasonal wonder that is pumpkin. You lucky, lucky people! I’ll say right away that they’ll all be sweet bakes – well that’s the plan at the moment, so if you’re holding out for an orgasmic recipe for pumpkin risotto I’m afraid you’re out of luck.

If you follow my blog and recipes you’ll know that brownies are near and dear to my heart. Some people have comfort blankies ala Linus, I have brownies. So it was only right that I should try weave together in kitchen mysticism (it is Halloween season after all!) my love the fudgey (never cakey) traybakes and that bulbous orange cucurbit.

Using pumpkin in the cheesecake element of these brownies instantly renders them fudgey and decadent. I wanted to add another layer there, something to counter thought of sugar-laden PSL. So why not introduce a smokey element- camp-fires, late night and extra complex earthiness working to counter any lingering memories of saccharine heavy beverages.

And why not make them a little more grown up too? These are, after all, brownies for the aficionado. Let’s chuck in some bourbon while we’re at it! For me the flavors of the sweet whiskey go so well with chocolate that it’s too good an opportunity to miss. I’ve also used some chocolate extract here as I really wanted to elevate the chocolate intensity too – like I said these ain’t no five ‘n’ dime brownies. To really bring out the texture of these brownies I find they taste so much better when served straight form the fridge.

So yes- buckle up people…I’ve got 4 weeks of pumpkin recipes left and so far it’s brownies and nanaimo bars down. Any guesses what’s next?

Ingredients

Brownie Batter

  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp chocolate extract, eg Nielsen Massey (optional)
  • 2 Tbsp Bourbon
  • 1/2 cup AP flour
  • 1/2 cup cocoa, Dutched
  • 1/4 tsp Kosher salt

Cheesecake Batter

  • 8oz pack full fat cream cheese
  • 1 egg
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/2 tsp liquid smoke

*All ingredients to be at room temperature unless otherwise stated

Method

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 F degrees. Spray a 9×9 inch baking pan with cooking oil then line it with parchment paper
  2. In a large bowl, add the cream cheese and beat it until smooth and creamy. Add the rest of the cheesecake batter ingredients mix until well combined and smooth. Set aside until needed later
  3. In a small bowl a bowl set over simmering water, combine the butter and chocolate chips to melt, stirring them together to combine. Once fully melted remove the bowl from the heat and set aside to cool
  4. In a large bowl if a stand mixer, combine the eggs and sugar and whisk at high speed until pale, fluffy and increased in volume
  5. While you eggs are whisking in a bowl combine the AP flour, cocoa and salt
  6. Into the melted chocolate/ butter mixture add the chocolate extract and bourbon. Stir well to combine. Add these wet ingredients into your whisked egg mixture. Gently fold in until fully combined and uniform in appearance
  7. Sift in the dry ingredients and again gently fold in until well combined and uniform in appearance
  8. Pour about 2/3 of the chocolate batter into the prepared pan and smooth it out. Spread the cheesecake batter over the brownie batter. Dollop the remaining brownie batter over cheesecake batter by spoonfuls. Swirl the batters together by running aknife or a skewer back and forth through the pan
  9. Place the baking pan in the oven and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until center is set. Using a cake tester or skewer test the centre of the brownie pan – it should come out with few crumbs or a little mixture still on it. The brownies will continue to cook once removed from the oven
  10. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on wire rack and chill before cutting and serving. I usually cut mine in to 4 x 3 giving me 12 brownies. They’re quite rich so I’ve found this to be the ideal size