Pumpkin Muffins

 I made these yummy cupcakes/muffins for a Halloween Party. I LOVE the pumpkin flavor. These had such a cool consistency. It was a mix between the crumby quality of muffins and the cake-like texture of cupcakes. And even better... they were so super easy! It only called for two ingredients, but I added in some spices and I loved it!

 So, just a cake mix (I used white... yellow would work too!), 15 oz of canned pumpkin and cinnamon and ginger.

 Just mix them together. I added 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp ginger.

 No liquids, just the cake mix, the pumpkin and the spices.

 Its a thick batter, but go ahead and plop it into those cupcake liners.

 Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350. Yum!

 Cover with a dusting of powdered sugar, or if you're feeling like adding more sweetness to it, go ahead and whip up a cream cheese frosting! I loved it with the powdered sugar! Enjoy! I love pumpkin stuff and there will be more pumpkin recipes coming soon!!

Cream Cheese Rippled Pumpkin Bread

Doesn't that just sound heavenly?

It was...

I found this recipe from Lick the Bowl Good. Its definitely one of my "go-to" food blogs for great recipes.

I made this to take to a brunch with some friends one morning and it did not disappoint.Cream cheese filling:
8 ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 T. flourPumpkin Bread:

3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
4 large eggs
2 cups white sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1- 15 ounce can pure pumpkin
1/2 cup water
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour two 9x5 inch bread pans.

For the Cream Cheese Filling: Beat the cream cheese until smooth in a mixer. Add the sugar until smooth and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, until just incorporated. Don't overmix! Stir in the flour and set aside.

For the Pumpkin Bread: Sift together the flour, powder, soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl and set aside. In another bowl, whisk together eggs until lightly beaten. Whisk in the sugar and melted butter. Then stir in the pumpkin, water, and vanilla.

Combine the flour and pumpkin mixtures, being careful not to overmix. Divide the batter in half. Then, take one half and divide it between the two bread pans. Pour half the cream cheese filling into each pan, then top with remaining half of batter. Smooth the tops and bake an hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Note: I had a little trouble with "smoothing the tops"... They didn't quite smooth right and my cream cheese wasn't exactly the layer it should have been... Instead, it was kind of a blob in the middle of my bread, but it was still delicious... I have a theory that if you add a little more water to the pumpkin mix, it will be easier to pour and spread over the cream cheese layer. Try it or just try the original way and just go with it. Either way, it was delicious!

Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn our and cool loaves to room temperature.

Got Pumpkins?

Anyone have any pumpkins laying around?

Well, I know I do!

First, I have to show off my cool designs...

Haunted MansionOwl sitting in a tree. (The owl is a little damaged from the frost last night)

And a skull and cross bones... This was the hubb's pumpkin, but I ended up carving out about half of it as he was having trouble with the intricacies! It took a woman's gentle touch!

Okay, so back to the recipe. You can go ahead and use the pumpkins like the ones above... or if you have a pumpkin that you didn't carve, you can use that too!

Just make sure you scrape out your pumpkin so its nice and clean on the inside.
Poke a few holes in your pumpkin with a knife...


Cover your pumpkin with aluminum foil and put in your oven on 375. I had to take out one of my cooking racks and put the one left on the lowest rack possible in order to fit this huge pumpkin in my oven!Bake for 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hours depending on the size of your pumpkin. A 4-5 lb. pumpkin will probably only take about 1 1/2 hours, but this was a bigger pumpkin and took more like 2 1/2 hours. Just cook it until its nice and soft... Pretty much folding in on itself!

When I took mine out of the oven, my pumpkin was about 1/3 full of water. I put on my oven mitts and picked up the pumpkin (as it folded in on itself) and dumped it out... Now that I think about it, an easier (and safer) way to do this would be to cut it open over the sink and just let it drain that way.
Now, cut your pumpkin open...
And scrape out all the pumpkin. When you're done, you'll be left with just the skins of the pumpkin.
And lots of pumpkin for cooking! Lots cheaper than buying the canned stuff!
If you're not going to use this right away, I would suggest putting this through your blender/food processor to make pumpkin puree. Add a little bit of water if it needs a little to puree.

Stay close for lots of yummy pumpkin recipes to come!

*****Note- I had a friend ask me about freezing pumpkin. You absolutely can freeze pumpkin. My suggestion would be to puree it and measure it out before hand and label your freezer bag with how many cups of pumpkin are in that bag. Happy cooking (and freezing!)