A pumpkin round-up: savory and sweet

Before November is over, let's talk about pumpkin for a little bit because YES PLEASE.

1. Pumpkin chili

This chili is decidedly savory and (big surprise) I love it. It is vegetarian as written but I think it'd go great with meat, which is how I'm going to make it today. Kayla - who brought us the tomato paste freezing tip in a previous post - blends the canned tomatoes before adding them, which definitely takes it to the next level.

I highly recommend doubling the recipe and making jalepeno cheese cornbread muffins to go alongside!

2a. Roasted kabocha salad

Trying out another recipe from Vegetarian that I have had bookmarked (literally, ha) for a while. I always steal the kabocha from the tempura pile; it's absolutely my favorite pumpkin (so starchy!).

2b. Oh wait, this is my favorite pumpkin:

Sweet, savory, and tangy.

4. Pumpkin bread

Kathy loves to reminisce about the pumpkin bread I made six years ago when Kenny helped me cut and roast sugar pumpkins and we made the bread from homemade puree.

(It also didn't hurt that I put chocolate chips in the batter.)

We love using this Orangette recipe, but we cut the sugar in half so we can enjoy putting the (optional?!) chocolate in it. I've written it as a doubled recipe (so you can use up a can of pumpkin, or if not you can make the pumpkin chili, see point number 1 above) so you can do one loaf plain (which a lot of our family loves) and the other with chocolate and/or walnuts. We decided we like chocolate best, no walnuts.

Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips
adapted from Orangette

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1 1/2 t salt
1 T cinnamon
1 t ginger
1 t nutmeg
1/2 t cloves

2/3 c water
1 t vanilla

12 T unsalted butter, at room temp
1 1/4 c sugar {this is halved from Orangette's recipe}

4 large eggs, room temp
2 cup pumpkin puree (if making homemade puree that is thinner in texture than canned pumpkin, you can reduce the water above)

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9x5 loaf pans.

Whisk dry ingredients together.

Beat butter until creamy, about 30 seconds, then add sugar and blend until lightened in color, abut 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time.

Add pumpkin puree, and beat on low speed until just blended.

Add flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the water-vanilla mixture in two parts, beating on low until smooth and just combined.

Fold in chocolate and pour into pans.

Bake for about an hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan on a rack for five or ten minutes before unmolding to cool completely on the rack.

Of excess, of gratuity

Gah! I'm falling off the blogging bandwagon. It is SO hard to keep up when I'm not doing it every day. Anyway, I'm here to bring you a cookie recipe from another professed non-baker. That always makes me pay attention.

When it comes to design, I like things either super neutral or the complete opposite: super colorful, all in one piece. I guess you could say both styles match with everything. Same goes with food. I usually like recipes that have few ingredients, where each speaks for itself. I'm not a huge fan of excess, of gratuity. But because I love paradox, I love these cookies, which have what might seem like a lot of mix-ins. Lots of ingredients, lots of things talking at once. And I love it. I hope you will, too.

Gaia Cookies
from Shauna Niequist's Bread and Wine

I made these with mostly dates for the dried fruit portion and loved it. I tried so hard to follow the recipe as-is the first time (so hard for a cook-not-baker), but next time I would increase both the chocolate and the nuts by maybe a 1/4 to 1/2 each. The amount of butter/sugar/flour in the recipe can handle it, I believe.

2 sticks butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 T vanilla (I don't know if this is a typo, but I made it as is and it was not a problem)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cup oats
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped dates, raisins, dried cherries, or cranberries, or any combination

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.

Mix together dry ingredients through salt, then add to creamed butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the mix-ins.

Briefly chill dough before rolling into balls (or roll the balls and chill the cookie sheet, if you have room in your fridge). Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, until golden. I like to go on the longer side so it can be crispy despite already being chewy from the ingredients (especially if you use dates, as I did).

06. Lighter and fluffier

I think after a few dark and abstract posts, it's time for something lighter, something you can literally sink your teeth into. Remember those chocolate muffins? I think I should finally tell you about them.

It all started with these blueberry muffins from King Arthur Flour.

The recipe is flat-out killer. It's something that actually tastes better because it's whole wheat, in the way that a bran muffin isn't just a healthy choice, but a delicious one. (Ahh, this is making me dream of extra foamy pint-glass lattes on the wrap-around deck at Cafe Strada, minus the textbooks.) The weight measurements provided in the recipe make it so that both prep and clean-up are very quick.

Since discovering them this spring, I've made these at least 4095843257834954 times, and on more than one occasion someone has told me, "I would pay you to make me a dozen."

The reason I've waited so long to post about them is because part of what takes these muffins to the next level is the use of liquid whey, which I understand not everyone has as easy access to as I do. My across-the-street neighbor and good friend, Valinda, regularly makes her own yogurt and is thus my Supplier of Whey. (She is that cool, and she is also so many other things on top of being a Supplier of Whey.)

Whey makes the lightest and fluffiest muffins you have ever had. Plus, whey is perfect fodder for all the chortle-inducing puns. I'll get out of your whey, or I'll be on my whey now!, I say to Valinda when I leave her house. Whey to go!, is what I should label the jar I bring to her home to be replenished.

I've since riffed off this recipe to make banana, carrot, and chocolate muffins. (The best is still blueberry, and chocolate is a very close second.) Yesterday when I set out to get rid of some CSA squash by making a spice muffin, I discovered that I had run out of whey and needed to find another way. So I used milk and it turned out decent. If whey makes an A+++ muffin, milk makes an A+. I think that's good enough to share with you guys. In fact, it's time to tell you guys.

In fact, it's 9:04.

Here's the link again. I would recommend trying the original first (that is, the blueberry), and then experimenting from there. I do cut the brown sugar to anywhere between 2/3-3/4 cup without a noticeable difference in the final taste. (It helps that I don't consider the cinnamon-sugar "optional" as the original recipe does.) For the chocolate version, I substitute the blueberry with 1 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of cocoa powder. Then I top them with coarse sugar and flaky salt, like Maldon.

Finally, something that is inspiring to me.* (I am trying to have way more fun with creativity, to tune into what makes me happy, excited, and light.)

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*I literally am dropping that link here so I can get rid of one of 3294032859748392523 open tabs I have right now. #literally3294032859748392523