(I thought this picture of Grandma Marge in her pumpkin costume was appropriate for this title. he he he)
Hello friends! With Thanksgiving only a few days away, I imagine many of you are spending time in the kitchen baking and deciding which recipes you want to make for the big day! Well, as promised, here are a couple of tasty pumpkin recipes for you to try.
The first recipe is for pumpkin waffles. YUM. Last weekend my mom and I decided that we wanted to find a recipe for pumpkin waffles to make for breakfast the next morning, so I began searching the internet to find a recipe that seemed good enough to try. To my surprise, I stumbled across an entire website devoted to a specific pumpkin waffle recipe. (http://pumpkinwaffles.wordpress.com/ultimate-pumpkin-waffle-recipe/) Curious, I thought, what makes this recipe so special? I began reading through the comments that people had posted about this recipe, and every single comment gave nothing less than heavenly remarks about these waffles! One guy said, "While I was making these, I thought I probably won’t do it again because of all the dishes I was going to have to wash after finishing. BUT, after tasting them, I would wash dishes for a whole year to eat them. These are amazing! Best waffles I have ever had and I am a seasoned cook!" After reading that comment, I knew I had to try these waffles!
OH. MY. HECK. These waffles truly are incredible. If you are an avid pumpkin lover like myself, you will go crazy over these waffles! Make them. Right now. I promise you will be hooked for life. Sorry I don't have a picture of them, but if you go to the website above you will see one. I can honestly say that I've fallen in love with a waffle.
Pumpkin WafflesINGREDIENTS
makes 4 round “Belgian” style pumpkin waffles
Click here for the metric version of the recipe.
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 3/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. ginger
• 1/4 tsp. cloves
• 1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg*
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
• 4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and warm
*Grated and lightly packed into the spoon, use 1/2 tsp. Grated and loosely scooped, this is about 1 tsp. of nutmeg. If you have to use pre-grated, dried nutmeg, use 1/4 tsp.
DIRECTIONS
1. Lightly oil the waffle iron with vegetable oil, and set it to the desired temperature.
2. Combine brown sugar and cornstarch in a large bowl. Whisk together to break apart the cornstarch. Add the remaining dry ingredients, and whisk to blend.
3. Separate eggs: yolks go in a medium sized bowl and whites get set aside in a smaller bowl.
4. Add pumpkin and milk to the egg yolks. Whisk to blend and set aside.
5. Whip egg whites with a hand mixer on high until stiff peaks form – about 1 1/2 – 2 minutes. Set aside.
6. Pour melted butter into the yolk/milk/pumpkin mixture. As you pour, whisk to combine.
7. Add the pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients, and mix them together until just combined. A little lumpiness is fine. That will smooth out when the egg whites are added.
8. Slide the whipped egg whites out of the bowl and onto the mixture you just prepared. Gently fold them in until no white bits are obvious.
9. Once the waffle iron is heated, you’re ready to pour the batter! The blog says that it took exactly 2 minutes 30 seconds to cook the waffles in a Presto FlipSide waffle maker.
*Any of your standard waffle toppings would be delicious with these waffles! But get creative and try fun toppings and syrups! Believe it or not, these are yummy plain too :)
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies
The next recipe is Pumpkin Cheesecake Swirl Brownies. This is another delicious pumpkin recipe! I am never patient enough to let any of my baked goods cool before I eat them, but with these, I recommend that you let them cool a bit before eating them. Don't get me wrong, they were still tasty fresh out of the oven, but I liked them much better after they had cooled a little bit. They were super delicious!! I ate way too many of them. They were addicting!
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies (adapted from Perry’s Plate)
Brownie Batter:
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Pumpkin Cheesecake Batter:
6 oz cream cheese, softened
1large egg
1/3 cup sugar
2 Tbsp flour
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8×8″ baking pan.
2. For the Brownie batter: Beat together melted butter, sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer. Then beat in eggs one at a time. Whisk flour and cocoa powder in small bowl, and then gradually stir into butter mixture by hand.
3. For the Pumpkin cheesecake mixture: Soften cream cheese in microwave. In another bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Beat in remainder of ingredients until smooth.
4. Spread about 2/3 of brownie batter into prepared pan. Drop dollops of the pumpkin batter over top, distributing evenly. Drop the remaining brownie batter over cheesecake batter. To make the swirls, run a butter knife back and forth through the pan, making figure eights.
5. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Enjoy! Happy Holiday Baking!!
