Pumpkin Buttermilk Pancakes with Cinnamon Mascarpone

Fall is my favorite time of year for cooking. I love the savory smells that come wafting out of the kitchen, and I love snacking on anything pumpkin.

Yesterday was my baby shower, and after assembling every piece of baby gear and unpacking all the gifts, my husband and I were looking for a nice treat for breakfast. Instead of getting myself together to make it out to breakfast, I decided it would be a good time for me to bust out this humungous can of pumpkin puree I had sitting in my pantry...and make some pumpkin pancakes.

These turned out much better than I thought they would. To be honest, I probably have about 5 pumpkin pancake recipes in my cookbooks (who am I kidding...I'm certain I have more). But the truth is, I can never be bothered in the wee hours of the morning to do any such research especially when I have a serious growling belly. I found this recipe on Allrecipes, but changed it up a bit and then added my own twist. I have to say, these turned out much better than expected and it was certainly the fall treat we had been waiting for.

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

Recipe derived from Allrecipes

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 cup Buttermilk plus 3 tablespoons

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 egg

1 tablespoon vegetable oil/canola oil

Cinnamon Mascarpone

Recipe by: Cafe Coco

Ingredients:

1/4 cup mascarpone cheese, room temperature

1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions for the pancakes:

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, lightly beat the egg. Then add the buttermilk, pumpkin puree, and vegetable oil, and whisk together until combined.
3. Pour the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture and gently fold in with a rubber spatula just until blended (you don’t want to over mix). It should be slightly thick and not runny. If the batter is still too thick, just add a tablespoon of buttermilk at a time.
4. Turn on skillet, once it’s hot, add a tablespoon or more to coat the pan. Cook pancakes about 2 minutes a side--or until brown and crispy.
5. Serve with a tablespoon of cinnamon mascarpone and maple syrup. Serve immediately.

Directions for the Cinnamon Mascarpone:

1. Mix together cinnamon and mascarpone in a small bowl until combined.

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Pumpkin Roll and a Cinnamon Cream Cheese Kick

I don’t know about you, but I have about a dozen cans of pumpkin left over in my pantry from Thanksgiving. Every year I do this. I run to the market in the first glimmer of fall and I grab as many cans of pumpkin my cart can possibly carry for fear that I (or the market for that matter) may just ‘run out’.

The festivities of Thanksgiving are long over, but it is still technically fall and I am still craving pumpkin. (I say this with a small snort of laughter because there are several inches of snow on the ground in the Northern Detroit area).

So if you have holiday parties coming up and are craving that warm pumpkin goodness, check out this pumpkin roll. This recipe is a classic and should be, in my opinion, part of everyone’s repertoire for the fall/holiday season. Oh, and did I mention this pumpkin is paired with cream cheese frosting? See, I knew I could convince you.

Tip: Don’t let the intricate look of this dessert fool you…it’s very simple, it’s fun, and most importantly…it will impress your guests. At least...mine were impressed :).

Pumpkin Roll

Recipe derived from Libby's on Allrecipes.com

1/4 cup powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup Pumpkin
Frosting
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup powdered sugar, for the top (optional)

DIRECTIONS:

PREHEAT oven to 375 degrees F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan and line it with wax paper or parchment paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle a towel with powdered sugar; set aside.

Prepared towel

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt with a whisk. Set aside.

In a medium sized bowl, beat eggs and sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan.

Cake in the oven

Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared (sugared) towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.

All wrapped up, snug in its blanket

For the frosting: Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth.

Carefully unroll cake; remove towel. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake.

Frosted, unrolled cake

Reroll cake. Sans towel.

Rolling...

Rolling...

Rolling! Done!

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

TWD: Thanksgiving TWOfer pie

This week’s recipe for Tuesdays with Dorie was the Thanksgiving TWOfer pie A.K.A. pumpkin pecan pie. I think I still have MUCH to learn in the world of baking because even I stumbled through this recipe. First off, I have never baked pie crust from scratch, let alone a pie. I make cakes, cookies, a TON of tarts, but no pies. I think much of that has to do with the fact that I really am not a huge fan of pie, unless its pumpkin pie. So I was actually pretty excited to give this a whirl.

The pie crust is essentially easy to do, and requires only a few ingredients. The hard part was getting it to roll out without sticking to my board! The other was trying to get my crust to NOT burn in the oven.

The smells from the pumpkin mixture were heavenly! I used bourbon to replace the rum because I didn’t have rum in the house, and I added pumpkin pie spice because you can never have too much spice!! In fact, I topped this baby off with freshly whipped cream and a dash of cinnamon!

The pie didn’t quite go off without a hitch. First, my crust got a tad brown. Second, my pie came out mushy despite the knife test. Third, I didn’t like the pecan mixture on top of the pumpkin mixture.

I may try this again…with my own alterations. Maybe just pumpkin next time.
Trying new things can certainly be humbling. But, like with any profession…practice makes perfect.

Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes with Mascarpone Cream Frosting

Last weekend, my sister had a corn roast at her house. I suppose it’s a mid-west thing because my friends on the west coast had no idea what I was talking about when I told them about it. For her party, I wanted to do something festive but also something that is easy for the guests to grab. So of course, my first thought was cupcakes. My second thought was pumpkin. (Nah really??)
I have actually had this recipe sitting in my recipe folder for months. I copied it off the net somewhere and honestly…cannot remember WHERE I found it. I did make some changes because sometimes I am a non-conformist and insist on doing it my way.
For the frosting, I had to do some kind of cream cheese concoction because any spice cake in my opinion deserves it. But, I don’t really always like the intense ‘cream cheese’ taste in sweets. I had some left over Mascarpone cream cheese that I needed to use so I decided, that would be a nice mild alternative. And MAN was this frosting G-O-O-D!!!! This frosting is probably on my top LOVE list.
This Post is for you, Julie M!

PUMPKIN PIE CUPCAKES

Recipe:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp All Spice
1 1/2 cup brown sugar

1 stick butter

2 eggs

1 cup canned pumpkin

2 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl sift together: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.
2. In a separate bowl, beat butter until creamy. Add Sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
3. Mix in eggs one at a time incorporating each (about 10 seconds in between).
4. Add pumpkin and vanilla.
5. Using the creaming method, alternate by adding a little bit of flour, then the buttermilk. End with the flour.
6. Fill liners 2/3 full, bake for about 17-22 minutes at 350 degrees or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Use an ice cream scoop, perfect portions every time!

Batter will be thick

Fresh from the oven

Mascarpone Cream Frosting
½ C. Butter, room temp
3 oz. Cream Cheese
¾ C. Mascarpone Cheese
2 1/2 - 3 Cups Powdered Sugar
2 t. Vanilla Extract
1 ½ Cups Whipping cream whipped or Cool Whip

Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, beat butter until creamy.
2. Add Cream Cheese, and Mascarpone cheese, beat well. Add Vanilla Extract.
3. Add Powdered sugar and beat until frosting comes together. You can add more sugar if needed.
4. In a separate bowl whip cream or you can use cool whip.
5. Gently fold whipped topping into the frosting

6. Pipe frosting onto cupcakes

7. Sprinkle with clove and freshly grated nutmeg

Pumpkin Spice Bread...by Request

I got an email from my friend Kels, last week, requesting that I make something, ANYTING pumpkin for my blog. Since I subjected her to my experiment with blue eye shadow earlier last week, I felt I owed it to her. So there you have it…

Now, I cannot take all the credit for this recipe. I got it from my dear friend Bethy. The truth is, I am not quite sure where she got it exactly; I do know that is was a recipe that was given to her mom while her family was stationed in Norway…in the 1980’s. This recipe is tried and true…even a novice baker can make this.

Part of me gave into making this because I down right HEART pumpkin bread. And really, what am I waiting for? Its fall…would I really consider making anything but this? I didn’t think so.

A bread like this kneads NO introduction…(no kidding…there is NO kneeding…just stir and pour.) See…told you it was easy!

Pumpkin Spice Bread
Recipe from Bethy

1 ½ Cup White Sugar
½ Cup Vegetable Oil
2 Eggs
1 ¾ Cup Flour
¼ t. Baking Powder
1 t. Baking Soda
1 t. Salt
½ t. Cloves
½ t. Allspice
½ t. Cinnamon
1/3 Cup Water
1 Cup Pumpkin

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add sugar, oil, then eggs, pumpkin, and spices.

In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder together.

Add flour gradually to pumpkin mixture. Then add water.

This is what the batter should look like

Pouring the batter in the tins / Pre-Oven Bread Batter


Bake 1 hour. Let cool for 1 hour. Wrap in foil to keep fresh.



Fresh Pumpkin Bread

**Bread will be hard when you first pull out of oven, but softens over night. **