Ginger Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin isn’t just for fall, you know. The availability of canned pumpkin puree makes pumpkin-themed baking a year-round endeavor for me. Take this ginger pumpkin bread, for example.

This recipe is adapted from one I found in the Better Homes & Gardens Baking Book, for ginger pumpkin muffins. I didn’t feel like making muffins today, so I turned the recipe into a quick bread, which required just a few adjustments. According to the folks at Cooks Illustrated, you can convert most muffin recipes into quick breads by lowering the baking temperature by 50 degrees and extending the baking time to about 60-70 minutes. I did just that for my bread, and it turned out very well – the ginger and pumpkin balance each other very well, and the streusel adds a nice crunch to the top.

Ingredients

For the bread

2 cups flour
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup sour milk*
2 eggs

*To make sour milk, place 1/2 tablespoon vinegar in a glass measuring cup and add enough milk to equal 1/2 cup total. Stir; let stand for 5 minutes before using.

For the streusel

3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small cubes
3 tablespoons chopped pecans

For the drizzle

1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ginger
2 teaspoons water

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8 x 4 loaf pan or spray with baking spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, and salt.

In a medium bowl, combine pumpkin, melted butter, eggs, and sour milk; mix until well-combined, then add all at once to the dry mixture, stirring until no streaks of dry ingredients remain.

Make the streusel: in a small bowl, combine the flour and brown sugar, then cut in butter until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Stir in pecans.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and top with streusel.

Place loaf pan on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes, then add a foil tent to the top to prevent the streusel from burning. Bake another 20 minutes and check to see if the bread is done by carefully inserting a cake tester into the center of the loaf. The cake tester should come out with just a few moist crumbs when the bread is done; if necessary, bake another 7-10 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow to cool in the loaf pan for about 30 minutes, then gently run an offset spatula around the edge of the loaf and remove it to a wire rack to cool for another 20 minutes.

Make the drizzle: combine powdered sugar, cinnamon, and ginger in a small bowl and add 1 teaspoon of water at a time until you reach a thick drizzling consistency. Pour drizzle into a small zip-top bag, snip off the end, and pipe drizzle onto bread while it’s still warm.

Allow to cool completely before serving.

One-Bowl Brownies

I imagine that one-bowl recipes evolved out of necessity, with a busy baker looking to cut down time on dish washing. When you live without a dishwasher as I do, you welcome such recipes, especially when you also only need one measuring cup, one spoon, and one spatula for them.

This original recipe came from a box of Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate, which I usually have on hand in my pantry cabinet. I adapted it to include walnuts and chocolate chips for some fun texture, but you could certainly leave them plain if you’re not a nuts-in-brownies kind of person. While I’m not longer able to eat chocolate because of migraines, I continue to bake with it for my friends and family. Sometimes, simply breathing in the delightful scent of cocoa is all you need.

Ingredients

4-ounce package Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate
12 tablespoons butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pats
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with foil, extending over the sides, and spray the foil with baking spray.

Roughly chop chocolate and combine with butter in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 1-minute intervals until the butter and chocolate are completely melted, stirring frequently.

Add sugar and stir to combine; the texture will be sandy, and that’s fine. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. Add vanilla and stir to combine.

Stir in flour, then walnuts, then chocolate chips. Using a rubber spatula, pour batter into prepared pan and smooth out the top.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a cake tester comes out with just a few fudgy crumbs; be careful not to over-bake.

Cool completely in pan, then lift out using the foil as handles. Cut into 24 bars.

Note: you’ll want to use a small offset spatula to separate the bottoms of the brownies from the foil after you’ve cut them. Next time, I’ll add a fine layer of sugar to the bottom of my pan to help keep them from sticking.

King Cake Cupcakes (Easy Version)

Every year before Mardi Gras, I think: this year, I’ll make a king cake. If you’re not familiar with the king cake, it’s a traditional treat associated with Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, the day before the somber, reflective season of Lent begins. King cake involves brioche and a filling of some kind, and because I do so little work with yeast, I always decide to forego the king cake for another year.

This year, I went an easy, semi-homemade route for these king cake cupcakes. They’re adapted from a recipe that I found at Crave. Indulge. Satisfy., and I would definitely do a few things differently next time, like waiting for them to cool completely before glazing them with icing, and greasing my cupcake tins instead of using paper liners (because warm cupcakes + glaze icing + paper liners = a gooey mess). The recipe below is written how I’d recommend you bake it, based on my trials last night. To me, they taste like a delicious Pillsbury treat (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but if you’re going for a more traditional king cake flavor, you’ll want to bake the real thing.

Ingredients

6 tubes Pillsbury^TM crescent rolls
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup chopped pecans
3 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk
Purple, yellow, and green sugar sprinkles

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 12-count cupcake tins.

In a medium bowl, stir together brown sugar, cinnamon, and pecans; set aside.

Unroll one tube of crescent rolls at a time and divide the rolls into four rectangles. Press the perforated edges together to seal.

Place 2 tablespoons of filling down the center of each rectangle, leaving a border around the edges. Fold the top of the rectangle down toward the middle, then fold the bottom of the rectangle toward the middle, letting the dough overlap. Fold the right side in toward the middle, then the left side.

Place rolls spiral-side up in cupcake wells and bake for 18-22 minutes, until golden brown.

Remove from oven and allow to cool in pans, then remove to wire racks.

Once cupcakes are cool, make glaze; combine powdered sugar and milk in a medium bowl and mix until completely smooth.

Working with about 3 cupcakes at a time, pour glaze over cupcakes and sprinkle with purple, yellow, and green sugar. If you try to glaze all of the cupcakes at once, the glaze will harden before you can get the sprinkles on. Continue glazing and sprinkling until all of your cupcakes are done.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. Makes 24.

Chesapeake Bay Cake

Mike turned 40 yesterday, and I threw him a Maryland-themed birthday party, complete with this Chesapeake Bay-inspired cake. Funny difference between Marylanders and Pennsylvanians: most Marylanders have an abundant amount of state pride, while Pennsylvanians seem to be prouder of their local connections. I, for example, am a Pittsburgher first and a Pennsylvanian second. Not so in the Old Line State, where folks fly the Maryland flag outside their homes right alongside the American flag. Mike would probably do that here if I’d let him (which I won’t).

I’m not much of a decorator, so I went with a simple design for this cake. The crab outline came from my crab cookie cutter, and I used a leaf tip to pipe seaweed, a plain tip to pipe sand, then added some flower-shaped sprinkles for shells, rocks, and starfish (as seen in the photo below – I decided after I took the photo above that it needed just a few more fun details). This cake was a big hit at his party last night, along with my steamed crab cookies.

Ingredients

Dark Chocolate Cake

3 cups flour
6 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups water

Vanilla Almond Buttercream

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter (2 1/2 sticks), at room temperature
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon milk
Blue, green, and brown food coloring
Miniature chocolate chips for crab eyes
Flower-shaped sprinkles for shells, rocks, and starfish

Preparation

For the cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 8-inch round cake pans with baking spray. Line the bottom of each pan with a circle of parchment, and spray a second time.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Make three wells; place vinegar in one, vanilla in the second, and vegetable oil in the third. Add water and stir very well to combine; the batter will bubble up just slightly as the ingredients come together. Your batter will be fairly thin, but should be mostly lump-free.

Divide batter evenly between the pans. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Be careful not to over-bake; the sides of these cakes set up pretty quickly and can burn if you let them go too long.

Remove cakes from oven and carefully run a knife around each edge to loosen them from their pans if they’ve stuck at all. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes in the pans, then carefully flip out onto wire racks (removing the parchment for each cake bottom) to cool completely.

For the frosting

Place butter in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 1-2 minutes. Add powdered sugar all at once and beat on low until the sugar is completely incorporated into the butter (this will take several minutes).

Scrape down the bowl, then add vanilla, almond extract, and milk and beat for 3 minutes on medium speed, scraping the sides of the bowl a few times.

To decorate:

Reserve about 1 1/2 cups frosting in a small bowl, then tint the remaining frosting light blue.

Remove about 1/4 cup of light blue frosting and tint dark blue for the crab.

Divide the remaining frosting in half and tint one portion green and the other portion a light sand color.

Flip one cake upside-down onto your cake plate; spread a medium-thin layer of frosting on top. Carefully place your second cake on top of the first layer and frost the top, then the sides.

Using a crab cookie cutter, make an indentation in the top of the cake so you have an outline; remove the cutter.

Fit a small piping bag with a small plain tip and fill with dark blue frosting, then pipe the outline of the crab. Switch to a larger tip to fill in the crab body, then use a small offset spatula to smooth out your piping. Add miniature chocolate chip eyes.

Fit a medium piping bag with a leaf tip and fill with green frosting. Pipe seaweed up from the bottom of your cake.

Fit a medium piping bag with a large plain tip and fill with sand-colored frosting. Pipe sand along the base of the cake, covering the bottoms of your seaweed.

Add flower sprinkles for shells, rocks, and starfish; I used white, blue, and orange sprinkles.

Store on a domed cake stand for up to 3 days.

Here’s a photo of the cake with the flower sprinkle additions – I’m very glad I added them, as the cake looked a bit too plain otherwise.

Coconut Dream Bars

In the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion (also known as my bible), there is a recipe called Build-a-Bars. It begins with a basic crust, then the rest is up to you…whether you add coconut, nuts, caramel, various types of chips, dried fruit, mini marshmallows, crushed cereal pieces, or whatever your heart desires, the bars become whatever you want them to be.

I love recipes like this, those make-it-your-own versions that can be tweaked time and again to create various new treats based on what you have handy in your pantry. I fully intend to make a version of this with pecans, butterscotch chips, and toffee bits, but I didn’t have enough pecans in my pantry this weekend. I did have plenty of coconut, plus bittersweet chocolate chips and almonds. According to Mike and my coworkers, they’re absolutely delicious.

Ingredients

For the crust

2 cups flour
1/2 cup walnuts
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons milk

For the filling

3 cups shredded coconut
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1 cup whole blanched almonds, chopped*

For the topping

4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
5 ounces evaporated milk

*Next time, I’ll toast and cool the almonds before adding them to the filling.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with parchment paper, extending the paper to cover the edges of the pan.

Make the crust: place 1/2 cup flour and walnuts in a food processor and pulse until nuts are finely ground. Transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk in remaining flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Cut butter into pea-sized pieces and add to flour mixture. Beat on low speed until the mixture looks crumbly.

Whisk the honey and milk together, then pour over the dry mixture and continue to mix until evenly moistened.

Pour crust mixture into the baking pan and press down to cover the surface in an even layer.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, until set. The edges will be just golden brown.

Allow the crust to cool completely before adding filling and topping; I put my crust in the fridge for just a few minutes to speed the cooling process.

Make the filling: in a large mixing bowl, combine coconut, bittersweet chocolate chips, and almonds. Pour in an even layer over crust.

Make the topping: in a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, salt, and egg until no lumps remain; this will take a few minutes, and you’ll need to scrape the sides and bottom of your bowl several times to make sure all of the ingredients blend evenly. Add evaporated milk and beat until the mixture is smooth. Pour evenly over filling.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the edges are just bubbly and the center is set.

Remove from oven and cool bars in pan completely before cutting.

Cut into 24 bars and store in an airtight container between layers of waxed paper.

Walnut Bars

Don’t have a mixer? Don’t worry. You can still make may types of tasty treats. Like these walnut bars, for example.

The recipe below is adapted from a King Arthur Flour recipe called vintage butterscotch bars; I substituted one cup each of white and dark brown sugar for the two cups of light brown sugar in the original and omitted the scant 1/8 teaspoon butter rum flavor. The end result is a gooey and almost fudgy treat, if one can use the word fudgy for a recipe that has no chocolate. All you need is a saucepan or microwave to melt your butter, then a large bowl for the mixing of the rest of the ingredients. The bars get puffy when baking, then fall once they’ve cooled – don’t worry, this is supposed to happen.

Ingredients

8 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 baking pan.

Melt butter in a saucepan or in your microwave. Place white and dark brown sugars in a large mixing bowl and pour the butter over top, then stir to combine. Let cool to lukewarm.

Stir in eggs and vanilla extract, then add salt, baking powder, and flour. Fold in nuts.

Scoop batter into pan; it will be very thick, but spread it out as evenly as you can.

Bake for 22-24 minutes, until top looks shiny and edges have pulled away from the pan. Be careful not to over-bake these bars, as they’ll get dry if they’re overdone.

Cool completely in pan, then cut into bars. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Makes 24.

Reese’s Pieces Cookies

Reese’s Pieces, being made of peanut butter and a crunchy, non-chocolate candy shell, are among the few commercial candies that I can still eat on my migraine diet. This is excellent news, because I’ve always loved them.

What makes Reese’s Pieces even more delicious? When they’re miniature, and mixed into peanut butter cookie dough. While this original recipe from Hershey’s Kitchens used full-sized candies, I chose to go with miniatures because, well, I wanted there to be more of them in each cookie. The end result is delicious, though next time I’ll bake these cookies for a few minutes less than I did yesterday so they can stay a bit softer. Peanut butter cookies get dry when they’re baked even just a minute too long, and the cookies are a bit harder today than I’d like them to be…although this hasn’t stopped me from eating them, of course.

Ingredients

1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup miniature Reese’s Pieces candies (available in the baking asile)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter, egg, and vanilla extract until light and fluffy.

Add flour mixture and beat until a soft dough forms. Stir in candies.

Using a 1-inch cookie scoop, drop scoops of dough onto prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until cookies are set at the edges but still appear puffy in the middle. Remove from oven and allow to cool on baking sheets for about 3 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature. Makes 3 dozen cookies.

Chocolate Hearts

I inherited some vintage cookie cutters from my grandma Zella, among them a scallop-edged heart with a red wooden peg handle. With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, it seemed appropriate to make chocolate hearts to send to my nephew Roman, who now lives in North Carolina.

Cookie cutters come in nearly every shape and size, for every occasion and holiday. My cookie cutters, of which there are dozens, live in a wonderful set of stackable drawer containers in one of my kitchen cabinets. I have all the basics, plus cutters for nearly every holiday, with some animals, dinosaurs, and other fun shapes like an umbrella and a teapot mixed in. Zella’s vintage heart is among my favorites, though.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract, beating until well-combined.

Slowly add flour mixture, scraping the sides of the bowl often and beating until a very well-combined, soft dough forms.

Gently knead the dough a few times to make sure it comes together; roll dough into a ball and flatten into a disc. Wrap in plastic and chill for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees; line three baking sheets with parchment or foil.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut with a heart-shaped cookie cutter; if using different sizes of hearts, be sure to bake all of the same size on one cookie sheet. Baking different-sized or differently-shaped cookies on the same sheet can lead to uneven results; some of your cookies might be underdone while others will be overdone.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until edges are set. Remove from oven and cool on cookie sheets for 1-2 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 3 dozen, depending on the size of your cookie cutter.

Almond Cake for Date Night – Serves Two

Mike and I will celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary this year. We married one week after graduating college – because, why wait? – and are now those boring married people whose “date night” means a Saturday night catching up on the TV shows we’ve recorded during the week.

For last night’s date night, I whipped up this adorable little almond cake. It’s perfect for two, yielding two slices of cake for each of us. The icing is just an almond glaze, topped with sugar-toasted almonds, which are much easier to make then they may sound. Next time, I may slice the cake in half and add some pastry cream or raspberry filling between the layers.

Ingredients

For the cake

1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
dash of salt
4 tablespoons butter, softened
6 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon almond extract
3 tablespoons milk

For the toasted almonds

6 tablespoons sliced almonds
1 tablespoon plus one teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon water

For the almond glaze

About 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon water

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 6-inch round cake pan with baking spray, line it with a parchment circle, and spray the parchment.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until very well-blended. Add egg, vanilla, and almond extract and beat until combined.

Add flour and milk alternatively in two batches, beginning and ending with the flour and beating until completely combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 18-22 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow cake to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then carefully turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

While your cake cools, prepare your toasted almonds. Place almonds in a small bowl and add sugar and water, mixing well to coat. Place in a saute pan over medium heat and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5-7 minutes until almonds start to turn a light golden brown. Almonds will start out looking wet and will appear dry when they are almost done. Remove from heat and pour onto a plate to cool completely before using.

Once your cake and almonds are cool, make your almond glaze. Place powdered sugar in a small bowl and add almond extract and water, stirring until smooth. You want a thick glaze consistency, so you may need to add a bit more powdered sugar to thicken it. Pour glaze over cake and top with toasted almonds.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Makes 4 servings.

Valentine Cookies

Looking for fun Valentine’s Day cookies for the kids in your life? Look no further. These slice-and-bake treats are a cross between shortbread and a sugar cookie, and can be tinted whatever color you wish. My goddaughter Maureen loves pink, and these are for her and her family.

If you don’t usually do slice-and-bake cookies, I have some suggestions to help with the process. Wrap your dough in plastic wrap, then slide it onto a baking sheet to chill. This will help the log from breaking or getting misshapen as you transfer it in and out of the fridge. Make sure your dough chills for at least two hours so it’s easy to slice; you can let it chill overnight if you like. As you slice, turn the log after every few slices. This keeps a flat edge from developing on one side. And, if you’re coating the cookies in sprinkles or nuts, remember that small sprinkles and finely-chopped nuts will coat the log better and be easier to slice through.

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pink (or red) food coloring
About half a 3-ounce bottle Wilton Micro Hearts sprinkles

Preparation

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until well-combined, scraping the sides of your bowl frequently.

Add flour in three batches, mixing well after each until a soft dough forms.

Add food coloring and tint to your desired shade.

Turn dough onto a very lightly floured surface and knead it slightly to make sure all of the food coloring is well-distributed and the dough is smooth. Roll into a 12-inch log.

Place sprinkles on a rimmed baking sheet and carefully transfer the log onto the sprinkles, rolling it back and forth to coat.

Wrap log in plastic wrap, slide it onto a baking sheet, and chill for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with foil or parchment.

Remove log from fridge and discard plastic wrap. Slice into 1/2 inch slices and place on baking sheets about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 9-11 minutes, until tops are set. Remove from oven and cool on baking sheet for about 4 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Makes 28

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