Pumpkin Cream Filled Cake

Found this on pinterest right before Thanksgiving.  It is such a light cake it is great for the holiday when you already had a big meal.  Inside BruCrew Life partnered with Sara Lee to come up with this recipe. 

Recipe with a few minor changes:

Pumpkin Cream Filled Cake

1 Angel Food Cake  (can be store bought, box, or homemade)

4 oz cream cheese softened

6oz plain Greek yogurt

1/2 can of pumpkin puree

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 c milk

1/2 pkg instant vanilla pudding mix

1 large container cool whip 

Mix cream cheese, yogurt, pumpkin & spice until creamy, set aside.

Whisk milk & 1/2 pkg pudding mix together, add to cream cheese mixture and mix well. Fold in 1 cup cool whip and refrigerate about 30 minutes.  Meanwhile slice cake horizontally, spread cream mixture over bottom layer and place top back onto cake.  Ice cake with remainder of Cool Whip.  Refrigerate cake till ready to serve.

**toffee chips can be added to cream mixture for added for a bit of crunch, I felt the flavor of them got lost so would make it without them next time.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins

                         Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins

Fall is here in full swing, we had our first heavy frost this morning---scrape the car window kind.  I brought in the houseplants yesterday after soaking & cleaning them now on to fall recipes.  Anything pumpkin goes at this house, I can't make enough recipes using it.  These muffins didn't last long but so easy to make & you can throw it together quickly.  They are good for a quick breakfast, serve with soups, or use for dessert and they freeze well if yours make it to the freezer.

Makes 24 muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2  c whole wheat flour

1 1/2 c all purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

2 c old fashioned oats

2/3 c brown sugar

1 c sugar

2 eggs

1 15oz canned pumpkin

1 1/2 c milk

2/3 c oil (I use canola, veg will work as well)

pecans & chocolate chips

optional topping: 

1/4 flour

4 T butter

1/4 c brown sugar

1/4 chopped nuts

Directions:

Line muffin tin with papers, I also lightly spray them.

Place eggs, pumpkin, milk, oil into bowl and mix.

Add all dry ingredients and mix thoroughly but don't over mix.

I usually make 1/2 a batch then mix in the chocolate chips and nuts, depending on who is  here.  You could also mix in dried fruits or other nuts as you like.

Place an ice cream scoop size of batter into each cup, I like it 3/4 full.

If using the topping mix ingredients till crumbly and top muffins before baking.

Bake @ 400° for 15 min.

Roasted Pumpkin Curry & Coconut Soup

We have a number of friends who make the most amazing curry dishes, Rosy's are the best, maybe one of these days I'll get her to let me watch her cook and blog it.  She travels to specific stores twice a year to stock up on special spices & ingredients.  Her get togethers are legendary, always a good time with the most amazing food.  Our daughters who are friends since nursery school were college roommates and wow did Rosy ever keep their freezer stocked. 

We love curry flavor at this house and when I saw this recipe by Faith Durand I had to try it.  Everyone who tasted it said to make it again soon, which I will have to do before the squash season ends.  I did make a number of changes mainly because I didn't have shallots so used onion, red pepper flakes instead of fresh, cut back a bit on the garlic and used already cubed squash since it looked better than the whole ones at the market that day.  The recipe also calls for a Red Kuri Pumpkin but as the recipe says this works with any type squash.  If you like curry you will really enjoy this soup.  Really a healthy & hearty soup.

I adapted this recipe from:   http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/soup/recipe-roasted-red-kuri-pumpkin-coconut-soup-159051

Roasted Pumpkin Curry & Coconut Soup

Ingredients:

4 lb pumpkin or squash

2 T oil

2 cloves garlic

1 med onion chopped fine

1 T grated ginger

2 T tomato paste 

1 tsp curry powder  (I will increase this next time)

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1 13.5 oz can coconut milk

4 c chicken broth

1 tsp salt

juice of 1 lime 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400° 

Cut pumpkin into quarters, seed, and place in baking dish drizzle with oil and roast  in oven for about an hour.  You could also buy already cubed squash or pumpkin which I find at our local grocer during the season.  If using whole pumpkin when cooled remove skin.

In large soup pot/dutch oven type vessel saute onion, garlic, ginger for about a minute then add tomato paste & stir.  Add curry and red pepper and saute a minute then add squash/pumpkin and saute stirring frequently for about 5 min.  Then add chicken broth and simmer 15 min then add coconut milk and simmer 15 min more.  Puree soup carefully with hand blender.  Stir in lime juice and salt to taste.  Can be garnished with sauteed onions and coconut.  I served with toasted pita.

simmering just before blending

Tip for not making a mess of the immersion blender,
split the paper towel half way and cover pot.

Pumpkin Coffee Cake

Pinterest is at it again, this recipe received a lot of "pins" on pinterest so when it was requested for Thanksgiving weekend I thought I better try it out ahead of time.  It is going to make it to the Thanksgiving weekend menu list--- so good.  I found it blogged here:
http://notsohumblepie.blogspot.com/2010/02/pumpkin-coffee-cake-giveaway.html and was credited to the cookbook "Make Ahead Meals for Busy Moms" by Jane Dorian.  I have to say the browned butter added great flavor to the cake.  Love this old tube pan that belonged to my husbands grandmother, I have round also but the square shape is more unique.

Pumpkin Coffee Cake

Ingredients:
1/2 c butter, softened
1 1/2 c sugar
15 oz. can pumpkin
3 large eggs
2 1/2 c flour
2tsp baking powder
1 T cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.  Spray inside of tube pan with nonstick spray set aside.  In a large mixing bowl beat the butter and sugar till blended.  Add pumpkin, eggs and mix thoroughly.  Combine dry ingredients & blend, then mix dry to wet ingredients blend on medium speed.  Pour batter into prepared pan.

Streusel Topping

Ingredients:
1/4 c flour
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 T butter melted
1/3 c walnuts chopped

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in small bowl and spread over top of cake.

Bake for 50-55 min till toothpick comes out clean.  Cool cake for about 15 min then slide knife around edges to remove, flip onto plate and then back onto another plate so that it is crumb topping up.

Brown Butter Icing

Ingredients:
1 1/2 T  butter
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
whole milk

Directions:
Heat butter in saucepan till it just begins to get golden brown, stir into sugar and add milk to desired consistency.

Whole Pumpkin Soup

For the one year anniversary of blogging my recipes I have chosen a "fun" recipe.  I have learned so much in this year of blogging, between the way a blog leads you to places you weren't expecting, to family recipes you don't want to lose, to new recipes you can't wait to try, connections to people all over and techy stuff I never thought I would need to know.  I plan to continue on and see where the next year takes me, what started as an organizational plan has led to so much more. 

 Hope some of you are getting inspired to cook!

Whole Pumpkin Soup

Alton Brown from Food Network was making this soup while promoting his cookbook it peaked my interest and had to try it.  You can watch a video of him preparing it here at 

  Food Network .  Jim enjoys watching Alton because he goes into the history and science behind the recipe.  I'm usually "just get to the recipe" but glad I listened & tried this, will definitely be making it again.  The procedure is very easy, after you scoop the pumpkin out you just drop in the ingredients and bake.  The only draw back I would say is that it does have to cook for 2 hours.  This night the pumpkin had me thinking Thanksgiving so I did Turkey & a baked cheesy spinach which could all be in the oven at the same time.  The pumpkin takes up a lot of space & serves 4-5 with a cup of soup, so if you want more you would need to do 2 pumpkins.  I am guessing you could do it ahead not sure if you would loose the texture in reheating it though.  This is a savory soup you don't even taste the apple.

Whole Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients:

1 whole baking pumpkin (about 4 lbs rinsed)
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 T unsalted butter
1/2 small onion diced
1 tsp kosher salt
1 clove garlic minced
1 small apple peeled & diced
1 c low sodium chicken broth
1/2 c heavy cream ( I used 1/2 & 1/2 worked fine)
2 oz goat cheese
1 tsp Thyme leaves

Heat oven to 375°

Directions:

Make a lid as you would for a Jack O'Lantern that you can replace into the pumpkin.  Scoop out seeds and scrape sides.  You must be careful not to cut through the pumpkin now or at the end when you prepare to blend.  Rub oil on the outside of the pumpkin and the inside of a casserole dish large enough to hold pumpkin.
Place butter, onion, salt, garlic, apple, broth, cream into pumpkin and replace lid.  Bake for 1 1/2 hours.
Remove the lid drop in cheese and Thyme continue to bake uncovered for 30 min.
Take the pumpkin from the oven leaving it in the casserole carefully scrape loose the soft pumpkin from the sides without puncturing skin of pumpkin.  Then using immersion blender blend soup inside of pumpkin to desired consistency, being careful as the soup is hot.  Serve immediately.

bake first 1 1/2 hours covered

Be careful not to break through pumpkin, it doesn't ruin it
but will involve some scooping!