Traditional Pumpkin Pie

Do you remember the other day that I mentioned my husband was back in a pumpkin mood?  Well, it seems that his year-long hiatus from pumpkin is now back - with a vengeance .  Not only did I make him pumpkin scones but then he asks me to make him a pumpkin pie!  Can you believe that?  You'd think he thinks I like to bake or something.  I have no idea.  Who knew men could be so demanding?

Generally speaking, I like to keep things traditional.  I'm not someone who makes a bunch of wild and crazy things.  I am interested in making different things but when it comes down to it, I love traditional Southern food.  With Thanksgiving coming up at the end of this week, what is more traditional than a pumpkin pie?  (Of course, every year, I make my Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake because it's awesome but it certainly isn't a recipe you want to make multiple times a year, that's for sure.)

Traditional Pumpkin Pie
adapted slighlty from Libby's Pumpkin

3/4 c. Sugar
2 1/2 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
2 Eggs (large)
1 - 15 oz. can Pumpkin
1 - 12 oz. can Evaporated Milk
1 unbaked Deep Dish Pie Shell  (no deep dish?  That's fine - this recipe will make 2 regular size pies.)

Preheat your oven to 425 with your cookie sheet.
Mix sugar and spices together in a large bowl.
Then beat in your eggs.
Stir the pumpkin into your egg mixture.
Gently stir in the evaporated milk.
Pour into your unbaked pie shell.  (Your shell will be VERY FULL!)
GENTLY transfer your pie to the oven and onto your preheated baking sheet.
Bake for 15 minutes.
Reduce your oven temperature to 350.  (Do not open your oven.)
Bake for an additional 40 to 50 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.  (Mine took right at 40 minutes.)
Cool on a wire rack for at least two hours.
Then refrigerate or serve immediately... preferably with whipped cream.

Pumpkin Scones with Cinnamon Chips

Many of my regular readers will know how much my husband loves pumpkin.  I've spoken about this many times.  Well, last year, suddenly he tells me that he's "off" pumpkin.  I apparently had made too many pumpkin things the year before and so he wasn't really feeling it.  I actually felt his forehead - I thought he was sick!  We have been together for seven years now (gee, where did the time go?) and he has always been, "Oh I love pumpkin!", "Make me something pumpkin!"  So you'll see why I wondered if I needed to rush him to the emergency room.  Or knock some sense into him... I wasn't really sure which.  So my mother-in-law (Hi!) calls me around a week ago asking if her son is still "off" pumpkin - she was as concerned as I was over that little development last year - and I was happy to report that he was, in fact, back in love with pumpkin!  We could all breath a little easier now.

Once my husband had made his happy announcement that he wanted pumpkin once more, off I went in search of recipes.  It had been a really long time since I'd made scones so I really wanted to make a pumpkin scone.  Apparently the recipe gods heard me because the very next day, my November issue of Bon Appetit magazine arrived in my mailbox and there it was:  Pumpkin Scones.  And as luck would have it, I actually had all the ingredients!  Oh happy day!  The original recipe included a cinnamon butter recipe and mixed cranberries into the scones.  Well, the husband doesn't like cranberries so I decided to meet-in-the-middle of this recipe and mixed in cinnamon chips (which are probably one of my favorite ingredients EVER).

I love making scones, almost as much as I love making cookies.  But scones can be deceiving.  When you add in your liquid ingredients, your dry ingredients look like they will never come together.  But PLEASE don't add in any more liquid.  Everything will come together, I promise.  I made the mistake of adding one tablespoon of extra liquid and it made my scones too sticky.  You want your dough to be on the dry side.


Pumpkin Scones with Cinnamon Chips
adapted slightly from Bon Appetit (Nov. 2014)

1/2 c. Sugar
2 tsp. Baking Powder
2 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Baking Soda
2 c. All Purpose Flour
3/4 c. Butter, unsalted (1 1/2 sticks)
1/2 c. Cinnamon Chips
1 Egg
1/2 c. Pumpkin (Libby's canned pumpkin)
1/4 c. Buttermilk

In a large bowl, whisk together your sugar, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt, baking soda, and flour.
Using the large holes on a box grater, grate in your butter.  (Placing your butter in the freezer 30 minutes prior to grating and it'll go so much easier.)
Toss the butter in the dry ingredients to coat.
Mix in your cinnamon chips.
Now add your egg, pumpkin, and buttermilk, stirring to combine.  (Remember this may not look like enough liquid but keep going - it'll all come together.)
Transfer the dough to some parchment paper that's been lightly floured and pat into a 1 1/2" thick disk.
Cut into 8 wedges.
Freeze until firm, around 25 to 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Pumpkin-y goodness.

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake

I have made this cake for Thanksgiving the last two years.  I always try to bring something sweet to Thanksgiving anyway because, well duh, I like to bake (is it that obvious?).  This is one of those cakes that really is a once-a-year type thing.  It's so rich but man is it good!!!

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake
courtesy of Lady and Sons Savannah Country Cookbook by Paula Deen

Base:
1 18.25 oz. Yellow Cake Mix
1 Egg
8 Tbsp/1 stick Butter, melted

Filling:
8 oz. Cream Cheese, softened
2 Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla, melted
8 Tbsp/1 stick Butter
16 oz. Powdered Sugar (1 box)
15 oz can Pumpkin
1/2 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice

Preheat oven to 350.
Combine all ingredients for the base.
Using your hands, pat the mixture into a lightly greased (with cooking spray) 9x13 pan.
Next make the filling, starting off by beating the cream cheese until smooth.
Add your eggs and vanilla next.
Add the butter, beating well.
Mix in your pumpkin and spices.
Carefully mix the powdered sugar into your cream cheese-pumpkin mixture.
Spread over the base mixture.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes.  (I find that 40 minutes is perfect.)
The center of this cake is NOT supposed to look firm or finished!  It's called "gooey" for a reason!  So don't overbake!!!

(I'm sorry I don't have a picture of the inside of the cake to show you the layers or the gooey-ness of it all but the cake got eaten before I could take a picture!)

Pumpkin Scones

Allow me to explain something folks.  My husband loves pumpkin.  I believe I've mentioned that before on this blog... oh yeah, on the Pumpkin Dessert Squares post.  So yeah, he loves pumpkin.  I know that as soon as September rolls around, I'm going to start hearing Ryan ask, "So when are you making something pumpkin?"  He usually asks for pie but he's figured out that I enjoy baking lots of other things (no clue where he'd get that idea from!) so now it's just "something pumpkin."  I enjoy scones.  I love me a good cinnamon scone (that was my very first post, remember?).  So I figured, why not make a pumpkin scone?  Not to mention the fact that my best friend Erin had asked me, "When are you going to make pumpkin scones?"  (Geez, these people seem to think I like to bake!) 

A side note about your butter.  To make your life easier, cut your butter into small pieces so it'll be easier for you to incorporate into your flour.  I usually cut my butter into Tbsp size pieces and then cut them into two or four smaller pieces.  When you cut in your butter with knives, you'll need to cut the butter crosswise (like you're cutting up spaghetti).  You want your butter to be about the size of peas and smaller.  But you certainly don't want the butter to be completely gone - that's what makes scones so good.

Pumpkin Scones
courtesy of King Arthur Flour

2 3/4 c. All Purpose Flour

1/3 c. Sugar

1 Tbsp Baking Powder

3/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon

3/4 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice

1/2 c. COLD Butter (I used salted, if using unsalted, please add 3/4 tsp salt)

1 cup Cinnamon Chips (or chocolate chips, they'd work too) - add more to taste, if you prefer

2/3 c. Pumpkin* 

2 Eggs

(Where's the preheat temp?  Down below - you don't want to preheat your oven just yet.)
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and spices (and salt, if you're using it).

Using a pastry blender or two knives, work in the butter just until the mixture is unevenly crumbly (it's OK for some larger chunks of butter to remain unincorporated).

Stir in the cinnamon chips.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the pumpkin and eggs till smooth.

Add the pumpkin/egg to the dry ingredients and stir until all is moistened and holds together.

Line a baking sheet with parchment; if you don't have parchment, just spray your baking sheet with cooking spray (but parchment makes life easier).

Scrape the dough onto the parchment or pan, and .... here's where life can get interesting.  You can do one of two things - divide the dough in half, rounding each half into a 5"-6" circle.  (The circles should be about 3/4" thick.) ... OR ... You can leave the dough as one large round piece, giving you bigger scones.  Your circle should still be around 3/4" thick.

(If you want to make your scones look pretty, you can brush your scones with milk and sprinkle course sparkling sugar {aka Sugar in the Raw} over the top.)

Using a knife that you've run under cold water, slice each circle into 6 wedges. (Why cold?  Makes it easier for the dough not to grip your knife so you come away with clean edges.)

Carefully pull the wedges away from the center to separate them just a bit; there should be about 1/2" space between them, at their outer edges.

Place the pan of scones in the freezer for 30 minutes, uncovered.  (This will help them rise!)

While the scones are in the freezer, preheat the oven to 425°F.

Bake the scones for 22 to 25 minutes, or until they're golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean, with no wet crumbs.

(See the lovely cinnamon chips which are full of cinnamon-y goodness?)

* - Your 2/3 c. of canned pumpkin... that's an odd measurement.  Most recipes call for the whole can!  Well, the lovely people are King Arthur Flour have a little note on their recipes that if you use a SCANT 2/3 c. of pumpkin, you'll be able to make THREE batches of theses scones!  Don't want to make another batch of scones?  Here are some ideas from the wonderful folks at KAF:
Pumpkin Muffins
Pumpkin Cake Bars
And remember, you can always make half a recipe of your favorite pumpkin item to use up that can.  This recipe will leave you more than half.  How do you save your opened pumpkin?  I froze 1 Tbsp of pumpkin in ice cube trays.  They'll defrost in my fridge overnight and be ready to use the following day :)

Pumpkin Dessert Squares

Ryan loves pumpkin.  I learned that very early on in our relationship.  I had never made a pumpkin pie before in my entire life until I met him.  I've made way too many to count since we have been together.  Me?  I've never really been a fan of pumpkin.  I do enjoy pumpkin cheesecake every once in a while.  I have fond memories of pumpkin cheesecake at the now closed restaurant Rick Stein's Steakhouse in Dallas, TX (that restaurant is where Ryan and I had our first Texas date :) ).  That cheesecake was unbelievable.  One day, I shall attempt to make a pumpkin cheesecake myself but for now, my husband is content with me creating numerous other pumpkin-y things.  We tried this at the Williams-Sonoma store a few weeks ago and I knew I had to make some as soon as I could!  They are that good.  And simple - oh so simple!  (We like simple around here.)  You'll need a jar of pumpkin butter (which is somewhat easy to find right about now) but could you substitute apple butter?  Hmmm... haven't tried that but I don't see why it wouldn't work!  If you make it before I do, leave a comment and let me know how it turns out!!

Pumpkin Dessert Squares
courtesy of Williams-Sonoma stores

1 box Yellow Cake Mix
1/2 c. Butter, melted
3 Eggs
1 13.5 oz. jar Pumpkin Butter
1/8 c. Milk
1 Tbsp. All Purpose Flour
1/4 c. Sugar
1/4 c. Butter, softened
1 tsp. Cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350.
Lightly grease a 9x13 pan.
Reserve 1 cup of the yellow cake mix.
Combine the remaining cake mix with the 1/2 c. melted butter and 1 egg (be sure to temper* your eggs if you're using immediately melted butter - no one wants scrambled eggs!).
Press into the bottom of your pan.
Mix the jar of pumpkin butter with the last two eggs and milk.
Pour over the cake mix!
Mix the reserved cake mix with the flour and remaining three ingredients.
Mix with a pastry blender or two knives (or your hands!!) until the butter is pea sized and everything sort of clumps together.
Sprinkle over the pumpkin mixture.
Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.

Wanna see what the middle looks like?  All full of pumpkin butter-y goodness?