Pumpkin Squares

I have a card in my recipe file behind the “Pies” tab that reads: “I am smarter than Crisco and flour.” It’s like one of those positive affirmations a motivational speaker would teach you at a high-priced seminar. Only problem is, I’m not. I’m not smarter. Oh, I’ve tried, I’ve tried many times. I’ve got friends and relatives who are – smarter, that is – who can bake simply lovely pie crusts, but try as I may, I’ve surrendered; it is not my forte. So today I bring you a recipe for “Pumpkin Squares” for people who AREN’T smarter than Crisco and flour.

Crust:
1 C. flour
1/2 C. quick oats
1/2 C. brown sugar
1/2 C. (1 cube) butter
Mix well and press in 9X13 pan.  Bake 15 minutes @ 350º

Filling:
1 15 oz. can pumpkin
1 can evaporated milk
2 eggs
3/4 Cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves

Mix well with mixer, pour over crust.
Bake @ 350º 25 minutes

Topping:
1 Cup pecans, chopped
3 or 4 Tbs. butter, softened
1 Cup brown sugar
Mix well and sprinkle over filling.
Bake @ 350º  15 – 20 more minutes, or until filling is “set”, but don’t burn the nuts.

 

Chill.  Serve with whipped topping or vanilla ice cream.

Pumpkin Snack Cake

The original recipe I found calls this a “bar”, but it’s too tall and not dense enough to be a bar, so let’s call it a “height challenged cake.” Pumpkin is very dense, and requires careful checking, else it will be undercooked. Pumpkin and whole wheat are good for you, so tell yourself this is health food, and enjoy.

Cake ingredients:
1 1/3 Cup all purpose flour
1 Cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 Cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 Cup oil
1/2 Cup apple juice (or water)
1 (16 – oz.) can (2 cups) pumpkin
2 eggs

Frosting ingredients:
1 brick cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter, softened
Dash salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Powdered sugar

Cake Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 9 X 13 cake pan. In large bowl, beat all cake ingredients at low speed until well blended. Spread in prepared pan. Bake at 350 for 25 – 30* minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely, then frost.

*Note: if after 30 minutes the toothpick still comes out with sticky batter stuck to it, I’d reduce the heat of the oven to 325, and keep checking every 2 minutes. If you get impatient and take it out before the toothpick comes out dry, your cake will be undercooked.

Frosting Directions:
Beat together the softened cream cheese, butter, salt, and vanilla extract. Start adding powdered sugar until you achieve a thick consistency, probably 3 to four cups. Interesting note: When you first start adding a little powdered sugar, the mixture will actually get thinner until you add quite a bit more powdered sugar. Refrigerate to “set” the frosting.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

 

 Sticking with fall themed foods, here is another pumpkin recipe. We had pumpkin cheesecake at a restaurant one night, and it was so good, we poked around for pumpkin cheesecake recipes on several of the recipe web sites. None of the ones we found were quite to our liking, but one somewhat like this was pretty close. On the first try, it cracked pretty badly. On the second time around I added the sour cream and another egg, and left it in the oven to cool more slowly – and viola, nary a crack to be seen. I think you’ll really like this, ‘tis the season!

Ingredients:
Crust:
2 Cups ground ginger snaps*
1/2 cup ground pecans
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/3 Cup butter, melted
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Filling:
3 – 8 ounce pkgs. cream cheese, softened
1 Cup pumpkin puree
5 eggs
1/2 Cup sour cream
1 1/2 Cup brown sugar
6 drops orange food color** (comes in the Fall assortment)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Crush ginger snaps in metal bowl with something real hard, like the handle of an ice cream scoop.

Grind the pecans in a food processor.

Combine the cookie crumbs, ground pecans, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, and melted butter in medium bowl; press into bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan.

(I’ve been told that a food processor will grind up the ginger snaps too, but so far, I’ve been too afraid of the noise to try it; they’re awfully hard.)

Combine remaining ingredients in a separate medium bowl, blending well, pour over crust.

Bake at 325 for 80 minutes, then turn oven off and leave cheesecake in oven to cool down for another hour before removing to countertop cool down for another hour before refrigerating. Cheesecake is best if allowed to “mellow” at least one or two days before serving.

* If you don’t have – and don’t want to wait until you get ginger snaps, you can substitute graham crackers. A graham cracker crust will work great, just isn’t as unique.

**If you don’t have orange food color, I bet you can figure out how to combine some red and yellow. 🙂

Pumpkin Bundt Cake

This is a nice combination of a moist bundt cake blended with some pumpkin and just enough spice to make it not dull.

Ingredients:
1 yellow cake mix
1/4 cup flour
1 small package instant vanilla or butterscotch pudding
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 – 15 oz. or 1/2 – 29 oz. can pumpkin (not pie filling)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
pinch ground cardamom

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients. Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 – 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes before inverting onto serving / storage plate. Serve with whipped cream, a dusting of powdered sugar, or a light glaze (i.e., runny frosting) with a pinch of nutmeg blended in.

The Great Pumpkin Cookie

This is a great pumpkin cookie recipe. Even people who have said they don’t like pumpkin cookies like this one. If you are (or know someone who is) one of these people, c’mon, give this one a try. I’ll be surprised if you don’t like it.

Ingredients:
2 C. white sugar
1 C. shortening or (1/2 butter, 1/2 Crisco)
2 Eggs
2 Tablespoons vanilla
1 – 15 oz. can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
3 drops red food coloring*
6 drops yellow food coloring*
3 C. flour
1 1/2 C. quick cook oats
2 tsp soda
1 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cardamom (optional)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 pkg. semi sweet chips
(*optional, but helps look more orange; you can also use orange food color if you have it)

Directions:
Cream together sugar and shortening.  Incorporate eggs, then vanilla, pumpkin, and food coloring.  Stir in chips.  In separate bowl, combine other ingredients. 

Combine the wet and the dry. 

Drop by tablespoons onto greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350º for 10 to 12 minutes, or until well set (not gooey.)  Cool slightly before removing.

Hint: since pumpkin is quite dense, the trick to getting them right is to not have your oven too hot, and bake them long enough. Let them get a tad brown over most of the cookie, not just around the edges, then let them “set up” on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before removing them to cool.

Pumpkin Pie Cake

Some foods and recipes are seasonal. Because of traditions and growing seasons, we tend to make certain recipes at certain times of the year, like recipes that call for apples and pumpkins in the fall after they’ve been harvested. This is a recipe for a “pumpkin pie cake”, and is pretty much a straightforward combination of pumpkin pie and cake – and it works really well. You make it in a cake pan, and it is quite dense and heavy. It needs to have plenty of time to cool, so plan on making it the day or at least morning before serving it.

Ingredients
2/3 cups baking mix (such as Bisquick)
6 eggs
2 Cups canned evaporated milk (not sweetened condensed)
1 large (29 oz.) can solid pack pumpkin
1 1/2 Cups sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp cinnamon
(or, substitute 2 1/2 – 3 tsp pumpkin pie spice for the above spices)
Yellow cake mix
1 cube butter, melted

Directions
Mix everything EXCEPT the cake mix and butter in a large mixing bowl, pour into a greased 9X13 cake pan. In a separate bowl, combine the cake mix and the melted butter, mix until crumbly. Sprinkle over the pumpkin mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Chill well. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.