Pumpkin Doughnuts

Pumpkin still remains in my mind during this lovely fall season. Nothing better than the smell of pumpkin and aromatic spices to make you smile when it's nice and cool out. Like on this beautiful morning!

The idea just really pop to me. I mean, seriously, whats not better than doughnuts in the morning? I mean, doughnuts aren't something that should necessarily be eaten everyday, but it's always good to have one from time to time, yea? To make it a better and much more satisfying choice for breakfast, make it into one that for sure will leave you thinking of fall!

I found the recipe from a site I like to visit often, epicurious.com. It's really a must try recipe. Would make a great morning treat during this season. So do try! It's a recipe everyone in my house loved!

Recipe

Doughnuts

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1 cup sugar
3 tbsp. butter, room temperature
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
1 tap. vanilla extract
1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp. buttermilk
1 cup canned pure pumpkin
Canola oil (for deep-frying)

Powdered Sugar Glaze

2 cups powdered sugar
Whipping cream


1. For the doughnuts, whisk first 8 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until blended (mixture will be grainy). Beat in egg, then yolks and vanilla. Gradually beat in buttermilk; beat in pumpkin in 4 additions. Using rubber spatula, fold in dry ingredients in 4 additions, blending gently after each addition. Cover with plastic; chill 3 hours.

2. Sprinkle 2 rimmed baking sheets lightly with flour. Press out 1/3 of dough on floured surface to 1/2- to 2/3-inch thickness. Using 2 1/2-inch-diameter round cutter, cut out dough rounds. Arrange on sheets. Repeat with remaining dough in 2 more batches. Gather dough scraps. Press out dough and cut out more dough rounds until all dough is used.

3. Using 1-inch-diameter round cutter, cut out center of each dough round to make doughnuts and doughnut holes.

4. Line 2 baking sheets with several layers of paper towels. Pour oil into large deep skillet to depth of 1 1/2 inches. Attach deep-fry thermometer and heat oil to 365°F to 370°F. Fry doughnut holes in 2 batches until golden brown, turning occasionally, about 2 minutes.

5. Using slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. Fry doughnuts, 3 or 4 at a time, until golden brown, adjusting heat to maintain temperature, about 1 minute per side. Using slotted spoon, transfer doughnuts to paper towels to drain. Cool completely.

6. For the sugar glaze, whisk powdered sugar and 4 tablespoons whipping cream to blend. Whisk in additional cream, 1 teaspoon at a time, to form medium thick glaze. Can be made up to 3 hours ahead. Add doughnut holes to bowl of spiced sugar and toss to coat. Spread doughnuts on 1 side with Powdered Sugar Glaze. Arrange doughnuts, glazed side up, on racks. Let stand until glaze sets, at least 30 minutes.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Fall is here! Even here in Orlando, Florida you can feel it! We reach our newest lows for the season; Lows of 36 degrees and highs of 65. It's been so beautiful out for the past couple days! I love the cool weather! Makes me wonder some times as to why I'm living in Florida..

I actually plan to move soon once I start attending college. I really want to go live on NY. I've always loved it up there, so why not live there? I love the city, the scenery, the people; I love so much about it. Whether I move there soon, or a few years from now, I know that I want to live there.

But anyways, a bit of topic! To celebrate the fact that fall is here, I decided to bake something that just screams autumn; pumpkin. What better than a comforting pumpkin bread pudding to celebrate with, yea? I've been holding on to this recipe that I found not to long ago, waiting for the right time to try it out. Let me tell you, it didn't disappoint.

Recipe

1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs plus 1 yolk
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. ground allspice
Pinch of ground cloves
2 tbsp. bourbon
5 cups cubed (1-inch) day-old baguette or crusty bread
3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in middle.

2. Whisk together pumpkin, cream, milk, sugar, eggs, yolk, salt, spices and bourbon, if using, in a bowl.

3. Toss bread cubes with butter in another bowl, then add pumpkin mixture and toss to coat. Transfer to an ungreased 8-inch square baking dish and bake until custard is set, 25 to 30 minutes.

Blueberry Pumpkin Muffins

If I were to choice what muffin to eat, it most likely always going to be a blueberry muffin. If its a muffin, I'd much rather have some blueberries in it. Thats just the way I am. It's how I see a muffin. With lots of yummy blueberries. "Do I know the muffin man? Why yes, and he has a bunch of yummy, delicious blueberries in him!"

Every year when Fall comes around, me and my mom usually always stock up on canned pumpkin. We get so much, that we in the end realize that maybe we got just a little to much... However, it does come to use through out the year. I find it quite hard to find canned pumpkin during spring or summer, for they don't usually have them on the shelfs. But I do love to still have the great tastes of pumpkin every time of the year.

I decided to get out one of my canned pumpkin and put it to some good use. And I sure put it to good use; Delicious use that is! I added pumpkin to a blueberry recipe that I found and it, and it tasted very light, very moist and very tasty. A great low cal snack, holding only 146 calories per muffin. Yes! Can make it much more healthier by using whole wheat flour, and brown sugar instead of white sugar. Still comes out just as good!

Recipe

3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup quick cooking oats
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup fresh or thawed blueberries


1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease and flour muffin pans or use paper liners.

2. In a mixing bowl, mix together the flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg until evenly blended.

3. In a separate bowl, stir together pumpkin, milk, egg and butter. Gradually add in the flour mixture, just until all ingredients are moistened. Fold in the the blueberries. Spoon matter into 12 muffin cups, filling to the top.

4. Bake for about 20 minutes, then cool for 10 minutes.

Pumpkin Pecan Scones

I've always just loved scones. I grew up on them. A majority of my family is English, and when I would stay with my grandmother as a kid, we would usually eat traditional English food. She loved and lived off the traditional foods of England; Foods like lamb, shepherd's pie, cottage pie, bangers and mash, toad in the hole, which I really miss, and she absolutely loved scones and spotted dogs.

I was always the blueberry scone type and I still am to this day. But, I really like any kind of scone to be honest. They're all delicious and tasty that theres nothing that I can really say bad about many scones. They're all just so... Good!

Since Fall began, I've been craving the spices and goodness of pumpkin. It's something about Fall that has me craving these things. Like how Christmas has me crave Peppermint and Summer has me crave Pineapple. Whatever the season, I'm always craving something in particular. And it's Fall, so I thought, 'Why not make Pumpkin Scones??'.

They came out wonderfully and so so delicious! That smell and aroma of Pumpkin when being baked... It's indescribable. I just smelt delicious in the air. I made this entry for Sweetnicks ARF Tuesdays. They have a lot of other great recipes. Defiantly should check it out.

Recipe

2 cups flour
1/3 cup light or dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, cold and cut up
1/3 cup white chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup pecans
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup pure pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla


1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and place rack in middle of oven.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture. Mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Stir in white chocolate and pecans.

3. In another bowl, mix together pumpkin, buttermilk and vanilla. Add to flour mixture. Mix together just until dough comes together. Do not overmix.

4. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead dough gently, four or five times, and then pat into a circle about 7 inches round and 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut into 6-8 triangles. Image like your cutting a pizza.

5. Place scones on baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into middle comes out clean. Let cool.

Pumpkin Bread

Due to a few family issues, I hadn't seen my grandmother in the longest of time. I decided I wanted to pay her a visit today because I felt that with all the problems that she is currently going threw, it would be nice. But, I didn't want to show up empty handed. I wanted to make her something nice.

When I think of the season Autumn, first thing I think of is Pumpkin. And since it is that time of year, I wanted to bake something with pumpkin. Since I'm really big on baking bread, it was what I decided on baking.

Of course, I did not want to leave it as just plain Pumpkin Bread. I had to add something in there. Walnuts and raisins sounded really good with pumpkin, and raisins and walnut are kind of like a autumn food.

It came out positively amazing. First bite I took and it certainly felt like autumn. It was very cake like, which I like it that way. I was very satisfied with how this came out, and I could tell my grandmother enjoyed it as well. I'm defiantly going to make this again.

Recipe

2 cups flour
1 1/4 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup raisins
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cups pumpkin
3/4 cup vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, mix flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, nuts, raisins, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, cloves, allspice, and ginger until well blended.

3. In another bowl, whisk together eggs, Mashed Pumpkin, and oil until well blended.

4. Add wet ingredients to flour mixture and stir just until well blended. Pour equally into two oiled 8 1/2- by 4 1/2-inch loaf pans.

5. Bake in the oven for about 50-60 minutes. Let cool.