Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Icing

The other day I was chatting to the staff at my son's playgroup when pumpkins came up. We were discussing how true jack'o'lanterns are made from swedes/turnips/rutabagas NOT pumpkins. We who have only ever carved pumpkins have no appreciation for the blood (literally) shed for the creation of these Hallowe'en lanterns in years gone by, now a dying art since pumpkins flood the Scottish shops  in October. I did confess I tend to carve pumpkins out of interest for my children's safety and because you can cook a lot more tasty things with a pumpkin than you can from a turnip. The staff nodded, but then they confessed they had never actually eaten any pumpkin apart from pumpkin seeds. I decided this was no good, that something had to be done.

The easiest solution was these: Pumpkin bars. Easy to throw together, and generally popular with everyone (apart, perhaps, from anyone with a dairy allergy). I first had them when a friend brought some along to another playgroup and immediately asked for the recipe. I'll warn you though, it's Paula Deen....



She's made some not-so-great choices, I know, but she does have some good recipes. Well, I've heard she does, I think I've only tried this one and maybe one other one sometime. I did once gag when I looked at a few of her other ones. So...much...oil...and...sugar...

Speaking of which, you start this one off with some oil and sugar. And this is what it looks like when you've finally run out of your huge Costco bag of sugar and need to throw in some brown sugar.

Some Lidl eggs went in . Then a whole can of pumpkin. I really like that the recipe uses a whole can, so I don't have a partial can taking up space in my fridge/freezer, demanding I organise its use before it grows something/gets frostbite. Alternatively, you could steam, puree, and drain your lantern after hallowe'en and use roughly the same amount as a can of Libby's. Your choice!

Last, but not least, in went some flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Costco cinnamon is the best. Really. It's amazing. Go get some now. NOW.

Then in it went into my lined 9 X 13 pan. I love this pan, it makes American recipes possible on a regular basis.

It came out looking like this, then sank a bit, but I didn't care because the knife came out clean which means no one will get food poisoning. 

The icing was a simple mix of a tub of cream cheese (about 180g I think), with roughly the same amount of butter (more butter is required in the UK as we can't get firm blocks of cream cheese here), a splash of vanilla, and perhaps just short of a cup of powdered sugar (though the recipe called for 2 cups) all put into a food processor at room temperature and pulsed until smooth-ish. I then put it in a freezer bag, cut off the corner, and squirted blobs onto the cooled squares.

The staff said I was most welcome to bring these in again, anytime. And another friend who also sampled a portion asked for the recipe too, so Paula Deen, we salute you. 

Ingredients (adapted)

Bars:
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
15 -ounce can pumpkin
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Icing:
8 -ounce package cream cheese, softened
7 oz cup butter , softened
1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F/180C

Using an electric mixer at medium speed, combine the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin until light and fluffy. Stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix at low speed until thoroughly combined and the batter is smooth. Spread the batter into a greased 13 by 10-inch baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting. Cut into bars.

To make the icing: Combine ingredients in food processor and pulse until smooth. 

Pumpkin Cheesecake Snickerdoodles

Before kids, I never envisioned just how many times a year I'd be asked to produce something edible for fundraising or to simply feed the masses at an event.  Birthday treats have fallen out of fashion in the classrooms here thanks to nut allergies and healthy eating initiatives, but this does not mean there is no place for traybakes.

We had the nursery ceilidh last night, and as I faced the task of figuring out what to make, two voices were fighting for attention.  One my "baking ideas" board on Pinterest, and the other was a lingering bowl of jack-o-lantern remains in the fridge.  I eventually decided to satisfy both by trialling a recipe for cream cheese filled pumpkin snickerdoodles.

In a way, I wish I hadn't.  For cookies, these are really quite time consuming.  

First I put the spices, baking powder, salt, and flour into a bowl.

Then in a separate bowl went the butter, caster sugar, and brown sugar.

The recipe said to use a stand mixer, so I glowered at the instructions as I put my wooden spoon to use creaming the butter and sugars together.

In went the pumpkin.  No, it's not Libby's.

After mixing in the pumpkin, it looked kind of curdled and gross, and it didn't improve when I added an egg.

It said to add the flour mix gradually, but I just dumped it all on and hoped for the best.

It improved dramatically, but still had tiny lumps of my imperfect pumpkin puree.  The mix then went into the fridge.

In a separate bowl, I put some sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla for the filling.

There was a lot more filling than I needed in the end, but getting rid of it was not a problem.  It also went into the fridge, and I went out to get my daughter from nursery.

After lunch, she helped stir up the coating of sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and allspice.

Then it was time for assembly.  No quick spooning of dough onto the prepped trays, nooooo...I had to create two little discs, spoon some filling into the middle of one...

Then put the other one on top, pinching the sides together...

Then I made it into a ball and rolled it in some sugar.  Yes, that spoon is from a bottle of children's medicine.  They are handy teaspoon measures, I tell you.

Then it went onto the tray and my daughter got to mash it down with the bottom of a glass.  Very, very time consuming.

We managed one batch before school pick-up time, and then did the second batch in the oven when we got back.

Naturally I had to do a bit of quality control.  They were good for snickerdoodles, but not enough of a spicy, pumpkin flavour for me.

I brought them along to the ceilidh and they all went, but so did everything else, so it just means they were edible.  One teacher did come along to compliment me on them, which was nice of her.  Here's the recipe as I had it off Pinterest - I'd recommend boosting the spices, but then it will be less of a snickerdoodle and more of just a pumpkin spice cookie.  The choice is yours...

Pumpkin Cheesecake Snickerdoodles

Ingredients

3¾ cups all­purpose flour

1½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

¼ tsp. freshly ­ground ground nutmeg

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup light brown sugar

¾ cup pumpkin puree

1 large egg

2 tsp. vanilla extract

Filling Ingredients:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cinnamon ­sugar coating:

½ cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. ground ginger

Dash of allspice

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Set aside.

2. In a kitchenaid mixer with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugars on medium high speed until

fluffy about 2­3 minutes.

3. Blend in pumpkin puree, beat in egg and then add vanilla. Slowly add dry ingredients on low speed just until

combined. Cover and chill dough for an hour.

4. To make the cream cheese filling, blend cream cheese, sugar and vanilla together. Chill for an hour.

5. Preheat oven to 350 and line your baking sheets with parchment paper. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and

spices for the coating and set aside.

6. To make the cookies, take a tablespoon of the cookie batter. Flatten it like a pancake and place a teaspoon of the

cream cheese in center. Form another tablespoon of the cookie batter into a flat pancake shape and place on top of

the cream cheese. Pinch the edges together sealing in the cream cheese and roll into a ball. Roll in the cinnamon

sugar coating and place on the prepared baking sheet 2 inches apart.

7. Repeat until the dough is gone and flatten the cookie dough balls with a heavy bottomed glass or measuring cup.

8. Bake the cookies for 10­-15 minutes or until the tops start to crack. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and

transfer to a wire rack. Enjoy!

Notes

Recipe Source Bakeaholic Mama

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Pumpkins are a relatively recent addition to the Hallowe'en scene here in Scotland.  I used to have to hunt around a fair amount to find them, but now they are at every supermarket and veg stall in town. Mostly they are the small, "pie" pumpkins rather than the large ones fit only for carving, which means I feel guilty if I don't at least attempt to cook them afterwards.  I bought and carved three pumpkins this year, then chopped them, steamed them, peeled them, pureed them, and drained them, so I had a fair amount of pumpkin and a good understanding of why most people just use a can.  Of course, I also have a bag of pumpkin in my freezer from two years ago, but we're just going to ignore that for now.

This recipe uses 3 whole cups of pumpkin, so it seemed a good way to make a dent in my jack-o-lantern supply.  Until I'd made these, I'd never made whoopie pies before, but I think I'm pretty sold on them now.  I just don't know how to store or transport them well, as they seem to be kinda sticky.  But first, you have to get together a few things:

Oil and sugar first.  The oil keeps them from drying out, but doesn't add flavour, so there has to be a lot of other good stuff going on to compensate for that.  Brown sugar is one.

Pumpkin is another.  Not so bright as the stuff in the can, but allegedly they don't actually use pumpkins to make the canned stuff.  It's some weird squash hybrid.

I mixed all that together: 

And then added a couple eggs.

Meanwhile, in another bowl, I put flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and ground nutmeg together to add flavour:

Then dumped it into the liquid mix and stirred it all together.  It's a pretty forgiving mixture; I had some small lumps like muffin batter due to the fact I didn't have as smooth a puree as the canned kind, but it all worked out well in the end.

You can just put spoonfuls on a tray but I thought I'd try piping it.  Here's an easy way to fill your piping bag in case you haven't done it before - use a tall glass to hold it in place.  Works a treat.

I piped rounds onto the lined tray then stuck them in the oven for about 9 minutes.

They came out looking good...

But with the odd brown sugar lump.  I can live with that.

Then I whipped up some filling.  I didn't have as much icing sugar as the recipe demanded, but anyway it seemed too sweet before when I made it.  I also increased the proportion of butter to cream cheese, as I found last time it was a bit runny.  I cut down the vanilla and maple syrup too.  It definitely held together better this time.

Then I tried to match them by size as best I could and voila!

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies adapted from Annie's Eats

Yield: about 32 sandwich cookies

INGREDIENTS

For the pumpkin cookies:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tbsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the maple cream cheese filling:
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 oz. cream cheese
1 tbsp. maple syrup
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Cooking View

DIRECTIONS

• To make the pumpkin cookies, preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.  In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and spices.  Set aside.  In a separate bowl, whisk sugars and oil together.  Add the pumpkin puree and whisk to combine thoroughly.  Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until combined.  Sprinkle the flour mixture over the pumpkin mixture and whisk until completely combined.
• Transfer the cookie batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large plain round tip .  Pipe small rounds of the batter onto the prepared baking sheets, about 1½-2 inches in diameter.  (If your dough seems to thick to pipe, you can drop scoops of it onto the baking sheet.  Or just add a bit more liquid.  This recipe is pretty forgiving.)
• Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cookie comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the pan for about 10 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.  Repeat with remaining batter.
  To make the filling, combine the butter and cream cheese in the bowl of an electric mixer.  Beat on medium-heat speed until smooth, about 1-2 minutes.  Add the powdered sugar, maple syrup and vanilla and beat until smooth.  Be careful not to overbeat the filling or it will lose structure.  
• To assemble, pair the cookies up by size.  Spoon filling onto the flat side of one cookie of each pair, and sandwich together with the remaining cookie.  Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to firm before serving.

Pumpkin Scones

Yes, we Americans do love our pumpkin.

And no, these are not savoury scones, they are the American type of scone - sweet, cut into triangles rather than rounds, and in this case drizzled with a sweet, spicy glaze.  And while I am not ready to use the American pronunciation that rhymes them with stone, I do like how they are designed to last slightly longer at room temperature than their British cousins.  They are wonderful with coffee or tea, and the pumpkin ensures that they are virtually impossible to dry out in your oven.

I made them once before with some pumpkin I had lingering in my fridge after making pumpkin whoopie pies.  On that occasion, I was less than precise with my measurements and ended up with a very wet dough that couldn't be cut into triangles and was just shoved into the oven in a big mound.  When it was nearly done I took it out and cut it up, separating the pieces on the tray, before putting them back in to finish baking.  This time I actually followed the recipe and had a much more workable dough, though I think I might prefer it with too much pumpkin and the improvised cutting process.

These are also the result of not setting the clock back on my Kindle.  You see, the other morning my daughter came through and said "it's getting light out, is it morning time?"

I checked my Kindle, saw it was nearly 7, and said "sure, we can get up."

Of course, once my daughter, baby, and I reached the kitchen, I realised my error, seeing it was, in fact, nearly 6am.  If I am forced to be up this early, there are two ways I cope
1) I consume a large pot of proper leaf tea
2) I bake something

A the kettle boiled, I got out a few things:

Into a bowl went some flour, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.

  And butter.

  Of course.

And this is what it looked like after I rubbed it in with my left hand and held a baby in my right one.

Then in went some pumpkin, egg, and cream

And I kneaded it a few times with my scary big pink hand.

I then made a rough circle and cut it into 8 wedges which I placed on a tray and put in a hot oven.

They came out looking like this:

Then I drizzled a bit of a glaze made of cream, icing sugar, and cinnamon over the scones.

And I ate them.  And they were good.  Very, very good.  I might even make some more soon, as my jack-o-lanterns are in the process of being slaughtered, steamed, pureed, and drained to make puree. There's a reason I usually buy the pumpkin puree in cans.

Starbucks Copycat Pumpkin Scones

Yield: 8 scones | Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 15 minutes | adapted from  Iowa Girl Eats 

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups all purpose flour

7 tbsp. caster sugar

1 tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 cup canned pumpkin puree (or more if you want to be daring)

3 tbsp. double cream

1 egg

6 tbsp. unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes

For the spiced icing drizzle:

1 cup + 3 tbsp. powdered sugar

3 tbsp. double cream (more if you like your icing runnier)

1/4 tsp cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit (220C) and lightly flour a baking tray.  
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and spices. Mix until well blended.
3. Add the cold butter and incorporate with your hands or a pastry blender until mixture resembles breadcrumbs in appearance.
4. Add pumpkin, egg, and cream and knead briefly until just combined.  If the dough is too sticky, add a bit of flour to make it manageable.
5. Flatten the dough into a 1″ thick circle, then cut into 8 wedges.
6. Place the wedges on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, or just until they’re starting to turn golden brown.
7. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
8. In the meantime, make the spiced icing drizzle by combining all the ingredients in a bowl and mixing until combined.
9. Once the scones have cooled as long as you can stand it, drizzle the spiced icing on top.   
10. Once cooled, store in an airtight container for up to 2 days.  Ha ha ha, just kidding, eat them all now.