Autumn baking: Pumpkins

Autumn baking HAS to include pumpkins doesn’t it??

Mashed pumpkins, roasted pumpkins, pumpkin spice, pumpkin pie, pumpkin latte, pumpkin EVERYTHING!

I love the vegetable and all the varieties that it comes in [although technically it’s a fruit, who knew!?] and I’ve loved experimenting with it to create the next bakes.

So grab a cuppa, get comfy, read through the following recipes that we have enjoyed baking and let me know which recipes you are going to follow to use up those pumpkins/squashes.

Pumpkin & banana cupcakes

I had pumpkin and my bananas had gone brown. So I combined both of them to make the ultimate banana bread/cupcake!

Ingredients

• 60g butter
• 160g brown sugar
• 1tsp pumpkin spice mix [this is the one I bought]
• 1 egg
• 210g pumpkin puree
• 1 mashed banana
• 140g self raising flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 40g cornflour
• 75g dark chocolate drops

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 180c
2. Line a 12 hole muffin tin
3. Combine the butter and sugar together and mix
4. Add the spice mix and egg and continue to mix
5. Add the mashed banana and pumpkin puree – the mixture will look like it has split at this stage – don’t worry! Keep going…
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture and fold in. The mixture should start coming together to form a smooth batter.
7. Fold in the chocolate drops
8. Scoop into muffin cases and bake for 25 minutes
9. Cool and then decorate. I decorated with a simple cream cheese frosting found here.

Pumpkin Spiced Cinnamon Rolls

Oh my lord! These are so good! Kris got into baking cinnamon buns over lockdown but the addition of the pumpkin puree and the pumpkin spice just elevates it to another level!

Ingredients

• 125g roasted pumpkins [I cut mine in half and placed them face down on a baking tray and baked in a 180c oven for 45 minutes, let it cool, scraped the flesh out and blitzed it]
• 50g brown sugar
• 1 tsp pumpkin spice mix
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 100ml whole milk
• 30g butter
• 1 egg
• 10g dried yeast
• 335g strong bread flour [but you could use plain flour]

Filling – 100g softened butter and 100g brown sugar mixed with 1 tbsp pumpkin spice mix

Method

1. Warm the butter and milk in a pan until melted
2. Add the active yeast to the pan and set aside
3. Meanwhile, mix the pumpkin, brown sugar, salt and pumpkin spice mix in the mixer
4. Add the egg 
5. Change the attachment to a dough hook [if you have one] and add the wet ingredients
6. Add the flour and knead in the machine for 10-15 minutes
7. Cover and leave in a warm place for at least an hour and a half [or until doubled in size]
8. Knock back and knead for a couple of minutes on a lightly floured surface
9. Roll out to a large rectangle shape [about 30cm by 60cm]
10. Spread the butter over the surface of the dough
11. Sprinkle the brown sugar and pumpkin spice mix over the butter
12. Tightly roll up the dough starting from one of the longer length sides
13. Cut into 12 even rounds
14. Arrange the rounds in a lined tin or casserole dish, cover and leave for another hour to prove
15. Pre heat the oven to 180c
16. Once risen, put the dough in the oven for 25 minutes – you may need to add some foil to stop the top catching half way through

Pumpkin pie

I had never made or tried pumpkin pie until last weekend when I decided to make it!

I adapted two recipes found online to create my own – honestly, it’s really simple. If you like egg custards then it is a bit like that texture.

Ingredients

• Pack of ready rolled shortcrust pastry
• 450g pureed pumpkins
• 3 eggs
• 340ml evaporated milk
• 1 tsp pumpkin spice
• 200g brown sugar
• 1 tbsp cornflour

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180c
2. Line a loose bottomed fluted tin with the pastry and blind bake with baking beans for 15 minutes
3. After 15 minutes, take the baking beans out and egg wash the pastry
4. Bake for another 10 minutes
5. Mix all the filling ingredients together
6. Pour mixture into cooled tart base
7. Bake for 25 minutes
8. Leave to cool, serve with a dusting of icing sugar and squirty cream on the side 😉

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I hope you have a go at one of these recipes – they’re all delicious if I do say so myself!!

x

If you enjoyed reading this, then why not have a read of my other Autumn baking spotlight post on the gorgeous blackberry!