Pumpkin Olive Oil Bread

I took a break from pie in order to make a portable pumpkin treat to bring along with me when I visited my parents - Pumpkin Olive Oil Bread, recipe courtesy of the Serious Eats blog:

It starts like a recular quickbread, but then the secret ingredient is added - Olive Oil!

And, of course, pumpkin. This is some of the pumpkin I cooked down and pureed at home:

The final step is stirring in nuts and raisins, if you like, after you've added your flour and leavening:

Three loaves ready for the oven:

And ready to eat!

Libby's Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin. Sometimes you just want to transform it to the simplest of pumpkin pies. Here, I've mixed together pumpkin and eggs as a base for the classic recipe from the back of the can of pumpkin you find at the grocery store:
The pumpkin I used here was from a cheese pumpkin that I sliced, cooked, pureed and then stored in my freezer so that I could make pumpkin pie as soon as I felt a chill in the air.

The full set up, before the addition of the evaporated milk:

And once I had given that a good stir, I poured the filling into the graham cracker crust I made earlier and pre-baked:

The finished pie was the perfect classic, aside from a few burnt edges - I had neglected to protect the edges of my pie with tinfoil. oops.

Welcome to My Kitchen: Pumpkin Carving

Happy Halloween!

I'm not much of a traditional pumpkin carver. I like to heat up my oven as I slice a pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds, and place my pumpkin cut side down on an aluminum foil lined sheet:

And forty-five minutes to an hour later at 375 degrees:

I let my pumpkin halves cool, and scoop out the flesh:

Once it's been run through the blender, I'm really ready for pumpkin pie season:

And I usually have a few extra cups of puree that get frozen for my next pumpkin pie fix:

Cheddar Biscuits

Cheese, specifically, sharp cheddar and freshly grated parmesan:

Cheese, added to a biscuit base of flour, cornmeal and leavening cut with butter:

The result: Cheddar Biscuits:

I made these from the recipe above, though I skipped the scallions as I didn't have any in the fridge. A drop biscuit method made the savory treats a nice, quick addition to dinner.

Pizza

Pizza just tastes better coming from your own oven:
I decided to try the King Arthur Flour recipe for pizza crust this time. The recipe offers a number of variations for different styles of pizza, and I thought a deep dish crust was just what I needed.

So, this is what yeast looks like when you let it sit 15 minutes in water and flour to bubble. yum!

Combined with the rest of the ingredients, it looks a bit more appetizing:

This dough kneaded nicely and formed a nice, smooth ball, smoother than I expected from the way the recipe was written:

Halfway through rising:

And ready to shape!

I stretched out the dough and placed it into my large rimmed cookie sheet:

And was surprised at how much it puffed up in this second rising:

A pre-bake and some toppings later (chicken sausage on one half, extra cheese on the other), it was dinnertime:

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bread

I usually spread my peanut butter on bread after it's baked:
But I found this fun looking recipe on King Arthur Flour and decided to give it a try.

The recipe had an oatmeal bread base, which was mixed into a flour, honey, water and yeast mixture:

More flour and whole wheat flour are added until a nice soft dough is formed:

Quite a bit of flour had to be added while kneading to get this dough smooth and ready to rise:

Once the bread rose, it was time for some fun:

I split the dough in half and rolled it into a rectangle, similar to how a regular loaf of bread is made. But This is then spread with a bit of peanut butter and then jelly (I used a fig jam), and rolled up for a swirl of tastiness:

Once these loaves rose:

I baked them into an unusual sandwich bread:
Another time I'll roll my dough a bit thinner and attempt a bit of a tighter loaf for a better spread of the peanut butter and jelly - but this bread was still a big win.

Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie

It doesn't take much of October to pass before I feel the need to make a pumpkin pie:

For a custard filling like this, I usually blind bake the crust, filling the aluminum foil lined pan with pie weights:

Then, the pumpkin:

This particular filling was a bit tangy and very smooth and rich from the added sour cream:

And the slightly pale finished pie didn't last long in the fridge: