What's New

It's strange how some arbitrary things become meaningful. Birthdays that end in zero have much more importance than the rest of the decade. Anniversaries that are divisible by 5 are held in higher esteem than the others. And buying a new calendar makes us feel that somehow there's a new start; everything's new, fresh, and open to reinvention.

One of the things I've been reinventing is our diet. I'm constantly tinkering to see what will help us all be our healthiest. This past Christmas we spent passing the flu around like a White Elephant gift being regifted over and over. We were sick of being sick! So my family didn't grumble too much when I informed them that we were going to be trying something new - going grain-free and sugar-free.

Shocked? I know, me too!

How's it going? Well, it's been interesting. The refrigerator has been fairly bare as I try to figure out what we can eat in place of what we used to eat. Snacks, treats, and meals are all impacted. Empty are the bread drawer and the cookie jar. This is a hardship for the family of the Cookie Baker and former Bread Baking Babe.

My husband's standard lunch is a sandwich and some sort of chips. Well, that's not working out. Take away the bread and chips and you're left with... well ... stuff piled on a plate.

I've figured out that the job of grains is to:

   1- Define portions. A taco is clearly one serving; remove the taco shells and you've just got a big taco salad.
   2- Provide transportation for the meat. Ever try to eat a big double decker hamburger with all the trimmings sans buns? Sloppy mess. Speaking of which, what's a Sloppy Joe with buns? Stew!
   3- Act as a filler. If you eat a bowl of rice with your stir fry, you only eat 1/4 as much of the stir fry, so it stretches further and is more economical.

Once of the hardest things to do without has been bread. No sandwiches. No toast. Nothing to sop up the egg yolk from the morning fried egg. :-(

I realized something had to give when we were at the grocery store and the bread aisle just about did us in. Rolls, loaves, wraps, pitas, and bagels. Ahhh, bagels.....  So I went home and searched one of my favorite sites for special dietary needs,  The Spunky Coconut. I found just what I was looking for - a bread that would be safe for out new diet. I had some pumpkin puree in the fridge leftover from a holiday flurry of pumpkin smoothies and whipped up a loaf.

I wish that I had taken a picture to share with you of my son's happy face when he saw there was bread he was allowed to have. We demolished the loaf in a day and he anxiously asked if I had any more pumpkin puree.

Pumpkin Bread

 - adapted from The Spunky Coconut


1 cup pumpkin puree
4 eggs at room temperature*
1/3 cup coconut sugar (which is low glycemic index)
3 Tbsp liquified coconut oil**
1/4 tsp vanilla creme liquid stevia
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup tapioca flour
1/2 cup coconut flour, sifted (don't skip the sifting!)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins

1- Preheat oven to 350 deg. F. Line the bottom of a loaf pan with parchment paper and grease the pan.

2- Place all of the ingredients into a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer. (One advantage of baking gluten-free is that you don't have to worry about over-mixing and getting a tough product.)

3- Scoop the batter into the loaf pan, smoothing it to make an even loaf.

4- Bake for about 50 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest in pan for 5 minutes then remove from pan and allow to cool on a cooling rack.

Serve with butter or cream cheese.

*If the eggs are cold, it will cause the coconut oil to harden. To bring refrigerated eggs to room temperature, float them in a bowl of warm water for about 5 minutes.

** To liquify the coconut oil, spoon it into a small, heatproof bowl and set that in a larger bowl of very warm water.

Please Pass The Cupcakes

My memories of Thanksgiving don't match up with current reality. In my childhood, Thanksgiving was a wonderful time when we brought out the very best of everything. The linen, china, and candles made the dining table a glittering, shimmering tableau of beauty. The heavenly smells wafting from the kitchen had us all drooling with anticipation for the coming feast. My mother sternly warned us not to snack, but black olives were always pilfered from the cut glass bowl in which they resided. When the perfectly browned turkey was carried out and set on the table, and the plates were loaded up with slices of meat, great globs of mashed potatoes and stuffing, over which rivers of gravy were poured,  it was torturous to sit patiently through the grace. 


My current reality is that I spend 3 days baking and then collapse at the table while everyone eats. Is it just a lot more fun and special when someone else does all the work? In a word, yes. I know this to be true because this year we had two Thanksgiving dinners. (My, that does sound porky, doesn't it?)


The first dinner was an early Thanksgiving feast that we put on as a send-off for my son who's on his way to boot camp (he joined the Naval reserves). He and his wife came over to break bird with us and give thanks for our blessings. While I didn't go all out (no pies, to everyone's disappointment), it was still essentially a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. 

For our second dinner, we were invited to my daughter's house. She and her husband did all the work, cleaning, baking and prepping for two days ahead of time, then serving us a beautiful meal. All we brought was wine and gravy. That was much more like it! So, apparently, the key to a happy, relaxed meal is to have someone else fix it for you. 


The only downside to eating at someone else's house is the lack of leftovers when you get home. Normally I hate leftovers clogging up my refrigerator, but Thanksgiving leftovers are as much a part of Thanksgiving as the main meal is. How can you properly watch a football game without a turkey-cranberry sandwich or a plate of turkey and stuffing, with extra gravy? Can it be done? 


More importantly to me, what do you eat for breakfast the day after Thanksgiving if there is no leftover pumpkin pie? Pumpkin pie has squash, milk, and eggs, so what part of that doesn't say healthy breakfast to you? But if the leftover pie is languishing in someone else's kitchen, you either have to suck it up and have oatmeal, or bake your own pie. Or cupcakes.


Yes, I said cupcakes. These beauties are even healthier than pie because there's no crust. They're just delicious pumpkin pie taste in cupcake form. So there's no fussing to get straight edges when you cut a piece of pie (you pie nibblers out there know what I'm talking about!), just single-serving goodness, ready to go. Plus without having to make a crust (my pie downfall), they're a snap to make. I'd say, "easy as pie," but they're easier!


Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes
  - adapted from Baking Bites

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 15-oz. can pumpkin pie puree
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract 
3/4 cup half and half or evaporated milk 
Whipped cream (for topping)

1 - Preheat the oven to 350F. Line the cups of a mini muffin tin with paper liners. (You can't skip the liners, or you won't be able to get the cupcakes out neatly.)

2- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.

3- In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla and half and half until well combined. Add in dry ingredients and whisk until no streaks of flour remain and batter is smooth.

4- Fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full. They won't really rise.

5- Bake for 11-14 minutes. Cool cupcakes in pan. They will sink as they cool.
Chill cupcakes before serving. Top with lightly sweetened whipped cream.

Makes 24, possibly a few more.

Love, Love, Love

English is an imprecise language. When you say, "I know," does that mean you know it in your heart, you have it memorized, or you've heard it vaguely somewhere sometime? When you say "Run," are you referring to a marathon, an errand, a nasty snag in your stocking, or a political campaign? And if you "shot" someone, it had better be with a camera or a bottle of tequila.

The word "love" is another imprecise word. We can love a car, a pet, a pair of shoes, a spouse, an ice cream flavor, a class, a grandmother, or just about anything (except okra, but that's a post for another day). But we don't mean the same thing each time. You don't love your grandmother the same way you love Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia (I hope, for your gramma's sake!).

In the original language of the New Testament, there are three different words for love. There is philios, which is brotherly love, eros, which is sensual, romantic, or erotic love, and agape, which is selfless love.

The kind of love that gets the most attention in our culture is eros love. It sells cars, it earns ratings on television, and makes people buy overpriced lingerie. But the kind to look for is agape love. That's the quiet love that does things for another, expecting nothing in return. It's the new mother who gets up 5 times in the night to nurse the crying baby. It's the son who takes out the yard waste bin when it's full, without even being asked to do so. It's the daughter who cleans up the kitchen after dinner as a special surprise. And it's the husband who sets his alarm and gets up at oh-dark-thirty every morning to go to a job he hates but is grateful to have, so that he can pay the bills for his family.

There's nothing sexy or flashy about agape love, but it's the kind of love that's most worth celebrating on Valentine's Day. So do something selfless for those you love. Make waffles. Pumpkin waffles. With amazing butter. It's a love letter on a plate. And even though it wasn't your motivation for doing it, you'll probably get a hug for making them.

I Love You Pumpkin-pecan waffles with maple-cranberry butter
- adapted from Williams Sonoma Breakfast


For the butter:
1/2 cup (2 oz) fresh or thawed frozen cranberries
1/4 Cup (2-3/4 oz) pure maple syrup
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

for waffles:
1 cup ( 5 oz) all-purpose flour,
1 Tbsp firmly packed dark brown sugar,
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1-1/4 cups (10 fl oz) whole milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1-1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/3 cup coarsely chopped pecans
Warmed maple syrup for serving

1- The night before make the maple-cranberry butter. In a small saucepan over low heat, combine the cranberries and maple syrup and cook, stirring frequently, until the cranberries have softened and popped, about 5 minutes. Let cool, then place in a large bowl and add the butter. Beat with a wooden spoon until just combined. Cover the maple-cranberry butter and refrigerate until ready to serve.

2- Preheat the waffle iron. In a large bowl, sieve together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt, and whisk until well mixed.

3- In a large bowl or measuring pitcher, whisk together the milk, egg, and butter. Stir the milk mixture and the pumpkin puree into the dry ingredients until just blended. The batter may be slightly lumpy; do not overmix. Stir in the pecans and transfer the batter back to the pitcher.

4- When the waffle iron is hot, pour batter evenly over the center of the grid, easing it towards, but not into the corners and edges with a wooden spoon. Close the iron and cook according to the manufacturer's instructions until the waffle is golden brown and slmost crusty on the outside and the inside is soft, light, and springy, about 4 minutes.

5- Either serve each waffle as it is finished, or keep them warm on an uncovered platter in a low (200 deg. F) oven while you cook the rest of the waffles.

6- Serve the waffles on warmed plates. Using a small ice cream scoop, place a ball of cranberry butter on top of each waffle and serve at once with warm maple syrup, if desired.

I'm a KAF Fangirl

I'm a doofus. I know it. Other people get excited when their favorite band comes to town and they wait in line for hours for tickets. This weekend I got all giddy because one of my faves came to town and I got in to see them - for FREE!

What hot band, you ask? Um, it wasn't a band. It was a baking demo by King Arthur Flour. You see? I'm a doofus.

But I'm not alone. I really wasn't alone on Saturday. There were 300 other people just like me who filled the hotel conference room to capacity, eager to hear whatever the good people from King Arthur had to say on the topic of Pies and Tarts (the first session), and Yeasted Breads (the second session).



Susan Reid, who works as an instructor at their Baking Center in Vermont and develops recipes for The Baking Sheet, was our instructor. She's got tons of experience, a relaxed attitude to baking, and was really fun to watch as she prepared a pie crust for an apple pie. If you'd like to watch her and pick up a few pie crust pointers, she's got a great tutorial here.

She answered questions about what makes King Arthur flour special (consistency, high protein, and their pickiness, in a nutshell) and general baking question. After the demo, the ladies and their helpers unloaded a ton of door prizes - sacks of KA flour, scone mixes, treats from their sponsors, Hershey, Red Label Yeast, Cabot Cheese and items from the KA catalog (what I call the Wish List). Even though I didn't win a prize, I was happy with sponsor coupons, a dough scraper, and coupons from King Arthur. Yeah!



One of the things that KA does that is so great (or evil, depending on how chubby I'm feeling), is send out emails with links to recipes and pictures that make me whimper, "I want it NOW!" A recent email featured pumpkin scones. Good gosh, fabulous pumpkin scones that wouldn't leave my mind, but begged to be made. So I did. With my own pumpkin puree.

So, this post, besides being a tribute to one of my favorite baking companies, is also to let you know that if you've always wondered about how to turn your own pumpkin into puree, I've got a piece on just that subject over at Simple Bites. So skip over there, read all about it, then come back here and bake some scones. You know you want them!



Harvest Pumpkin Scones
- adapted from King Arthur Flour

2 3/4 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 cup cold butter
1 cup Cinnamon Flav-R-Bites
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
coarse white sparkling sugar or cinnamon-sugar for topping

1) In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices.

2) Work in the butter just until the mixture is unevenly crumbly; it's OK for some larger chunks of butter to remain unincorporated.

3) Stir in the Cinnamon Flav-R-Bites. They look like cat kibble, but they're delicious. You'll want them in there. Trust me.

4) In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the pumpkin and eggs till smooth.

5) Add the pumpkin/egg to the dry ingredients and stir until all is moistened and holds together.

6) Line a baking sheet with parchment; if you don't have parchment, just use it without greasing it. Sprinkle a bit of flour atop the parchment or pan.

7) Scrape the dough onto the floured parchment or pan, and divide it in half. Round each half into a 5 to 6" circle. The circles should be about 3/4" thick.

8) Brush each circle with milk, and sprinkle with coarse white sparkling sugar or cinnamon sugar, if desired.

9) Using a knife or bench knife that you've run under cold water, slice each circle into 6 wedges.

10) Carefully pull the wedges away from the center to separate them just a bit; there should be about 1/2" space between them, at their outer edges.

11) For best texture and highest rise, place the pan of scones in the freezer for 30 minutes, uncovered. While the scones are chilling, preheat the oven to 425°F.

12) Bake the scones for 22 to 25 minutes, or until they're golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean, with no wet crumbs. If you pull one of the scones away from the others, the edges should look baked through, not wet or doughy.

13) Remove the scones from the oven, and serve warm. Wrap any leftovers airtight, and store at room temperature. Reheat very briefly in the microwave, if desired.

Yield: 12 scones.

Gluten-Free Glory

One of my favorite people to feed, my chiropractor, recently was put on a gluten-free diet by his doctor. He enjoyed how he felt, but he missed the baked goods. And because I missed how happy he got when I brought him treats, I began dabbling in gluten-free baking.

One of the premier gluten-free bakeries in the country, The Flying Apron, happens to be in my neck of the woods and they also happen to have just released a cookbook. Of course, when I saw it at Costco I snagged a copy. It features a cornucopia of beautiful baked goods, all of them vegan as well as gluten-free.



My first trial bake from the book hit a home run. The Pumpkin Glory Loaf is a cross between a sweet quick bread and a cake. Dense, moist, very crumbly, and utterly delicious. The grateful recipient of this loaf bit into it and moaned. Ah, sweet success!

Pumpkin Glory Loaf
- adapted from Flying Apron's Gluten-Free & Vegan Baking Book

makes two 8-1/2 by 4-1/2-inch loaves

1 cup buckwheat flour
2 cups brown rice flour
1-3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 cup safflower oil
1 cup molasses
1 cup maple syrup
15 oz can pumpkin puree (about 1-3/4 cups cooked squash, sweet potato, or pumpkin)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup raisins

1- Heat oven to 350 deg. F. Line the bottom of two 8-1/2 by 4-1/2-inch loaf pans with parchment paper. Lightly spray the pan with baking oil and dust with brown rice flour.

2- If your raisins are not fresh, plump, and moist, put them in a bowl, cover them with hot water, and soak them till you are ready to use them.

3- Spread the walnuts on a baking sheet. Toast them for 10 minutes, until they they smell toasted and are lightly browned. Remove the nuts and set aside to cool. Turn the oven temp to 375 deg. F.

4- While the nuts are toasting, combine the dry ingredients (buckwheat flour through cloves) in a large bowl.

5- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the oil, molasses, maple syrup, pumpkin, and vanilla until well mixed. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredient mixture until well mixed, about 3 minutes.

6- If you soaked your raisins, drain them well and pat them dry with a paper towel. Fold the raisins and walnuts into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pans.

7- Bake until the loaf springs back when you press the center with your finger, about 50 minutes. Cool for about an hour before slicing.

Pumpkin's Last Hurrah

It's been a very pumpkiny fall for me. I've tried some new pumpkin recipes and baked several old favorites. But I see the end is in sight. My pumpkin binge is waning and the peppermint season is coming on. As a final send off for pumpkin, I would like to share with you the cupcakes I made to use up the leftover maple cream cheese frosting from this cake. They were moist and delicious, perfect thrones for the maple cream cheese topping.

Goodby fall. It's been wonderful. We've shared so much - especially pumpkin. I hope to see you again....in about 9 months.

Pumpkin and Maple Cupcakes
- adapted from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes
makes 15

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for the tins
1-2/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the tins
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

1- Preheat the oven to 325 deg. F. Brush standard muffin tins with butter; dust with flour and tap out the excess.

2- In a small saucepan melt the butter over medium-olow heat. Cook, swirling occasionally, until the butter turns golden brown. Skim foam off the top and pour the butter into a bowl to stop the cooking. Leave any burned sediment in the pan. Let the butter cool.

3- In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.

4- In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, both sugars, eggs and browned butter. Add the flour mixture and whisk just until combined.

5- Divide the batter evenly among the prepared tins, filling each three-quarters full. Bake about 20 minutes, rotating the tins halfway through baking. Check for doneness with a cake tester inserted near the center - when it comes out clean, they're done.

6- Transfer the tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes.

7- Spread the frosting over each cupcake and, if desired, dust with decorative sprinkles.

Baking: From My Kitchen to Yours - Part 2

The second installment of Baking: From My Kitchen to Yours happened this week. The fabulous Peabody of Culinary Concoctions by Peabody made the trek down to bake with me. Since I was the host kitchen, I got to decide what we were baking. I had a short list of 4 or 5 things, but with all the socializing, side tangents of photography, and children demanding attention, we only accomplished one baking project.

I was drawn to this recipe when I saw it on the website for Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. But when I think of Pea, I think of pumpkin, so naturally I thought of substituting Pea's pumpkin brioche in the recipe. Pumpkin, apple, and pear, all together in a rustic, tasty cake. Yumm.

Since I had a large bowl full of brioche, I decided to double the recipe, making two cakes so there would be enough for everyone. That might have been a mistake, since I was getting so distracted. I ended up with an interesting texture to the streusel topping and an oddly large amount with lots of leftovers. (I'll post later about what I did with that.)

When the recipe calls for an 8 x 3-inch cake pan, apparently it really means it. I realized after I'd put both cakes together that my pans are more like 8 x 2-inch. In the oven the brioche rose, pushing chunks of streusel off to burn on the bottom of the oven because I'd forgotten to put in baking sheets. There's nothing like big clouds of smoke issuing from your oven to really make you feel like a pro baker.

Peabody's kitchen is gorgeous and was spotless when I visited her. My kitchen is more of the "Oh, no, company's coming. Get the snow shovel and clean off the counter!" variety. My cookbooks multiply on the cookbook breeding ground (some people might call it an island) and I have recipes printed off the computer drifting around the kitchen like the first snowflakes of winter.

Peabody's kitchen is also very peaceful. Just Pea and her culinary concoctions. As soon as she got to my house the kitchen was stuffed with people. My oldest daughter, my husband, and my two younger children all wanted to meet her and hang around her. Well, who wouldn't? But it didn't make for smooth, effortless baking.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, it's my excuse for what my oven produced. First, billows of smoke, then a cake that fell in the middle. But it tasted good and we had fun!

Fall Brioche Coffee Cake
- adapted from Artisan Bread In 5 Minutes a Day (go there to see how it's supposed to look)

The Streusel Topping:

1 cup oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar, well packed
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1 cup melted butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

The Cake:

1 pound (grapefruit-size portion) Pumpkin Brioche dough (make it the day before baking - this will yield enough for 2 cakes plus leftovers)
2 small apples (1 tart and 1 sweet, thinly sliced)
1 large pear, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons brown sugar
zest of half an orange
1 1/2 cups streusel topping (above)

1- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare an 8-inch x 3-inch round cake pan with grease, a round piece of parchment and a dusting of flour or sugar.

2-To make the streusel: Place all the ingredients in a bowl and toss until well combined.

3- Divide the pound of dough in two equal pieces, form them into balls and roll them out to be just slightly wider than the cake pan. Place one of the disks of dough in the prepared pan. It should come up the sides just a bit.

4- Combine the apples, pear, brown sugar and zest in a bowl. Spread half of the apple mixture on the first layer of dough.

3- Sprinkle with about 3/4 cup streusel. Repeat with other layer of dough, rest of apples and another 3/4 cup streusel. Let the cake rest for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

4- With a baking sheet beneath the cake to catch drips, bake for about 45 minutes , until tester comes out of the center clean. Run a sharp knife around the edge of the cake.

5-Invert the pan onto a plate. Lift the pan off the cake. Peel the parchment paper off the bottom of the cake and then invert onto a cake plate.

Chestnut Inspiration

My elementary school was about 5 blocks from my house, so I'd walk to school every day. In the fall one of the pleasures of the walk was stomping chestnuts. My sisters and I would walk by several large horse chestnut trees and in the fall the prickly fruit would litter the sidewalk and we'd kick them and stomp on them to reveal the lovely nuts within.

I loved the beautiful, glossy nuts inside, but was sad to learn that they couldn't be toasted and eaten, and the gorgeous glossy exterior of the nuts withered and faded over time. I know because I'd kept a handful, thinking to make them into jewelry or something cool. Hey, it was the 60's - it would have been cool! Possibly groovy as well.

My daughter came over the other day with some eating chestnuts. A neighbor of theirs has a huge tree and is only too happy to have volunteers remove the prickly guys. I had never seen the eating kind of chestnut inside it's prickly casing. It's lots spikier (or, porkier, as my son says) than it's horse chestnut cousin. Having never baked with chestnuts, I was challenged by my daughter to come up with something that really showcased fall flavors, so I got busy.

My cookbooks were remarkably silent on the question of what to do with fresh chestnuts. Most of the recipes used chestnut cream. Hmph. I roasted the chestnuts and peeled them, then inspiration struck. What if I could make them into a chocolatey spread? Chestnut + chocolate = delicious, right?

I adapted an online recipe for making your own Nutella and ended up with....creamy chocolatey goodness with a subtle hint of chestnut? Um, not quite. A dough ball that looked like a giant turd. It appears that chestnuts have a lot less natural oil than hazelnuts. It tasted ok, but the chestnut was very subtle, and no one was going to want to spread this on their bread. So now what?

I figured that I could add the chestnutella as a flavor layer in a bar cookie, so went back to the cookbook stash and found - ta da!- pumpkin pie bars. I rolled out the chestnutella ball into a 9 x 13 sheet, pressed it onto the crust layer, and added pumpkin pie on top. And just to thumb my nose at the calories, I added a struesel topping that sank into the pie layer as it baked.

The verdict? Thumbs up from all the judges! I don't know that I'll want to do all this work on a regular basis, but as a special occasion, welcome Fall cookies, this fits the bill perfectly.

Chestnutella Pumpkin Pie Bars
- adapted from America's Best Recipes

Chestnutella

2 cups toasted, peeled chestnuts*, about 10 oz
1 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla

* to roast the chestnuts, remove the prickly outer layer wearing thick gloved. Cut a small x into the mahogany skin of the nut. Lay the nuts in a single layer on a shallow baking pan. Toast at 350 degrees F. for 8-10 minutes, until the skin peels back from the x.


1-Place the cooled chestnuts into a food processor and process for about 5 minutes till it turns into a fine meal. With regular nuts this would give you a butter, but because the chestnuts don't have as much oil, you'll just get a fine meal that holds together when pinched.

2- Add the sugar, cocoa, and vanilla. The mixture should now clump into a ball. Drizzle in the vegetable oil.

3- Wrap your ball in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until you're ready to use it.

Pumpkin Pie Squares

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats, uncooked
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 recipe of Chestnutella at room temperature
2 cups cooked, mashed pumpkin
3/4 cup sugar
1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
2 eggs
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Whipped cream, for serving

1- Preheat oven to 350 deg. F.

2- Combine the flour, oats, and 1/2 cup brown sugar in a medium bowl. Cut in 1/2 cup butter with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Press the mixture into an ungreased 9 x 13 x 2- inch baking pan. Bake for 15 minutes.

3- While the crust is baking, place the Chestnutella ball between two sheets of waxed paper and roll it out into a 9 x 13 -inch rectangle.

4- Combine the pumpkin and the next 7 ingredients (through the cloves), stirring well.

5- When the crust is done cooking, remove it from the oven. Carefully peel the top layer of waxed paper from the Chestnutella. Invert the rectangle over the pan and press it into place. Peel off the other layer of waxed paper. Trim off any excess and press any tears in the layer to seal them.

6- Pour the pumpkin mixture over the Chestnutella layer. Bake for 20 minutes.

7- Place the 1/2 cup brown sugar in a small bowl; cut in 2 Tbsp butter with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in pecans. Sprinkle over the pumpkin mixture. Bake an additional 20 minutes or until set (a small amount of jiggle is OK, but not wobbly in the center).

8 - Cool and cut into squares. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream, if desired. Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator.

It's Diet Time

With the start of a new year, there is the promise of starting fresh. But, unfortunately, I still drag along the remnants of last year's excesses. Specifically, all the cookies I made and, more specifically, all the cookies I ate. I know I'm not alone in this boat. I've been seeing many bloggers posting their New Year's resolutions, which invariably include something along the lines of eating more healthily.* So it would be cruel of me to taunt and tempt you with mega-calorie taste sensations of cream, butter, and chocolate, knowing that you're trying to lose weight. Instead I offer you my wisdom and counsel from my years of experience in observing and participating in diets.

Dieting tips you don't find in diet books:

1. The calories don't count if you're standing. If you eat sitting down, you're closer to the floor, hence gravity pulls those calories straight to your hips and thighs. Stand up and the calories slide straight down and off.

2. The calories don't count if you eat from the container. Never, ever plate your food. That's where the calorie compounding occurs. Take bites straight from the container. Bonus points if you don't finish the whole thing and put it back in the refrigerator (or freezer, if you're eating ice cream).

3. If you eat from the container while standing, you're actually burning calories. Eating standing up and pacing is equivalent to a 20 minute aerobic workout.

3. The calories don't count if you eat off someone else's plate. That's just tasting or sharing, so those calories totally don't count.

4. Tidying calories don't count. If you wipe up stray frosting or straighten the edge on a pie, a pan of fudge, or a cake, that doesn't count.

4. If you take a chocolate from an assortment and don't like the one you get, those calories don't count. It's just not fair that you should pay the freight for a pineapple cream when you were thinking it was maple cream. And it would be gross to spit it out. So it's only good manners to eat it. And having the discipline to practice good manners with a mouthful of pineapple cream burns calories. So you're almost at a negative calorie situation.

5. Grapefruit has the effect of negating calories, so whatever you eat at the same time as a grapefruit doesn't count. The same for Diet Coke.

6. Food eaten in the car doesn't count. You know you're not really enjoying it.

8. Broken food has no calories. The half a cookie left on a plate is calorie free, as is the chip shards in the bottom of the potato chip bag.


There, hopefully those tips will help. And if you've still got some room after all that dieting, you might try these muffins. They're low calorie and low fat, but I like them anyway. They are deliciously moist, flavorful, with the added zip of cranberries. The only problem is eating just one. Well, if you're standing up, you could probably handle two.


Pumpkin-Cranberry Muffins
adapted from Cooking Light magazine

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 large egg
2/3 cup Craisins, sweetened dried cranberries

1- Preheat oven to 375 deg. F.

2 - Place 12 paper muffin cup liners in muffin cups; coat liners with cooking spray. I used my new silicone cupcake holders on a baking tray, giving each a hit of cooking spray. They released beautifully.

3 - Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, and next 5 ingredients (through cloves); stir well with whisk and set aside.

4 - Combine granulated sugar and next 5 ingredients (through egg) in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 3 minutes). Add flour mixture to sugar mixture; beat at low speed just until combined. Fold in the cranberries.

5 - Spoon batter into prepared cups. Bake at 375 deg. F. for 25 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Remove muffins from pan immediately; place on a wire rack.

Makes 1 dozen muffins, but my muffin cups overflowed when I made just 12, so when I made this recipe again and doubled it, I had 3 extra muffins (27 total when doubled).

~ 199 calories, 3.2 g. fat, 2.8 g protein, 1.5 g fiber 1.3 g iron, and 38 mg calcium. (There, don't you feel virtuous?)


* Here's the part where Grammar Girl goes on a rant. "Healthy" is an adjective. It is not a person, place or thing. You cannot eat Healthy, unless you named your pet goat Healthy and are now going to grill her. Healthily is an adverb, modifying a verb. So you can you use that word to describe the way you eat. If Grammar Girl sees another magazine article about "eating healthy" she will go round the bend and take her side-kick, Adverb Boy, and go slap someone upside the head with a healthy brick of tofu. Please don't force an adjective to do the heavy lifting that an adverb was made for!

Pumpkin Paradise

I've never been a big fan of squash. In my childhood my mother fought an uphill battle to try to get me to eat healthy foods. Cooked carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower were all pushed around the plate but never actually consumed. With acorn squash she tried the classic strategy - cut in half, scoop out seeds, fill the hollow with butter and brown sugar, and bake. I loved that. At least the butter and brown sugar part. When I got to the squash that wasn't saturated with the gooey topping, I lost interest.

Once she even served spaghetti squash, telling us that it was just like spaghetti. Lie! Squash and pasta are nothing like each other. And putting spaghetti sauce on squash doesn't make it spaghetti any more than putting on lipstick and a blond wig makes me Marilyn Monroe.

I considered pumpkins as something to be carved for Halloween or made into pie for Thanksgiving. Anything else was just too...squashy tasting. My sister adores anything pumpkin flavored and I always thought this odd. I'd pass on any recipe to her that had pumpkin - pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin soup, pumpkin kabobs (wait, sorry, just having a Forrest Gump moment there)- and she'd be thrilled.

I'm not sure what changed it for me, but I have a sneaking suspicion it was looking at all the food blogs parading out pumpkin delicacies, each more enticing than the last. I gave in to the urge for pumpkin and made a pumpkin spice cake for my daughter's birthday. Well, that meant that I had leftover pumpkin. What a happy dilemma - what to choose, what to bake?

I succumbed on the same day to two different recipes. One was Peabody's beautiful Pumpkin Brioche. I saw it first on her blog, then I saw it pop up on Melinda's Online Diary, and I knew I had to have it. I made 2 large loaves and two baby loaves, fully intending to share a lot of it. Only one baby loaf made it out the door. We gobbled up one loaf and the next morning made divine French toast with the cinnamon swirl loaf. Yumm.

I'm not going to give you the recipe or directions as they're all on Peabody's site. She gives really clear, step-by-step directions so that even a novice brioche maker like me, can have a beautiful result. Thanks, Peabody!

Peabody recently bought a new house and is having a virtual open house. All invited! (It's a good thing she's got a huge virtual living room.) I am bringing these beautiful Pumpkin Streusel rolls. They are so delicious - light, flaky, not too sweet, with just overtones of pumpkin. I have had this recipe bookmarked for a long time in my Cooking Light cookbook, and this is the perfect occasion to showcase them.

Pumpkin-Cinnamon Streusel Buns
adapted from The Best of Cooking Light

Buns:

1 package dry yeast (about 2-1/4 tsp)
1/4 cup warm water (100 to 110 deg. F)
3-3/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup 1% milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1-1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
3 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp chilled butter, cut into small pieces

Glaze:
3/4 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 Tbsp hot water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1- Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl, and let stand for 5 minutes. Lightly spoon 3-1/4 cups flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Add 3 cups flour, canned pumpkin, and next 5 ingredients to yeast mixture, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead the dough until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes) and add enough of the remaining flour, 1 Tbsp at a time to prevent the dough from sticking to hands. The dough will feel sticky.

2- Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85 deg. F), free from drafts, 45 minutes or until dough is doubled in size. (To test readiness, press two fingers into the dough. If the indentation remains, the dough has risen enough.)

3- Combine 3 Tbsp granulated sugar, brown sugar, 2 Tbsp flour, and ground cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in chilled butter pieces with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse meal.

4- Punch dough down, cover and let rest 5 minutes. On a floured surface roll the dough into a 12 x 10-inch rectangle. Sprinkle with brown sugar mixture. Roll up rectangle tightly starting with a long edge, pressing firmly to eliminate air pockets. Pinch seam and ends to seal. Cut roll into 12 (1-inch) slices. Place the slices in a 11x7 or 9x13-inch pan coated with cooking spray. Cover and let rise for 25 minutes or until doubled in size.

5- Preheat oven to 375 deg. F.

6- Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Cool 15 minutes in pan on a wire rack.

7- Combine powdered sugar, 1 Tbsp water and vanilla in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Drizzle glaze over buns. Serve warm. If, for some reason, not all the buns are consumed while warm, about 10 seconds in the microwave will make a bun warm and soft.

Yield: 12 buns

Another Birthday

My daughter just had a birthday. We all feel sorry for her. She can't help it that her birthday's wrong. Really, birthdays are supposed to be in the summer so you can have pool parties. Despite being born in the wrong (non-summer) season, she is a trooper and manages to have a good attitude about it.

This year we took her to the zoo for her birthday. As we walked across the parking lot, bundled up in coats, scarves, and gloves, she pointed out that as members in the non-summer, we got to park for free. Score! A savings of $4 right there just for having her birthday in November.

Another bonus of having a November birthday is this cake. When considering the options for her birthday cake there was the usual chocolate versus white debate. Then I happened upon a this wonderful cake on Peabody's site. Pumpkin spice cake? Oh yes!

And then I saw these beautiful cupcakes on Nook and Pantry. Maple cream cheese frosting? Oh, drool!

Combine the two fabulous fall flavor sensations and we had the perfect November birthday cake. I doubled the recipe that Peabody used so I had two 9-inch layers. I slathered the butterscotch walnut filling between them (yum, yum). For the frosting I wanted to be sure I had enough for a large cake so I cobbled together a recipe from various cookbooks.


Next time I make the frosting I think I'll leave out the butter. It didn't need it for taste, quantity, or consistency. I wanted a full maple flavor to the frosting and as I added the maple syrup (real maple syrup, so it was rather runny), it got softer and softer. I stopped adding maple syrup and dumped in some maple flavoring. If you wanted to play with amounts, you could probably make it wonderfully without the maple flavoring. I'll give you the recipe as I made it.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

1- 8 oz brick of cream cheese at room temperature
1/4 lb (1 stick) of unsalted butter at room temp.
16 oz (about 4 cups) of confectioners' sugar
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1/4 tsp maple flavoring

With an electric mixer cream together the cream cheese and butter. Add the sugar and carefully beat it in so you don't get a cloud of powdered sugar. I like to start this with a wooden spoon and once the sugar is mostly incorporated, use the mixer to cream it together. Add maple syrup and / or flavoring to taste. To achieve desired consistency, you may need to add a bit more powdered sugar. The frosting will firm up when it's chilled.

To assemble the cake, spread filling over the bottom layer, place the other layer on top, then frost the top and sides. I finished it with fall sprinkles and piped an edge around the top. The frosting was quite soft, though, so I had to hastily pop it into the fridge to chill before the piping slid off the edge.