Pumpkin Crème Brûlée

Obviously this information comes a little too late for you, but I can report that pumpkin crème brûlée makes for a unique and delicious Thanksgiving dessert. My Thanksgiving meal this year was nontraditional what with a main course of herbed turkey burgers with goat cheese and cranberry sauce so why should the dessert follow the traditional rules? Not to mention that I hate making pie crust so this seemed like a much better dessert option for the day. Why muck about with a fussy pie crust when I can play with a blowtorch instead?


I halved Emeril Lagasse's recipe from Food Network since it has such rave reviews. Sure enough, it was creamy and perfectly flavored and practically foolproof. I did wind up with slightly dark tops that tasted a little burnt, but that was easily scraped off with a spoon before adding the crisp sugar topping. I also used more than the paltry amount of sugar called for on top so there could be a nice, thick crisp layer to break through. Yum yum! No need to wait until next Thanksgiving to make this for yourself.

Pumpkin Spice Pull-Apart Bread

Shortly after I became tragically addicted to Pinterest, I discovered and made what was to become one of my favorite recipes of all time: Lemon pull-apart bread. To. Die. For. Imagine how thrilled I was when fall rolled around and I started seeing a pumpkin version cropping up.

Since I'm training for that 5k I'm trying to be good and cut back on sweets, but as Saturday was my 30th birthday I needed to have something special for my birthday breakfast, right? The basic steps of the recipe are the same as the lemon bread with the major change being the addition of pumpkin to the dough and the use of browned butter in place of plain old butter. The filling is perfect for the season with a little nutmeg mixed in with the cinnamon, sugar, and browned butter. Now, for the topping I decided to change things up from the original recipe, which called for a butter rum glaze. As I'm not a huge fan of rum and I've been craving cinnamon rolls lately I instead went with the maple glaze from The Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls. In keeping with the browned butter theme I went ahead and browned the butter for that as well, which gave the topping a stronger flavor. I think I'll also use that trick from now on whenever I make those cinnamon rolls.


Now it's time for me to confess where I messed this up. In an effort to do as much the night before and have less to do the day of my birthday I sliced the dough, layered it, and put it in the pan overnight. All this to save a measly 30-40 minutes. The dough continued to rise nicely in the fridge but the problem was that the butter and sugar ran to the bottom of the pan and formed a syrup. As a result, my layers didn't stick together as well as they should have and I'm sure the loaf wasn't as ooey gooey as it would have been otherwise. Oh well. It still tasted delicious and the combination of flavors was there, not to mention that there was plenty of added moisture from the glaze. It was a great fix for that pumpkin craving I always get this time of year. Just like the lemon pull-apart bread, this stuff didn't last long in our house.

Pumpkin Spice Pull-Apart Bread
Recipe adapted from Willow Bird Baking

Pumpkin Pull-Apart Bread Ingredients:
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups bread flour

Filling Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Maple Browned Butter Glaze Ingredients:
Recipe adapted from The Pioneer Woman
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup powdered sugar (plus more if necessary)
1/2 teaspoon maple flavor
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 tablespoons brewed coffee

Directions:
Make the pull-apart bread dough: Grease and flour a loaf pan and set aside. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, brown the 2 tablespoons of butter. Let it bubble and foam and when you see it start to brown, stir it so that it browns evenly. When it’s the color of dark honey, remove it from the heat and pour it into a large heat-safe mixer bowl to cool. In the same saucepan over medium-low heat, warm the milk until it bubbles. Remove it from the heat and pour it into the bowl with the butter. Let these cool until they’re about 100-110 degrees F (use a candy thermometer to check).

Stir the sugar and yeast into the milk/butter mixture and let it sit for a few minutes. Stir in pumpkin, salt, and 1 cup flour. If you haven’t already, fit your mixer with a dough hook. Add the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time, stirring between each addition. When the dough is combined, knead on low speed with a dough hook until smooth and elastic (about 4 minutes with a mixer).

Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover it with a damp cloth. Let it rise in a warm place for about an hour until it doubles in size (After it rises, you can put it in the fridge overnight to use it in the morning, but let it sit out for half an hour before rolling if you do.)

Make the filling: While the dough is rising, whisk the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a small bowl. Toward the end of the rising time, melt the 2 tablespoons of butter for the filling in the saucepan over medium-high heat and brown it as directed above. Put it in a small heat-safe bowl to cool for use later.

Shape and bake pull-apart bread: Knead a sprinkling of flour (about 1 tablespoon) into the dough, deflating it, and recover it. Let it sit to relax for 5 minutes. Flour a large work surface and turn your rested dough out onto it. Roll it out to a 20 inch long and 12 inch wide rectangle, lifting corners periodically to make sure it’s not sticking. If it seems to be snapping back, cover it with your damp towel and let it rest for 5 minutes before continuing (I had to do this twice during the process).

Spread the browned butter over the surface of the dough with a pastry brush and then sprinkle the sugar mixture over the top, patting it down to ensure it mostly sticks. Joy the Baker encourages you to use it all even though it seems like a ton, but I admit I got squeamish at the amount and only used most. It was fine despite my nerves. Go ahead and pile it on.

With the long edge of the rectangle toward you, cut it into 6 strips (do this by cutting the rectangle in half, then cutting each half into equal thirds. I used a pizza cutter). Stack these strips on top of one another and cut the resulting stack into 6 even portions (again, cut it in half, and then cut the halves into equal thirds). Place these portions one at a time into your greased loaf pan, pressing them up against each other to fit them all in. Cover the pan with your damp cloth and place it in a warm place for 30-45 minutes to double in size.

While dough rises, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (or 325 if you have a glass loaf dish instead of a metal pan). When it’s risen, place the loaf in the center of the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until dark golden brown on top (if you take it out at light golden brown, it’s liable to be raw in the middle, so let it get good and dark). Cool for 15-20 minutes on a cooling rack in the loaf pan while you make the glaze.

Make the glaze: Brown the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat as directed above. Mix together all ingredients and stir well until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed. Remove loaf from pan and generously drizzle glaze over the warm loaf.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding Cupcakes w/Maple Buttercream

When I saw a recipe online for pumpkin bread pudding the wheels automatically started turning as I worked out how I could turn them into cupcakes. My white chocolate bread pudding cupcakes were so successful that I knew I could adapt that recipe for a tasty fall treat.

I fiddled with the proportions of some of the ingredients, added spices and diced ginger, and wound up with a yummy cupcake-sized morsel of pumpkin-infused bread pudding. The cake itself isn't too sweet but that's more than made up for with the addition of delicious maple buttercream. I used real maple syrup and a dash of artificial maple flavoring because I worried the maple syrup flavor wouldn't be strong enough. I don't mind that fake flavor in small quantities and kind of like that I keep catching whiffs of it in the air but if it's not your thing you can omit it.

A note about the frosting recipe below: it only makes enough to pipe a small dollop of frosting on each cupcake (see above picture). Because it's so sweet and strong I didn't want to pile on the frosting and overwhelm the pumpkin cake, but if you want to generously pipe it you'll need to make more.

I also think these would be quite good with the addition of cranberries. I wish I'd thought to throw 1/2 a cup of frozen berries in with the bread cubes before baking. I guess there's always next time!

Pumpkin Bread Pudding Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from Cupcake Bakeshop

1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 loaf of dense white bread, 1 or 2 days old
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
3 large egg yolks
1 large egg
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/8 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 ground ginger
A pinch of ground cloves
1 tablespoon crystallized ginger, finely diced

1. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, whisk together the cream, milk, vanilla, and flour. Bring to a boil, stirring. Remove from heat, cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes.
2. Chop bread into 1/2″ cubes. Transfer to a large bowl and set aside.
3. Bring cream mixture back to boil and stir in pumpkin puree. Take off the heat and continue to stir until smooth and thoroughly combined.
4. Whisk together the egg yolks, egg, and sugars in a large bowl. Add cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, and ground cloves and whisk until combined. Add diced ginger and slowly add the warm pumpkin mixture, whisking constantly until combined.
5. Pour the mixture carefully over the bread cubes. Stir until all cubes are covered with pumpkin mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 15 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 15 cupcake wells with paper liners (paper cup liners work best).
7. Scoop soaked bread cubes into cupcake papers until bread cubes are level with the top of the rim.
8. Carefully pour any remaining liquid into each cupcake filling until nearly full.
9. Bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes until set.
10. Remove from oven and cool in pan 5-10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool cupcakes completely on a wire rack.

Maple Buttercream
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon maple flavoring
2 tablespoons maple syrup

1. Cream butter and sugar until smooth. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
2. Add maple flavoring and maple syrup and beat until combined. You may have to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and continue to mix.

Glass Shard Cupcakes

A Photo A Day [Day 62]

Although I'm trying to get over my miserable failure at today's local Iron Cupcake: Moorestown competition where I didn't even place, I figured I'd post pictures of my entry here for your enjoyment. I honestly don't get what the judges are looking for in these things because my cupcakes tasted amazing and, at least in my eyes, looked great. It's really disheartening to lose to a cupcake that tastes like the frosting came from a supermarket shelf while I slaved away last night and this morning to make homemade dulce de leche for my filling and frosting. Not to sound too catty and bitter about the whole thing, but the disappointment's definitely there.

The themes were "pumpkin" and "Halloween" so I made another batch of the astoundingly delicious dulce de leche pumpkin cupcakes I made last week (see that post for the recipe). They're moist pumpkin cake filled with homemade dulce de leche topped with dulce de leche buttercream.

For those of you concerned for the welfare of my kitchen after my last disastrous attempt at making dulce de leche, I can say that third time's the charm for me when it comes to making the stuff. Scared off of the oven method, I made a double batch last night on the stovetop using a double boiler, stirring occasionally. It worked like a charm even though it took over three hours of cooking, but at least I was able to leave it unsupervised for the most part. Unfortunately I managed to mess it up by cooking it too long so this morning I woke up to a giant blob of hardened caramel stuck in the bowl. The bowl was only $1 so I'm tempted to just throw it out rather than clean the darn thing. This morning I went back to the oven method of pouring the condensed milk into a pan, covering it with foil, placing it in a water bath, and heated it at 425 F for a little over an hour. No accidents this time because I omitted the baking soda and watched it like a hawk.

For the cupcakes' Halloween decorations I went against my husband's advice to stick with cutesy since the family-oriented crowd might not go for gory. While I love what I came up with maybe I would have had a chance of placing if I'd listened to him. Anyway, I took the idea from A Zombie Ate My Cupcake by Lily Vanilli. The recipe I used made far too much "glass" so next time I'd halve the recipe below. For the "blood" I boiled down some cranberries in water with lots of sugar and pulsed it into a blender until the cranberries were all broken up. You could go the easy way out and use pureed cherry pie filling or raspberry jam.

Even though I didn't even place, the crowd seemed to love mine. Everyone kept stopping to check them out, take photos, and they were the first ones to run out once we were allowed to sample the goodies. Still, I'm dismayed that I spent all that time making the silly decorations and made some damn fine cupcakes and still didn't come close.

Glass Shards
Recipe from A Zombie Ate My Cupcake by Lily Vanilli

(You may want to halve this recipe)

Nonstick spray
2 cups water
3 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

1) Line a large cookie sheet with foil or a Silpat and spray with nonstick spray. Spray the pan at least 30 minutes prior to using it.

2) Mix together the water, sugar, corn syrup and cream of tartar in heavy saucepan and bring to a boil with a candy thermometer inserted. Let the mixture boil, stirring continuously, until it reaches 300 F (this step took me nearly 40 minutes, grrr). Pour the mixture very quickly and carefully onto the lined and oiled pan. Spread evenly and let cool.

3) When the mixture has cooled completely, carefully pop it out of the pan and peel off the foil or Silpat. Tap it in the center with a hammer or meat mallet to crack it into shards.


Since I love Halloween so much I did enjoy seeing what everyone else came up with. Although most of the entries were cutesy there were some that caught my eye.






Edited to add:
Someone else got a good picture of the winning rat cupcakes. They're definitely impressive, both in concept and in execution, so I can see how they won. I guess my style of focusing more on the taste of the cupcakes and not wanting to complicate that with fussy decorations doesn't really work in these competitions. Which is a shame because it seems like my tastes runs toward simple and understated, not just in cupcakes but in clothes, design, etc. I doubt I'll ever be on board with taking all that time to decorate something that will be demolished in minutes.

Sourkraut's Kitchen Nightmares

Ever have one of those kitchen catastrophes that makes you want to pack your bags and move out to avoid having to clean it up? Such was my first attempt at making dulce de leche from condensed milk. I'm seriously considering not using my oven again for the next ten years because by then it'll be old enough for us to justify buying a replacement. It's either that or buy stock in Easy Off since I imagine I'll need a couple of cases of the stuff to deal with the disaster area that is my kitchen.

I should say that the recipe I used is in no way to blame. It's all on me. The recipe said to pour a can of sweetened condensed milk into a pie pan and bake for an hour. I wound up using a casserole dish instead. Mistake #1, I suppose. I do own a pie pan but because I only use it maybe twice a year I loaned it to my mom, who lives three states away, to use while making quiche for her book club this week. I figure since I purloined half of her kitchen supplies when I moved away it was only fair. While I'm driving down to VA this weekend to supply her book club with desserts and to collect my pie pan, I couldn't wait that long to try Sweetest Kitchen's amazing-looking pumpkin dulce de leche cupcakes. I might have thought to combine pumpkin with caramel but it would have never occurred to me to take it a step further and go for dulce de leche instead. That woman is an evil genius, I tell ya!

To begin the disastrous day, at the last minute I decided to whip up a second batch of those cupcakes for the book club gals. It occurred to me that some might not be as addicted to sugar as I so they might require a more grownup cupcake than the Butterfinger cupcakes I made earlier in the day. I planned to cheat and buy canned dulce de leche at Wal-Mart because they have a huge international foods section and I'd bought some there before. Well, they've either discontinued it or that particular branch never stocked it because I couldn't find any there. As the cupcakes were already baked and I was so keen on the idea of using dulce de leche I decided to make my own.

So here's where I really went wrong: in addition to swapping in the casserole dish I also added a scant teaspoon of baking soda. In the comments section of the recipe someone mentioned that that's a good way to make sure the mixture gets nice and brown. I should have realized that it would also make the mixture bubble up like crazy. I do know better than to leave my baking unattended but it was late at night, I was pooped, and Dexter was on TV. Are those enough excuses to atone for my shameful sin? About 45 minutes into the one-hour baking process, I noticed the smell from upstairs. Ran downstairs to find a small plume of smoke coming out of the oven and a scene from Hell waiting for me inside. Seems the dish I used was not wide enough so the condensed milk bubbled up and over the edge of both that dish and the water-filled one I'd set it in. Both pans were covered with sticky, burnt brown sweetened milk and the bottom of the oven looks like I locked The Blob in there and cranked the heat on high.

Beware of The Blob, it creeps and leaps and glides and melts in the bottom of your oven

Oh, and did I mention the smell? Even my husband, who has no sense of smell to speak of, asked me when the odor would go away. Sometimes it smells quite pleasant, like caramalized sugar. But most of the time it smells like sour milk and burnt feet. Not that I know what burnt feet smell like but I can imagine.


In my defense, I did do a quick Google search to make sure the baking soda tip wasn't totally off the wall. I saw a few dulce de leche recipes used it to balance out the acidity of the milk to result in a smoother and browner dulce de leche. But those recipes seem to be for cooking on the stove top not in a sealed pan in the oven. So it's a good tip but not for this method. Next time I'll heat the condensed milk alone and maybe transfer it to a saucepan towards the end, add the baking soda at that point, and heat it long enough to turn nice and brown.

Miracle of miracles, I was able to salvage some unscathed dulce de leche from the bottom of the pan and it just so happened to be the exact right amount for the frosting. The rest was supposed to be used as filling so I simply skipped that step. As amazing as I'm sure they are with the dulce de leche filling and frosting combo double whammy, they are still utterly divine with just the moist pumpkin cake topped with creamy dulce de leche buttercream. That frosting is to die for. I know I've said that a few times already on this blog but this one really takes the cake.

Despite my troubles I will most certainly be making this recipe again. And again and again. Assuming my oven's ever clean enough to use again, of course. You should make them too. They're sure to be a crowd pleaser so whip some up when you have friends, relatives, or foreign dignitaries visiting. Just try to learn from my mistakes so you don't have to spend the next three years of your life scrubbing out the bottom of your poor oven.

Pumpkin Cupcakes w/Dulce De Leche Buttercream
Recipe from Sweetest Kitchen

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
7.5 ounces pureed pumpkin

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 cupcake wells with paper liners; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice; set aside.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and eggs. Add dry ingredients, and whisk until smooth. Whisk in pumpkin puree.

4. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling each about halfway. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating pans once if needed. Cool in pan on wire rack for ten minutes, then remove from pan and transfer to a wire rack. Let cool completely.

Dulce De Leche
Recipe from Sweetest Kitchen
Makes just enough to fill cupcakes and use in frosting

1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
Boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2. Open up the can and pour the sweetened-condensed milk into a pie pan. Cover tightly with foil. Place into a larger pan and pour boiling water in larger pan & around pie plate (level of water should be about halfway up the pie plate). Don’t let any water seep up and into the pie plate.

3. Place in oven and bake for one hour. At the one hour point, peel off foil and check for progress. If the mixture has thickened and turned a caramel color, it’s done. If it doesn’t quite look thick enough or dark enough, cover it up and bake it a little longer (might take up to 75 minutes or more).

4. When the mixture appears to have turned into a nice, thick caramel, remove from the oven. Let sit for a few minutes, and then beat with an electric mixer until smooth.

5. Measure out 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons of dulce de leche and set aside for buttercream. Using the cone method, fill each cupcake with a small spoonful of the remaining dulce de leche and replace cake tops.

Dulce De Leche Buttercream
Recipe from Sweetest Kitchen
Makes enough to generously frost 12 cupcakes

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons prepared dulce de leche

1. Cream together softened butter and powdered sugar on low using an electric mixer. Add cream and vanilla and beat on medium speed until smooth and no lumps appear. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the prepared dulce de leche and beat to incorporate. Pipe generously onto cupcakes.