Pumpkin Soup, Pumpkin Pancakes

So, this post concludes what I've officially named Pumpkin Week. Last night, thanks to Paul's suggestion, I made pumpkin soup to accompany our dinner of pierogies and roasted veggies. This morning, I made pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Amazing fact: all four pumpkin recipes I've written about in the last few days (pasta, bread, soup, and pancakes) were made from only one 29 oz. can of pure pumpkin puree. How's that for economical? Ah, the joys of cooking for only two!

This soup was absolutely delicious. Reminded me of a butternut squash soup I had at one of our favorite Philly restaurants, La Viola.

Pumpkin Soup
adapted from Cream of Pumpkin Soup, allrecipes.com

• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 tbsp butter, melted
• 14 oz chicken broth
• about a cup of pure pumpkin puree
• 1/2 tsp hot sauce (optional)
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup half-and-half
• 1/4 cup 2% milk

1. Saute the onion in butter in a saucepan until tender. Add 7 oz. chicken broth, stir well. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes.
2. By either transferring broth back & forth between a blender or food processor, or using an immersion blender in your saucepan, process until smooth.
3. (If using regular blender, return mixture to saucepan). Add remaining broth, pumpkin, hot sauce, salt, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and pepper. Stir well, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Stir in the half-and-half and milk and heat through - do not boil. Ladle into soup bowls and serve with a sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg on top.

Now for the pancakes...

Morning sunlight makes for the best pictures. :)

GOOD morning!

Pumpkin Pancakes

adapted from Easy Pancakes, allrecipes.com

• 1 cup flour
• 2 tbsp wheat germ (optional)
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup pure pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips or chopped nuts of your choice (optional)

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, wheat germ, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center, and pour in the egg, milk, oil, and pumpkin. Whisk together just until smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips or nuts.
2. Heat a non-stick griddle over medium-high heat. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve with any of the following: butter, maple syrup, honey, cinnamon, chopped nuts. 

Sick of pumpkin yet?

Cheers, 

L

Pumpkin Loaf

Consider this a continuation of last night's pumpkin post. As mentioned previously, I've been craving a good pumpkin quick bread. After conducting extensive scientific research in order to locate the perfect recipe, I decided on smittenkitchen's pumpkin muffin recipe. With my own tweaks, of course. I obviously changed it to a loaf recipe, omitted the cinnamon sugar topping, and because I refuse to spend money on "pumpkin pie spice" when I already have all the individual ingredients on my spice rack, I changed -- and increased -- the spices. I like my autumn cakes/muffins with lots of spices, but not to the point of overkill.

As a habitual over-mixer of muffin/quick bread batters, I really liked Deb's advice in her post:

A large wire whisk, when mixing by hand, really allows you to incorporate all of the drying ingredients quickly without mashing them up too much. It’s made it much harder to overdo it, despite my better efforts.

I found this to be totally true. Despite my efforts to gently fold in the flour, I've always unintentionally over-mixed my muffins and quick breads, leaving them to fall flat (literally) or become a giant sinkhole. This whisk thing sure does the trick!

Pumpkin Loaf
adapted from smittenkitchen.com

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup pure pumpkin puree
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9"x5" loaf pan or baking dish.
2. Whisk together the pumpkin, oil, eggs, spices, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth and thoroughly combined.
3. Whisk in the flour and baking powder just until combined. Pour the batter into your loaf pan/baking dish, and bake until golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour.

That last picture is the most flattering photo I could take of the finished product. I had a minor disaster while turning the loaf out of the pan -- things were not pretty (including the string of swear words that came out of my mouth in the process). But, although it doesn't look pretty, it is darn tasty, and that's all that matters. :)

Cheers,
L