Pumpkin Creme Brulee

A week or so ago, my friend Megan from Megan's Cookin, and I decided to this cookbook project. I have a ton of cookbooks, some of them I have not opened the first time, so this would be something to get me to use them. So, for the first round, I chose this Pumpkin Creme Brulee from Gale Gand's book Butter, Sugar, Flour, Eggs. I first saw her on the Food Network show Sweet Dreams. How I miss that show!

This is all that you would want in this dessert, pumpkin, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg...love it. The recipe said that you would get 4 creme brulee's out of this recipe, but I got 6! Bonus!!

Next up is Megan, I can't wait to see what she picks!

Pumpkin Creme Brulee
By:Gale Gand

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
2 pinches nutmeg
1 pinch ginger
1 pinch ground cloves
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/3 cup coarse sugar or raw sugar


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

In a medium saucepan, heat the cream, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves over medium heat, stirring occasionally, just until it comes to a boil. Immediately turn off the heat and set aside to infuse at least 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the granulated sugar. Whisking constantly, gradually pour in the hot cream mixture. Whisk in the pumpkin puree. Pour the mixture into 4 ovenproof ramekins and arrange in a hot water bath. Bake in the center of the oven until almost set but still a bit soft in the center, 30 to 40 minutes. The custard should "shimmy" a bit when you shake the pan; it will firm up more as it cools.

Remove from the water bath and let cool 15 minutes. Tightly cover each ramekin with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic does not touch the surface of the custard. Refrigerate at least 2 hours, and up to 24 hours. When ready to serve, preheat a broiler to very hot (or fire up your kitchen torch).

Uncover the chilled custards. Pour as much coarse sugar as will fit onto the top of 1 of the custards. Pour off the remaining sugar onto the next custard. Repeat until all the custards are coated. Discard any remaining sugar. Place the ramekins on a baking sheet or in a roasting pan and broil until the sugar is melted and well browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Let cool 1 minute before serving.

Pumpkin Cloverleaf Rolls

Fall is here, and all I can think about is pumpkin and cranberries. I found this recipe in the newest addition of Family Fun Magazine and thought that they sounded good and thought I would give them a try. The verdict...they were ok. I think sweet, cinnamon and nutmeg with pumpkin. These are not very sweet at all. The only sweetener is honey in this recipe, so these would be good if you wanted to serve them at the dinner table. Now, my kids loved them with a little pad of butter on them. I did sprinkle a little sugar cinnamon mix on the top before baking, but I think next time I will add a little pumpkin pie spice to them.

Pumpkin Cloverleaf Rolls
By: Family Fun Magazine

3 3/4 cup all purpose flour, plus more for sprinkling
1 package or 2 1/4 tsp instant or bread machine yeast
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup canned or frozen and thawed pureed pumpkin
1 large egg
1/2 cup warm water
1/4 cup (1 stick) butter

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, yeast, and salt, and set it aside.

Pour the milk into a microwave-safe bowl or 4-cup glass measuring cup and microwave on high for 30 seconds. Whisk in the honey, pumpkin, egg and water. (The liquid mixture should be less then 110 degrees, anything hotter will kill the yeast.)

With a fork, blend the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture until you have a soft dough. cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Two hours before baking, turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead lightly. Melt the butter and set it aside in a small bowl. Divide the dough in half, then divide each half into 6 portions. Divide each portion into 3 pieces. With floured hands, roll each piece into a ball and dip it into the melted butter. Place 3 balls in a muffin cup. Continue until 12 muffin cups are filled.

Drizzle or brush each roll with 1/2 tsp of the leftover butter. Let the rolls rise in a warm spot until they are doubled in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. The 3 balls of dough will rise together to form a cloverleaf shape.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the rolls until golden, about 15-17 minutes.

Pumpkin Bread and Marshmallows

I am still continuing my bake sale frenzy and now I have pumpkin bread baked in loaves, packaged and my house smells wonderful! Now all I need is some cream cheese to spread on a slice!

Pumpkin Bread

3 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp nutmeg

3/4 Cup water

4 eggs

1 Cup oil

3/4 Cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

1 tsp cinnamon

3 Cups sugar

2 cups pumpkin puree

Mix all of the ingredients together...I just throw them all into a mixing bowl at one time..and pour into well greased and floured loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, until toothpick comes out clean.

This makes 2 regular loaves.

Next, I have marshmallows, I have made these before and the recipe that I use is from the very talented Tartlette. This recipe has not failed me yet. After making and eating homemade marshmallows, I cannot bring myself to buy another bag of these. You can find the recipe here.