Okay, this will be the last pumpkin post for the next little while (though I still have something pumpkiny on the backburner!), and it’s probably something everyone has a favourite recipe for: pumpkin spice loaf.

However, I have yet to find my favourite version, so I keep trying ones that sound perfectly spiced and full of pumpkin flavour. This one, from Chowtimes, comes pretty close. I knew I wanted to have fresh cranberries in there, and I thought all the cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in this recipe would stand up to all the cranberry. They certainly did, though next time I would increase the spice amounts just a bit.

I made two different types of loaf. In one I added chocolate chips and in the other, chopped walnuts. I definitely preferred the chocolate chip one, as the dark chocolate was perfect against the cranberry and meshed nicely with the cinnamon and pumpkin. The walnut was good, but would’ve been even better with a drizzle of cinnamon frosting or something to sweeten it up a little.

Both loaved baked up wonderfully, making the kitchen smell nice and spicy! They were moist and the pumpkin flavour wasn’t overpowering. All in all, this is a great go-to recipe whenever you’ve got some pumpkin puree on hand and an itch for a pumpkin spice bread.

Pumpkin Spice Cranberry Bread with Walnuts and/or Chocolate Chips
adapted from Chowtimes
makes 2 loaves

1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil (or 1/2 cup vegetable oil and 1/2 cup apple sauce)
3 large eggs
2 cups pumpkin puree
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup chopped walnuts
and/or
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter and flour two 9×5×3 inch loaf pans.

2. Beat sugar and oil in a large bowl to blend. Mix in eggs and pumpkin.

3. Sift flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and baking powder into another large bowl. Stir into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions.

4. Mix in cranberries, walnuts and /or chocolate chips.

5. Divide batter equally between prepared pans. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Transfer to racks and cool 10 minutes. Using a spatula, loosen the edge around the loaves. Turn the loaves out onto racks and cool completely.

If you like this, you might also like:

Lemon-Drenched Lemon Cake
Blueberry Lemon Loaf with Lemon Glaze
Orange-Spice Pumpkin Bars with Browned Butter Frosting

The pumpkin chronicles continue! This time we have something a little bit different – a savoury Greek-style pumpkin pie, also known as kolokithopita. When I first saw this over at Closet Cooking, I was intrigued. I felt like I wanted a little more flavours incorporated into my pie, so I combined a few recipes and came up with this version of kolokithopita. It resembles spanakopita, except instead of spinach and dill, the phyllo pastry is rolled around a slightly sweet and salty pumpkin and feta mixture. It’s like tiropita, Greek cheese pie, but with the great taste of pumpkin!

I am a fan of this! It’s not as good as my beloved spinach pie, but it is a nice change of pace. The pumpkin mixture is heavy on the feta, leaving nice chunks of salty, tangy cheese that play extremely well with the mellow pumpkin puree (some recipes add ricotta to this mixture as well, which I think I would try next time!). I added honey and nutmeg to the pumpkin filling, which added a necessary sweetness to it (next time, I may even add a bit more), and the nutmeg was a perfect hint of spice.

The flaky, light and buttery phyllo was awesome, and I ended up using two sheets of phyllo, with melted butter painted across between the layers. I spooned the filling along one long edge of the pastry to the edges, folded in the edges, and rolled it up into a tube. I stuck the tube into a springform pan, and repeated this process until I had what looked like a phyllo and pumpkin snail. For a visual cue, check out After Apple-Picking’s site).

I preferred the pie the following day – I felt right out of the oven, it was a tad dry. The phyllo absorbing some of the wetness from the pumpkin helped a lot in fixing that problem. It was absolutely great the next few days, heated in the microwave! I used a 9” springform pan, so I think I ended up not having enough filling (hence the dryness). Next time, I’d probably use a smaller pan, or increase the filling.

Kolokithopita – Greek Savoury Pumpkin Pie
adapted from Closet Cooking & After Apple-Picking

Melted butter
Phyllo pastry (thawed overnight in the fridge)

PUMPKIN-FETA FILLING
2 cups pumpkin puree
¾ cup crumbled feta
2 eggs
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon honey
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.

2. Crumble feta into a mixing bowl. Add eggs, nutmeg and honey, then mash and mix up with a fork until combined. Add pumpkin and season with salt and pepper. Mix with fork.

3. Brush tin or tray with melted butter to grease.

4. Spread pastry out and brush all over with melted butter. Join two sheets with butter and use as one. Spoon filling along one long edge of pastry almost to the edges. Fold in edges, then roll the pastry away from you to form a tube. Fit into tin, bending gently to curve. Repeat until the spiral is complete. You should have some butter remaining – use this to brush over the top of the pie generously.

5. Bake for 40 – 50 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into wedges and serve straight from the pan.

If you like this, you might also like:

Spanakopita
Greek Pasta Salad with Feta and Olives
Eggs Benedict and Toasted Spinach

As promised, here’s one of the things I made with my own pureed pumpkin: Pumpkin Apple Spice Cake. I’ve been avidly following the Food Librarian’s bundt-cake-baking-fest and have pretty much decided to make every single one of the posted cakes. The first one I tried, given I had so much pumpkin puree as well as plenty of apples, was the Pumpkin Apple Spice Cake. What a great first choice!

I appreciated a lot of things about this cake. This recipe made 6 smaller bundt cakes, each one a wonderfully moist cake with plenty of warm, fall spices that shone brightly against the pumpkin and big chunks of apple. Apple doesn’t often tend to stand out in their flavour, but I found they did in this cake. The pumpkin taste is mild and complemented by the cinnamon and cloves. One of my favourite things about the cake was that it wasn’t very sweet – there’s not much sugar in here, and so the apple, pumpkin and spices are not overpowered with sweetness. Oh, and does this ever make for a moist cake and when it’s served the same day it’s made, it has a nice crisp crust . Yum!

I was going to make a honey frosting to go with this, but after eating my first mini-bundt, I realized it wasn’t necessary. These are great all on their own and a perfect fall bundt cake.

Pumpkin Apple Spice Bundt Cake
adapted from The Food Librarian

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
10 Tbsp butter, softened a bit
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin purée
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups of diced Granny Smith apples
Powdered sugar to sift on top

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.

2. Mix dry ingredients in medium bowl and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until well blended. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, incorporating each completely. Add the pumpkin and blend well. Add vanilla and blend well. Stir dry ingredients into wet, a third at a time, stirring as little as possible to blend completely. Fold in the apple chunks.

4. Spray bundt pan (I used a pan with 6 mini bund molds) generously with nonstick cooking spray. Spread batter evenly in pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until cake starts to turn golden brown and whole kitchen smells good. Removed from oven and let cool in the pan for five minutes. Check to see if you need to run a butter knife along to break the edge away from the pan, but be careful not to damage the sides of the cake. Invert onto a plate and allow to cool completely. Sift powdered sugar onto the cake and serve.

If you like this, you might also like:

Mini Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
Orange Spice Pumpkin Bars with Browned Butter Frosting
Fresh Mango Bread

Given my adventure at Thanksgiving a few weeks back, and the fact that I still cannot easily find canned pumpkin, plus the abundance of cheap pumpkins being sold everywhere, I decided to finally use some common sense and just make my own pumpkin puree. For anyone who is still buying the stuff in the can (especially during pumpkin season) – STOP! It is easier, tastier and more fun just to do it yourself.

I bought two big pumpkins for about $3 each. I scooped out the seeds (spicy-sweet roasted pumpkin seed recipe to follow!) and strings, cut the pumpkin in half, rubbed some olive oil on them, put them cut-side down on a baking sheet and baked the halves at 425 degrees for about 45 minutes (I kept checking after about 30 minutes). When pumpkin meat was nice and soft, I scooped it out, pureed it with a hand blender, and let all the excess juice drain out.

Voila! One pumpkin later, I had about two and a half liters of pureed pumpkin, ready to be used in any recipe! I froze a lot of it, and baked with a bit of it, just to test it out. The results were fantastic, and to be posted in a few days.

But for now, what I did with the pumpkin seeds I removed:

Spicy-Sweet Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

pumpkin seeds from 1 large pumpkin

1 teaspoon teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground dried chilies
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Olive oil

Combine spices together. Feel free to add more or less of any spice, or to add any spices you’d like.

Coat with olive oil and spread evenly in the pan. Toss them with the spices and roast them at about 325 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until they become crunchy.

It’s as easy as that, and whether you just use a bit of salt or go all out with the spices, they’re going to be delicious.

More on the pumpkin puree soon!