Thursday, October 21, 2010

The good, the bad, and the adorable!

It's pumpkin time! I've been buying up some canned pumpkin like crazy. The trouble is, I haven't found a recipe I like enough to use it! Plain old pumpkin pie. Not for this momma! I like it and all, but it's everywhere. I want something new and different.

Enter Martha. You know how I mean. She only needs one name. Well, if you go to her website, you can get on a mailing list for daily recipes. I'm on the cookie list. Which is ironic because I literally can't remember the last time I made cookies.

Martha e-mailed me a recipe for some pumpkin cookies that sounded pretty good and had me actually considering making them. Then I read the reviews. I highly recommend you do this too anytime you get a recipe from a website. Most people will make changes for the better. Some people are a little technically-challenged and you can get an idea of what might go wrong from the complaints. Well, this recipe most people complained the cookies were too "cakey" and fluffy. One or two people said they made them like cupcakes and they were great. I'm pretty sure you can see where this is going...


Pumpkin surprise Cupcakes - adapted from Martha Stewart

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin (14 ounces)
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 bag (8 oz.) butterscotch chips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in a medium bowl; set aside.


Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low. Add pumpkin, evaporated milk, and vanilla; mix until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture; mix until combined. Fold in walnuts and butterscotch chips.


Pour into lined muffin tin. Bake for 15-18 minutes until browned on top. **because this is actually a cookie recipe, mine came out a little gooey at the top, but I cooled in the pan and they were good to go once they cooled down.

I topped it off with a cream cheese frosting from a recipe I found here. It was the perfect topper - not too sweet. The pumpkin flavor was very subtle and even my friends who aren't pumpkin lovers (how can such a thing be?!) enjoyed them. So this was definitely the "good" as referenced above.





So yummy!!

Now, what is the bad? Well, when I tell you what I tried to make, you'll probably think "Duh! You thought it would be good?" But I'm an optimist I guess.

So I was flipping through my new favorite cookbook I mentioned in an earlier blog and I came across an avocado & olive oil cupcake. Now, I realize this isn't a cupcake technically. But I love avocados. I mean, I'll go to a fat daddy burrito restaurant just for the guacamole. Forget the chips or burrito. So when I saw this, I thought hell yes, this is for me!


Wrong.

There was no sugar which didn't strike me as odd but was definitely missing in the final product. The avocado was such a big part of the recipe, that it came out almost slimy. Not to mention how ugly they looked. I think my camera agreed as this is the best shot I could get.



I'm not giving up on this. I'm going to sleep on it for now and try to figure out how to make this as good as I wish it to be. Expect more on this once I figure it out.

And now, the adorable - my assistant. She's great at licking batter and smearing flour on the counter. She's my taste tester. I apparently should take her opinion more often as she wouldn't even try the avocado cupcakes!

Here she shows her skills at cleaning the beaters.





2 comments:

  1. I love the idea of adding butterscotch chips - I can imagine it complements the spices really well. I'll definately try this with my next batch of cakes!

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  2. Thanks! I saw a recipe for pumpkin bars with walnuts and butterscotch chips and thought that sounded wonderful. I was right! :)

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