Natty bakes Sweet & Savoury Pumpkin Pie

Cute, but I don't think it can top "wonderfall"

The leaves changing colour, good smells in the air, a sense of nostalgia,  the coziness setting in, harvest food: it is the most wonderFALL season right now!! Ok, I will quickly move on from that terrible pun (…I love it) & share a recipe for a beloved fall recipe: pumpkin pie.

It was just thanksgiving and though I did sample a piece this past weekend, I am not experiencing a pumpkin pie OD whatsoever….in fact this weekend was just a teaser for me. At my friend’s thanksgiving dinner there were brownies served with pumpkin spice ice cream (yum!) and at my family’s meal on Monday there was a delicious pumpkin pie from St. Lawrence market but I didn’t go wild because in that moment I was quite satisfied with all of the good eats that I had just enjoyed. The thing is that now I have all of this pumpkin leftover (I made a pumpkin loaf last week), it’s soo autumn-y  andddd ok ok, I’ll quit making all of these excuses, I just want pumpkin pie ok!? Is that such a crime!?

I know that I have already talked about my love of all things pumpkin in a previous post, but did I mention that I love ALL thanksgiving food? I seriously do. It’s a cliché to groan about being so sick of turkey the week after thanksgiving (turkey sandwiches, heated up leftovers for days etc.) but I do not join in on this complaining. I do not get sick of turkey, roasted root veggies/squash/sweet potatoes, delicious seasonal soups, cranberry sauce, STUFFING and definitely not pumpkin pie… I give thanks!

I have made the standard back of the pumpkin can recipe before which is pretty classic & can be found in most recipe books. Then for a richer pie, I have replaced the evaporated milk with cream. There are also many other popular tweaks such as pumpkin pie cheesecake, pumpkin pecan pie, adding a bit of molasses, adding caramel, adding maple etc. I am a big fan of condensed milk for easy baking and was curious to try this instead of evaporated milk. I figured I would then have to omit the sugar component and perhaps add something to compliment sweet nature of condensed milk. I had seen a few recipes for sour cream pumpkin pie before and this intrigued me and so I decided to incorporate it into my recipe.

This recipe yielded a lot more than one pie & so I ended up bringing one to Devon’s for dinner this week. The rest I made into mini pumpkin pie tarts. I served the pies with a special improvised topping composed of some leftover ingredients.

One of the mini-pies with topping

Sweet & Savory Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

• 1 frozen 9-inch deep-dish pie crust, thawed, pierced all over with fork
• About 2 cups of canned pure pumpkin
• 1 and 3/4 cups of sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 2 eggs

Directions

• Preheat oven to 400°F.
• Bake crust until browned, pressing bottom and sides of crust occasionally with back of fork, until done (check package).
• Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.
• Whisk pumpkin, condensed milk, sour cream, spices and vanilla in large bowl to blend.
• Whisk in eggs.
• Pour into crust(s). There is probably enough batter for 2 small pies
• Bake for about an hour
• Extra step: I made a topping out of sour cream and sweetened condensed milk. I mixed equal parts together and then chilled the topping. Try it, ’twas very delish!

Cooling on the counter

Natty bakes Honey Cakes

Not your bubbie's honey cake

As the high holidays conclude I thought that I would quickly share a honey cake recipe that I found last year on epicurious and baked again this Rosh Hashanah: the Jew year, i.e. a non-stop food fest for most families.

It is traditional to eat foods like apples, honey, tzimmes, raisin challah, and pomegranates during your meal to symbolize wishes of a sweet year to come. Of course it is the easiest to feature sweet and seasonal treats during dessert. At my family dinners there are always such great dessert spreads and usually everything from decadent homemade mousses to amazing creations from Phipps or Dufflets show up in the mix. Although honey cake is a tradition and always makes an appearance at Rosh, it rarely steals the show and typically sits there untouched or maybe at its peak looks like this.

Many people who have tried honey cake may recall it tasting a tad dull and dry—something you could maybe tolerate at a solo tea time session but wouldn’t really dream of serving if you had guests over. Wow. This sooooooo isn’t that. When I made this honey cake last year I was delighted & surprised by the yummy results. This is not your bubbie’s honey cake! This cake is quite rich & flavourful and includes some pretty exciting ingredients such as: coffee, orange juice and WHISKEY. I’m not lying, I think that it tastes the best when it’s been sitting around for a week or so. All the honey-ness and spiciness seem to come out and it becomes very moist. Here’s to a sweet (and boozy!) new year!

Majestic and Moist New Year’s Honey Cake

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup honey
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup warm coffee or strong tea
• 1/2 cup fresh orange juice
• 1/4 cup rye or whisky
• 1/2 cup slivered or sliced almonds (optional)

Directions

• Can be baked in an angel food cake pan, but you can also make it in a 10-inch tube or bundt cake pan, a 9 by 13-inch sheetpan, or three 8 by 4 1/2-inch loaf pans.(last year I made mini loaves and this year I made 2 angel food cake shaped honey cakes)
• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease the pan(s)
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Make a well in the center and add the oil, honey, sugars, eggs, vanilla, coffee, orange juice, and rye or whisky.
• Using a strong wire whisk or an electric mixer on slow speed, combine the ingredients well to make a thick batter, making sure that no ingredients are stuck to the bottom of the bowl.
• Spoon the batter into the prepared pan(s) and sprinkle the top of the cake(s) evenly with the almonds.
• Place the cake pan(s) in oven and bake until the cake springs back when you touch it in the centre
• For angel and tube cake pans, bake for 60-70 minutes; loaf cakes, 45 to 55 minutes. For sheet-style cakes, the baking time is 40 to 45 minutes. This is a liquidy batter and, depending on your oven, it may need extra time.

Bought this one to a Rosh dinner

Natty bakes Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

So, I’ve got a food-girl crush. Actually I’ve had it for quite some time now…it’s Nigella Lawson. I know, not that surprising/original, but seriously, what isn’t there to like about her? For one thing she is beautiful and has a wonderful-sounding voice. But most of all what I love is her warm comfort-based, sensual approach to food (check out her easy caramel croissant pudding recipe…um? yum!) & also her charming style of presenting. In both her food writing and on her cooking shows, she always seems to have this friendly, flirty and sometimes cheeky vibe which I really find enjoyable to watch & read.

My mom bought me “How To Be A Domestic Goddess: Baking & The Art Of Comfort Cooking ” a while ago and I just LOVE it. Every recipe I have tried so far has been scrumdiddlyumptious and today I’m going to share my adaptation of her deliciously moist banana bread recipe. At this point, I have baked it many times—for family, friends, a work meeting, a special boy and a couple times for another special person whose name rhymes with “bratty taker” and “fatty maker”…

The first time I made it, I followed Nigella’s version pretty faithfully and it was the best banana bread I had ever made (I’ve tried at least handful in my lifetime ok? Not too too shabby). The next time I made it though, I changed & added many things to the original recipe and this is the version I now stick too.  A warning to all readers: this isn’t the wholesome & healthy banana bread that you may be thinking you can eat for breakfast every morning (though feel free to do so if you desire! I definitely do this with my pumpkin loaf when it’s in my kitchen). Instead, this is the nigella ‘n natty bakes sweet & decadent banana bread that may make you moan. I do substitute some of the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour though & so perhaps I can make some kind of health claim in that respect… No? I didn’t think so either. I can make a yummy claim though, especially if you follow these three tips:

1) Use 4 medium bananas, 2 can be regular ripe but 2 must be very VERY ripe, like to the point of blackness

2) In addition to chocolate chips, add some butterscotch chips, this adds a certain maple-y, rich flavour that makes it even yummier in my opinion

3) I use half whole wheat flour & half all purpose flour or sometimes a mixture of different flours ( e.g. 1/4 cake flour, 1/2 whole wheat flour and 1/2 all purpose flour)

Nigella’s Banana Bread (Natty Bakes REMIXXX)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup sugar (can use less of you’re going to be putting in a lot of choco chips, I use all brown sugar or a half/half combo)
• 2 eggs
• 3-4 ripe bananas, mashed (See tip #1)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons plain flour ( See tip #3)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (or more!) of chocolate chips or a mixture of butterscotch chips and chocolate chips (sounds a bit gross/too sweet maybe but trust me, in a way this is the special or “secret” ingredient that give it that je ne sais quoi/ups the ante on the deliciousness factor–See tip #2)
• Nigella calls for 6 tablespoons of bourbon or dark rum as well as 1/2 cup of golden raisins & 1/4 cup of walnuts but I don’t include these ingredients and use my additions instead. Feel free to try her version though. They are basically two totally different kinds of banana breads (mine being the less sophisticated version I guess!)

Directions

• Preheat oven to 325 Fº
• Grease loaf tin
• Beat butter and sugar until blended
• Beat in eggs one at a time, then bananas. Stir in vanilla.
• In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• Add flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each addition.
• Gently mix in chocolate & butterscotch chips
• Pour into tin and bake for 1 – 1 1/4 hours (or when you insert a toothpick into it & it comes out clean–not going to lie though, I like my banana bread very moist/maybe even a slight slight tad undercooked)
• Enjoy!

Natty (& Devon!) bake Back of the Package Fruit Crumbles

Good things come in pairs

Well, well, well, it’s been quite a while since my last post, hasn’t it? I am glad to be back & maintaining impressively high standards with my stolen package recipe.

I originally baked this in university (hence the frozen fruit back of the package factor) probably for no good reason except for that I was studying for a mid-term, writing a paper or perhaps going to a friends house (sorry that one is probably last on the list—I never said I don’t know how to be greedy!! ) I’ve been making this crumble for years now & I’ve only made really minor adaptations to the original “Europe’s Best” recipe. Side note: I would call them “crisps”  but as I’m writing the word I just keep on thinking about chips.

ALL MINE!!!

I mostly tweak the spices but also the fruit; I tend to go for whatever I have, is in season or just whatever happens to tickle my fancy in my state of pre-comfort baking contemplation/inspiration. Devon came over one night and we decided to bake something using what I had in the house. This particular week I happened to have a lot of fruit lying around.

You see, I had just about gotten back from New Orleans and so I was kind of in a rich food coma. I had just for a week straight, consumed such gloriously nurturing & delicious food that my body was now asking for water, fruits, vegetables, beans, and maybe some grains.  As another side note, I would really like to do a future post based on my great nola food experience and include a recipe for the delicious beignets that I enjoyed at Café du Monde and maybe also some other sweet nola treats like bananas foster, sweet potato pie and pecan pie… AHHHH!! Now I’m all in a tizzy from reminiscing…stay focused Natty, back to the crumbles… So, yeah, I had been making myself corn/grain-based salads, bean & veg curries, frequenting the Asian markets for those amazing small mango deals (I got 10 for 5 bucks)  and also this small market that’s sometimes in front of sickkids to pick up some berries and/or boxes of peaches. I had a surplus of peaches and blueberries when Devon arrived and so we thought it would be a nice fruit combination in a crumble. It’s a pretty sweet tasting recipe and so the blueberries added a nice complementary tart flavour to the dessert (these were not the amazingly sweet wild blueberries that I always associate with the Muskoka area but kind of the bigger sometimes sweet/sour ones…yeah, the worse ones).

THAT much?!

Devon was aghast at how much butter this recipe called for and I proceeded to share one of the key taste secrets of baking…more butter!!!  In the end though, dearest Devon was kind of right and we ended up using way less of the crumble topping than we could have, there really was tons. We decided to double the recipe and use 2/3rds of the topping on the two pie plates—the lonely other third sits in my freezer waiting to get busy with some hot fruit. We enjoyed some of the crumble while laughing & watching a few eps of Freaks & Geeks. Oh what a night!

Blueberry & Peach Crumble à la Europe’s Best

Ingredients

Filling

• As many sliced peaches and whole blueberries as it takes to fit your pie dish
• 1/2 cup  brown sugar, lightly packed (can use far less, really just depends on how sweet or tart you like things and which kind of fruits you’re using)
• 3 tbsp  all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp  ground cinnamon (I put more)
• 1/4 tsp  ground nutmeg (I put more)

Topping

• 2/3 cup  all-purpose flour

• 2/3 cup  rolled oats or quick oats

• 1/2 cup  brown sugar

• 1/4 tsp  ground nutmeg (I put slightly more in)

• 1/4 tsp  ground cinnamon (more more!!)

• 1/2 cup softened unsalted butter (can use less)

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to  350 F

• Mix and pour the fruit with the brown sugar, flour and spices into a buttered ovenproof dish(es).

• To make the topping, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar and spices in a bowl. Add the butter.

• Sprinkle the oat mixture over the fruit and press to make it even.

• Bake in the centre of the oven for 40 to 50 minutes (check, every oven is a bit different). Serve warm with ice cream if you want.

• Eat. Wooooooooo!

Natty makes Easy like Sunday Morning French Toast

This was for me

When I was at McGill I adored going out for lazy breakfasts and lingering brunches. I loved everything: the food, the endless cups of coffee, and the laughs/ hot goss of last night’s events. I always tended to go for the classic fried breakfasts —eggs: over easy, toast: whole-wheat, sometimes dry sometimes not, bacon: extra crispy, coffee: with milk, maybe a bit of sweetner/sugar if I was feeling wild…and if I went to Dustys I would say yes to the baked beans (I always thought it was weird that they asked if you wanted the beans when you were ordering! Do people usually display feelings of prejudice towards beans or something? I do not relate to this! After spending four years in Quebec where they like them with maple syrup and one year in England where they like them on toast, I have come to almost expect them with a fried breakfast.) Anyways, yes, so I’m a big fan of the classic breakfast and would also occasionally order more brunchy type food like eggs benedict or bagels with cream cheese, lox  and capers (mmm heaven ), but I never seemed to choose the sweeter items on the breakfast menu such as pancakes or French toast.

These days I’m apparently a changed woman because I’ve made a tradition of weekend morning French toast. There is typically a Friday night Shabbat dinner in my family which of course includes a challah bread. While my friend and I learned how to make a delicious sweet challah this past fall (perhaps I’ll write a future post including challah/brisket/other traditional Shabbat recipes) and my great aunt often bakes a delicious one we all love, my family usually just buys one, often from a bakery like Harbord or Open Window. We always have a lot left over and I have found that it’s perfect for French toast the following Saturday or Sunday morning. I have not looked into the etymology or anything, but I imagine that French toast is called that because bread a bit on the stale side soaks up egg much more efficiently than fresh bread and baguette goes stale virtually the next day. That, or maybe the French invented it first. They call it ‘pain perdu” or lost bread, again referring to the resourceful conversion of what could have been stale bread gone to waste into a new dish. The Brits sometimes call it “eggy bread”. I call my recipe “Easy like Sunday morning French toast”.

Ingredients:

• 2 pieces of bread (challah, brioche, raisin bread etc)

• 2 eggs

• Dash of milk or cream

• Drop of vanilla

• Sprinkle of salt

• Sprinkle of cinnamon

• Half of a sliced banana and blueberries if seasonal

• A handful of crushed walnuts or pecans

• Pure maple syrup

• A tablespoon or two of butter

Instructions:

• Beat eggs together and add dash of cream or milk, vanilla and salt

• Soak pieces of bread in mixture

• Heat butter in skillet and fry bread until cooked golden to medium brown

• Put onto plate and sprinkle with cinnamon

• Drizzle a bit of maple syrup and then spread bananas and nuts

• Pour more maple syrup (to whatever your taste preference may be)

Another suggestion:

• If you still have leftover bread try this easy & delicious recipe for vanilla bread pudding courtesy of NYTimes‘ Mark Bittman, otherwise known as”The Minimalist”. When I tried this recipe I added raisins, cinnamon and shredded coconut; if you’re looking for an easy winter comfort food indulgence this is perfect.  I have Bittman’s book How to Cook Everything and I use it constantly. It’s akin to The Joy of Cooking or other all-purpose, extensive, but pretty basic (in the best sense of the word) type cookbooks.

good morning & at times, afternoon

Natty bakes Amy’s Lumberjack’s Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Opening Amy Sedaris’s I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence is entering another universe. This is Amy’s universe of wacky creative kitsch manifested as tasty food, weird crafts and even weirder thoughts. I adore this book and wish that I had thought of it myself. It’s a real treat to look through and what’s more is that this book is deceivingly useful. It may look like just a tongue-in-cheek entertaining guide, reminiscent of the more sincere 1940s book Entertaining is fun! by Dorthy Draper, but it definitely has some great recipes and tips in there…

I Like You channels a retro vibe through its colorful pictures; they give off that warm 1970s glow and you feel like you’re flipping though an old Betty Crocker cookbook. The 1950s are also rehashed in some Amy’s no-fuss let’s use convenience/canned foods approach to cooking and baking. For example, a key lime pie recipe which I made into tartlets for a party a few weeks ago simply consists of one can of sweetened condensed milk combined with eggs yolks, lime juice and poured into a pie shell. Right at the beginning of the book she lays out her vision: “Think simplicity, because if there is one thing I am, it’s clinically simple.” This is illustrated in a section entitled “Rich Uncle Comes to Visit” where there is side dish named “carrots coins” and the entire recipe reads: “Slice carrots so they look like coins. Sauté with butter, salt and pepper.” Yes, she stays true to her vision.

The recipes are created, borrowed and stolen ideas from a variety of sources including Amy’s friends, family members, backs of cans, old cookbooks and her own noggin.They mainly consist of American comfort food basics (think macaroni and cheese, pies, stews, casseroles, potato salad, chicken parmesan etc). Even when it comes to Hors d’oeuvres it’s unpretentious fun stuff—Amy Sedaris is a big fan of “cheese balls”:

“Cheese balls are good if you are on a budget, because one can serve a cheese ball while entertaining on Monday, spend Tuesday perking up the ball, and then serve it to a different group of friends of Wednesday. They’ll never know the difference. To freshen up a cheese ball, merely reshape the ball back into its original form, being careful to cover gouge marks, and then roll it through the remaining nut shake to mask the renovation. Decorate with a poke or party pick.”

I have learned some great entertaining tips from Amy. Here are a few good ones:

*When introducing people, try to avoid saying something that could be embarrassing like: “This is Barbara, she can’t have children,” or “Matt’s on mood stabilizers,” or “Lenny just got fired. He was the promotions manager at Nowells.”

*A good trick is to fill your medicine cabinet with marbles. Nothing announces a nosey guest better than an avalanche of marbles hitting a porcelain sink

*Try and provide a place where people can put their coats once they’ve arrived. If your place is small, hang them on a shower rod in the bathroom. But be aware of pickpocketers. If you toss garments on the bed or in another room, provide a small mirror because girls and certain types of men like to take a quick look-see after they’ve taken off their coats

*Possible guest combinations to avoid: astrologer & astronomer, fraternity brother & anyone else, psychologist & psychiatrist, movie star & scene-stealer, the newly divorced couple, the director & out-of-work actor, A girl, her boyfriend & his secret girlfriend, serial killer & drunken teenager

There are also tons of quirky craft ideas (some examples: a pantyhose plant hanger, penne earrings, dishrag doll etc.) but most of all I enjoy the food bits.

Here is a recipe for the most delicious oatmeal raisin cookies I have ever eaten. I admit that that may not be such an impressive statement to make—I mean, I don’t think that everyday people are presented with many opportunities to eat oatmeal cookies nor would they go out of their way to do so. I can’t imagine someone choosing to make oatmeal cookies over chocolate chip, peanut butter or even regular sugar cookies. Some people just get turned off by the idea that one of the star ingredients, oatmeal, has health benefits and argue that if they’re going to make cookies they may as well use more “forbidden” ingredients such as chocolate, candy or drugs.  I’m totally biting Amy’s style I know…I must say though,these cookies are just great. I add shredded coconut and crushed nuts to make these cookies even more delicious and hearty in texture and flavour.

Lumberjack’s vanishing oatmeal raisin cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 stick of softened unsalted butter

• ½ cup of brown sugar

• ¼ cup of white sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

• ¾ cup of flour

• ½ teaspoon of baking soda

• ½ teaspoon of cinnamon

• 1 and ½ cups of oatmeal

• ¾ cup of raisins

• Optional: 1/3  cup shredded unsweetened coconut

• Optional: 1/3 cup of chopped pecans/walnuts

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees

• Cream butter and sugars together

• Add vanilla and eggs

• Mix all dry ingredients and add to batter, then add your raisins (plus coconut & pecans if you decided to make these additions)

• Chill the dough; form into balls and then bake for about 10-12 minutes

The cookies cooling

Carrot cake cupcakes

Pineapple upside down cake

lime tarts

Natty bakes a pumpkin loaf…again.

PUMPKIN PIE. Who doesn’t love it? I would like to speak to the person who doesn’t share this particular holiday comfort food passion and belittle/berate them! What’s wrong with these people?? Have they no nose, no taste buds, no heart?!! If you are one of these pumpkin-pie haters I would like for you to turn off your computer, lock yourself in the bathroom and think about what poor taste you have!

…Ok, sorry I’m back and I’ve calmed myself down… In all seriousness though, I have an abusive love for my orange-skinned friend, Mr. Jack O’Lantern. This season I have made him into a pumpkin ginger bisque, a classic pumpkin pie, pumpkin pancakes and the namesake of this post: pumpkin loaves. Gosh, more like pumpkin loves—I have actually lost track of how many times I have baked these. I find many excuses to make this recipe: for an afternoon tea my mom is hosting, for a friend’s thanksgiving dinner or sometimes just because I have a selfish craving for it.

Before I get to the actual recipe, here is an interesting pumpkin tidbit:

Pumpkin pie has rich warm mellow flavours and is often served during memorable fun festive times. Perhaps some of these features help explain why the scent of pumpkin pie can actually be arousing for some people, even to the point of sexual arousal (!). Smell, as many of us have probably noticed, is strongly linked to emotion and memory. It is also linked to attraction (which in turn can be linked back to emotion and memory) in a very powerful way. When a smell triggers highly charged memories and emotions it can lead to arousal (loosely defined here as increased blood flow or excitement). There have been a series of studies conducted by Hirsch and his colleagues (2004) about smell and attraction and one in particular measured the blood flow to the nether regions of both men and women while exposing them to a plethora of scents and scent combinations. It turns out that while the women in the study apparently experienced the most blood flow increase to the curious combination of cucumber and good ‘n plenty (that black licorice candy!) men were the most turned on by the combination of lavender and…pumpkin pie! See, I’m telling you, there’s something magical about this squash. I don’t think it’s a coincidence for example, that a pumpkin turned into a royal carriage in Cinderella.

Anyways, with that in mind let’s get on with the baking:

I originally discovered this recipe on the wonderful site epicurious while searching for ways to recreate the warm comforting taste of pumpkin pie—the magical (and apparently seductive!) blend of the baking spice trifecta (cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves) with the earthy mellow flavour of pumpkin–without having to add the heavy cream or buttery crust.  Alright, who am I kidding? The recipe I’m about to dish out is not light by any means, but! I have named it a “loaf” rather than a “cake” which gives it more of a down-to-earth and generally nutritious feel, right?

Yes…so, as I previously mentioned, the recipe originally came from the epicurious archives, however I have made some major adaptations and like to think of the pecan pumpkin loaf as my own creation now.

You will notice that the recipe calls for solid packed pumpkin, but if you want to use a fresh pumpkin, feel free.  If you do make this decision—perhaps pumpkins are in season or maybe you just like your baking projects to be more challenging & authentic feeling (ugh, way to upstage me!) —I would suggest picking out a relatively small pumpkin. Apparently the large pumpkins are primarily bred for Halloween/jack-o’-latern season and due to this abnormally large size they have a resulting watery texture and are less flavourful overall. I personally use 100% pure canned pumpkin and think that the consistency and taste are excellent, so I’d suggest you just calm down and stay away from the patch and reach for the can opener instead.

This recipe makes 1 large loaf:

• 1 1/2 cups  brown sugar

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• 1 1/2 large eggs ( An egg plus an egg yolk is good)

• 1 cup canned solid pack pumpkin

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans, plus more for the top

• 1/2 cup of raisins

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.

• Beat sugar and oil in large bowl to blend.

• Mix in eggs and pumpkin.

• Sift flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and baking powder into another large bowl.

• Stir into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions.

• Mix in pecans and raisins, if desired (other suggestions: coconut flakes, walnuts)

• Pour into loaf tin and sprinkle more pecans on top (creates a yummy crust!)

• Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes

A pumpkin loaf that I brought to a Thanksgiving dinner

Natty bakes soft gingerbread cookies

Take a big whiff…nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, allspice and ginger are wafting through the house…alright, unfortunately there isn’t a way you can scratch and sniff the computer screen or teleport yourself into my kitchen, but try and imagine these scents and the memories and feelings they conjure up. I think these spices evoke a sense of comfort and warm holiday cheer. They can be found in pumpkin pie, pumpkin loaves, apple pies, muffins, gingerbread…wait a second, perhaps I wrote too soon when I lumped in allspice with the other four spices. After having made my first jerk chicken with a friend the other week, a recipe that features allspice very prominently, I guess it’s fair to say that the spices can also bring you to the warm shores of Jamaica but as always, I digress…back to chilly Canada and the holiday season….

Despite the combined realities that both of my parents hail from Africa, our family doesn’t celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving has only started to become a tradition in the Baker household in the last 8 years or so, I still manage to get warm fuzzy (and hungry!) feelings whenever I smell or taste these spices.

When I was a kid I loved the combined crafty and edible aspects of making gingerbread houses or decorating gingerbread people around the holidays, but I had never actually made the hard spicy cookies myself. Then, during the Christmas vacation in my early to mid-teen years I had this vivid dream where I was baking these large SOFT gingerbread cookies. Gosh, they were just to die for!  I woke up and knew I had to bake this dream into a reality. Now in the domain of making dreams come true I’d say that this was a pretty simple one to achieve…what can I say? I guess small things can make me very happy, at least when it comes to my palate ☺. Anyways, after this delicious dream I did some “research” (i.e. I googled “soft gingerbread cookie recipe”!) and found a recipe to try out. They were exactly what I had dreamed about and recently I was re-inspired to make them again. This desire was triggered by my experiment with baking actual gingerbread…. like REAL gingerbread—I suppose ginger loaf or ginger cake are other good descriptive names for the wondrous creation, but more of that in another post…back to the cookies…

These cookies are soft, rich (though you can decrease the amount of butter if you desire ) and the combination of the molasses, fresh ginger, ground ginger, cloves and cinnamon make these cookies sweet and spicy delights. They stay fresh (i.e. moist) for quite a while in an airtight container and I have been enjoying them with my evening tea from time to time for a few weeks now.

The recipe (makes about 32 cookies):

• 12 tablespoons sweet butter (which means unsalted)

• 1 cup granulated sugar (can do half or full brown though for even softer cookies)

• ¼ cup molasses

• 1 egg

• 1 ¾ cup all purpose flour

• ½ teaspoon ground cloves

• ½ teaspoon ground ginger

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• ½ teaspoon salt

• ½ teaspoon baking soda

• 1 tablespoon grated ginger root

Instructions:

• Sift together flour, soda, salt, and ground spices. Set aside.

• Cream together butter and ¾ c of the sugar till fluffy.

• Add molasses, egg, and ginger root beating again till light.

• Gradually add flour. Stir till blended.

• Cover and chill about 1 hour.

• Heat oven to 350. Form dough into 1” balls.

• Roll in remaining ¼ c sugar.

• Place on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake until just beginning to color, approx 12 min.

• Cool on rack

My rustic baked goods leftover plate: Martha Stewart would not be pleased. Soft gingerbread cookies on top left. Others: shortbread, pumpkin loaf, gingerbread and raspberry chocolate torte.

Natty makes peppermint hot chocolate

I used to pay almost the price of a magazine (!!) for a hot chocolate with a shot of peppermint syrup when the winter rolled around. Another holiday drink indulgence of mine has always been the gingerbread latte. Anyone who knows me knows that every year I look forward to these sugary/spicy overpriced concoctions and make any excuse to go for one…in fact, when I was living in London last year, I would sometimes shell out 3-4 pounds for one…uh that’s 6-8 dollars people! I bought a fabulous vintage sweater for less than that recently! Ugghh…Ok white guilt/white privilege alert!! I should be saying that for that money I could feed the mouths of a small village in a developing country…the point is that whatever the comparison may be, these drinks are not “values” (a euphemism my sommelier friend told me to use to describe cheap wines ).

Anyways, so this year I decided that it may be fun to make my own winter drinks and my first attempt was the peppermint hot chocolate/cocoa:

I mix together

• 1 tablespoon of pure cocoa powder with:

• 1 tablespoon of sugar (but adjust to your sweetness preference) and then add:

• A bit (a tablespoon?) of cold milk to blend the two ingredients into a base for the drink. I then warm:

• 1 cup of milk (use half water is you want a less rich drink, or half cream if you want a richer drink) and pour it into the base mixture. Now I add the one out of the ordinary kitchen ingredient:

• Pure peppermint extract. I put in just a drop because it is pretty strong but adjust to your preference. If you’re feeling extravagant top with:

• Whipped cream and then:

• Crumbled candy cane.

• I give it 4 Ms (my own food tastiness ranking scale that I’m making up as I type this) Mmmm!