S'mores Pumpkin Bread

Given how well our S'mores Banana Bread turned out I have been contemplating making other s'mores breads for a little while now.  S'mores pumpkin bread seemed like the obvious next step.  This afternoon while working from home I had a break and all I could think was s'mores!!!!!!  I started rummaging through the cupboards and we literally had everything we needed, except eggs.  So I ran to the grocery store quickly for eggs and threw together a batch of s'mores pumpkin bread.  As I was stirring in the marshmallows and chocolate chips I started getting a little concerned about how much batter I was creating, but I decided that I was just being silly.  And then I started to fill the loaf pans and realized it totally wasn't going to fit.  So I abandoned about 1/4 cup of batter (which I made sure to taste and it was delicious) and filled the loaf pans as full as I dared.  I got a little scared at the last second and put the loaf pans on top of a sheet pan just in case there was an exploding/oozing pumpkin bread situation.  Luckily, nothing exploded (more on that later), but better safe than sorry.

As the pumpkin bread baked it smelled amazing and I kept getting more and more excited.  After the timer went off the first time I checked it, noticed it wasn't fully cooked and put it back in the oven for another 5 minutes.  Alex then went and checked it out, stabbed it with a toothpick, which he brought over to me, and pulled the pumpkin bread from the oven.  After I finally finished up my work for the evening and ate some dinner at my laptop I decided that I deserved a slice of pumpkin bread for dessert.  And then I looked at the pumpkin bread and saw that my beautiful loaves of pumpkin bread were crazy and cratered.  Turns out the pumpkin bread wasn't fully cooked and it sank like the Titanic.  Womp womp.  But I promise that the end pieces that I did try were delicious.  And I promise that I will make the pumpkin bread again, but I will make sure it is fully cooked.

Recipe after the jump!

Pumpkin Cornbread

For whatever reason I have been thinking about making pumpkin cornbread for a long time.  I can't even remember where I got the idea, but I have been holding on to a can of canned pumpkin with the intent of making some cornbread forever now.  Christmas was the perfect opportunity to finally make it because cornbread sounded like the perfect accompaniment for the Roast Duck Breasts with Pomegranate-Chile Sauce that I was planning on making.  Actually, there is a little backstory to the duck.  I was originally planning on making an Andrea Reusing recipe (Roast Moulard Duck with Kumquats and Salt-Cured Chiles), but after hitting 8 grocery stores in two days on the UWS and UES in search of kumquats (including both Fairways, Zabars, Citarella, Dean and Deluca, Whole Foods, Food Emporium and West Side Market) I had to admit defeat.  The only kumquats I found were at D&D and they were both ridiculously expensive and squishy, which freaked me out.  So I decided to change plans in the middle of the UES Fairway and make my back-up duck recipe.  Of course I hit one more grocery store that day after Fairway and low and behold, Eli's had fresh kumquats.  Once I made that discovery I sent Alex a text with some four-letter words because by that point I had called an audible and switched recipes.  Oh well.  But in the end it was a good thing that I switched recipes because this cornbread would not have gone quite as well with the other duck recipe.  The interesting thing about this cornbread is that the cinnamon and nutmeg carry through so clearly.  I didn't really taste the pumpkin, but I tasted a whole lot of pumpkin pie-like spices and that was kind of enough for me.  Served with some homemade honey butter this was an interesting take on cornbread.  I'm not sure under what circumstances and with what dish I would make this cornbread again (maybe some sort of chili), but I'm glad I made it this time.

P.S.  I thought I took pictures of the cornbread, but apparently I forgot to do so when we had it for dinner.  And then I threw away the few remaining pieces of the cornbread prior to finishing this post.  Oops.  No pictures for you - just think golden, slightly orange (and not yellow) cornbread and you're halfway there.

Recipe after the jump!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Scones and Pumpkin Buttermilk Biscuits

It occurred to me on Saturday that I hadn't baked anything in some time.  Since fall is finally here I knew exactly what I wanted to bake with!  So I went through the cupboard and found a can of pumpkin puree that I knew was in there (and have been saving).  Then I had to decide what to make.  I originally wanted to make some pumpkin whoopie pies with maple-flavored cream cheese frosting, but I didn't have everything I needed.  I thought about making pumpkin bread, but that seemed a little boring.  So I decided to bake some pumpkin scones and some pumpkin biscuits.  What can I say - I go a little crazy sometimes.  This is what happens when I haven't had time to bake in awhile.  

Out of these two recipes, both Alex and I preferred the scones.  I thought the combination of spices really worked and it came through very clearly, without being overpowering.  I also thought the crumb was nice - soft and crumbly, without being dry.  And I liked the crunchy sweetness of the turbinado sugar topping.  I think that bittersweet chocolate is perfect for these scones.  The bittersweet chocolate gave the scones a really nice deep, chocolatey flavor that worked really well with the pumpkin and the spices.  Semisweet chocolate would work too I guess, but I don't think I would use milk (or white) chocolate because it would be too sweet.  The biscuits couldn't seem to decide if they were supposed to be sweet or savory.  Topped with butter and honey they were pretty good, but we thought they needed more salt to both accentuate and balance out the sweetness of the honey and sugar in the biscuit batter.  And I thought the texture wasn't as flaky as I would have liked.  They almost seemed a little doughy and heavy in the centers, rather than flaky and light.  I'm thinking that I might not have mixed the batter as evenly as I could have.  Oops.  The blog where I found the recipe suggested serving them with butter, some bacon and a drizzle of maple syrup.  That might be enough to really make me love the biscuits, but I'm not there just yet.

Recipes after the jump!

Spiced Pumpkin Bread with Bittersweet Chocolate Chips and Walnuts

So I have been sitting on this post for some time, partially because I have been so freaking busy, and partially because I already have a few other pumpkin bread recipes on the blog so I was in no hurry to post this one.  But Alex was basically obsessed with this pumpkin bread, as were his coworkers when he brought it in to work one day.  So I had to post it.  I baked two loaves of pumpkin bread because Alex wanted his loaf with semisweet chocolate chips and no walnuts, whereas I wanted bittersweet chocolate chips and lots of walnuts.  And since I was the one who baked the bread, I am posting my favorite of the two loaves, both of which used the same basic recipe.  Oh, but I was too excited to try my loaf, so I cut into it before I could take pictures.  Oops.  So the picture above is of Alex's loaf with the semi-sweet chocolate chps and no walnutsIf you want to mix it up with the chocolate chips and/or nuts (or omit both entirely), you can easily do so.  But the bread is very moist and the crumb is almost luscious and fluffy.  I think the combination of sour cream and pumpkin puree, along with the spices really make the bread fun and different.

Recipe after the jump!

Recent pumpkin bread baking experiments...

During the winter - particularly around the holidays - I am all about pumpkin.  I've never been a huge fan of pumpkin pie but I love pumpkin breads and muffins of all shapes and sizes.  My only problem with most pumpkin bread recipes is that they don't often taste as intensely pumpkin-y as I want.  Often I can smell the pumpkin, but the bread just doesn't carry the flavor of the pumpkin and accompanying spices as well as I want.  Recently I have tried out two pumpkin bread recipes, both of which were very moist and wonderfully pumpkin-y.  And then I made up my own!  The first, is a straight-up Spiced Pumpkin Bread from The Foster's Market Cookbook.  For those of you who didn't go to Chapel Hill, you have probably never heard of Foster's but it was one of my favorite hangouts in college.  They had a delicious brunch/breakfast and wonderful salads.  The other pumpkin bread recipe is Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Loaf Cake from Bon Appetit - because sometimes you just have to have chocolate.  Then I decided to try making up a pumpkin bread recipe of my own.  I saw a recipe for Pumpkin Five Spice Sweet Rolls on Coconut and Lime and thought that I had to try out some sort of pumpkin bread with five spice.  I'm half-Asian, why didn't I think of that?  I have to admit that the idea of using five spice in baking had never occurred to me.  I love it in savory applications, but why not bake with it too?  The results?  Totally delicious.  It might actually be my favorite of the three.

Recipes after the jump!