November ABC challenge: Pumpkin Fruit Bread

This month's challenge was pumpkin. There are a LOT of pumpkin recipes out there to choose from, many of which I've saved to make "one day." To add to the fun, I saw this at the checkout stand and made the spontaneous purchase (setting me back $13, I might add. Seriously?) I even marked a few recipes to try.

Then I remembered I had this little booklet, at least 20 years old, from the experts themselves...

 

I looked through that and found this curious recipe for fruit bread made with yeast, yet prepared more like a quick bread.  So many pumpkin recipes are just iterations of the same three or four recipes -- this was completely different, so I wanted to try it.

I cut the original recipe in half, using the ingredients exactly as the original, but I simplified the preparation.  I hesitated about using cardamom because, although I love it, I find it's wasted when paired with any competing flavors.  I should have followed my instinct, as I couldn't detect it in the final product (and I'm not sure it would have been a good pairing anyway.)  The changes shown in the recipe below (in italics and strikeout) are suggestions for future use.

1¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
2 tablespoons warm water
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup uncooked rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom ginger or cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice concentrate
3/8 cup (6 tablespoons) chopped dates (and/or cranberries or tart cherries)
3/8 cup golden raisins
3/8 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Proof the yeast in the water along with 1/2 teaspoon of the honey (or just use sugar). In the main mixing bowl, combine the flours, oats, spice, and salt; set aside. In a small saucepan, combine the rest of the honey, pumpkin, brown sugar, and orange juice concentrate and heat until very warm, but not hot. (It shouldn’t scald your finger.) Add it to the flour mixture, along with the yeast mixture, and mix well. Add the fruits and the nuts and stir to combine. Spoon into a greased loaf pan. (Original recipe calls for an 8 x 4-inch pan.) Cover and let rise for 30-50 minutes, or until doubled. Bake at 325F for 35-40 minutes (original recipe is 50-60 minutes), or until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.  Recommended:  serve toasted with a cream cheese spread.

Since this isn't like anything I've ever made before, I'm not sure if my results were what they were supposed to be, but I suspect they were a little off.  The "dough" was actually a thick batter -- very unusual for a yeast bread -- but since the instructions were to "spoon" it into the pan, I expected that.  With all the moisture and the sugar and the fruit, I'm surprised this rose at all.  It did, barely, but didn't puff up like a yeast dough. It retained every dent and peak as when it started out, and with no skin I certainly couldn't do the finger-dent test to see if it was proofed enough.  As it was, I let it rise well over an hour and hoped for some oven spring, but that didn't happen either.

Since I was using a smaller pan (I used a Wilton 4-ounce round baking pan), I wasn't sure about the baking time, and to be honest, now I can't quite remember how long I let it bake.  I think I checked it around 35 minutes and, although it seemed firm and probably would have passed the toothpick test, it felt so heavy and dense that I put it in for another 5 or so.  (I even rapped on the bottom, but I'm never confident about what a "hollow" bread loaf would sound like.)

The final bread appears to have risen enough, but the texture still seems off.  (By appearance more than feel.)  It looks to me as though the dough was too wet, and I don't like the way the oats leave little dry-looking white marks.  (With all that moisture, I'm surprised they didn't just dissolve into the batter.)  I'm thinking maybe adding the oats to the wet ingredients and letting them soak up some of that moisture might help.  Mostly, though, the flavor needs help; there were too many dull, anti-umami flavors.  Everything was earthy:  the pumpkin, the cardamom, the whole wheat, the raisins, the walnuts, and especially the dates!  (Every time I bake with dates, they get a slightly unpleasant taste to them, almost bitter, even though the dates themselves were fine.)  I would use ginger as the spice, or cinnamon (but only if absolutely necessary) and add some tart fruits.  I'd also chop the dates into smaller pieces, about 1/4 inch, so no bite had too much.  I think this would add a nice contrast to the other earthy flavors.

Toasting this bread made all the difference in the world, and adding the cream cheese spread also really improved it.  I just mixed cream cheese with a tiny bit of orange juice concentrate and some sugar, but here's the suggested recipe in the booklet, halved:

Cream Cheese Pumpkin Spread
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1½ tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon orange zest

Conclusion:  I enjoyed this, but I'm not sure I'd make it again.  I was disappointed at first, but toasted and eaten with the sweetened cream cheese spread, it was very nice, with a crackly crust and a good bite.  It reminded me a lot of this Chocolate Cherry Pecan Bread.  But I would definitely make changes to the ingredients to brighten up the flavor a bit.  As it's an easy bread to make, it's worth trying again for that experiment alone.  This is not a very sweet bread, so it might also be good with a semi-firm cheese.

Recipe:  Oats 'n Fruit Wheat Bread via Libby's Favorite Pumpkin Recipes 

Happy Thanksgiving! Pecan Pie

 

I've never made a pecan pie.  It's not a pie I've ever especially liked, finding it far too sweet and cloying, even though there are so many recipes out there that promise they're not too sweet.  And then there are recipes that include chocolate, and recipes that include bourbon, all of which sound delicious.  So I've been tempted, but have never tried until now.  For some reason, I wanted pecan pie with my Thanksgiving dinner.

I'm still working on perfecting my half-size pie technique; I got pretty close with this one.  The original recipe is for a 9.5-inch pie.  (He doesn't specify deep-dish, but it looked about 1.5-inches deep.)  I cut the quantities in half and baked it in a 7¾-inch fairly shallow pie pan from Baker's Square.  Here's what I used:

pre-baked* 7 to 8-inch pie crust
1 cup pecan halves, toasted
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 tablespoon bourbon (optional)
1 tablespoon milk heavy cream
1½ tablespoons flour
1½ large eggs

In a small pan over moderate heat, melt the butter, then add the brown sugar, white sugar, corn syrup, salt, vanilla, cream, and flour. Whisk to combine then allow to cook until it comes to a full boil, which should take only a minute or two. Immediately remove from the heat and allow to cool for about 10 minutes. In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs. Slowly add about 1/2 cup of the syrup, a little at a time, into the eggs, whisking constantly. The rest of the syrup can be added more quickly, still whisking constantly. When thoroughly combined, pour over the pecans in the pie crust. Make sure none of the pecans are still dry on any surface. Bake at 350 F. for about 35 minutes, or until crisp on top and the filling is set. 

*I'm still not convinced that pre-baking a pie crust is necessary, or even a good thing, even for a liquid filling.  Typically, I never even par-bake the crust for pumpkin pie, and it's fine.  (I'm using "pre-baked" for a crust that is fully baked, which takes at least 20 minutes, while "par-baked" is one that's been baked for only about 10 minutes prior to filling.)  Who's really noticing whether the bottom of the crust is "flaky"?!  I think it's one of those ego things more than anything else.  As long as the crust isn't sodden and mushy, it's fine.  But every time I pre-bake a crust fully, it's tough and really difficult to cut through, and crunchy instead of crisp.  And no matter how much I freeze the shell before baking, or how well I've filled it with pie weights, I still end up with a misshapen, shrunken crust, no matter how long it's been in the oven.  So for now, I'm still not a fan, but I keep trying.  I should explore more the length of time the crust is baked prior to filling, as that can vary widely.  (This pumpkin pie called for par-baking the crust for only 12 minutes, while this coconut pie called for a crust that pre-baked for 25 minutes.)

Another consideration is the egg wash.  I pre-baked this crust, but I didn't use pie weights.  Instead, I docked the dough.  But then I gave the crust a thorough eggwhite wash, which stupidly fully sealed all the docking.  I intentionally filled the holes because I didn't want any pie filling to seep through, but that defeated the whole point of docking the dough.  NOTE:  I should have docked it, baked it, egg-washed it, then put it back into the oven just long enough to set the egg wash.  A test for another time.

This recipe was challenging because you have to follow the video on YouTube in order to get the directions.  (Only the ingredient list is given on his blog.)  Consequently, I messed up and cooked the syrup for too long, which made it very thick.  This might have affected the baking time, causing the pie to be set sooner than it otherwise would.  (It was still quite wobbly at 25 minutes, so I gave it another 10.  The full recipe calls for 40-45 minutes.)  It didn't adversely affect the finished product, though, other than it was pretty sticky.  And to that end, I probably could get away with using 2 whole eggs instead of fussing with a half egg.  (I used one extra large egg, plus the leftover egg white from the pastry wash and half of that egg yolk.)  Or would that make it too firm?

I questioned whether that little bit of bourbon really affected the flavor.  I didn't think so on the first two pieces, but I think I detected it when I was having a small piece early one morning.  (Per my reaction to the bourbon cream for these brown butter pumpkin pancakes, apparently I am especially sensitive to bourbon first thing in the morning.  Imagine that.)

Conclusion:  Utterly delicious.  Still a bit sweet (and perhaps a bit too salty), but okay in small servings.  (I found I enjoyed it less and less after about 5 or 6 bites.)  Some people successfully reduced the sugar, and one person recommended substituting some of the sugar for grade B maple syrup, which he deemed less sweet than sugar.  I also wonder how browned butter would fair.  That would be worth trying.  I would make this again.

Recipe:  Pecan Pie via Food Wishes

Brown Butter Pumpkin Pancakes

 
I don't often eat pancakes.  It's not that I don't like them -- I love them!  But it seems so decadent, sitting down to a stack of empty carbohydrates.  Fortunately, my favorite way to eat pancakes includes a big mound of cottage cheese, which at least adds some protein.  These pancakes, however, would have been diminished with anything so forward.  Indeed, even the whipped cream was unnecessary, as just a pat of soft butter would have been sufficient.  Decadent, indeed.

Here's what I used:

1/4 cup butter
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs
2 heaping tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2¼ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

To make brown butter, melt the butter in a small pan over medium heat.  Stir continuously to prevent burning.  Let the butter cook until the solids at the bottom turn a deep amber brown color.  Remove from heat and let cool.

Combine brown butter, buttermilk, pumpkin, eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla in a bowl and whisk thoroughly.  Add the dry ingredients and mix until smooth.  Lightly oil a medium-hot skillet and cook the pancakes.  Serve with bourbon mascarpone cream.

Bourbon mascarpone cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese
2 T powdered sugar
1 t vanilla
2-4 tablespoons bourbon, depending on strength desired

By hand, or with a mixer, whip the cream and mascarpone cheese until soft peaks.  Do not overmix.  Stir in powdered sugar, vanilla, and bourbon to taste.

Conclusion:  Surprisingly delicious!  The batter was so heavily spiced, and so thick, I had no idea what I'd end up with.  But they were amazing!  Mildly pumpkiny, lightly sweet, fluffy, and somewhat-- pleasantly-- chewy, they don't need syrup, although I couldn't resist a little mapley goodness on a few, for extra decadence.  Too fussy for everyday, but definitely a treat for a special occasion, especially the holidays.  Raw bourbon for breakfast, though, was a bit harsh.  Stick with just the vanilla. 

 Recipe:  Brown Butter Pumpkin Pancakes with Bourbon Cream via Dessert for Breakfast