the hungry mum

So I have come late to the pumpkin party but boy am I an enthusiastic participant!

I have always loved pumpkin but in Australia it is eaten primarily as a savoury dish. I only discovered its use in baking from the many, MANY cooking blogs I follow. You may have noticed I have a recipe for pumpkin pie on my blog [sooo very delicious] but as canned pumpkin isn’t readily available here it means chopping/cooking/mashing pumpkin before you can even contemplate baking with it.

We recently returned from a US holiday, where we visited Disneyland [oh! So much happiness], San Fran [can I please move there?] and Hawaii. I dragged my poor family to every supermarket we passed [and many others that we had to make long-winded detours for] in order to stock up on baking provisions that aren’t available here in Australia. The legendary graham crackers. Pumpkin spice kisses. Hersey bars. And tins of pumpkin.

I couldn’t wait to get home and start baking with my imported loot and the first thing I made was Tartlette’s pumpkin semifreddo. Oh, what a revelation! Silky, creamy, and pumpkiny. Devine. All I did was change some of the spices to mixed spice & increase the cinnamon because I’m all about the cinnamon. Here’s her recipe: http://www.tarteletteblog.com/2009/11/recipe-pumkin-semifreddo-with-side-of.html

Then, as I had leftover pumpkin, I made a batch of Baked By Rachel’s pumpkin snickerdoodles. Without exaggeration I would rate these as some of the best bickies [or cookies, to speak in the parlance] I have ever made. Here’s the original: http://www.bakedbyrachel.com/2012/10/pumpkin-snickerdoodle-cookies/comment-page-1/#comment-94230

I served the two together because – well, why the hell not.

Pumpkin semifreddo

Gather:

1 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons (25gr) sugar
2 tablespoons water
3 large egg yolks
1/2 cup tinned pumpkin puree
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon mixed spice

Let’s get to it:

Spray a loaf tin with non-stick spray then line with plastic wrap, allowing for overhang.

Using whisk attachment in a stand mixer beat cream to soft peak stage then put in fridge.
Place honey, sugar, and water in heavy saucepan, stir, then bring to a boil over medium heat until it reaches 114C on a candy thermometer.  Remove from heat.

In a clean bowl beat the egg yolks for a few seconds, then slowly but steadily pour in the hot honey mix. Don’t muck around – the honey mix will begin to solidify if you wait.  Whip until the mix is airy and fluffy and incorporated.

Fold one third of chilled cream in, then beat the rest in along with pumpkin and spices.

Gently scrape into loaf tin, cover with plastic wrap and place in freezer overnight.

Pumpkin snickerdoodles

Gather:

225g butter, diced, at room temp

1 egg

2 ¾ cup plain flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup caster sugar ( I reduced the original recipe)

¾ cup pumpkin puree

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon mixed spice

½ teaspoon vanilla

sugar mix:

¼ cup caster sugar

2 tablespoon cinnamon

Stir together in small bowl

Let’s get to it:

Grease and line two baking sheets with baking paper.

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy then add egg, vanilla and pumpkin (do not over-mix).

Sift dry ingredients into a medium bowl and add to butter bowl, mixing until everything is combined.

Place in fridge for around an hour, then preheat oven to 180C.

Using your hands make golfball-sized biscuits, then dip into sugar mix.

Place on tray then gently squash down with a fork (I tried skipping this step and they came out too fluffy and big).

Bake 12-ish minutes; allow to cool on tray for a minute then place on wire rack to cool completely.

Tags: America, baking, butter, Disneyland, from scratch, home-made, pumpkin, semifreddo, snickerdoodles, travel