This bread has a thin, chewy crust with an exceptionally tender and moist interior, flavored with pumpkin and honey, scented with cinnamon, ginger, cloves,  with a toasty crunch from pecans.  (See a photo of the inside here.) It is one of my all-time favorite recipes.  It all started with an artisan bread cookbook, Amy's Bread.

My brother had just finished a two-year mission to Spain, and came back with a whole new perspective on bread.  He described how fresh, hearty, deeply flavored, and moist those European breads were, with their beautiful, flavorful crusts.  

That's it, I thought, I MUST learn to make bread like that.  

So I bought a book.  (I still have, it, use it, and love it.  Her Country Sourdough loaf is perfect, and the thin, crunchy, seeded breadsticks are addicting!)

The recipe below began as one from her cookbook.  I've tweaked it over the years, until it can be claimed as my own.  We usually just slice and butter it, or toast and spread with cream cheese.  It would make incredible French Toast, especially if you stuff it with lightly sweetened cream cheese and top with fruit syrup or homemade maple-flavored syrup.   For a sandwich filling that goes spectacularly well with it, see my next post!

See here for a post on making pumpkin puree, or see this one on making pumpkin powder.  I actually used the pumpkin powder & added water in my batch for the fair.

Autumn Harvest Bread
(Pumpkin-Pecan Yeast Bread)

1 Tbsp. Instant or RapidRise yeast               4 ½ c. bread flour
1/2 c. warm water                                           ½ c. butter, melted
½ c. (6 oz.) honey                                            1 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. pumpkin puree                                          ½ tsp. ginger
1/4 c. cornmeal                                                ½ tsp. ground cloves
2 large egg yolks                                             1 ½ tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. dry milk powder                                 1 c. pecan pieces, toasted                                                                                

Combine yeast and warm water, stir to dissolve.  Let stand 3 minutes.  Mix in honey, pumpkin, cornmeal, egg yolks, milk powder, and 2 cups of the flour. Add butter, then the remaining 2 cups flour, the cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt.  Knead until smooth and elastic, about 5-10 minutes.  Let rest 20 minutes.  Knead in pecans.   Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 ½ -2 hours.  

While it’s rising, make a wash with 1/4  c. cold water and 1/2  tsp. cornstarch:

Combine the two, bring to a boil, and stir until thickened.  Cover it so it doesn’t form a skin, and let it cool.

Divide dough into two pieces. Shape into 16-20” long logs, and tie each into a knot.  (Or shape into a ball, seam-side down, or shape into two 8x4 loaves.)  Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, 1-1 ½ hours.  Using a pastry brush, gently coat each loaf with the glaze.  Bake at 375 degrees for 25-35 minutes, until golden brown and the surface is firm.  Brush again with the glaze.  This helps it have a nice shine and a thin, soft crust.  Cool before cutting into 1/2" slices. 

This is a smooth, lemony, egg-based baked pie.  Use a fresh lemon for the best flavor, one is all you'll need.  If you only have bottled lemon juice, be sure to use the lemon zest, or about 1 tsp. lemon extract, or 4-6 drops lemon oil.  The zest gives more flavor than the juice does.

Lemon Chess Pie
5 eggs
1 3/4 c. sugar
3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp. lemon zest
2 Tbsp. cornmeal
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. (1 stick) melted butter

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Beat the eggs in a medium bowl, then add sugar, juice, zest, cornmeal, salt, and butter.  Pour into a parbaked crust, put on the lowest rack so the heat will set the crust.  Immediately reduce temperature to 325 or 350 degrees.  Bake for 50-60 minutes, until all but about 1” of the center is set. Jiggle the pie to check that- it will jiggle like Jello instead of like water.  (If 1" of the center still seems like liquid, that's OK;  the center will continue to cook as it cools.)  Cool on a rack.  Store covered in the fridge.


Pat-in-Pan Crust Looks and tastes just like a rolled-out crust, but is much easier, and does not get tough from handling it.

1 stick butter (1/2 c.) softened but cool
2 oz. cream cheese, softened but cool
1 ¼ c. flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
¼ tsp. salt

Coat a 9” pie pan with cooking spray.  Beat together butter and cream cheese until very smooth.  Add all else, beat 20-40 seconds more until it looks like coarse cornmeal.  Scrape sides of bowl, beat until large clumps form.  Set aside 3 Tbsp of dough for top edge.  Evenly press remaining dough onto bottom and up sides of the pie pan.  On a floured surface, roll each Tbsp reserved dough into a 9” rope, put around top edge of pan; flute edge.  Wrap and chill 1 hour, preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Roll out and prick with a fork; bake until golden, 35-40 minutes.  Cool on rack.

To "parbake" this crust, you're going to "par"tly "bake" it: cook 20-25 minutes, until the crust looks dry but not browned.  Pour the filling in while crust is still warm.

If you’re making multiples of this, it’s easiest to use an upright mixer and wire beaters.  You’ll use about two cups of the dough, loosely packed, for each crust. 

This recipe is from  this week's Custard Pies and Pie Crust class- the two-page handout is on the link. It includes recipes for several custard pies: Pumpkin Pie, Pecan Pie, Poor Man's Pecan Pie (Pecan Pie recipe, but using toasted rolled oats INSTEAD of pecans), Rhubarb Custard Pie, and Cranberry Pie. 

There are a few previous posts on finding, choosing, buying,storing, or dehydrating pumpkin-

This one is on just preparing it.  If you want pumpkin recipes, see The Great Pumpkin e-book, available for free.

The simple version is: cook until soft, mash or puree, use or store it.  If you need details, this is the post for you!

I prefer to steam my pumpkin, that way I can keep the skin on and get the extra fiber and minerals from it, and waste less.  You can bake it if you prefer; cut in half, clean out the insides, and bake, cut-side down on a cookie sheet.  Plan on about an hour at 350 degrees. Baking is a better option if you're using a thick-skinned squash like Hubbard or Acorn (which work fine in pumpkin recipes, by the way).

If you're steaming it, start by scrubbing off any dirt.  If there are little blemishes, cut them out or scrape them off with a paring knife.  Some are only skin-deep.  Cut off the steam and blossom end.  Those little brownish-grey bits never will soften up.  They won't hurt you, but they're not pleasant to eat.

Cut the pumpkin in half.  Scrape out the strings and seeds.  A spoon is a great tool.  Don't worry about getting all the strings out.  They puree.  Seeds don't. 

Cut the pumpkin in strips about 1 to 2" wide.  These will be C-shaped.  Turn them on their sides and cut crosswise to make roughly square-shaped pieces.

Put about 1" of water in the largest pot you have.  When it comes to a boil, fill the pan with the pumpkin pieces.  Bring back to a boil, put a lid on it, and let simmer until tender.  It takes about the same amount of time as it does to boil cubed potatoes: about 30 minutes for bigger chunks, less for smaller ones.

When the pumpkin is done, it will be translucent.  A fork or knife poked into a piece will meet no resistance.  You can still puree it without it being fully cooked, but it's harder on the machine.
Mash with a potato masher if that's all you have (but it won't get rid of strings).  I use a blender and usually have to add about 1/4 c. of the cooking water to get it to puree.   A food processor would work great. 

If you have more puree than you'll use within a week, measure the extra into containers or freezer bags.  How much will you use at once?  Store that much in each container.  I always make two pumpkins pies at a time, which takes 4 cups.  So I freeze pumpkin in 4-cup batches.  If you only want 1 cup at a time for a batch of cookies, freeze some in that amount.  Label them with the contents, amount, and the date.  Best if used within a year, but they'll be fine so long as they don't get freezer-burned.  It won't make you sick even then, but you'll need more spices to hide that nasty flavor.  I sometimes find 3- or 4-year-old bags hiding in the back of the freezer; they cook up just fine.
So that the bags lie flat for storing, you can freeze them on a cookie sheet.  This has another benefit- if your bag happens to pop open while freezing, spills are caught on the tray.  Yep, I learned this one the hard way.  Actually, they'll stack in a less space if you freeze them already stacked up.  Just make sure those bags are going to stay closed!

This reminds me of a quote seen today: "Always learn from others' mistakes.  You can't possibly live long enough to make them all yourself."

What about the seeds you scraped out?  Well, you can toss the whole lot out into a flowerbed or pot outside, and see what grows next year.  We prefer to eat them.  With your fingers, sort out the seeds.  It's a slippery job, but you'll get the hang of it.  The strings go in the compost pile outside.  If you want to save seeds for next year, put some of the seeds on a paper towel and let them airdry for a couple weeks.  Store them in a paper bag or paper envelope.  They'll mold if stored in plastic.  Label them!  Be aware that unless you have a non-hybrid pumpkin, what grows next year will not be exactly the same size, shape, or variety.  But it will be pumpkin.  Plant in the spring after the last frost.  Plant 3-4 seeds close together, and allow them about a 2-4 foot radius for the vines to spread out.

To bake them instead, drizzle with 1-2 tablespoons of oil (this makes them MUCH easier to chew and digest!), sprinkle with salt, and bake until they've turned golden brown.  Use any temperature from 350 to 400 degrees, baking will take anywhere from 7-20 minutes, depending how wet they were and how hot the oven is.

Hey, I know what this is starting to look like...  and no, I really don't make cupcakes ALL the time!
I had a quarterly lunchtime get-together with some friends, and we all brought food.  So that's my excuse this time around.  That said, everyone flipped over these cupcakes, and insisted that I share the recipe. 

True to form for me, there is no single-page recipe for this: I took a regular cake recipe, added applesauce and spices to it, filled it with something complimentary I had in the cupboard, and made my favorite frosting, using cream cheese in it this time.

If you have a copy of The Chameleon Cook, the plain (yellow) cake recipe is on page 74, and the frosting recipe is on pages 76 (Boiled Milk Frosting) and 78 (Cloud Frosting variation).  I made a half batch of frosting; it ran out on cupcake #19.  If you like a lot of frosting, especially when it's fluffy, creamy, and not too sweet, make the full batch.  If you like a strong cream cheese flavor, instead of using 2 sticks (8 oz.) butter and 8 oz. cream cheese, decrease the butter to 1 stick (4 oz.) and add an extra 4 oz. cream cheese (total 12 oz.) To make it even more rich, reduce milk to 1/2 cup, Ultra Gel or flour down to 2 Tbsp, and sugar down to 1/2 cup.  

For the cupcakes:
Take any white or yellow cake recipe, or a boxed mix.
Use the same ingredients and instructions as the recipe or box says, except:

Add 1 cup applesauce or pumpkin puree to it, and reduce the liquid the recipe calls for by 1/2 cup (this means reduce the milk to 3/4 cup if you're using my recipe)
Applesauce or pumpkin puree, for cooking purposes, acts like about 50 % water.
Stir in any or all of these spices: using all of them gives a full, round flavor, but if you only have cinnamon, it'll still be good:
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger, or 1 Tbsp. grated fresh, or 1-2 Tbsp. chopped crystallized ginger :-)
3/4 tsp. cardamom
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

If you like, also add 1/2 c. chopped walnuts, pecans, or hazelnuts, and/or 1/2 c. raisins

Bake according to regular instructions. 

When cool, add filling if you like.  I used Dulce de Leche, thinned with enough water that the caramel didn't hold its shape anymore (maybe 2 Tbsp. water to 3/4 c. caramel).  But use whatever you have or can make, such as homemade or jarred caramel sauce, unwrapped caramels melted with milk or water (try 1 Tbsp. milk/water for each 10 caramels).  If you have a decorating bag with a tip, you can fill the bag with caramel, poke the tip down into the cupcake, and squeeze the bag until the cupcake swells with the filling.  I have a bag, but didn't want to mess with it this time.  The other way I fill cupcakes is by cutting out a cone-shaped section from the top of the cupcake.  Lift it up, put a spoonful of filling in the hole, and replace the top of the cupcake.  Frosting the cupcakes will hide those surgery marks.  See the photos below.

If you're making mini cupcakes, an easy, non-messy way to get batter in those little cups is with a small ice cream scoop.  Use a regular-sized scoop for regular-sized cupcakes.

To fill a cupcake, run a knife around the top, with the blade angled so the tip is in the center, about an inch down.

Lift up the top, and the cupcake is ready to fill!  How much you add is up to you.  Any less than 1/2 teaspoon just disappears into the cupcake, so use more than that.  Add too much and it will spill over the top...  so you'll figure out what you like pretty quickly.  That said, I used what fit on a regular spoon, about 1 1/2 teaspoons.  Put the top of the cupcake back on, then frost.

SO... is there a difference between those big pumpkins that are cheaper, and the littler, "Sugar Pie Pumpkins" that are 3 to 10 times the price?

Yes, there is.  The smaller ones are varieties selected for smooth, dense, creamy flesh, with a higher sugar content.  The bigger ones are still good for eating, but usually have a higher water content, and often have stringy flesh.  When I make pumpkin pie using the small sweet ones, I can get away with using only 1/2 cup sugar per 2 cups puree.  If I use the bigger ones, it tastes best if I use the 3/4 cup sugar called for in the recipe.

How big of a pumpkin will you need for one pie?

A very small one.  If you're including the peel in your puree, there will be almost no waste from your pumpkin- only the stem, seeds, and stringy center will be taken out.  (Remember to rinse, salt, and roast those seeds!)  You'll get almost two cups of puree for each pound in your pumpkin, when prepared this way.  Two cups will make one 9" pumpkin pie.  That means a 5-pound pumpkin will yield enough puree for FIVE pies.   And if you use your 25-lb jack-o-lantern?......  Luckily, pumpkin puree freezes well!  My favorite way to preserve it now is by making pumpkin powder.  Less space, no freezer burn, and no electricity required once it's dry.

If you're using big pumpkins, you can still end up with dense, smooth puree if you know how to handle it.  Clean, chop, and steam, boil, or microwave the pumpkin until tender, then run it through a blender or food processor, adding water only if it won't blend without it.  You could use a potato masher, but it won't get rid of the strings.  When it's smooth, you can either use it as-is (which is thinner than usual), or let it sit in a colander lined with cheesecloth or paper towels.  Let it drain at least 1/2 hour.  The water drained off has vitamins in it; use that in pancakes, smoothies, or whatever else occurs to you.  Any winter squash can be used in pumpkin recipes.  I've eaten "pumpkin" pies made of kabocha squash, spaghetti squash, and Hubbard squash.  The spaghetti squash was a lot more watery (drain that liquid off!), and if only mashed, not pureed, the texture resembles coconut cream pie (in fact, there's a recipe for Mock Coconut Cream Pie that takes advantage of this!)  Hubbard and kobocha are both dense, creamy, and sweet, and only required the 1/2 cup of sugar that I use with sugar pie pumpkins.