Cinnamon Roll Pumpkin Pancakes: A Yummy Disaster

When I saw these cinnamon roll pumpkin pancakes I had to try them.  They were so beautiful and looked so delicious.

After making them, I decided that Kevin at Closet Cooking must be a super culinary genius.  The perfect-looking pancakes on his blog are either the result of a thousand tries or mad talent.  Judging from the rest of Kevin's blog, I'm going to go with mad talent.

Because I wanted Steve to actually eat these pancakes, I used canned pumpkin instead of the delicata squash I had in the fridge (Steve has an aversion to all things squash, except canned pumpkin).  Canned pumpkin is usually in our village store in the fall.  It's also available at Wal-Mart in Anchorage when we do our annual shopping trip.




The pumpkin batter is topped with a cinnamon-sugary butter mixture.  Not looking too bad at this point, but...




flipping is where the disaster part came in.  Steve is usually an excellent pancake flipper.  We're not sure what went wrong with these.  Steve called them roadkill pancakes.




One victory of the meal was the caramel cream cheese frosting.  I used Kevin's caramel sauce recipe, and per his instructions, mixed it with some cream cheese.  The caramel sauce itself was so yummy that Steve was eating it out of the pan with a wooden spoon.  True story

We didn't bother drizzling the frosting over the pancakes in an artful manner because at this point, we weren't going for aesthetically pleasing.  We smeared the frosting on with a spoon.  And it was delicious that way.  Like eating pumpkin cake for breakfast.

Verdict: Delicious recipe worth making again, even if the final product isn't at beautiful as we'd hoped!

Pumpkin Smoothie

Have you noticed I'm crazy about all things pumpkin? So as not to overwhelm those of you who are not quite as obsessed with pumpkin as me, I promise this will be my last pumpkin filled recipe of the season.

I recently found this recipe for Pumpkin Smoothies off of Pioneer Woman's blog. It looked so easy I just had to try it immediately. Both my boys loved it as well. I'm thinking this will become one of our favorite ways to use pumpkin.

I don't usually buy pumpkin pie filling so I made some modifications to the recipe so that I can use my frozen pumpkin puree.



I'll reuse this pumpkin puree photo from the pumpkin pie post.  When you've seen one bag of mushy pumpkin, you've seen them all.



Our two cup bags of pumpkin are frozen already so for this recipe I let it thaw just enough so my handy "Mix N Chop" from pampered chef is able to break it up.



You'll need some yogurt, I used one jar of homemade yogurt.



Add milk to the pumpkin and yogurt. I used 1/2 milk 1/2 evaporated milk in lieu of the whole milk called for in The Pioneer Woman's recipe. Until we have another baby, no whole milk is to be found at our house.



You'll need some vanilla, I'm a fan of the high quality stuff. Life is too short to use mediocre vanilla I say.



I included white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon to the mixture and blended thoroughly.



Pretty huh? I found it goes down pretty easy.



Sprinkle some crushed graham crackers on top for a jazzy effect and you're all set.


My Modified Pumpkin Smoothie Recipe

2 cups of frozen pureed pumpkin (partially thawed)
1 c. evaporated milk
1 c. milk
1/2 c. yogurt (or more)
1/4 c. white sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
crushed graham crackers

~AnnMarie

Mom's Pumpkin Pie

I'm crazy about pumpkin pie. I once ate an entire pie in one sitting at my grandma's house. She spoiled us as children and would let us get by with that sort of thing. Three cheers for grandmas I say!



This one's another recipe from my mother. I have never had another pumpkin pie that even came close to being this good.



Here's more of our cooked pumpkin frozen in two cup bags. We have this season's pumpkins waiting for their turn to be cooked and stocked up the freezer. In the mean time, I have a few more bags from last year that need to be used up. I have been making all my favorite pumpkin recipes and even found a new recipe that is so quick, so easy and so delicious, that it just may cause us to use up our supply in double time. I'll be sharing very soon.



If the holidays came in a spice jar, it would contain all of the above.



White sugar, brown sugar and the spices.



Add evaporated milk and milk and eggs. My friend Charity found a recipe for pumpkin pie that did not have any evaporated milk. She said it was actually quite tasty. So, should you find yourself out of this ingredient one cold dark arctic night as you are craving a piece (or an entire) pumpkin pie, you now have a back up plan.

I use an immersion blender to mix the filling up. Mine is Kitchen Aide brand and I love it. I bought a cheaper version for our cabin in Minnesota and it's just not as sturdy. I'm a fan of blending directly in the bowl rather than transferring back and forth to a blender.



Pour into a prepared pie crust (use half butter and half shortening in this crust recipe).

Bake until a knife comes out fairly clean from the center. I cover the edges in tin foil to avoid burning. I have to bake it much, much longer than the recipe calls for for some reason so covering the edge is what saves this pie from being ruined by a blackened crust.



Good for dessert or breakfast in my opinion.


Mom's Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:
2 c. cooked pumpkin
1/3 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. white sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. evaporated milk

Directions: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mix all ingredients in a blender. Poor into prepared pie shell. Bake for 15 min. Lower temperature to 325 degrees for 45 minutes. Butter knife should come out (more or less) clean.

*The above cooking directions work for my mom, but for some reason my pie needs to cook for way more time. I cover the edge of the crust in tin foil to avoid burning the edges and bake at 450 degrees for 25 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for about an hour.

~AnnMarie

Creamy Pumpkin Soup

You will need all of the above ingredients plus salt, pepper and baking soda.



Chop one large onion and two carrots. I didn't have any fresh carrots so I used canned which I always have on hand specifically for this recipe. Cooking in the bush requires much planning ahead. I always have powdered eggs too just in case the store is out of real ones. Just a random after though that has nothing to do with this specific recipe.



Bring the broth, onions and carrots to a boil. Add the baking soda,



cinnamon, salt and pepper.



Simmer uncovered for 10 - 15 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.

Next add the pumpkin and evaporated milk.



Blend with an immersion blender and simmer for ten additional minutes. Make sure and do this step. I hyped this recipe up to one of my friends, she made it without pureeing it and thought it was a really strange and not all that good of a soup. She'll probably never trust my recommendations again. So puree, it makes the ugly duckling into a beautiful swan.



It's like pumpkin pie in a bowl, but without any sugar. Add a dollop of sour cream. Perfect for cool fall days.


Original recipe can be found here.
Recipe with some minute changes here.

~AnnMarie

Pumpkin Muffins

Each Fall, we like to have a pumpkin or two flown in from Nome. We cook them up and freeze it in two cup quantities. This is just the right amount for most any pumpkin recipe. But no worries if you don't go through all that hassle, a 15 oz can of pumpkin works perfectly in this recipe.



We love all things pumpkin but these quick and easy muffins are one of our favorite pumpkin concoctions.



In a small bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.



Whisk together the pumpkin, eggs and applesauce. I replace the oil in the original recipe with applesauce and actually prefer the texture and taste to oil.



Add in the baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, sugar and salt. Another change I made was in the amount of sugar. The recipe calls for 1 1/4 c. of sugar. I don't even put an entire cup and they're perfectly sweet.

Then whisk in the flour mixture until just combined.



Pour into muffin cups and sprinkle with a cinnamon and sugar mixture.

Bake at 350 for 25 - 30 minutes.



And that's what it's all about.

Pumpkin Muffin recipe at Smitten Kitchen.

~AnnMarie