You guys really pulled a fast one on me with the poll last week. It was a perfect tie between gin and rum! What’s a mixologist to do?

At first I tried to come up with a drink that had both gin and rum in it, but that proved to be pretty hard. Drinks do exist that use both, but they have a pretty specific flavor profile. Most of them weren’t really in the Halloween spirit so I thought it would be easier and more fun to just make two cocktails: one with rum and one with gin.

Frankly, both turned out better than I was expecting due to some awesome simple syrups.

Two Halloween Cocktails

Yield: 1 drink of each

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

Pumpkin Simple Syrup:
1/2 Cup pumpkin puree
1/2 Cup water
1/2 Cup sugar

Pumpkin Martini:
2 ounces rum (spiced rum would be good)
2 ounces pumpkin simple syrup
1 ounce cream
Cinnamon sugar (for rim)

Vampire Blood:
2 cups cranberry juice
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup dried hibiscus flowers

Vampire Blood Cocktail:
2.5 ounces gin
3 ounces club soda
1/2 ounce vampire blood
Garnish with lime

Helpful Equipment:
Cocktail Set

Directions:

1) For pumpkin syrup, just mix all the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to simmer. Simmer for about 5 minutes and then chill and use. It will store in the fridge fine for a week.

2) For pumpkin martini, wet rim and run it around some cinnamon sugar. Then shake ingredients together with ice and strain into chilled glass.

3) For vampire blood, combine ingredients in small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Reduce the mixture down by about 1/3 which should take about 20 minutes. Chill and use or store for up to 2 weeks.

4) For cocktail, mix gin and club soda over ice. Pour over vampire blood mixture and garnish with lime.

Pumpkin Martini

It’s Halloween and I just had to try to mix pumpkin into one of these cocktails. Anytime you’re trying to mix in a flavor with a drink, it’s usually best to try to make a simple syrup out of it which will make it easy to mix into things.

I was a bit worried that the pumpkin wouldn’t mix well due to it’s lumpiness…

Wasn't sure about this...

But after I started stirring this mixture together though, I knew it wouldn’t be a problem. The pumpkin just kind of melted in with the sugar and after a few minutes of simmering I had this surprisingly smooth syrup that I knew would work great in a cocktail.

Pretty silky smooth!

One Note: For the pumpkin, be sure to use just 100% canned pumpkin. Don’t use the pumpkin pie filling stuff. That stuff has all kinds of crazy stuff in it.

Shake It Up

While you could make this drink on the rocks (over ice) if you wanted, it seemed a bit more elegant to make a real martini out of it. That’s means you’ll need a shaker set of some sort if you don’t have one.

Try it with spiced rum....

A Bartender’s Trick

If you want to know a hint to watch for to see if your bartender is a good one and cares about the drinks they are making, see how they handle the glass. A good bartender will always always chill the glass. That means that if the glasses aren’t kept in a refrigerator, they will ice and chill every single glass that they pour into.

It only takes a few seconds and really helps keep your drink cool for as long as possible.

Very important.

At the last minute, I decided to add a cinnamon sugar rim to the glass also just to play off some of the pumpkin flavors. Not essential, but a fun little touch.

For the rim...

Just wet your glass with a paper towel and then run the rim in the cinnamon sugar. After that, just add your ingredients to your shaker with some ice and shake shake shake. Or stir stir stir. Whatever.

It’s a pretty drink and really tasty. I think if I made this again, I might try it with spiced rum instead of white rum.

Beautiful thing.

Vampire Blood Cocktail

Ok. Onto gin land! This is Halloween play on gin and juice basically. I wanted to make a blood red syrup and then add it to a gin soda and I figured it would be cool looking and delicious.

You’ll need some red stuff to start. I used real, pure cranberry juice, but you could also use pomegranate juice.

making blood!

See those withered flower things down there? Those are hibiscus flowers and they turn things bright red and give them a light floral taste. I love them in cocktails.

Here’s an up close look at these weird things.

They kind of look like what I would imagine vampire flowers would look like actually.

Up close!

Anyway, just like the pumpkin syrup, just mix all these together and bring them to a simmer. The only difference is that with this one you want it to simmer and reduce for about 20 minutes to thicken it up a bit.

Making blood!

A Chill Tip

For both of these syrups, they are best when they are cold. They will take hours to cool off completely in the fridge. What I like to do is set up a bowl with some ice water in it and then put the syrup in a smaller bowl inside the larger bowl. Stir the syrup and the ice water in the outer bowl will chill the syrup down in just a minute or two.

Back to the cocktail!

Then just add your gin and club soda (or tonic) to a tall glass with ice and a small shot of the vampire syrup and you’re all set!

Feel free to garnish with a lime and some fangs!

Awesome drink.

Both of these drinks are freakin’ delicious and you better bet that I’m going to be having one or two of both over the Halloween weekend.

Pumpkin time.

Quick Admin Note: On Sunday and Monday, I’m going to be working on launching a new design for the Macheesmo because I’m a perfectionist and don’t like some of the features with the current layout. Because of that, there won’t be a new post on Monday and the site might be down for a bit over those two days. It’s all for the best though. The new layout is slick.

I’m sure that I’m not the only person in the world who goes over-board on pumpkin buying. I always imagine making tons of pies and so I buy a huge amount of canned pumpkin at some point in the Fall only to have it sit in my pantry for years.

So when Fall actually comes around, I’m always itching to use up some of the pumpkin in my pantry to make room for… more pumpkin.

It’s a sick cycle, but one that results in pretty delicious food.

Pumpkin Muffins

Yield: 12 muffins

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 Cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 large egg
1 Cup milk
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
4 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 Cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 Cup pumpkin seeds, roasted
1 Teaspoon pumpkin pie seasoning
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cinnamon

Helpful Equipment:
- Muffin Tin

Directions:

1) Mix milk, egg, vanilla, and pumpkin puree in a small bowl until the mixture is smooth.

2) In a separate, larger bowl, mix together the dry ingredients including the pumpkin seeds.

3) Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Then stir in melted butter.

4) Butter 12 muffin tins and divide muffin batter between the tins.

5) Bake the muffins at 375 degrees for 18-20 minutes until they are lightly browned and cooked through.

6) Let cool briefly before serving. Serve with pumpkin butter if you can!

Making the Batter

This is a pretty standard muffin batter that I just mixed in a few add-ins. Instead of normal sugar, I used brown sugar. Plus some pumpkin, seeds, vanilla, and cinnamon and you’re looking at a nice spin on a classic muffin.

Standard muffin business.

To get the batter started, mix all the liquid ingredients (milk, egg, and vanilla) with the pumpkin puree. Stir this until it’s an even texture.

The liquid stuff.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, stir together the dry ingredients including the pumpkin seeds.

If you’re carving pumpkins, feel free to use the seeds in the pumpkin. You just want to make sure that you roast them first. Dry off the seeds, toss them with a teaspoon of oil and a pinch of salt, and bake them at 350 degrees for about 8-10 minutes.

Roasting them will give the seeds a much better flavor and texture.

Get it?

When your dry ingredients are stirred together, go ahead and mix in the wet stuff.

Stir this together until it’s in a rough batter. It’s okay if there are a few lumps. It doesn’t need to be perfect!

Smells good already.

As a final step, stir in the melted butter and mix everything together really well.

Butter always helps.

Baking the Muffins

Besides the butter that you add to the muffins, I also recommend using a small dab of butter to lube up the muffin tins. If you don’t do this, your muffins might stick really badly to the pan which is never fun.

You could also use paper wrappers if that’s more your style.

Once your tin is buttered lightly, divide the batter evenly among twelve tins. It’s okay to fill them up pretty high.

Butter those tins.

Bake these guys at 375 degrees for about 18-20 minutes.

When they come out, let them cool for a minute or two and then you can remove the muffins from the tin. The finished muffins should be a light golden brown color.

Good lookin' muffins.

I like to serve these muffins with butter or, if you can get your hands on some, a good pumpkin butter!

Pumpkin butter would've been ideal...

I think the pumpkin seeds kind of make this recipe. I love the color and subtle pumpkin flavor that the puree gives the muffins, but the seeds are like these little surprises in the muffins that give it some crunch and saltiness.

If you have some leftover pumpkin in the next month or two (and who doesn’t), give these guys a shot!

I don't recommend the grilled cheese approach.

This idea started as a sandwich and it ended as a sandwich. A very messy sandwich as you can see. A sandwich that I wouldn’t really recommend you make unless you own stock in a napkin company.

I had dreams of making a creamy pumpkin grilled cheese sandwich, but cream cheese doesn’t do a great job of holding together when it gets hot so the whole thing kind of just melted all over the place. Don’t get me wrong though… it was very tasty! I had no problem scarfing it all down, but it’s definitely easier to just use it as a spread.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spread

Yield: 1 Cup

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup cream cheese
2 Tablespoons honey
1 orange, zest only
Pinch of chili powder
Pinch of salt

Helpful Equipment:
- Zester

Directions:

1) Mash pumpkin and cream cheese together in a small bowl.

2) Stir in honey, spices, and orange zest.

3) Use on toast, bagels, or almost any baked good.

Making the Spread

You could go the complete sweet route with this spread by mixing in standard pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, etc.), but I decided to give it a slightly different flavor with some chili powder and orange zest.

Orange isn't optional.

It’s very important when making spreads like this to make sure you get just canned pumpkin. You don’t want the canned pumpkin pie filling with lots of crap in it. If you’re in doubt, take a look at the ingredients. They should only have pumpkin listed. Nothing else.

Once you pop your can open just mix the cream cheese and pumpkin together really well. I just used a fork and kind of mashed it all together.

These two things play nice together.

It’s okay if there are some lumps. The only way to get rid of those would be to beat the mixture with a hand mixer or something and that’s more work than it’s worth in my opinion.

Once your base mixture is mixed, you can add in your spices. The orange zest really makes the whole thing pop so try not to leave it out.

Then just add a pinch of chili powder and salt to taste. The finished spread should be a lovely light orange color.

Well that turned out bright!

Honestly, I recommend stopping here. Use the spread like this for toast, bagels, or heck. Just eat it with a spoon if you want. It’s really delicious.

But if you want to venture into the world of the messy, I have a sandwich for you!

The Pumpkin Sandwich

The key with this sandwich, if you are daring enough to try it out, is to do the exact opposite of what you would normally do with a grilled cheese. Normally, I recommend cooking grilled cheeses on medium-low heat which lets the bread toast slowly while the heat radiates into the cheese, melting it.

If you do that with this sandwich, you’ll have a huge mess on your hands.

Instead, you want to cook the sandwich on a high heat for about 45 seconds per side. That will toast the bread nicely, and just warm through the filling.

Butter a piece of bread and set it in a hot skillet. Add a few dollops of pumpkin spread to the bread.

Work quickly!

Top it with another piece of buttered bread (butter side up) and set it over medium-high heat. After about 45 seconds, carefully flip the sandwich and you should have a lovely browned toast.

Cook it for another 45 seconds and your done. If you do it right, none of the pumpkin mixture will spill out.

Hot and quick!

Let this cool for a minute before eating it. I cut mine in half just so you could see the runny (but delicious) mess that this sandwich is capable of.

Just spread it on, people.

By all means make the pumpkin spread in this post. It’s very Fall-ish. It would go great on a huge number of breakfast foods.

Maybe don’t try to do what I did with the whole sandwich thing. If you wanted a sandwich you could always just toast two pieces of bread and stick them together with some spread in the middle!

Don’t make something delicious harder than it needs to be.

At midnight, I turn into a pumpkin... biscuit.

I was completely nervous about making this recipe. Not because I’m afraid of pumpkin, but because it was my first baking adventure at 5,000 feet and I was pretty certain that it was going to go horribly. And guess what? IT DID.

It went very wrong. But it didn’t go wrong just because I’m at a high altitude (high altitude baking is hard by the way, but that’s a different post). It also went horribly wrong because I failed to READ THE RECIPE. So couple my failure to read with my high altitude woes and it resulted in me making these bad boys twice in one day.

But the end result (above) was delicious and worth the do-over.

Pumpkin Biscuits

Yield: Makes 10 biscuits.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
3/4 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Cups (1 stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
1/2 Cups buttermilk
1/4 Cups maple syrup (the real stuff please)
1/2 Cup pecans, chopped
1 Cup pumpkin, from a can is fine

Directions:

1) Add flour, salt, baking powder, and pecans in a food processor and pulse a few times to get the pecans chopped. If you don't have a food processor, just chop the pecans finely and then stir everything together in a bowl.

2) Add cubed chilled butter to flour mixture and pulse a few times or cut butter into flour with fingers or a fork until there are pebble sized bits of butter throughout the flour.

3) Mix pumpkin, buttermilk, and syrup together in a seperate bowl.

4) Add pumpkin mixture to flour and pulse a few times to combine or stir until dough comes together. The dough should be really soft, but not sticky at all.

5) Working quickly, turn dough out onto floured surface and roll until it's 1/2 inch thick. Use cutters to cut out biscuits or slice dough to make square biscuits.

6) Place biscuits on baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 425 for 18-20 minutes.

VERY heavily adapted from a Sweet Potato Biscuit recipe in Bon Appetit.

My Mistakes

So I got the idea for this recipe from a sweet potato biscuit recipe in Bon Appetit. That recipe also sounds good but the pumpkin idea is even easier because you can just use canned stuff. The original recipe called for cornmeal, which I used the first time but didn’t like. So I took it out and replaced it with flour for my successful version.

The original recipe also calls for pecans, which for some unknown reason, I just completely forgot. These are not optional. The chopped pecans make the biscuits kind of hold together. I left them out the first time and my dough was really soggy and not the right consistency.

In addition to that it took me two times to I think master the high-altitude version of this recipe which meant:

- Reducing the baking powder by 1/8 Tablespoon
- Adding an extra 2 Tablespoons (apprx) of flour
- Baking them hotter for a shorter amount of time

I didn’t do that the first time around and the biscuits just plain didn’t work.

Making the Dough

This is a really quick dough to pull together if you have a food processor. If you don’t, then you can still make it but it’ll add on a few minutes to your prep time.

Start by combining your pumpkin, buttermilk, and maple syrup in a bowl. You want to have this stuff ready because after you add it to the dry stuff you want to waste no time getting the biscuits rolled out and in the oven.

Interesting...

In a food processor, or big bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, chopped pecans and butter.

Standard...

Pulse this a few times to cut the chilled butter into the flour. If you don’t have a food processor, this is the step that’ll take a few extra minutes because you’ll need to cut the butter into the flour using your fingers.

Once you get the butter cut into the flour, add the pumpkin/buttermilk/syrup mixture and pulse a few times or just stir it together with a spoon until the dough comes together.

This was my failed dough version which was a bit soggy. I had a feeling I was going to have some trouble when my dough was this wet.

A bit soggy...

ANYWAY, assuming your dough is the right consistency (soft, but not sticky), turn it out onto a floured surface and quickly roll it out to a medium rectangle. The dough should be about 1/2 inch thick.

Remember, the key to good biscuits is to work quickly because time works against you once you add the liquids in with the dried stuff.

Work quickly...

Use a cutter to cut out biscuits to your size, or you can just slice them up and make square biscuits like I did with my black pepper biscuits.

Set the biscuits on a baking sheet (I recommend lining it with parchment paper). Then bake it at 425 for about 18 minutes.

Of course, my first round of biscuits resembled small orange rocks.

After some cursing and a trip to the garbage can though, I regrouped and figured out a plan for success. I’m going to write more about high altitude baking, but to adjust for the problem, I started by making sure I added pecans which I learned were not optional. I also decided to not use the cornmeal and just use all flour, which I think is a good switch even in normal altitude which is why the recipe doesn’t include cornmeal.

I decreased the amount of baking powder by about 1/8, added a few extra Tablespoons of flour, and baked them at 435 for 15 minutes.

The results of my second attempt were A LOT better.

Success!

Once I had some successful donuts, I ate them the only way to eat really good biscuits… with butter!

The only way to eat a biscuit.

I can definitely tell that baking at a high altitude is going to be a challenge, but I’m pretty determined to figure it out even if it means the occasional recipe re-do. Of course, I’ll always post recipes assuming you AREN’T baking at 5,000 feet and then just share my adjustments.

That said, if people have high altitude tips, I’m all ears.

And also… pumpkin biscuits are delicious.

Don’t get me wrong, I can do healthy, but if I’m going to make a pie or a tart or something, I generally want it to be delicious and not half-assed. So I’m very skeptical about light recipes, but it did look really good so I gave it a shot and tried to restrain myself from making too many adjustments to the recipe.

Not quite as light as the original recipe...

There were a few changes that I couldn’t help but make though. First, they call it a tart. To me, it’s a cheesecake. Semantics I guess. Second, I’m sorry but their crust recipe was just not going to work for me. I tried it and I couldn’t get it to stick together.

Also, I don’t believe in low fat cream cheese. Sorry, but that’s just the way I feel!

Pumpkin Bourbon Cheesecake

Yield: One Pie.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes + cooling time

Ingredients:

Crust: (From How to Cook Everything)
1.5 cups graham cracker crumbs (about two sheets crumbled)
4 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 Cup sugar

Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup brown sugar
1 (15-ounce) can unsweetened pumpkin
2 large eggs
2 Tablespoons bourbon (plus some for drinkin'!)
2 Teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 Teaspoon ground allspice

Whipped Cream:
1/3 Cup cold heavy cream
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Teaspoon vanilla

Helpful Equipment:
Springform Pan

Directions:

1) Crush up your graham crackers (or you can buy crumbs if you want) and then add your sugar and drizzle in your melted butter. Mix everything together with a fork. It should be loose, but if you press on it, it should clump together.

2) Start loading crust into springform pan. Use a measuring cup to press down the crumbs. Work around the edge with the measuring cup until all the edges are about the same thickness and pressed firmly together. Work slowly and make sure it is all really packed down well. It’s very important to have a good sturdy crust.

3) Bake this crust in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Then let it cool completely on a wire rack. It should harden up nicely as it cools.

4) For filling, beat together cream cheese and sugars. Once they are well incorporated and light, add the eggs and pumpkin (be sure to buy 100% pumpkin and not the pumpkin pie filling). Mix that all together and then add all other ingredients.

5) Once pie crust has cooled down, you can pour filling into crust!

6) Set pie pan on a large baking sheet and then pour 1 Cup of boiling water around the pan right before sticking it in the oven to create a water bath.

7) Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until the center barely wiggles when you tap the side.

8) Cool the pie to room temperature on a wire rack and then refrigerate it for at least 4 hours.

9) Whisk all the whip cream ingredients together and then dollop it on top!

Adapted from Cooking Light.

Making the Crust

I really did try to make the crust from the original recipe and I couldn’t get it to work out. I didn’t want to risk it falling apart so I just used a recipe that I’ve used before. It’s pretty surefire.

A simple, normal graham cracker crust.

Crush up your graham crackers (or you can buy crumbs if you want) and then add your sugar and drizzle in your melted butter. Mix everything together with a fork. It should be loose, but if you press on it, it should clump together.

Clumping is good.

Start loading it into your springform pan (or you can use a normal pie pan I guess). One trick I learned, I think from Alton Brown, is to use a measuring cup to press down the crumbs. Work around the edge with the measuring cup until all the edges are about the same thickness and pressed firmly together.

Work slowly and make sure it is all really packed down well. It’s very important to have a good sturdy crust.

Get it?

Bake this crust in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Then let it cool completely on a wire rack. It should harden up nicely as it cools.

Making the filling

I used nice bourbon for the recipe not because I think it’s necessarily important for the pie, but because I intend to drink the leftovers and so I bought the good stuff.

You’ll need a variety of other ingredients as well. The only other change, besides the crust, that I made to this recipe was to sub in real cream cheese. I don’t trust low fat cream cheese! Give me the real stuff please.

Filling ingredients.

Start by beating together your cream cheese and sugars. Once they are well incorporated and light, add the eggs and pumpkin (be sure to buy 100% pumpkin and not the pumpkin pie filling). Mix that all together and then add all your other ingredients.

It’s a pretty quick filling to pull together actually. I used whole spices and ground them up myself, but feel free to just use ground stuff if that’s what you have available.

Yum.

Once your pie crust has cooled down, you can pour your filling into your crust!

Don't worry. The filling is pretty runny at this point.

Baking the cheesecake

You need to bake this in a water bath to ensure that your filling sets and stays moist. I did this by setting my pie pan on a large baking sheet and then pouring 1 Cup of boiling water around the pan right before sticking it in the oven.

The water will form steam and help the pie set up nicely.

Water bath!

Bake this creation at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until the center barely wiggles when you tap the side. Again cool the pie to room temperature on a wire rack and then refrigerate it for at least 4 hours.

Eating the Cheesecake!

Ok. There aren’t really any instructions on how to eat it. You know how to do that. What’s nice about the springform pan is that you can take out the entire cheesecake which makes it really easy to cut and serve.

Some tiny pieces of my crust fell off in the process, but in general it held together fine.

Spring form pans are pretty sweet.

If you are making your own whipped cream, just whisk all the above ingredients together and then dollop it on top! Honestly, the cheesecake is pretty good without the whipped cream also so if you’re looking to really save some calories that might be the place to do it.

How pretty is that?!

Ok… so I stayed pretty true to the recipe. I think my changes definitely improve the final product (especially the crust). Granted I didn’t taste them side by side, but I just have a feeling that my version is worth the few extra calories.

I can say this because, well, my version turned out delicious.

I think this would be a pretty great alternative to the classic pumpkin pie for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving feast.

Given the season, I thought I would make some delicious pumpkin spice cupcakes for Betsy to bring! I topped the pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting because I’m always looking for an excuse to top something in cream cheese frosting. I also threw on some candy corns left over from my cocktail adventures.

A good vessel for cream cheese frosting.

I got this recipe from a really good baker I know who has actually contributed to Macheesmo before. The pumpkin cupcakes are simple to make and have a very interesting twist on the normal cupcake recipe: brown butter. The nuttiness of the butter with the pumpkin and spices was a pretty amazing combo.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Yield: 20 cupcakes

Ingredients:

Dry Mixture:
340 g. all-purpose flour (2 3/4 cups)
2 Teaspoons cinnamon
2 Teaspoons ground clove
2 Teaspoons nutmeg (fresh grated is best)
1 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Teaspoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon salt

Wet Mixture:
228 g. butter (1 Cup)
500 g. sugar (2 1/2 Cups)
2 Eggs
2 Egg yolks
1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree (be sure to get the 100% pumpkin puree, not the pumpkin pie filling.)

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 8 ounce package cream cheese
1/2 Cup Butter (1 stick) at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 Cups powdered sugar, sifted

Helpful Equipment:
Microplane (for nutmeg or buy it ground already)
Cupcake Pan
Digital Scale (Best tool you can buy to ensure consistent baking results)

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk together well!

2) To make the brown butter, just put all of the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Let it melt and continue to cook, stirring occasionally. It will foam some and eventually the milk solids will start to brown and even burn a little bit. This takes about 5 minutes maybe.

3) Strain this! If you don’t have a good strainer, you can use a coffee filter.

4) Then pour all the brown butter into a bowl with all of the sugar and cream it together until smooth. It will look like brown sugar and smell amazing.

5) Once cool, add eggs and additional egg yolks to sugar mixture.

6) Add pumpkin puree and finally whisk in dry ingredients in two batches.

7) Using a 1/3 cup measuring cup, fill up the cupcake pan! Anytime I’m making cupcakes, I like to use the paper inserts which make for easy transport. Fill the papers about 3/4 of the way full. Don’t fill them all the way to the top or you will have some serious overflow happening.

8) Bake for about 25 minutes in the middle rack of the oven or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center.

9) Move cupcakes to a wire rack until they are completely cooled. Take them out of the pan after a few minutes and let cool completely (approximately one hour).

10) For frosting, mix butter and cream sugar together using a hand mixer (or whisk) until the mixture is well combined and smooth. Mix it for a few minutes on medium speed until it starts to get light and airy. Then add vanilla and finally sift in powdered sugar, 1 Cup at a time.

11) Once the cupcakes are cooled you can top them which as much frosting as you can handle and decorate accordingly!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

The Dry Stuff

Get all of your dry ingredients ready. I think it’s pretty important to weigh baking ingredients as my cup of flour is going to be slightly different than your cup of flour, but grams are grams no matter what.

The dry goods.

Basically, just combine all of these ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk together well to make sure everything is combined!

The Wet Ingredients

For the future detectives reading, yes, there are three sticks of butter and three eggs and three egg yolks below, but only two of each in the recipe. That’s because I needed about 30 cupcakes, not 20.

The wet goods (plus some dry goods)

Making the brown butter

Most cake recipes require that you cream the butter which involves (normally) using a mixer to beat the crap out of the butter and sugar to make sure that every little grain of sugar is coated in butter.

This recipe uses a different approach though which I immediately fell in love with. You make a brown butter and then pour that over the sugar and stir it up! It adds an awesome level of flavor to the final cake and I think it’s easier than creaming the butter and sugar together, but gives you the same results.

Update: As a few commenters have pointed out, you can’t always substitute brown butter for creaming butter. In this recipe it works well, but it’s a different physical process.

To make the brown butter, just put all of your butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Let it melt and continue to cook, stirring occasionally. It will foam some and eventually the milk solids will start to brown and even burn a little bit. This takes about 5 minutes maybe.

Take it off the heat when it looks like this:

In. Love.

Strain this

You don’t want those little burned bits in your cupcakes, just the lovely browned butter. Straining it is key. If you don’t have a good strainer, you can use a coffee filter!

Then pour all your brown butter into a bowl with all of your sugar and mix it up. It will look like brown sugar and smell amazing.

This one time I made brown sugar.

Finishing the Batter

The hardest part is over! Next, add your eggs and additional egg yolks to your sugar mixture. Then add your pumpkin puree and finally whisk in your dry ingredients in two batches. Don’t over mix the batter. Just make sure all your flour is incorporated well and then stop.

Very delicious. I know because I ate a spoonful of it.

Next, using a 1/3 cup measuring cup, fill up your cupcake pan! Anytime I’m making cupcakes, I like to use the paper inserts which make for easy transport. Fill the papers about 3/4 of the way full. Don’t fill them all the way to the top or you will have some serious overflow happening.

Don't overfill!

Baking the Cupcakes

These need to bake for about 25 minutes in the middle rack of the oven or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center. I would check them at 20 – my oven is a bit unreliable I’ve learned.

Look at these beauties!

I made these. You can too.

After these come out, move them to a wire rack until they are completely cooled. Take them out of the pan after a few minutes, but make sure they are not hot or even warm before you frost. I let mine sit for about an hour before even trying to frost them. If they are even slightly warm you run the risk of melting your frosting and melted frosting makes for a very sad cupcake.

Speaking of frosting, let’s make that.

Mix your butter and cream sugar together using a hand mixer (or whisk I guess) until the mixture is well combined and smooth. Mix it for a few minutes on medium speed until it starts to get light and airy. Then add your vanilla and finally sift in your powdered sugar, 1 Cup at a time.

You’ll end up with a very smooth and sturdy frosting!

Heaven.

Once the cupcakes are cooled you can top them which as much frosting as you can handle and decorate accordingly!

Yum!

I must brag a little bit (even though it wasn’t my recipe) and say that Betsy reported these guys were the first thing to sell out at the bake sale and they were gone in about 20 minutes! How’s that for market research?!

If you’re looking for a solid dessert to make for a party this weekend and don’t feel like making your own gummy worms, these guys are surefire winners.

Case in point: Pumpkin. Pumpkin was such an obvious choice for this and I’m assuming it’s what everyone wanted me to make! I mean, come one, look how orange it is!

Orange right?

Over the long weekend I went over to a friend’s house to grill and brought along this beauty of a gourd. I had very high ambitions! I was going to slice it up, peel off that rough rind, grill it, and glaze it with a sweet-heat glaze I came up with.

Grilled Pumpkin and Butternut Squash Soup

Yield: Serves 6.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

1 medium, ripe pumpkin

The Sweet Heat Glaze:
2 Tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar (I used the good stuff)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons honey
1/2 Teaspoon cayenne
1 Teaspoon Chipotle seasoning (less if you want)

Butternut Squash Soup:
1 medium butternut squash (mine weighed about 3 pounds after peeling and cubing)
1/3 of a pumpkin (probably 1/2 pound. I'm not sure this had any effect on the final taste.)
1 medium onion, diced
1 Cup carrots, chopped
3 Tablespoons butter
6 cups liquid (I used 4 cups homemade vegetable stock I had plus two cups water.)
1/4 Teaspoon cayenne (adjust to your heat liking)
1/4 Teaspoon cinnamon (adjust to taste)
Salt and pepper (lots of fresh ground pepper is good. I probably used like 2 Teaspoons at least.)

Helpful Equipment:
Blender or Immersion Blender

Directions:

Grilled Pumpkin (using 2/3 of a medium sized pumpkin)
1) Whisk sweet heat glaze together in a bowl.

2) Peel the pumpkin with a vegetable peeler or paring knife (you can skip this part if you want – it was difficult and would probably be better with the rind left on).

3) Slice peeled pumpkin into half-inch segments and toss with a bit of olive oil.

4) Place on hot grill.

5) Baste right away with the sweet heat glaze.

6) Turn them every 3-4 minutes and glazed the other side for a total of 10 minutes.

Butternut Squash Soup

1) Cube up all the squash. You will need to peel it which, again, is kind of a pain, but it’s worth the effort.

2) Get a large soup pan or sauce pan going over high heat and add butter.

3) Sauté onions and carrots for 5 minutes until they start to soften, then add squash and pumpkin.

4) Cook for another 5-10 minutes and then add liquid!

5) Bring everything to a boil and let it simmer for about 20 minutes or until the veggies are very tender.

6) Using a blender or immersion blender, take everything for a spin.

7) Pour blended soup back into large pot and return it to medium heat.

8) Add all the spices and taste for salt and pepper. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some chives

I got the grilled fired up and started attacking my pumpkin which, I’ve determined, is really the best way to slice it (via attacking). I was a bit disappointed when I sliced it into thirds and reveals a yellowish flesh.

Totally NOT ORANGE!

Hmm... very light orange.

As an aside, if you need help cutting into a pumpkin, I treated it like a spaghetti squash and it worked great.

Anyway, back to the task at hand. I definitely wasn’t going to give up just because it didn’t meet my immediate color expectations. I guess I have just never really taken note on the actual color of pumpkin flesh… So I pulled out the seeds (and a friend roasted them with Old Bay – GOOD!), and then I finished chopping the pumpkin into thirds.

Next, I worked on my glaze!

Whisk this all together like so (please note the orange spice in the top right photo. Thanks.):

The Sweet Heat Glaze.

Grilling the pumpkin

I decided to peel the pumpkin before grilling it. Not going to lie, this is a pretty arduous task. The rind is pretty intense and it takes some work with a vegetable peeler or some pretty good paring knife skills to peel the thing. Then I sliced it into half inch segments and tossed them in just a bit of olive oil and got them on a hot grill.

If I were to do this all over again, the one thing I would change is I don’t think I would peel the pumpkin. That might sound crazy, but what ended up happening is as the pumpkin cooked it got kind of flimsy. I think the hard rind would help keep the pieces together. Then you can basically serve it like slices of melon!

Also, it’s seriously a pain to peel it so avoid it if you can.

Sliced and grilled.

As you can see, once I got them on the grill, I started basting them right away with the sweet heat glaze! I turned them every 3-4 minutes and glazed the other side.

After about 10 minutes, I was getting perfect grill marks. I was pretty excited!

Good looking grill marks!

I used all of the glaze and you could try to pick up the finished product, but they were pretty flimsy. A fork was a good idea.

I give it a score of decent.

The verdict

Well, they were only kind of orange. And they tasted okay. They weren’t bad, but they were kind of weak on flavor. Turns out pumpkin is a bit bland in its raw form… Like I said, I think I would leave the rind on if I were to try it again. That would help with the texture and make it easier to eat and prepare. The glaze was pretty tasty though, but I think it might work better on a pork chop than a slice of pumpkin! If I were going to use it on pumpkin again, I might add a bit of nutmeg, cinnamon, or allspice to bring out some more pumpkin flavor.

Butternut Squash Soup

I felt a little let down about the grilled pumpkin. It was okay, but I wanted to make something else. I actually only grilled 2/3′s of the pumpkin I had so I thought I would mix the last third with some butternut squash and make a delicious soup.

When I cut into the butternut squash (which is a very tan yellow on the outside), I remembered that they are, in fact, BRIGHT orange on the inside!

ORANGE!

I really have no answer for this other than pure luck.

I wasn’t going to take my chances though so I decided to add a few more ingredients to the soup that I knew, for a fact, to be orange.

Like carrots!

More orange!

Making the soup

This is a very easy soup to make actually. First, cube up all your squash. You will need to peel it which, again, is kind of a pain, but it’s worth the effort.

This is going to make a lot of soup!

Get a large soup pan or sauce pan going over high heat and add your butter. Saute your onions and carrots for 5 minutes until they start to soften, then add your squash and pumpkin. Cook for another 5-10 minutes and then add your liquid! The liquid should just cover all the veggies.

Bring everything to a boil and let it simmer for about 20 minutes or until the veggies are very tender. Then, using a blender or immersion blender, take everything for a spin. I had to blend mine in three batches in my stand blender. Don’t overfill your blender unless you want orange walls.

Then pour your blended soup back into your large pot and return it to medium heat. Add all your spices and taste for salt and pepper. It should be really smooth but have just a hint of spice to it.

Ideally, you would serve this with a dollop of sour cream and some chives. I didn’t really have either of those so I just served it “naked” with a small salad and some toasted baguette. Delicious though!

Pretty orange. Could use a sour cream dollop and some chives.

So as a wrap-up on this adventure in the land of orange:

- The soup was amazing. It also makes a bunch and keeps for days. It also happens to be decently orange.
- The pumpkin has potential on the grill, but needs some work. (Any ideas people?)
- I need to bottle and SELL the Sweet Heat Glaze.

Update: A kind reader emailed me immediately after I published this and said my pumpkin problem is because I didn’t let it age for a few weeks before cutting into it. Essentially, mine wasn’t quite ripe! If you let them sit in a dry, ventilated spot for a few weeks that will apparently solve the texture/color issue I was having. Kind reader Dan also said that the stem should be completely dry and hard before cutting into it. They are pretty sturdy gourds, but be careful not to let them rest too long on a solid or wet surface or they’ll rot.

Learn something new every day!