Pumpkin Oatmeal

It’s pumpkin season again – yay!  I make this year-round, but I make it more in the fall.  It’s so easy and flavorful and healthy.  I usually make a big batch of it early in the week and then reheat it in portions, but it can easily be scaled down.  The best part is that it’s completely customizable – use brown sugar instead of white!  Use maple syrup!  Make it sweeter or less sweet!  Use whole milk instead of skim!  Add more spices!  Add more water!  Whatever floats your boat.  In fact, when I scale it down I frequently don’t measure anything except the liquid and the oatmeal – a big spoonful of pumpkin, a dash of cinnamon, it all works pretty well.

Pumpkin Oatmeal
makes 5-6 servings

4.5 cups water, milk, or combination thereof (I use 3 cups skim milk and 1.5 cups water)
1 15-oz can or about 2 cups of pumpkin puree
1/2 cup sugar

heaping 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly-grated nutmeg
1/8-1/4 tsp allspice
pinch salt

3 cups rolled oats

In a large (4-qt.) saucepan, mix all ingredients except the oatmeal over medium-high heat.  Whisk well to get rid of lumps of cinnamon.  When it’s boiling, add the oatmeal.  Reduce heat to medium or medium low, so the mixture simmers.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-10 minutes (this will depend on the oats you use and your preference; Old Fashioned Quaker Oats will be done around 5 minutes, but Bob’s Red Mill Rolled Oats will need at least 10.).  Remove from heat; cover, let sit for 5 minutes.  Serve.

This will firm up significantly as it cools.  I have to add more milk when I reheat it on subsequent days.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

  

These are one of my favorite things to make in the fall.  They are so easy and SO good – even people who don’t usually like pumpkin like these!  They can be made into mini cupcakes (like I did here), or standard cupcakes, or baked into an 11”x15” pan and cut into bars, or any number of things.  You only need one bowl. It’s a great recipe.
 

 

Pumpkin Cupcakes
Makes 6-7 dozen mini cupcakes or about 3 dozen standard cupcakes or about 20 bars (depending on how big you cut them)

2 cups Bisquick mix

2 cups sugar
1 15-oz can (approx 2 cups) pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs

2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°.  Line pans with cupcake liners (no prep needed for 11”x15” pan).  Mix Bisquick and sugar in a large bowl.  Add the other ingredients and mix until batter just comes together.  Pour batter into prepared pans (I use a #60 disher for the mini cupcakes) and bake: 15-20 minutes for mini cupcakes, 25-30 minutes for standard cupcakes, and 45-55 minutes for the 11”x15” pan. 


Cream Cheese Frosting
makes enough to frost all the above cupcakes, with some left over.  Maybe 3 cups?

1 8-oz package of cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick (4 oz.) unsalted butter, room temperature
approx 1-1/2 lbs powdered sugar
up to 1/4 cup milk, cream, or water
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle, combine the cream cheese and butter.  Add the powdered sugar in 2-3 batches (so you don’t end up wearing it), mixing well after each addition.  Add the vanilla, then add the milk in teaspoons until the frosting is the consistency you want.  Pipe or spread it onto the cooled cupcakes.

Confession: when I make bars out of this, I use store-bought cream cheese frosting.  It’s yummy and simple, and I can go from zero to homemade dessert, ready to party, in under 90 minutes.  And I can either eat dinner or get ready to go out while the bars are in the oven.  Magic!
 
 

Blueberry-Vanilla Jam

I was surprised when I tasted this jam – it might be my favorite of the jams that I’ve actually canned.  Its flavor is more complex than I expected it to be, and it’s not too sweet.  It’s still a little firmer than I prefer, texture-wise, but I think I’ve decided that I just don’t like commercial pectin.  If I use it in the future, I’ll definitely use Pomona’s Universal Pectin (which is what I used here – I followed the recipe that was included with the pectin, but I added a couple of vanilla beans).  Pomona’s Universal Pectin is interesting – most commercial pectin requires a certain amount of sugar to set up, which is why a lot of jams are so sweet.  But Pomona’s pectin uses calcium (which is included in the box) to set up the pectin, so you can adjust the sugar to your heart’s content.  Most boxed pectin says things like YOU MUST FOLLOW THE RECIPE EXACTLY, so if it’s too sweet for you… well, too bad.  Pomona’s pectin, however, gave advice for developing your own recipe (in addition to the recipes they provided).  That definitely fits my style more!

Blueberry Jam (recipe from Pomona’s Universal Pectin, on the “Recipe Card 1” in the link, plus a couple of vanilla beans.)

Blackberry Jam

 

 

My second batch of jam was blackberry.  I’m having a lot of fun with the jamming and canning process – it’s so different from baking!  I used this recipe this time, and it’s… good.  Not great, but good.  It’s sweeter than I like, but other than that the flavor is amazing.  I’m also not loving the texture – commercial pectin makes firmer jams than I prefer.  But that’s largely remedied by giving the jam a good stir upon opening.

The other problem with blackberry jam is that there are all the seeds to deal with.  I removed about half of them before I made the jam, but I lost patience with the process well before I was done.  If I had a food mill it might be a different story, but… I think it’s just as well that it will be another year till blackberries are in season again; I might have forgotten the hassle by then!

 

Blackberry Jam

Blackberry Crisp

Well, I have now found my go-to crisp recipe!  I loved this – it’s wonderfully customizable, so you can adjust for the sweetness of your fruit, and scalable and just plain good.  I mean, I made it twice in a week!  (Why yes, I did have some fruit to use up, why do you ask?)  The first time I used all blackberries, but the second time I added some frozen blueberries in as well, and added some Trader Joe’s roasted milled flax seed with blueberries into the topping – about a tablespoon, I think.  I’m going to try adding some graham flour next time, and maybe some vanilla powder, just for fun.  I’m sure whole wheat flour would work, too.  I may just make some of the topping and keep it in the freezer for impromptu desserts.  Yum!


(Summer Berry Crisp recipe, at Epicurious.)