Healthy Pumpkin Bread

Hubs & I have a cruise coming up in two weeks, woohoo!  With that in mind, I was craving a sweet bread for breakfast but didn't want to kill my calorie count for the day.  After a little google searching, I found a pumpkin bread recipe and tweaked it just a bit to make it healthy and incorporate what I had in the house.  I warned J that it may not taste as good as usual due to the health factor, but he loved it just the same.  I did too!  Bonus on this recipe?  It's super easy.  One-bowl-wonder.  Love.

Special thank you to my Auntie Elisa who gave me 2-cup packs of her fresh, homemade pumpkin puree.  Healthy, delicious super food.  Thanks Auntie!!

Healthy Pumpkin Bread (adapted from Kitchen Stewardship)

Need:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/8 cup ground flaxseed meal
• 2/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1 cup fresh pumpkin puree

Do: 

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl
3. Grease loaf pan
4. Pour batter into loaf pan
5. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes

We ate ours warm with some light cream cheese dolloped on top.  Happy Sunday!

Holiday Dessert Round-up: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

Here in New England, we don't mess around with our desserts.  Sure there is the cupcake craze, and now macarons and pies are slowly becoming more of the fad sweets, but nothing makes a pure-blooded Yankee more happy than a classic whoopie pie!

The holidays are the perfect time to enjoy this traditional treat in a more seasonal flavor; pumpkin whoopies with cream cheese filling.  I followed a Martha Stewart recipe to whip up this batch, you can find it here.

Never made whoopies before?  Have no fear, they are easy!  First, you bake up similar sized "cookies" (they are more like cupcake caps, in my opinion) by using a tablespoon to measure out even amounts of batter onto a parchment-lined sheet, bake and let cool.

Then, mix up a batch of your favorite frosting.  I love cream cheese frosting with pumpkin cake or bread, but there are no rules when it comes to whoopie pies!  Use whatever you like and whatever will pair nicely with your cookie flavor.  Pipe (or spread) onto half of your cookies.

Top your frosted whoopies with the unfrosted whoopies, then my sweets, you've got dessert!

  

 Enjoy!  Stay tuned for the next Holiday Round-Up dessert, classic Chocolate Pecan Pie!

My To-Bake List

Is anyone else as addicted to Pinterest as I am?  Talk about inspiration!  To pass on the love, I'm sharing the beautiful photos and ideas that make up my current "To-Bake" list.  Let me know if you've made any of these items, and how they came out!


Inside-out carrot cake cupcakes


Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle

Cookie dough cupcake

Oreo-stuffed brownies

Everything Fall Cupcakes!

Fall is in full swing here in New England and what better way to celebrate crisp days, pretty leaves, and cozy nights than with cupcakes?!  This year I was in the mood for something a little different than my typical pumpkin spice cupcake, so I turned one of my favorite blogs, Cupcakes Take the Cake, for a little inspiration and found the holy grail of cupcake creativity; The Cupcake Project!

If you love cupcakes, you need to check out this site.  The writer posts so many creative flavors and combinations; it's awesome!

Today's cupcake is one straight from the Cupcake Project blog- I didn't change anything, though I did leave the cranberries off the top.  Since I didn't modify this recipe at all, feel free to check out the original here!

For now, here's the low-down...first you make a batch of mini apple cobbler cupcakes and top them with some brown sugar glazey icing that is just like the icing on a donut. Ho-ly-mo-ly good luck to you saving enough to complete this project.  The fact that they are mini and moist and addictive makes this a hard task, so I suggest hiding them until they're cool and ready to be frozen.  Seriously!

Next you make your big-cupcake batter; pumpkin with real maple syrup and rum.  This is one of those batters where you freak out because it looks curdled and nasty at first, but don't worry, it comes together beautifully and ends up looking and smelling like a delicate pumpkin mousse.

Bake the pumpkin batter with a frozen mini (wrapper removed) in the center and you have your cupcake.  The last step is whipping up an easy batch of cinnamon cream cheese icing and topping your cuppies with love, and voi-la.  You have the best fall dessert you've ever made.

These fall cupcakes SO good, and you can easily taste all of the flavors...except for the rum.  I used Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum (my favorite dark rum) and I think it was just overpowered by the maple and pumpkin.

This project does take some serious prep time; you have to freeze the mini cupcakes overnight.  This was a 2-day baking project for me, but it was a lot of fun and the taste makes it worth every minute.  Check out the Cupcake Project's original recipe here, and enjoy!!

French Apple Pie

Happy Monday, sweets!  I hope everyone had a nice weekend!  It was beautiful in Massachusetts this weekend, perfect for enjoying fall treats.  My husband and I spent the weekend at my parents' house, helping to replace their driveway.  Well, hubby helped with the driveway, and I helped my mom to feed all the men that were working.  We baked some delicious pumpkin white chocolate blondie bars for dessert Saturday afternoon, and an AMAZING sour dough french toast bake for breakfast Sunday morning.  Unfortunately I was out of the zone and didn't take pictures of either, but you can click above to get the recipes for each.  Both items were a big hit!

One thing I CAN share with you tonight is a recipe for a very unique, very satisfying, very tasty apple pie that should definitely be added to your "must bake" list.  A couple of weeks ago, my buddy Christina of All's Fare Food Blog and I teamed up while our men watched football and baked up this French Apple Pie and a batch of "Everything Fall Cupcakes."  The cupcakes will get their own post from me since that was "my" recipe, but today, I will send you to Christina's blog to read about the pie, which was "hers."

She made the crust, used fresh, local apples, and the recipe called for a custard layer (possibly the element that makes this, a "French" version?) which put this pie over the top.  Christina did a great job for her first apple pie...the proof (for me at least) was when we were all stuffed full of dinner and pie and ice cream, and my husband had room for seconds.  When J takes seconds, especially when everyone else is falling asleep they're so full, you know you've done well.  So kudos to you, Christina, can't wait til we bake again!