Pumpkin Pillow Cookies and variations

I found this recipe http://kblog.lunchboxbunch.com/2014/10/pumpkin-pie-pillows-low-sugar-vegan.html.  I love finding gluten-free recipes that look interesting.  I thought this recipe looked interesting, despite the coconut. One thing, you may or may not have noticed, on this blog, coconut oil is not used.  I don't like coconut.

I've tried cooking with it in the past but my veggies tasted like suntan oil.  (That's what I think of when I smell coconut--around here, we say I taste the beach when we taste coconut.)

Despite the prevalence of coconut in that recipe, I knew I could fix it.  I added a little more almond butter than she called for (instead of coconut oil) and used maple syrup instead of coconut sugar.  The cookies were very moist; I want to get some maple syrup sugar, but alas, I don't have any still and I'm making the recipe for a second time.

One other thing, the first time I made the recipe I put in A LOT of pumpkin.  I doubled the recipe ('cause 3 hungry girls around here PLUS one hungry husband). On the doubled recipe, I did math and came up with a whole can of pumpkin in the cookies.  Oops.  Really, I should have only used about 3/4 a can for a double recipe... The cookies, with my extra moisture still came out pretty tasty, but they weren't pillow like--chewy and moist, yes, but I expect pillows to be lighter and fluffier. They were good enough to warrant trying again!

This time I used (about) the right amount of pumpkin with maple syrup (so still extra moisture).  I thought the batter looked better and am pleased with how the cookies look and taste. They aren't very sweet, but that's just the way I like them! I added chocolate chips to half the batter (today and the first time). The chocolate chips do sweeten them up and I like them better without chocolate chips (shocking!).

Here's the recipe with my modification, but not doubled.  It made ~24-25 small cookies. 


Ingredients

1 1/2 cups rolled oat flour
1/2 tsp dried ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon (I used 1 tablespoon)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tablespoon chia seeds


2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 medium apple, chopped
1/4 cup maple syrup
1.5 tablespoons almond butter (optional)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

topping: cinnamon sprinkled on top before baking (Note, I only did this for the cookies without chocolate chips.)



 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add the oats, chia seeds and spices to a high-speed blender. Blend until the oats are a fine powder.  Pour the dry oat mixture into a large mixing bowl. Stir in the salt and baking powder.

Add all the wet ingredients to the blender container, apple, vinegar, pumpkin puree, maple syrup, ginger, almond butter, and vanilla. Blend until the apple is not apparent and the mixture is smooth.

Pour the wet into the dry bowl and stir until combined and a soft dough forms. Place the dough bowl in the refrigerator or freezer for 5-10 minutes to firm so the dough is less sticky (it is very sticky dough!) I made about 24 little cookies.

Bake at 350 degrees for 14-16 minutes on a cookie pan lined with a silpat baking sheet. 

The cookies with 1 full can of pumpkin (in the recipe doubled) were good and I might make that variation again, but the batter was REALLY sticky--even with less pumpkin, it's still sticky! The original author said they make a good breakfast cookie.  I agree. I think she also thought they would be good for snacking on at ANY time--again, I agree!

     

Mini! Cute! Tasty!

Inspired by these cute little muffin containers and being obsessed with this pumpkin recipe, I decided to make muffins as "cookies" for our holiday baking.

 

 

 

 

Note, the nutrition facts don't include the pecans on top, or the chocolate chips.  I found that I made about 2-2.5 dozen muffins for the recipe.

Finally! Pumpkin Pie Fruit Leather!!!

I've finally had a chance to make this DELICIOUS Pumpkin Pie Fruit Leather!

OHMYGOODNESS!

I'm not much of a fruit leather person. Or at least I didn't used to be, but this is amazing!

I made a batch last night. I modified a bit.  Here's what I did:

1 can of pumpkin puree
1 (heaping) tablespoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/8-1/4 cup maple syrup*
1/4 cup water

BLEND

Pour the mixture  on a silpat (or equivalent) and then work really hard to spread the mixture EVENLY. (I'm guessing you could use parchment instead of a silpat, if you wanted, but I do love my silpat!)

I couldn't get it spread evenly; finally, my husband suggested that I take a BIG spatula (the kind you use to flip pancakes) and drag it across the mixture. It worked pretty well, but we'll see after it comes out of the oven. (One maker of fruit leather suggests "whacking" the pan on the counter a few times to get it even after it's mostly even. I may try this next time.)

Bake at 170 (or as low as your oven will go) for hours... She said 6, but mine was done in about 5 (last night).  We'll see how long it takes today. I spread it a little thicker 'cause parts were WAY too thin last night. I am guessing it will take closer to 6, today. (Yes, I'm making my second batch--don't judge.)

*I used 1/4 cup last night and cut it down to 3/8ths this morning. I'll report back on the sweetness.

Vegan Thanksgiving

We celebrated at home with just us.  I made:

Vegan Mashed Potatoes
Yukon gold potatoes (4)
Garlic (2-3 cloves)
Cashew Cream (about 1/3 of a cup)
Salt
Pepper
A little soy milk
A little earth balance 
(I could probably make runnier cashew cream and omit the soy if I wanted to.)

I had never MADE mashed potatoes before so I just LEARNED that you need to make them RIGHT before eating so they are nice and hot.  I had to heat them up in the microwave. They were still yummy.

Creamy Cauliflower Soup
(I made it with Cashew Cream)

A big green salad
Romaine
Tomatoes
Cucumber

Red Pepper Spread (with Sourdough)

Pumpkin Pie
I made the filling from this recipe and just used a store bought vegan crust for one of the pies and plain chocolate chips as the crust for the other recipe (it falls apart, but it is YUMMY!). (The crustless pie is topped with Rice Whip.)

 

What a yummy day!  We'll do another celebration with friends on Saturday.

Pumpkinspiration!

I was inspired by Oh She Glows, but knew I needed to change a few things, 'cause that's what I do. Here's what I did.

Wet Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons ground flax mixed with 4 tablespoons water (make and set aside mix in after 5 minutes or so)

• 1 cup unsweetened canned pumpkin purée (1/2 a can)*

• 2/3 cup of maple syrup

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Dry Ingredients

• 1 cup gluten-free rolled oats, ground into a flour 

• 1 cup gluten-free rolled oats

• 1 cup almond flour (not almond meal)

• 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder (for enhanced binding)

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 

• 1 -2 tablespoons cinnamon (we like cinnamon, so we use more!)**

• 1/8-1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1/2-1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 1/8-1/4 teaspoon allspice
(or use your favorite pumpkin pie spices, in the amounts you like--you can add clove if you like it) 

Yummy stuff (aka as optional, but it's the YUMMY stuff) 

• 1/2 cup pecan halves, chopped

• 4 tablespoons non-dairy chocolate chips

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350F and line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper

• Mix flax egg in a small bowl or mug and set aside to thicken for about 5 minutes.

• In a large mixing bowl, mix the pumpkin and maple syrup 

• Pour in the flax mixture (should be thick) and vanilla extract and mix

• Mix the dry ingredients (all of them)

• Add in the Yummy stuff.

• Spoon dough into prepared pan and spread out until smooth and even. The dough will be very sticky, but this is normal. (Tip from Oh She Glows: I like to cover the dough with a piece of parchment paper and roll it with a pastry roller. I didn't do this step.)

• Bake for 20-35 minutes (I baked for 35 minutes)(the original recipe said 15-20 minutes, but I changed a few things). Next time, I might stop at 32. It's done when it has a good texture to the touch. 

• Place pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Then, lift out and place square directly on cooling rack for another 10-20 minutes, until cool. (The bars will crumble slightly if sliced warm, but they firm up nicely when cooled.)

(Tip: I put the whole almonds into the rolled oats I was grinding to make my own almond flour. Do it in two batches in your Vitamix (or other high powered blender) if you're doing this.)

We all really liked this. 5 out of 5 of us give it a gold star! (I left the pecans out of 1/2 because I wasn't sure how girls would react, but 4 of 5 of us like the pecans.) 

I'm going to play around a little with the recipe and try making it with whole wheat flour. We like the gluten free, and I love having gluten free options to make for friends who need it, but we also like the gluten around here. I'll keep you posted on any new variations. Pictures hopefully soon--we just killed off the first batch, in less than 24 hours, but I'll make this again.

 

*I had 1/2 a can left over and needed a recipe for it. This recipe can be paired perfectly with the cornbread recipe I just posted or you can refrigerate the other 1/2 a can and make the recipe again in a couple of days, or freeze it for later if you need more time between baking sessions.

**I've switched to Ceylon Cinnamon. It's the true cinnamon and may have more health benefits than the cassia cinnamon. It's got a milder flavor and I like to use more. If you use cassia cinnamon you may not want as much.

A new holiday tradition

For Thanksgiving, I made this delicious bad boy! (Yea, I realize it's almost February and I'm just getting around to telling you about it.)

My pictures aren't as good as the pictures on that (linked) web site, but I was so proud of my first ever, "rolled cake." I thought it would be harder than it was. The hardest part was figuring out what a jelly roll pan was. I put my silicone liner on it and baked and it worked well!

After it cooled the prescribed amount of time, I frosted one side and rolled it up. Don't be shy with the frosting!

I then slathered it all up.

Here's the recipe copy and pasted from the other site. (They get full credit; I just like to put the recipe here for safe-keeping.)

Dry Ingedients
1 1/2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour (Can use 1/2 unbleached white flour and 1/2
whole wheat pastry flour for a slightly lighter cake)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves (optional)
1/4-1/2 teaspoon allspice (optional)  

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Wet Ingredients
1 tablespoon of flax seeds
1 cup pumpkin puree (canned or fresh, drain off liquid if using fresh)
1/2 cup vanilla soy milk
2/3 Maple syrup
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cider vinegar

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cut parchment paper or use a silicone pan liner to fit a 9 x 12 inch jelly roll pan.
2. In a large bowl sift the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, pumpkin pie spice, ginger, salt, baking soda and baking powder.
3. Put the wet ingredients into a blender and blend completely.
4. Gently pour the liquid mixture in to the dry mixture and stir.
5. Pour and spread the batter into the prepared jelly roll pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes, check after 10 minutes, cake should be just firm with a little spring. Remove from oven and cool for 2-3 minutes.
6.Roll the cake with the parchment paper inside the cake and place seam side down to cool. (I did this with my silicone liner and it was fine to use!)
7. Prepare the filling and when the cake is completely cooled, gently unroll the cake being careful not to break or crack it and spread with filling on the inside.
8. Sprinkle half of the Cinnamon Walnut mixture inside the cake on the filling. (I left this out 'cause some little girls aren't into nuts.)
9. Roll the cake back up again without the parchment paper, wrap it with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.
10. Frost with remaining filling and sprinkle with the cinnamon nut mixture.
Makes about 10-15 servings.

Tofu-Cashew Frosting 
2 12.3 oz packages extra-firm silken tofu – drained and pressed dry.
1/2 cup raw cashew pieces
1/3 cup light grade A maple syrup
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Put all ingredients into a food processor.
2. Puree ingredients in a food processor until very smooth.
3. Refrigerate while you make the cake. Check the frosting when you take
the cake out of the oven. If it is too firm to spread, leave it at room
temperature while the cake cools. Refrigerate the frosted cake.

Cinnamon Walnut Topping and Filling
1 cup of chopped walnuts
1/2 cup of sucanat (dried cane juice) (Can use brown sugar)
1 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Mix ingredients together and sprinkle on the frosted cake

All Cashew Frosting
2 cups raw cashew pieces
1/2 cup pitted dates
1 tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

My notes:
I used the tofu frosting, but next time, I'll use the all cashew frosting.
What the original site doesn't tell you is to make it in advance! The cake gets more moist from the frosting and is softer and more delicious after at least 8 hours in the refrigerator. The one I let sit in the fridge overnight was HEAVENLY. I might need to make this again soon!

Gratuitous shot of a homemade pumpkin pie.  (Store bought crust… I don't love crust so it hasn't been my mission to make a homemade one. I am trying to figure out a pecan-chocolate one and will report back.)

the year of the pancake

2013 was the year of the pancake over here!

Early on in the year, I found this recipe. It was very good. It was gluten free. I couldn't really tell it was gluten free--a high compliment because we're gluten fans around here.

Because we like the gluten, my wonderful husband added some gluten and created this recipe. OMG, I love it. I make it pretty much every weekend. I make enough left-overs to get us part way through the week--usually Wednesday. 

After not too long, I got a scan pan for the pancakes. I love it. I had one before, but it didn't last super well. I used oil in it. No added oil will be used in this scan pan. It is awesome. I look forward to seeing how long it lasts!

Then, for Thanksgiving, this recipe was going around the blogosphere. Super yum, but I changed it a little. 

Pumpkin Pancakes

• 1.5 cups whole wheat flour 
• 1 cup oat flour
• 1/2 cup flax
• 1/2 -1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1-2  tablespoons cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 3 cups of non-dairy milk (you may need more I can't remember how much I added… start slow and add until the right thickness. After I add 2 cups of non-dairy milk, I usually switch to water for the liquid, but that's just me. This may need 4 or 5 cups of liquid (or more), I can't remember!)
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar (makes them lighter and fluffier!)
• 1 can (2 cups) pumpkin
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4-1/3 cup maple syrup
• Chocolate chips (at least 1/3 cup, but as many as you want--add last!)

Pumpkin Pancakes Recipe: In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients and stir very well. Add wet ingredients and non-dairy milk until the batter is the right thickness; then add chocolate chips.

Cook pancakes (I use a scan pan so I don't use any oil, but many pans need a little).  Cook over medium heat (make sure the pan is really hot and heated through first. (The test to see if the pan is hot is to drop a little drop of water; it should immediately start dancing around.  Pour small ladles of batter onto the skillet and spread out the batter so it doesn’t sit in the middle of each pancake if it's really thick. 

I think it took about 5-6 minutes each side for these pancakes. This makes less than my other  pancake recipes, but it will feed 5 people and give you leftovers for a day or two; the other recipes give leftover for 3-4 days.) 

For Christmas, my gluten-free niece came to visit and I made this with almond flour and oat flour and she liked it. If you make want to make this gluten free, cut the whole wheat, up the flax and oat, and add almond (or gf flour). I had to make the gluten-free pancakes really small 'cause they didn't hold together for the flip if I didn't. She liked them. I thought they were tasty, but since I had to make them so small I added whole wheat flour to 1/2 the batter so I could cook them bigger 'cause I didn't want to cook pancakes all day on Christmas.

What's your favorite pancake recipe?

But first, Brownies!

I will get back to Thanksgiving Recipes, but I had a little left-over pumpkin puree and needed to use it up.  I found this recipe for chocolate pumpkin brownies and had to make it. I guess, I had to modify the recipe and then make it.  Here's what I did.

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 cup canned pumpkin (or pureed pumpkin or sweet potato)
1/4 cup flax
1/4 cup milk of choice
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup chocolate chips (not optional)

Combine dry ingredients, and mix well. Combine wet ingredients, then mix into dry. Pour into a silicone (or greased) pan. I used my 9x9, but an 8x8 would have been better. Cook for about 15-20 minutes at 350 F.  (You'll probably need to cook little longer if you use an 8x8 pan.)

Notes: 

Just a teeny bit of pumpkin flavor (I think sweet potato will be nice, too). I think I'll use cashew cream for fat (instead of flax or oil) so that I can get a smoother, less hearty tasting brownie.  With the flax, these are hearty brownies. I don't think brownies are traditionally hearty.

Square Pie? Pie Squared?

I decided I wanted to make a pie crust for our pumpkin pie that didn't involve flour. I'm not a huge pie crust fan. One of my daughters is though, so, on Thanksgiving, we'll have traditional pumpkin pie for her. For me and the two other little girls, we're trying some new things. Today, we experiment!

I took this recipe from Straight Up Food

&

this recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie (this was for a very small amount of pie crust)

and combined them into:

15 dates (the 365 brand from Whole Foods that come in a bag, I don't know what kind)
3/4 cup of oats
4 tablespoons of cocoa powder
3/4 cup of walnuts
1 tablespoon soy milk (or as needed)

Process the dates and walnuts until pretty smooth, then add the cocoa and walnuts. After the mixture is processed determine if you need the soy milk (it should be pretty darn sticky). I needed about a tablespoon to get it to a good texture.

Press into a pie pan.
Bake for 10 minutes at 350.

On the Straight Up Food blog, there are instructions on how to roll the pie crust out and transfer it into the pan. This method did NOT work for me. I rolled on a silicone sheet, but I couldn't get it to come off in one piece. It was okay; I just mashed the pieces back together in the pan. I was going to use my round glass pie pan, to make the pie, but I didn't think the crust would EVER come off of the glass since the mixture really stuck to the silicone. I opted instead to use my square silicone baking pan, instead and that's why we have a square pie (I'm buying a round silicone pan right now!)

For the pie filling, I made (mostly) this recipe from my blog; but of course, I changed it! No oil! Less tofu! Cashew cream!

Here's what I did this time:

1 package of silken (soft) tofu
2  15 ounce cans pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup cashews
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon cloves (optional)
2/3 cup maple syrup

(optional chocolate chips)

Add cashews, maple syrup and tofu to the blender. (Drain as much of the liquid from the package of tofu as you can (easily), but you don't need a tofu press or anything like that.)  Blend until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the chocolate chips, and blend! (I don't feel I can get a good texture from my mixer, so I just use the blender. Plus, if you're using cashews you need the blender and why dirty up more bowls/appliances?)





















Scatter chocolate chips on the crust. Here's what my scattered chocolate chips looked like:

Pour the filling on top.


Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Here are the nutrition facts for 1/12th of the filling (I think it would make 2 pies if I had pie pans.) Note, these nutrition facts do NOT include the chocolate chips or the pie crust. Often times, I make pumpkin pie with no crust. I always include the chocolate chips, but I lie to myself and tell myself that chocolate is medicinal and that calories don't count in medicines--but that's just me. 

The results?

The girls love it and I like it! I think it's a little too sweet and will do a version with less maple syrup. The texture was GREAT; I'm still debating about how I feel about nutmeg. The crust was good; definitely what I'd use for an "everyday" crust--lower fat, healthier, but I might try with more walnuts and less or no oats for Thanksgiving. Truthfully, I like pumpkin pie filling on top of chocolate chips best. 

(Despite the review, note, I've eaten a lot of this pie--going to spend some time on the treadmill. Heh.)

Currently, the plan is: one pie like this--er, with more walnuts and less oats in the crust; one pie with regular crust and no chocolate chips; one with regular crust and chocolate chips; one with chocolate chips, less sweet, and no crust. We'll see if we need more than 4 pies.

Edited to add:
I liked this crust, but am not sure I love it and I didn't end up making it for Thanksgiving.

pumpkin soup

1.5 cups  vegetable broth
1/4 cup cashews
1 cup water
2 cans canned organic pumpkin
1 large-ish onion, sautéed
1-3 garlic cloves, sautéed (with onion)
1/2 - 1 Tbsp maple syrup
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg (optional)
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Sautee onions and garlic in a little veggie broth (in a soup pot) until nice and soft (about 15 minutes). (I let onions and garlic cool and then I did the next steps.)

Place all ingredients into your blender (including onions and garlic) and blend. (I started by blending the water and cashews, to make milk and then added the onions and garlic and broth. I then added everything else and blended.)

When it's blended pour it all back into the soup pot (note only one pot and one blender for clean up this way) and heat up--let simmer for 15-20 minutes so the flavors can really marry.

YUM!

Note, you could add more cashews for a creamier soup. I happen to really like cashew cream so I think I'll do this.  You could also blend everything and then heat up right before your meal so that it's easier timing on the soup.

Nutrition facts based on 1 cup serving size.

8 cups of glorious pumpkin soup!

Edited to add: I really liked this soup, but then I added a healthy teaspoon of peanut butter to one of my bowls of soup and WOWZA. It hit it out of the ballpark for me. Obviously, if you add PB, you're adding some fat and calories and the nutrition facts (above) are all wrong. It was worth it to me to add it.  

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies or bars.... your choice!

You may remember how much I enjoyed the pumpkin bars that I modified--or maybe you couldn't tell that I made that recipe about 6-8 times in one month and I was usually doubling it. 

Recently, I found this recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and I couldn't stop thinking about that idea. It reminded me of my beloved pumpkin bars, but it seemed like I could take cookies with me more easily than my modified pumpkin bars that were so moist and required a refrigerator. I knew I had to change the cookie recipe because 1) it wasn't vegan, 2) it had a lot of sugar, and 3) it had a lot of butter. When I read it, I thought, "I can fix it!"  Here's what I did:


Dry Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp clove
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup flax

Wet Ingredients 
1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2/3 cup apple sauce
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup water


And finally
1/3 cup (or so) chocolate chips (optional, but it's sad not to add these!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl.
Mix all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl. Add them together, and pour in chocolate chips at the end.  The cookie batter will be very thick and hard to stir.  

Shape into cookies or bars ... I made mine into approximately1.5 x 2.5 inch rectangles, so kind of bar-like. The recipe made about 30 of them. They were pretty big and thick; I baked them for about 12-15 minutes. They are hearty and not very sweet--just the way we like desserts and treats.

At long last! Modified Pumpkin Squares!

Here's the old pumpkin squares recipe...  Below is the new one! The first time I made the bars, with the old recipe, I used too few dates. I didn't have medjool dates. The bars with too few dates were just okay.

I used more dates the second time, but the bars still didn't taste as I expected they'd taste. They were good, but I wanted something a little more. I figured I still wasn't using enough dates so I did a google search and found that 10 medjool dates are supposed to have 660 calories and 180 carbohydrates.  Wow. That's a lot of sugar. I only used about 1/2 that amount in the dates in my second attempt (about 350 calories worth of dates). I guess it's no wonder that the pumpkin squares were still a little flat.

(The sites where I read about medjool dates raved about them, so maybe the medjool date makes a huge difference, but wow... 660 calories and 180 carbs. I really like eating pumpkin squares and if I eat 1/4 of the pan in one sitting, um, that's a lot of sugar--even if it's date sugar. Not that I'd ever eat 1/4 of a pan in one sitting. No sir. Moving on.)



 
 The calories in one medjool date X 10 for the old recipe...
 

---

I thought about the recipe and realized that I really like the taste of maple syrup, and that, most likely, if I used it, instead of dates, I'd be able to use less (so less sugar) and still get the taste I like. I decided to go with 1/3 of a cup (let's just round to 6 tablespoons). That's 314 calories and 80 carbs. Still a lot of sugar, but 1/2 as much as what the dates were contributing.

I also wanted to add my dark chocolate chips! I also wanted a teeny bit of fat in the mix so I added a little flax. Here's what I came up with:

1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
1/3 cup maple syrup
2/3 cup water
1.5 cups oat flour (use rolled oats grind your own if you have a blender)
1-2 tablespoons flax
1 15-oz. can cooked pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup almond milk

1/2 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoons of cinnamon
.5 - 1 teaspoon nutmeg
.5- 1 teaspoon of allspice
1/4 teaspoon of cloves if you want

I made it and put it in my little silicone muffin cups. Perfect--12 servings for me! You can still eat 1/4 of the pan, but it's 3 muffins worth and after 2 muffins, I can usually stop.

I'm pleased that I reduced the sugar content by 1/2 and I really like the flavor. Someday, I have to do a post on sweetners, but for now, read about maple syrup here.  Maple syrup is my favorite!

(I did add a little fat with the flax and chocolate chips, but apparently I took some out when I stopped using the dates 'cause As I calculated it, the original recipe had 4 grams of fat and 3 grams of saturated fat.)

Note, I cooked the muffins at 350 for 25-30 minutes. They come out of the oven very, um, gooey, in fact, almost undercooked. They firm up as they cool--I stick mine in the refrigerator.

Epigenetics

Welcome to an introduction to epigenetics by a social scientist, aka me. As a social scientist, I'm often concerned about the environment and how it affects people, for me, especially their learning, but that's not our topic, today. When I learned about epigenetics (a few years back), I got excited. Here we have the intersection of genetics (what you were handed by your parents) and your environment!

What you do in life can make a difference and help you overcome some of the, ahem, problems you may have been dealt in the meiotic mixing and the gametic game that led to the zany zygote that became you. Epigenetics is how the environment affects the expression of your genes.  What you eat, breathe, or intake in any way; plus, how you exercise, and how much you stress is in your life affects the expression of your genes. 

If you have bad genes, you can't change that and make them go away, but you can turn them off and pretend they aren't there by eating and NOT eating certain foods.  (Epigenetics gives me hope that the medical community, and society in general, will someday believe that food is a powerful medicine.  Now if we could somehow get a cut of the action to the drug companies...)

Take a look at this post by my happy healthy friend about the 9p21 gene.  Here's a gene that increases inflammation in epithelial cells and if you have one or two copies of it ups your risk of a heart attack. The conclusion over there is to eat more fruits and veggies.

Eat more fruits and veggies is usually the answer for helping turn off bad genes.  Seriously.  It's that simple.  In the case of diabetes and the SLC30A4 gene variant, that is linked to beta cells producing insulin in the pancreas, eating more carrots (or veggies/fruits with beta carotene) might help that gene direct the beta cells in the right way.

There's a lot to learn about epigenetics, but what researchers have been finding is that doing "good things," aka exercise, controlling stress, eating more veggies and fruit seems to turn off the bad genes. I don't have "scientific evidence" that eating well and exercising make me healthy, but I feel good and strong; quality of life is important, in my opinion.  I can't believe I'd feel like I do if I ate crap and didn't exercise.   

Mostly though,  research, exercise, and epigenetics aside, I was super excited to see I should eat more pumpkin!  I'm very into my pumpkin bars and have been playing around with the recipe.  Expect a post on my new version sometime in the near future--as soon as today as far away as next week. 

Today's baking adventure

The girls and I made these pumpkin pie bars.  I read this recipe last fall, and I must have forgotten about it, because in my mind, I was fantasizing about inventing pumpkin pie with no crust on the outside, but with oat flour in it.  When I re-found the recipe I was glad I didn't have to go trying to invent.

The bars are still cooling in my fridge, as I was making them, I took a taste of the batter.  I don't think I used enough dates in them.  I didn't have Medjool dates, so I used 10 of what I had and I didn't measure.  When I looked back at the recipe, I realized I should have measured--my eyeball from memory tells me I had 2/3-3/4 of a cup.  I'm guessing I should have used more like 16-ish of the kind of dates I had.

Oh, well.  I'll try again--there's always another weekend and I have three girls who are always happy to help me bake!  Next time, I may add a touch of salt, too (like 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon) a little, not a lot, can make the taste zing.

Because they were less sweet, I stuck in some chocolate chips...  I may make some sweetened cashew cream to go with them... I'll let you know more after we try them... remind me if I forget!

Here's the recipe straight from Cathy Fisher's site with all credit to her.

Ingredients:
10 medjool dates, pitted and diced (about 1 cup diced)
3/4 cup water
1 ½ cups rolled oats, ground into flour (see Notes)
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (or see Notes below)
1 15-oz. can cooked pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix), (or one and a half cups cooked, pureed pumpkin; see Notes below)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup non-dairy milk of your choice

Directions:
1. Place the 10 pitted and diced dates into a small bowl with the 3/4 cup of water and soak for at least 15 minutes.

2. Place the flour and Pumpkin Pie spice in a large bowl. In a blender, blend the soaked dates, the date soak water, the vanilla, and the non-dairy milk until smooth (1-2 minutes). Pour this into the bowl of flour/spices, and also add the pumpkin, and mix with a wooden spoon until all the dry ingredients are incorporated.


3. Scrape batter into an 8×8-inch baking pan that is lined with parchment paper (or use a non-stick silicone baking pan). Cook for 25-30 minutes at 375 degrees. (If you see a light browning and some cracks on the top, these are good indications that it’s done.) Let cool at least 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving. Optional: Finish with Macadamia-Vanilla Frosting (recipe below) just before serving, or top with a light dusting of grated macadamia or other nuts (using a rotary cheese grater). Storing in the refrigerator overnight will firm up these squares, then you can pack them in a lunch or as a snack.

Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Makes: 9 to 16 squares (depending on how small you cut them)

Pumpkin Pie Report 2

I'm making another pumpkin pie.

This time, I used my vita-mix with the same recipe.  We'll see how it comes out.  The last time, the texture, before cooking, was a little soy-grainy.  It tasted fine after cooking, but I decided to do the big bad blender this time to make sure it was smooth.

I divided the mix into 3 pans, used a little less sugar, and put chocolate chips in each pie--only one pie has a crust.  Not sure if we'll taste it tonight or have it for breakfast.  I'll add to the report when I get a taste.

Pumpkin pie report... (Edited--the version I use now after some experimenting)

Remember, I was making pumpkin pies the other night? They came out "okay," but not quite the texture I wanted.  I used corn starch and though they were custard-y, they weren't the texture I envisioned.

I went to the store and got tofu and this is what I made:

2 packages of 3/4 pound silken (soft) tofu
2  15 ounce cans pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/8 - 1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 - 1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 - 1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon cloves (optional)
1 cup maple syrup

This mixture made enough for two pies.  I had one crust so I made one pie and then I poured some dark chocolate chips into a second pie pan with the pie mix and baked it.

I baked at 400 degrees for about half an hour and then covered the pie and baked it for another 3/4s of an hour.  I felt like it was taking forever, but it seemed to need the extra time.  Maybe yours won't need the extra time...I'm not sure what was up!

This pie turned out to be just the texture I wanted.  Yay!  The second pie I made, with no crust and the chocolate chips, is so yummy!  I scooped some of it into my oatmeal this morning.  It was a perfect post-Thanksgiving breakfast.  The girls just had pumpkin pie straight for their breakfast.

Though it was really good, I also want to play around with pumpkin pie recipes from here.  Since it is the holiday season, expect more Pumpkin Pie Posts (nice alliteration) coming soon!

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Edited to add that I made a soy free version of my pie with Cashew cream instead of Tofu this year.  I put 2/3s cup of cashews and 1 cup of water in the blender and made cashew cream.  I think added the rest of the ingredients and blended (here are the remaining ingredients).

2  15 ounce cans pumpkin puree
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/8 - 1/4 tsp ginger
1/2 - 1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 - 1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 - 1/4 teaspoon cloves (optional)
1 cup maple syrup

Thanksgiving eve

It's been a long time. Sorry about that. We took a trip to the East Coast (Boston and New Hampshire) and Nat came down with chicken pox. We had to stay a little longer than we planned and all of a sudden it's Thanksgiving!

Ah, Thanksgiving, the holiday of eating. We don't do traditional Thanksgiving and haven't the whole time the girls have been around. We used to make veggie fajitas for our meal, and they were really good, but somewhere along the way, we've been experimenting with other dishes. When my brother Rob comes for Thanksgiving we make eggplant and spaghetti in honor of our Dad.

This year, Natalie wanted to make eggplant even though Uncle Rob couldn't make it, so we will.

Dad used to fry the eggplant in olive oil (not breaded) and then layer sauce and cheese and bake it. We do the frying, but no cheese. It's amazing. I'll post pictures and tell you more tomorrow.

Tonight, Natalie, Kira, and I made a pumpkin pie. We used this recipe . In the past, I've just used eggs and soy milk in the recipe, but this year we decided to be fully plant-based with our pumpkin pie. I know you can do pumpkin pie with tofu, but I didn't have any to use so we tried it without. Recipe with attribution pasted below. 

Vegan Pumpkin Pie with Rustic Spelt Crust
by Angela Liddon
Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 1 hour

for the filling
2 & 1/4 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup natural cane sugar or brown sugar
1/4 cup full-fat coconut cream (or almond milk), softened
1 tbsp Earth Balance, softened
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tbsp arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
Instructions

Filling: In a small bowl or mug, whisk together the maple syrup and arrowroot powder (or cornstarch). In a large bowl, whisk together all ingredients, adjusting spices to taste.
To bake: Scoop the filling into crust and smooth. Add cut-outs on top. Bake for 45 mins at 350F. Remove and cover crust edges with tinfoil or crust shield. Bake for another 15 mins. Place on cooling rack for 1 hour. Transfer to fridge to set for a minimum of 3 hours or overnight. (this is very important!)

I totally want to try this crust ... I didn't have pecans though.  I'm really wanting to make one with walnuts and chocolate... Maybe I'll try to create one at some point.  I won't do it this Thanksgiving as we already have a big pumpkin pie in the oven and another dessert planned.  More tomorrow....or soon if not tomorrow.


For the crust
1 cup GF certified rolled oats, processed into a fine flour OR 1 cup GF oat flour
2 cups raw pecans
2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp ground flax
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup brown rice syrup (acts as the binder, honey may work if you prefer that)
1 tbsp Earth Balance, melted

&*@#$ !!!

Darn it!

I wrote a GREAT post last night (brilliant, even) and blogger ate it.  Seriously.  HOW ANNOYING.

I know what happened, but I can't believe blogger was so stupid.  I had two windows open with the post in it.  I finished it in one, changed the title, and published it.  Then,  I found the other window that was nearly blank with only the start if the post in it.  It still had the OLD title.  I closed it.  I must have hit save.

Even though I hit save, I can't believe the one with the new title (that was published) was wiped out by the old post with the old title when I saved it.  GRRRR!  But the new post I wrote is no where to be found.  It's not published and it's not in my drafts.  Blogger ate it.  It must have been because it was a post with a tasty soup recipe in it.  You can't really blame blogger, can you?

Sigh.

Now I have to do it again and it won't be nearly so brilliant.

So what'd I tell you in the other post?  I told you about the fun cooking weekend I had! I made 2 versions of these bars I'll have to tell you about the strawberry version I made (later) 'cause they are scrumptious!

I also (FINALLY) had a chance to make these pumpkin and chocolate chip muffins! I actually got to make them on Monday and then again on Saturday. You know you like a recipe if you make it twice in one week. The girls give them two thumbs up! I love it when I find something all of them will eat! Muffins are so nice as a quick breakfast. A quick healthy breakfast makes mornings so much easier!

 I did change the recipe slightly the second time I made it. I added flax and removed 1/2 a cup of the oatmeal flour. I also only added 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.  Below are the nutrition facts for the new version of the recipe (below) with the serving size being one muffin.

Here's the new recipe:

1 medium banana, mashed
1 (15-oz.) can Pumpkin
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1.5 cups Whole Grain Oat Flour
1/2 cup Flax Seed Meal
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 cup Organic Dark Chocolate Chips
4 tablespoons 100% pure maple syrup

If you decrease the maple syrup to 2 tablespoons, you get only 7 grams of sugar in each muffin.  I think they are sweet enough with only 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, but I don't like the taste of sweet.

If you want pictures, go take a look at the forks over knives site and scroll down until you see very cute muffins!  I'll try to remember to take a picture before we devour the muffins next time I make them!

Okay, this isn't the brilliant post I wrote last night about veggie soup, but I'm stopping here for now.  I'll share the recipe for the soup I made last night in another post.