Pumpkin Chiffon cake

More pumpkin stuff...

Ingredients:

Egg 4

Flour 50g

Sugar 80g

(Sourdough Starter 20g)

Pumpkin puree 100g

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This is a variation of my sourdough chiffon cake. It's as light and airy as the original sourdough chiffon cake. But with a bit more moisture, and of course, the sweet pumpkin flavour and pretty colour. ;D

We had it with my recent favourite, hazelnut praline cream. Pumpkin and hazelnut went really well. It was another 'wow' moment... ;)

Sourdough Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins...

They get their prime spots everywhere this time of year, don't they...:)

Lots of pumpkins around means... I'm making lots of pumpkin breads and cakes! :D

To begin with, I made mini sourdough pumpkin loaves.

Ingredients:

Strong flour 250g

Starter 125g

Salt 4g

Brown sugar 20g

Butter 20g

Milk 160g

Pumpkin puree 100g

***

Butter and cinnamon sugar for topping

If you're interested in more detailed recipe for this bread, please sign up to my mailing list. ;D

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When I make pumpkin breads or cakes, I use Japanese pumpkins called Kabocha. It has natural sweet flavour and nice fluffy texture that are perfect for baking.

My pumpkin loaves came out with bright yellow colour and had a nice light texture. The cinnamon sugar on the top made them taste warm and it felt kind of festive... it was just how I wanted...;) 

She loved it too! Great way to make your kids eat veggie!

Caramelised apple & pumpkin crumble cake

This time of year all those nice autumn winter vegetables and fruits gives me a lot of inspirations to my baking. And I love it!

So, the other day our neighbour gave us some apples from her garden and I also had a pumpkin sitting in the kitchen for a while, so I decided to make a variation of my apple crumble cake. :D

First I caramelised the diced apple and pumpkin together, then the rest was pretty much the same as the apple crumble cake. (I replaced the apple confiture to the caramelised apple and pumpkin.)

Oh, I love using pumpkins in my cakes and breads!

The nice bits of apple and pumpkin, soft and light sponge, and the sweet crumble... it cannot go wrong.

It's really a perfect comfort cake on a cold gloomy day... ;)

Have you seen my other crumbles?

Blackberyy crumble muffin

Apple crumble cake

Chestnut crumble cake

Happy Halloween - Pumpkin cookies!

Happy Halloween! Tick or Treat!

Following my Jack-o'-lantern black cream puffs, I made Halloween pumpkin cookies!

I say 'Pumpkin' cookies, but they actually have no pumpkins in it...sorry...
They are made of one of my favourite biscuits, the Almond Ball Biscuit (recipe is on Biscuit Assortment). I added a bit of orange food colourings and shaped them like mini pumpkins.

It was a little bit time consuming to shape them but it was worth the effort. I was very pleased with how they came out. ;)

I used a chop stick to make the lines and put a pumpkin seed on the top.

I also made one Dokin-chan for Lana. ;)

(It's a famous cartoon character in Japan.)

Before drawing the faces. They looked so cute. :)

I can see myself making other shapes...

(This could be on my Christmas baking list....)

Halloween Cream Puff

Scary looking pumpkins and fancy dresses... yes, Halloween is here again!

I've been doing some Halloween baking this week and this is one of them.... Halloween special black Jack-o'-lantern cream puffs1

The pastry itself is my usual choux pastry with black food colouring. However the cream inside is the special thing of these guys! It's Pumpkin Cream! I added pureed pumpkin to custard cream and combined with whipped cream.
They are seriously, dangerously tasty!

It was very difficult to see if the pastries were going brown or not, but I think I judged it well. ;) They looked a bit like giant snails... ;D

Happy Halloween, everyone! Don't open the front door to strangers...;)

Happy Halloween

I'm waiting... I'm still waiting for the knock knock on the door... so far no one has come...

Anyway, Happy Halloween.
Boo Boo Boo!

I don't remember anyone actually knocking on the door on Halloween, nor I've never been around to other people's house to get sweets. However, Andy told me that kids might come around for trick or treat, so I baked some funny face biscuits and went to a shop to get some sweets.

BUT..., no one came... it's 9pm... I think kids must have gone to bed by now. Oooh well, at least they are treats for me then. ;D

My another Halloween treat was a super creamy fake pumpkin soup (it was squash...) with a rather scary looking flat purple bread. It tasted awesome and I ate so much that I felt like I was pregnant again...

Pumpkin ice craem

With my pumpkin cream I made pumpkin ice cream. It's super easy. Just add more cream (I added approximately 100ml but you can add more if you want make it more creamy) and more cinnamon (1/2tsp-1tsp) to the basic pumpkin cream (200g) and mix really well! Put it in the freezer. When it starts to set, mix air in and put it back in the freezer.

Because this ice cream doesn't have any eggs in it, it's lighter but still has the depth from the pumpkin and cinnamon. I added salted caramel roasted pumpkin seeds on top. That was... a very satisfying Friday night dessert indeed. ;D

Roasted pumpkin seeds

According to a famous chef, they waste as little as possible in a professional kitchen. So..., I did the same. I roasted the pumpkin seeds after making the pumpkin cream.

I washed the seeds thoroughly and roasted them in the oven until they were lightly golden and crispy. I sprinkled brown sugar and cinnamon. These roasted seeds make a great snack. I'm literally munchin' them with a bottle of 0% beer now...

Pumpkin tart

Another day with pumpkin;) I made a very rich and creamy pumpkin tart using my pumpkin cream (it's the same cream I used for the pumpkin cream bread).

I kept two pieces for Mr and I and shared other pieces with Andy's mum and dad and neighbours.

The bright orange smooth filling and well baked sweet pastry with a hint of cinnamon was such a comforting treat in an autumn afternoon. Yum yum yum...

Oh... Halloween is coming soon. Why not try it then?
Ingredients:

Sweet pastry 1 (See here)

Pumpkin cream 500g

Sugar 150g

Salt pinch

Cinnamon powder 1/2 tsp

Vanilla pot seed 1/4tsp

Egg 3

Flour 80g

Crème fraiche 180g

1. Prepare the sweet pastry. Line the pastry on a 9 inch tart tin. Prick the bottom of the tart case with a fork. Rest it in the freezer.

2. Preheat the oven to 180ºc. Make the filling. Beat sugar, eggs, salt, cinnamon and vanilla together.

3. Sift flour into 2 and mix.

4. Add pumpkin cream and creme fraiche into 3 and mix well.

5. Take the tart case out from the freezer and pour the filling into the case.

6. Bake in the preheated oven (180ºc) for 60 minutes.

Pumpkin cream bread

It's this time of the year again! It's the pumpkin season! I love autumn. There are so many foods in this season that I love. Pumpkin is definitely one of them.

The other day I found a really cute pumpkin in a shop. For a couple of day the pumpkin was my baby's best friend and then came back to me in the kitchen. I decided to turn Mr pumpkin to a nice smooth pumpkin cream.

This silky and creamy pumpkin paste is so versatile that you can use it in breads, cakes, any other desserts but also nice to eat as is!

Here is how to make the pumpkin cream:
Ingredients

Pumpkin (after cooked) 700g

Double cream 80g

Demerara sugar 60g

Salt 5g

Butter 50g

Cinnamon 1/2-1 tsp

1. Peel the pumpkin skin and take the seeds away. Cut in small pieces. Put them in a microwave safe bowl. Cover the bowl with cling film and cook for 10 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft.

2. Put the pumpkin in a blender and make a smooth paste.

3. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until they're mixed together well.

4. Get creative! Use in bread, cake, ice cream, anything you like or eat as is.:D

I made some pumpkin cream bread. Not only did I add the pumpkin cream in the bread dough but also I put the cream inside of the roll. The dough turned bright yellow and had nice soft texture. The sweet cream oozed out when I bit into the roll.... Heavenly...

I finished baking those rolls late last night and had to have one because it smelt so nice and one taste bite was certainly not enough. I didn't care what time of the night it was... It was that tasty...

I also made "Ducks" (which became "deformed ducks"... and "Booboo pig". ;D

Ingredients:

Strong flour 250g

Plain flour 250g

Yeast 7g

Egg 1

Milk 140g

Butter 50g

Sugar 50g

Salt 5g

Pumpkin cream 200g

Extra pumpkin cream to put inside.

Egg for egg wash

Pumpkin seeds to decorate

1. Put all the ingredients in a standing mixer and knead for 10 minutes.

2. Cover the bowl with cling film and rest the dough until it's doubled in size.

3. Take out the dough on a floured surface and divide into 16 pieces and make balls. Let them rest for 10 minutes.

4. Roll out each ball and place a tablespoon of pumpkin cream in the middle. Seal the dough tightly and place the roll on a baking tray with the sealed side facing down.

5. Rest the dough again until it's doubled in size.

6. Preheat the oven to 180ºc. Egg wash the top of the rolls and put pumpkin seed on top.

7. Bake in the preheated oven (180ºc) for 20 minutes.