pumpkin galore

I had a bunch of pumpkin puree left over from the Thanksgiving dessert, so I followed up with more pumpkin goodies the week after Thanksgiving. I made this pumpkin nut bread last year, and my coworkers really liked it. It was a nice change up from the normal banana nut bread.

The recipe is from the reliable Williams Sonoma, since they never fail me in offering up delicious recipes for tasting and testing. It was originally a pumpkin bread with dates, but I swapped the dates for toasted chopped pecans. As for the nut oil it called for, I substituted canola oil, which has a neutral flavor and won't take away or distort the bread flavor.

I used a pumpkin shaped cookie cutter to shape these thick slices of bread into cute little pumpkins. A small baggie was packed and left for my brother to taste.



Still left with some puree in my fridge, I continued on the pumpkin journey with cookies. This time I tried to clean my fridge of the remnants of Thanksgiving. There were fresh cranberries leftover from making cranberry sauce, so I oven dried them on a parchment lined baking sheet in a 275 degree oven. I hoped to mimic dried cranberries, but some of them bursted. Nonetheless, I added them to about half of the batter before baking.

The recipe once again was from Williams Sonoma, only with my tweaks. The original pumpkin cookies were iced and called for walnuts and raisins, but I opted out of icing, since I prefer my baked goods less sweet than most and swapped in pecans and cranberries. The results were pretty good for a first time try of the recipe. A's coworkers thought they were gingerbready, most likely a result of the ground ginger. The cranberries were actually quite sour, but worked well to balance the flavors of the cookies.

I can honestly say I've never had this much pumpkin, but it was nice to fill my house with the familiar smells of warm spices of the holiday season. I love busying myself in the kitchen, my favorite room of the house. I hope everyone has a little time to do their own baking to share with family and friends this holiday season.