The Pumpkins, They Have Returned

And along with the return of the pumpkins, come all the other wonderful things fall brings.  First and foremost, at least for me, a welcome relief from the heat.  As the temperatures drop and the leaves begin to turn I’m starting to see how people fall in love with this place.  As the stifling blanket dissipates, you can feel Virginia coming to life.  Perhaps it’s just because it’s my first autumn here, but it feels much more like a beginning than an end.  But back to food.  Is there anything better than all the spice stuff that comes with this time of year?  There’s a traditional progression from apple spice to pumpkin spice to eggnog and eventually to gingerbread.  As usual, I’ve ignored tradition and started with pumpkin.  Perhaps I’ll do apples next.  For now, I bring you these amazing pumpkin spice bars… cakes?... whatever.  Filled with warm spices, studded with chocolate chips, and topped with cream cheese frosting, they are to die for, and yet, they are so simple, you can throw them together in just a few minutes. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 ¼ cups flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon cloves
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• ⅓ cup buttermilk
• ⅓ cup oil
• 7.5 oz pumpkin (half of a 15 oz. can)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

First things first.  Since these come together so quickly, go ahead and preheat your oven to 350° and butter an 8x8 pan. 

Next, whisk together all your dry ingredients. 

Add the chocolate chips and stir them into the mixture.  I prefer mini chocolate chips for this recipe, but if you don’t have any, go ahead and use the regular ones. 

In another vessel, combine the buttermilk, eggs, oil, and vanilla. 

Whisk them together thoroughly and add the pumpkin. 

Whisk that in, and pour the whole thing over the dry ingredients. 

At this point you want to lose the whisk and switch to a spatula or spoon.  Stir just until everything comes together.  Don’t over mix or you’ll end up with air tunnels because this is basically a muffin recipe.  In fact, you could certainly make muffins from this same recipe. 

Pour the batter into your prepared pan.  I know, you can’t believe it was really that simple.   

Spread it to the edges of the pan and smooth out the top.  Doesn’t that color just scream fall?

Into the oven for about 35 minutes.  A toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean, and your kitchen will be filled with the aroma of all those fabulous spices.

Now for the hard part.  That cake has to cool completely before it’s frosted.  I left mine overnight… well, most of it.  Ahem.  Ok!  Let’s start on the icing!  Half a block of cream cheese and 2 Tablespoons of butter walk into bowl… 

I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself.  Anyway, make sure they’re both softened and then mix them until they’re well combined and fluffy. 

Sift in ¾ cup powdered sugar and a pinch of salt. 

I know, sifting is a bit of a pain, but for some ingredients it’s just a necessary evil.  Unfortunately, powdered sugar is one of those ingredients.

Mix until the sugar is completely incorporated and you have a smooth consistency. 

I forgot to add vanilla before the sugar, but now will be fine.  Just a splash… maybe ½ teaspoon or so. 

And more mixing.  We have now arrived at frosting perfection. 

Spread that on top of your cake.  Mine seems to be missing a bit.  What?  Don’t judge me.  I was um… testing it.  I had to make sure my recipe was perfect.  OMG was it!

I topped mine with a few pieces of shaved chocolate.  You could also use chocolate chips or even a sprinkling of nutmeg.  The mini chocolate chips are perfect because you never have an overwhelming flavor of chocolate.  It’s the perfect blend of chocolate, pumpkin, and spice. 

What’s your favorite thing about fall?

It's almost cookie time

Engineers are lazy.

I'm not sure if you've seen the wiener dog and the tennis ball launcher, but that's the best example I've seen on the internet lately. People see it as so innovative and creative... dude invented a machine so he wouldn't have to throw a ball for the dog. Lazy as fuck.

Lemme tell you, if someone hadn't already invented a dishwasher, I'd have a prototype hooked up to my sink right now.

And when a prof gives tells me I have to do a 5 minute free form presentation on anything I want (as long as I can somehow tie it to the class material), I spend hours trying to figure out how I can do this without actually doing any work.

Totally figured out how to have cookies be my schoolwork.

Which covers off this week's blog post.

Double lazy.

Ginger-Orange Brown Sugar Cookies

totally lazed out on the name too.

• 1/2 c butter
• 1 c brown sugar
• 1 tsp fresh grated ginger
• zest of one orange
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp orange juice
• 1 1/2 c flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder

This is a bit of a variation on a typical sugar cookie. The brown sugar makes it a lot more caramelly, but also means you really have to watch them in the oven. Which you should preheat to 325. Lower temp for the brown sugar too.

Cream the butter and sugar with the ginger and the orange zest.

Beat in the egg and vanilla until it's light and fluffy and looks like it would make an awesome icing for a cake.

Don't forget the oj.

There was no baking powder in the picture. Dammit.

The dry ingredients will turn this into a very soft dough. Very soft. Might be worth letting it chill in the fidge for an hour or so, but I was impatient so I started rolling it.

If I was going to cut this into anything other than rectangles, I would have chilled it.

But, rectangles. Easiest thing you can cut a cookie into. Lasy person's cookie shape. Only drop cookies are lazier, but I had a goal here so I had to cut them.

And bake them. For barely 10 minutes.

I really need an oven thermometer. I looked for one today, but all I could find were fridge thermometers. Fridge? Really? Have to admit, I've never worried about that temperature. Brown sugar cookies in a nearly antique oven with serious calibration issues, I worry about.

Once they were cooled, I had to turn them into strain gauges.

Yes, strain gauges.

Yes, strain gauges. This is a school project remember.

But from this angle, they look like scary monsters.

The other way, and we have happy little music notes...

A bit of melted chocolate in a small sammich bag goes a long way. But be careful about explosions.

For another purpose, I'd say make these circles and put the chocolate around the edges. The bittersweet chocolate works really well with the zesty orange, and the fresh ginger (yeah, you could use dried, but seriously, try the fresh) gives the familiar warmth but with a sharpness that seems to lighten the usually warm and heavy spice.

I'm going to have to make these again once I'm done school. Perfect for sharing at work.

What's your favourite lazy way out of work?