Maple Cinnamon Cupcakes with Pumpkin Icing

 I wanted to make these as my last hoorah to Halloween because come November 1st it is going to be all things Christmas!  I am so excited for Christmas, and plan on trying out a lot of new recipes for my favourite holiday.  I hope you like these festive Fall cupcakes.  You can never have too much pumpkin, am I right?



Ingredients:

Cake:

1 cup White Sugar
1/2 cup Margarine
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Maple Extract (or substitute an additional tsp of Vanilla)
1 1/2 cups White Flour
1 3/4 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Cup Water (You could also use milk)
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (optional)


Icing:

1/4 cup Pumpkin Puree (Pure)
1 TB Margarine
1 tsp Maple Extract
1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (Or cinnamon)
3 1/2 cups Icing Sugar


Directions:

1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and place your liners in your muffin tins.  Cool looking Halloween themed liners preferred.

2.  Combine the sugar and margarine in your mixer.  Add eggs one at a time with the vanilla and maple extract.  Mix until smooth.

3.  In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder and spices.  Add the dry ingredients to the wet.  Add the water until fully combined.

4.  Spoon into the muffin tins, filling the liners about 2/3 full.  Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when poked into the center of a cupcake.

5.  While the cupcakes are cooling begin to make the icing.  Start by mixing the pumpkin puree, margarine and maple extract in your mixer.  Slowly add the icing sugar until the icing is your preferred consistency.  I like mine pretty thick, but you could stop adding icing sugar at 3 cups and go for a slightly lighter icing.

6.  When the cupcakes are completely cool, ice and enjoy!

 

Evil Scientist Beaker Sprinkles from Save-on-Foods

Baked Fries

Cooked.

 These fries are so quick and easy you can even throw them together for lunch like I did today!

 Ingredients:

 

1 Russet Potato
3 Cloves of Garlic
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper

Directions:


1.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and  grease a baking pan.  I like to put tin foil in the pan because it means less mess later.


2.   The potato in this recipe does not get pre-cooked, so you just cut it into whatever size fries you like.  I just made enough to have for lunch, but you can add more potatoes depending on how many servings you want.


3.   Place the potato on the baking pan and add the chopped garlic.  I like things to be REALLY garlicy so you may want to add the garlic to your taste.

Pre-cooked.

Pre-cooked.

4.   Sprinkle with oil, salt and pepper and put in oven.  Cook for approximately 45 minutes or until the fries are golden brown and a fork can go through them smoothly.
 

Cooked!

Pumpkin Scones

 

 

 I am pretty much obsessed with pumpkin.  I love it in drinks, soups, baked goods, ice cream, you name it!  I even have pumpkin tea, pumpkin shower gel, and have been known to spend an uncomfortably long time sniffing the pumpkin scented candles at Bath and Body Works.  

 

 I love this recipe because the flavour of the natural pumpkin really comes through.  It tastes a lot like the Starbucks pumpkin scones that come around this time of year but without the added sugar from the icing, as much as I love it.  This recipe is super easy, fast and will make your house smell festive! 

 

Ingredients:

2 cups Flour
4 -6 TB White Sugar
1 TB Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice (optional)
6 TB Margarine
1/2 cup Pure Pumpkin Puree
3 TB Milk (Any kind)
1 Medium or Large Egg

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.  Prepare your baking pan by greasing it or adding a piece of greased parchment paper.

2.  Begin by mixing your flour, spices, baking powder and sugar in a mixing bowl.  I added 4 TB of sugar to my scones because I don't like them too sweet and I feel like I can justify eating them for breakfast this way.  I really enjoy the taste of the pumpkin, but adding more sugar would work too if you prefer a sweeter tasting scone.  The flour can be a mixture of whole wheat or white, I did half and half.  Recipes with pumpkin work well with whole wheat flour because it adds to the natural, earthy flavour.

3.  Add the 6 TB of margarine to the dry ingredients and mix with either a fork or a pastry blender.  A pastry blender is a handheld tool that works really well to cut the margarine into smaller pieces, I would definitely recommend getting one of these!  Blend until the margarine is combined and the pieces are no larger than pea-sized.

Pastry Blender

4.  In a separate bowl combine the milk, egg and pumpkin.  I used skim milk for this recipe and it turned out great.

Look at this brilliant colour!

5.  Add the wet ingredients to the flour/margarine mixture and mix with a wooden spoon.  The mixture might seem too wet for a scone, but it works out well because the scones are incredibly moist.

6.  Flour a cutting board and place some flour on your hands as well.  Form the mixture into a rectangle on the cutting board and cut into 6 equal triangles, starting by cutting in half and then each half into 3.

7.  Place the scones on the baking sheet and bake for 16 minutes.  They will double in size, so don't worry if they look kind of small before cooked.

Cooked scones.

So moist!!

Good luck eating just one!

Bread

This recipe comes from my mother.  When we were kids we always had homemade bread in the house.  I think a lot of people find bread intimidating, but it is actually pretty simple.  It may seem time-consuming but once you get the hang of it, it`s a breeze!  There`s a lot of room to be creative with bread as well.  You can add extra sugar, or cinnamon and make a cinnamon loaf.  You can add olives, poppy seeds, herbs, anything you like!

 Ingredients:

7-8 Cups Flour (Combination of white and whole wheat)
3 TB Fast-acting Yeast
1 tsp Salt
3 Cups Water (Heated to 115 degrees)
1 TB Olive Oil
1 TB Honey
1 TB Dried Oregano (optional)
1 TB Dried Basil (optional)

Directions:

1. Measure 5 cups of flour into your mixer. You will be adding more flour later.  (At this point you can decide what the ratio of whole wheat to white will be.  I usually do 5 whole wheat and 3 white.)  Add the yeast and salt to the flour and combine.  You can also add the herbs at this point if you choose.

2.  Heat the water to 115 degrees and add the oil and honey.  A tip to make sure the honey does not stick to the tablespoon is to dip it in the oil and water before you squeeze the honey onto it.

3. Turn your mixer onto medium speed and add the water mixture to the flour.  Your mixer will likely have two attachments, a hook and a beater.  Use the beater at this point.  Once it has combined put your mixer to medium high and let mix for about 2 minutes.

4.  Change to the hook attachment and begin to add the last 3 cups of flour.  Add each cup slowly so it won't spill over the top of your mixer.  The flour can go flying if there is too much in the bowl.  Continue to add the flour until the dough stops sticking to the edge.  When you think you have added enough flour let the dough knead for about 2 minutes and check to see if it sticks at all.  It is okay to go over the 8 cups of flour if you think it is still too sticky.  You should also be able to poke the dough with your finger without it sticking.

5.  Dump the dough onto a large, floured cutting board.  Knead with your hands until there aren't any air bubbles in the dough.  Form the dough into a ball and place into a large, oiled bowl.  Cover the bowl with greased saran wrap but not too tightly.  Let the dough sit in a warm area for 10 minutes.  You could take this opportunity to begin your clean-up, or you can eat Halloween candy instead, which is what I did!

After 10 minutes.

6.  After 10 minutes put the dough back onto the cutting board and knead again.  Divide the dough into however many loaves you would like.  I would recommend making about 3 loaves, 2 pull-apart breads or 12 buns.  Cover each loaf with greased saran wrap again and let sit in a warm area for 30 minutes.  Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

To make pull-apart bread you divide the loaf into three parts and make strands.  Braid the dough and when it is cooked you can just tear pieces off.  Great for having with soup!

7.  Cook for 35 minutes.  You will know the bread is done with you knock on it and it is hard.  Keep in a Tupperware or sealed bag so it stays nice and soft.

Cooked bun.

Perogie Soup

 

 

I was never a big fan of soups until I started making them.  I find choosing the ingredients and blending them all together to be really fun. One of my favourite things to eat is potatoes so I thought I should try making them into a soup.  

At first I had planned on just making a plain potato soup but then when I decided to put the kielbasa in I realized that the soup smelled like perogies.  I am happy to say that it also tastes like a delicious, cheesy perogie!

 Ingredients:

12 Small/Medium Russet Potatoes
5  Cloves of Garlic
225g Kielbasa Sausage
900ml Unsalted Chicken Broth
250ml Starchy Water (from potatoes)
1 Medium Yellow Onion
6 TB Margarine (I used low-calorie becel)
6 TB White Flour
1/2 to 1 cup of Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to Taste

Directions:

1.  Fill a pot with water and add the peeled and quartered potatoes.  Add the garlic to the water.  Bring the water up to a boil and then turn the burner down to medium.  The potatoes are done once a fork slides into them easily.

2.  While the potatoes are boiling add some oil to another pot, this is the one the soup will end up in.  Fry the sausage and onion until they are carmelized.  Remove the sausage and onion from the pan but keep the oil in the bottom.

3.  Now you are going to make a roux.  Melt the margarine in the pot and then add the flour.  This will create a thick paste.  Add the chicken broth and whisk until fully combined.  Continue to stir until it begins to thicken.  It will thicken up to a thin gravy-like consistency.  Add the cheese and continue to stir.

4.  Once the potatoes are done, drain the water, but keep 1 cup of the starchy potato water.  Add the drained potatoes to the pot and blend.  I used an emulsifier which we just purchased and it worked super well!  If you don't have one you can put the mixture into the blender and then return it to the pot.

5.  Once it is fully blended add the sausage and onion.  At this point you will want to add salt and pepper to taste.  We didn't want to salt before this point because the sausage and cheese would add saltiness to the soup.

Tear off a piece of yummy bread and enjoy!