Hold on to your hats, people!

I actually captured a photograph of something edible. Something delicious. Something for YOU!

You guys, I have to confess that I have been mentally opposed to #pumpkiningallthethings this season. It could be because I took a beach vacation at the end of September, or maybe because the food industry has really out-pumpkined itself this year. I mean, Pumpkin Spice Pringles is taking it past the point of no return. Put your thinking caps on, guys. You can do better!

Nevertheless, I had a can of pumpkin in the pantry and I remembered this old Oven Love recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Giants. I hadn’t pulled it up in a while, and when I did, I saw some ingredients in that recipe that I’m not really friends with anymore- namely white sugar and canola oil (all-purpose flour and I only see each other when absolutely necessary). So I embarked on some kitchen experimentation to see if I could substitute some pantry items and make it work.

I swapped out the white sugar for coconut sugar, used coconut oil instead of canola and substitute freshly-milled soft white wheat flour for the all-purpose. I knew by looking at the batter that they wouldn’t come out exactly the same, but I was hopeful.

The cookies bake up nice and puffy- no spreading, which I love. The texture isn’t quite as airy with the coconut sugar and whole grain flour,  but I kind of liked it that way. The cookies had a nice nutty flavor that they didn’t before. You’ll definitely need a glass of milk with these if you eat them straight out of the oven, but they will relax after resting for a day or two.

If you loved the original recipe, I’d encourage playing around with it and substituting your own favorite pantry items. Recipes are more flexible than you think!

5.0 from 1 reviews

Healthier Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Giants

 

Print

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: dessert

Serves: 16

Ingredients

• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup coconut sugar
• ½ cup melted coconut oil
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon milk, dairy or non-dairy
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups whole grain flour (I used soft white wheat that we grind at home, but you could use a store-bought whole grain flour of your choice. I would think you could substitute a cup-for-cup gluten-free blend here as well with no problem.)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups chocolate chunks or chips

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line three baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Whisk pumpkin, coconut sugar, coconut oil, egg, milk and vanilla in a large bowl. In another bowl, stir the dry ingredients.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix well. Add chocolate and stir to combine.
4. Scoop batter with an ice cream scoop and drop onto the parchment paper, leaving space between the cookies. Bake for 8-10 minutes, rotate in the oven, then bake 8-10 minutes more until puffed and set in the center.
5. Let cool on wire racks before serving and store in an air-tight container.

3.1.09

I miss you guys! What’s happening? What’s new? How’s your pumpkin carving/Halloween costuming/PSL consumption going this year?

We are a bit of a Halloween-neutral family. We will dress up if there’s a party to go to, take the kids trick-or-treating, buy a few pumpkins and hit the fall festival scene, but we don’t love Halloween. We like it just fine, but it’s not our favorite holiday. I am always last minute with the costumes and the candy and what not. This year E had planned on being a ghost (BEST DIY COSTUME EVER, SCORE!) but changed his mind and now wants to be a plane (!!?!?! How do I make that!?!) So now the plan is make a cardboard plane, and then little L can go along and dress as a cloud. We’ll see if this plan actually goes forward.

Making these cheesecake bites provided me the perfect opportunity to continue procrastinating on the costumes this week. There was a last minute opportunity to bring a dessert to our house church and I wanted to make something pumpkin-y, but not TOO pumpkin-y, if you know what I mean. Dessert spreads can really be pumpkin overkill this time of year.

The first thing that came to mind was to pumpkin-ize this old recipe for chocolate-covered cheesecake bites. I remember really loving them the first time around and I thought they’d be a great bite-size party treat. I tweaked the recipe a bit and everything turned out perfectly. I love when that happens!

If you are grain-free or gluten-free, you can still make this recipe. Try Carrie’s grain-free graham crackers or  Shauna’s gluten-free graham crackers. If you are dairy-free/vegan/paleo, I feel for you, I love you, but this one’s not gonna work for you. BUT, behold these amazing-looking vegan pumpkin cheesecake pops! They look very similar and would totally work for you, yay! Everyone’s tummies are happy.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bites

 

Print

Prep time

10 hours

Cook time

1 hour

Total time

11 hours

 

adapted from Handle the Heat makes about 36 squares

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 36

Ingredients

• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs (regular, gluten-free or grain-free as needed)
• 1 stick butter, melted and cooled
• 8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
• 5 oz mascarpone cheese, at room temperature (substitute more cream cheese here if you prefer)
• ½ cup granulated sugar (I used coconut sugar, you could use date sugar as well)
• ½ cup plain yogurt or sour cream
• ½ cup pumpkin puree
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 16 ounces chocolate for melting (refined-sugar free, if necessary)
• 4 tablespoons coconut oil
• more crushed graham crackers, for topping

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8×8 square baking dish with foil and grease with butter or non-stick spray.
2. To make the crust: Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter in a small dish. Press mixture evenly into your pan and bake 8-12 minutes, or until light golden and fragrant.
3. Reduce oven heat to 325 degrees.
4. To make the filling: Beat cream cheese, mascarpone (if using) and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth, 2-3 minutes. Add in yogurt/sour cream, pumpkin, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg and beat until just combined. Pour mixture over the crust and bake 35-40 minutes or until the cheesecake is slightly puffed and the center is set. Cool to room temperature on a wire rack.
5. Refrigerate until chilled (about 2 hours) then place in the freezer, 8 hours or overnight.
6. To coat: Once the cheesecake is frozen, lift it out of the pan and gently peel away the foil. Using a sharp knife, cut the cheesecake into 36 squares. Place in the freezer until you’re ready to dip them.
7. Melt the chocolate and coconut oil in the microwave or double-boiler until smooth. Place parchment paper on a baking sheet. Dip the squares, one at a time, in the chocolate. Let the excess drip off and place on the prepared sheet. Top with graham cracker crumbs, if using. Then refrigerate or freeze until the chocolate is set.
8. Trim excess chocolate, if necessary, and serve cold. Store in the refrigerator or freezer in an airtight container.

3.1.09

It’s been a rainy morning here in GA today. Even the clouds know it’s a Monday.

Though it’s pretty sad-looking outside, the rain has not deterred us from having a lovely morning so far. I am still on my happy-husband-high from a weekend away (at Chateau Elan, ooh la la!) and I will ride it as long as it lasts!

Our answer to this dreary weather is muffins. Pumpkin streusel muffins.

I do my fair share of baking, but I am not the main muffin baker of my family- that title goes to my mom. Nana loves a good muffin, particularly if it’s stuffed with nuts/fruit until it’s bursting out of the wrapper. She loves to make a giant batch of her Morning Muffins when we come home to visit and she has a stainless steel bowl for mixing her batters that is bigger than.. well, it’s just huge.

She is probably going to text me as soon as she sees this and ask me to freeze a few for her next visit.

(Hi, Mom! We can make some more while you’re here.)

I went with pumpkin simply because we had some pumpkin puree leftover from pumpkin pancakes a few days ago. I added the streusel because I (have no self-control and) cannot resist that sweet crunch. If I’m going to make muffins, I’m gonna do it up.

The muffins are grain-free, gluten-free, refined-sugar free and paleo. The main ingredients are pumpkin, eggs, coconut flour, and butter/coconut oil. The recipe is pretty easy to pull together and they’d still be yummy without the streusel if you want to save some time.

I had a question on Facebook about alternative flours and I’d like to say a little bit about them in case these new ingredients are freaking you out. I debated for a long time about investing in these new ingredients because 1) they’re expensive in small quantities and 2) I was so used to wheat flour and didn’t want to adapt. I started by transitioning to a gluten-free flour mix first (King Arthur has one you can find easily) and then started experimenting with grain-free flours.

Coconut flour, almond flour and other grain-free/nut flours do not act the same as traditional wheat flour- they do not contain gluten, so they need binders like eggs or flax seed to make successful batters. Recipes using these flours are dense- they don’t rise up the way that wheat flour does, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t tasty. They also have the added benefit of fiber and other nutrients that wheat flour does not. If you are new to baking with these flours, I suggest following your first few recipes closely before you start experimenting with substitutions.

I buy my almond flour from Honeyville and my coconut flour from Tropical Traditions. Both companies have sales and bulk purchasing that you can take advantage of to save some money.

And P.S. That heart-shaped butter is just a coincidence, but consider it a happy Valentine’s-Day-related coincidence. Love you guys!

Pumpkin Streusel Muffins (Paleo, Gluten-Free, Grain-Free)

 

Print

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

40 mins

Total time

55 mins

 

Author: Oven Love

Recipe type: Breakfast, Baked Goods

Serves: 12

Ingredients

• For the streusel:
• ¼ cup softened butter or coconut oil
• ¼ cup almond flour
• 2 tablespoons unrefined sugar of choice
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup nuts, chopped (I used half walnuts and half macadamia nuts. Pecans or almonds would be great, too. If you like chunkier streusel, you don’t have to pre-chop the nuts.)
• ½ cup unsweetened coconut chips or shredded coconut
• For the muffins:
• ½ cup pumpkin puree
• ½ cup melted coconut oil or butter
• 6 eggs
• ¼ cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon allspice
• ¼ teaspoon cloves
• ⅛ teaspoon black pepper
• ½ cup coconut flour

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a muffin tin or line it with 12 muffin liners.
2. To make the streusel topping, combine the butter/coconut oil, almond flour, unrefined sugar, sea salt, nuts and coconut in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the ingredients are loosely combined. Set aside.
3. To make the batter, whisk pumpkin, coconut oil/butter, eggs, maple syrup and vanilla. Add spices, baking soda and coconut flour and whisk until it thickens up.
4. Spoon the batter into 12 muffin cups. Top with the streusel. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack for at least 10-20 minutes. (To make sure the streusel doesn’t get too brown, you can top the muffins with some foil about half way through baking.)

3.1.09