Easy Pumpkin Rye Muffins

I made these delicious muffins for the tailgating party I went to on Saturday. There's something about fall that makes us crave pumpkin. It's sweet, but not cloying and tastes wonderful in baked goods. I actually think pie is the least of the possible applications for pumpkin in your kitchen. Muffins, quick breads and soups are far superior to plain old pie as a pumpkin treat. Most recipes add so much sugar that it drowns the natural, nuanced sweetness of the pumpkin. It's unnecessary.

I adapted this recipe from my old reliable baking cookbook: The Joy of Cooking, sixth edition (1975). This cookbook was passed to me from my mother after I was married and I started getting interested in cooking again. She had the newer edition and didn't need this one cluttering up her kitchen anymore. It's a really solid cookbook, the best I've ever owned and I turn to it almost every time I bake.

There's a couple things I find superior about it. First, the recipes have less sugar than modern recipes. Seriously, it's amazing how much our palates have changed. But before you think these are "healthier" recipes, the second big difference is the amount of butter. There's considerably more.

But the final big change is the serving sizes. "Joy's" chocolate chip cookie recipe is supposed to make 2 dozen cookies. I feel lucky if I squeeze more than a dozen out of that bowl. Why? Because my idea of what the proper size for a cookie is is vastly different than Irma Rombauer's. I make them too big.

Anyways, this recipe came from that book, with a couple changes. The first was substituting a portion of the white flour for rye. Since my husband was diagnosed as a Type II diabetic, I've both cut down on the amount of baking I do and started experimenting with lower glycemic flours. I've been having good results with rye slipped into cookies and hearty quick breads recently, so hopefully there will be posts with more rye flour recipes. The rye is unnoticeable, except as an extra layer of heartiness to the muffin. The second big change was that I didn't think there was quite enough pumpkin in the recipe as is. So I simply replaced the liquids in this with more pumpkin, bringing it up to a full 15 ounces, or one can's worth. It makes the recipe really burst with pumpkin flavor and simplifies the directions by giving one less thing to measure. I further tweaked things by cutting the sugar back, because it was just too sweet and swapped half the white sugar for brown. The flavorless shortening is replaced by an equal amount of butter.

The result is a complex, hearty pumpkin muffin for grownups. Not too sweet and lightly spiced, it cries out for a pat of butter when it's warm from then oven, but stands on it's own as a dessert or breakfast treat. It's a pumpkin muffin that actually tastes like pumpkin. Next time I make this, I'll probably add some mix ins like dark chocolate chips or chopped pecans. Someone who is less picky about cooked fruit might like raisins.

Easy Pumpkin Rye Bread

1 1/4 cups white flour
1/2 cup rye flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 brown sugar (I prefer the dark kind, but light brown is okay, I guess)
1/2 (one stick) cup of butter, softened
2 eggs
15 oz. (1 can) of plain pumpkin puree

Sift together flours, spices and reactants. Beat until light and fluffy the butter and sugar (this is when my stand mixer gets a work out).  Add the eggs one at a time, pausing the scrape down and ensure they are mixed in well. Add the can of pumpkin, scrape down and ensure everything is beaten together. Remove bowl from mixer and add 1/3 of flour mixture. Fold in gently, then repeat until flour is just barely mixed in. Over mixing will result in tunneling, which still tastes good, but looks silly. Portion out with an ice cream scoop into lined muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, or about 12-15 minutes. Or, if you want pumpkin bread, pour into greased loaf pan and bake for about 50-60 minutes.

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It's time to make the donuts...

Breakfast this weekend was homemade beignets, made using the brioche recipe from my Artisan Bread in Five Minutes book.

From blog

These are the ones I made yesterday. Pretty, aren't they? And yeah, they really do only take a few minutes. The dough was already in the fridge, because I made cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. Roll it out, cut it into squares, let it rest while the oil heats up. I don't deep fry things often, but when I do, I make sure to drain things properly. A cookie sheet, layered with paper towels, the topped with a wire cooling rack. It keeps the food from reabsorbing the grease from the paper towels while it cools. Then just sprinkle with powdered sugar while they are still warm and serve.

I had to finish off the dough today, so we made a very large batch. If they last until tomorrow, my husband will take them to work to share with his office. He will be the most popular actuary ever.

First bread!

As I mentioned yesterday, I got the cookbook Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day for my birthday. I'm playing with recipes. I apologize for the quality of the photos. My camera is giving me some sort of Blue Screen of Death, so I'm forced to use my phone.

Haven't tasted it yet, as it needs to cool first, but it sure was easy enough. Here is a picture of my dough, fresh from the fridge:

You can see the corner where I removed a bit to make tonight's dinner loaf.

Their instructions recommend letting it rise on a pizza peel, then transferring it to a baking stone inside a very hot oven for cooking. I have neither of those things, so I just let it rise on a cookie sheet, covered with my silicon baking mat. I do think I will invest in those bread baking tools if I find I like this process. (Psst. An unglazed terracotta tile and a large wooden cutting board will easily take the place of those high falutin' gadgets. And they cost considerably less. )



The finished product. The top was slashed with a serrated knife to help it expand during cooking. The crust isn't as pretty as I'd like, but I think that's because I didn't do one of the steps correctly. You're supposed to put an empty pan in the bottom of your oven while it heats. When the bread goes in, you add a cup of water to that pan and shut the door. The steam helps build that beautiful, glossy, crackling crust every one ooohs and ahhs over. I put the pan and water in at the same time and then kept opening the door to peek. So I don't think it got much steam action. Oh well. Next time.

Last night while poking around, I find a great video by the authors of the book. They are showing their method off on a TV morning show. It gives a pretty good idea of how it works.

Bread and Soup

I'm coaching girls basketball this season. It's a testament to how great this country is, that someone like me, who barely knows anything about the sport (the ball goes in the hoop, right?) can become a coach. The girls are actually not that bad. We lost our first game last week, but I chalk that up to inexperience. They can only get better, right?

Anyways, with all the late hours I've been putting in at work recently, I haven't had as much time to cook as I normally do. Some of my meals have been downright pitiful (My lunch on Friday was peanut smeared on a bagel, and a handful of "baby" carrots.) since I haven't really made time to think of alternatives.

That changes this week. I'm making a giant (and I do mean GIANT) batch of curried lentil soup for dinner tomorrow. Hopefully, the leftovers will last for lunch and dinner for several days. To go with it, I'm making bread.

My birthday was last week. My parents gave me a copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which is the hot cookbook tearing up all the foodie blogs this year. The premise is simple. Make a large amount of bread dough ahead of time, store it in the fridge for up to two weeks. Pull off a chunk and bake with it whenever you feel like it. They give you five or six (I didn't really count them) base doughs to work with, and directions on how to turn them into anything from rye, to challah, to focaccia. I made a batch of French "boule" dough this afternoon, that could potentially be pizza dough, french bread, or pita, depending on what I do with the dough. That's pretty cool.

Hopefully, I'll get a chance to blog a bit about how the bread turns out. It seems like a pretty easy system, and the storage in the fridge will bring out a nice, sourdough-ish flavor. The book's authors keep emphasizing how fool proof this recipe is. Indeed, there are a few places where I thought the directions were a bit vague, presumably because they didn't want to limit my inclination to do what feels natural.

And since I probably won't get a chance to blog about it later, here's my recipe for lentil soup.

1 ham bone, preferably with meat still on it.
2 pounds of lentils, sorted and rinsed
Carrots
Onions
Garlic
Curry powder

All of this will go in my giant Crockpot o' Doom with enough water to fill it two thirds full and will cook until I get home.