One more pumpkin recipe for the road.

This is a big bakery recipe that I have tried to scale down. But this is as small as I have gotten it to where it still yields a good batch. It makes about 3 loaves of bread. Unfortunately, for this batch of it I only had enough butter to make 1/4 of this amount…and the results were less than impressive. Scaling down from this batch amount is not very consistent in results.

PUMPKIN BREAD

12 T. unsalted butter

2 c. sugar

4 eggs

2/3 c. orange juice

2 c. pumpkin

3 1/3 c. flour

1/2 t. baking powder

2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. cloves

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg one at a time, mixing after each addition. Scrape down bowl. Add orange juice and pumpkin and mix at low speed or by hand until just incorporated. Sift dry ingredients into bowl and add pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients and stir.

Prepare 3 loaf pans by greasing and putting a small rectangle of parchment at the base of each tin. Divide batter among the 3 tins. Bake at 375 for almost an hour. It may seem slightly unbaked as you pull it out of the oven, but will set up over the next couple hours. Just make sure that a tester comes out clean when deciding to take them out of the oven.

CARAMELIZED APPLE

2-3 tart apples

2 T. brown sugar

1 T. butter (dairy or non-dairy)

Chop apples into small pieces. You leave the skins on which makes this the easiest way to deal with apples and makes for a delightful taste. Heat brown sugar and butter in a skillet over medium heat and stir until it all starts to bubble. Add your apples and stir to coat evenly. Stir occasionally. This way the water will have time to release and evaporate. Then the sugar and butter starts to get kind of stringy. This is a good thing. It’s how caramel is made.

The apples should be looking caramelized at about 12-15 minutes. At this point, transfer to a bowl to cool. You may choose to add these into a vanilla cupcake batter, fold at the very end into cinnamon pancakes or roll into cinnamon rolls before baking. Caramel apples get invited to most parties.

Good on pretty much everything. Piled on toast, stacked on pancakes, baked into muffins, or lovingly slathered into a tart shell. When the world gives you apples, add sugar and fat and you can’t go wrong.

APPLE FILLING

6 c. apples (peeled, sliced)

3/4 c. sugar

1-2 t. lemon juice

1/4 t. cinnamon

1/8 t. cloves

1/2 c. water

Place all ingredients in a saucepan and stir with a wooden spoon. Simmer over lowish heat until the apples soften up and the liquid reduces. About 2 hours. You can use a potato masher to mash up any of the larger pieces of the apple. For tarts, it is nice to have the whole slices of apple intact.

Store in freezer or put in fridge and use. It won’t take too long to get through it. You will probably want to start brushing your teeth with it.

Here I confess my love for pumpkin.

These are from when I lived in Bend, Oregon years ago. When I was young, spry and had good eyes and knees, there was this place called A Cup of Magic. We went there pretty much every morning in the summer. I would fuel up here on a purist’s dream cinnamon role and black coffee. Then I cycled on up the road and spent my days as a summer camp counselor.

In the fall when I would go back to work at the bakery down the road from this coffee shop, I would sneak away on my break (from baking in a bakery to another bakery) to get some pumpkin cookies from Cup of Magic.

These are my best re-creation of these delightful pumpkin delicacies. Enjoy.

PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1/4 c. unsalted or vegan butter

1/2 c. granulated sugar

Flax egg or chicken egg

1 1/4 c. all purpose flour

1/2 c. pumpkin purée

1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

pinch of salt

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. ground nutmeg

1/2 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a stand mixer, combine sugar and fat until light in color and fluffy. Add your egg and blend to incorporate. Add your dry ingredients and mix briefly. Add pumpkin puree and mix until almost blended (some evidence of flour should still exist). Pumpkin can be very tricky because it can go from incorporated to overmixed and gummy real quick. Add your chips and then just do a couple rotations of paddle to get them into the crowd

Scoop out in desired shape onto parchment lined baking sheet. You may choose to lightly smoosh (industry term) them into actual flattened cookie structure. Or keep them in their naturally scooped state for a more pumpkin dumpling (pumplings) product.

Bake for 15 minutes or so. Depends on how greedy you were with your scoops. Then you eat them.

Danish puffy ball pancakes with apples. Is there anything even better than that? Maybe Danish puffy ball pancakes with huckleberries.

It is true that aebelskivers take a special pan, but it is also true that this recipe also makes great normal old pancakes. If you want to go full skiver mode, you can get your own pan here.

AEBELSKIVERS

3/4 c. flour

2 t. baking powder

1 T. sugar

1/2 t. salt

1/2 c. non-dairy milk

1 t. apple cider vinegar

1/2 T. ground flax seed

1/4 c. water

1/8 c. canola oil

1/2 c. fruit

Combine milk and cider vinegar in a bowl and let sit for a few minutes. Add flax seeds and mix with a fork to add some air into the mix. This is the binder of the recipe, so it is important that it is incorporated and bubbly. Add your oil and water and mix again by hand. Add remaining ingredients (except for fruit) and gently mix until most of the bumps are gone in batter. Fold in the fruit.

Warm up the pan while the batter rests for 5-10 minutes. It should froth up a bit and appear to increase in volume. Thank you, chemistry.

Use butter or cooking spray to get pan ready. If you are using the aebelskiver pan, add your batter to fill about 3/4 of each cell. Once the batter appears to bubble, you can flip by using a non-marking utensil (like one of my really great smorknivs). You can continue to move each skiver around to cook evenly.

Serve by sprinkling powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar on the tasty little Danish dumplings. Syrup is also invited. Or jam. Or honey. They are pretty good with anything, really.

I have gone plum crazy. Apples and pumpkins are right around the corner, so you have ample warning. Here is an easy plum preserves proportional recipe. Can be bumped up or down depending on your plum load.

The number inclined pattern people will see that for every 1 pound of fruit, you add 1 cup of sugar. That is the ratio. You also can leave the skins on the plums. So that makes it real easy. Scale your liquid to match the rest of your proportions. You can can (ha) it, or treat it as simple freezer jam and use it up quickly.

PLUM PRESERVES

1.5 lbs. plums, halved and pitted

1.5 c. sugar

1/4 c. water

1/4 c. lemon juice

Add all ingredients to a pot and stir. Keep checking back in on the mixture. It takes some time to cook down and begin gelling. My batch was near an hour since I was keeping it on low heat. You can be real professional and use a thermometer and cook until it reaches the jam territory of 220 degrees F. But I just go by how it drips off a wooden spoon.

I first fell in love with this cake when I was in Italy a long time ago. They sold it in packaging and stores that made it seem like the Italian equivalent of Twinkies. But no matter. I was hooked.

PLUM CAKE

5 oz. unsalted butter (one stick is close enough)

5 oz. brown sugar

2 eggs

10 oz. flour (pastry is best here)

.25 oz. baking powder (about 3 t.)

1/2 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. salt

9 oz. (in weight, not volume) milk, this works out to be roughly 1.5 cups.

1 lb. plums, halved and pitted

Cream butter and sugar in a mixer with paddle attachment. Scrape down and remix until it is light in color and is not forming a ball in the bowl. Add eggs one at a time, mixing slowly after each addition. Add dry ingredients and briefly mix. Remove from mixer and fold in milk by hand. This is helpful because the sugar and butter tend to hold up on walls of bowl if you use the paddle to do this part. Make sure to fold until you have an even cakelike batter.

Pour into prepared cake round or square pan. Add your plum halves facing up. Bake at 400 for about 35 minutes. Until a cake tester comes out clean. Slice and enjoy.

Inspired to recreate one more item from one of the bakeries I worked at, I bring you these pockets. Filled with anything you typically would eat with a fork at breakfast time. But wrapped in dough and totally portable.

BREAKFAST POCKETS

Filling (pre-cooked, scrambled, sautéed, fried, baked etc. Bacon, eggs, cheese, potatoes, sausage, ham, veggies)

Pizza dough (store bought is great and usually is enough for two)

Prepare your fillings. This can even be done the night before allowing for plenty of baking and eating time in the morning. Roll your dough into rectangles. Fill them up. Roll them up. Slather with some olive oil, salt and herbs. Bake at 400 until it looks like a pizza crust color you’d eat.

This recipe is written down in my little journal of test recipes as “Mom’s Coffee Cake” and was added as one of my first officially adult recipes when I moved out. So it is old. And it is good. It works veganized, but the original recipe was with dairy and egg. If you don’t have access to huckleberries, they taste great with other berries, apples or even just on their own. I say they because I tend to bake off the batter in muffin form since it takes way less time than a loaf or actual cake. And I am not very patient for my baked goods in the morning.

HUCKLEBERRY COFFEE CAKE

Batter:

1 1/2 C. flour

1/4 C. granulated sugar

2 1/2 t. baking powder

1/4 C. canola oil

1/3 C. milk (dairy or non-dairy)

1 T. ground flaxseed mixed with 3 T. water (or one egg)

1/3 C. huckleberries

Streusel:

1 T. canola oil

1/4 C. flour

1/4 C. brown sugar

1 t. cinnamon

Batter:

Add flour, sugar and baking powder to a mixing bowl and make a well in the center. Add your wet ingredients and mix with a fork or wooden spoon until almost blended. Add your fruit. Gently fold until incorporated.

Streusel:

Add dry ingredients to a smaller bowl and then drizzle oil on top. Mix with a fork until it starts to take on a crumbled appearance.

Add half of your batter to prepared muffin cups or baking pan. Layer with half of your streusel and then the rest of the batter. Top it off with the remaining streusel. And now you know the life-changing secret that streusel leads two lives.

Bake at 375 for about 15-20 (muffins) and 30ish minutes for proper cake.

Beans are high and tomatoes are laden. Time to tip and tail.

GREEN BEAN TOMATO SALAD

12 oz. freshly picked green beans, tipped and tailed

1 onion, sliced

4 t. apple cider vinegar

1 garlic clove

A couple tomatoes, cored and sliced

3 T. olive oil

Salt

Boil water. While water is heating, quick pickle the sliced onion by pouring some warm water over them in a colander and then placing into the vinegar. Let sit.

Once water is boiling, add beans. Cook only until they brighten in color. No one likes soggy cooked veg. Maybe 3-4 minutes. Drain. Put drained verdant strands into a big bowl.

Add the onions and all their vinegar. Next add the oil. Then the tomatoes and add salt to taste. Stir a little to let everyone get to know each other. Serve.