pumpkin goodness

a mini pie

if you don't have a pumpkin pie recipe for thanksgiving yet and want something a little different this year- go for this (i may sing a different tune when i try out a paula chiffon pumpkin recipe, but that's not important right now).

wasn't really feeling in the thanksgiving mood (which is a clear sign of something very wrong!) but after my run this morning i was feeling so much better (now i know, those 5 am runs are completely necessary). but anyway, since i had today off from work and was feeling rejuvenated, baking was in order! this is a recipe merging a much healthier recipe with a not as healthy one, and together it's yummy goodness, totally ready for t-day!

the crust inspiration comes from this fitness blog which i think i actually found from some daily newsletter i get in my inbox. 

regular sized muffin cup

the filling comes from my friday-at-work-and-only-30-minutes-left to do perusal. from foodnetwork.

i had some leftover filling (i made less "crust") and so popped the rest in the microwave for 3 minutes and had instant pumpkin pie filling (my favorite part). not sure what to call this- but i'm going with oat & date pecan maple pumpkin mini pie with maple whipped cream. whoo, that's too long. any suggestions?

Oat, date & Pecan crust Maple Pumpkin Mini Pie w/ Maple Whipped Cream

Makes 12 mini, and 8 muffin cup sized pies

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups instant oats

8 large dates, pitted (make sure you take out the seeds, or you'll have my problem and wonder why your food processor sounds like it's dying and then have to dig and search for each partially broken seed)

pinch of salt

~ 1/4 c pecans

1/4 c water

1 c pumpkin puree

1 T all purpose flour

1 T sugar in the raw

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 c heavy cream

1/4 c maple syrup, grade B

1 egg, beaten

Maple whipped cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 c grade B maple syrup (or to taste)

dash of cinnamon

Optional

Top with a toasted pecan

Line muffin pans with paper wrappers. Process the oats, dates salt and pecans. Slowly add in the water until the mixture begins to combine (but not wet sticky!). Form into balls and press into the muffin tins.

For the pumpkin filling, combine all the ingredients except the egg. Taste, add more maple syrup or spices as desired, and then add in the egg. Spoon into the muffin tins and bake at 400 for 15 min (for the little ones) and about 25 min for the larger ones. Place a pan filled with some water in the oven (this way the pies won't crack on top and stay nice and moist).

For the whipped cream, beat the whipping cream on high speed until the mixture thickens. Add the maple syrup and continue to beat until the cream holds firm peaks. Dollop on top of the pies and sprinkle with cinnamon. Top with toasted pecan. 

happy baking!

baking extravaganza, aka, i need to go on a detox after this

wow, i crammed in as much baking for my last few days of break possible. so lets get right to it!

 these are called "food of the gods" but like pioneer woman, i feel the name is a bit odd. but they are drool worthy and melt in your mouth goodness (it helps that there are 3 sticks of butter in it...but don't let that stop you from trying this out). i wish i had more nuts in it, so i would recommend trying out pioneer woman's idea of adding chopped pecans. i've never used dates in my baking before but these were yummy. i wonder how dried figs would taste instead?

 the bars wrapped and boxed up for s2 and s3!

it was a tough decision trying to decide what to make for my birthday "cake" and the winner turned out to be a cookie rather than a cake. these are picky palate's s'mores stuffed chocolate chip cookies. these are delicious and so cute! i made my s'mores insert half the size of picky palate's, got lazy and only made 7 of them, but wish i had made all the dough into s'mores stuffed ones b/c the cookies actually tasted better with the s'more inside. but it was so cute! the stack of s'more with cookie dough on top and bottom reminded me of those weird sponge bob square pants candy shaped like burgers (which i haven't tried and am a little too freaked out to try...). and out of the oven the marshmallows just oozeddddd out of the cookie.

 oh, and did you notice, i finally got a silpat! love love love. although with waiting for the cookies to cool and such i still ended up using aluminum foil to bake the rest of the cookies so i wouldn't waste the heat of the oven. hopefully one day i'll have enough silpat to just bake away to my hearts content (how dangerous that day will be)

so in less than 2 hours i'll be 24. phew. this year is going by so fast. oh, i forgot to mention my family tried chick n' friends for my birthday (i was in the mood for super low key kind of birthday celebration). and yes, the vegetarian got fried chicken food for her birthday (but i had fried fish!) but i forgot to get a waffle! time for me to get some sleep now that spring break is ending, too bad i couldn't have another week of spring break. but it's probably better this way as i need to go on a bit of a fried food/baked goods detox.