Playing with Pumpkin and.. Mums blender
I have never cooked a pumpkin, or used a hand-held blender… until now.
A field less than a mile away from my home was covered in beautifully bright orange pumpkins, how could I resist their “pick your own pumpkin” offer?! Well, we intended to find one or two.. came back with five, so I had to find recipes to truly appreciate this autumnal fruit!
I followed the recipes from the links bellow, slightly tweaking them.
For a first attempt at baking with pumpkin I would say these were a success! However, they were so very, very dense, there was not a lot of rise with these! Was it the gluten free flour or the pumpkin puree? I’m not sure. If I make them again (wont be for a while I did eat quite a few) I’d like to reduce their sweetness which mainly came from the icing, and perhaps try gluten free self raising flour to help with the lightness.
Pumpkin Puree
1 Medium Sized Pumpkin (Cut into 3 cm wedges, leave skin on)
2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
Place pumpkin wedges onto a baking tray and rub with oil. Place in a 200 degree oven and roast for 25-30 minutes. Once cool enough to handle peel away the pumpkin skin and cut into 3cm cubes or small enough to blend. Place pumpkin cubes into food processor and blend, continue until smooth and puréed.
Pumpkin Cupcakes
24 Cupcakes/2 loaves
PRE HEAT OVEN 160 DEGREES C FOR FAN ASSISTED OR 180 DEGREES C FOR NON FAN ASSISTED
24 Muffin Cases
200g Unsalted Butter (Room Temperature)
100g Caster Sugar
200g Light Brown Sugar
3 Large Free Range Eggs
200g Pumpkin Purée (Recipe above)
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
100ml buttermilk
100ml Maple Syrup
300g Plain Gluten Free Flour
1 ½ Tablespoons Baking Powder
1 ½ Teaspoons Cinnamon
½ Teaspoon Nutmeg
Cream together on a medium high speed mixer, or by hand, the unsalted butter and both sugars until pale in colour. Turn the mixer on low adding 1 egg at a time until combined with sugar and butter mix, follow with the pumpkin purée, buttermilk and maple syrup now add the sifted flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Spread mixture evenly between the 24 cases, place in the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Once baked take out and leave to cool for a moment in pans, then transfer to a wire wrack to cool.
Cinnamon Maple Frosting
75g Unsalted Butter (Room Temperature)
75g Cream Cheese (Room Temperature) (I use Philadelphia)
300g Icing Sugar (Sifted)
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
½ Teaspoon Cinnamon
50ml Maple Syrup
Cream together the butter and cream cheese, now slowly add the sifted icing sugar. Once combined add the vanilla, cinnamon and maple syrup. When the cupcakes have cooled smooth over the frosting.