Pumpkin Walnut Fudge for Thanksgiving!

Here's a recipe for Pumpkin Walnut Fudge, a great addition to your Thanksgiving dessert table. It comes together very easily, and cuts beautifully. I do recommend a candy thermometer - they're inexpensive and a great kitchen tool, so if you don't have one, pick one up the next time you're out.

I got up before sunrise this morning to cut into the pan of fudge and take photos before I headed out to Skidmore College for some additional testing for the exercise science study. I wrapped the plate of fudge and brought it as a token of appreciation to the staff and student researchers in the lab. They were very happy to receive it!

Here's a photo of frost on my windshield this morning as I was leaving:

Isn't it beautiful - I'm in awe of the pattern!

PUMPKIN WALNUT FUDGE
Line 13x9 pan with foil, extending over long ends. Spray foil inside pan with cooking spray. Use a slightly smaller pan if you want thicker fudge.

Ingredients:
1.5 cups granulated sugar
1.5 cups packed light brown sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
6 tablespoons soft butter
3/4 cup pumpkin puree (canned pumpkin)
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, or cinnamon if you don't have it
7 oz. marshmallow creme
2 cups white chocolate chips (like Ghiradelli)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Directions:
Butter the inside of a heavy-bottomed sauce pan (I used my big enameled pot), and over medium heat, bring sugars, evaporated milk, butter, pumpkin puree, and spice to a rolling boil, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.  Continue to boil, stirring constantly, until mixture reaches soft ball stage (232 degrees F).

Take off the heat and stir in marshmallow creme, white chocolate chips, and vanilla. Stir until creamy and all chips are melted. Stir in chopped walnuts. Carefully pour into prepared pan. Do not scrape bottom or sides of pot since this could make the fudge grainy.

Cool for a few hours or overnight. Lift foil and turn out fudge to cutting board. Remove foil. Cut into squares.

Can be stored for two weeks (if it lasts that long!).

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

A lot of people have tomorrow off, but I'm not one of them.  Half our office has taken the day, so for the rest of the staff, I'm baking a little special something:  pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting (surprise!).  They're in the oven now with just a few minutes to go, and they smell soooooo good!  I can't think of anything more appropriate for the day before Thanksgiving than pumpkin bars.  They're spicy, sweet, and the perfect, deep, dark autumn color.  What more could you ask for than something that can do double-time as either a breakfast bar or, later in the day, dessert?  This recipe is adapted from one that Paula Deen has posted on-line.  My changes:  a little less oil, a little more cinnamon.  Paula's frosting is a little too rich for what I am looking for, so I cut the fat in half and no one will miss it.  Here's my take on Paula's pumpkin bars, with a preview of some photos along the way (frosting will have to wait until tomorrow morning!):

Look at those specks of cinnamon ~ it's just plain pretty!

And here they are, frosted and ready for my office!

PUMPKIN BARS WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Prepare 13x9 pan (spray with vegetable spray or line with parchment paper and still spray a little)

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil (Paula uses 1 cup)
1  15 oz. can pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

In large mixer bowl, beat together eggs, sugar, oil, pumpkin, and vanilla extract until fluffy.
In separate bowl, stir all dry ingredients together.  Add to pumpkin mixture and mix until very well combined.

Spread in 13x9 pan and bake for 30 minutes.

Cool completely before frosting (a few hours or even better, over night).

Frost in pan.  Cut into bars.

FROSTING (very modified from Paula's - much more my own):

1/2 bar cream cheese (4 oz.) softened - make sure it's room temperature or it'll be lumpy...
1/8 lb. butter, softened (half a stick)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2  teaspoon lemon extract (optional)
2 cups confectioners sugar
a few tablespoons of milk, more if you need it

Beat softened cream cheese and butter until complete combined.  Add vanilla and lemon extracts and mix thoroughly.  Gradually add confectioners sugar, alternating with a little milk at a time, until it's the consistency you want it to be.  Less milk = a firmer frosting, more = softer.  Go sparingly with the milk.  Add a few drops at a time until it's just right. (Remember, you can always add a little more milk, but once you've added too much, you can't take it out.)



Photos and Collage:   my own

Citrus Chrysanthemum Cake

Tonight I baked a pound cake in a bundt pan, but it's not just any pound cake, and not just any bundt pan.  It's a citrus poundcake, with lemon extract and grated orange rind.  The pan is in the shape of a chrysanthemum flower, a gift from Russ a few Christmases ago.  He's a smart man.  He knows if he gives me something to bake with, he'll be able to enjoy the results!

Here's the recipe for tonight's Citrus Chrysanthemum Cake (makes enough batter for one bundt cake and a dozen cupcakes).  This is a perfect early morning coffee cake, or a great dessert after dinner (with a little ice cream or sherbet and whipped cream!)...  It would nicely complement traditional Thanksgiving desserts, as well.  Citrus flavors are very refreshing after a big meal.

I hope you try it!

CITRUS CHRYSANTHEMUM CAKE

1 bar unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 cups (one pint) sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 tablespoon grated orange rind (dry) or 2 tablespoons fresh
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Glaze:  1 cup confectioners sugar, 1/2 tsp. lemon extract, water
Additional confectioners sugar to sift over glazed cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Prepare pan:  grease very well or spray with Pam

In large mixer bowl, cream butter with sugar until very well combined.  Add extracts and orange rind.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add sour cream.  Mix well.

In separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add to butter/egg mixture and beat until very well combined.

Fill bundt pan 2/3 full.  Bake at 350 degrees F until cake tests done.  Check at 45 minutes and continue baking until top is dry and bounces back when lightly pressed.  Remove from oven.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes.  Turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Make glaze - stir confectioners sugar and lemon extract and stir in water, a few drops at a time, to get a pourable glaze.  Pour glaze over cake.  Sift confectioners sugar over top of cake.

Bake cupcakes for 22 minutes or until they test done.  Cool completely.  Frost as desired.

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake with Ginger Snap Crust

I hesitate to share this recipe because it is one of my favorites, and like other favorite things, sometimes it's nice to keep them to yourself. But it's Thanksgiving, and you may be wanting just one fabulous dessert, something that brings the best of cheesecake and pumpkin pie to the table. This big, moist cheesecake is cradled by a gingered graham cracker crust. It mixes up easily with fairly simple ingredients. There's nothing simple about its presentation or taste - both are spectacular and real show stoppers. This is not any one person's recipe. It's my adaptation of many cheesecake recipes, made to be my own. It was served at my daughter's wedding, one of the many items on the dessert table, playing second fiddle only to the wedding cake.

There's a formula to cheesecakes. For each half pound of cream cheese, it's one-quarter cup of sugar and one egg. So if this is too big for your cheesecake pan, change it by using three of everything: 3 packages of cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar, 3 eggs... It's pretty simple, and you can always refer to your favorite cookbook since most include a variety of cheesecakes. This one is very good, and I hope you like it.

Oven 350 degrees F

Place top rack in middle of oven. On bottom rack below, place a cake pan filled with hot water to act as an indirect water bath. (This will minimize cracking after baking.)

Makes one 10-inch cheesecake

Crust:

• 1.5 sleeves graham crackers to make 2-2 1/2 cups crumbs (in blender or food processor)
• 1 bar butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. dry ginger
  

Mix all ingredients. Pour into base of spring form pan. Using the bottom of a metal measuring cup, press crumbs on bottom and half-way up sides of pan. Make sure the crumbs are tightly packed. Place pan in freezer while you prepare the batter.

Cheesecake batter:

• 2 lbs. cream cheese
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  

Beat cream cheese with sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla. Add cornstarch and sour cream and beat until very smooth, scraping sides of bowl to incorporate all ingredients well.

Pour three cups of batter into separate bowl. Pour remaining batter in to pie crust. To the remaining batter in the bowl, beat in pumpkin and cinnamon, mixing very well. Drop pumpkin batter in dollops over the plain batter in pan. Using a large soup spoon, very loosely turn the batter over in large swirls. Take a butter knife and marble in one direction. Rotate the pan a half turn and marble the batter in the opposite direction.

Place cheesecake on cookie sheet on top rack in middle of oven and bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. Turn heat down to 320 degrees and bake for another 45 minutes. Turn oven off and leave cheesecake in oven, door propped open an inch, for an hour. Remove from oven. Let cool completely. Run thin knife around outside edge of cheesecake. Release spring form.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Photo credit: http//:farm4static.flickr.com