Pumpkin Party: Pumpkin Pancakes

The pumpkin party continues, with breakfast the focus today.   On a cold rainy morning (perhaps while you hunker down before the power goes out during a hurricane?) these rich, lightly spiced pancakes do the trick.   When you add pumpkin to pancakes, there is no doubt that you must let go of any hope that your pancakes will be light and fluffy - pumpkin inevitably brings some denseness to the pancake party.  But while you lose some of that elusive pancake fluffiness, you gain a real depth of flavor.  After all, aren't plain ol pancakes not much more than a vehicle for maple syrup?  Not these things, while they are light on the sugar, the pumpkin flavor really comes through, as does the pumpkin pie spice. And about that pumpkin pie spice, I usually am against using "pumpkin pie spice" and like to carefully put together the right amounts of each of the key spices - nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, etc... but with these pancakes and some other recipes I made for pumpkin week I took the shortcut and used a good quality pumpkin pie spice (penzeys), but when it comes time to make my thanksgiving pies, I will go back to the old fashioned way of a pinch of this and a pinch of that.
These pancakes I adapted from Nigella Lawson, who, strangely, didn't include any spices whatsoever in her recipe!  That just seemed strange to me, as the best part of any pumpkin sweet, in my opinion, are the spices.  So I added some.  For me, pancakes are a little too much effort (and carbs and calories) for everyday, but these are a great fall weekend treat!

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Pumpkin Party: Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good

It has taken me a little longer than I would have liked to start my pumpkin party, but better late than never!  Part of the delay is that I was crippled by indecision - there are so many wonderful things to make, how would I ever decide!  I was particularly stumped on what to choose to make on the sweet, side, so I am kicking off this week or so of many pumpkin recipes on the savory side.  Without further delay, I give you Dorie Greenspan's pumpkin stuffed with everything good, and this really is a gift.  This pumpkin, oh boy, let me tell you about it  - it is filled with beautiful french bread cubes, lots and lots of Gruyere and cheddar cheese, garlic, oh yes, lots of garlic, and you know what else? bacon, yup.  Oh, and how is this lovely pumpkin finished off? with a little glug of heavy cream.  Yes!  This pumpkin is pretty insane, obviously over the top rich. I tried to make it a little less guilty by adding a whole bunch of steamed swiss chard, and it added a nice counterpoint to the richness loaded on richness.  Without the bacon, this would be a great vegetarian main for thanksgiving, truth be told, I would probably rather eat this than turkey, and I love turkey.  If the pumpkin a bit of an afterthought in light of all that goodness? Perhaps, but the right way to eat this is to dig into the sides and mix the soft pumpkin immediately into the stuffing.  If it weren't for the bacon, cream, bread and cheese, I would eat this every week during the fall.  Alas, this dish is so good I can't let myself eat it more than once a year, and I am already thinking about next year...

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Apple Fest Swan Song: Maple Apple Upside Down Cake

With this maple apple upside down cake, the time has come to say goodbye to apple fest.  Never fear, up next is a pumpkin party, which will hopefully provide inspiration for all of your pumpkin cravings!  Although this is the last post in apple fest, I cannot guarantee that apples will not continue to pop up here throughout the rest of the fall, as they are most certainly one of my favorite ingredients, and something I eat every day (though usually not gussied up in recipes).   I found this case recipe (a sign from my brain that I should be working rather than blogging right now) on Food and Wine's website and it is by Joanne Chang, the owner of one of my favorite bakeries here in Boston - Flour.  While I love, love, love Flour's baked goods in store, I have found that recipes from the Flour cookbook don't always work that well.  I am sad to say that there was a pretty big error in the Food and Wine recipe for this cake too (a 1 and half hour baking time) which I luckily discovered by reading the comments (unluckily I didn't read the comments until I had already baked the cake 1 hour!).  I have adjusted the baking time in the recipe below, and the only other change was the addition of some cinnamon.  I have a hard time staying away from the cinnamon when apples are around.    This is a dessert that is is really beautiful, so can be special occasion, but it also feels just right with a cup of coffee in the afternoon.  Now we are ready move on to some pumpkin.

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Applefest: Fall Applejack Cocktail

For my applefest cocktail I knew I wanted to make something with Applejack - an apple brandy than is the base of one my favorite classic cocktails, the Jack Rose.  I wanted something a little richer than that cocktail, which is made with applejack, lemon juice and grenadine.  Rye Whiskey seemed like the perfect thing to mix the brandy with to make a cocktail that had some depth and gave you that warm toasty fall feeling.  I also added some maple syrup and lemon juice, and topped the cocktail off with a little (nonalcoholic) sparkling cider to lighten it up a smidgen.  I was really happy with this concoction and serving it in the champagne coupe made it feel like something special.  This would be great for your fall holiday gatherings.

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