Pumpkin Ravioli with Brown Butter Sauce

Back in 2008, my friend Bryan (the one who showed me how to make acorn flour) taught me how to make ravioli.  I filled the ravioli with apple cinnamon filling, deep fried it, and used it to top apple cinnamon toasted ravioli cupcakes.

Pumpkin Crème Brûlée with Maple Sugar

Pumpkin crème brûlée is dangerously easy to make.  Pumpkin crème brûlée is a one-bowl recipe that takes five minutes - tops -  to put together and requires only four main ingredients plus some spice.  The only time-consuming element in preparing pumpkin crème brûlée is waiting for the brûlée to bake and then waiting for it to chill.

Pumpkin Mudslide Cupcakes on Paula Deen

Regular readers know that I periodically develop recipes for Paula Deen's website. This month, I created these pumpkin mudslide cupcakes inspired by my must-try frozen pumpkin mudslide cocktails.  I'll just share two quick facts about these cupcakes and then I'll send you over to the queen of all things butter to see my recipe.

First, when my friend Adam tried these cupcakes, he said they were so amazing that they actually gave him goosebumps.  That's the kind of review that I like to hear!

Second, some boozy cupcakes just hint at the alcohol content.  Although you won't get drunk from these pumpkin mudslide cupcakes, these cupcakes are designed for an adult palate and you will definitely taste the Baileys Irish Cream and Kahlua (try making homemade Baileys Irish Cream and homemade Kahlua for an extra-special treat).

Now, I bid you bon voyage on your recipe reading journey.  Click the image below (currently found on Paula Deen's homepage) to set sail.

Frozen Pumpkin Mudslides - The Halloween Drink

Halloween doesn't have a drink.  On Christmas, we know that we should be drinking eggnog and on New Year's Eve, we've got to toast using champagne.  But, on Halloween, our party drink is left to chance.  Many Halloween parties resort to punch with varying levels of quality and varying levels of alcohol.  These punches are frightening because you never know what is going to be in them (I always expect the worst) - and who really wants to drink something with eyeballs floating in it?

This Halloween, I suggest frozen pumpkin mudslides as the drinks to sip on while little witches, princesses, and ninjas run around your block knocking on doors.  Frozen pumpkin mudslides transform the frozen mudslide (a cocktail containing Baileys Irish Cream, Kahlua, vodka, and vanilla ice cream that I refer to as an adult milkshake) into a fall drink that will be the star of your Halloween party - only upstaged by the woman who shows up in lingerie calling it a "costume."

Pumpkin, I discovered, goes so well in frozen mudslides that I may make frozen mudslides this way from now on - Halloween or not. 

Frozen Pumpkin Mudslide Recipe

The Everything Fall Cupcake - Pumpkin, Apple, Maple, Spiced Rum, Brown Sugar, Cinnamon, and Cranberry

Fall brings reds, oranges, yellows, and purples; there's no one color to represent Autumn.  Likewise, this year I thought that a single (or even two or three) Fall flavor(s) in a cupcake would not do.  I decided to combine some past single-flavor Fall cupcake favorites into one Everything Fall Cupcake recipe.  What you see above are (take a deep breath) pumpkin, spiced rum, and maple cupcakes topped with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and dried cranberries - with brown sugar frosting-topped apple cobbler cupcakes baked inside. 

I created the Everything Fall Cupcake for a very special event that you are all attending whether you knew it or not...

Macaron Recipe - Pumpkin Pie Spice Macarons with Caramel, Dark Chocolate Ganache, and Smoked Sea Salt

I'd seen plenty of macaron recipes online, but like many in the Cupcake Project Facebook community, I found macaron recipes intimidating.  I'd heard macaron recipe horror stories like, "It was raining outside so the macaron recipe didn't work at all," or "I over or under-mixed so the macaron recipe failed."  I had decided that macaron recipes weren't for me and that I should stick to cupcake recipes.

Amrita teaching St. Louis food bloggers how to make macarons.

Last week, however, things changed.  I was invited to learn the art of macaron making from fellow St. Louis food blogger and self-taught macaron expert Amrita of The Sweet Art.  Amrita made macaron recipes seem so easy - because they are.  Sure, there are a lot of steps and you've got to read the tips and tricks carefully, but if you can follow a cupcake recipe and make cupcakes, you can make macarons.  In fact, I'm going to go one step further and say that it is actually easier to make adorable macarons than cupcakes because you don't need to be an expert at making pretty swirls of frosting to make your macarons look like they were made by a professional pastry chef.

Pumpkin Lollipops (or Sweet Potato or Persimmon or Lucuma)

Lollipops don't require artificial flavors or colors or even fancy molds.  All you'll need to make these lollipops are canned pumpkin, canned sweet potato, persimmon pulp, or lucuma pulp*, plus water, sugar, and some sticks.  You'll also want to have a candy thermometer (my favorite is the Maverick because it's digital and you can set an alarm to warn you when you reach the desired temperature - but any candy thermometer will do). 

The texture of these lollipops is a bit different than a typical lollipop.  When you bite them, they have a slight crunch, like maple candy (my favorite candy on the planet).  However, sucking the pops is definitely an option.  I gave one to my gluten-free cousin (she is so happy when I make anything that she can eat), and she sucked on one pop for at least ten minutes.  She smiled the whole time, in a closed-mouth-I'm-sucking-on-a-pop kind of way.

The lollipops taste like a super sweet candy version of whatever you make them out of (pumpkin, sweet potato, persimmon, or lucuma).  If you make them out of pumpkin, they would be a such a fun treat for a Halloween party; it's mid-August - time to start thinking about one of the best holidays of the year!

Pumpkin Pie Crepes

These pumpkin pie crepes were a huge hit with my friends - perhaps because they were so excited to get something other than cupcakes out of my kitchen.  Interestingly, there was a gender divide in how people wanted the pumpkin pie crepes prepared.  The ladies wanted hot crepes with hot pumpkin pie filling while the gentlemen wanted hot crepes and cold pumpkin pie filling.  Then, there was my husband who is tired of pumpkin pie filling and simply wanted the hot crepes with Nutella (I can't blame him).  

Chocolate Pumpkin Witch Cupcakes

Remember back in 2007 when I made witch cupcakes? Didn't think so. Well, I made them again this year, only better:

• Last time, I made a plain chocolate cupcake. This time, I made chocolate pumpkin cupcakes loaded with chocolate chips.
• Last time, I made a funky green meringue frosting. This time, I made a seasonally-spiced buttercream frosting (I still used a little bit of green food coloring on some of them to make them more witchy).
• Last time, I used giant pretzel rods for the broomsticks. This time, I realized (after someone pointed it out) that small pretzel sticks would work much better. I left the chocolate off of the broomsticks this year, though, because I was lazy.
  

For the cookie recipe and assembly instructions, refer to the 2007 post. But, for the new scrumpdidelyicious chocolate pumpkin cupcake recipe, look at the bottom of this post.

First, however, let's see what Bride and Groom 3.0 and roommate Davin thought of the chocolate pumpkin cupcakes. (Note: this video was made before viewing all of your video feedback. There is just one more pre-feedback video after this one, and then they will address your comments. Feel free to keep leaving comments on the videos and they will try to incorporate them whenever possible.)



I should point out that the cookies that they loved (on that hats) are maple or mint cookies. They are store-bought vanilla wafers that I coated in chocolate. I would normally make the wafers myself, but these cupcakes were made in a cupcake class that I taught and we needed to save time.

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcake Recipe

This recipe should yield about fifteen cupcakes.

• 1 1/2 C flour
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t ginger
• 1/2 t nutmeg
• 1/2 t allspice
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 1/2 C sugar
• 3/4 C pumpkin puree
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 C vegetable oil
• 1/2 C orange juice
• 4 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted
• 1 1/4 C semisweet chocolate chips

1. Whisk together flour, spices, baking soda, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, pumpkin, and eggs. Beat until smooth.
3. Mix in the oil, orange juice, and melted chocolate.
4. Slowly add the flour mixture and mix until fully incorporated.
5. Mix in the chocolate chips.
6. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.
7. Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes.

Pumpkin Pie Spice Frosting

• 1 C unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 C powdered sugar, sifted
• 4 t vanilla bean paste
• 2 T milk or heavy whipping cream
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t ginger
• 1/2 t nutmeg
• 1/2 t allspice
• Food coloring (optional)

1. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Mix in vanilla and milk or cream.
3. Mix in spices.
4. Optionally, mix in food coloring to create the color you’d like.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Pumpkin Cheesecake Frosting

Pumpkin cupcakes are so overdone. Pumpkin cupcakes are everywhere and if it's not pumpkin cupcakes, it's pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, or pumpkin cookies. If it's Fall, you'd better like pumpkin!

The good news is that most people do love pumpkin. We love it so much that we end up using it as a term of endearment. I regularly call Myles "pumpkin". Jonathan points out that I used to call our poodle "pumpkin" as well. I'm sure if we had a pet pot bellied pig, he'd be "pumpkin", too.

(I couldn't resist another Myles photo.
He's sucking the pacifier because
he's too young to eat the pumpkin cupcakes.)

Bride and Groom 3.0 are no exception to the plethora of pumpkin people. They listed pumpkin as one of the flavors they might want for their wedding.

Why Pick This Pumpkin Cupcake Recipe Over Any Other One?

We know from pumpkin pie that pumpkin and graham go well together. These pumpkin cupcakes capitalize on that. They contain graham flour and graham cracker bits. The graham cracker bits soften during the baking process. Rather than adding a crunch, they add a richer, grahamy flavor to the cupcake. The graham flavor does, however, make these treats seem a bit more muffiny than cupcakey (if you don't like the earthy, graham flavor, you might consider trying my pumpkin cupcakes with rum and maple instead).

My favorite part about these pumpkin cupcakes was the pumpkin cheesecake frosting. Use it to top any Fall dessert and you won't go wrong.

Bride and Groom 3.0 Review

Bride 3.0 warned me that she wasn't a big fan of frosting. I thought that perhaps I'd win her over with a cream cheese-based frosting. But, it turns out that she doesn't like cream cheese frostings (back to the baking board). Groom 3.0 and their roomate, Davin, loved the frosting.

Although Bride 3.0 didn't like the frosting, she did let me know that she loves sprinkles. She calls them sparkles! How fun! Expect to see more sparkly cupcakes coming soon.

Both Bride and Groom 3.0 found the cupcakes to be a bit too muffiny/breakfasty to be a wedding choice. They also thought that the cupcakes could be somewhat more pumpkiny. This was in contrast to other tasters. One of my tasters, Christina, even said, "Wow... this is so pumpkiny!"

They rated this cupcake three out of five fireworks. They made up the firework system and I dig it!

The Pumpkin Cupcake Recipe

The cupcake recipe contains graham crackers. You can use any store-bought graham crackers or make homemade pumpkin graham crackers.

Makes about 17 cupcakes

• 3/4 C graham flour or whole wheat flour
  
• 3/4 C all-purpose flour
  
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t ginger
• 1/2 t nutmeg
• 1/2 t allspice
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 1/2 C sugar
• 3/4 C pumpkin puree
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 C vegetable oil
• 1/2 C cream soda
• 1 T vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
• 2 C smashed graham crackers (pea-sized bits)
  

1. Whisk together flours, spices, baking soda, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, pumpkin, and eggs. Beat until smooth.
3. Mix the oil, cream soda, and vanilla into the wet ingredients.
4. Slowly add the flour mixture and mix until fully incorporated.
5. Stir in the graham crackers.
   
6. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.
   
7. Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Frosting Recipe

• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 C unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 C pumpkin puree
• 3 C powdered sugar, sifted

1. Mix cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy.
2. Mix in pumpkin puree.
3. Slowly mix in the powdered sugar. You can add more sugar to make the frosting stiffer, but I think that makes it too sweet.

Top each cupcake with a pumpkin graham cracker.

Pumpkin Graham Crackers

These homemade pumpkin graham crackers are not only pumpkin shaped, but also contain pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spices, giving them a subtle pumpkin flavor.

I made these pumpkin graham crackers in multiple sizes and added some orange sugar to the tiny ones (they were too small for me to give them good faces). Bride 3.0 said that she could "eat 100 of them!" But, she noted that they were a bit Halloweeny for a wedding. Come on - who doesn't want Jack-O-Lanterns at their Spring wedding? :)

The good news is that pumpkin graham crackers can be made in any shape you can cut out. Bride 3.0 suggested hearts.

What to Do With Your Pumpkin Graham Crackers

Aside from simply eating them all up, I have several usage ideas for these pumpkin graham crackers:

• Crumble them to use in the crust for a homemade pumpkin pie.
• Slather them with pumpkin butter or apple butter.
• Put pumpkin ice cream between two of them and freeze for a pumpkin ice cream sandwich.
• Use them to decorate your pumpkin cupcakes.
  

Pumpkin Graham Cracker Recipe

To make these pumpkin graham crackers, I modified my regular graham cracker recipe. I originally got that graham cracker recipe from Free Range Living. She got the recipe from The Fannie Farmer Baking Book.

My modified recipe is below. It makes 36 2 1/2 inch squares. You can do your own math on how many pumpkins that will get you. It obviously depends on the size of your cookie cutters.

• 2 T (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 T pumpkin puree
  
• 1 egg
• 6 T sugar
• 4 T honey (Some graham crackers use half honey and half molasses. You might consider trying that as a variation.)
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1 t ginger
• 1 t nutmeg
• 1 t cinnamon
• 3/4 t allspice
  
• 2 t water
• 3/4 t salt
• 1 1/2 C graham flour (If you can't get ahold of graham flour, there are plenty of graham cracker recipes that use regular whole wheat flour such as this graham cracker recipe from Baking Bites. You may also be able to directly substitute whole wheat flour in this recipe, but I haven't tested it and I make no promises.)
• 3/4 C all-purpose flour

1. Combine the butter, pumpkin, egg, and sugar in a bowl and beat until smooth and creamy.
2. Stir in the honey.
3. Dissolve the baking soda in the water and add to the butter mixture.
4. Add the salt, graham flour, all-purpose flour, and spices to the mixture and blend thoroughly. The dough should hold together and be manageable. If it is too tacky, add a little more graham flour.
5. Liberally dust a surface with graham flour and roll the dough to a thickness of about 1/8 inch.
   
6. Use your cookie cutters to cut out pumpkins or any other shape.
   
7. Use the tines of a fork to make Jack O' Lantern faces on the pumpkins.
8. Using a spatula, place the pumpkin graham crackers on an ungreased cookie sheet.
9. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes.
   
10. Remove from the oven and cool on racks. They won't be hard when you first take them out of the oven, but they will harden as they cool.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Rum and Maple

Pumpkin cupcakes are good on their own, but this pumpkin cupcake with rum and maple kicks it up a notch. The cupcakes smell distinctly of rum, but when you bite into them, you can taste the pumpkin and just a tiny hint of the maple. They are moist and lighter than you might expect from a pumpkin dessert and they're filled with Fall spices.


The best part is that I didn't have to throw the pumpkin cupcakes in the trash. I actually made two batches of pumpkin cupcakes before this one that were so bad that I threw them out. They weren't even good enough to bring into to an office full of people who eat anything. I would have completely given up on pumpkin were it not for the fact that my cupcake class (that I am teaching this weekend) includes pumpkin cupcakes. I needed to get a recipe that I loved. Found it!


Pumpkin Cupcake Recipe

makes 12 cupcakes

• 1 1/2 C flour
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t ginger
• 1/2 t nutmeg
• 1/2 t allspice
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 1/2 C sugar
• 3/4 C pumpkin puree
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 C vegetable oil
• 1/4 C dark rum
• 1/4 C maple syrup

1. Whisk together flour, spices, baking soda, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, pumpkin, and eggs. Beat until smooth.
3. Mix in the oil, rum, and maple syrup.
4. Slowly add the flour mixture and mix until fully incorporated.
5. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full.
   
6. Bake at 350 F for 20-25 minutes.

Pumpkin Cupcake Frosting

I frosted my pumpkin cupcakes with apple butter frosting. These cupcakes would also be good with my cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

Fall Into Winter Roundup

I am entering these cupcakes into Ivy's Fall Into Winter Roundup.

I was so excited about the roundup . Not only did I have to ask if it was OK to get my entry in late, but then I completely forgot to enter. I had to go back and add to this to the post. Sorry, Ivy! You're the best!

Cupcake Love Connection Update

I have been talking to Minko and her cupcake for Groom 2.5 will be done soon! I can't wait for the recipe! She said she should have it next week. Read the original Cupcake Love Connection post if you don't know what I am talking about.

Mini Pumpkin Pie Recipe - Cup-Pies

Mini Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Pumpkin pie is a holiday staple. However, isn't it the best when everyone gets their own mini pumpkin pie (cup-pies)? (Note: Mini sweet potato pies are also a favorite of mine.)

Here's What the mini pumpkin pie recipe tasters had to say:

• My father was in town from NY to taste the pumpkin pie recipe. If it seems like I am always having out of town guests from somewhere, it's true. Dad said that the pumpkin pies were one of the best pastries he has ever had. This is not only because he's my dad. He also tried the Soda Fountain cupcakes (which were picked by Bride and Groom 1.0 for their wedding) and openly admitted that he didn't like them at all. He is not shy with opinions.

• My mom and aunt also tried the mini pumpkin pies. They were in town the weekend after my dad. This means that the mini pumpkin pies were already a week old (I kept them in the fridge). I didn't think they were quite as good as they were when they were fresh. However, my relatives loved them. The cup-pies, however, were not their favorite. I had frozen some Better Than Sex chocolate cupcakes for them and they both thought that nothing could compare to the chocolate.
• Bride 2.0 said "mmmmm... pumpkin."
• Groom 2.0 said that they couldn't choose them for their wedding because they weren't actually cupcakes. Bah humbug!

The Pumpkin Pie Crust Recipe
Back in January, the St. Louis food bloggers got together and took a pie class at Kitchen Conservatory. The photo on the left is from Iron Stef's write-up of the event. I'm the redhead in the front. Next to me is Karen of FamilyStyle Food and next to her is Alanna, the esteemed host of Pi Day. The class was a blast, however I definitely felt like the class klutz. I was the one who cut myself using the apple peeler/corer and ended up going home with a band-aid. Note that my mini pie doesn't feature apples. Also note that I am the only one in the picture not wearing an apron. Why wear an apron when you can get flour all over yourself? I'm such the rebel!
Our instructor, Anne, had some rules that she pounded into our heads.
1. Don't overwork the dough. (She held our hands behind our backs to keep us from touching it.)
2. Don't add too much water.
When I made my mini pumpkin pies, I broke both of these rules. Did it effect the quality of the pie crust? Maybe, but none of my tasters could tell. I even got the thumbs up from a friend who prides herself on her pie crusts.
The details on how to make this pie crust are laid out very clearly on Kitchen Parade, complete with step by step pictures. I made one intentional modification. I refuse to use Crisco so I used all butter. My other modification was not planned. I ended up using 18 T of water instead of 2-4. I couldn't get the dough to stick together at all without adding more and more water. My teacher would not be proud.
Lesson: Don't worry about getting it 100% right. No one will know the difference except you.

Here is the recipe from Kitchen Parade with my modifications:

• 18 T ice water (This was where her recipe said 2-4 T)
• 2 c flour
• 2 t sugar
• 1 t salt
• 2 sticks (1 c) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Stir together 1 cup of flour, sugar, and salt. With hand-held pastry blender, cut 1/2 of the butter into the four until butter is dime-sized. (I didn't have a pastry blender so I just used my hands.) Add the rest of the butter the same way. Lightly stir in the remaining flour. Add water one T at a time until the dough just sticks together. Wrap in plastic wrap and stick in the fridge until you are ready to use it.

Note: This is one of the few recipes that I have not made in my Kitchen Aid. I learned from Anne that butter should not be fully integrated and the Kitchen Aid would have done just that.

The Pumpkin Pie Filling Recipe

I found the pumpkin pie filling recipe on Allrecipes. It had many, many (561) fantastic reviews so I decided to give it a go. I have reprinted it with my comments below.

• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 egg whites

In a large bowl, mix together the pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, and egg yolks. Stir in 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. In a large glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until soft peaks form. Gently fold into pumpkin mixture.

The Streusel Topping Recipe

• 2 T all-purpose flour
• 1/4 c packed brown sugar
• 1 t ground cinnamon
• 2 T butter, chilled
• 1 c chopped walnuts (I used pecans simply because I like them better.)

In a small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Blend in the cold butter with a fork or pastry blender until the mixture is crumbly. Mix in the chopped nuts. This made almost twice as much as topping as I needed. Unless you want a ton of topping, you might consider cutting this in half.

Putting Your Mini Pies Together
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). You will not be baking at this temperature. However, you want to make your oven nice and hot. This, as I learned in my pie class, is extremely important. Line 2 cupcake tins with cupcake liners. I made about 30 cup-pies with this recipe. I baked the 24 and then the extra six. If you have 3 tins at the ready you can do it all at once. Also, I expect the number you will get to vary depending on the intricacies of dough thickness and pumpkin pie filling height.
Remove half of the dough from the fridge and roll it out on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick. Use a 3 1/2 inch diameter circle cookie cutter to cut the dough into circles. If you don't have a cookie cutter that width, see if you have a glass you can use or you can experiment with different widths. Press the center of your circle into the bottom of a cupcake liner and work the rest into the bottom of the liner and up the sides. It should come about 3/4 of the way up the side. I experimented with different heights and found this to be the most pleasing to me, but higher or lower won't destroy anything. Repeat the same procedure with the other half of the dough.
Pour the pumpkin pie filling into the pie dough cups. Each cup should be slightly more than halfway full.
Lower the oven temp to 375. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the streusel topping over each cup-pie. Bake for another 15 minutes or until the pie is set (doesn't wiggle around when you touch it.)

The Vanilla Bean Buttercream Frosting Swirl
I topped each cup-pie with a small swirl of vanilla bean buttercream frosting. The vanilla bean buttercream frosting recipe can be found here.

Pi Day Footnote

Alanna over at Kitchen Parade is hosting pi (3.14) day. Alanna is our St. Louis food blogger social director and is a mentor to me as I build this blog. I had to participate. She's the reason why I made these mini pumpkin pies.

Pumpkin Chili with Abuelita Two Ways - Cupcake and Non-Cupcake: My First Cupcake Pairing

This month, I participated in a new blog event (well, new to me) called Taste & Create. In this event, food bloggers get partnered up. Participants pick a recipe from their partner's blog, make it, and blog about it.

I got paired with What's Cooking. What's Cooking is a blog by a man whose family owned a restaurant in Mexico for 40 years. He posts mostly - but not exclusively - Mexican recipes. He does not have any cupcakes on the blog to date.

As a cupcake only blog, what was I to do? Create my first cupcake pairing, of course.

I decided to select a recipe that appealed to me, make it, and then make a cupcake inspired by it. This would involve doing actual cooking, an activity that hasn't been done by me for 9 months or so.

There were many appealing recipes on What's Cooking, but I had to go with the Pumpkin Chili. It's chili season and the bride mentioned loving pumpkin. Also, the recipe contained an ingredient I had never used or, for that matter, even heard of. This always intrigues me. That ingredient was Abuelita.

What the Heck is Abuelita?

Abuelita is Mexican hot chocolate made by Nestle that is sold in a variety of formats. The chocolate is made of sugar, cocoa and artificial cinnamon flavoring. It is sickeningly sweet to eat straight up, but it has a really nice and subtle chocolate spice flavor. In addition to being good for hot chocolate, it works well in pumpkin chili and pumpkin chili cupcakes.

Those of you who are Spanish speakers (I am not) will know that abuelita means grandma. The grandma on the package is Sara García, a legendary Mexican actress of more than 140 films. Despite her fame, I wonder if this kind of marketing would work in the US. She's kind of scary and reminds me of Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire. Then again, Mrs. Butterworth sells well, as does the Quaker Oats man, so who knows.

Where Can I find Abuelita if I'm not in Mexico?

My first concern about the chili was whether or not I would be able to find Abuelita. Thankfully, St. Louis has a number of different stores that carry Mexican products. I picked mine up at Global Foods Market in Kirkwood. If you don't have a good Mexican grocer near you, you can purchase Abuelita online.

The Pumpkin Chili

The pumpkin chili was fantastic. The combination of flavors was perfect: spicy but not too spicy with just a touch of sweet. I followed the recipe as written on What's Cooking with just a few exceptions as noted in red below.

For this recipe you will need:
2 lbs ground beef (I used local grass-fed beef from Whole Foods. It was great! It was the first time I have made something with beef that had no grease at all. Even after putting the chili in the fridge overnight, there was no nasty orange fat on the top to remove. If you like grease, don't use this.)
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
1 cup tomato juice
½ Abuelita chocolate bar
3 cloves garlic
1 chopped onion
2 cups pinto beans
olive oil

Special chili mixture:
1 tbsp black pepper
½ tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp salt (I don't like salt. I only used 1 tsp. That was plenty for me.)
1 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tbsp ground paprika
2 tbsp ground chipotle pepper

Preparation:
1. In a large pot cook onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat.
2. When translucent, add ground beef and special chili mixture and cook until beef turns brown. It is important that the ground beef is thoroughly cooked.
3. Add pumpkin puree, chocolate, crushed tomatoes and tomato juice.
(At this point, I dumped everything into the crock pot and left it there for 8 hours. I added the pinto beans about halfway through. This worked perfectly for me. If you don't have a crock pot, read on.)
Stir and reduce heat to medium low and simmer for about one and a half hours.
4. Add pinto beans and simmer for about 20 more minutes.
5. Let it cool a little bit before serving.

Garnished with avocado, sour cream and fresh cilantro. (I topped mine with a Mexican cheese mix.)

The Pumpkin Chili Cupcakes

For the cupcakes, I turned to the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, which I finally broke down and purchased. There is a recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes that sounded great. I decided to use that as a base, but I added the chili flavors and used Abuelita instead of chocolate chips.

When I got to the step when I was about to add the chili spices, I almost backed down. The batter tasted so good, what if the chili ruined it? "Oh well, here goes nothing," I thought as I dumped it in. I did not regret the choice.

The cake was melt-in-your-mouth moist. It was ever so slightly spicy, mildly pumpkiny, mildly chocolaty, and extremely tasty.

For the frosting, I opted for a pumpkin cream cheese frosting. I added Abuelita to half of the frosting and did something I've been wanting to try for a very long time, a two color cupcake swirl. There are swirling instructions at the bottom of this post.

The Cupcake Review

Bride and Groom 2.0 came over last night to pick up their cupcake samples. They also took two extras for friends they were going to dinner with. Lest you think them rude, my husband and I were invited to join. I just wasn't feeling well and had them bring over movies to watch in exchange for the cupcake pickup.

One friend of ours who was at the dinner has never before given me a cupcake review. He emailed me a quality review this morning and he will therefore get more cupcakes.

"I tried a bite of just the cupcake without frosting. Sigh, the density was what every cupcake should have and the cake was moist throughout. Too often a cupcake is dried on the top and too moist on the bottom thus it crumbles in hand. The pumpkin cupcake was evenly baked, kudos, and the density was respectable. Run of the mill cupcakes are too airy and not very satisfying. I like a pastry to have resistance when I bite into it."

He continues to talk about how our other friend claimed to like the soda fountain cupcakes better. He explains that choice as follows, "Last night I learned he is one year and 363 days younger than myself. So, perhaps in about two years he'll favor the mature pumpkin over root beer."

Bride 2.0 also really liked the cupcakes. She called them "wedding contenders" and said she liked the mild kick and the cupcake to frosting ratio. Despite my pride at the neat looking swirl, this was WAY too much frosting for me. I was glad that others liked that quantity though.

As I had predicted, Groom 2.0 didn't like the spice factor. He's more of a basics guy.

The Cupcake Recipe
adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

2 C canned pumpkin

2/3 C vegetable oil

2 C sugar

1/4 C soy milk

1 t vanilla extract

2 1/2 C flour

1/4 t black pepper

1/4 t oregano

1/4 t cumin

1/4 t chili powder

1/4 t ground paprika

1/4 t ground chipotle pepper

1/4 t cinnamon

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t baking powder

1/2 bar Abuelita

In a medium bowl, stir together pumpkin, oil, sugar, soy milk, and vanilla. Sift in the flour. In a separate bowl, combine all the spices. Add spice, baking soda, and baking powder. Do not over-mix. Melt 1/2 bar of Abuelita and stir in.

Bake for 20 min at 350 F.

Makes 20 cupcakes.

The Frosting Recipe

1 pkg of cream cheese
1/4 C butter
1/4 C pumpkin
1 t vanilla extract
4 C powdered sugar
1/2 bar of Abuelita

Mix cream cheese and butter well. Add pumpkin and vanilla extract. Add powdered sugar. Split frosting in half. Add melted Abuelita to 1/2 of the frosting. Note: If you plan to heavily frost the cupcakes, you may need to double this recipe.

How to Make a Two Color Cupcake Swirl
I got some help from Clever Cupcakes (who happens to have some of the best cupcake photos on flickr) to figure out how to do a two color color cupcake swirl. The way I did it was to use 3 different disposable pastry bags. I put couplers but no tips in two pastry bags. You could also just cut a small hole and not use a coupler. I thought the coupler provided some stability and an even flow. I partly filled one bag with the pumpkin frosting without chocolate and one bag with the pumpkin frosting with chocolate. Then, I placed those two bags side by side in a bag with a star tip and started piping. Voila! A two colored swirl.