anna genoese

Now that it's getting cold, I've been cooking and baking more. This morning, I made muffins for breakfast using my favorite muffin recipe -- from a cookbook my mom got from opening a bank account some time in the 70s. It's the McCall's Cook Book from 1963 (but ours is the 13th edition).

- 1 c milk (any kind; dairy, soy, almond, etc., are all fine)
- 1 egg, beaten (any kind of egg replacer is also fine -- applesauce, banana, flax, etc.)
- 1/3 c oil (I don't recommend subbing in melted butter here)
- 2 c flour
- 1/4 c sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt

Preheat your oven to 400F. Grease or line your muffin tin. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. (The original recipe calls for sifting; I dump it all in a bowl and whisk! I hate sifting and love whisking.)

Mix the milk, egg, and oil in a separate bowl (or measuring cup), and then pour the mixture into the dry ingredients.

Stir together (don't beat or whisk, just stir with a fork) until the wet and dry are mixed. The batter will be lump and weird looking -- don't worry about that.

Dish into a muffin tin -- this makes 12. I usually use a 1/4-cup measure, just slightly less than full.

I also like to add stuff to the muffins, like strawberry jam or frozen blueberries. (My mom likes to sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top.)

Bake for 20 - 25 minutes. When they're done, take them out of the pan immediately, and eat them! They are very sweet and moist, even when they don't have strawberry jam inside.

The day before yesterday, I made what were supposed to be "pumpkin pie pop tarts" (here's the recipe) -- but I only made a few that were pop tart sized. I cut down the dough and turned it into pumpkin pie pop tart ravioli. They were delicious, but I had 1/2 cup of pumpkin filling mixture left over! And you know I never throw anything away. So I tucked it into the fridge, and started thinking about what to do with it. Sure, I could make more ravioli -- but they're full of butter, and I try to only make one thing that will jump my family's cholesterol each week.



My almost-immediate thought was banana bread, but with pumpkin. And hopefully more of a molasses/caramel flavor, to match the pumpkin and really bring out its flavor and spices. But I didn't want to add molasses, and I didn't want to use plain brown sugar either -- so I went with demerara sugar, which is what I stir into my coffee. It's granulated like white sugar, but a little more unrefined like muscovado sugar. (Brown sugar is just as refined as white sugar, but it has molasses/moisture added back into it. I really didn't want that extra moisture, or such a heavy molasses flavor.) If you have it to hand, you can use that "Sugar in the Raw" stuff instead. Or, of course, just a whole cup of white sugar. Whatever works for you.

(If you only have white sugar, but you still want that molasses-y flavor, add up to two tablespoons of molasses to the pumpkin while it's over the heat. If you don't plan to heat the pumpkin, add the molasses to the butter and sugar while you're creaming it.)

Here's my recipe:

1-1/3 c pumpkin puree
2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground clove
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon

2 oz unsalted butter (1/4 cup, 1/2 stick) - room temp/soft
1 egg
1/2 c demerara sugar
1/2 c white sugar
1/4 - 1/3 c milk (what you add depends on your climate; start with 1/4 c and go up from there if the mixture is too dry)

1/2 tsp salt
2-1/2 c AP flour
1 tbsp baking powder

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Mix the pumpkin with the spices. You can heat this up for a few minutes, until the air smells strongly of the spices. If you don't heat it up, that's okay, too.

Cream the butter with the sugar. Add the egg and mix well. Add the pumpkin-spice mixture and the milk, and stir it all together. A whisk is fun here, but a wooden spoon works okay too. If your pumpkin mixture is super hot, add it a little at a time so that you don't accidentally cook the egg.

Now add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir it all together. It should be a thick batter, like muffins or pancakes. Put into a greased loaf pan. I would never discourage you from using butter for this, but I used spray oil in my Pyrex loaf pan and it worked like a charm.

Bake for about an hour on a rack in the middle of the oven. A knife stuck into the center should come out clean. (Use a cake tester if you want, but I never have any to hand, whereas I always have a butter knife!)

Honestly, I had thought about eating this bread with a maple glaze, just like the "pop tarts" I made the other day -- 1 cup of powdered sugar mixed with 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, 2 tablespoons of cream, and enough milk to thin it out to a spreadable consistency. For me that was another 2 tablespoons, but it might be more or less for you.



The thing is, though... One slice of this bread without the maple glaze completely changed my mind. Wowzers. It's light, moist, with a subtle spicy pumpkin pie flavor that is exactly what I wanted. It doesn't need anything, except maybe a strong cup of black coffee (or a few handfuls of pumpkin seeds stirred in before baking!).

Om nom nom nom.

I make a lot of apple pies. This is funny because I really do not like apple pie, or fruit pies in general. What I like is pie crust. For some reason, most people do not want to eat pie crust without filling. I don't get it! I even tried, at one point, to use pie crust to make jam tarts in a muffin tin, with just the tiniest spoonful of homemade jam. No dice. (I found them delicious.)

Today is my mom's birthday. Some of you know that she is a reading teacher (now all of you know it!). She is usually up by five and out of the house by six and at work by seven, which makes eating breakfast together as a family somewhat challenging for those of us who don't wake up before she leaves. So her birthday breakfast is actually going to be tomorrow -- when she'll be able to enjoy it, and my sister and brother-in-law will be able to join us -- and it is going to be pie.

I am a big supporter of pie for breakfast, to be honest. There's something really delightful about it. And it's pretty healthy. I mean, it's fruit, right? ;)

My pie recipe is seemingly impossible to screw up. Sometimes it is more delicious than other times, but that is mostly about external factors, like the weather and temperamental ovens. Adjusting for those external factors can be really difficult. Okay, once it was my fault: I forgot to add butter to the inside!

I usually make my pie crust by hand -- the extra time it takes is made up for by not having to wash the food processor. But I am including directions for the food processor, too.

( The sweet apple pie. )

---

( The more savory apple pie. )

Both of these pies need to rest -- the sweet pie needs to rest until it's cool because otherwise the "juices" will all run out; the savory pie needs to rest because otherwise it tastes weird. I usually make pie in the morning -- then it can sit out all afternoon and cool off on the kitchen table. I do not like to put pie in the fridge when it's cooling, because it makes the crust soggy. Maybe you like soggy crust, though -- I'm not judging! You should always make the kind of crust you like to eat!!

The sweet crust can be used for any kind of fruit pie (my favorite: a combination of peach, blueberry, and cherry!). If you blind bake it, you can use it for a custard or pudding pie/tart thing. Or ice cream. Mmmmmm.

The savory crust can be used for any kind of savory dish. I've made it (with and without the cheese*) to be the crust of pot pies, quiches, savory tarts...

* To make it without the cheese, just drop the cheese and add another 1/2 stick of butter, for a total of 1 cup.

And then enjoy delicious pie... I don't know how we're going to hold off until tomorrow morning!


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