Cooking for 2: A Few Favorite Pumpkin Recipes

These are a few of my favorite pumpkin recipes I have cooked up in the kitchen in the past week.  Hope you enjoy them!

Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients

½ cup flour

1 ½ teaspoons brown sugar

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

½ cup buttermilk

 1 Tablespoon oil

1 Tablespoon whisked egg

1 Tablespoon pumpkin

Maple Butter Spread

1 Tablespoon butter

1 Tablespoon cream cheese

1 Tablespoon maple syrup

¼ teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Soften butter.  Add cream cheese maple syrup and vanilla.  Mix well.  Set aside.  If there are small lumps, don’t worry.  It will melt on the hot pancakes later. 

Mix dry ingredients for pancake dough.  Mix in wet ingredients.  Using a ¼ cup, pour pancake dough onto a hot greased griddle.  Cook pancakes and put Maple butter spread on top.  Enjoy.  Makes about 4-5 pancakes. 

Note:  It makes a difference when you use real buttermilk instead of milk and vinegar. 

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients

7 Tablespoons flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ginger

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

2 Tablespoons butter, softened

3 Tablespoons brown sugar

3 Tablespoons white sugar

1 Tablespoon whisked egg

2 Tablespoons canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

¼ teaspoon vanilla

Frosting:

¼ cup + 1 Tablespoon powdered sugar

1 Tablespoon butter, softened

¼ teaspoon vanilla

1 Tablespoon cream cheese

Directions

Don’t be put off by the long list of ingredients.  It takes hardly any time to whip these up, and most of the ingredients are things you have in the kitchen anyway.  These are not your typical iced pumpkin cookies.  They are a little flatter and soft and moist, not cake like.  I was going to try and make some cake like cookies, but we loved these so much that I decided not to. 

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.  I usually use one of our cereal bowls.  The dry ingredients are flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.  In another bowl, mix the softened butter with the brown sugar and white sugar.  Add the egg, pumpkin, and vanilla.  Add the dry ingredients and mix well.  It doesn’t take long at all since there isn’t much dough to mix!  I made these without a mixer, but just stirred everything by hand.  Drop onto a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 13-15 minutes until done.  Let them cool.  Mix frosting together and spread on cookies when they are cooled.  Makes 6 cookies. 

Pumpkin Scones

Ingredients

Dry ingredients:

1 Tablespoon white sugar

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

½ cup flour

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ginger

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking powder

2 Tablespoons butter, cold

Wet ingredients:

2 Tablespoon canned pumpkin (not pie filling)

½ teaspoon molasses

1 ½ Tablespoons half and half

1 Tablespoon whisked egg

½ teaspoon vanilla

Frosting:

¼ cup powdered sugar

1 ½ teaspoon half and half

Directions

Mix dry ingredients (first section) in a bowl.  Grate butter into the dry ingredients.  You want it to stay in pieces.  Stir the butter in, but not too much.  You want to have the chunks.  In another bowl, mix the wet ingredients.  Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until mixed.  The dough will be a bit sticky.  Turn dough onto floured surface and add about a tablespoon more flour and knead it in.  You want the dough soft but not too sticky.  Shape dough into a square.  Cut diagonally into two triangles or cut two diagonals like an X, and make four pieces.  Carefully place onto a greased pan or onto a piece of parchment paper.  Freeze for 10 minutes while the oven is heating up to 385 degrees.  Cook at 385 for about 15 minutes.