Pumpkin Jam & Slow Cooker Giveaway

Pumpkin Jam

Oh man, it’s been a stressful week. I had a wonderful weekend away in Wales (The Wye Valley, more on that to come) and was feeling oh so relaxed, then I came back to an insanely busy and stressful few days both in and out of the office. Just before I went away however, I was approached by Domu, who asked me to create a slow cooker recipe for their new Slow Cooker Recipe Hub. This prompted me to take my slow cooker with me to Wales and I made a couple of different things, a more standard 3 bean chilli and then the recipe I opted to share with them, Pumpkin Jam. Yeah, OK, I’ve probably overdone it on the pumpkin this year (the pancakes aren’t even up yet…).
Read more

Pumpkin & Nutella Pie

Pumpkin & Nutella Pie

Confession: I have never made pumpkin pie before. In fact, I’ve never even eaten pumpkin pie before. I always mean to, but it’s just not something (until lately) that’s been that common to buy in the UK. I also feel a bit like I’ve been neglecting my love for nut butter. If anyone has been following me since the early days you’ll know that I used to struggle to go a month without a recipe containing peanut butter (mainly) or nutella. So when I came across a list of “pumpkin pie recipes you must try” the one with the nutella mixed in sort of… jumped out at me. It’s halloween on Saturday and I was going to post a pumpkin pancake recipe especially, but after I made this I decided this trumped it.

Pumpkin & Nutella Pie
Read more

Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns with Maple Glaze

Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns

PUMPKIN RECIPE KLAXON. Since I made my pumpkin loaf last year I haven’t done anything pumpkin-y on the blog. Well over the last couple of weeks I’ve made a few different pumpkin things. And I mean pumpkin here, not “pumpkin spice” which actually has nothing to do with pumpkin and is just a combination of spices used in pumpkin pie, so stop it. With Halloween coming up next weekend (I still don’t know what I’m doing for it…) I felt this was the best time to be putting these recipes up. I’ve got 2 different ones lined up as well as some ghoulishly green (matcha) cookies that’d be great at any Halloween party! Having had that rant about pumpkin spice, one of the main ingredients is cinnamon, so Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns are a very logical step.
Read more

Pumpkin Spice and Pecan Loaf

Pumpkin Spice Loaf

Pumpkin season is not over yet. It’s thanksgiving for you guys across in the US this week, right? That makes me feel better about baking with the stuff. I’d originally hoped to do some things in the run up to Halloween, but without my own place and baking stuff it ended up not working. On my list, as well as the more standard pumpkin pie, was a Pumpkin Loaf with Cinnamon Drizzle. What I’ve ended up doing was a Pumpkin Loaf with a cinnamon swirl (see here for similar) and stuffed with pecans then drizzled with icing. It was good, really good. Oh and I baked it in my still broken oven, which means I’ll be doing it again soon to make sure I get the temperatures and times exactly right.

Pumpkin Spice Loaf

Just a month or so ago everyone started raving about pumpkin spiced latters again, yawn. I’m not a coffee fan, and even if I was, places like starbucks aren’t exactly my cup of tea. I typed that, I realised what I’d done, I then took a sip of my tea. Tea > Coffee, there, I said it. But yes, I do however love cinnamon, as I wittered on enough in the last post, I’ll save you from that again. I also discovered that the Tesco at the end of my road sells tinned pumpkin, something that I struggled to find in the entirety of Leeds city center (it also sells buttermilk, which I could only grab from M&S in leeds). This is all great news, so it meant I got to finally bake up some pumpkin goodness.

Pumpkin Spice Loaf

I came across a recipe for a tray bake, here, added some pecans, the cinnamon “swirl” and turned it into a loaf. I bought the loaf in to work for the Children in Need Bake Off, to find I was the only one who had. Er, oops? But it at least helped raise a little for charity.

Pumpkin Spice and Pecan Loaf
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Serves: 1 Loaf
Ingredients
  • • 110g margarine
  • • 220g dark brown soft sugar
  • • 135g bread flour
  • • ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • • ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
  • • ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • • 175g tinned pumpkin
  • • 2 eggs, beaten
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to: 180°C and either grease or line a loaf tin.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer (or by hand) cream together the margarine and the sugar.
  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth.
  4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin. (Optional – if you want to do the swirl, mix some cinnamon with brown sugar. Add half the batter, spread some of the cinnamon sugar mix on top then pour the rest of the cake batter on top of this).
  5. Place in the center of the oven and bake for approx. 35 mins or until a tooth pick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  6. Allow to cool before removing from the tin.
  7. Drizzle with icing if desired.