Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple and Ginger Buttercream Frosting

I recently took a cooking class called "The Art of Cupcakes," by Chef Wynton Mann (you can check out his site at www.wyntonsworld.com), and it was so much fun!  We made five different types of incredibly delicious cupcakes: these, banana nut cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream frosting, chocolate cupcakes with strawberry mascarpone cream cheese-filling and chocolate cream cheese frosting, honey pear cupcakes with white chocolate and pistachio buttercream frosting, and vanilla coffee cupcakes with tiramisu filling and coffee buttercream frosting.  I know you're probably drooling right now just reading over that. Imagine actually biting into them.  They were all sooo good...not one of them was even close to forgettable.  And none of the recipes are available online, so I guess you'll just have to make them all from my blog(:

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:
For the Cupcakes:
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 eggs, at room temperature
8 oz. canned pumpkin puree
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup vegetable oil


For the Frosting:
4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
4 oz. butter, room temperature
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon ginger, powder
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted


Directions:
For the Cupcakes:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line a muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners.
3.  In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.
4. In another larger bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin puree, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vegetable oil.
5. Add the flour and stir until combined.
6. Divide the batter among the prepared tins and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.


For the Frosting:
1. Beat the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the butter and beat until combined. Add the maple syrup and ginger and beat to combine.  Add 1.5 cups of the sugar and beat on low speed until combined.  
2.  Optional: add up to 1/2 cup more of sugar so that the frosting is thick.

White Chocolate Pumpkin Cookies

This past Halloween, my family didn't have time to carve pumpkins, so I decided to use them to cook with instead.  This was the first year that I had ever used fresh pumpkin.  I heard from a lot of people that fresh pumpkin really does make a big difference in recipes, but I never bothered to try it....until this year that is.  This was the first recipe I made using fresh pumpkin, adapted from a Taste of Home Cookie Cookbook I have, and they turned out sooo delicious!!! These are probably my #1 favorite cookie recipe.  They are the most irresistible cookies I've ever eaten...it's seriously impossible to have just one.  The cookie dough is incredible also.  They remind me of pumpkin pie, but ten times better because they have chunks of white chocolate, crunchy pecans, and a melt-in-your-mouth glaze.  They're so moist and taste to-die-for even after the first day.  I brought these to a huge cross country banquet and they were one of the few desserts that were completely eaten.  All my friends asked for the recipe.  It's because of these cookies that they declared me the "master chef".  I even got an award to prove it.

Yield: about 4 1/2 dozen

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup fresh pumpkin  (canned is fine too)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice or ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 package white chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 
  BROWN SUGAR FROSTING:
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1-1/2 to 2 cups confectioners' sugar

Directions:

• 1. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and pumpkin. 
• 2. Combine dry ingredients; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in chips and pecans.
• 3. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 12-14 minutes or until firm. Remove to wire racks to cool.
• 4. For frosting, combine brown sugar and butter in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil; cook over medium heat for 1 minute or until slightly thickened. Cool for 10 minutes. Add milk; beat until smooth. Beat in enough confectioners' sugar to reach desired consistency. Spread over cooled cookies. 

Pumpkin-Pecan Praline Cheesecake

You may have seen this cheesecake on the cover of the Southern Living November edition for Thanksgiving.  You can find it on their website, here, too. And I'm pretty sure everybody knows that the front cover of the Thanksgiving issue of a magazine has a got to be pretty darn good.  So I had no doubts that this cheesecake would be spectacular.  In fact, I was planning on making it for Thanksgiving from the second I laid my eyes on it.  And let me tell you:  it was even better than I expected. Hands down, way better than the Cheesecake Factory's pumpkin cheesecake.  And I really liked the Cheesecake Factory's.  However, the first time I made this, it wasn't that great.  Honestly, I was kind of disapointed.The cheesecake layer just lacked flavor.  But the second time I made it, it was absolutely fantastic.  What did I do differently?  I swirled Pumpkin Butter in it.  Oh yes...say hello to my best friend named: William Sonoma Pumpkin Butter.  I swirled it in just like I would swirl in the strawberry sauce in a strawberry cheesecake, and it made the cheesecake have so much more flavor.  The original recipe lacks pumpkin flavor and spice, so I was pretty bummed...since this is the recipe on the FRONT COVER.  Since the pumpkin butter has spices and is sweetened, it just made the taste of the cheesecake to die for.  This dessert was the only one of the six desserts that had been completely finished at my Thanksgiving feast with my family.  It disappeared in the first five minutes... I'm not even kidding you.  No one could stop talking about how good it was.  It looks so pretty too; I garnished it with whole glazed pecans starting toward the outside and spiraling to the center.  This is a dessert that you will want to have as a staple to your Thanksgiving menu every year.

Ingredients

• 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 1/3 cup finely chopped pecans
• 5 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 4 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin
• 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
• Praline Topping (below)
• Garnish: Pecan Pie-Glazed Pecans (below)

Preparation

• 1. Preheat oven to 325°. Stir together first 4 ingredients in a bowl until well blended. Press mixture on bottom and 1 1/2 inches up sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned.
• 2. Beat cream cheese and next 2 ingredients at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until blended and smooth. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition. Add pumpkin and lemon juice, beating until blended. Pour batter into prepared crust. (Pan will be very full.)
• 3. Bake at 325° for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until almost set. Turn oven off. Let cheesecake stand in oven, with door closed, 15 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven, and gently run a knife around outer edge of cheesecake to loosen from sides of pan. (Do not remove sides of pan.) Cool completely on a wire rack (about 1 hour). Cover and chill 8 to 24 hours.
• 4. Remove sides and bottom of pan, and transfer cheesecake to a serving plate. Prepare Praline Topping; immediately pour slowly over top of cheesecake, spreading to within 1/4 inch of edge. Garnish, if desired.
• 
  

Praline Topping:

Ingredients

• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup whipping cream
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

• Bring first 3 ingredients to a boil in a 1-qt. saucepan over medium heat, stirring often. Boil, stirring occasionally, 1 minute; remove from heat. Gradually whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth. Let stand 5 minutes, whisking occasionally. Use immediately.
• 
  

Pecan Pie Glazed Pecans:

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup dark corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 cups pecan halves
• Parchment paper
• Vegetable cooking spray
• 
  

Preparation

Stir together corn syrup and sugar. Add pecan halves; stir until pecans are coated. Line a jelly-roll pan with parchment paper; coat parchment paper with cooking spray. Spread pecans in a single layer in prepared pan. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until glaze bubbles slowly and thickens, stirring every 3 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack. Spread pecans in a single layer, separating individual pecans; cool completely. Cooled pecans should be crisp; if not, bake 5 more minutes.

Pumpkin Pie Toast/Sandwich

One thing that I have always loved and always will love is incorporating dessert for breakfast.  Since I have an incredibly large sweet tooth, dessert is a meal that I can never have too much of.  I've realized that you can transform almost every single dessert into oatmeal, pancakes, french toast, waffles, or simply just toast.  Thanksgiving was a few days ago, so I was thinking about all the desserts I had, like my delicious pumpkin pecan praline cheesecake, which was made with William Sonoma's pumpkin butter.  And I had an idea: pumpkin pie...on toast.  So simple, yet so delicious.  And way healthier than the traditional pumpkin pie.  If you've never had pumpkin butter, it tastes just like pumpkin pie filling, but it's all natural and doesn't use evaporated milk.  So I spread a little bit on toast, added some whipped cream, topped it with graham cracker crumbs, and wa-lah! Pumpkin pie toast.  It was like eating pumpkin pie for breakfast.  Yum.

Ingredients:
1 slice bread (I used whole wheat)
2 tablespoons pumpkin butter*
whipped cream
graham cracker crumbs


Instructions:
Toast bread.  Spread pumpkin butter over toasted bread.  Spread enough whipped cream on top of the pumpkin butter so it's completely covered.  Sprinkle top of whipped cream with generous amount of graham cracker crumbs.


*If you don't have pumpkin butter, then you can make your own.  Combine canned pumpkin with a sprinkle of sugar (white or brown is fine), and a dash of pumpkin pie spice.


***you can also add a slice of toasted bread on top to make a sandwich.