Ingredient: canned pure pumpkin purée

Mocha Pumpkin Spice Bread

Mocha Pumpkin Spice Bread

It wouldn’t be fall without PSL’s and pumpkin bread. This ultra moist, deluxe version of pumpkin bread has mocha batter swirled though it and a rich chocolate glaze that takes it over the top. It’s dangerously delicious and nearly impossible to eat just one slice. I think this will become your new favorite fall baking recipe.

Print Recipe
 Mocha Pumpkin Spice Bread
Soft, ultra moist pumpkin spice bread, swirled with mocha and topped with a shiny chocolate glaze
Course Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword cake, loaf, mocha, pumpkin spice
Servings
loaf
Ingredients
Mocha Pumpkin Spice Bread
Chocolate Glaze
Course Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword cake, loaf, mocha, pumpkin spice
Servings
loaf
Ingredients
Mocha Pumpkin Spice Bread
Chocolate Glaze
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line the bottom of a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper. Grease and flour the insides with a mixture of equal parts unsweetened cocoa powder and flour.
  2. In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda and salt until well combined.
  3. Set aside one tablespoon (15ml) of the oil. In a large bowl, beat the remaining oil, the sugar, brown sugar, eggs, evaporated milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well combined. Beat in the pumpkin purée until incorporated. Stir in the flour mixture just until combined.
  4. Place one cup (237g) of the batter in a separate medium-size bowl. Add the cocoa powder, espresso powder and the reserved one tablespoon of oil. Mix until incorporated.
  5. Place half of the pumpkin batter into the baking pan. Scoop the mocha batter into the pan, alternating with scoops of the remaining pumpkin batter. Swirl the batter with a skewer. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs attached (not wet batter), about 35-45 minutes. Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn the loaf out and continue cooling on a cooling rack.
Chocolate Glaze
  1. Melt the butter, chocolate, and corn syrup together in a medium-size heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, making sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl. Stir gently until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly then spoon the glaze over the cooled loaf and let it drip down the sides.
Recipe Notes

To find the 9 x 5 inch loaf pan I used, click here.

Harry Potter Inspired Pumpkin Pasties

Pumpkin Pasties

Even though the weather is warm where I live at the moment, I’m dreaming about all the delicious fall treats I’ll be baking this year. Let’s look forward to cool, crisp weather, the smell of pumpkin or apples baking, and sipping a warm mug of something spicy while we wait for our bakes to come out of the oven.

Inevitably, every fall, the Harry Potter movies come on at my house and it’s nice to have some popcorn and sweet treats to enjoy while watching the movies. And these Harry Potter Inspired Pumpkin Pasties are perfect for that! If you’ve read the Harry Potter books, you may remember the Pumpkin Pasties being mentioned. There are many interpretations out there, but I imagined them to be crispy and flaky on the outside with a sweet pumpkin filling. I included a delicious flaky pie crust recipe here, but feel free to use store bought pie dough if you want to streamline the process. I sprinkled mine with raw turbinado sugar before baking which provides a sweet delicious crunch. You can also use maple sugar or sparkling sugar. To find the sugar I used, click here. And as a magical touch, I added some edible gold star glitter. To find the edible gold stars, click here.

Print Recipe
 Pumpkin Pasties
Harry Potter inspired sweet pumpkin filled hand pies
Course Dessert
Keyword pastry
Servings
hand pies
Ingredients
Pie Crust
Pumpkin Filling
Assembly
Course Dessert
Keyword pastry
Servings
hand pies
Ingredients
Pie Crust
Pumpkin Filling
Assembly
Instructions
Pie Crust
  1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt. Work the shortening into the flour mixture with your fingertips until evenly dispersed throughout.
  2. Work the butter into the flour mixture with your fingertips, creating flat dime size pieces.
  3. Mix the ice water and vinegar together. Sprinkle over the flour mixture a little at a time, stirring until dough comes together. You may not need all of the water depending on your climate.
  4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Fold the dough over onto itself a few times. Do not overwork the dough! Form the dough into two disks. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour or up to overnight.
Pumpkin Filling
  1. In a medium bowl, mix together the pumpkin purée, sugar, egg, heavy cream, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg until well combined.
Assembly
  1. Preheat oven to 400ºF. (200ºC). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut dough into 12 5-inch rounds, re-rolling scraps as needed. Place dough rounds on prepared baking sheets.
  3. Place 2 tablespoons of filling on each round, leaving a half-inch border. Apply egg wash to edges of rounds.
  4. Fold the dough over and press the edges together. Crimp the edges with a fork. If any filling oozes out, wipe it up with a paper towel or it will burn.
  5. Brush the pasties with egg wash. Cut a half-inch slit into the top of each pastie. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.
  6. Bake until golden brown, about 18-20 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Mini Muffins

My mom had a cupboard in the kitchen containing a few old cookbooks that she rarely used. As a child, I used to enjoy perusing them and looking at the baked treats. Some of the cookbooks were so old, they had black and white photos or even just drawings of the food. The ones with drawings interested me because they depicted smiling children enjoying the treats.

When I started learning to bake, I found a recipe for French Breakfast Puffs in one of those old books. The title sounded so fancy, but they were really just simple muffins dunked in butter and rolled in cinnamon sugar. I have no idea what the name of the cookbook was or what happened to it, but the delicious muffin recipe stuck around for a while. I’ve tweaked the recipe so many times over the years, and most recently, I added pumpkin to it. These Pumpkin Cinnamon Mini Muffins are one of the best versions I’ve created. The inside texture of the muffins is soft and moist and it contrasts nicely with the slight crunch you get from the cinnamon sugar on the outside. They look so cute too, like little pumpkins, and they definitely make children smile!

To watch the TikTok video of these mini muffins being made, click here.

Print Recipe
 Pumpkin Cinnamon Mini Muffins
Course Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert
Keyword muffins, pumpkin, pumpkin spice
Servings
mini muffins
Ingredients
Muffins
Topping
Course Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert
Keyword muffins, pumpkin, pumpkin spice
Servings
mini muffins
Ingredients
Muffins
Topping
Instructions
Muffins
  1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour a 24-serving *mini muffin pan.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.
  3. In a large bowl, beat sugar, oil, egg and pumpkin purée until smooth.
  4. Stir in flour mixture just until combined. A few lumps are okay. Batter will be thick.
  5. Transfer batter to prepared pan, about a scant 2 tablespoons of batter in each muffin cup.
  6. Bake until toothpick inserted into muffins comes out clean, about 11-13 minutes. Do not over bake! Be diligent, since over baking can happen very quickly with mini muffins.
  7. Let muffins cool in pan for 5 minutes. Turn muffins out onto a cooling rack.
Topping
  1. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl.
  2. Dunk warm muffins in melted butter, then roll in cinnamon sugar.
Recipe Notes

To find the mini muffin pan I used, click here.