Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

In my culinary calendar, after Italian prune plum season, next up is pumpkin. I love pumpkin as much as the next gal, but (just like Halloween and Christmas), online and brick-and-mortar stores start advertising EVERYTHING pumpkin way too early, so by the time actual fall rolls around, I am sick of it. But that doesn’t deter me from baking at least one pumpkin-y goodie. Because, as you know, I am all about the baked goods!

This recipe is from gimmesomeoven.com & it’s a good one. To begin with, it is chock-full of the de rigueur fall spices — cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, allspice; next, they are soft and chewy (which I love); and finally, they have a luscious cream cheese frosting which, just literally, is the icing on the cake. They keep well in the fridge for about a week, if you have any left over.

Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

Adapted from gimmesomeoven.com 

Yields about 3 dozen cookies

Cookie Ingredients:

2-1/2 C AP flour

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1 TB pumpkin pie spice (see below)

1/2 t salt

1/2 C (1 stick) butter, softened

1 C granulated sugar

1/2 C brown sugar

1-1/4 C canned pumpkin puree

1 egg

1 t vanilla extract

Frosting Ingredients*:

8 oz (1 brick) cream cheese, room temp

3 TB butter, room temp

1 t vanilla extract

1 C confectioners’ sugar (approximately)

Chopped walnuts (optional)

* The original recipe calls for low-fat cream cheese. Also, I reduced the amount of confectioners’ sugar to 1 cup, as I thought 2 cups was too much.

Pumpkin pie spice (gimmesomeoven.com):

1/4 C ground cinnamon

2 TB ground ginger

4 t ground nutmeg

2 t ground allspice

2 t ground cloves

Whisk all spice ingredients together in a small bowl until combined. Transfer to a sealed spice jar, where it will keep for up to 2 years.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt, until combined. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar on medium-high speed for 1 minute until light and fluffy. Add in pumpkin, egg, and vanilla to butter mixture, and beat on medium speed until just combined. Fold in the dry ingredients until just combined.

Drop on cookie sheet by heaping tablespoons, then use your fingers or a spoon to flatten slightly (these cookies tend to poof up slightly rather than flatten during baking, so shape them beforehand however you like. They won’t rise much).

Bake 15-20 minutes, or until baked through and bounce back slightly when you touch them. Transfer cookies to wire rack to cool until they reach room temp. Then frost or drizzle with frosting. Sprinkle with chopped walnuts (optional) or a pinch of cinnamon or the pumpkin pie spice. Refrigerate in sealed container.

Frosting:

With electric mixer, beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla together on medium-high speed until smooth. Gradually add in confectioners’ sugar until it is well combined and the frosting is smooth. If it is too thick, add a tablespoon or two of milk (or water) until it reaches your desired consistency. If it is too thin, add a bit more confectioners’ sugar.

A Cavalcade of Cakes!

I know I was delinquent in not posting last week so I will make it up to you this week by supplying not one, not two, but three fabulous cake recipes! By the way, because one cannot live by cake alone (so they tell me), right now I am happily munching on a BearNaked Grain-ola Bar. Have you tried these? My local Costco has the fruit & nut (raisins, cranberries, almonds, and pecans) variety; it's quite good and will tide me over until dinner.

Last Saturday/Sunday, I baked the luscious Lemon Yogurt Cake from Ina Garten and the delicious Dimply Plum Cake from Dorie Greenspan (two of my favorite bakers). I wasn't really planning on two cakes last weekend, but when I went to the farmer's market in Paterson (currently celebrating 75 years in operation - the surrounding areas taking advantage of "farm to table" years before it was trendy), one of the farmers had baskets of gorgeous purple plums and I just had to have them. And today, I made Nectarine Golden Cake from the September issue of Gourmet. These cakes were all very different but all wonderful (there are very few cakes I would not find wonderful).

The nectarine cake is cooling right now and a little later this evening, I'll be savoring it. Let me know what you're baking this weekend. Bake on, my friends!

Lemon Yogurt Cake

Barefoot Contessa at Home

1-1/2 C all-purpose flour

2 t baking powder

1/2 t kosher salt

1 C plain whole-milk yogurt

1-1/3 C sugar, divided

3 extra-large eggs

2 t grated lemon zest (2 lemons)

1/2 t pure vanilla extract

1/2 C vegetable oil

1/3 C freshly squeezed lemon juice

Glaze:

1 C confectioner's sugar

2 TB freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 8-1/2 x 4-1/4 x 2-1/2 loaf pan. Line bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour pan.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 C sugar, eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk dry ingredients into the wet. With rubber spatula, fold vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it's all incorporated. Pour the batter into prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in center of loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 C lemon juice and remaining 1/3 C sugar in small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in pan for 10 minutes. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow to soak in. Cool.

For the glaze, combine confectioner's sugar and lemon juice and pour over cake.

Dimply Plum Cake

Dorie Greenspan, Baking From My Home to Yours

1-1/2 C all-purpose flour

1 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

Scant 1/4 t ground cardamom (optional)

5 TB unsalted butter at room temp

3/4 C packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1/3 C flavorless oil such as canola or safflower

Grated zest of 1 orange

1-1/2 t pure vanilla extract

8 purple or red plums (in the Fall, use Italian prune plums), halved and pitted

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350. Butter an 8 inch square baking pan, dust the inside with flour, tape out the excess and put the pan on a baking sheet.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, and cardamom, if you're using it, together.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed until soft and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the sugar and beat for another 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for one minute after each addition. On medium speed, beat in the oil, orange zest, and vanilla. The batter will look very light and smooth, almost satiny. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are incorporated.

Run a spatula around the bowl and under the batter, just to make sure there are no dry spots, then scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top. Arrange the plums cut side up in the batter - I usually make 4 rows of 4 plum halves each - jiggling the plums a tad just so they settle comfortably into the batter.

Bake for about 40 minutes, or until the top is honey brown and puffed around the plums and a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 15 minutes - during which time the plums' juice will return to the fruit - then run a knife around the sides of the pan and un-mold the cake. Invert and cool right side up.

Nectarine Golden Cake

Gourmet, September 2009

1 C all-purpose flour

2 t baking powder

Rounded 1/4 t salt

1 stick unsalted butter, softened

3/4 C plus 1/2 T sugar, divided

2 large eggs

1 t pure vanilla extract

1/8 t pure almond extract

2 nectarines, pitted and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges

1/2 t grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 with rack in middle. Lightly butter 9 inch springform pan.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat butter and 3/4 C sugar with electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in extracts. At low speed, mix in flour mixture until just combined.

Spread batter evenly in pan, then scatter nectarines over top. Stir together nutmeg and remaining 1/2 T sugar and sprinkle over top. Bake until cake is golden-brown and top is firm but tender when lightly touched (cake will rise over fruit), 45-50 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove sides of pan and cool to warm.

Snowy-Day Cake

Edna Lewis, the wonderful Southern cook (also known as the Grande Dame of Southern Cooking) created a recipe called "Busy-Day Cake." I've had this recipe in my file for awhile now, squirreled way for the right time to try it. I believe Miss Lewis (as she is called by all who revere her years of incredible cooking experience) developed this cake as something you could put together on a "busy day."  

Well, I certainly didn't have a busy day today - I had a "snowy day," and hence the title of this post. We had a snowstorm (again) in New Jersey today - this is getting really tiresome. But it did present me with an official snow day off from work and the opportunity to bake something (and for that I am thankful). 

Back to Edna Lewis. She was born in Freetown, Virginia in 1916; in a town founded by three freed slaves (one of whom was her grandfather). She was taught to cook over a wood-fired stove by the women in her life. When she was 16, she moved to Washington, DC, and eventually to New York City. In 1948, she opened her own restaurant in New York (think how rare this was: a woman - an African-American woman - owning a restaurant in NYC in 1948) called Cafe Nicholson. Her cooking was legendary and her restaurant hosted famous celebrities of the day like Truman Capote, Marlene Dietrich, and Gloria Vanderbilt. After she sold Cafe Nicholson, she worked as the chef for many years at Gage and Tollner in Brooklyn. In the late sixties, she started to write down many of her recipes which resulted in the Edna Lewis Cookbook and later The Taste of Country Cooking (which is where Busy-Day Cake comes from). In addition to cooking and writing, she founded the Society for the Revival and Preservation of Southern Food. Edna Lewis died in 2006. If you'd like to read more about the fascinating life of Edna Lewis, the New York Times wrote a wonderful piece on her when she died.

Sorry for the digression, but I thought you would want to know this cake's heritage. The cake has very simple ingredients - eggs, butter, sugar, flour, vanilla, freshly grated nutmeg, some milk, and baking powder - nothing fancy here. But I noticed when I was in the final mixing, that the batter was almost sponge-like and it had a marvelous scent from the fresh nutmeg. As a baker, you really notice when a batter or a dough is different. This batter looked so smooth and inviting that I just knew the cake was going to be good. It bakes in a springform pan for about 30-35 minutes. The recipe says to serve it warm and who am I not follow the instructions of a legend? So I cut a sliver and savored it. It is moist, with a nice crumb, and a delicious, almost silk-like texture. You can just transport yourself to the South with this recipe. And on a snowy, cold day in New Jersey I can't think of a better place to be, even it is just in my mind.

Edna Lewis' Busy-Day Cake

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1-1/3 C granulated sugar

3 large eggs

2 t vanilla extract

2 C unbleached all-purpose flour

2-1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1 good pinch freshly grated nutmeg, or more

1/2 C whole milk, room temperature

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease 1 9" springform pan with butter or cooking spray (I used butter).

In the bowl of a stand mixer, blend the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. One by one, add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract, and beat to blend.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.

Add about 1/4 o the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and beat on low speed to incorporate. Add 1/3 of the milk and beat again. Add the remaining flour mixture in three more doses, alternating each time with a big of milk, and beating to just combine. Do not overmix. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the sides of the bowl and stir to incorporate any flour not yet absorbed.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, spreading it evenly across the top. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. This cake has a tendency to brown quickly on top, so after about 20 minutes, you might want to peek into the oven and tent the cake with aluminum foil if necessary.

Serve warm. It is delicious plain but you could serve it with a little creme fraiche or some warm, crushed berries.