I have been thinking about making pumpkin pie and bringing it to work. I like bringing food into work because I love to bake and sharing what I make means Ryan and I won’t gorge too much on sweets. But one of the things I like best about living here (and travel in general) is trying and sharing new foods.

Since starting work, I have tried various kinds of cookies (biscuits, if I want to be proper about it) and a mince pie, which is a sweet pie that Santa gets when he comes with presents. I’ve brought in s’mores flavored candy corn – and practically no one had ever had candy corn or a s’more. And to digress for a second, it seems sad to me that s’mores aren’t a thing here. I think I should start a food truck that makes s’mores with different chocolates, different graham crackers, and maybe add-ins like nutella and bananas. Sounds delicious right? If you still don’t know what a s’more is, read about it here.

But back to pumpkin pie. From what I can tell, pumpkin pie isn’t really popular here. This is evidenced by the fact that nothing in the grocery store is pumpkin flavored whereas in the US everything is pumpkin flavored this time of year. Also, I introduced pumpkin pie to two people here, with, what I think was, great success. Recently Ryan and I were invited to an Italian lunch at our friends Alessia and Raffaello’s flat. Alessia made an amazing pasta, a meat dish, a cheese plate, potatoes, tomatoes and finished with esperesso. It was a delicious feast and Ryan and I loved trying some new Italian foods. For dessert, I brought a pumpkin cream cheese pie and it was the first time they had something like it. So I thought, maybe I should introduce more people to pumpkin pie and thereby become an ambassador for American sweets. And doesn’t that sound like an awesome job? Ambassador for American Sweets in the UK. I like it.

Writing all of this, it’s clear to me that I over think pie. And maybe in general, think about pie too much (if that’s possible). But, for perfect shareability, I thought making pumpkin pie bars would be the best way to go. Bars mean more pieces, no need for plates or utensils, and you can have as big or small a slice as you like – the perfect solution for sharing with a bunch of colleagues. I also decided to add a little richness by adding a sprinkling of chocolate chips at the top. I like pumpkin and chocolate, I think it’s nice but you can certainly leave them off. Next time I make these, I’m going to melt the chocolate and create some sort of marble swirl design on the top.

So, this batch was just for me and Ryan. But around Thanksgiving, I intend to bring these pumpkin pie bars to work and share some of my holiday traditions with the Brits. And I bet whoever your coworkers are, they’ll appreciate some pumpkin pie in the break room.

 Crust is adapted from a recipe by Sally’s Baking Addition and the pie filling is based on a recipe from the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.

Messy level: This is actually a one spoon recipe because I bashed the graham crackers using a plastic bag and rolling pin. That means, in the end I only used one dish, one whisk, and a few measuring cups to make this whole recipe. Easy peasy! I also think because we’re making bars, the crumbs for the crust stay contained and don’t fall as easily as they do when making a regular pie.

Pumpkin Pie Bars

 

Print

Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

40 mins

Total time

50 mins

 

Serves: 12

Ingredients

Crust

• 1¼ cups gingersnap cookie crumbs (Crush cookies in a processor or using a plastic bag and rolling pin)
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• ¼ cup (60g) unsalted butter, melted

Pie Filling

• 1 large egg
• 1 egg white
• 1¼ cups pumpkin puree (it's about ¾ of a standard 15oz can)
• ¼ cup (50g) sugar
• ¼ cup (50g) brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
• ¼ teaspoon all spice
• sprinkle nutmeg
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1-2 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325/165°.
2. Mix the cookie crumbs, sugar, and butter together in a medium bowl until combined.
3. Press into the bottom of an 8x8 square pan.
4. Bake the crust for 10 minutes.
5. When the crust is done, turn the oven up to 425/220°.
6. To make the filling, lightly beat the egg and egg white in large bowl. Then whisk in the pumpkin, sugars, cinnamon, ginger, all spice, and nutmeg.
7. Slowly whisk in the cream to the pumpkin mixture.
8. Pour the pumpkin mixture over the prepared gingersnap crust.
9. Sprinkle the top with chocolate chips, if using.
10. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 350/180° and cook for another 20 minutes. The pie is ready when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

3.2.2807

The post Pumpkin Pie Bars appeared first on Cooking is Messy.

Last week when when I made the Pumpkin Roll recipe I told you I was making my own pumpkin spice mix, but I didn’t tell you how. So today, here’s a quick post with recipe for pumpkin spice.  Now, you might be thinking, why would I make my own spices? Here are three reasons:

1. You can’t find it in a store
2. You already have the spices you need and don’t want to hit the store
3. Sometimes DIY is fun

This recipe is from allrecipes.com. You could subsitute cloves for the all-spice if you already have that on hand. This makes about 4 tablespoons, increase the recipe as needed. Mix the ingredients below and you’re done. Now let the fall flavors flow.

The post Pumpkin Spice Mix Recipe appeared first on Cooking is Messy.

I love holiday decorations. From October to February you can be sure there is some sort of decoration in our apartment.  Holiday decorations make me feel happy and festive. Why treat holidays like any other day when there’s the opportunity to make things look colorful and special?I have things to hang on the door, towels to go in the bathroom, centerpieces for the kitchen table and much much more. And of course, I also have things for baking (Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Easter cookie cutters). A few weeks ago I added to the collection while I was shopping with two college friends. I found a four-pack container of Halloween sprinkles.

“What are you going to make?” Jackie asked, “I expect to see them on your blog.”

Gulp. This was going to be a mini-challenge. I had planned to make regular sugar cookies, but that was out of the question since I’ve already posted that recipe.  So what to make? She suggested cupcakes and I was totally prepared to do that, until I was indulging in some after work retail therapy at Hill’s Kitchen, and I bought a set of Halloween cookie cutters. Therefore, cookies it would be.

I wanted something with a holiday flair, so I searched for pumpkin cookie recipes and didn’t find anything I was excited about. Then I went to my favorite cookie book, The Art of the Cookie and found a brown sugar cookie recipe that included a suggested addition of cinnamon and all spice. Boom, I was sold. Ultimately, I didn’t stray too far from the regular sugar cookie but these are different enough in look and taste. While cooking the whole apartment filled with a warm cinnamon smell that made the place feel like the holidays. The cookies are chewy, with a rich flavor that reminded me a bit of mellow gingerbread cookie. The cookie comes out a nice brown, and topped with autumnal colored sprinkles, they have just the spooky Halloween feel I was hoping for.

Aparted from the Art of the Cookie

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp all spice

1/4 tsp nutmeg

14 tbsp unsalted butter (it’s less than 2 sticks)

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tbsp molasses

1 tbsp heavy cream (usually I just use milk, this time I actually used cream)

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, all spice, and nutmeg.

2. Using an electric mixer (or your arm if you’re strong!) mix the butter and sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy. This should take 2-3 minutes in the mixer and it will look like a mocha colored mousse.

3.  Add the egg and molasses to the butter and sugar. Beat on low until the egg is completely incorporated.

4. Still on low, slowly add the flour into the wet ingredients. I did this in four batches. I’d pour some in, mix until it was mostly incorporated, then add more flour, and mix again.

5. Add the heavy cream and mix until everything is incorporated.

6. Scrape out all the dough and form it into a large rectangle or circle. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for at least one hour. I left the dough in the fridge for a day. I made the dough one night and then baked it a day later.

This is the dough after it’s been wrapped and in the fridge

7. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°.

8. Generously flour your work surface and rolling pin. Take the dough out of the fridge. Break out a manageable piece (I broke it into thirds). Using the rolling pin, roll the dough until its somewhere between 1/4″ and 1/8″ thick.

9. Press cookie cutters in the dough to make the shapes you want!

10. Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper. Place the cookies at least 1/2″ apart. Decorate with sprinkles ahead of time if you want, or you can wait to decorate until they are done being baked.

11. Bake for 10-13 minutes. Since the cookies are dark it’s hard to tell when they are done. Simply press the center of the cookie with your finger. If it’s mushy let them cook longer. If it’s a little firm, the cookies are ready!

Messy Level: I’m giving this three spoons. For me, all baking is messy. I opened up a brand new all spice bottle, but the teaspoon in to scoop and when I took the spoon out I spilled probably another 1/2 tsp. Why can’t I be clean?! I truly don’t know. I also had dough on the sleeves of my sweatshirt. Cookie-cutter cookies take a lot of steps, and a lot of flour, and therefore there is so much opportunity to make a big mess. But for me, these kind of cookies make the holidays.

The post Brown Sugar Spice Cookies appeared first on Cooking is Messy.