Tag: fall

Pumpkin Yeast Rolls.

~ emetroka ~ Leave a comment

Well, I’ve posted about these over on Instagram nearly every day since I’ve made them. I wanted to put the recipe here for those of you (show of hands, mine included) who prefer to see a recipe on a website, rather than a tiny instagram screen. Is this waxing on about how everyone needs them a sign of obsession? I think it might be, and I think it’s also a sign that I need to make them again this weekend. Maybe…if our new fridge arrives on Saturday like it’s supposed to. Our died a tragic death this week, and we’re currently living on peanut butter sandwiches, bananas and ramen.

A little disclaimer – the pumpkin shape is very, I repeat, very cute. BUT you don’t actually need to spend the extra time to make them into the pumpkins. This recipe is delicious even in the shape of regular rolls. Especially if you slather them in butter and dip them in cinnamon sugar. I keep pitching them as a Thanksgiving centerpiece, but I think I might enjoy them even more on the breakfast table with a pile of fruit and a few slices of bacon. So good.

Pumpkin Yeast Rolls

You’ll need:
1/4 cup warm water
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup white sugar (1 tablespoon for yeast mixture, 3 tablespoons in the rest of the dough)
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (don’t add this all at once. depending on your pumpkin puree thickness, and baking conditions, you may not need it all!)
Cinnamon sugar & melted butter (optional)
Cinnamon sticks for stems!

To make:

  1. In a small bowl, add water, a tablespoon of white sugar, and yeast. Stir together and set aside to rise.
  2. In a small saucepan, stir together pumpkin puree and butter on a medium heat, stirring constantly. Allow to cool slightly.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, add 2 1/4 cups of flour, remaining 3 tablespoons of white sugar, and salt. Stir in yeast and egg, and mix well. Add in pumpkin and butter mixture. Add in remaining cup of flour, 1/2 cup at a time (*note: you may not need all of the flour depending on the consistency of your pumpkin puree – you want your dough to pull away from the bowl, but not to get too dry. A little stickiness is good as long as you can still work with it!) Stir well until dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.
  4. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead for 5 minutes until smooth (again….it’s better if your dough’s a little sticky here, rather than adding too much flour). You can use your dough hook instead if you have a mixer!
  5. Cover with a clean, damp cloth, and let rest for 10 minutes.
  6. Divide the dough into 9-12 equal pieces, and roll into round balls. Cut a piece of string long enough that it can wrap around the dough ball four times. You’ll need a piece for each roll.
  7. Carefully place the center of the string over the first dough ball, flip over, cross the string over itself so it creates tension, flip the dough over again, and repeat. The goal is to create four equal cross sections of the ball. I shared a reel for how to do this! The string should be snug enough to stay in place, but no tighter than that, as it will tighten as the dough continues to rise. Tie a double knot at the end, and trim the ends of the string so they aren’t too long. Place onto a baking sheet, and repeat for all remaining dough balls.
  8. Cover dough balls with a towel, and let rise for about 30 minutes, or until you can press a finger into the dough and it leaves an indent (if it bounces back quickly, it needs more rise time).
  9. Bake the dough for 15-17 minutes, or until golden. Remove and allow to cool slightly before cutting strings and gently removing. Serve warm.

    *if covering in cinnamon sugar – melt some butter and brush on the rolls while still warm. Roll around in cinnamon sugar. Add little cinnamon stems on top for cute factor!

A September To Do List.

~ emetroka ~ 1 Comment

Ah, bliss, September. The calm before the storm that is one holiday after another. The month of knits flung with abandon, the month of cooling breezes, and the smell of burning leaves, and football all weekend. If you’ve been here for a while – you know the drill. I make a little to do list every month in categories important to me. I pick one thing from each category every week and it helps me actually do things that I enjoy doing rather than letting the month pass me by as if it never happened.

Bake

  1. Pumpkin Bread (of course)
  2. Apple Pie
  3. Maple Donuts
  4. Applesauce Cake with Brown Butter Icing

Treat

  1. Cinnamon Sugar Muffins
  2. Apple Pie Pancakes
  3. Autumn Harvest Granola
  4. Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Meals

  1. Chili & Cornbread (my husband’s classic recipe that I desperately need him to write down)
  2. Roast Chicken
  3. Beef Bourguignon
  4. Broccoli Cheddar Soup
  5. Butternut Squash Pasta with Sausage and Spinach

Cocktails

  1. Coffee Old Fashioned
  2. Gin Fizz
  3. Apple Pie on the Rocks
  4. Pimm’s Cup

I have a few other categories that vary month to month, but they are – House (house projects to work on), Dates (with my husband – at home or out of the house), Adventures (Outings/trips!), Must Do’s (Housekeeping items I hate doing, but must – like making dentist appointment), and Fun (little things to make the month special). They’re a little more personal in nature! I find it helps make my months so much smoother when I eliminate brain fatigue and make all my choices at the beginning of the month. You just might find the same is true for you! Happy planning, friends!

Last year’s September list if you’re in need of more inspiration for the month!

The Best Homemade Hot Chocolate.

~ emetroka ~ 1 Comment

We’ve been home waiting out hurricane Nicole the last few days. You might, if you’re not in Florida, or maybe even if you are! imagine that involves lots of stress and what if’s and property preparations. It does a bit, but it’s been a lovely few days together. Days like this are such a gift. They make me appreciate our home so much. The weather has been mild and the hurricane passed in the night just north of us leaving us sleeping in our beds right through the whole thing.

But it’s been rainy and cozy and windy here and we’ve been occupying ourselves with drying oranges (instructions coming soon), playing with play dough, watching the rain, lots of movies, drawing and most importantly, hot chocolate. Hot chocolate on the stove in our special pot with popcorn was just the ticket yesterday. Shared this on Instagram yesterday, but putting it here too for easier future reference. The only thing that would have made it better is if I had made marshmallows to go with. Next time, next time.

Best homemade hot chocolate:

2 T sugar
2 T Dutch process cocoa powder
2 1/2 c milk
I/2 c half and half
I/4 c chocolate chips
I/2 t vanilla

Combine ingredients and cook over medium heat stirring with a whisk until smooth and hot

Makes four cups but I often halve everything for a small batch!

For a small batch:

1 T sugar
1 T Dutch process cocoa powder
1 1/4 c milk
I/4 c half and half
I/8 c chocolate chips
I/4 t vanilla

But between you and me – eyeballing it always works for me too!

Cozy and Bright Red Lentil Soup.

~ emetroka ~ Leave a comment

A soup that I crave year round, but crave in these quiet, cozy weeks between holidays most of all. It’s healthy, hearty, and bright. Basically it’s fall sunshine in a bowl.

Red lentil soup

Olive oil
1 white onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
5 cloves minced garlic
8 cups veggie or chicken stock
2 cups red lentils
1 cup corn
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon curry powder
zest and juice of 1 lemon
salt and freshly-cracked black pepper, to taste.

Heat oil in a Dutch oven or other soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and carrots and sauté until the onions are soft and translucent. Add garlic and sauté for 1 more minute or so, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the stock, lentils, corn, cumin, curry powder. Continue cooking until the soup reaches a simmer. Then cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are completely tender.

At this point, you can either blend the soup or not. I always do using an immersion blender, but you could use a regular blender too. Or just eat it as is! All equally yum.

Next, stir in the lemon zest and juice until combined. Taste and season the soup with a generous pinch or two of salt (I prefer Kosher) and black pepper.

Serve with a squeeze of lemon, grind of pepper, sprinkling of shaved warm, and a couple slices of fresh sourdough.

Applesauce Cake with Brown Butter Frosting.

~ emetroka ~ 1 Comment

Is it brown butter or is it browned butter? My research has brought back answers for both. Whichever way you want to say it – I do believe it may be God’s greatest gift to man, much as I love my children. And around this time of year I can’t get enough of it. The brown butter, not my kids. But I’ll allow that they’re pretty great too. I have plans to put brown butter into a pumpkin sheet cake in October, in a pasta sauce with sage to nestle homemade ravioli into later this month, and perhaps most famously into my chocolate chip cookies on another occasion. Whether you’re using it in sweets or dinner, it adds a delicious nuttiness that is so distinct and dare I say, life changing? Now, if you have no idea what I’m talking about, you might want to read this article on achieving brown butter rather than burnt butter. You probably think the cake should be the main topic of conversation here and I love it too! It’s a winner! The people will love the cake! But the frosting, oh yes, the frosting, is the part of this recipe that takes it to the next level.

Applesauce Cake with Brown Butter Frosting

For the cake:
Baking spray
2 cups unsweetened applesauce
1¼ cups packed light brown sugar
¾ cup canola oil
3 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or a combination of cinnnamon, ginger and nutmeg)
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt

For the frosting:
1 ½ cup (3 sticks) unsalted butter, divided. Two sticks should be softened to room temperature. The third stick, you’ll brown.
4 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp whole milk
½ t vanilla
¼ tsp salt

Prepare the Cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9 x 9 inch pan with baking spray and dust with flour – alternatively you could make this in a 9 x 13 pan for a thinner cake or even in muffin form, but be sure to adjust your baking time. In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, oil, pumpkin pie spice, lemon zest, vanilla extract, eggs, and applesauce in a large bowl until combined. Whisk in flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until just combined. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 40-50 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack,
and cool completely in pan, about 1 hour.

Prepare the Frosting:
Melt 1/2 cup (one stick) butter in a medium saucepan over medium until it begins to bubble, forms little brown bits, and smells nutty. Transfer to a freezer safe container and put in freezer for 10-15 minutes or until room temperature. In a mixer, combine brown butter, 1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter, powdered sugar, milk, salt and vanilla. Mix on medium for about three minutes or until fluffy. Spread frosting generously over cooked cake with an offset spatula, cut and enjoy (preferably with a book and iced coffee on the side).

You will most likely have extra frosting, but the frosting is truly the best part of this cake. Just put it in a jar, and store in the fridge for another cake next week! This cake, after all, will not last long on your counter if your house is anything like mine.