Pumpkin Patch

With the air getting a little crisper in the morning and the leaves slowly changing colors, it can only mean one thing. Fall is here! And with Fall comes pumpkins, and I mean lots of pumpkins! So to get a jump on my pumpkin baked goods, I decided to try out two recipes that really grabbed my attention.

The first was a scrumptious looking recipe from the wonderful Peabody, whose blog (culinary concoctions) is one of my favorites. Peabody made these adorable little pumpkin muffins but had the surprise of chocolate covered raisins inside! I can't tell you how simple this recipe was to make. And the pumpkin was spot on, you know how sometimes you'll have a pumpkin loaf and the taste is just overwhelming? Not these babies, they were absolutely perfect. And the smell of pumpkin baking in my oven was enough to make me pull out my hair. I just love the smell of fall baking flavors filling the house. It just reminds me so much of the holidays, family and plain ole good memories. My only complaint with this recipe was the fact that I couldn't quit eating those damn chocolate covered raisins!! I should've wait to open the bag until I was ready to dump them all into the batter, but for those of you that have been keeping up with my posting, you would know that batter covered chocolate raisins wouldn't even have stopped me :)


The only thing that I changed in this recipe was to make my muffins in a mini muffin tin. I planned on taking them to work and wanted to make sure that I would have enough to go around. The mini muffins were a perfect bite sized portion, but only helped to make me think that eating 7 of them was ok, since they were so little :) Damn those muffins!! Check out Peabody's blog, Culinary Concoctions for this amazing recipe!

The second pumpkin recipe that I made was a take on the classic Pumpkin Pie. I saw this recipe on the cover of Holiday Baking and almost wet my pants I was so excited!! This pie is a triple layer pumpkin pie!! Yes, that's right...T-R-I-P-L-E L-A-Y-E-R!! The first layer is a cream cheese base, infused with orange zest. The second layer is the pumpkin pie layer. And the top, most amazing third layer is a mixture of chopped pecans, chopped health bars and brown sugar. TO DIE FOR!! I cheated a little and bought a pre-made Pillsbury pie crust, which I have never used before, and am amazed at how good the crust was. That is definitely a product I will use for future pie projects! Can I just say this pie was so yummy, and the textures and flavors were out of this world! My tongue and brain couldn't figure out if I was having pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pie with pecan topping, or pumpkin cheesecake with pecan topping! But I will tell you one thing, my stomach was not at all confused, all it knew was that this recipe was a winner and belly pleaser!! With a nice dollop of whipped cream on top, this pie was a no fail way to kick off fall!!