Pumpkin Dinner Roll

I followed this recipe to make it for Thanksgiving. It was soft and fluffy, well received.  

Ingredients

Cake flour - 1/2 cup
Bread flour - 2 and 1/2 cups 
Salt - 1 and 1/2 tsp
Pumpkin puree - 1/2 cup
Heavy cream - 2/3 cup, at room temperature
Milk - 1/3 cup , at room temperature
Active dry yeast - 1 TBSP
Egg - 1, substitute with 1/4 cup apple sauce
Sugar - 1/3 cup 
Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water) (skipped for egg-free)
Pumpkin seeds - optional garnish
For optional glazing, the recipe uses simple syrup (2 teaspoons of sugar dissolved in 2 teaspoons hot water), I used some butter

Steps

1. In a mixing bowl, mix the cake flour, bread flour and salt. Set aside

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, add pumpkin puree, heavy cream, milk, egg (or substitute), sugar, yeast. Mix well, and then add the flour mixture. Turn the mixer on to the lowest setting, and let it go for 15 minutes until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. 

3. Cover the bowl with a damp towel, and place in a warm spot for 1 hour. The dough will grow to 1.5x its original size.

4. In the meantime, grease a 9x13” pan on all sides.
5. After first proofing, punch the dough to rid of air bubbles and divide the dough into equal pieces on a lightly floured surface, with the help of your kitchen scale. I divided into 18 of about 60g each. Shape each piece of dough into a smooth ball and arrange them on the pan with about half an inch of space between them on all sides. Once shaped, cover and proof for another hour until the buns grow to 1.5X their original size. Brush the risen dough with egg wash (skipped), and sprinkle with the raw pumpkin seeds.

6. Preheat the oven to 350F. Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 20 minutes until the tops are golden brown. Take the buns out of the oven and immediately brush them with the sugar water to give them a really great shine, sweetness, and rich color. Serve warm! 

Pumpkin Chiffon Cake

This pumpkin chiffon cake is tender and sweet, with a mild pumpkin flavor. Perfect for the fall with a cup of coffee.

Ingredients

Cake flour - 2 cups
Sugar - 1 and 1/3 cups
Baking powder - 1 TBSP
Pumpkin Spice - 2 and 3/4 tsp
(or use
Ground cinnamon - 1 tsp
Ground ginger - 1 tsp
Ground allspice - 1/4 tsp
Ground nutmeg - 1/2 tsp
)
Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup
Egg yolks - 4
Pumpkin puree - 3/4 cup
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Egg whites - 1 cup, from 6-7 eggs
Cream of tartar - 1/2 tsp
[Decoration]
Sliced pear - 2 can, slice into smaller pieces
Swiss Buttercream - 2 batches (12 egg white, 3 cup butter, 3 cup sugar)

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 325ºF.
2. Sift flour, 1 cup of sugar, baking powder, and spices into a large bowl; add the oil, egg yolks, pumpkin puree, and vanilla, and beat with a whisk until batter is smooth.

3. Using mixer to beat egg whites, 1/3 cup sugar, and cream of tartar at high speed to firm peak.

4. Use a rubber spatula to carefully fold the egg white mixture into the pumpkin batter until no streaks remain.

5. Pour the batter into two ungreased, 9-inch cake pan and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a chopstick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

6. Remove from oven and cool, inverted.
7. Once cakes are cooled completely, start assembly the pumpkin. I slices one of the cake into two, so total 3 layers, with buttercream and sliced pear in the middle. Shape the cakes into pumpkin shape.

8. Use buttercream to decorate the pumpkin cake. The stem is made with trimmed cake crumbs mixed with buttercream, then coated with buttercream.

Made another two cakes with 6 inch and 4 inch cake pans to create a pumpkin patch.

Pumpkin Spice Cake

This was a recipe from Cake Blog, with

modification since I do not have pumpkin spice milk. The cake was moist and tasted great. This was also the first time I made Swiss meringue buttercream. I Loved its silky texture and taste.

Ingredients

【Pumpkin Spice Cake】
3 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 and 1/2 cups pumpkin puree

【Swiss Meringue Buttercream】
6 egg whites
1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar

1 and 1/2 cups unsalted butter, cubed, slightly softened
Pinch of salt
(I made two batches. One batch was to fill and frost the cake itself. The second batch was to pipe the buttercream flowers with extra left. Probably 1 and 1/2 batch would have been enough.)

Steps

【Make the Pumpkin Spice Cake】
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and lightly flour three 8″ or 9" round pans. Line with parchment paper circles.
2. In large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar on medium-high using the paddle attachment. Beat until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
4. With the mixer on low, add eggs one at a time. Mix well after each egg. Scrape down bowl as needed.
5. Add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Do not over mix. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl.
6. Mix in pumpkin puree.
7. Divide batter evenly between the three round pans.

8. Bake for 25-32 minutes, until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
9. Let cool in pans for 10 to 15 minutes, then remove to wire rack to finish cooling.

【Make the Pumpkin Spice Buttercream】
1. Place egg whites and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk until combined.
2. Place bowl over a pan of simmering water to create a double-boiler. Whisking constantly, heat the egg mixture until it registers 160°F on a candy thermometer. Carefully transfer the bowl onto the stand mixer.
3. Using the whisk attachment, beat the egg white mixture on high speed for 8 to 10 minutes until the bowl is no longer warm to the touch and the meringue is fluffy, glossy and holds a stiff peak.
4. Switch to the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low, slowly add cubed butter and mix until incorporated. If the buttercream appears soupy, try placing it in the refrigerator for about 10 to 15 minutes then mixing again.
5. Add Pumpkin Spice Milk. Continue mixing on low to med-low until silky and smooth, about 3 to 5 minutes.

【Assemble and Serve】
Store in refrigerator. Serve at room temperature.

Fall Foliage Cake

I visited the White Mountains of NH two weeks ago, and was overwhelmed by the endless color in display. The mountains were full of light and color even in a cloudy day.
The cake is an attempt to capture the season. It is chiffon cake with whipped cream, similar to the Christmas Poinsettia Cake. Let's every leaf radiates warmth and bliss.

Turkey 2015 - Mom's Way

This is what my Mom has been using for the past 20+ years. It is Turkey with a Chinese twist. I love the sticky rice stuffing.

Ingredients:

All ingredients is based on a 10-12 lb turkey.
Marinate
Green onion - 3 stalks, diced
Ginger - 1/3 cup, grind
Soy sauce - 1 cup
Salt - 3 TBS
Vinegar - 1 TBS
Cooking wine - 1/2 cup
Stuffing
Glutinous rice - 4 cups (soaked in water for at least 2 hours or overnight)
Red onion - 1 medium, diced
Dried mushroom - 1 cup, diced
Ham - 2 cups, diced
Dried date - 1 cup
Dried lotus seeds - 1 cup, soaked overnight
Sunflower seeds - 1/2 cup (or use pine nuts, other tree nuts)
Raisin - 1/2 cup
Optional: Dried Apricot - 1/2 cup
Coating
Honey - 1/2 cup

Steps

1. Steam the glutinous rice until 70% cooked.
2. In a frying pan, stir fry the diced red onion, mushroom, and ham together.
3. In a mixing bowl, mix all the stuffing ingredients.

4. Run hot water over the turkey for a few minutes until the skin tightens.
5. Mix the ingredients for marinate and rub all over turkey. Then let the  turkey air dry for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

6. Stuff the turkey, sew the opening back with needle and cotton thread.

7. Coat the turkey thoroughly with honey.

8. Bake in oven at 350°F for 3-4 hours.

Apple Rose

Fall is always associated with sweet warm apple pie. This apple rose is way easier than apple pie, and looks gorgeous. I saw this online from multiple places, and basically followed Cooking with Manuel with minor changes.

Ingredients 

To make 12 roses
Puff pastry sheet - 1 package of two sheets, thawed at room temperature

Apples - 4 large, prefer red apples
Lemon juice -squeezed from one lemon

Fruit jam - 6 TBSP, I used strawberry jam. the recipe calls for apricot jam

Cinnamon powder (optional)
Powdered sugar for decorating (optional)

Steps

1. Prepare a bowl with some water and the lemon juice. Cut the apples in half, remove the core and cut the apples in thin slices. Leave the peel so it will give the red color to your roses. Right away, place the sliced apples in the bowl with lemon and water, so that they won't change color.

2. Microwave the apple slices in the bowl, for about 5 minutes, to make them slightly softer.
3. Unwrap the puff pastry sheet over a clean and lightly floured counter. Using a rolling pin stretch the dough a little, trying to keep it in a rectangular shape. Cut each sheet in 6 strips. These are about 2 in x 9 in.

4. In a bowl, place 6 tablespoons of jam with 4 tablespoons of water. Microwave for about one minute, so that the preserve will be easier to spread. Spread the preserve on the sheet.

5. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Drain the apples.
6. Place the apples on the dough. Sprinkle with cinnamon if you'd like.

7. Fold up the bottom part of the dough.

8. Carefully roll, seal the edge, and place in greased muffin cup.

9. Bake about 40-45 minutes, until fully cooked. Make sure the pastry is fully cooked on the inside before removing the roses from the oven! If after 30 minutes the apples on top look fully cooked, move the pan to a lower rack in the oven, and wait for 10-15 more minutes to avoid under cooking the puff pastry.
10. Once taken out of oven, left the roses cool for 5-10 minutes before removing from muffin cups. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top for decoration.

Pumpkin Mochi Cake (煎南瓜饼)

Ingredients:

Pumpkin /Squash
Glutinous rice flour - about 1:1 to squash
Sugar - depends on how sweet the squash is.
Red bean pastry filling

Steps:

1. Steam squash until soft. Then remove the skin. When the pumpkin is still hot, immediately stir in sugar.

3. Stir in glutinous rice flour, small amount at a time, and combine thoroughly when the puree is still warm, until you get a smooth, non-stick dough. The amount of rice flour required depends on the moisture in the squash. Roll the dough on a clean surface, sprinkle extra flour if it's too wet or sticky. Portion the dough into small balls.

4. Portion out the red bean pastry filling into small balls also. And wrap the red bean pastry filling inside the pumpkin dough. Press with your palm to shape a flat disc.

5. Heat some oil in a non-stick fry pan. Place pumpkin cakes in a single layer and fry both sides over medium-low heat until golden brown, about 5 to 7 minutes. There should not be any raw flour taste when they are cooked through. Serve them hot.