Ahhh, you guys, I love October!! Not only is it the month of my anniversary 🙂 but in my opinion it’s also the quintessential autumn month. It’s not too cold yet, but each day it becomes increasingly clear that summer is definitely over.
Like everyone else, this time of year I gravitate toward cozy food and drink. And, of course, baked goods! There is nothing better than warm, spicy-sweet aromas drifting through your house. Nothing.
The craving for in-season produce like squash, pumpkin, etc. comes pretty naturally to me, but being a blogger adds serious fuel to the fire, as I spend a portion of each day ogling photos of all the delicious things that my virtual friends are concocting all over the world. I read and bookmark away, and then later decide what I’m going to actually make by factoring in time, ingredients I already have, etc.
So even though I’ve been doing this for the past several weeks (and let’s face it, years), this week the baking bug finally bit me hard enough that I just dove right into it. Check out some of the results!
Pumpkin Spice Doughnuts with Pumpkin Pecan Glaze, by Morgan of Fo Reals Life (click for recipe)
This was my first-ever attempt at making donuts and it definitely will not be my last. I actually saw this recipe, died, then came back to life and immediately went to A.C. Moore to buy a donut pan. SO worth it. These were delicious, light, cakey, not too super-sweet, and the toasted pecans add wonderful texture and flavor. If you don’t have a donut pan, get one (mine cost 6 bucks). But if you can’t wait to make these until you get one, they also can be made into muffins/cupcakes, like so:
Just add about 3 minutes to the baking time. (Also, please forgive my dirty countertops. I probably should have taken 30 seconds to clean up after baking and before taking pictures but I was just too excited about stuffing my face to bother.)
Pre-glaze:
Post-glaze:
And I don’t think I even need to tell you how good these smelled during and after baking. Yum!!
Next I made Pumpkin Waffles with Maple Cashew Cream by Sarah of The Sweet Life blog (click for recipe).
I have to admit this was also my first time making waffles (I KNOW). H and I got a waffle maker as a wedding gift two years ago but I never took a stab at making anything on it until this week. And, lest you think that every kitchen experiment I undertake turns out well, be advised that my first three waffles were an utter disaster. See:
Now, I’m going to have to pin this one on the manufacturer for providing absolutely NO instruction whatsoever about the quantity of batter to be placed on the iron at any given time. They just wouldn’t hold together when I opened up the maker. Rather than be deterred, however, I adjusted the amount of batter and employed varying amounts of cooking spray (on the supposedly non-stick iron, I might add) until I managed to produce a few of these:
Once I had figured out how to actually make normal waffles, I really enjoyed them! The waffles were soft, lightly sweet and not-too-pumpkiny, and surprisingly filling. This was a really fun and delicious fall breakfast for H and me.
And worry not! I didn’t throw out the ugly waffles. No, I made “waffle ball sundaes” out of them by warming them up and then topping them with leftover maple cashew cream AND leftover pumpkin glaze from the donuts, plus toasted pecans. BOOM. That’s how we come full circle.
I may have gained 10 lbs. this week.
But I’m not done yet.
The next thing I am dying to try, but just haven’t yet had the time to, is this Oatmeal Pumpkin Loaf by Kathy of Happy. Healthy. Life. (click for recipe).
I’m just posting about it in case anyone isn’t aware that this exists and wants to get a jump on making it. That’s all.
Happy, happy Fall!
A.Cook in the Making 