(no subject)

[some_stars]

All right, I think I need to just accept that pumpkin muffins I make at home are never going to look, smell, or taste like pumpkin muffins from the store. I don't know why they can't, but clearly it is a fact.

They're perfectly nice, of course, and I will be eating all of them, but I'm missing something--probably several somethings--that I need to achieve that secret reaction that turns them dark brown, ultra-moist, and somehow closely related to gingerbread without actually tasting like it. And I don't feel like trying again, when I could be making apple muffins. So now I need to think of something to do with two 15 oz. cans of pumpkin that's not "pumpkin [baked good]." I might try the baking approach one last time for chocolate pumpkin loaf, but that still leaves 2 cups to be disposed of. I vaguely remember some kind of baked dish involving pumpkin, kale, and pasta, but it's not in the cookbook I thought it was in and I may have just hallucinated it.

Comments

[thingswithwings]

Hmmmm. Might it be missing molasses?

[some_stars]

I thought that last time--this new recipe I tried had a small amount, but it didn't really help much. I should try another batch with lots of molasses, but I really hate the smell of it raw--although I do love it once baked--so I'm reluctant. I bet that's part of it, though. If I give it another try, I'll definitely switch to brown sugar, at least.

[rydra_wong]

If molasses is too much, you could try muscovado sugar instead:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscovado

[vass]

Still a baked good, but a completely different flavour:

Pumpkin scones are an Australian regional specialty. You eat them with butter (definitely not with jam) and maybe serve it alongside a soup or something. They have a very light, simple flavour - like plain scones, but more pumpkiny.

Flo Bjelke-Petersen was Joh Bjelke-Petersen's wife. He brought down a government, she was famous for her pumpkin scones. (Okay, actually she was a politician too. But she projected the image of being just a simple housewife who made pumpkin scones.)

[laurajv]

I make a pumpkin soup that's pretty good. Don't have a recipe, though, as I eyeball it every time and change things up. Erm. It's got chicken stock, sometimes heavy cream, onions, pepper, salt, sometimes curry powder, sometimes bacon. Sometimes a whole lot of things. Can be made vegetarian or vegan with appropriate substitutions.

Any if you search ye olde intertubes for pumpkin soup recipes, the first couple pages contain variations on all my usual variations....