Hello everyone! We are 10 days from Christmas, and I don’t know exactly what we’re going to be doing for our family celebration. We had 10 people for Thanksgiving, so we kept to our state’s limit, but for Christmas we’ll be just our immediate small group: the five of us who live here in this house plus my brother-in-law. The vaccines are rolling out even as I write this, and we don’t want to expose ourselves unnecessarily right as help is on the way. We’ll be sure to do a Zoom call with my sister-in-law and her husband at some point.
pumpkin
Complicated-but-Good Harvest Muffins
I would highly recommend these muffins, and you could leave off the topping if you want them to have less sugar. The amount in the muffins themselves isn’t too bad. You do have to measure a fair number of spices and grate apples. I kept trying to talk myself out of putting in the apples when I made this recipe for the first time, as I didn’t want to bother, but I decided I’d better go ahead and include them and I was glad I did. The combination of the pumpkin and the apple is really good, and the apples are probably counted as part of the liquid in the recipe. So it’s kind of a pain, but worth it. These probably aren’t muffins that you’d whip up for a regular weekday breakfast, but they’re very nice for a special occasion.
To get the recipe, follow this link: https://www.intentional-hospitality.com/complicated-but-good-harvest-muffins/
Small Cheesecakes with a Great Flavor Combination
A number of years ago I was asked to do the rehearsal dinner for a gluten-intolerant bride. I wanted to make a dessert that she could eat, and I was told that she liked chocolate and pumpkin. Hmmm. I hadn’t ever really thought of that flavor combination, but it sounded pretty good. So I went online to see what ideas were out there, and I came up with a pumpkin-chocolate pie, basically a two-layer cheesecake baked as a pie. It had a crumb crust, which I couldn’t use, so I needed a way to make it easy to slice and eat without one. That’s how I came up with the idea of making it in muffin cups, and I called them “timbales.” Sounded pretty classy, and they were a great hit. Awhile after the dinner we were told that what the bride actually liked was raw pumpkin from the can mixed with chocolate chips! (I could have saved myself a lot of work by just serving a bowlful of that combination.) You’ll note that the picture doesn’t have the muffin liners, and that the timbales look a bit messy. That’s because I discovered at 6:15 AM that I didn’t have any liners. They are definitely easier and neater with the liners. Since I’m not making these gluten-free any more, I’ve added the chocolate-graham-cracker crust.