Pumpkin Creme Brulee and Drunken Apple Sauce

So awhile back, before Lilly and I really knew each other that well, we bonded over the fact that we both enjoyed pumpkin seasonal (*coughandnotsoseasonalcough*) treats. Over the summer Lilly had emailed me this recipe, which looked amazing. However the other day when the opportunity arose to finally make it we didn't have heavy cream. However, looking at the amount of cream and egg yolks needed for this recipe made me feel for my heart, and specifically how I don't want it to feel attacked :/ I know, not something I should really worry about, but I do. 

So instead I followed this recipe, which better matched the amount of certain ingredients we had on hand. Namely, I had made a pumpkin cheesecake (maybe if you're all lucky one day I'll make a post on that, it's to die for) for Lilly's birthday and had the left over pumpkin puree (which to be honest I at no point actually measured, but I suspect it was probably a little over what the recipe called for) and 2 cups cream leftover from making whipped cream. We also had 4 egg yolks saved in the fridge from something else we had made, maybe one of the batches of muffins a few weeks ago? Who knows. I wasn't great about measure all the ingredients perfectly. I didn't use cloves, and I used 2 cups of cream instead of 1.5 and half a cup of milk. 

  

I'll admit it. I didn't bake them long enough. At all. Even after a few hours of refrigeration they were still liquid on the inside. That didn't stop me from trying one, but it made Lilly queasy just watching me do it. So the next day I re-baked them, and once they were finally cooked they were totally fine (though honestly, they were still delicious even when they weren't fully cooked!)

Side note: I'm not sure how safe it is to photograph yourself using a little butane torch, but it's certainly somewhat challenging. 

A day or two after the pumpkin creme brulee experience, Lilly and I were going to an informal potluck that I had to make something for kind of last minute. We had a few apples (four, to be exact) in the fridge that were on the brink of going bad, so I decided to make applesauce with them. For those of you who have never made homemade applesauce, you should try it sometime (it tastes amazing warm over vanilla ice cream!) it's super easy. All you gotta do is peel and chop those bad boys up and then simmer them in a pot with some water and (cinnamon) / (nutmeg) / (sugar) / (ginger) to taste (all those parenthesized things are optional, but what I tend to use). I also got this crazy idea: we had about half a glass of red wine left in a bottle that had been there for over a month. Clearly no one was about to drink it, so I threw it in the pot. And honestly? I think that was a fine decision :) 

Lazy Monday Baking

Yesterday Lilly and I stayed in and had a bit of a 'lazy' Monday. However, I don't sit still for long, feeling the ever compelling need to do something productive, so one thing lead to another and I ended up baking not one but two batches of cupcakes (well, technically muffins, but they taste like cupcakes, and I like to call them as I see them). Originally we set out to make pumpkin brulee, since I remembered to bring my brulee torch to the apartment with the last round of stuff I moved in. However, we were lacking in the heavy cream department, and neither of us were prepared to venture out into the real world to get it. So we browsed through recipes involving pumpkin until we found this one.

The recipe seemed rather healthy (as far as these things go that is). We omitted the raisins, a) because we didn't have any, and more importantly I had set out to make cupcakes, not muffins. We also didn't have cloves or allspice, so I put in a teaspoon of ground ginger instead, and me being me forgot to add the water.  That being said....they still came out delicious! :)

While I was in the process of making the pumpkin cupcakes, Lilly asked me how many bananas are needed for the banana chocolate chip cupcake recipe I make with my 3 year old cousin (in this case I use the word cupcake to trick him, but really, they're still more like cupcakes than muffins :). Already predicting where that question was leading I began to make a whole new batch of cupcakes while the pumpkin ones were in the oven. My cousin and I use this recipe for banana bread, mostly because it's ingredients are things that my aunt usually has in the house when I'm over babysitting him. However, we use chocolate chips instead of walnuts (how many 3 year olds do you know that eat walnuts?) and usually I use yogurt (anything in the plain to vanilla variety) instead of all (or in yesterday's case part of) the sour cream. Also, I pull out the potato masher and mash (or rather, my cousin usually mashes) the bananas instead of slicing them. 

Since we only have enough muffin pan space for 18 muffins/cupcakes at a time, when I made the pumpkin ones, I filled those cups up and then used a layer cake pan for the rest of the batter, so that I could rinse off the mixing bowls and get going on the banana ones. After the pumpkin cupcakes were out of the oven, I set Lilly loose on the internet to find one more thing: a recipe for cream cheese frosting. A normally easy feat, but the catch was that we didn't have any confectioner's sugar (ahh, the woes of moving into a new apartment seem to continue). All was well though, because she found a great recipe that suited our needs perfectly (note: we left out the almond extract).

I love my cake tester! so much better than wasting lots of toothpicks or raw spaghetti :)

The chocolate chip banana cupcakes we left unfrosted, although in the past I've used chocolate frosting on them, and then they really are more like cupcakes than muffins. I'm sure they'd also probably taste amazing with a little Nutella on top...but that could just be because I <3 Nuttella :)

Lilly's friend came over after dinner to partake in a little guilty pleasure TV (America's Next Top Model!), and after feeding her one of each of these she was left with the same problem we had: she didn't know which one she liked better! All in all not a bad way to spend a 'lazy' day.