Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Sheet Cake

One of the food blogs I like to follow is Picky Palate.  It is not a GF food blog, but many of her recipes have been very easy to convert.  This is one of the latest of her recipes that I tried and they are delicious!!  Happy Halloween everyone.

1 box  Betty Crocker GF Yellow cake mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk or buttermilk
3.4 ounce box Vanilla Instant Pudding Mix
1/2 cup sour cream
15 ounce can pumpkin
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cups powdered sugar
1/4-1/2 cup heavy cream (start w 1/4 cup and add a little more cream if needed

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and spray a jelly roll pan with non stick cooking spray.
2. Place cake mix, eggs, oil, milk, pudding, sour cream and pumpkin into a stand or electric mixer, beating until well combined, about 1 1/2 minutes. Pour into prepared pan, spreading evenly.
3. Place butter into a microwave safe bowl and melt, about 30-40 seconds. Add brown sugar and cinnamon to bowl, mixing until combined. Drizzle mixture evenly over cake then take a knife and run it through to swirl.
4. Bake cake for 30-35 minutes, until cooked through and remove. Place powdered sugar and cream into a large bowl and mix until creamy and smooth. Drizzle over warm cake then let cool for 20 minutes before cutting into squares. Refrigerate if not serving same day.  Enjoy with milk!

Makes 16 to 20 squares

Gooey Pumpkin Bars

These are soooo yummy!!  A friend brought some over this past weekend that were not GF and they were delicious.  I asked her for the recipe.  It turns out it is one of Paula Deen's recipes.  All I did was switch out the cake mix for a GF one and voila!!  They can be served with or without cool whip.

Cake:
1 Betty Crocker GF Yellow cake mix
1 egg
8 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar (equals 2 C)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.

Refrigerate any leftovers.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Just in time for fall and the upcoming holidays. There is something about pumpkin, cream cheese and chocolate all together at the same time!  They freeze well (without the frosting) and they are super moist and yummy.  Even without frosting on top they are a very delicious cookie. I have to thank my friend Erin for sharing this recipe with us. 

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

1 cup shortening, (butter flavored) (I used softened butter)
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree,
2 cups GF Flour (Four bean flour) (I used Featherlite)
1tsp Xanthan Gum
1 tsp Egg Replacer (did not use)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon, ground
1 vanilla pudding, instant, 3.4 oz. package (sugar free optional)

Icing
1 16 oz. cream cheese, container of frosting
maple flavoring to taste or make cream cheese frosting from scratch and add maple flavoring
I just used cream cheese flavored frosting

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter flavored shortening and sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla then stir in the pumpkin puree.
3. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and vanilla instant pudding mix; gradually mix into the pumpkin mixture. (The dough will be very tacky and you may want to add ⅓ to ½ cup flour to the mix to be able to roll the dough and to adjust for high altitude to keep the cookies from spreading out as much when they bake).
4. Roll into walnut sized balls and place them two inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
5. Bake for 12-15 minutes in preheated oven, until lightly browned at the edges. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

**I ended up using about 2 ½ -2 ¾ c of flour.
I also like to add about a half a bag of chocolate chips

Tuscan Pumpkin Soup

The name and color of this soup was very daunting to me but I really wanted to try it. It was actually pretty good. You don't really taste to much of the pumpkin, more so the chicken broth.  It tastes very similiar to chicken noodle soup, only orange!

Tuscan Pumpkin Soup

2 TB Olive oil
2-4 cloves minced garlic
2 celery stalks chopped
½ large onion chopped
6 C chicken broth
1 15 oz. canned pumpkin
2 C cut, cooked chicken or turkey
1-2 cans great northern white beans (rinsed and drained)
Parmesan cheese

Sauté in olive oil:
Garlic, celery and onions

Smooth together:
Chicken broth and pumpkin

In large pot, add chicken/turkey and beans with all other ingredients and heat thoroughly. Serve with parmesan cheese on top.

**After following the first two steps, I combined mine in the crock-pot and let it simmer for a few hours.

Pumpkin Pie

I found this recipe here and thought it looked pretty good. It has a very simple crust and has the great flavor of pumpkin pie. I needed something quick and easy to take the kids for their Thanksgiving lunch and this did the job! The only changes I made was that I used Cool Whip instead of the sour cream and honey topping and I did not have any evaporated milk, so I used 2/3 C dry milk powder and 3/4 C water as a substitute.


Pumpkin Pie bars

For the crust:
1 1/4 c rice flour mix
1/4 t xanthan gum
1/2 c brown sugar
a pinch of salt
a stick of butter
1 T milk, water, or eggnog (!)

For the filling:
1 can pumpkin (15 oz)
3/4 c brown sugar
a pinch of salt
1 t cinnamon
a big pinch of ginger and clove and nutmeg
2 eggs
1 can evaporated milk (12 oz)

For the topping:
1 c sour cream
1/4 c honey

Preheat the oven to 450. Blend together the first four crust ingredients, then cut in the butter. You can do this in a food processor or by hand. Stir in whatever liquid you're using, and press into a greased 8x8 pan and set aside.
Stir together pumpkin, sugar, spices and eggs, then stir in the milk. Carefully pour over the crust and bake 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 and bake for another 45-50 minutes until set.
Let cool. Combine the sour cream and honey, and pour carefully over the top. Cool to room temperature.