Pumpkin pumpkin everywhere!

And I do mean everywhere… I tried to be clean but I’m afraid during my culinary experimenting tonight my kitchen got a wee bit messy. *sigh* The cooking/baking/experimenting is SO MUCH FUN but the cleaning up isn’t. Oh well, doesn’t stop me from makin the mess! Whee!

So… pumpkin pumpkin…

From these bad boys....

... to this! Mmmmm pumpkin!

Oh I love fall and squashes and Thanksgiving and PIE!  So I told you, in my last post, about Susan’s Impossible Pumpkin Pie (which, by the way, I did not eat all of, so I get to share it with friends tomorrow!), but today was for something else pumpkin-y.  I wanted to bring more than one thing to our work potluck, so along with the pie, I decided on Tofu Devils (more on those tomorrow, Oooh can you wait?) and something else with pumpkin… But what to make!?  I decided to make babies! Pumpkin Pie Babies that is! ( I swear, Katie, you’ve created a monster! Babies are an obsession, I’m not even kidding.)

Since I am taking to a potluck, I doubled (then ended up doubling again. And again!) the recipe, so for info’s sake, this is what I went with:

My Version of CCK’s Pumpkin Pie Babies!

• 125 g. canned pumpkin (approx.)
• 30 g. cashews (didn’t have almonds!)
• 80 g. dates
• 10 g. coconut oil
• 1/8 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 tsp each cinnamon, ginger and fresh grated nutmeg

And my poor Magic Bullet… is’ headed to the ‘lil Pearly Bullet gates in the sky – I could begin to smell it’s poor lil motor starting to burn up ACK! I will cry when it finally kicks over It’s had a good run though! (ok enough.) Just blend all in a processor (bullet!) until well mixed.

NOW, I’ve made other kinds of babies based on CCK’s recipes, and they’re always perfect, roll them into little balls in your hands babies. These did not do that. The ‘dough’ was very very … soft? Not runny but there was NO way you could pick it up. So I used my cookie scoop and just scooped little balls onto a plate covered with parchment paper and put in the freezer. (The reason I add a bit of coconut oil is to help them hold together, since it’s hard when cold!)

They. Taste. AWESOME. OMG you want some, no, really.. I’m telling you that you want some, Lol!

Pumpkin Pie baby "batter"

Little Pumpkin Babies, ready for the freezer!

Ok, so while they were cooling, I was tryin to think, what else do I make? I don’t know why I thought of chocolate.. maybe cause I read a lot of CCK? But I started thinkin how decadent would it be to dip the pumpkin babies in chocolate? OMG I just got a brand spankin new container of unsweetened cocoa from my mom (Thanks momma!), I could so try this!  So I based my chocolate ‘dip’ off of CCK’s Homemade Artisana Cacao Bliss, but didn’t add the agave. (I made it with the agave last time and it had been pretty thick… so I didn’t figure it’d work for dipping).

My recipe for a Fabulously Dark Chocolate Fondue is similar to hers, just modified to be pretty thin.

60 g. melted coconut oil
20 g. unsweetened cocoa powder (any type, and more or less to change the bitterness to your tastes!)
1/8 tsp vanilla
1/16 tsp (approx) powdered stevia

It’s SO delish and dark and bitter and.. hardens onto the thing you dip in it! AND since I was cooling my Babies in the freezer to help them harden up, they were really cold to start with and the chocolate hardened almost immediately!  I must say… I got some kinda carried away with the chocolate and made some pretty fancy Babies.

Just look at me and my bad self! Woot woot! Heehee…

Ok, so a sneak on tomorrow’s post, Tofu Devils!

AND, I’ve got another experiment going on in the fridge right now, inspired by THIS. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow!

For now, I’m headed to bed – the wee man has been wakin up at like 6 lately UGH! Goodnight blog-o-sphere!