pumpkin

Thanksgiving | (Part 1) Pumpkin Brown Butter Cupcakes

| Holidays, Recipe

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Martha Stewart’s pumpkin sage brown butter cupcakes are a seasonal favorite of mine, especially when paired with brown butter icing. This year, I made a batch of mini cupcakes for the workplace, saving of course a healthy tupperware full of them to snack on at home! Here is the recipe, with a few tips:

Pumpkin (Sage) Brown Butter Cupcakes
Makes 12 regular cupcakes, or about 30-32 mini cupcakes.

  • 170g (¾ cup or 1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter
  • 210g (1 ⅔ cups) all-purpose flour
  • ¼ cup fresh sage (chiffonade)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 220g (1 cup) packed light brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • Brown Butter Icing (recipe follows)

1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Line muffin tins with paper liners, or brush with butter and dust with flour.

2. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the sage, if desired, and continue to cook, swirling occasionally, until butter turns golden brown. Skim foam from top, and remove from heat. Pour into a bowl to stop the cooking, leaving any burned sediment behind; let cool.

3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, both sugars, eggs, and brown-butter mixture. Add flour mixture and whisk until just combined.

4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 20 minutes for standard cupcakes and 10-12 minutes for mini cupcakes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

5. To finish, dip top of each cupcake in icing, then turn over quickly and let set. I prefer to use a smaller bowl with a deeper pool of icing. If icing separates or does not smoothly coat the cupcake (e.g. icing has trouble sticking to cake), add a little more milk to the icing and mix well. Decorate as desired — I added some white chocolate curls this time. Cupcakes are best eaten the day they are glazed, keep at room temperature until ready to serve.

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Brown Butter Icing
Makes 1 cup

  • 113.5g (½ cup or 1 stick) unsalted butter
  • 250g (2 cups) sifted confectioners’ sugar
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons whole milk, plus more if needed

1. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, swirling pan occasionally, until nut-brown in color, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and pour butter into bowl, leaving behind any burned sediment.

2. Add confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons milk to brown butter, stir until smooth. If necessary, add more milk (up to 2 tablespoons) a little at a time, until the icing is the right consistency. Use immediately.

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Thanksgiving | (Part 2) Apple Rose Tarts & Pumpkin Cake Tarts

| Holidays

 

Continuing with my theme of using ingredients I had on hand, I also made apple rose tarts and pumpkin cake tarts for Thanksgiving (for co-workers, Friendsgiving and the actual family get-together). Although quite simple in theory, the apple tart in particular can be labor intensive if you hand slice your apples like I did. I think I told myself I was practicing my knife skills . . . but I would recommend using a mandolin slicer if you’ve got one!

The apple tarts are inspired by my baking friend Anjali, who in turn was inspired by a Pinterest post. The crust is a Pâte Brisée, and the rose is made from thin slices of Gala apples, coated with some sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice and melted butter.

I also added an apple compote (using Golden Delicious apples) underneath the rose to add flavor and moisture, which I think makes a big difference. After baking, I brushed with some apricot nappage for a glaze.

 
 

The pumpkin tarts use a Pâte Sucrée crust, baked with the same pumpkin brown butter cake batter I used for my Thanksgiving cake.

 
 

After baking, I leveled the top of the tart-cake, brushed on the brown sugar simple syrup, and then topped with mascarpone mousse.

Both were tasty treats and great for gifting. My personal favorite is the apple tart!

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Thanksgiving | (Part 1) Pumpkin Brown Butter Cake

| Holidays

For Thanksgiving this year, I made a pumpkin layered cake, inspired by . . . ingredients on hand. I recently moved, and while I am excited to have a more functional oven and kitchen, I haven’t had time to organize the pantry or find all of my tools. Looking at what I had (canned pumpkin, nuts, butter, sugar, mascarpone mousse for Friendsgiving tarts), I decided to make this cake with brown butter sage pumpkin layers, butterscotch pecan filling and mascarpone mousse frosting, with white chocolate leaves and cake crumbs for decoration.

The brown butter sage pumpkin cake comes from Martha Stewart, the butterscotch pecan filling comes from annie’s eats and the mascarpone mousse is one of my favorites from Extraordinary Desserts that I’ve used multiple times.

 

Brown Butter Pumpkin Cake with Butterscotch Pecan Filling

Makes one 9″ cake, or 12 cupcakes

Filling: 

  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • Small squeeze of fresh lemon juice (optional, helps prevent crystallization)
  • 1¼ sticks (5 oz.) unsalted butter, cubed
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 cup chopped toasted pecans

 Cake: 

  • ¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter
  • 1 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour
  • ¼ cup fresh sage (chiffonade)
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs

Also make mascarpone mousse (or any other frosting such as buttercream) and a simple syrup (try brown sugar).


Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Make the cake: Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add sage strips and cook until butter turns golden brown, 5 to 8 minutes. Transfer mixture to a bowl; let cool slightly. Meanwhile, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. In another bowl, whisk together pumpkin, brown sugar, eggs, and sage-butter mixture. Add flour mixture; whisk until incorporated. Pour batter into floured pan; smooth top with an offset spatula. Bake until done (about 60 minutes, or when a cake tester comes out clean). Cool, wrap and chill in refrigerator or freezer.
  3. Make the filling: Warm heavy cream in a small saucepan (do not boil). In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar and lemon juice and stir with a whisk to combine (add water as necessary to resemble moist sand). [Note: If you’re comfortable making a wet caramel, consider skipping the lemon juice. I added too much and ended up with a citrusy filling instead of a true butterscotch flavor.] Heat until sugar caramelizes into a golden amber color. Remove the saucepan from the heat and carefully add the heavy cream slowly, whisking constantly to incorporate. Whisk in the butter, a couple cubes at a time, stirring to incorporate completely before adding the next portion.
  4. Cool the butterscotch in the refrigerator at least 45 minutes, until the mixture is no longer warm and has a slight chill.  Place the chilled butterscotch in a stand mixer bowl and beat for about 2 minutes, until it has thickened and lightened. Fold in the chopped pecans.
  5. Cut cake into 3 layers. Brush cake layers with brown sugar simple syrup, spread filling, repeat, and cover cake with mascarpone mousse. Freeze until ready to decorate and serve. 
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