DIY Pumpkin Puree: Instead of Libby's

There's something about pumpkins. When the bright orange globes start sprouting on doorsteps around town, you know that fall is in full swing, with Halloween and Thanksgiving sure to arrive before you can say, "gobble, gobble!"

When my son was small, the season usually meant a trip to a pumpkin patch to pick out perfect candidates to carve into jack-o-lanterns with face-splitting grins. Sometimes a slight detour took us to a haunted house--and once to a cornstalk maze where a scary guy with a chainsaw tore after us (supposedly there was no chain in the saw so it couldn't actually do any real damage--or so my husband assured me while laughing hysterically).

No chainsaws in this North Carolina corn maze
 Photo credit: hallfamilyfarm.com

One thing I never did with those pumpkins was to actually cook them. I recall trying it once and making a pumpkin pie that was stringy--something a pumpkin pie should never be. It was a lot easier to purchase a can of Libby's and make the recipe on the back.

Lately, I've been in DIY mode--probably something to do with starting this blog. I figure I can experiment with anything edible, and, if it doesn't turn out, I'll just write about it; my readers will presumably be entertained and learn what not to do--for instance, how not to make a stringy pumpkin pie (yeah, just open a can!).

Inveterate googler that I am, I searched online for how to make pumpkin puree. I found pretty acceptable directions at a site called PickYourOwn.org. It suggests a few different ways of cooking a pumpkin--baking, microwaving and steaming among them. Knowing how long it takes to bake a dense winter squash in the oven, I opted for steam. I used one of the two pie pumpkins (sometimes called sugar pumpkins or sugar pie pumpkins) I'd purchased at Trader Joe's. Apparently, the large jack-o-lantern types are more likely to turn out stringy, though all are edible. This one measured only about 6 inches across.

I chopped it in half with a sharp knife. PickYourOwn recommended using a serrated knife and a sawing motion, but I used one with a straight-edge, stabbing the point into the orange flesh, then cutting around the sphere until it fell away in two pieces. I scooped out the interior with a heavy-duty ice cream scoop, set the seeds aside to bake later, scraped away the pesky little strings that adhered to the pumpkin's interior walls and cut off the stubby green stem.

Next, I chopped the pumpkin into pieces small enough to fit into my 3.5-quart steamer, put water in the pot up to just below the bottom of the steamer basket, then popped the pumpkin pieces inside, put the lid on and turned on the burner.

After first allowing the water to come to a boil, I turned down the heat and cooked it for about 25 to 30 minutes, poking  a fork into the pumpkin meat occasionally to see if it was soft. When it was, I took off the lid to let the pumpkin cool for a bit. Then came the fun part: scooping out the goop with a spoon. It came away from the rind pretty easily and wasn't at all stringy. Samples of the orange goo were sweeter than I expected and definitely more flavorful than the canned variety. I fantasized about mashing it with a little butter, brown sugar and nutmeg and eating it for dessert. But I'll save that for a future blog.

To make sure there were no lumps or strings, I used my Cuisinart hand blender to puree the mixture (a food processor might work even better). That was a little tricky. The blender works great for liquefying soups, but this mix was a bit thick, so I had to add some of the leftover pumpkin water, which helped. In a few minutes, the mix turned into a gorgeous orange mush. My pumpkin yielded about 2 1/2 cups. Yours might make more, depending on its size, but I was happy with the result. The downside was the entire process took almost 2 hours.  On balance, I might just open a can next time!

Don't forget to check out my recipe for a lighter (but still delicious) Pumpkin Pecan Bread!

Caramels: From My Home Kitchen to Yours

I love to bake, but candy-making is something I've seldom attempted--until now. A recent visit to Good Karmal, a thriving caramel business in Bozeman, Montana, inspired me to take up the challenge of making these luscious, chewy confections in my own kitchen. After all, Halloween is just around the corner. What could be more appropriate than caramels to tame the cravings of neighborhood trick or treaters--or your own little live-in monsters?

A Google search turned up a promising recipe for "How to Make Soft, Chewy Caramel Candies," with clear directions and pictures from a website called The Kitchn. My only beef was the use of corn syrup, which I usually avoid--particularly the high-fructose variety. However, the other components--butter, cream, sugar, salt and vanilla--seemed perfect. Using 1/4 cup of organic corn syrup didn't sound like a major ethical lapse, especially as organic foods aren't permitted to contain GMOs--the genetically modified organisms that have become such a focus of controversy lately. If the recipe didn't turn out as expected, I figured  the worst that could happen would be that I'd end up with caramel soup--and then I'd just make a batch of caramel apples!

Caramel ingredients include cream, butter, sugar, salt, corn syrup, water and vanilla.

The ingredients and directions for making the caramel are clearly spelled out at the site, so I won't go into as much detail as you'll find there. Instead, here's the recipe and a few pictures from my first caramel-making experience, with basic steps and captions to tell you what I did and how it turned out. The pictures are not a step-by-step guide, so be sure to check out the original recipe for more specifics and suggestions.

Soft Caramels

Ingredients

1 cup heavy cream

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 cup corn syrup

1/4 cup water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Prepare a caramel mold by lining an 8x8 baking dish with parchment sprayed with nonstick spray. Make sure some of the paper is hanging over the edges.

Butter melting, melting... What a world!

Over medium heat, melt the butter in the cream in a 2-quart saucepan and remove from the heat.

Volcanic action in the saucepan!

Combine the sugar, corn syrup and water in a 4-quart saucepan, with an instant-read thermometer attached to the side. Without stirring, cook the syrup over a medium to medium-high heat until the mixture begins to bubble around the edges, then turns into a whitish-brown frothing mass. 

At about 250 F the sugar syrup will begin to boil rapidly.

After the sugar mixture reaches 250 F but before it reaches 325 F, turn off the heat. Gently whisk the butter-cream mixture into the heated sugar syrup. It will bubble up quite a bit.

Magic effect of heat turns the buttery mix to liquid caramel.

Return the pan to medium to medium-high heat. Let the mixture boil without stirring until it reaches 245 F to 250 F. It will turn from a whitish bubbly mixture to a darker caramel color.

Cool caramel in parchment-lined 8x8 pan for at least 2 hours.

Remove the pan from the heat and whisk the vanilla into the caramel. Pour the caramel mixture into the lined 8x8-inch pan. Let it cool for at least 2 hours, preferably more. It should be solid enough to lift from the pan.

Cut caramels with a sharp knife. Spray with oil if it sticks.

When the caramel has set, lift the square of candy from the pan by the parchment flaps and set on a cutting surface. (I left the caramel in the parchment, which the knife ended up shredding, so it may be a better idea to remove the paper before the slicing begins.)

The caramels taste the same, whether you cut straight or not!

Cut the caramels into lines using a sharp knife. I used a 5" Victorinox Fibrox knife that I sharpened a little on my father's old sharpening blade.

Cut crosswise to make rectangles.

I found that my caramels were firm enough so that the knife didn't stick, but if it does, a quick spray of oil will do the trick. Also, try cutting more with the knife point than with the edge.

Wrap in wax paper, cut a bit longer than your candies.

Good Karmal candies (my models!) are wrapped in clear cellophane, which might be pretty for the holidays. I used wax paper, less fancy, but it worked fine as well. Using a more generous amount of paper than you think you need makes for a good firm tie. Remember to twist the ends in opposite directions.

Observations and Notes

Amounts & shelf life: The recipe claims to make 55 caramels, but I managed to get 73 out of my batch, with a few uneven bits ending up in the scrap pile (actually, we taste-tested them!). According to the recipe, the candies have a shelf life of two weeks at room temperature.

Temp reading: An accurate candy thermometer that hooks onto the side of the pan is essential. Mine kept sliding to one side out of the mix, so I had to adjust it and tilt the pan to make sure the tip was immersed in the liquid, allowing a temperature reading.

Potential eruptions: Walking away from the bubbling mass isn't a good idea as it is likely to burn or boil over. Also, make sure the larger pan you use is the appropriate size. The recipe calls for a 4-quart saucepan, but the only one I have is 3 1/2 quarts, which proved adequate.When you whisk the butter-cream mixture into the boiling sugar syrup, it will churn up like a volcanic eruption, so high sides are a plus!

Chocolate-dipped caramels + one lonely pecan

Variations: Check out endnotes for The Kitchn website's recipe on making salted, gingerbread or chocolate caramels. I tried my own experiment, dunking several of my finished caramels in a melted combination of equal parts dark and semisweet chocolate, with a tablespoon or so of added vegetable shortening. The result was delicious--but isn't anything dipped in chocolate?

Taste test: The caramels were chewy and sweet. I might try increasing the vanilla and salt next time to add more character. It would also be fun to experiment with flavors, such as espresso, mocha, ginger, chai or green tea.

P.S.: As my caramel-making experiment went so well, perhaps I'll tackle fudge next! If so, you'll read about it here.

Gift idea: Caramels in a Hersheypark Carousel tin replica

Tips for Food Bloggers (or Wannabes) from a Master

It seems that everyone's a food blogger these days. But when Nicole Weston started hers in 2004, she had only come across a handful of other food blogs and just thought of it as a hobby, never dreaming it would become a full-time profession.

"My intention was to motivate myself to bake more," she told a class of would-be and novice food bloggers at the New School of Cooking in Culver City recently. "I really liked baking and thought this is a chance to enter into a community and to do a little bit more of what I liked to do and meet some other like-minded people."

Weston's little writing enterprise--at the time called Bakingsheet--morphed into the wildly popular blog Baking Bites, which also has a prominent Facebook presence. Named as one of the top 50 food blogs in the world by the London Times, the blog gets more than a million views a month and tops 2 million during the holidays. It's easy to see why, what with a large repertoire of imaginative and delicious recipes (like the Sticky Toffee Pudding she baked for our class and served with her signature Vanilla Bean Brown Butter Ice Cream and toffee sauce). The site also offers ingredient, gadget and product reviews (example: Candy Corn Oreos); baking tips and how-to's; comments and links to some favorite recipes from other blogs; and useful social media highlighting her own take on food.

Add to that this accomplishment a cookbook--The Baking Bites Cookbook--and you have to wonder how this woman looks so relaxed when she clearly works like a fiend! Could it be that in addition to her cooking and writing life, she's an avid horsewoman and partakes in the competitive equestrian sport of dressage? Obviously, that's the secret of burning off a few of those baking bites!

And what's Weston's advice on how to create a successful food blog?  Here are some points she made:

1. Content is key.  "For me, bar none, it is the writing that is the most important thing. You need to make it clear to the reader why they should come back." Her main concern when she posts a recipe is, "Is it simple enough to make?" Her favorite response from readers is that they made the recipe and it came out perfectly. Her second favorite? They changed everything, and it still turned out great!

2. Good photos are a big plus. Excellent pictures will help entice people to check out your site, but without consistent, useful and interesting content, photos alone probably won't hold readers. You don't need a big expensive camera; your iPhone or a point-and-shoot can work.

3. Find your voice. Whatever your interest--whether family recipes, restaurant reviews, road food, home cooking, or, as in my case, a mix--putting your personal stamp on the blog is crucial. The writing and focus will likely change with time, growing more defined as you find your way.

4. Post regularly. Your readers need to know they can to find new and interesting content on your site and when to expect it. Weston recommends posting at least two or three times a week. She writes daily, usually in the early morning, baking and taking pictures of the goodies in the late morning and early afternoon. As for what to post, Weston finds it helpful to have a list of stories, subject to change based on reader feedback and her own inclinations.

5. Use social media. Without it, it's hard to get the word out about your blog and to get the feedback that helps you build it up. Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are the most important; Weston's website has links to all of these, as well as to YouTube. As part of this effort, check out and learn from other people's blogs, post comments, and seek connections with other food blogger interest groups.

6. Look for what's trending. If everyone's writing about Cronuts or bacon cupcakes, then jumping on the bandwagon with your own version might just draw more attention to your blog. Tying into holidays, seasonal ingredients and celebrations in a creative way is another avenue to readers. Not surprisingly, Halloween themes are front and center at her blog right now, with plenty of pumpkins, apples, and a particular favorite, vampires! Check out the recipe for her Vampire Cookies, pale white cookies with a bright red jam filling.

7. Just do it. "Even if it's not perfect, push that publish button," Weston advised. Sticking with it and paying attention to the consistency and quality of your blog will eventually bring visitors. "Don't be discouraged. Keep putting out that quality content. Keep making it better. Keep educating yourself and share that information with your readers and you're going to build an audience."

At a million page views and counting, I'll take your word for that, Nicole!

Weston making Guava Cream Cheese Bacon Puffs, New School of Cooking 

Listen to a sound clip from my brief interview with Nicole Weston: