Foodie Friday -- Pumpkin Streusel Bread

My first Foodie Friday recipe after a long break.
I had some leftover canned pumpkin and needed to find a way to use it. This recipe is the result.
And it was polished off quite quickly!

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Streusel Bread

Streusel:

¾ cup chopped walnuts

2 T butter

2-3 T sugar

1 T flour

1 t. cinnamon

Mix well, using fingers to break butter into tiny pieces.

Pumpkin batter:

1 2/3 cup flour

1 ½ cup sugar

1 t. baking soda

¼ t. baking powder

¾ t. salt

½ t. ground cloves

½ t. nutmeg

½ t. cinnamon

2 eggs

½ cup vegetable oil

1 1/3 cup pure pumpkin

½ cup water

Sift dry ingredients together. Add eggs, oil, pumpkin and water. Beat well. Pour ½ of batter into greased and floured* loaf pan, sprinkle with ½ of streusel mixture. Swirl with knife. Add remaining batter and sprinkle remaining streusel on top. Bake at 325 degrees F. for about 1 hour 20 minutes, or until top springs back. Cool on wire rack for 15 minutes. Turn out of pan and cool completely.

Tips and Tricks:

·         I’ve become a HUGE fan of parchment paper, especially since my loaf pans are the “folded” kind, which means you can never get the corners completely clean.

·         Measure parchment and fold neatly so it fits the bottom of the pan. Flatten the corner edges and staple them into shape Repeat for all corners.

·         I did spray a little Pam on the paper, but probably didn’t need to.

·         Feel free to make more streusel. I only had ¾ cup of walnuts, so I had to make due.

·         To deepen the flavor of the streusel use brown sugar—dark brown sugar will give the deepest flavor.

·         Yes, sift the dry ingredients. I have a battery operated sifter, but any type of mesh wire sieve will work. Use a spoon to work the flour mixture through the sieve.

·         If you don’t have all the spices, you could probably make due with McCormick’s pumpkin pie spice. It has ginger and allspice along with the above ingredients.

·         I had to use about ½ cup of pumpkin from a 15 oz. can for a different recipe and this was what I had left. The original recipe called for only 1 cup. If you add more pumpkin (like the entire can) you might want to cut back on the water.

·         I used the convection oven setting for this recipe. I wanted more circulation around the pan due to the longer time in the oven.

·         After removing the bread from the pan, I let it cool for a little longer before removing the parchment paper so the bread could cool completely

Foodie Friday-- Walnut Streusel Pumpkin Pie

 

 I've been really busy making the various fillings for my Christmas candy. Fillings are finally made. Christmas decorations are up. And now, I can finally catch up on my blog posts before I start the candy molding process on Monday.

Walnut Streusel Pumpkin Pie

Pastry for single-crust pie (9-in.)

Pumpkin filling: 

 

1 can (15 oz.) solid-pack pumpkin

1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk

½ cup sugar

½ cup dark brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 Tbls. flour

½ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp ginger

Cream cheese filling:

1-8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

¼ cup sugar

½ tsp. vanilla extract

1 egg, slightly beaten 

Topping:

¼ cup old-fashioned oats

¼ cup dark brown sugar, packed

2 Tbls. flour

¼ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. nutmeg

2 Tbls. cold butter, cubed

¼ cup chopped walnuts 

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate with pastry: trim and flute edge. Refrigerate while preparing filling.

In a large bowl, beat pumpkin, milk, sugars, eggs, flour, salt and spices until blended; transfer to crust.

In another bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth. Add egg; beat on low speed just until combined. Spoon evenly over pumpkin layer.

In a small bowl, combine the first five topping ingredients; cut in butter until crumbly. Stir in walnuts; sprinkle over filling.

Cover edge of crust with foil to prevent overbrowning.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees; bake 50-60 minutes longer, or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

Remove foil. Cool on wire rack. Refrigerate covered, until cold.

Tips & tricks:

·         I got none. Sorry.

·        Okay, you can buy pie crust in the freezer section or you can make your own. I made a Pâte Brisée from a Martha Stewart recipe that I happened to have. Just google ‘pie crusts’ and you will get a plethora of selections.

·         If you do make your own crust don’t be afraid to add enough ice water. Yes, too much is a problem, but too little makes for a dry, crumbly crust.

·         The key is to have the fat in miniscule amounts that it causes a ‘mini-pocket’ to form from the melted fat when the crust is cooking. This helps the flakiness of the crust. Overwork the crust, or allow your hot hands to melt the fat pre-baking will result in a tough crust from the overworked flour.

·         I wasn’t much of a fan of this pumpkin pie, but then again, I’m not much of a fan of ANY pumpkin pies, which is why I usually try to make a pumpkin cheesecake!

 Enjoy!