As Pittsburgh starts to finally creep into fall, I, like many others, am very excited for all the seasonal flavors, pumpkin in particular. Not just pumpkin spice (which is delicious), but actual pumpkin puree. Pumpkin is a flavor that’s both very familiar and very versatile, and it’s especially suited to baked goods. In case you’re a lacking a little bit in inspiration, I have a couple of my favorite recipes with pumpkin and a few more I’m planning to try this fall.Â
Recipes I know (and love)
- Pumpkin Cake
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Pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting is truly one of the easiest and most rewarding things you can make with pumpkin, and one of the pumpkin recipes I use most often. I actually have two recipes for the price of one here, Parsley and Icing’s Pumpkin Olive Oil Cake and The Toasted Pine Nut’s Moist Gluten Free Pumpkin Cake, both of which I have made and enjoyed. Toasted Pine Nut’s recipe is great if you’re planning to make the cake for someone who has dietary restrictions, as it’s already gluten free and very easy to make dairy free as well.Â
- Pumpkin Muffins
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These Simply Pumpkin Muffins from Sally’s Baking Addiction are another easy thing to whip up, and they’re a sweet treat that is satisfying and full of pumpkin flavor. I often add dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips to these, and they can also be made with gluten free flour. These muffins and the pumpkin cake recipes I mentioned above have both been popular with my roommates, but especially the muffins, which my roommate Alison refers to as “Kaitlyn’s Famous Pumpkin Muffins.” Although I can’t take credit for the recipe, I do highly recommend it!
- Pumpkin Dinner Rolls
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I took Culinary classes as one of my electives in high school, and one of my favorite things I ever made were pumpkin dinner rolls with cinnamon sugar butter. They were soft, fluffy, and slightly sweet, with just the right amount of pumpkin flavor. Unfortunately, I didn’t save the exact recipe, but this recipe I found comes incredibly close. These rolls are a little bit more labor and time intensive than the first two recipes, but they are definitely worth it (and making bread is fun!).
Recipes I’ll be trying this fall
- Vegan pumpkin spice cookies
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A few days ago, I discovered this recipe for vegan pumpkin spice cookies from School Night Vegan that not only sound delicious, but look super cute too! They’re actually made of two simple doughs that you combine to create a nice swirl effect and add some dimension to the flavor. I’m a big fan of cookies, but it can be hard to find cookie recipes that actually have that pumpkin flavor, so they are definitely on my to-bake list in the next couple weeks.
- Pumpkin Roll
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Not to be confused with pumpkin rolls (like the ones above), pumpkin roll cakes are a layer of pumpkin sponge cake covered in a layer of cream cheese frosting and rolled, which create their signature log shape with pretty swirled ends. Historically, I don’t have the best success record with roll cakes (I tend to botch the actual rolling part), but this recipe sounds worth eating even if it falls apart.Â
- Pumpkin cinnamon rolls
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Cinnamon rolls are another fall classic, and a big holiday food in my family, but I have actually never had a version that includes pumpkin puree in the dough, and it’s something I feel I need to try. What’s not to like? This recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction looks delicious, and might just be part of my family’s Thanksgiving spread this year, if I have anything to say about it.Â