Pumpkin Sweet Potatoes Sago Dessert

What to do with extra pumpkin on hand?  Make this!  This idea was suggested by one of my readers and I couldn't agree with her more, so easy to make and so tasty especially with lots of tapioca pearls or sago pearls.

You have to use fresh pumpkin for this.  Just cut it into small pieces along with the sweet potatoes.  You can either steam to soften and cook it or just boil them together in a pot for 20-30 minutes.  Add Chinese brown sugar pieces to taste, add in cooked tapioca pearls and lastly coconut cream.  Stir to mix well.

Good either serve warm or cold.  My hubby loved it cold with crushed ice.  Keep any leftover in the refrigerator and enjoy it cold straight out of the fridge.  This method of cooking is just like BoBoChaCha actually.  So, of course you can add in yam or tapioca strips or plantain or red bean or whatever you think is suitable.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

 

I wanted to try a pumpkin cheesecake ever since I tried it few years ago.  It was a store bought frozen kind and it was so good, the memory just stick with me.  I actually prefer the duo version where there was part white and part pumpkin cheesecake.  However, it sort of ended out this way.

You can use graham crackers instead of ginger snap cookies if you like.  Omit the nuts if you prefer. 

Look at my crack cheesecake!!!  This was my first cheesecake and it cracked badly.  Note to self, never offer to bring a whole cheesecake for a party or potluck because you never know how it would turn out.  If you have great tips on baking a non-crack cheesecake, feel free to share with this cheesecake amateur here.  :-)

Recipe adapted from Kraft Foods with slight modification.

Make an 8-inch cheesecake:

Ingredients:

19 ginger snaps

1/8 cup walnuts  (1/8 cup is half of 1/4 cup)

2 Tbsp. butter, melted

2 pkg. (8oz. each) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup white sugar

1 cup (7.5 oz.) can pumpkin

1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. cinnamon powder

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

2 large eggs

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 325'F.

2.  In a food processor, add in ginger snaps and walnuts, process until fine.  Pour in the melted butter and pulse a few times to mix.  Pour into a 8-inch springform pan and press at the bottom of the springform pan evenly.

3.  In a large bowl, beat together softened cream cheese and sugar until well blended.  Add in pumpkin, spices and vanilla, beat well.  Lastly, add eggs, one at a time and beat until blended.  Pour into prepared crust.

4.  Lined a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place under the cheesecake to catch any drip.  Bake for 45-55 minutes or until center is almost set.  ( I baked mine for 60 minutes and my cheesecake cracked, my friend told me I might be over baked, so if you are making this, check your cheesecake at 45 minutes, 50 mins. and so on) How to know if the cheesecake is done?  You gently shake the pan, if the cheesecake is done, the edge should be slightly puffed and it will be set except for a small area in the center that will be soft and jiggly.  Do not insert a knife into the center as this may cause the cheesecake to crack during cooling.

5.  Loosen cake from rim of pan, cool before removing rim.  Refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving.

Pumpkin Tang Yuan or Pumpkin Glutinous Rice Balls

Happy Solstice or Dong Zhi “冬至节”everyone!  Today is the first day of winter and in tradition, Chinese eat Tang Yuan and reunion meal on this day.  This year I made a pumpkin tang yuan or pumpkin glutinous rice balls.  I used the leftover dough from making the Chinese Pumpkin Sesame Cakes to make this.  I will show some before and after pictures in the next page.

At first I thought of serving it in a thick sweet syrup but later changed my mind and served this in my Red Bean and Black Glutinous Rice Sweet Soup.  Just have to make it sweeter as the tang yuan is plain. 

A nice bowl of tang yuan to warm you up!

Shape it into small balls with your palm, I don't have exact recipe, basically mashed pumpkin mixed with glutinous rice flour.

Then, drop in batches in boiling water until it floats on top.  Dish out and put them in cold water.  Preferably, add some glutinous rice balls in a bowl and then top with red bean and black glutinous rice sweet soup to serve.  You can add a dollop of coconut cream to fragrant it up if you like.

ENJOY!!

Steamed Pumpkin Cake (Pumpkin Kuih)

My one pumpkin can help me create so many new dishes.  If you have been following my blog, I have been popping out all sort of pumpkin recipes recently, have you even noticing it?  And it's not over yet, I still have more pumpkin recipes to share.  Just stay tuned!

I love my stir-fry pumpkin with eggs, so yummy delicious and this steamed pumpkin cake, soft and moist and so well seasoned.  It's so great eating it this way, but I also like it pan-fried because I like the crispy crust on the outside before I bite into the softness inside.

I was so happy I created this recipe.  I never thought of making this kuih in the first place but once I found out that the defrosted pumpkin was soft in nature, I had to change my plan.  Since the soften pumpkin contained lots of liquid so I needed a recipe that suitable for this.  Once I planned on making this, I realized that I only had 100g of rice flour, no more and no less, so I had to create a recipe based on 100g of rice flour.  Luckily it turned out so well and delicious.

This recipe is not hard to make at all.  If you try it, feedback to me ya! ;-)

 

Ingredients:

 

100g rice flour

50g wheat starch (Tang Mein Flour)

2 1/2 cup hot water

300g pumpkin ( I used frozen and defrosted), divided (take one piece and cut into tiny pieces, reserved for stir-frying, optional step)

4 Chinese mushroom, soften in hot water, drain, cut into tiny pieces

1/4 cup dried shrimps, soften in hot water, drain

2 shallots, minced

2 scallion, only the white part, chopped

A little salt and sugar

(A)

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. chicken powder

1 Tbsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. 5 spice powder

Dashes of pepper

1/2 tsp. sesame oil

The shape of my electric steamer bowl.  Thus, the shape of my pumpkin kuih.  :-)

Method:

1.  Heat up a wok, add a little oil.  Add in shallot, white part of the scallion, stir-fry until fragrant.  Add in dried shrimps, mushroom and pumpkin.  Stir-fry until fragrant, season with a little salt and sugar.  Dish out and set aside.

2.  If you use frozen and defrosted pumpkin, the pumpkin is already soft.  So, just process it in a food processor until fine.  If use fresh pumpkin, steam it for 30 minutes until soft and mashed it.  Set aside.

3.  In a large bowl, add in rice flour and wheat starch, whisk well.  Add in hot water and stir-well.  Add in the processed/ mashed pumpkin, the stir-fried ingredients in 1 and season it with (A).  Stir well together.

4.  Pour into a steaming bowl or container (spray it with oil first) and steam in high heat for 45 to 60 minutes.  Depending on the size of your container.  

5.  Once done, take it out, give it a little shake to loosen the edges and turn it out to cool completely.  It will harden a little when cool and easier to cut.  Keep leftover in the refrigerator.  Heat it up in a microwave or pan-fry it to serve.

6.  Serving suggestion:  Cut into pieces, top with chopped green onion, crispy fried shallot and Sriracha chili sauce.

Pureed Brown Rice Pumpkin Soup

I am not sure of whether to call this brown rice pumpkin soup or brown rice pumpkin porridge.  I made this for my little girl when she was having diarrhea and vomit since everything went into her mouth, it came right out.  I thought if I pureed the porridge, it would go down easier on her.  But guess what?  She refused to eat it, not even a taste test.  The only thing she would eat was Popsicle and of course she could have as many as she wanted since that was the only thing she would eat and won't throw up.

So, I was the one that finished this soup.  I loved it actually, it was sweet and tasted like brown rice.  Now I know what was the difference between white rice porridge and brown rice porridge.  Brown rice taste really stood out. This is suitable for baby, toddler or older people as it's very nutritious and easy to swallow.

Ingredients:

Serving for one:

One handful of brown rice, washed

Few pieces of cut pumpkin, cut into tiny pieces

1/4 cup of ground pork

Water

Salt to taste

Method:

1.  In a saucepan, add in water and brown rice.  Water for cooking porridge, about double or triple the water needed to cook rice.

2.  When boiling, add in ground pork, and scoop out whatever foam that float to the top.  Add in pumpkin and stir.  Simmer in low heat for about an hour, stirring occasionally.  

3.  When cooked, season to taste with salt.  Add a little chicken powder if you want.  Pour into a glass blender and puree until smooth.  Serve.

Chinese Pumpkin Sesame Cakes

I saw this Pumpkin Sesame Cakes in a Chinese cooking show recently.  It was a pumpkin recipes special and it featured this and a steamed variety.  For the steamed one, the cooking host shaped the dough into a little pumpkin and then steamed it until cooked.  She served it with some sort of sweet syrup.

I was attracted to this pan-fried version as it looked really tasty.  What's more I am also a big fan of sesame seeds so of course I had to give this recipe a try.  I was also curious of how it would taste like.

I gave it a bite to let you see the texture inside of this cake.  It tasted like nian gao, since it was made of glutinous rice flour I guess.  Slightly chewy and not bad at all.  Mine was not sweet enough, I would prefer it to be sweeter.

Remember to pan-frying it in low heat pan so that you won't burn the sesame seeds.  Sesame seeds burn easily in high heat.

Before pan-frying

Method:

Pumpkin,  cut the skin off, cut into half, seeded and save the seed to roast.

Cut pumpkin into slices.  Steam for 30 minutes or until soften.  Mash with a fork. Squeeze out the juice. Mix in some brown sugar, stir well.  Then add some glutinous rice flour until a dough is formed.  In a plate, spread out the white sesame seeds.  Roll the dough into a cylinder shape, cut and slightly roll it flat with your hand.  Coat both sides with sesame seeds.  Pan fry in low heat until golden brown on both sides.  Drain on paper towel.  Serve.

2 cups smashed pumpkin , 3/4 cup (less sweet)  to 1 cup of brown sugar (sweet).  I only used 1/2 cup of brown sugar and it was not sweet at all.  I think the original recipe was made without adding any sugar.

Spiced Pumpkin Walnut Cake

I cannot get enough of this cake, it is soft and moist and left you wanting more.  This is almost like my Best Ever Pumpkin Cake except it's has a little more egg with added walnut and one additional spice.  This cake is smaller and I used a 8-inch square pan to bake it.  I created this when I used 1 cup of the pumpkin puree to make the cookies and left with one more cup of pumpkin puree.  I loved pumpkin cake above all others, more than pie, cookies, soup, etc.  So of course I got to make it into a cake.

If you have canned pumpkin puree at home, give this recipe a try.  I am waiting for the Libby's canned pumpkin puree to go on sale so that I can stock up and make more of this cake.  YUM! YUM!  Oh yeah, need to buy more of the chopped walnuts too.

Ingredients:

(A)
2  large eggs
1/2 cup canola oil (or vegetable oil or other neutral oil)
1/2 (15 ounce) canned or 1 cup of pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 
(B), sifted or whisked
1 cups white sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda

(C)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350'F. Spray a 8-inch square pan with non-stick cooking spray with flour for baking.

2. In a big mixing bowl, whisk or beat together (A).

3. Then, add in (B) and stir together with a spatula until smooth and well blended or beat to blend well.

4.  Add in the chopped walnuts, lightly mix in.

5. Pour into the greased square pan and bake for 35-40 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before inverted to cool completely on a wire rack.  Best enjoy the next day.

Stir Fried Pumpkin with Eggs

Never did I know that stir-frying pumpkin can be so scrumptious.  I saved some of the pumpkin fresh from a pumpkin that we carved earlier.  I had pumpkin porridge before and I really liked it as it was sweet and filling.  But I know my girls don't really fancy porridge so I thought I would try something different.

I stir fried zucchini with this recipe and we all loved it, so why not try it with pumpkin.  It was my first time cooking a stir-frying pumpkin and it was so yummy.  The fish sauce gave this dish an extra boost.  If you have extra fresh pumpkin at home, give this dish a try!  I took this picture at night, so it did not look very appetizing, but don't be fooled by it's look, this is a dish I will make again and again.

Ingredients:

1/4 of a medium Pumpkin, julienne

1/4 cup of dried shrimps, soften in warm water and drain

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 large eggs, beaten and seasoned with soy sauce and white pepper

(A)

Fish sauce to taste

Salt (optional)

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. chicken stock powder

Method:

1.  In a heated wok, add in some cooking oil.  When hot, add in the beaten eggs, stir-fry until cooked.  

2.  Scoop the eggs to the side of the wok, add in garlic and dried shrimps in the remaining oil, stir-fry until garlic is slightly golden and dried shrimps are fragrant.  Add in pumpkins and mix all together and stir-fry well.

3.  Stir-fry until pumpkin is cooked and soften.  Season with (A).  Serve hot!

Green Tea Pumpkin Seeds

I always wanted to roast some pumpkin seeds.  My opportunity came when I had a bag of pumpkin seeds given by a library event (pumpkin carving) that we went to.  I loved green tea flavor and so automatically I wanted to try green tea flavored roasted pumpkin seeds.  This is definitely good and make a great snack.  Me and my girls all loved it.

Since this was slow roasted for an hour, we can certainly pop the whole thing in the mouth.  It's totally edible with extra fiber and crunch.  You can taste the green tea and salt.  Of course if you choose to just eat the seed, you can do that too. I did that while watching my korean drama.  LOL!

Ingredients:

1- 1 1/4 cup whole pumpkin seeds (cleaned, remove pulp and strings, wipe with paper towel and let dry)

1 Tbsp. canola oil

1/2 Tbsp. Kosher salt

1 tsp. green tea powder or matcha

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 275'F.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

2.  Mix the ingredients in a bowl and spread it on the foil lined baking sheet.

3.  Bake for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Let cool and store in an air-tight container.

(Double the recipe for 2 cups of pumpkin seeds)

Soft Pumpkin Cookies

What can represent Fall season more than pumpkin?  I just want to make something with pumpkin this time of the year.  I saw this pumpkin cookies recipe on joyofbaking Website and decided to give it a try.  The reason was simple because I never make it before.  This cookie is just like what it stated, soft and cake like in texture.  I certainly would prefer a more chewy one or crispy one.  I used sugar instead of brown sugar as stated in the original recipe, I wonder perhaps it might caused my cookies to be none chewy.  I also omitted the cream cheese frosting.  Anyway, my girls loved it nonetheless so I was glad.  Evy will bring this as her school snack.

As for me, I would love to play and experiment with this recipe some more, as I wanted a crispy pumpkin cookies instead of soft and cake like.  It's like eating a tiny piece of cake on the next day.

Recipe adapted from Joy of Baking.

Ingredients:


(A)

2 cups (260 grams) all purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoons ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (I omitted this)

1/2 teaspoon salt

(B)

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 1/4 cups (260 grams) light brown sugar (I used sugar instead of brown)

1/2 cup (120 ml) canola oil or corn oil (or other flavorless oil)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup (215 grams) canned pumpkin puree

Method:

1.  In a bowl, sift together (A).

2.  Use a electric hand mixer or stand mixer and beat together eggs and sugar until light and smooth.  Add in the rest of the (B) ingredients, beat until blended.

3.  Add in sifted (A) and beat until combined.

4.  Use a cookie scoop and scoop into a parchment lined baking sheets.  Bake in preheated 325'F oven for 15-18 minutes.   Move to cool completely on wire rack before storing.

Best Ever Pumpkin Cake

Like many others, I don't really like my pumpkin cake with a lot of spices. But I do like the fragrant of cinnamon powder but not too much. So, I created this recipe to suit my personal taste. This pumpkin cake is moist and soft and totally delicious. My keeper pumpkin cake recipe thus far. Bonus is very easy to make and absolutely divine.



Ingredients:

(A)
3 eggs
1 cup canola oil (or vegetable oil)
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
(B)
2 cups white sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tsp. baking soda

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350'F. Spray a 10-inch bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray with flour for baking.

2. In a big mixing bowl, whisk together (A).

3. Then, add in (B) and stir together with a spatula until smooth and well blended.

4. Pour into the bundt pan and bake for one hour. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before inverted to cool completely on a wire rack. Best enjoy the next day.

Pumpkin Cake

I happen to try some delicious store-bought pumpkin cakes at my friend's house recently which prompted me to make one myself. Since now is the season for pumpkin, the Libby's 15oz canned pumpkin is on-sales for $1 each. So, I grabbed some. After some research, I decided to try the Pumpkin Cake I posted at allrecipes.com.



The alternation that I made was I cut down the sugar to 2 cups. It turned out just nice for me, not overly sweet. I omitted the allspice because I don't have any and I also omitted the walnuts, easier for the kids to eat.


This cake is delicious, best eaten the next day when the crust has soften, easier to slice too. I store my cake in air-tight container.


Just want to show how moist and soft this pumpkin cake is! The spices are not too overpowering, just nice. A very festive cake indeed!


Lastly, while presenting you with this Pumpkin Cake, I want to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year! For those who don't celebrate Christmas, Happy Holidays to you too! :)