Pumpkin Posting Party Recap

Thank you all for joining me last week for my fun week all about pumpkin!!  I hope you enjoyed it and found an idea or two or a recipe to try.

If you missed any of it, you might want to check out:

~ How to roast a pumpkin
~ Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread
~ Pumpkin Recipes
~ Pumpkin Decor
~ Pumpkin Truffles

Would you like to know who won my little giveaway?

The winner is:

Susie

Congrats Susie!!

Don't forget to check out all the pumpkin recipes from Wednesday's post - there are some yummy links there (if you linked up a pumpkin recipe to Dessert Friday, I also added it to the pumpkin link-up)!

Have a fabulous Fall day friends!

Pumpkin Posting Party ~ Pumpkin Truffles

Welcome back to the Pumpkin Party - it's the last day! Be sure to check out the pumpkin recipes on Wednesday's post!

Can you believe this is what I came up with? I must be crazy. I've never made truffles before (why, I do NOT know) and so I ended up making Pumpkin Truffles for my first try! Oh YES I did!! Mmmmmm...

Pumpkin Truffles

2 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (if using fresh or organic, drain off any excess liquid)
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 tablespoon oil (I used coconut oil)

Combine white chocolate chips and cream in saucepan. Stir over low heat until chocolate melts completely. Remove from heat. Stir in pumpkin and spice until smooth and blended. Chill mixture in refrigerator until firm. Remove mixture from refrigerator and roll into 1-inch balls. Place on wax paper. Place pumpkin balls into freezer for 15 minutes or so.

Combine dark chocolate chips and oil. Gently heat (in microwave or in bowl over simmering water on stove) until chocolate is melted. Dip chilled pumpkin balls into melted chocolate and coat thoroughly. Sprinkle tops with nutmeg while still wet, if desired. Place on wax paper and let sit until they set up. Store on wax paper in covered container in refrigerator.

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I'm so excited at how great they turned out! And they're really not too difficult - you can make them too! The mixture is very creamy and melts in your mouth. If you prefer it firmer, you can increase the amount of white chocolate chips in the first step. Also, these would be great dipped in white chocolate or dipped, then rolled in crushed pecans! Oh the possibilities. :)

Have you made truffles before? Are you going to give these a try?

Thanks for stopping by my Pumpkin Posting Party!  If you missed any of it, go back and check out:
 ~ Roasted Pumpkin
 ~ Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread
 ~ Pumpkin Recipes
 ~ Pumpkin Decor

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam.

Have a fantastic day friends!

Pumpkin Posting Party ~ Pumpkin Decor

Welcome to another day of the Pumpkin Posting Party!  Don't forget to enter my little Fall giveaway and link up your pumpkin recipes to yesterday's post!

I like to do a little decorating for Fall and I am developing a love of pumpkins!  I only recently put a few Fall pumpkin touches around the house - very simple!  I still have to do something on my dining table and I may decide to shift some things around more, but I'll share my current simple touches.

That's it!  Not a lot, but it gives a hint of Fall.  I do want more pumpkin decor though - will keep my eyes open for deals!  :)

Do you decorate for Fall?  Do you like to decorate with pumpkins?

Tomorrow is the last day of the Pumpkin Posting Party and it's Dessert Friday - be sure to link up your dessert posts, with or without chocolate, with or without pumpkin!

Have a happy Fall day friends!

Pumpkin Posting Party ~ Pumpkin Recipes

The Pumpkin Posting Party continues!!  I'm just sharing pumpkin recipes today and hope you'll do the same by linking up some of yours below!  Did you check out my roasted pumpkin and enter my giveaway?  Don't forget!

Yesterday, I posted Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread (yum):

But I have other pumpkin recipes posted here that I love!  Here are a few:

Pumpkin Blueberry Streusel Muffins

Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin Pudding

Pumpkin Dessert

Pumpkin Pecan Biscotti

Pumpkin-Ginger Pie with Marshmallow Topping

Starbucks Pumpkin Scones

I do love pumpkin - how about you?!  And I discovered that today's WFMW is Fall recipes!  What's more Fallish than pumpkin recipes?  So I'm linked up at We Are THAT Family today where you'll find some more good recipes and tips.

Now it's your turn to link up pumpkin recipes - any pumpkin recipes!  I will also have a link up on Friday for desserts so you can split them up if you like or even link them twice.  If you don't have a blog - tell me about your favorite pumpkin recipe in the comments!  Share the pumpkin!!

Thanks for stopping by my Pumpkin Posting Party!  Have a lovely day friends!

Pumpkin Posting Party ~ Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread

More pumpkin for the Pumpkin Posting Party!  Did you have a chance to enter my little giveaway yesterday?  And don't forget to get your pumpkin recipes ready to link up tomorrow.  You can also link up dessert recipes on Friday.

I love pumpkin bread so when I saw this recipe with a twist, I knew that I must try it!  I found it in my Heart & Soul cookbook.  I have to say though that I had passed the recipe over a few times without realizing how delicious it might be because of it's name!  The cookbook calls it Pumpkin-Cheese Loaves.  Sorry, but that sounds like a savory bread to have with dinner.  I only just realized it's pumpkin bread with a cream cheese filling - be still my heart!  :)  So I'm renaming it.  And fixing the errors in the recipe too (there were a few cookbook fails - oops)!

Cream Cheese Filling
1 (8-oz) pkg cream cheese, softened
6 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Mix cream cheese until smooth.  Add remaining ingredients and beat well.

Topping
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 tablespoon butter

Mix dry ingredients together and cut the butter in until mixture resembles cornmeal in texture.  Set aside.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread

3 1/3 cups flour
4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 2/3 cups sugar
2/3 cups oil
4 eggs
1 can mashed pumpkin (or 2 cups roasted pumpkin)
2/3 cup water
1 batch Cream Cheese Filling
1 batch Topping

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease loaf pans (1 large and 1 medium or 3 small/medium).

Make Cream Cheese Filling and set aside.  Mix Topping ingredients and set aside.  In medium bowl, combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Whisk together and set aside.

In large bowl, beat together sugar and oil until light.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each.  Beat in pumpkin.  Add dry ingredients alternately with water to mixture until all is well-blended. 

Spoon batter into prepared loaf pans, using up half of batter.  Spoon a layer of cream cheese filling over batter.  Sprinkle with half of topping mixture.  Carefully add rest of pumpkin batter.  Finish off with remaining topping.  Bake medium loaves for about an hour and large loaves for about 80 minutes, until tester comes out clean.  Cool on wire rack.

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I'd really like to try this recipe to make muffins.  I also think it would be yummy to add chopped nuts to the topping.

Do you have a favorite pumpkin bread recipe?  Don't forget to round up your pumpkin recipes to link up here tomorrow for Day 3 of the Pumpkin Posting Party!

This post is linked to Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam!

Have a sweet day friends! 

Pumpkin Posting Party All Week ~ Roasting A Pumpkin

Starting a week-long party all about pumpkin without promoting it or even giving you a hint is really not the *proper* way to do things here in the blogosphere, but hey - sometimes I'm a rebel.  :)

I've done a Fall theme week the last 2 years, so I had to do another one this year!  Welcome to my Pumpkin Posting Party!  It's all pumpkin, all week!  I've got a little giveaway for you that I'll share at the end of this post and Wednesday you can come by and link up all your pumpkin posts!  Friday will be Dessert Friday with a focus on pumpkin, but you can link up any chocolate, non-chocolate or pumpkin desserts that day!

Recently I received a free pumpkin from my friend's garden so I decided to attempt roasting a pumpkin for the first time.  There were several different methods posted online, but I ended up going with more of a steaming method.  I basically followed the instructions posted at Elana's Pantry on how to roast a pumpkin.

Here's my pumpkin!

Scooped out all the seeds and strings.

In pans with water, ready to roast.

All done!

Scooped out all the good stuff!

Removed some liquid, whisked into puree, and bagged.

Pumpkin seeds rinsed and cleaned, ready to dry and roast.

The pumpkin flesh ended up a little watery with this method, but I preferred that to the thought of it getting too dry.  This pumpkin gave me enough puree to equal 2 cans of pumpkin!  I put 1 batch into the refrigerator and made pumpkin bread with it (it was delicious with the fresh pumpkin)!  The other batch is in my freezer, waiting for just the right pumpkin recipe!  I felt like Elana's method was very easy to follow.

I did end up cleaning the pumpkin seeds - it took me so loooooonnngg because I was obsessed with getting every bit of pumpkin off of them.  Not an easy task!  Once they were dry, I roasted them with some oil and sea salt.  They did turn out yummy, but my hubs and son weren't that excited about them.  It was such a small amount for the amount of time I spent on them that I wouldn't do it again.

Have you ever roasted a pumpkin?  What method do you use?  If you've never done it, you've got plenty of time to try before making those special pumpkin recipes for Thanksgiving!

How about a little Fall giveaway?  ** GIVEAWAY CLOSED ** Sounds good to me - what would a theme week be without one?!  Here you go:

4 pumpkin napkin rings, 3 Fall cookie cutters, 2 Fall rubber stamps

One random commenter from this post will win this little collection of Fall goodies!  All you have to do to be entered is to leave a comment on this post - that's it!!  I'll pick a winner with random.org and post it next Monday 11/8.  Happy Fall!

Keep stopping by all week for more pumpkin posts!  Tomorrow I'll be sharing a yummy pumpkin recipe!  Feel free to grab the button at the top and put it on your blog to share the pumpkin!

Have a fabulous Fall day friends!!