Pumpkin & Pomegranate

The first stirrings of Autumn are here. We got a lot of rain this weekend. Much needed rain. To most of the country Seattle seems like a damp and dreary place. What most people don’t know is that our annual rainfall isn’t all that much. We have gone through a drought this Summer and last weekend’s rain shower was blessed relief. Not only did it water all the plants, but it created a cozy atmosphere that was just too delectable. I wanted to snuggle and watch movies, and so that is pretty much what we did on Sunday. I was taking care of some animals for a friend, and her 23 year old cat is diabetic, so she needed to be fed early in the morning. I dragged my chilly butt out of bead and drove through the drizzle to feed the little sweet one. I then crawled back into bed an hour later and fell  asleep.  We woke up around 12:30 and Matt immediately got to work on making me breakfast.

I need not say how much I adore pumpkin. If you need a reminder, check out the title of this blog ;-) I find pumpkins to be magical. Mock me if you like, but I do have belief in some kind of magic, be it just joy sprinkled throughout our lives, something metaphysical, or whatever you want to call it…I feel it with pumpkins. not just pumpkins, but they are a big one. I know, it is silly. Get over it. They taste good :-)

I decided I wanted pumpkin pancakes and worked on a quick recipe. The problem here is that I decided on too much pumpkin, too little everything else (like eggs necessary for binding the coconut flour). Basically we had fried mush the first go around. We don’t throw away food, especially when it tastes so good, so we did consume the first plate of mush (equal to 3 small pancakes). They tasted like pumpkin pie, and I thought they would work perfectly as little pumpkin custards. We didn’t have ramekins, so Matt pulled out a muffin pan and he made these babies. I am still going to work on a pumpkin pancake, but this will probably come up again. Just like pumpkin pie, without the crust! In fact, you could easily pour this into a pie pan and bake it for a little longer. I am sure it would be excellent.

Mini Pumpkin Custards

Ingredients:

• 3 Pastured or Backyard Eggs
• 1 15oz. Can Pumpkin Purée
• 5 T Coconut Milk
• 1 tsp. Vanilla
• 1T Virgin Coconut Oil, melted
• 1 T Date Sugar
• 5 T Coconut Flour
• 1 tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice
• 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp. Sea Salt
• Raisins
• Raw Pecans, chopped
• 1 T Virgin Coconut Oil, melted (for oiling muffin pan)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F.
2. Lightly beat the eggs and combine with pumpkin purée, coconut milk, coconut oil, and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl sift together the dry ingredients making sure to get out all the clumps.
4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and stir in the raisins and pecans. Use as many or as little as you like.
5. Using a pastry brush, grease the muffin pan with the coconut oil.
6. Fill Muffin tins halfway with the batter.
7. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until top is golden and custard is set. Let cool a couple of minutes before sliding a knife under each custard to release them from the tins. Serve with apple sauce.

For the applesauce we just chopped up 2 sweet apples, sprinkled them with pumpkin pie spice and simmered them covered on the stove for a few minutes until they turned into applesauce. Yum!