The mysterious chef known as Dude made a Sweet Coconut Pumpkin Soup. I cut up a raw sugar pumpkin, peeled it and sliced it into bite sized pieces. This is a challenging bit of prep that I recommend you leave for an adult. We had about two cups of pumpkin and put it in about 3 cups of boiling water. Once the pumpkin is soft, add 1 cup tapioca strings, 2 cups of coconut milk, and a jar or two of coconut jelly squares. Soup for dessert? Yes! I have developed a real taste for the sweet "soups" of India with a strong cup of authentic masala chai.
Now for more muffins! Extremely Inconvenient Banana and Chef Bobula made Browned Butter Pumpkin Muffins, the first of three different pumpkin muffin recipes the students baked. The secret to this recipe is melting and then browning the butter on the stove (careful not to burn it!) which gives the muffins an extra rich, nutty flavor. (Note: We cut out some of the sugar in this recipe by at least half a cup.) Chef Vanilla Icing and Chef Icer made pumpkin muffins that were dense and moist and Make it Mika and Chef Chocolat made Muffin Tops which were light and delicate. I really liked Chef Vanilla Icing and Chef Icer's recipe because of its simplicity--another potential bake sale recipe.
Chef E W made Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Brownies which are a bit more complicated than the other recipes because it involves dividing the batter in half and mixing one half with melted bittersweet organic fair trade chocolate and the other half with pumpkin puree. It takes a bit more time and effort, but it's certainly worth it. These brownies are absolutely decadent!
One recipe that was a bit too fussy for us to make at school was the Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake chosen by El Gwaco, Chef Majipe, and John Redford. I made this at home (omitting the pecans) and we had a taste of it at school because it takes a long time to prepare, bake and chill. Cheesecake was the most expensive recipe we tackled, because the cost of the cream cheese really can add up. I halved the recipe to make it more affordable. I also used light cream cheese to cut down on the calories which tastes just as good as the full fat cream cheese. Besides, wouldn't you rather be able to top up the decadence factor with some whipped cream on top? Oh how I LOVE whipped cream on cheesecake! Not to mention some caramel sauce. Sigh.
Finally, we made some Old Fashioned Pumpkin Cookies with Chef Lenie and Chef C. Canned pumpkin is perfectly acceptable in recipes like this one. These cookies are soft and cakey in texture and Chef Chef made an icing with icing sugar, vanilla, buttermilk, and melted butter. El Gwaco, Chef Majipe, and John Redford and drizzled the icing over the cookies while they were still warm.
I hope you try some of these recipes at home with your family.
Bonne Chance et Bon Appetit!
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