The Pumpkin Pie Spice

The Fall brings with it a wonderful variety of colours, of shades, of flavour and...tastes! We here at the Bowl are really in love with the Fall, it's the perfect season for poets, for artists, for sensitive soul and...geat yummy food! Today we want to talk to you about a special ingredient, a great companion for one of the Fall's gastronomical stars: the Pumpkin Pie Spice!

This mix of spices was invented in America in order to have a stronger pumpkin experience. The spices that form this mix are quite strong, if you take them one by one, but alltogether they're great and so harmonious.  You can make it at home using cloves, the Jamaica "Allspice" pepper, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. The Pumpkin Pie spice is used also in a very well known coffeehouse chain, for its typical Pumpkin Pie Spice Latte, a very original "latte". Many was upset when they found out that their pumpkin latte actually had no pumpkin taste in it! og course, you can use at home you Pumpkin Pie Spice to sip a great cappuccino! 

It is worth saying that the Jamaica "Allspice" it isn't actually a "true" pepper, is rather a dried "berry", and its taste may reminds you a mix of spices like the nutmeg, the cinnamon and the ginger. The Pumpkin Pie Spice is used in many pumkin-based pies and drinks. A very versatile ingredients, indeed! Let's see how to prepare it!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp of cloves powder
1 tbsp of Jamaica "Allspice" pepper in powder
3 tbsp of cinnamon in powder
2 tbsp of ginger
2 tbsp of nutmeg

Procedure:

Ready? Mix all the spices together until you obtain a pretty homogeneous mix. When you mix it, you'll smell the magic taste of these spices becoming one! You can put your Pumpkin Pie Spice in a little jar and keep it ready to use. We advice you: this spice may cause serious addiction! Use this mix for your Fall pumpkin pies, or also for your frappè or your smoothies! There's no best way to enjoy the fall and the foliage than tasting fall's very own tastes! It's a great colourful season, you gotta love it!

(Fall) Season greetings!

Pumpkin cheesecake with salted caramel and pecan nuts

Today we bring you a special recipe to celebrate Halloween! We and our friends bloggers have decide to make something special and fun at once. We decided to fill up the internet with Pumpkins!

Have you ever heard of a Hop Blog? We neither...or at least we didn't until a week ago or so. How can I describe it? Well, it's a sort of "flash mob" made by bloggers: many different blogs decides to post about a single topic all at once at a given hour of a given day. This Hop Blog is pumpkin-themed. So, at the end of our post you'll find a lot of links that are our friends' blogs. They all talk about the same thing, there's a lot of fuss about the pumpkin there! You can find a lot of great blogs about many different areas of interest, DIY, decoration, recipes, you name it! Don't miss this chance, hop from a blog to another!

We all know how truly and deeply american Halloween is, so...what's better than having a great cheesecake? We love cheesecake, and to adapt it to this occasion, we decided to add a little bit of pumpkin to it, along with salted caramel (yummy!) and the uber tasty pecan nuts.

Detail of our Pumpkin cheesecake, or "Pumpcheese cake" 

Ingredients: (for a 20 cm wide mould)

For the base:

• 1 pack of Digestive cookie
• 2 tbsp of brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of well minced nuts (or the dried fruit you've chosen)
• 1/2 cup of melted butter

For the cake:

• 800 g.approx. of Philadelphia-like cheese
• 200 g. of sugar ( 150 brown + 50 white)
• 400 g. of mashed pumpkin*
• 1/4 cup of heavy cream ( 60 ml aprox.)
• 4 middle-sized eggs
• 1 tsp of Pumpkin pie Spice*
• 2 Tbsp of corn starch
• 1 1 tsp of vanilla

Pumpkin pie Spice

For the caramel topping: 

• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of water
• 190 ml. of warm heavy cream
• 20 ml of unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp of salt
• 1/2 tsp of vanilla
• Pecan nuts to taste

Preparation: 

We'll use a springform cake tin some 20 cms wide. We'll start by greasing the pan and putting the baking sheet on the base to prevent the cake to stick to the pan.

Start with the base of the cake. To do so, mince the cookies and toss it all (the cookies and the rest of the ingredients) into our pan and press them with a spoon or a spatula until we get an uniform base. We want a base without edges and smooth. We put this aside.

For the filling, add the creamy cheese to our Kitchen Aid (with the leaf on) or our handheld mixer and mix it until you get a very uniform cream.

Next, add the mashed pumpkin and the sugar. Keep on beating at slow speed to avoid that the air enters into our cream.

Add the heavy cream and the corn starch. Add the eggs, one by one. We do not add another egg until the previous one is still not well incorporated.

Add the spices and the vanilla. Beat it all well (at minimum speed) and pour the mix into our mould, above the cookie base.

Next, we pop it into the oven at 150°C, we will cook it with above and below heat without fan for about an hour approximately.

When you take it off the oven, let it cool completely in a rack. To remove the cake from its mould it's better to avoid until it's cool. The best thing is to cook it the day before you eat it, in order to let the cake develop a great texture in the fridge. It's a very smooth cheesecake that will surely reminds you of a pudding.

Preparation of the salted caramel:

While our cake is in the oven, we can cook the salted caramel for our topping. To do so we take a pot, we add the sugar and the water and we heat it at medium-low heat until the sugar melts. Very important is to never stir.

When the sugar will have completely melted we rise the heat until we start seeing a golden brown colour (or about 8 to 10 minutes). Then we low a little bit the heat and we pour paying great attention and little by little the heavy cream (that we've previously warmed it up) and we stir energically with a wooden spoon. Be very careful on this step because the caramel cause painful burns (personal experience)

We turn the heat off and we add the butter, the vanilla and the salt, we stir it and there you have it! Let it cool and...try to resist the temptation to put the finger inside the caramel, because it burn!

We decorate our cake as we want, with the caramel, the pecan nuts and...let's enjoy it!

Do not forget to visit the other pumpkins!

Pumpkin time | . | Topper para cupcakes de calabaza | . | Calabaza en tacha | . | DIY: Calabazas pintadas | . | Calabazas, castañas, boniatos y bomboncitos | . | Blog hop Halloween | . | Calabaza tré chic | . | Bizcocho de calabaza especiado | . | Pumpikinized Portraits | . | La noche de Halloween, la leyenda de la calabaza | . | La magia de las calabazas | . | En otoño, calabazas… |. | Happy Halloween la calabaza scrappi | . | Pumpkin Cake with Ginger-Mascarpone Frosting |. | Detalles con calabaza | . | Smoothie de calabaza, piña y manzana |. | Y a ti, ¿te dan calabazas? |. | Globeando | . | Cheesecake de calabaza con caramelo salado y pecanas | . | Un cupcake para Hallowen: Pumpkin spiced cupcakes | . | Jugando con calabazas | . | La calabaza y la luz | . | Calabazas para Halloween : sello handmade & freebie | . | Kreativity | . | Adoptar tradiciones: calabazas de halloween  | . | calabaza + miel | . | Bruna Bruneta: Contes macabres

Cheesecake de calabaza con caramelo salado & nueces pecanas

Hoy os traemos una entrada especial para celebrar Halloween, nosotros y nuestro fantástico grupo de amigas blogueras hemos querido hacer algo especial, algo divertido para la ocasión. Hemos decidido llenar la red de calabazas! 

Han oído hablar alguna vez de un Hop Blog? para ser sinceros nosotros hasta hace poco tampoco jeje. Se trata de una especie de " flash mob" jeje entre bloggers, donde todos, bajo una misma temática ( en este caso la calabaza!!), publiquemos un artículo el mismo día a la misma hora. Así que al final de nuestra receta de hoy, podréis encontrar los link que os llevarán a esta cadena de blog unidos por la calabaza! jeje, podréis encontrar de todo, decoración, DIY, fotografía, recetas... no os lo perdáis! a saltar de un blog a otro ;) hop, hop, hop!

Halloween es una fiesta americana por excelencia así que por qué no hacer una tarta tan "USA" como una cheesecake?! Adoramos las tartas de queso, así que para adaptarla a la ocasión, hemos hecho una versión con calabaza, nuestro adorado caramelo salado ( ñam ñam) y las riquísimas nueces pecanas! 

Tarta de queso de calabaza, nuestra "Pumpcheese cake" particular

Ingredientes: Para un molde de 20 cm de diámetro

Para la base:

• 1 paquete de galletas tipo Digestive
• 2 cucharadas de azúcar morena
• 1/2 taza de nueces ( o el fruto seco elegido) bien picadito.
• 1/2 taza de mantequilla derretida

Para la tarta:

• 800 g. aproximadamente de queso 
• 200 g. de azúcar ( 150 morena + 50 blanca)
• 400 g. de puré de calabaza
• 1/4 taza de nata ( 60 ml aprox.)
• 4 huevos medianos
• 1 cucharadita (1 tsp) de Pumpkin pie Spice ( especias de tarta de calabaza)
• 2 cucharada ( Tbsp) de maicena ( almidón de maíz)
• 1 cucharadita (1 tsp) de vainilla

Pumpkin pie Spice

Para la cobertura de caramelo: 

• 1 taza de azúcar
• 1/2 taza de agua
• 190 ml. de nata templada
• 20 ml de mantequilla sin sal
• 1 cucharilla de sal
• 1/2 cuchara ( tsp) de vainilla
• Nueces pecanas al gusto

Preparación: 

Usaremos un molde de aro desmontable de 20 cm de diámetro. Empezamos engrasando el molde y poniendo papel de horno en el fondo de este para evitar que nuestra tarta se pegue.

Preparamos la base de la tarta. Para ello trituramos las galletas, añadimos a estas el resto de ingredientes de la base y trabajamos un poco con una cuchara o espátula hasta obtener una masa homogénea. Distribuimos la masa en el fondo de nuestro molde y presionamos hasta conseguir una base sin bordes y lisa. Reservamos.

Para el relleno, en el bowl de nuestra batidora ( con el accesorio de la pala) o con una batidora manual, añadimos el queso de untar y batimos a velocidad baja para conseguir una crema homogénea. 

Seguidamente añadimos a la crema el puré de calabaza y el azúcar.Seguimos batiendo siempre a baja velocidad para no incorporar aire a nuestra crema.

Añadimos la nata y la maicena. Añadimos los huevos, de uno en uno. No añadimos un huevo hasta que no esté bien integrado el anterior.

Por último añadimos las especias y la vainilla. Batimos bien ( siempre la mínima velocidad), y vertemos el relleno en el molde, sobre la base de galletas.

Con el horno precalentado a 150ºC, horneamos con calor arriba y abajo ( sin ventilador) durante una hora aproximadamente. 

Al sacarla del horno la dejamos enfriar en una rejilla. Para desmoldarla es mejor esperar a que esté fría. Lo ideal es prepararla el día antes de consumir, para que coja mejor textura en la nevera. Es una tarta de queso muy suave que recuerda ligeramente a un pudín.

Preparación del caramelo salado:

Mientras nuestra tarta está en el horno, podemos hacer el caramelo salado para nuestra cobertura. Para ello cogeremos un caldero, introducimos el azúcar junto con el agua y calentamos a fuego medio - bajo hasta que el azúcar se disuelva. Importante! no remover.

Cuando el azúcar se haya disuelto subiremos el fuego hasta que empecemos a ver una tonalidad dorada (este paso tardará unos 8 ó 10 minutos). Entonces bajamos el fuego y con mucho cuidado vertemos poco a poco la nata (que habremos templado previamente), y removemos enérgicamente con una cuchara de palo. Mucho cuidado en este paso porque quema muchísimo! (doy fe ajajaja).

Apagamos el fuego e introducimos la mantequilla, la vainilla y la sal, removemos y listo! Dejamos enfriar (intenta controlar la tentación de meter el dedo jajaja...que quema!).

Decoramos nuestra tarta al gusto con las nueces pecanas, el caramelo y...a disfrutar!

Pumpkin time | . | Topper para cupcakes de calabaza | . | Calabaza en tacha | . | DIY: Calabazas pintadas | . | Calabazas, castañas, boniatos y bomboncitos | . | Blog hop Halloween | . | Calabaza tré chic | . | Bizcocho de calabaza especiado | . | Pumpikinized Portraits | . | La noche de Halloween, la leyenda de la calabaza | . | La magia de las calabazas | . | En otoño, calabazas… |. | Happy Halloween la calabaza scrappi | . | Pumpkin Cake with Ginger-Mascarpone Frosting |. | Detalles con calabaza | . | Smoothie de calabaza, piña y manzana |. | Y a ti, ¿te dan calabazas? |. | Globeando | . | Cheesecake de calabaza con caramelo salado y pecanas | . | Un cupcake para Hallowen: Pumpkin spiced cupcakes | . | Jugando con calabazas | . | La calabaza y la luz | . | Calabazas para Halloween : sello handmade & freebie | . | Kreativity | . | Adoptar tradiciones: calabazas de halloween  | . | calabaza + miel | . | Bruna Bruneta: Contes macabres

Pumpkin Pie Spice ( especias para la tarta de calabaza)

Cuando pensamos en el otoño, nos vienen a la mente ciertos colores, tonalidades, aromas y sabores. Personalmente nos encanta este periodo del año, para nosotros es la estación de los artistas, de la creatividad y los buenos propósitos, pero no podemos olvidar nuestro lado " gastronómico" y es que, en este periodo se llenan los mercados de muchísimas frutas y verduras de temporada que no pueden ser más buenas! Entre estos ingredientes, hay uno muy especial que destaca en estos meses por encima de otros. Estamos hablando de....la calabaza!

La calabaza es una verdura muy utilizada en la cocina, ya sea para preparaciones dulces o saladas. En Estados Unidos, la calabaza es la protagonista de uno de sus postres estrella, la famosa "pumpkin pie" o tarta de calabaza. Esta tarta tradicionalmente lleva una mezcla de especias, que los americanos han llamado "pumpkin pie spice", que aporta un sabor equilibrado y característico. 

Esta mezcla de especias suele encontrarse en los comercios como si de una sola se tratase, pero nosotros la hemos mezclado en casa, así que anímate y hazlo tú también! 

Las especias de tarta de calabaza ( pumpkin pie spice) son : clavo, canela, jengibre, nuez moscada y pimienta de Jamaica. Esta última se conoce también como "all spice", porque como sabor recuerda ya por sí sola a muchas especias en una, que nada tiene que ver con la pimienta que todos conocemos, ya que tiene un sabor suave a canela con nuez moscada y jengibre, todo en uno! ;)

El pumpkin pie spice, se usa no sólo en la la tarta de calabaza, sino también en muchas otras preparaciones. Es famoso por ejemplo, el capuccino o frappelatte especiado de una famosa cadena de cafeterías ( Pumpkin Pie spice latte). A pesar de su nombre, esta bebida no contiene calabaza, lo que confunde a muchos consumidores que buscan el sabor de esta verdura. Pero aun así, un buen cappuccino especiado con esta mezcla puede llegar a ser delicioso!

Veamos lo fácil que es preparar en casa la mezcla de especias:

Ingredientes:

• 1 cuchara de clavo
• 1 cuchara de pimienta de Jamaica
• 3 cucharas de canella 
• 2 cucharas de Jengibre
• 2 cucharas de nuez moscada

Estas son las proporciones que nos gustan a nosotros, podéis variarlas al gusto.

Preparación:

Coge un tarro, bote o recipiente cualquiera, introduce las especias en polvo y mezcla! 
Ya tenéis vuestra Pumpkin pie spice casera para cuando la necesitéis. 

Un saludo y a disfrutar del otoño! ;)

Pumpkin sweet in 3 simple steps

The pumpkin cake or sweet we're talking about today is one of those recipes perfect for any time of the year, since it has to be eaten cold and without a spoon. It's perfect for celebrations, snacks or even party where guests help theirselves, everyone with a piece of this cake and happy with that!

Furthermore, it's so easy that you've no excuses! You can prepare it in a few moments and for the rest you've got your dear friend: mr. Oven! ;)

Ingredients:

• 1 Kg. of pumpkin
• 4 eggs
• 300 g. of flour
• 200 g. of sugar
• 250 ml. of milk
• 125 ml. of olive oil
• 1 drizzle of liquor (optional)
• 1 Tsp of Royal
• 1 Tsp of Vanilla extract
• 1 tin can of condensed milk ( 370 g. aproximately) 
• lemon zest

Preparation:

1- We cut, peel and cook well the pumpkin, then we let it dry well, and we shred it with a food processor.

2- We add all the remaining ingredients to the shredded pumpkin, and stir it well until we obtain an homogeneous mix. Remember to sift the flour befor adding it to the mix, in order to avoid bulks.

3-Grease with butter or with olive oil your mould (in my case, a rectangular mould of 30x18 cms), pour the mix in it and we cook it in a preheated oven at 120°C for some 75 minutes or so.

Our cake in the oven

And there you have it! Ready! Let it cool down, take it off from the mould and cut it into pieces. Once it's completely cold you can put it into the fridge to preserve it longer.

It's a very smooth and creamy sweet. If you're like me and you don't dig pumpkins, you'll surely like it anyway, as I do! Try it and it will surprise you!

Greetings!

AnGie

Fast homemade bread

Have you got two spare hours? If the answer is "yes", then I invite you to do this "fast bread".


The world of breads is really limitless, and step by step we'll bring you more and more recipes for you. But it may seems a world that needs skills or long lasting processes. Exactly for this reason, we want to start with fast breads that we can do without particular ingredients or day-lasting fermentation. Fall in love with the traditional bread! Get back to the true bread, a bread that tastes like bread and not what we can find in every mall everywhere. We've already published other kinds of breads, like the Mediterranean Bread. In this case, we won't bring you aromatized breads, since we have no starter, but we'll add flavours with the ingredients everyone will choose to add according his fantasy. Making bread at home is really fun, satisfactory and even relaxing. You can even use quality flour, a whole or cereal one,  to let the breads be even healthier...let's get started!

Ingredients:

• 550 g. of flour 
• 275 ml.warm water
• 10 g. of salt
• 25 g.of fresh yeast
• poppy seeds, oregano, sesame (you choose, it's for the decoration)

Preparation:

1º- Put the flour, the salt and the warm water in a bowl, then mix it all together until you obtain a dough, at this point we add the yeast, breaking it into small pieces with the fingers, and keep on mixing. The yeast is to be added to our dough later, otherwise our dough will over-ferment, and to avoid the contact between the yeast and the salt, because if so, the dough will not ferment at all.

2º- Our dough has to become elastic and have not to be sticky on our fingers. If needed, just add more water.

3º- In a surface covered with flour, use your dough to create a sort of ball, then make a cross on it (in order to be sure that the dough will not break when it will be put to rest a while) and let it rest with a kitchen towel for some 10-15 minutes.

The dough before the rest

the dough after the rest

4º- After that, flatten the dought with your hands, to take out all the air, and divide it into as many pieces as you want, we can do small balls of 45 grams each, we can do many mini baguettes, a single big bread...you decide! In my case, I've done many little breads, some with poppy seeds, others with oregano, others with pumpkin seeds, others with oat. I've done some oregano baguette, use your imagination!

Breads before the fermentation

5º- Once that you've finished the bread balls, wet the surface with water to let the seeds stick well. If you want to do a baguette, just use your rolling pin and press the dough and enroll it. Then jus add some cuts to the surface, and there you are!
Once our breads are ready, we'll put them in a tray to let them rest for about 30 minutes. It's preferable that you let them in a wet place, or you can also put it into the oven at 40° Celsius with a water bowl on the inside. In this way it will grow a lot!

enroll the pressed dough like this to obtain baguette

6º- When the rest is over, just pop the tray into the preheated oven at 180°C for about 20 or 25 minutes. We don't want them to become too golden brown, a trick to achieve that is to watch the bottom of the bread, if it starts to become golden brown, then it's ready ;)

Breads ready to go to the oven

It would be great if you eat them in the same days, but if not you can freeze them and then defrost them when you'll eat them, or put it out of the fridge some minutes before, then put it over a hob and it will be just great!

If you usually do bake breads, I would advice you to conserve a little bit of the dough into the fridge, and in this way we will have a sort of a starter that we can add to the dough in our next creation, giving it a better taste. In this case, instead of adding 550 grams of flour, we will add 500 grams of flour and 50 of  the starter dough.


These breads are just perfect for the breakfast, for a snack, for an "aperitivo" or even for homemade mini burgers. Try them how you prefer and tell us about them!

Greetings with loads of breads and happy flower month!

Angie