PUMPKIN PANCAKES WITH TOASTED PECANS AND MAPLE SYRUP

     For the past few days I've been in a series of studying all the time and getting zero quality of sleep. Today, I had two tests in University and until the last minute of them my ability to concetrate on a task was extremely difficult. But nevertheless, this day has almost come to an end, which means that I get to have some relaxing alone time until my boyfriend gets back from home and I can have human contact again. I know I sound like a crazy lonely person, but in times of extreme stress and panic, I like to get some solitude once in a while, just to get my thoughts sorted out and I can be social and merry once again.

     Now, enough talking about my emotional state and let's talk more about what fall season has to offer. A lot of opportunities for cooking is the answer. It's the ideal time to go out to the forrests and start collecting chestnuts or mushrooms or one of my favourite autumn food, the pumpkin. In my country to be honest we don't use them that often in our kitchen. So, I only discovered them 5 years or so ago. I was always interested to taste this famous pumpkin pie that Americans used to make during Thanksgiving and everyone seemed to love it. Or the pumpkin spice latte Starbucks freaks talked about every autumn. My first attempt with a pumpkin was a sweet and creamy pumpkin pie and I have to say it was pretty successful. Then came the pumpkin soup, then the pumpkin brownies and so on. This fall I am trying out different pumpkin recipes and hopefully I will be able to share them with you.

     The first recipe I gave a go at was a recipe for sweet, fluffy and oh so yummy pumpkin pancakes drizzled with maple syrup and roasted pecans. It was a big success in my apartment! My boyfriend and I devoured them and some leftover pancakes were eaten also in the evening. Lately, I've been eating like crazy due to extreme stress and fatigue, so maybe I won't make these in the very near future as I'm trying to eat more healthy whole food. Nevertheless, these are worthy of your time, especially around weekend time. Don't be afraid to add pumpkin in your pancake batter, I can assure you that these will disappear very quickly.

Pumpkin Pancakes with toasted pecans and maple syrup

ingredients (makes 5 pancakes)

1 cup flour

1 cup pumpkin purree or pulp

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 cup toasted pecans

maple syrup

How do I make it?

1. In a bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and salt and put aside. In a blender mix together the pumpkin, milk, egg,  sugar and vanilla essence and blend very well.

2. Tranfer the liquid mixture to the bowl of flour and mix very well everything together until you get a nice batter.

3. Warm a medium size pan with some butter and add a big scoop of batter to the pan. Let the pancake be cooked for a bit until the sides start to rise. Carefully with a spatula lift the pancake and flip it to the other side. Cook until golden brown (for a minute or two).

4. Continue the same with the remaining batter. To serve sprinkle on top the toasted pecans and some generous ammount of maple syrup.

SOFT CHOCOLATE CHIP AND PECAN COOKIES

     The time to snuggle is here! It's official guys. I say we all take a big fluffy blanket, cover ourselves with it and start eating comfort food all night long. It's the perfect time to start a series marathon or watch horrible horror movies along with a big bucket of popcorn or a creamy bowl of pasta. Or if you are the business type or a University student like myself, grab a nice bottle of wine, sit comfortably on your sofa and start reading a pile of mandatory articles for your courses. Whatever your choice might be, one thing is certain...Winter is coming!

     And with winter you can always expect yummy recipes to take the blues away. Like these soft chocolate cookies I made last Sunday. To be honest with you, I am very strange with my cookies. They have to smell of butter, but when you eat them they shouldn't take like all butter. Cookies must be crunchy on the outside and moist on the inside. Now, to achieve this cookie gloriousness, one needs first a good recipe and second a good oven or at least good use of the oven one has. I was looking for recipes around the net and I was disappointed to find out there aren't very good ones out there. The way I like them at least! But I was lucky to find one recipe that looked pretty good and I decided to try it out with some small changes. 

    

     As with all of my recipes before I share them with you, I want to make sure that they are good and that other people like them as much as I do to avoid any subjective feelings on the matter. So, I brought a few to my University classmates and everyone seemed to like them! In fact, most of them were thrilled, which made me a really happy girl. But I have to give credits to Backed by Rachel for the recipe, which was the base for these amazing Chocholate chip and Pecan cookies you will want to make over and over again. My batch is done and I am baking another one this weekend again! You were warned...

Soft chocolate Chip and Pecan cookies (inspired by Backed by Rachel)

ingredients

(makes 10-12 cookies)

1/2 cup softened butter

2/3 cup sugar

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup crushed pecans

how do I make it?

1. In a large bowl mix together the butter and sugar until you get a really smooth and fluffy mixture. You can see that the butter has absorbed all the sugar. Then mix in the vanilla, egg, salt, baking powder and start mixing again. Finally, start adding little by little the flour until you have mixed in the whole amount and a sort of dough is created that is really hard to mix. The dough should not leave any remaining on your hand when touched. If it's still a bit moist add some flour (a spoonful, not more). 

2. Add the chocolate chips and the pecans last and this time with your hands mix them inside the dough. This will be the hardest part, as you have to really try to insert them in the dough.

3. When you are done, chill the dough in the fridge for at least an hour. 

4. Preheat the over at 180C. Start kneeding small balls of cookie dough in the size of golfballs. You can always kneed bigger balls of dough. It depends on how big you want your cookies.

5. Put a baking sheet on a large pan and place your balls of dough keeping a fair amount of space between them, as they will spread once they are baked.

6. Bake your cookies for 12 minutes. Be precise in your time. If you want them crunchier bake them some more (about 3-4 minutes). But your whole time should not be more than 15-17 minutes.

7. Once they are baked remove them from the over and let them cool a bit. Then they are ready to be eaten!