Yummy Olive Oil & Pumpkin Recipe Recipes

Fall Is In the Air–It’s Pumpkin Season

Fall will soon be here, we can feel it in the air. Those wonderfully crisp mornings turning into Indian Summer days, and cooling to crisp evening air. The leaves are turning and the kids are talking non-stop about Halloween! So our mind goes to pumpkins; pumpkin carving, pumpkin patches, and pumpkin recipes with olive oil of course.

Olive Oil & Pumpkin Recipe Ideas

Coming into fall there seems to be an abundance of pumpkins, whether you have gone to a pumpkin patch to choose your pumpkin or you have grown your own. Everyone is familiar with using pumpkin for pumpkin pie; the traditional pie of Thanksgiving, but there are so many more incredible ways to use pumpkin in your baking and cooking. We will tease you with a few good finds this month and then follow up in October with even more delectable pumpkin baking and cooking inspiration.

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds with Olive Oil

Whether you are carving a pumpkin or using a pumpkin for baking you have pumpkin seeds left over. Toasted pumpkin seeds can be made plain or with all sorts of different seasonings to make them especially tasty as a nutritious snack food. Toasted pumpkin seeds with olive oil marry to very healthy ingredients and super charge your pumpkin seeds with extra nutrients.

Directions:

• Rinse and air dry or pat dry your pumpkin seeds before proceeding with the recipe.
• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
• Choose a cookie tray large enough to coat the bottom with one layer of pumpkin seeds. A cookie tray with at least 1/2 inch sides is best.
• Distribute your pumpkin seeds in a single layer and drizzle with 1-2 teaspoons of Tastealotta olive oil. Season with sea salt and pepper and toss the pumpkin seeds to thoroughly coat them in olive oil and seasoning.
• Bake for approximately 20-30 minutes–stirring half -way through, toasting time depends on your oven. Watch your pumpkin seeds carefully during the process, you don’t want burnt pumpkin seeds. The goal is to toast them till they are golden brown and crispy.
• Let the pumpkin seeds cool on the cookie sheet and then store in an air-tight container after thoroughly cooled.

Spice Up Your Pumpkin Seeds

There are as many variations of toasted pumpkin seed recipes as you would care to ever try. From sweet to spicy and everything in between. A couple of quick hints on how to add flavoring to the toasted pumpkin seed recipe above. After you coat the pumpkin seeds with olive oil, instead of sea salt and pepper, try your favorite hot spices; maybe a smokey chili powder, cayenne, smoked paprika, or ancho chili powder in a combination that your taste palette will love.

You can make Italian toasted pumpkin seeds, Chinese toasted pumpkin seeds, East Indian toasted pumpkin seeds or for a change go for sweet. You can use many of the same spices you would use for a pumpkin pie; cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, sea salt and about 1/3 of a cup of crumbled brown sugar mixed with those spices scattered over your pumpkin seeds that have been basted with Tastealotta olive oil. A great afternoon treat, that satisfies your sweet tooth with not many calories.

Pumpkin Bread–Great with Everything

There are so many pumpkin bread recipes, most of them tend to be in the sweet bread category, which is great, but looking for an all-purpose pumpkin bread recipe that you could use with sandwiches to soups took some doing.

Ingredients for 3- 9 by 5 inch loaf pans

• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 1/2 cups unbleached all-all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 4 teaspoons ground cloves
• 6 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup olive oil
• 2 cups pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling or one large can pumpkin
• 2 1/2 cups honey
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup brandy
• 2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
• 2 cups raisins (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Sift the flours, baking powder, cinnamon, ground cloves, and sea salt in a mixing bowl. Mix the pumpkin puree, honey, olive oil, brandy, and eggs in a seperate bowl until well combined. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients stirring just enough until evenly mixed. You don’t want to overwork your batter, it makes for a less fluffy loaf.

Pour the batter into the three loaf pans smoothing it to the corners. Bake for approximately an 60 minutes, until the top is browned and a wooden toothpick comes out clean instead in the center of the loaf. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then transfer to wire cooling racks till completely cooled. One loaf can be for immediate eating and the other can be stored by being wrapped in aluminum foil and then placed in a plastic bag. Pumpkin bread may be frozen and will keep well for up to 3 months or more.

Be sure to come to Tastealotta or visit us online to see our wonderful selection of olive oils that take your cooking fro good to great! Let us know the toasted pumpkin seed mixes that you have enjoyed making and how you have adapted our pumpkin bread recipe to make it truly yours. Share your photos with us on Facebook. 

Look for more recipes next month to greet the fall season and have fun enjoying the dog days of summer.