trick or treat

Devilishly good pear and mandarin orange that thinks it’s a pumpkin. What good can come from this?

Delightful sweets to begin party with! 

Big muffins

muffins

130 g light brown sugar

180 g all purpose flour

30 g cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

60 ml sunflower oil

2 eggs

zest and juice from 1 mandarin orange

one huge pear, 250 g, peeled and diced

crumble topping
3 tbsp all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder
35 g cold butter, diced

3 tbsp granulated brown sugar
1/4 tsp ground cardamom

Preheat oven to 200°C and line a muffin pan with 12 muffin cases. Beat eggs, sugar, oil, zest and juice from a mandarin orange by hand. Mix the flour, cocoa powder, ground cardamom and baking powder and add this mixture, beating gently, to the egg mixture. Fold in peeled and diced pear and  spoon it into the prepared muffin cases.  Fill cases 3/4 full.

Crumple topping

In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and cardamom. Add butter and mix with your hands until mixture is crumbly, sandy. Add sugar and mix everything with a spoon. Sprinkle crumble on top.

Bake muffins for 25-30 minutes.

Happy Halloween!

tagliatelle with roasted pumpkin sauce

I like using long, flat pasta not only for this sauce but whenever. And this is hardly a sauce, maybe it would be better to call it roasted pumpkin and walnut pesto. If you are using pumpkin puree from a can then no cooking is required. You simple blend all ingredients and wait for pasta to be ready.

Or when you bake a pumpkin leave some in a freezer and simply defrost when needed.

Put a large pan of water on to boil. When starts boiling season well with salt and cook the pasta (cook the pasta according to packet instructions). Amount of sauce serves 4, but you can use only few spoonfuls and leave the rest in a jar refrigerated until next time (if you decide to cook only for yourself)!

While pasta is cooking, make the sauce.

Ingredients

4 heaped tbsp pumpkin puree (roasted pumpkin puree)

2 handfuls of toasted walnuts

about 120ml milk

two slices of staled bread (use crust if you like)

one clove of garlic

grated Parmesan or Pecorino (about 40g)

about 3 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Place bread on a plate, get milk over it and let soaks in. Toast the nuts in a dry pan. Place walnuts, bread and milk and all other ingredients in a blender and mix until you have a thick sauce. Scoop the sauce out in a jar.

Take some cooking water out from the pan where pasta is cooking. Place drained pasta back in a pan and add the sauce. If you are cooking for yourself, 120g of pasta, use about 2 tbsp of sauce and 3-4 tbsp of cooking water. Adding cooking water helps the sauce adhere and makes sauce creamier. Toss everything and that’s it. Serve with fresh dill and chopped walnuts on top.