Pumpkin Yoghurt

It's that time of year folks. I'm officially no longer in Italy, I graduate in two months, and it's getting colder by the day. The downside is, like I mentioned, I am no longer in Italy making pasta with nice gentlemen in beautiful wineries. Okay, I'll get over it.

The good news is I'm in full on job search mode, and it's mostly fun at this point. I'm enjoying finding lots of exciting options, and crossing my fingers that I land a certain job that will let me travel around a bit. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Another good thing is that it's December so everything suddenly smells like apple cider, and people are stressing out about gifts for their loved ones, and those people that invited you to a party and you now feel obligated to get them something pleasantly mediocre.

In the spirit of gifts, I thought I'd share a few of my favorites, Ilana approved if you will (I want to get an "ilana approved" stamp made but I can't imagine anything more obnoxious, yet also incredible).

I love my Opinel knife, it's awfully handy.

This cool fella , just came out with a cookbook. I can't wait to check it out!

More amazing new cookbooks, that I would love to own: What Katie Ate, The Sprouted Kitchen, and Jerusalem.

If you're going to use measuring spoons, they might as well be adorable. Chelsea got these for me, and they 100% make baking more fun.

The sleekest bottle opener I've ever seen.

If I felt inclined to spend $58.00 on a super cozy sweatshirt, then I would be inclined to buy this one.

This beautiful watch would make a very lovely gift.

Sphere ice cube molds. This is what makes a house a home.

Cognac glass or alcohol dreidel?

I think this wallet is awesome.

And my final stamp of approval lands on this pumpkin yoghurt I started whipping up for breakfast this fall and I'm still enjoying it well into winter.

Also, I'd like to point out the neato antique nut grinder below. I found it at my Grandma's house and thought it was pretty rad. Who needs a food processor or a knife and cutting board? This baby makes sundaes possible in seconds. I think it's grrrrreat.

Stay warm out there!

Maple Pumpkin Biscuits

Remember when I told you about that job that slowly taught me how to wake up in the dark hours of morning and how it also lead me to become a self acclaimed pancake master? Well, that job also left me with another dose of knowledge: The only thing better than bacon...is candied bacon. I speak the truth. So that explains the maple candied bacon segment of this biscuit operation, and the pumpkin...well the pumpkin is because, in case you may have missed it, it's fall!

I really do have a little thing for fall. Mostly because of the boots and the gorgeous foliage but I mean, also for the pumpkin and the squashes.  The pumpkin bit really seals the deal, I mean fall-wise.

I got a little funky with the above photo because I finally managed to get my hands on the adobe suite, CS5 that is (thanks endlessly, Andy!) and while I quickly realized I know absolutely nothing about photoshop and even less about illustrator, I've still been messing around with it in my free time. If you have any tips or great information resources, I'm all ears. I could definitely use some help with this.

But back to the biscuits...

Things to consider:

This recipe totally works without the bacon, you could even add chocolate chips, or candied nuts if you want to go the vegetarian and less savory route.

You can top these babes with absolutely anything, but here are some ideas:
Butter & honey
Butter & maple syrup
Just butter and a little salt
Pumpkin puree mixed with a bit of maple or honey
Bacon and honey/maple
or the deadly pumpkin puree + bacon combo
or even pumpkin puree mixed with maple and cream cheese. woah.

After you make the candied bacon, I recommend you eat one or two slices and then chop the rest up. Also, because there is sugar caramelizing all over that lovely bacon make sure to keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn.

Maple Pumpkin Bacon Biscuits

makes about 10 large biscuits, and some extra scraps

3 1/3 cups All Purpose Flour
2 Tbl Baking Powder
1.5 tsp Kosher Salt
1 1/4 cups Pumpkin Puree
2 sticks (1 cup) Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup + 2 Tbl Buttermilk
1 Recipe Maple Sugar (above)
1 Recipe Candied Maple Bacon (above)

To start off, chop the bacon into small pieces and set aside.  In a small bowl, mix the pumpkin, buttermilk, and maple sugar and keep cold.  Also, chop the butter into small chunks and keep in the fridge.

Combine the 3 cups of the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.  Cut in the cold butter with a pastry knife or your hands so the butter remains in small pieces no larger than a pea and the flour starts to look coarse.  Do not overwork, the mix should look like cornmeal with some small chunks.

Quickly add in the pumpkin mix in.  Fold it in and do not overwork, the butter should stay somewhat chunky but a wet dough should start to form.  I did this with my hands in order to insure the dough was not over worked. Coat the dough with the remaining 1/3 cup flour and turn onto a floured surface.  Gently fold the dough until it is shaped like a disk and no longer wet.  Add more flour if needed, again work as minimally as possible.

Sprinkle with flour and wrap up.  Let dough rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Remove the dough and roll out with a floured rolling pin or press down with hands until the dough is about 1-1 1/2 inch think.

Place on a parchment lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for 25-35 minutes until they have risen up and are no longer doughy.

*If you happen to have rendered bacon fat around you can drizzle some on the top of the biscuits half way through baking.  It definitely doesn't make them worse... I suppose you could also brush some butter on top too, that'd be appropriately sinful too.