Gingerbread Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes with Brown Sugar-Spice Pecans

You might not feel proud to serve these unpretty cupcakes to discerning guests. They appear deflated, a heavy mound of sugared pecans atop a soft gingery crust sinking into a creamy pumpkin crevasse. Oh well. You can just bake these for yourself and your friends with bad eyesight. If their tastebuds work, it’s a sweet autumn treat.

For lighter cupcakes (about 200 calories each), skip the pecans and top each cupcake with a dollop of Soyatoo! whipped cream.

Makes 12 cupcakes

Pumpkin pie filling

8 oz (1 cup) pureed pumpkin
6 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 Tbsp cornstarch
6 oz silken tofu

Gingerbread cupcakes

4 Tbsp Earth Balance margarine
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup soymilk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup graham flour
1 1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda

Brown sugar-spice pecan topping

1 cup broken pecans
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3 Tbsp Earth Balance margarine
1 Tbsp soymilk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice

1. Mix all ingredients for pumpkin filling in a blender; set aside.
2. Cream margarine & powdered sugar in large bowl. Add brown sugar, molasses, & soymilk. Mix well.
3. Mix flours, spices, salt, baking powder, & baking soda in medium bowl.
4. Fold flour mixture into liquid mixture until thoroughly moistened (but not too much).
5. Spread about 1 Tbsp of gingerbread batter onto bottom & sides of each of 12 regular muffin cups. Then spoon about 1 1/2 Tbsp of pumpkin filling into each cup. Top with remaining gingerbread batter.
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 350° F for 25-27 min. Let cool completely, at least several hours.
7. To make pecan topping, stir all ingredients together and heat in small saucepan over medium heat until bubbling. Allow to bubble for 3-5 minutes; stir and remove from heat. Let cool about 8 minutes before spooning onto cooled cupcakes.

Yogi Tea for Delicious Digestive Health

As I let my body recover from two years of bulimia nervosa, I’ve been feeling the grief from my belly. To get my digestive system to stop complaining, I’ve been eating soy yogurt and drinking a lot of cold Yogi Green Tea Kombucha. I usually don’t drink unsweetened iced tea, but this stuff alone is yummy and deliciously fragrant with lemongrass, spearmint, and passion fruit. Hot or iced, it’s just so good I have to recommend it, especially to those like me who wish to kick a diet soda habit.

Each tea bag contains about 30 mg of caffeine. The ingredients are listed as: organic green tea leaf, organic lemongrass, organic spearmint leaf, organic kombucha, natural passion fruit flavor, natural plum flavor.

Halloween Dinner of Orange & Black

My Halloween dinner: Orange-Chipotle Glazed Tofu from Vegetarian Times, black quinoa cooked with scallions in dashi broth, roasted orange cauliflower with pepper and black sea salt, and dabs of black fermented garlic puréed with soy sauce, olive oil, and rice vinegar.

Dessert: several candy bars and a showing of American Psycho.

I picked up this fermented ‘black’ garlic at the local Whole Foods. It’s rather expensive, but has a really strong fermented flavor (like miso) and a little should go a long way. The cloves have a weird, almost jelly-like texture that purées to a pudding-like consistency. I think it would go best with Asian cooking, although the package recommended it on pizza, burgers, or anywhere you’d like.