The Recipe Box - Cinnamon Pumpkin Biscuits

We grew pumpkins aplenty this year. Even after gifting a few to family members we still have more then enough to get us by for the foreseeable future. Lucky we are a family of pumpkin soup lovers. 

One of the best things to have in your freezer over winter is precooked pumpkin and chicken stock. When the soup mood takes hold a simple, nourishing and delicious meal can be made with quickly. I like to roast up a whole pumpkin, cut into largish chunks skins on, with olive oil. Then when the flesh is soft and a little browned let it cool and then scoop out the flesh and freeze. I like to freeze it in about 1 cup portions.

But this is not another recipe for pumpkin soup, I'm sure most people have their go to soup recipe.

No, this is a recipe for a sweet little treat, Cinnamon Pumpkin Biscuits, even though these little morsels are called biscuits they’re almost cake like in their texture, soft and crumbly.

By roasting the pumpkin, the vegetables' own sugars are deepened and caramelized and this adds to the biscuits sweetness, so much so that I have halved the recipes original call for 1 cup of sugar.

Cinnamon Pumpkin Biscuits

Makes about 30 small biscuits
Ingredients
110 grams butter or margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup mashed pumpkin
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Method
Preheat oven to 180C.
Beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy, add vanilla and pumpkin.
Sift together flour, baking powder and cinnamon.
Fold flour into butter mixture until well combined.
Place heaped teaspoon of dough onto lined baking trays.
Bake for approximately 15 to 20 minutes.

They will be very soft straight out of the oven but will firm up a little when cool. Will last a few days in an airtight container but they will get a little softer.
Can be made larger, just adjust the cooking time.

Enjoy with a cup of tea and a pair of slippers.

The Recipe Box {Simple Cheese Biscuits}

I have dozens recipes written on scraps of paper and on the back of old envelopes. Culinary ephemera floating about the kitchen counters, fallen behind the microwave, open any cookbook on my shelf and I can almost guarantee that some such slip will fall out from its pages, a scribbled soup or slice recipe. Something that I have seen or heard of and that sparked a gastronomic interest, or enjoyed at another’s place and asked for the recipe. In a hope to tame these pieces I am endeavouring on a new series of posts called the Recipe Box. A place to keep my most loved scribbles. The old envelopes that I search for repeatedly and hope hasn’t been accidentally picked up in a frenzied clean up.




Remember Cheds. Crunchy, melt in the mouth kind of tasted like really salty cheese biscuity goodness. I haven't had one since I was a child but I remember them fondly, especially topped with butter. Oh my how yummy they are spread thick with butter. Have look at the packet you will find that there is actually very little cheese in them and a heck of a lot of other stuff that I seriously question whether it needs to be in a biscuit. My Simple Cheese Biscuits are in fact super simple and have only five ingredients and a majority of that is actually real cheese and butter. So no need to smother extra on top, unless that is what you are into. I won't judge.

Really quick to whip up in the food processor, then a matter of rolling, slicing and baking for 15 minutes. The recipe states plain flour but I have made them before with spelt flour with excellent results. I am sure you could replace with gluten-free flour if you needed. The boys enjoy one or two at morning tea with their fruit. I find them absolutely delicious with a dollop of tomato relish. Anyway you eat them it will be hard to stop at just one. This is ok because this recipe makes about 50, depending on how thickly you cut them. I like to bake half and keep the other half in the freezer for later. If you exercise self-control they will keep in an air tight container for about a week. 

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Simple Cheese Biscuits 

Ingredients
100g butter, cubed
1 1/3 cup plain flour
100g cheddar or tasty cheese, grated
1 egg
1 heaped tablespoon Dijon mustard

Preheat oven to 130C. Line a tray with baking paper.
Place butter and flour in food processor. Mix until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add cheese and mix again until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add egg and mustard. Mix until it the dough comes together as a ball (this may seem like it will never happen. But trust me, keep that motor going and then when you least expect it Dough Ball!)
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead lightly until it all comes together. Using your hands roll the dough into a long sausage shape, about 4cm thick. At this point you could cut the roll in half, wrap one half and place in the freezer*.
With a floured knife, cut the roll into rounds about 1cm wide (no need to be too exact).
Place on the tray; allow room for a little spreading. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden.
The less you bake them for the chewier they are. So if you would like a crunchy biscuit bake for a little longer. Allow to cool and the enjoy.
*The dough will last a good month in the freezer. If baking from frozen just allow the roll of dough to soften slightly at room temperature then slice and bake as usual.