Ay yi yi, Southern biscuits. Those things are the one food that I consider to be evil. They command me to yield to them. I can’t help but crave their buttery lightness and they way they wickedly make my eyes well up as my taste buds melt and my mind squishes along with it. Dramatic, yes, but biscuits, I’m talking to you. I really do love you. You have a terrible way of twisting my finger to make me do whatever you like. But I love you.

It took me quite a while to find a biscuit recipe that I really thought was perfect. Seriously, it took years. I’m from South Carolina. It seems that grandmas would be coming out of their houses, standing on their porches, waving their towels and yelling biscuit recipes into the air at any youngin’ that would have part in it. But nope. I remember making my first batch of biscuits and they came out of the oven an inch wide and rock-like. Mmm. Er, not.

A traditional southern biscuit recipe will have to wait. Today, we are on number three of the pumpkin series: pumpkin buttermilk biscuits. And they are delicious with spiced maple butter.

If you’re skeptical about eating a biscuit infused with pumpkin (I can’t imagine, but if you are), simmer down (cooking humor) and think. Pumpkin. Biscuits. Pumpkin. Biscuits. Hm. We will stop there. And I know that you will love them.

pumpkin buttermilk biscuits
ingredients
2 cups unbleached flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
5 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, chilled
1/3 cup buttermilk
3/4 cup roasted pumpkin purée
3 tbsp honey

create
When creating biscuits, the butter needs to be cold. This is because the cold butter creates separation in between the raw dough and as it cooks and melts in the oven, it leaves little pockets of air all throughout each biscuit. Flakiness!
Preheat the oven to 400º. Combine flour, baking powder, spices, and salt in a large bowl. Add the butter pieces and crumble it with your fingers in the flour mixture until the butter and flour resemble a coarse, crumbly meal. Work quickly with the butter so the warmth of your fingers doesn’t melt the butter. Chill this mixture for about 10 minutes.
Whisk the buttermilk and honey in a medium bowl until well blended. Add the pumpkin. After the flour mixture has chilled, add the buttermilk mixture to it and mix until just combined. You made need to add more flour at this point to keep it from sticking.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and gently knead several times, sprinkling flour as needed, and pat to 3/4″ thickness. Cut the dough into whatever size you’d like using a biscuit cutter or something round. I tend to like bigger biscuits, so I just use the mouth of a jar, which is about 2 1/2″ wide. Continue rolling out the dough and using until it’s gone. Arrange the biscuits on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper until they just touch each other and bake for about 14 minutes, or until golden. You are welcome to brush them with melted butter after they come out of the oven.

spiced maple butter
ingredients
5 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/3 tsp cinnamon
a sprinkle of ground nutmeg
a sprinkle of ground cloves

create
Combine all ingredients until smooth and well blended.

These little guys are perfect served warm with the maple butter. I, unfortunately, am a butter dipper, rather than a spreader, so I usually end up eating about equal parts bread and butter.  Hmph. Someone come help me. I can see the biscuits staring at me from our little kitchen table. I think they’re armed.

The other day, I said to myself, “Self, I want to make some miniature pumpkin pies with ginger snap crusts.” That still sounds delicious, but somewhere along the way in my thought process I decided that I didn’t want to buy any cookies (although those Murray old-fashioned things are just classic) and make some soft, mm mm, chewy cookies. I’ve made molasses cookies lots of times before and unwillingly eat the entire pan myself (let the judgement commence), but this time I thought, “…pumpkinnnnn.”

I mean, I always think, “…pumpkinnnnn.”

And so it turns out that molasses cookies with pumpkin inside of them are delicious. Did we ever have any doubt? And they are perfect for the second installment of the pumpkin series.

ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup cane sugar, plus more for rolling
1/2 cup roasted pumpkin purée
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 1/3 cups unbleached flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt

create
Preheat the oven to 350º. Beat butter using an electric mixer until it’s fluffy. Add the sugar, pumpkin, molasses, and egg and mix until combined.  Add the rest of the ingredients and beat until combined and a batter forms. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and fill a bowl with cane sugar for rolling. Roll the batter into tablespoon sized balls and roll until evenly coated in the sugar. Leave a couple of inches in between each ball of dough and bake about 10 minutes or until the tops of the cookies look cracked. After letting them rest for a few minutes out of the oven, transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

After making these, my friend Caylee said, “Ahh, please give me the recipe.” And the two of us sat there together stuffing our faces, not caring that crumbs were flying out of our mouths at each other as we spoke, while we probably wiped our fingers on our pants as we watched the Gamecocks play football. So, Caylee, this post is dedicated to you.

The thing about pumpkins (besides being gloriously delicious and having to uphold their reputations as being the welcoming symbol for all things autumn and beautiful, cozy family gatherings) is that they really are very versatile. Desserts? Absolutely. Breads and morning muffins? Delicious. Risotto, soups, and other savory dishes? Even better. I mean, these puppies have been used for years. They are thought to have originated here in North America (“heyyy, home continent creds”…you have to say this while raising the roof. self-proclaimed dork) and were used by Native Americans for the obvious (food) and even for things like mats, bowls, and medicine. Early settlers made beer out of it (husband would be proud).

Okay, history lesson over. I’m sorry, I think I really am the real life Linus.
Side story: I recently was in a grocery store and was told by the cashier that I was her first pumpkin purchaser of the season. Personal claim to fame (but also got strange looks from other customers as I gave her a high-five and did what resembled the food dance).

I think it makes sense to start this pumpkin series (wait, we’re doing a pumpkin series? It seems so, self. I started to think of all these great recipes and didn’t want to limit it to just one) with the foundation for most recipes involving the gourd: roasted pumpkin purée.

Basically, all you need is one of those cute, medium sized pumpkins (not the teensy pumpkins that you used to dress up in elementary school or the large jack-o-lantern pumpkins. The large ones are certainly roastable, but the texture is stringier and has more seeds in its big ol’ head). They’re labeled in the grocery (or your fabulous local farmer’s market. please, tell me you are lucky enough to have one!) as pie pumpkins. Once you have that beauty in your possession, you are practically done (assuming you have an oven…).

ingredients
pie pumpkin (approx. 2 or 3 lbs)

create
Preheat the oven to 350°. Vertically cut the pumpkin in half, scoop the seeds out with a spoon, and lay the pumpkin cut side down in a large baking dish. Add about 1/4″ water (it helps keep everything moist) and bake for about 50 minutes. This time could be shorter or longer based on the size of the pumpkin. Start checking the tenderness with a fork about 45 minutes into the baking. The fork should easily pierce the pumpkin.
After it has cooled enough to handle, scoop the insides of the pumpkin out into a bowl and mash it with a fork (or you could put it in a food processor…but eh, that’s a lot of dishes, ahem). Seal it up in a container (mason jar! mason jar!) and store it in the refrigerator  until you’re ready to use it.

You may ask, “Well, what about canned pumpkin?” I don’t think you can beat fresh ingredients. If you decide one day that you want to create pumpkin pie and if you don’t start baking in three seconds your mind will go spazoid and all you have is the canned stuff, just check the ingredients on the can. If it has anything other than pumpkin in it, eh. Keep looking for the can that has ONE ingredient: pumpkin.