Pumpkin Hemp Hearts Granola

October 12, 2015October 29, 2015 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

It’s officially pumpkin season here. While fall is not my favorite season, I do love the excuse to make anything pumpkin flavored. Including pumpkin granola. So when I got some Manitoba Harvest Hemp Hearts in the mail to try out, I knew exactly what I would do with them – make granola!

manitoba hemp hearts

And since I was craving some pumpkin granola, I combined the two – so here you go … pumpkin hemp hearts granola. It’s pretty good. It’s a little less sweet than the typical granola I make (feel free to add more sugar if you want it sweeter) and a little softer (pumpkin will do that to it) BUT it’s the perfect fall breakfast or snack. I dare you to try it with pumpkin yogurt!

pumpkin hemp heart granola |icrashedtheweb.jpg

Pumpkin Hemp Hearts Granola

Here’s what you need:

3 ½ c old-fashioned rolled oats
1/3 c hemp hearts (I used Manitoba Harvest Hemp Hearts)
2 tsps ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp allspice
1 Tablespoon packed brown sugar
½ cup pumpkin puree
¼ cup pure maple syrup
¼ cup honey
¼ c coconut oil, melted
1 egg white
Optional: Dried fruit, such as cranberries, cherries, etc.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325F degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine the oats and hemp hearts. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, allspice and brown sugar. Mix until puree is a little darker and smooth. Add in maple syrup, honey and melted coconut oil. In a separate bowl, whisk egg white. Add to pumpkin puree mixture and mix until evenly combined. Pour over oats and hemp hearts and mix until everything is just wet.
Spread onto the baking sheet pat oat mixture down tightly. Bake for about 40 minutes. Check about every 15 minutes and stir if it is starting to burn.
Allow granola to cool for 30 minutes on the baking sheet before adding in dried fruit.
Store in a covered container, such as a jar. Granola won’t be as crunchy as other granolas because of the pumpkin – but it’s delicious!

pumpkin hemp heart granola |icrashedtheweb.jpg

pumpki hemp heart granola-icrashedtheweb

Some questions for you:

What’s your favorite pumpkin flavored treat this time of year? Yogurt? Latte? Cookies?
Any pumpkin haters out there?
Do you prefer dry cereal or with milk? I love dry cereal. I sometimes like cereal or granola with yogurt- but never milk.

For more Meatless Monday posts, check out some of my past recipes or visit the linkups below!

Meatless Monday!

Pumpkin Bread

November 20, 2014 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

As you may realize, I haven’t had enough time this fall to get in all the pumpkin baking I typically do. Right now, all I’ve done is make pumpkin snickerdoodles – they were the bomb by the way if you haven’t made them, it isn’t too late! But knowing that the unofficial end of pumpkin season is coming to an end soon, I knew I had to have one last pumpkin baking hurrah.

It was a cold evening so I was in the mood for some baking (who am I kidding .. it could’ve been 90 degrees and I’d be in the mood for baking…). I opened my refrigerator and my freezer – and I had only 1/2 stick of butter left for baking. Half of a stick! That narrowed down my baking choices. Thankfully, I remembered I had torn out a few (and pinned of course) pumpkin bread recipes that called for little-to-no butter. And that’s what I decided to make.

Oh yeah- this turned out SO good that I made it twice. TWICE. That’s four loaves! Get on it before pumpkin season ends!

pumpkin bread - i crashed the web

Pumpkin Bread

(Recipe is slightly modified from a few recipes I had on hand)

Here’s what you need:

3 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground ginger
3 c. granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 c vegetable oil
2/3 c. water

For the glaze:

1 Tablespoon melted butter
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Here’s what you do:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix together dry ingredients in a large bowl – flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger and sugar. Place a well in the middle, this is where you’ll insert your wet ingredients.
Mix together wet ingredients – 4 eggs, beaten, with canned pumpkin, oil and water. When mixed well, pour into the well of the dry ingredients.
Mix everything together with a spatula or wooden spoon – do not overmix. Mix until all ingredients are just combined and dry ingredients are wet.
Pour into to greased loaf pans – I used two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 sized pans. Bake at 350 degrees for about 65 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool done loaves from the oven for about 5 minutes. While still warm, pour glaze over top and use a spatula to spread evenly if you want the top to by shiny. To make glaze, whisk together melted butter, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Variations – I made two loaves as normal. With the next batch, I added white chocolate chips (not too many- maybe about 3/4 c) to one loaf and then finely chopped pecans to the other loaf. Yum!

Some questions for you:

When do you think pumpkin baking/coffee/spice/etc. season ends? Is it already over for you?
What’s your favorite kind of quick bread? This may be a new favorite! Though my mom’s zucchini bread is still on top for year-round goodness.
What are you in the mood to bake these days? If you don’t bake – what dessert is on your mind?

pumpkin bread

Pumpkin Chip Snickerdoodles

October 30, 2014October 26, 2014 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 2 Comments

I love baking with pumpkin. Surprise right? But something happened this year. Perhaps our fall foliage vacation? Perhaps life got busy? Who knows – but this is (gasp) my first pumpkin recipe this fall. Shocking, I know – usually by this time of year I’ve made some pumpkin blondies, pumpkin granola, pumpkin biscotti and/or some sort of pumpkin scone. Oh well. Guess I have some catching up to do!

Even if this is the only pumpkin cookie recipe I make this year – I’d still declare it a good year. These pumpkin cookies are soft (as a pumpkin cookie should be), have the perfect amount of spice (in the batter and also thanks to the cinnamon-sugar coating – they are snickerdoodles after all!) and the pumpkin spice chips are OH so good. I made a batch and they somehow quickly disappeared … guess I know what to do with the remaining can of pumpkin I have!

Pumpkin Chip Snickerdoodles

Here’s what you need:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 TBS ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup pumpkin spice chips (I found these beauties at Target)

For rolling: Approximately 1/2 cup cinnamon-sugar mixture (I keep this on hand but if you don’t have it, mix 1/2 cup sugar with 1 TBS cinnamon)

Here’s what you do:

Melt the butter in the microwave. In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the vanilla and pumpkin until smooth. Set aside.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nutmeg. Set aside.
Combine melted butter with granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and pumpkin puree. Mix well so that batter is smooth and no lumps from the sugar remain. Slowly pour wet ingredients into the dry flour mixture and mix together by hand with a spatula.
Fold in pumpkin spice morsels.
Cover the dough and chill for at least 20-30 minutes, or overnight. Believe it or not, I made my dough at night and chilled the dough while I slept.
After dough is chilled, preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Line a cookie baking sheet with parchment paper.
Roll the dough into balls, about 1-2 Tablespoons in size. The dough will be sticky! Roll the dough balls into cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place on baking sheet.
Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes. The cookies will look underdone when you take them out of the oven – this is okay! You don’t want a dry pumpkin cookie.
Let cookies cool for at least 15 or so minutes. They taste even better a day (or two) after baking! Mine made about 36 cookies.

Fall Cookie Inspiration (Pumpkin, Apple, Oatmeal and more)

October 2, 2012October 2, 2012 / Melissa (I Crashed the Web) / 3 Comments

Yesterday was National Homemade Cookie Day! I can’t believe I missed it. I actually didn’t even have it on my radar until last night when my friend Devin messaged me, “Today is national homemade cookie day – sounds like a good opp for Melissa Bakes!”

I dropped the ball and ended up going to the Indians game instead of baking; but, here’s a belated blog post to share some cookie recipes that are perfect for fall. I promise to make at least one of these recipes this week!

Caramel Apple Bars (from Betty Crocker)