Header by Rory Midhani
“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.”
– George Eliot
A girl called George. Love it.
Fall is my favorite season when it’s not summer. I love the season for many reasons. The air just starts to smell better (aka NYC stinks less). I don’t sweat as much when I’m not really doing anything. I get to wear lots of knitty things and pumpkin bread becomes dinner 3 nights a week. Even in Florida, where fall doesn’t really exist, I would get overly excited about it. I wouldn’t allow myself to watch Hocus Pocus or bust out the nutmeg until it was AT LEAST October 1st. Now that it’s seasonally appropriate (by my terms) to talk about autumnal things, I’m going to talk your ears off about my almost favorite season!
Let’s begin with a list of my fall essentials/ things I want for fall shall we?
1. “Not in front of the kids” – cozy sweater from Asos
2. Granny socks – these are from Madewell
3. Apple cider doughnuts from just about anywhere (or making them myself with this recipe)
4. My favorite mug
5. On the record player
6. Totally adorable, but heartbreakingly unaffordable, blanket
7. Alice. The Queen. So I can cook my fall produce as simply and deliciously as possible
8. Mohawk beanie
9. The best investment you will ever make for your feet
Okay so now that everybody knows what to buy me for my birthday (even though it was 2 months ago) let’s move on to the food.
This is a recipe for some healthified pumpkin bread. I don’t even have to tell you that it’s healthy because you probably would never know once you taste it. It’s got spelt flour and coconut oil and honey and you know what it doesn’t have – butter or sugar! Unless you count the honey butter that I slathered over my slice, but don’t count that. You do you.
Whatcha need:
1 ¼ cups spelt flour
½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 tsp sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg (Trust me. You WANT to grate it. The smell is amazing.)
¼ tsp cloves
¼ tsp ground ginger
1 ¼ cups pumpkin puree
½ cup melted coconut oil
2 eggs
½ cup honey
Directions:
1. IN ONE BOWL – All the dry ingredients, whisk.
2. IN ANOTHER BOWL – All the wet ingredients, whisk.
3. NOW – Put the dry into the wet and mix just until the flour disappears. Don’t overmix!
4. BAKE – Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 F for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
5. WAIT – 1 hour before you slice it. I find it best to cool the bread in the pan for a bit then transfer it to a wire rack.
6. EAT – With gobs of honey butter and chopped pistachios if your name is Gabi.
So easy right?! You probably won’t even burn 2 loaves first like I did.
Disclaimer: The formerly stated was not my fault. This recipe is the first thing I ever baked in my new oven. After 2 burnt loaves, 2 triggerings of my smoke alarm, and a visit from my super, it was learned that the dial on my oven was backwards. 350 really meant 550. Le sigh.
I will now leave you with some pictures from the farmer’s market this week just in case you are not excited about fall yet.
Oh wait that last picture is not from the farmer’s market at all! It’s from my kitchen!
P.S. Thanks to everyone who read my very first post and commented. The response was amazing, and I want to befriend all of you and have you over for dinner!
My dad recently cut out sugar from his diet and bought some fairly unappetizing sugar free sliced pumpkin bread things that I have been lathering with cream cheese to make edible. I’m definitely making this for him tonight, I think I even have all of the ingredients already!
Let me know how it turns out!! I pretty much always have those things in my pantry as well which is why it’s such an easy recipe! You can always sub olive oil/canola for coconut oil or maple syrup or agave for the honey too! :)
It turned out great! I used half coconut/half canola oil (I am obsessed with coconut oil, but it’s expensive!), half the honey, and couldn’t find any spelt flour so I used all-purpose. Made two delicious loaves, which I ended up baking for about an hour. I’ve been eating it with vegan cream cheese and honey on top, and I’ll probably a la mode it with some froyo later, so tasty!
yay!!!!!!!
Never had the desire to stuff a pumpkin before, but after that picture I must!
Apple cider donuts are one of my personal fall favorites! I say YUM to that penultimate picture.
I’m not even allowing myself to eat one until it gets cooler and feels more like fall. The waiting is killing me. Need. donut. now.
Umm so I’ve never heard of the amazingness that is apple cider donuts. So like… where would one get such a thing?
I hadn’t either until I moved up north, but they are everywhere up here! Where do you live???
I live in Oregon, there are lots of apples in Washington how is this not a thing I’ve had in my life.
But how does one grate a nutmeg?
Buy whole nutmeg, and grate it with a fine grater – like a cheese grater but much smaller. (Example: http://www.doitdelicious.com/blog/detail/cooking_tip_how_to_grate_whole_nutmeg)
Oh mannnn I can’t wait to live somewhere with an autumn. Thanks for giving me another favorite season! (I mean, can’t I say “it’s my favorite season” every season? I think so.)
I love this column and I love those shoes.standard.
This column is awesome!
Fall is my all time favourite season and that George Elliot quote is perfect and beautiful :) I have George in my name and used to think it was lame for a girl but now think its fairly badass.
Can you tell me how one would make honey butter? Is it as simple as mixing the two together? Pumpkin everything is my favourite so I will be making this stat!
Jealous of your George name, truly. It’s definitely badass.
Honey butter is simply honey+softened butter mixed together. I just took a few tablespoons of butter and let it sit while my bread was in the oven so it got soft and then stirred in a tablespoon of honey :)
You are a goddess! That sounds so easy and delicious, I think I’ll make this for Thanksgiving next weekend and get major brownie points :)
BLESS THIS POST AND THE INCLUSION OF AN APPLE CIDER DONUT RECIPE. I haven’t had one in 15 years, but I think about them every fall. I will attempt to make these. <3
I kept trying to +1 your comment but I’m on my phone so I missed and went to your profile 3 times bc clearly I just need your face in my life more.
I love this column so much already! Since it’s been posted I keep coming back to look at the pretty pictures and words again.
Thanks so much Mario :)))
Your photographs are wonderful.
Alice Waters is a heroine of mine; she is so inspiring. I dream of the day when I can sit down and eat at Chez Panisse.
She is a gem! I was lucky enough to go for my 21st birthday. It was life altering.