Over winter break, families gather together and feast on traditional holiday foods.  The dinner table can be piled high with delectable meals and desserts, but one ingredient that can’t be avoided is pumpkin.  This tasty item is present in many desserts that are known and loved during the holiday season.  Here are a few sweets you may like to try.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 dash ground cloves
• 1 dash nutmeg
• 1 ready-to-use graham cracker crumb crust –6 ounces or 9
  inches
• 16 ounces cream cheese — softened

Directions:
Mix cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with electric mixer on
medium speed until well blended. Add eggs; mix until
blended. Remove 1-cup batter; stir in pumpkin and spices.

Pour remaining plain batter into crust. Top with pumpkin
batter.

Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes or until center is almost set.
Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight.

Pumpkin Pie Pinwheel Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/4 cup plus 1 cup brown sugar
• Whipped cream, for serving, optional
• Ground nutmeg, for serving, optional

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Sift flour, cinnamon, baking powder and salt together twice. Cream butter and sugar in a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Combine egg, vanilla and almond extract and add to creamed mixture. Mix on medium speed until combined. Add sifted ingredients and mix only until combined; dough should be stiff.

Roll dough out between 2 sheets of parchment paper to a 12 by 9-inch rectangle, using 1 long sheet of parchment paper that is folded in half. Make sure that you roll out the dough evenly. Cut the edges off neatly with a bench scraper to even them. Place dough in the freezer until firm, about 15 minutes.

Mix together the canned pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, and 1/4 cup brown sugar for filling.

Remove dough from freezer and peel back the top parchment paper. Thinly spread the pumpkin filling evenly over the dough. Don’t spread too thickly; you should still be able to see the dough through the pumpkin slightly. If you don’t use all of the filling, it is okay.

Starting at 1 end, roll up the ends in the same manner as a cake roll. Make sure that you keep it tight and even. If the dough cracks slightly, simply rub it together with your fingers. Wrap the roll in the parchment paper, seam side down, and place back in the freezer until firm, about 1 hour.

Slice cookies 1/4-inch thick and place onto a cookie sheet at least 1-inch apart. Sprinkle brown sugar on the tops of the cookies and rub it in with your fingers. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, just until the edges are turning brown.

Serve cookies on a platter with a small bowl of whipped cream and nutmeg so that guests can make pumpkin pie pinwheel sandwiches. This makes it taste even more like pumpkin pie!

Pumpkin patch cake (cupcakes with butterscotch frosting)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sifted cake flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick, or 8 tablespoons, unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 recipe Butterscotch Frosting, recipe follows

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease 11 (3-ounce) silicone cupcake molds. (Or, alternatively, grease and flour 10 regular muffin wells in a muffin tin.)

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and transfer to a standing electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix briefly on low speed to combine. Add the butter, little by little, and continue to process on low speed until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with pea-sized pieces.

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin, spices and vanilla. While the mixer is still running at low speed, drizzle half of the liquid ingredients into the mixer and continue to mix until just combined. Increase the speed on the mixer to medium-high and mix until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the remaining liquid ingredients in a slow, steady stream, and continue to mix until thoroughly incorporated, about 15 seconds longer, scraping down the sides of the mixer bowl as necessary. Don’t worry if the mixture appears slightly curdled.

Divide the mixture between 10 regular sized buttered muffin wells or 11 (3-ounce) silicone muffin cups – the wells should be filled about 2/3 of the way. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, or until golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling racks and let cool for 5 minutes. Make sure not to peel silicone olds off of cupcakes. Invert muffin tins or holders and muffins should release easily. Frost with the Butterscotch Frosting, tinted with colors if desired.*

*Note: We tested these muffins in silicone, pumpkin-shaped cups and colored the frosting orange and black and decorated the tops of the muffins accordingly for Halloween.

Butterscotch Frosting:

6 ounces cream cheese, softened at room temperature

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons Butterscotch Sauce, recipe follows, or store-bought butterscotch sauce

In the bowl of a standing electric mixer, combine the cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, butter, and salt, and beat until smooth and creamy, 3 to 4 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and add the Butterscotch Sauce, 1 tablespoon at a time, and mix until thoroughly incorporated, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Chill slightly if frosting cupcakes.

Yield: enough frosting for 1 dozen cupcakes.

Butterscotch Sauce:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons to 1/4 cup whole milk

Combine the sugar, water, and lemon juice in a medium, heavy saucepan and cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Let boil without stirring until the mixture becomes a deep amber color, 3 to 4 minutes, watching closely so it doesn’t burn. Remove the pan from the heat. Add the butter and swirl the pan to melt it, about 1 minute. Return to the heat and bring to a boil. Add the cream, whisk to combine, and remove from the heat. Add 2 tablespoons of the milk, and up to 2 tablespoons more, until desired consistency is achieved.

Cool until just warm before serving. (The sauce will thicken as it cools.)

Yield: about 1 cup