As the temperature begins to drop and the air becomes crisp (and we find ourselves without a man to snuggle up next to), we girls decided what better way to welcome the coming of fall than with the baking of some delicious pumpkin spice bread? Unable to pull a recipe off the top of our heads, we first perused countless cookbooks belonging to Suzy's mom, one Ms. Robin Arrabito. Many recipes featured on these pages were complicated and one even called for mincemeat- mincemeat! What is this, the episode of Friends where Rachel famously botches a trifle by adding beef? I think not. No mincemeat for us!
We even found a delicious recipe on allrecipes.com that substituted all that weighty, calorie-filled butter and oil for some healthy applesauce. Mmm, saving calories never tasted so sweet! Quicly scribbled grocery list in hand, we triumphantly set off for our local PathMark. We perused the aisle aptly named "baking needs" and were just beginning to stagger under the weight of all the costly ingredients we had acquired, when we stumbled upon this!
Made with real pumpkin! And for only $2.49! After all, we did just graduate with millions of dollars in debt from NYU and are on a budget. While still glancing at the baking aisle, we decided to top our treats with some cream cheese frosting. Suzy was skeptical, but I convinced her. Luckily, our good friends at Pillsbury now produce a line of frosting made with Splenda, featuring 50% less sugar than their regular line of products. Yes, please!
Treats in hand, we headed home and immediately preheated the oven to a toasty 375- no time to waste! Upon inspection of the box and its directions for cooking, we realized that Pillsbury presented us with two different baking options- loaves of bread or muffins, and each surprisingly called for different ingredients (milk vs water, 3 tablespoons of oil versus a third of a cup of oil, etc). What to do? Even though we were fresh out of milk as the muffin instructions called for, we did have numerous muffin tins (and couldn't find the loaf pan) so our decision was made and we carried on.
After mixing all of our ingredients into a bowl (mix, eggs, water, check!) and beating for a recommended 50-75 strokes (thanks Pillsbury!), we surveyed the contents and found that something wasn't quite right. The batter looked strangely lumpy and when Suzy took a bite to test, she bit right into a pocket of dry, unmixed batter. It was then we realized that Suzy had forgotten to add the oil. Silly Suzy! We quickly rectified the oil situation and were back on track. With our muffins placed safely in the oven we began our next task of preparing the icing. Just then, a lightbulb in Suzy’s head went off.
Why not add some food coloring to the frosting to make our treats even more autumnly delicious? The box called for “orange” to be made by combining one drop of red and two drops of yellow, but we deserved better. We challenged McCormick and upped the ante- TWO drops red and FOUR drops yellow! As they say, one can be done but twice is always nice. The resulting hue was a perfectly concocted orange that could not have better represented a pumpkin if mixed by Van Gogh himself! After waiting a painstaking 22 minutes, our confections were done baking. After another agonizing 5-6 minutes of cool-down, it was time to top off the muffins with our bewitching pumpkin-colored frosting.
Finally, it was time to taste the magic that sat before us. And believe me when I say that oh, were they everything we had ever wanted. Who needs a boyfriend when you have pumpkin muffins?
So maybe our concoctions weren’t as sophisticated as a chocolate croissant from Paris, or as rich in culture as flan from Mexico, but as it turns out, you don’t have to traipse too far just to taste something delicious!
