Bready or Not: Pumpkin Cheesecake Sopapillas
These Pumpkin Cheesecake Sopapillas are super-easy to make. You use crescent dough roll for the top and bottom! This comes together in minutes.
You get to work some churromancy here as well. Once you have your pumpkin bars assembled, you pour melted butter over everything. You create LAKES OF BUTTER. Then to make it healthier, you top that with more cinnamon and sugar.
As it cools, the butter is absorbed, and that cinnamon-sugar forms an amazing crust on top.
The dish is fast to assemble, but it does need a few hours to cool down on the counter and then chill in the fridge. After, that, though…! All you need to do to serve this up is zap a piece in the microwave. Top that with some pecans and honey, and you have your own seasonally-appropriate sopapilla.
Eat it for breakfast. Snack. Dessert. Whatever. There’s pumpkin in this and it’s October. This could be dinner, if you so desire. Embrace the season! Get out the stretchy pants!
Modified from Willowbird Baking. Originally shared on the Holy Taco Church.
Bready or Not: Pumpkin Cheesecake Sopapillas
Ingredients
Bars
- 2 cans crescent rolls any brand
- 16 oz cream cheese 2 boxes, room temperature
- 16 oz pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger
Topping:
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Highly Advised Extras:
- honey
- toasted pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350 degrees F. Line a 9x13 inch baking dish with foil and apply nonstick spray. Unroll one can of crescent roll dough--keeping it as a single piece--and lay it in the dish. Pressing it out to cover the bottom and pinch seams together.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat together the softened cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the pumpkin puree, vanilla extract, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice. Spread the pumpkin mixture over the crescent roll dough in the pan.
- Stretch out plastic wrap on a large cutting board. Use this surface to lay out the other can of crescent roll dough. Stretch it out and pinch together the seams. That done, use the board to flip the dough on top of the pumpkin layer.
- Next is the topping. In a small bowl, stir together the 1/2 cup sugar with 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Pour the melted butter over the crescent dough top layer. Sprinkle the sugar mix all over the top.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Let the bars cool completely at room temperature before placing them in the fridge to set for a few hours or overnight.
- Cut the sopapillas into bars. They are best served warm, after a 20-30 second zap in the microwave, and topped with some pecans and drizzled honey.
- OM NOM NOM!
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A is for Apocalypse Sale at Kobo: Buy 2 Books, Get 1 Free
Halloween is nigh, and with it come sales on sweet things like candy and creepy-dark books! Kobo is currently holding a Buy 2 Get 1 Free Ebook Sale through the 18th that includes the anthology A is for Apocalypse, for which I wrote a story for letter D. The book is packed with some 275 pages of 26 takes on the end of the world.
Check out the sale here, and stock up on some great seasonal reads!
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Bready or Not: Ginger Pumpkin Braided Bread
Bready or Not is full-out bready this week with a recipe that produces two gorgeous braided loaves of pumpkin bread!
This recipe from King Arthur Flour and was featured in their mailed catalog a while back. Like so many of their recipes, it’s an absolute winner.
The pumpkin puree doesn’t make this bread tacky, even as dough. It incorporates well and adds light taste and vivid color. Diced candied ginger and raisins create variations in texture. The spices play well with everything. Actually, you should make this bread just to smell it as it bakes.
The slices are divine, whether or not you add butter. It would also be delicious in something like bread pudding. YUM.
Plus, it’s just plain pretty.
Modified from King Arthur Flour.
Bready or Not: Ginger Pumpkin Braided Bread
Ingredients
- 4 1/2 cups bread flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 Tablespoon instant yeast
- 1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree 1 can
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter half stick, melted
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
- 1/3 cup diced candied ginger
- butter to brush on bread
Instructions
- In the large bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, spices, sugar, ginger, salt, and yeast.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the pumpkin, eggs and melted butter. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Continue to stir until the dough begins to come away from the sides of the bowl. Knead the dough for 2 minutes; let it rest for 15 minutes. Knead for an additional 5 to 7 minutes, or until it's smooth. Add the raisins and candied ginger, and continue kneading just until they're incorporated.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover it with plastic wrap, and set it aside to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until about doubled.
- Lightly grease a surface and turn out the dough onto it. Divide the dough in half, then divide each half into three pieces. Roll each piece into a 10-inch log.
- Place three logs together on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Braid them together, making sure to pinch together the ends or tuck them underneath. Repeat the process with the other three logs on another baking sheet. Lightly cover them with plastic wrap and let them rise another hour. They should be puffy, not necessarily doubled in size.
- Bake the loaves in a preheated 375-degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until lightly browned. A cake tester inserted in the center should come out clean. Brush butter over the loaves to give them a nice shine.
- Let the braids cool on a wire rack. Serve them warm or at room temperature. Loaves can also be frozen for later enjoyment.
- OM NOM NOM!
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Big News: Fairwood Press Story Collection Next Fall
I’m emerging from my Revision Cave with some happy news: in fall 2017, Fairwood Press will release a collection of my stories and poems! It’s called Red Dust and Dancing Horses and Other Stories. This will be a novel-length selection of my works–the best ones out of over 70 published stories and 100 poems. And the cover. Oh wow. The art is absolutely perfect. I can’t wait to reveal the final version in the coming months!
There will be a lot more news to come!
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