Biscoff and autumn are a nifty combination

I’ve sung this song a million times before, but it’s simply inevitable that I feel this way around this time of the year. I can’t help it! I can’t quite hold back the green-eyed monster when all the beautiful orange-hued photos with scarf-wearing people in them begin popping up everywhere. I can’t help wishing that I live in a place where I can take Instagram photos of my boots nestled beneath a mountain of crunchy orange leaves; a place where the breeze is crisp and cool all-day long once the -ber months hit.

Well I could spend all my energies wishing for autumn to magically fall upon this country, but unless I move to a different part of the globe it just will not come true. It’s kind of sad. Autumn is awesome, as I’m sure most of you will agree. For the time being I have to satisfy myself with looking through fall photos on the web, or at the very least baking fall treats in my kitchen. 

In my opinion, nothing quite produces orange-coloured baked goods like pumpkin. (Sweet potato comes at a close second, as this equally yummy recipe proves.) But the thing is, we’re not too big on pumpkin in our desserts over here. Sure we have it occasionally, but after my last can of pumpkin puree months ago my brothers have urged me not to buy another anytime soon. The only pumpkin they want to eat is cooked in coconut milk with other vegetables for dinner.

Despite that, all the pumpkin desserts I’ve made so far have been well received: the pumpkin tart, the cream cheese-filled muffins, the super yummy pumpkin cake roll, even the coffee-spiked pumpkin breads. But as my brothers have informed me, their favourite was the loaf with the cookie butter swirl.

This recipe is a throwback one from my archives, and frankly it has not made its appearance on the blog because I am unsatisfied with the photos. I had planned to redo this but I haven’t had much time on my hands lately thanks to the events I need to attend. It’s always the case during the latter part of the year because people seem to be in a rush to squeeze in a ton of things before the year ends. But in the spirit of autumn I decided I still needed to talk about how smitten we all were by the Pumpkin-Biscoff Loaf!

This loaf was originally made with Nutella, and of course that will yield a loaf with far better colour contrasts when swirled. But the great thing about pumpkin is that it has that mild punchy flavour that makes it great with plenty of combinations. Chocolate is the first thing that comes to mind. As far as I can remember, anytime I combined pumpkin with chocolate they always gobbled it up the quickest. We’re all chocolate fiends.

I do however feel that cookie butter is spiced in such a way that it reminds me so much of autumn. Too perfect to pass up adding to this pumpkin bread! I love how it just makes this pumpkin bread practically scream the arrival of fall, as if most of you need more reminders. I know I do. You can choose whichever spread you prefer though and it will still be amazing.

I thought I’d do a little round-up of autumn recipes I have been loving and bookmarking on my bloglovin feed lately. Since I won’t be able to share many autumn recipes with you all I’ll just talk about the ones I would’ve made at home myself if I actually had more time on my hands.

• Skillet Apple Cobbler from A Couple Cooks— I don’t own a cast-iron skillet but this sure would be one of the first recipes I’d make when I buy one. Easy comfort foods are always welcome, and cobblers and pies always make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
• Pumpkin Bavarian Crepe Cake from Sprinkle Bakes— Crepe cakes have enjoyed a modest amount of popularity though I have never seen it done like this. Doesn’t it make you want to dig in though your computer screen? And by the way, I love Bavarian Cream.
• Coffee Roasted Pumpkin Seed Clusters from Half-Baked Harvest— Cover anything in dark chocolate and I will eat it. It helps that I like pumpkin seeds and love coffee. I can only imagine what coffee-roasted pumpkin seeds taste like!
• Mini Pumpkin Loaf Cakes from My Name is Yeh— So these loaf cakes have candied bacon on them. What else do you need to know?
• Spiced Irish Coffee from The Spice Train— Irish Coffee is great, but apparently you add pumpkin spice to it and it becomes downright amazing.
• Nutella & Toasted Pecan Swirled Banana Bread from The Messy Baker Blog— It’s a healthy habit to always be on the look-out for any manner of adapting banana bread into interesting things. I love banana bread on its own, but pimped out banana bread with swirls and twirls are always welcome in my life. Also, Nutella and banana are made for each other.

I also wanted to mention these yummy muffins I made from Pinch of Yum. It’s the Healthy Maple-Glazed Pumpkin Muffins, which for a little while there got me a little addicted. Unfortunately there were not enough good photos to merit a post on its own so I decided to just lump this in here.

They are pretty regular pumpkin muffins, so I was surprised by how much I liked them. Nice texture, nicely spiced with a clear pumpkin flavour because of the little sugar added to the muffins. The maple glaze is a requirement otherwise the muffins will taste a bit plain and not sweet enough for most people. The glaze really completes the muffins, in my opinion. It’s enough to keep me reaching for it. Did I mention it’s healthified? It’s a muffin that gives less guilt because autumn is one of those times you can’t help but want to indulge!

I hope you guys who do actually experience fall are having better luck with time and are already baking up a storm of autumn recipes! This time of year for is perfect for hanging out in the kitchen because it’s a lot cooler. Wish I could say the same here! 🙂