These mini-donuts can be cooked by the small spoonful in oil in a regular saucepan, no deep fryer required.Julie Van Rosendaal/The Globe and Mail
‘Tis the season for winter squash, especially pumpkin.
From pies to cakes, recipes usually call for pumpkin purée, rarely a full can – leaving you with an awkward few spoonfuls left in the bottom. But there are plenty of ways to use random quantities of puréed squash – stir it into your muffin or pancake batter (it’s a similar consistency, so no need for adjustments), swap it into your banana bread, spoon some into your oatmeal or smoothie, or into soup, mashed potatoes, hummus … anything you think could use a squashy boost.
If it’s a fresh gourd you’re dealing with, you may wind up with surplus squash just by virtue of its size. Large, gnarly squash can be intimidating to tackle in the kitchen. It can be stabbed a few times with a knife (to allow steam to escape) and roasted whole, directly on the oven rack, until it softens and collapses and can be easily sliced and scooped into soups, curries and other dishes, or dropped by the spoonful into a pan of browning butter and spices or fresh rosemary or sage to coat and brown a bit.
Cooked squash of all kinds freezes well, and you could use it in any way you might use canned pumpkin. Add an egg and/or a spoonful of ricotta and enough flour (all-purpose or semolina) to make fresh pasta, or dress up cooked dried pasta with a spoonful of pumpkin, a pour of cream or coconut milk and a healthy grating of Parmesan.
One of my favourite ways to use pumpkin is to stir up a batch of fritters – mini-doughnuts that can be cooked by the small spoonful in oil in a regular saucepan, no deep fryer required.
Pumpkin Fritters
These are like light, pumpkin-y Timbits that are simple to make, perfect with coffee for breakfast, and fun to pile into paper lunch bags (or cookie bags from the dollar store) to nibble on a fall walk.
When you’re finished with your oil, let it cool. You can then save it to use in baked goods or to start soups and stews that won’t be affected by a slight squashy flavour, and/or pour the remainder into a compost bag, tie and toss (gently) into your compost bin.
- 1/3-1/2 cup pumpkin purée
- 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 tbsp canola or vegetable oil, plus more for cooking
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon or pumpkin-pie spice
- 1/4 tsp salt
- sugar
- cinnamon
In a medium bowl, stir together the pumpkin purée, brown sugar, oil, egg and vanilla. Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt and stir just until combined.
Heat about half an inch of oil in a medium saucepan until a scrap of bread sizzles when it’s dipped in, or it reaches 350 F on a thermometer.
Drop batter by the small spoonful (about 1 tablespoon) into the hot oil without crowding; cook, turning as they become golden, then transfer with a slotted spoon to a paper-towel-lined plate. Put some sugar into a shallow bowl and shake in some cinnamon; move the warm fritters over to the sugar and turn or shake the pan to coat them. Serve warm, if possible.
Makes about two dozen fritters.