We’ve been getting ready for Fall in our house. Today was our day to go to pick out pumpkins. We had originally planned to visit a local Fall fun place called CornDawgs. They have corn mazes, pumpkin patches, a petting zoo, a corn kernel pit, etc. You know, the kind of place that gives your Hand Sanitizer a workout this time of year. By 10:30 this morning, my oldest Piggy was acting sleepy, which was a HUGE red flag that he wasn’t feeling great. Instead, we visited a local farmer’s market, grabbed 2 big and 2 little pumpkins, and called it good.
Since we didn’t spend the whole Be-UUUU-Tee-ful Fall day playing outside, I decided we would do some other low-key Fall-esque, pumpkin-type stuff. Piggy One napped as soon as we got home without even eating lunch. I knew I needed to get something down him since he didn’t have much for breakfast either. Peanut Butter is my go-to when they need a quick protein snack. I looked online and found these cute little peanut butter pumpkins.
They were perfect for an afternoon treat. Yes, they are loaded with sugar, but when your child hasn’t eaten, and you know they don’t feel good, anything goes. Am I right? (He did end up eating a great supper and felt much better after nap.)
First, I gathered up my ingredients. There are only 4 things (5 if you count food coloring), that you’ll need.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 sticks of room temperature butter
- 3 1/2 Cups powdered sugar
- 1 Cup peanut butter
- Chocolate Chips for the pumpkin top
- Orange food coloring gel (or red and yellow liquid food coloring)
I planned on making bread later in the day, so I decided I would mix the pumpkin mixture by hand so I didn’t have to wash my mixing bowl again when I was ready to make bread.
The dough is actually very easy to mix. The hard part is getting it to turn orange. I had to use close to 30 drops of red & yellow food coloring to get it to this color. I’m not sure if gel would work better, but it’s more expensive than liquid coloring and I didn’t want to waste a bunch of it. Remember that you are trying to turn a brown mixture orange.
After I had the mixture perfect, I used my melon baller to scoop out about a teaspoon of dough. I rolled it into a smooth ball, and then used a toothpick to press into the dough to create the ridges of the pumpkin. I ended up making about 5 ridges per pumpkin.
After creating the ridges, the pumpkins were shaped like tall oblong pumpkins. When I pressed the chocolate chip into the top, it squished them down and made them cute little squatty pumpkins again. Aren’t they just precious? 
It ended up making a huge batch. This is 2/3 of the batch. It was the perfect amount for both of the boy’s classes to have 2 pumpkins each. We don’t have snack this month, but I will send them in as a nice treat closer to Halloween – or maybe even hold on to them for November’s treat. I put them in the freezer for a few hours, and after they were solid, popped them into a zip-lock.
The rest of the pumpkins are for us to eat. Surprisingly, Piggy Two didn’t like them that well. The kid will usually eat anything. His favorite thing on the planet is squash, yet he doesn’t like pumpkins that taste like the inside of a Recees cup. I don’t get it! All the more for me, little Piggy! 
I think our little pumpkins turned out perfect! I had my fair share, and Piggy One ate a few after eating his supper. Most importantly, we had a great day picking out pumpkins and making a special pumpkin treat.
The pumpkin seeds we roasted, on the other hand – BLECK! Back to square one with those!
I am decorating the house for Fall/Halloween and finishing our family pumpkins. Be sure to stop back by to see the results!
Do you have a favorite Fall treat? Today we found strawberry and peach cider at the farmer’s market. I’ve never had it! Can’t wait to see what it’s like.
Heather
Speak Your Mind