The crazy time of Halloween is here! A little bit everywhere but for sure in the United States much more. I saw already in the beginning of October, when I was visiting San Diego, a lot of yards decorated with crazy creepy monsters. Here in Europe everything is less and especially in Italy I never saw very much of it. Even though it exists and children sometimes go around for trick or treat. I limit myself to put something like earrings and/or tights that are creepy funny.
But what is Halloween? It’s the old Samhain festivity of the Celts. The name itself dates back to 1745 and is a Christian short expression for ‘hallowed evening’. It refers to the evening before All Hallows/Saints Day.
For sure the feast was already in the Roman culture but it is mainly referred to the Celtic Samhain in the end of summer, right the 31st October. It is also the transition into the darker, colder half of the year. Beltane is the spring festival and transition into the warm period.
At Samhain the spirits needed some offerings (treats) to remain kind against the people as in the winter period there was not enough food and it was important that the livestock survived. The souls of the dead will also come out to have a visit home. Let them be in a good mood! It was normal to lite a candle and pray this day. Famous are also the bonfires that once ‘served to keep away the devil’.
And it’s also pumpkin time. I love to eat pumpkins, as soup, side dish or anything else. I think the huge pumpkins carved with creepy, screaming faces and lit inside by a candle are super scary.
I used some pumpkin the other day for a smoothie but yesterday I was in the mood to bake some cupcakes with homemade pumpkin puree. In Italy it’s very difficult to find ready, canned pumpkin.
Of course I brought the cupcakes in their creepy cupcake papers straight to my friends in Valderica and they loved them all. Even the most critical ones. They are yummy and a perfect treat for this period.
Pumpkin Pie cupcakes or muffins are super easy and like most of these little treats a just-mixing-together-dough. Only 25 minutes later they come out of the oven warm and smelling great.
Hope you will enjoy them as much as we did!
- 1 cup chestnut flour
- 1 cup buckwheat flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp pumpkin spice
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup pumpkin puree (homemade or canned)
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup agave syrup (or any other wet sweetener)
- 1/4 cup coconut oil (melted)
- 1 tsp bourbon vanilla
- 1/2 cup chopped pecan nuts
- Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F.
- In a bigger bowl mix all dry ingredients.
- Put all the wet ingredients in a blender and blend until well mixed.
- Add the wet part into the dry part and stir until well combined.
- Place 12 cupcake forms in a muffin tray and fill them with the muffin dough. Put some chopped pecan nuts on the top and bake them for around 25 minutes. After 20 minutes check with a tooth stick, if it come out clean they are ready.
- Take them out of the oven and let them cool on a cooling rack.
For additional decoration you can put some icing sugar. Or drizzle some chocolate on the top. If you want to make them more 'spooky' put some Halloween decoration tabs or make some marzipan fingers that are 'bleeding' and stick them into the muffins. You can be sure it will look 'authentic'
