Chocolate Pumpkin Swirl Brownies...

I'm loving this season with all of the pumpkin love being spread around and I know it's just going to get better when thanksgiving gets closer, thirty nine days if you really want to know. This brownie recipe came from Smitten Kitchen who has an awesome blog which I wish I had discovered earlier. The recipe seems like it's hard work due to the various bowls you have to use when separating the chocolate batter and the pumpkin batter but don't let that put you off from making these, In my opinion pumpkin and chocolate were destined to be together and should never split up. I had these squares of seasonal scrumptiousness in the online bake sale I hosted last week and after a few great back and forth bids on them, they ended up at a very good home.

Here's the recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen:

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for pan
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2  cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups solid-pack pumpkin
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Nuts or pumpkin seeds optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch square baking pan or dish. Cut a length of parchment that will cover the bottom and two sides (makes it much easier to remove), and line the pan with it. Butter the lining as well.

Melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, cayenne, and salt in a large bowl; set aside. Put sugar, eggs, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; beat until fluffy and well combined, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in flour mixture.

Pour half of batter (about two cups) into a separate bowl and stir chocolate mixture into it.

In other bowl, stir in the pumpkin, oil, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Transfer half of chocolate batter to prepared pan smoothing top with a rubber spatula.

Top with half of pumpkin batter. Repeat to make one more chocolate layer and one more pumpkin layer.

With a small spatula or a table knife, gently swirl the two batters to create a marbled effect. Be sure to get your knife all the way to the bottom of the pan. Bake until set and slightly springy in the middle. 35-40 minutes.

I'd love to give Foodness Gracious a make over. The options I'm looking at are switching to Wordpress and hopefully progressing to my own domain or having a third party do the new blog for me. If anyone has any advice on switching to Wordpress I'd love to pick your brains about the process.