In a Tizzy

Each year, I endeavour to consume one pumpkin thing per day for the month of October. This is my 7th annual Pumpkin Challenge – welcome!

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Day 1: Pumpkin Spice Pancakes, Hot For Food

It only felt right to start the challenge off on a Sunday morning with pancakes!

This recipe was straightforward and, while I did not have all of the pumpkin spices, I did have my Pumpkin Agave from DAVIDsTEA to help add some flavour to these pancakes!

I haven’t had a great track record of vegan pancakes, and these ones weren’t much different, but they turned out marginally better than my previous attempts so I will continue to challenge myself on this breakfast front!

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Day 2: Pumpkin Madeleines, Starbucks

A quick-fix on a busy day, I spied this trio on my way out of work. While I (not-so) patiently wait for the day that Starbucks introduces vegan baked goods to their inventory, these little biscuits were fresh and pumpkin spicy in just the right way.

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Day 3: Pumpkin Spice Doughnut, Tori’s Bakeshop (Front St.)

My days in the city have not been spent exploring very much (yet), so I was excited to have the opportunity to venture away from my apartment and try a vegan bakery!

As I have watched Cartems in Vancouver share their wonderful vegan/gluten-free doughnut flavours online, I have hoped to find a vegan Toronto doughnut as delicious as them – and I certainly found their Toronto competition at Tori’s! This pumpkin spice doughnut checked all of the boxes of being moist, and full of flavour, and very vegan (but you wouldn’t know!). While I was tempted to pair it with the pumpkin tea latte they had, I decided to save that for another day and opted for a delicious cardamom tea latte, which complemented it very nicely. WOULD RECOMMEND.

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Day 4: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, Running with Spoons

These cookies don’t look very pretty, in my opinion, but with their multitude of pumpkin spicy ingredients, they definitely tasted like they looked pretty! I liked the texture variation offered by the oatmeal and chocolate chips, and of course, the pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice agave added a very autumn flavour profile.

Day 5: Pumpkin Loaf, Starbucks

Another late day at work left me with few options as I had a lot of remote computer tasks to complete before bed and not much time to sleep – pumpkin loaf it would be, then! Despite the lack of vegan or dairy-free options in baked goods, Starbucks does provide very moist and flavourful pastries, and their seasonal pumpkin goodies are annual favourites for many.