Inspiration Saturday: All pumpkins are great, Charlie Brown

I thought I was the only one using the start of the school year as an excuse to declare it to be the fall season and start baking with pumpkin.  Maybe other bloggers live in climates where the weather isn't quite as counterintuitive to that reasoning, but the power of pumpkin seems to be stronger than I anticipated.  I've been seeing delicious recipes pop up on my feedly in the past few weeks, I can only hope that my Dark Harvest Muffins hold their own in this culinary company.

I don't like to repeat myself too much in my office treats, so I can't run into my kitchen and make all of these pumpkin goodies right now, but I'm saving them away for later, and passing them along to you in communal temptation:

• Girlichef: Pumpkin Cheesecake Popsicles: These straddle the line between summer and fall perfectly, and sound so delicious.  I'm tempted to tweak her basic recipe and put it into my ice cream maker for myself.
• Something Swanky: Pumpkin Nutella Poke Cake: Oh, that's not fair.  Combining the power of pumpkin with the addiction that is Nutella, and then pouring on sweetened condensed milk.  I don't know if I can make poke cupcakes, because full-sized cake can be a serving issue at work, but if it comes down to it, maybe this could be done as a non-pie Thanksgiving dessert.  Because the dessert table needs diversity.
• Very Best Baking: Autumn-Spiced Pumpkin Shortbread: When I think of shortbread, I think of a pretty dry crumb, so I would stick to the smaller amount of pumpkin suggested.  But I am intrigued by the idea.
• Sally's Baking Addiction: Mini Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Muffins: These look adorable, and after reading her recipe for Glazed Chocolate Donut Holes, I'm pretty sure I could just roll the muffins completely in the cinnamon sugar coating and call them donut holes as well.  Or make the glaze with cinnamon.  I can't get over how perfect donut holes would be for a coffee klatch, so it's likely that I'll make some form of these this year.

I've also already found and bought some pumpkin ice cream and pumpkin yogurt.  Think I'll be sick of it by Thanksgiving?  Don't bet on it.

For more inspiration, go to Woolen Diversions.