Pumpkin Cookies with Browned Butter Frosting

So, apparently, the big pumpkin scare is over. I was worried there for a while that I wouldn't be able to find any canned pumpkin this season, and I have to admit that I was getting kind of anxious about it. I did end up finding a bunch of sugar pumpkins to roast, which kept my anxiety at bay. But now the shelves in the stores seem to have an ample supply of the canned stuff so everyone can stop panicking :-) I grabbed a few small cans at Target last week, and my Mom grabbed me 4 of the big guys. So now I should be set until next year :) I'd also like to thank my good friend Meredith for picking me up a can of pumpkin when she found some at the grocery store. Sorry I had to turn it away Mere, but I just don't know what I'd do with one more can! Thanks for thinking of me anyway!

Now, on to these cookies. I believe I started hearing about these last fall on a cooking message board I used to frequent a lot more often than I do these days. I'm pretty sure I recall these babies being pretty popular and I'm not sure why I never tried them. I guess I just had so many other things to try, they never made it close enough to the top of the list. Well, I am really glad that I decided to give these a whirl because they are really yummy! A note of caution though, the frosting is very rich. I mean, 3 cups of confectioner's sugar will hurt your teeth, and your tummy. The recipe says to frost the cookies generously, but I think just a thin spread would be sufficient. I went ahead and generously frosted mine, and they are very yummy, but maybe a bit too much frosting for me. I think spreading too much frosting on hides the real flavor of the cookies. And these cookies deserve to shine. They are light and cakey with a hint of spice from the cinnamon. I'd even venture to say you could go without the frosting, if you're the kind of person who prefers their cookies frosting-free. Either way, these are a winner, and I'm excited for Maura to test them out when she gets home from school today.


Pumpkin Cookies with Browned Butter Frosting (source: Betty Crocker by way of Carrie's Sweet Life)

2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup pumpkin ( not pie mix)
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Browned Butter Frosting

3 cups confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-4 tablespoons milk
1/3 cup butter (do not use margarine or spread; it will burn)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, beat granulated sugar, brown sugar, 3/4 cup butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally, until well blended. Beat in pumpkin and eggs until well mixed. On low speed, beat in flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. (I always mix my dry ingredients together with a whisk before adding them to my wet mixture. This way, I'm sure that everything is as evenly incorporated as possible.)

On ungreased cookie sheets, drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls.

Bake 10-12 minutes or until almost no indentation remains when touched in center. Immediately remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 45 minutes.

In medium bowl, place confectioner's sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 3 tablespoons milk. In 1 quart saucepan (I used my 9 inch nonstick skillet and it worked just fine) heat 1/3 cup butter over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until light brown,

Pour browned butter over powdered sugar mixture. Beat on low speed about 1 minute or until smooth. Gradually add just enough of the remaining tablespoon of milk to make frosting creamy and spreadable. Generously frost cookies. (I did not need to add any additional milk. Three tablespoons was perfect.)

I wanted to add that I think this frosting would pair well with other types of desserts. I'm thinking some kind of spice cake or apple spice cake. Maybe I'll experiment with it a bit...

Dutch Apple-Pumpkin Crisp and the (possible) return of my blog

Fall is officially here. Which means I'm probably going to be doing more baking, much to the chagrin of my bathroom scale. I had to cut back on my baking because we were all eating way too many sweets and no one could fit into their pants. So, now that I have lots of coworkers who are willing to eat all my yummy goodies so I don't have to, I figure I'll bake more and see how it goes. My problem is that when I take the goodies into work, I still have to face them and the temptation that comes along with them. So we'll see.

The other main reason for my complete abandonment of my blog is that I just don't make anything new and exciting. Pretty much the same stuff every week. All stuff that has already been posted here. So obviously, I had no reason to blog.

Well, while shopping over the weekend, my mom and I found one of those wonderful little Betty Crocker "cookbooks" in the checkout aisle at Target. It was full of a ton of really yummy Fall Baking recipes, so we both grabbed one and pored over it when we got back to her house. It was so hard to decide what to make first. A few things stood out to me, but I just couldn't pick something. So with the help of the lovely ladies on The Nest's What's Cooking message board, I decided to go ahead and try the Dutch Apple-Pumpkin Crisp.

I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about this one. For some reason, the idea of pumpkin and apple together just sounded a little off to me. I don't know that I've ever had them together before now. Well, Betty Crocker sure does know her stuff. Cause this is a seriously delicious dessert. And incredibly easy as well. Chopping the apples is the most complicated part of the whole process. I highly recommend looking for Betty Crocker's Fall Baking mini cookbook in the checkout aisle of your local Target/grocery store. There are some really great looking recipes that I'm sure you'll see featured here in the near future.

Dutch Apple-Pumpkin Crisp (source: Betty Crocker's Fall Baking cookbook)

1 1/2 cups chopped peeled apples (2 small) - I used 2 small apples and didn't measure. But I don't feel like that was quite enough. I"ll probably do 3 small or 2 medium apples next time
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup of milk- I used half and half because all I had was skim milk and I really wanted this to be rich and creamy
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 egg
whipped cream, if desired

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread apples over bottom of 9-inch glass pie plate. Microwave uncovered on high about 4-6 minutes or until apples are crisp-tender.
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, toss 3/4 cup flour, the brown sugar, butter and 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice until crumbly. Set aside.
3. In medium bowl, beat remaining ingredients except whipped cream with wire whisk until smooth. Pour over apples. Sprinkle with flour mixture.
4. Bake 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and set. Cool 20 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream.

Pacman Cheesecake

How cute is that?

I never get to make cheesecake. I mean, I could. Except I'm the only one in my house who will eat it. Which means I'd have to eat the whole thing by myself. Which is really not a good idea. So when my friend Beth (aka Shortcake79 on The Nest) invited us all over to her house for dinner, I knew I would have someone to make a cheesecake for. See, neither of our husbands will eat cheesecake. So we decided that we'd have cheesecake and the guys (and the kids) would have chocolate chip cookies. I decided to look for a recipe for Pumpkin Cheesecake and I came across The Cheesecake Factory's recipe on RecipeZaar.com.

The recipe was incredibly easy. The part that took the longest was processing the cookies for the crust in my Magic Bullet. The recipe called for graham cracker crumbs. But I didn't have any, so I substituted Vanilla Wafer crumbs. The crust was delicious and I think the only thing I would do differently next time would be to add some cinnamon and nutmeg and prebake it a little longer. I meant to add spices to the crust this time, thanks to the advice of my wonderful friends on The Nest's WHat's COoking message board, but I forgot. I definitely recommend using the vanilla wafers for the crust. I don't think I'd like it as much with a graham cracker crust. Elly suggested Gingersnaps, which I think would be even better than the Vanilla Wafers, but I didn't have any. So I'll use them the next time Beth invites me over :-)

The Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Cheesecake (source: recipezaar.com)

1 1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs

5 tablespoons butter, melted

1 cup sugar, plus

1 tablespoon sugar

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 canned pumpkin

3 eggs

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (I used more like 1 tsp)

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon allspice

whipped cream - (I omitted this)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine vanilla wafer crumbs with melted butter and 1 tbsp sugar in a medium bowl. Stir until the crumbs are coated with the butter. Do not over mix. You want it to be crumbly. Press into the bottom and up 2/3 of the sides of an 8" springform pan (I used a 9" pan because that's all I have). Put foil halfway up the outside of the pan. bake the crust for 5 minutes and set aside until you're ready to fill it.

In a large bowl, combine the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Mix with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the pumpkin, eggs and spices and continue mixing until creamy. Pour the filling into the pan and bake for 60-70 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature. Once cake is at room temperature, place in refrigerator to chill. Once the cake is chilled, remove the pan sides and serve.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Fall is my favorite time of year. I love when the temperature drops and I get to wear my sweaters and sweatshirts again. And I love the smell of fall. I also love the yummy baked goods that fall always brings. While I must admit that I don't really wait for fall to start baking with pumpkin, I definitely do feel so much more motivated to bake with it once the temperature changes. So when I was at the store a week ago, I picked up 3 cans of pumpkin and started keeping my eye out for new pumpkin recipes. While surfing around The Nest's What's Cooking message board, I came across a Pumpkin Bread recipe that Cara, of Cara's Cravings, says she loves. And knowing that Cara loves Pumpkin as much, if not more, than I do, I knew I had to give it a shot. I was not disappointed and I'm pondering the idea of baking a bunch of loaves of it for holiday gifts.

I did have a couple of problems with the recipe. It makes a TON of dough and the next time I make it, I will be sure not to overfill my loaf pans. I probably had enough batter to make 2 loaves, plus a few muffins. So that's what I'll do next time. I made one loaf plain for my mom, and then added chocolate chips to the rest of the dough. The problem came when I tried to fill my second loaf pan. I could see that it was filled way too high, and being that the recipe call for 1 tablespoon of baking soda, I just new it was going to overflow. Of course, I didn't think of the muffin idea until after I was finished baking the bread. There's always next time! My chocolate chip loaf did , in fact, overflow. And it did not cook all the way through. Bu I had a slice of my mom's plain, and much prettier, loaf this morning, slathered with cream cheese. It was incredible. Even with all the problems I had, I still highly recommend this recipe. It was only my first time making it, so I'm sure next time will be less of a mess. The original recipe can be found here. But I'm going to type my slightly modified version out as well :-)

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter or margarine, softened
• 3 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 1 (16 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin (I used one 15 ounce can of pumpkin)
  
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  

Directions

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs; mix well. Combine dry ingredients; stir into creamed mixture just until moistened. Stir in pumpkin. Pour batter into one greased 9x5 loaf pan. Add chocolate chips to the rest of dough and add to second greased 9x5 loaf pan. Be sure to only fill the pans up about 1/2 to 2/3 full. The batter does rise quite a bit. You can use any leftover batter to make muffins. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour or until bread tests done.

Pumpkin Scones

I love pumpkin but I really haven't baked with it much yet. I did make some yummy, and healthy, pumpkin muffins. But that's pretty much it so far. I normally just use it for my pumpkin oatmeal, which is delicious by the way! Or I feed it to my dog. But I realized that I need to start baking with it more. I had some buttermilk left over from making buttermilk pancakes for dinner last week and I wanted to use it up before it went bad. I found this recipe on Annie's blog and I knew I had to try it. These scones are easy and delicious!! I'm looking forward to having them for breakfast this week. Here is the recipe, with my adjustments in italics.

Pumpkin Scones
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup light or dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground ginger (i didn't have ginger, so i used ground nutmeg)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup white chocolate chips (optional) (i used semisweet chips because thats what i had)
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the eggs wash:
1 large egg, beaten
1 tbsp milk or cream (i used fat free half and half)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 and place rack in the middle of the oven. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. I cut my butter into pieces and then refrigerated it for a few minutes so that it stayed cold. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Stir in the chocolate chips. In a separate bowl mix together the buttermilk, pumpkin and vanilla, and then add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture. Mix just until the dough comes together. Do not overmix the dough.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead the dough for or five times and then pat the dough into a circle that is about 7 inches round. Cut the circle into six equal triangles (i was able to get 8 scones out of this recipe) Place the scones on the baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash.

Place the baking sheet inside another baking sheet to prevent the bottoms of the scones from over browning. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothepick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Did I mention that I love to bake?

I think it's in my DNA. All of my aunt's on my dad's side are bakers. My mom and her sister and my cousin all love it. I'm convinced that I was born with a baking gene. I just love it. And seriously, it's not just the eating of sweets that I love, although that is a huge part of it. I love mixing stuff together and watching it turn into something delicious. And I love feeding people sweets. Anyway, I'm always looking for healthier ways to fulfill my baking urges so that I don't feel so guilty about it. And I have a bag of whole wheat flour that needs using. I found a recipe on sparkrecipes.com for Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins that sounded perfect. I love taking muffins for breakfast in weekday mornings because it's just so easy to grab one and go. These muffins were amazing! I will definitely be holding onto this recipe.
Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins (source: sparkrecipes.com)
Ingredients

1 egg
2/3 cup sugar
1 can (1 3/4 cups) mashed, plain pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup nonfat milk
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I didn't have any so I just used a little extra cinnamon and nutmeg)
1/ cup chopped walnuts (i omitted these since I didn't have these)

Directions

Position oven rack in center of oven.
Preheat oven to 400*F (I set my oven to 375 since i use nonstick pans)
Place foil muffins cups in a 12-cup muffin pan; or spray muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray, Note: Do not use paper muffin cups; muffins will stick.
Cream egg and sugar with electric mixer until thickened, about 3 minutes.
Stir in pumpkin, vanilla and milk until well-mixed.
Gently stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices until combined.
Do not over-mix.
Stir in walnuts.
Drop batter into prepared muffin pan, filling cups about 3/4 full.
Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the middle of the muffins comes out clean.

Number of servings: 12
Nutrition Facts:
Fat: 4.0g
Carbs: 28.2g
Calories: 156.5
Protein: 4.2g

And I didn't stop there! I've been buying zucchini like crazy lately and remembered that my friend Amber made zucchini bread not too long ago. Growing up, my mom always had a vegetable garden in our backyard with all kinds of homegrown veggies. Tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini just to name a few. And she always made homemade zucchini bread. I asked her for her recipe a while back, and haven't gotten it yet, but I can't wait to try it out on my own. Amber's recipe is wonderful, but definitely a lot sweeter than I remember my mom's being.

Zucchini Bread (source: Amber's Delectable Delights)
Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil (can also use applesauce)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup zucchini, loosely grated
1 1/2 cups flour (I did 3/4 cup whole wheat, 3/4 cup all purpose)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Optional - 1/2 cup chopped nuts
Optional - 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:
- Beat eggs until frothy
- Add in sugar, oil and vanilla and mix until combined
- Add zucchini, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and optional ingredients (if desired) and mix until well blended
- Pour mixture into greased loaf pan
- Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes