Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Now that Fall has kicked off, it's time for Fall treats. I've chosen today to make Pumpkin Snickerdoodles, which I have made before, but I guess not blogged about? So here it is!

Ingredients

• ½ cup, plus 3 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup, plus 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup pumpkin puree (do not use the pumpkin pie mix puree)
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1¼ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• Coating:
• ¼ cup granulate sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• Icing:
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
• 2½ – 3½ cups powdered sugar (depending on how thick you want it)
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Instructions

1. Beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar for about 3 minutes on low.
2. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix in the vanilla and egg until combined.
3. Add the pumpkin and sour cream.
4. In a separate medium bowl, combine your dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk them all together and slowly stir into the wet ingredients.
5. Refrigerate the batter for at least 30 minutes to an hour.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees while you start to roll out the dough into medium size balls.
7. Mix together the granulated sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg for the coating.
8. Roll the balls of dough into the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Pat the ball of dough gently with your palm after setting onto the pan (covered with parchment paper or a baking mat).
9. Bake for 14 to 15 minutes. They will finish baking when you let them cool on the baking sheet when pulled out of the oven. Do not over bake.
10. Icing:
11. Beat the softened cream cheese and vanilla for about 1 minute on medium high speed. Alternate the heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar until the right consistency. 
12. Add the cinnamon and nutmeg to the icing. You can hand frost these with a knife or by using a piping bag method.
13. Enjoy!

Now yes, I just copied and pasted this from Pinterest, as I am lazy, its from a blog called Simply Gloria.

Anyway, these were so dang good! 

Pumpkin Spice Truffles

You guys, I have found a delicious new recipe that tastes amazing. Let's waste no time getting into it.

2 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
12 full sheets of graham cracker crumbs
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 ounces white chocolate, melted

Topping: melting chocolate (you can use white, dark, or milk chocolate) and more graham crumbs.

Beat the cream cheese and sugar together in a large bowl until creamy - about 2 minutes. Add the pumpkin and beat on high until combined. Add the graham cracker crumbs, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and melted chocolate. Beat until everything is combined. The mixture is supposed to be soft and thick. Cover mixture tightly and refrigerate for 1 hour or up to 24 hours. You gotta chill it. Will it make it harder to work with later? Yes but it's totally needed.

After the chilling period, roll the mixture into balls. The original blog got like, 35 out of hers, but I did small small ones and only got like, 30, so I guess, just be prepared for something around there. Then you melt your chocolate, either in the microwave (using 30 second intervals) or a saucepan. Dip the truffles into the chocolate, and then place on a piece of prepared parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle some graham cracker crumbs on top. Refrigerate again, until set. These do need to be kept in the fridge, of course.

These are dang delicious and weren't as hard to make as I originally had thought they were. I recommend them, and I'm thinking of making them again, to see if I can get them to look just a little better next time. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Spice Truffles

So I had a little mix up of events this week and thought I had something going on on Thursday. So I made a treat, like usual, and then I learned that I didn't actually have it going on, so now I can enjoy my treats all to myself! Not good for my waistline, but good for my mouth. :D Here's the recipe:

2 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 and 3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 12 full sheet graham crackers)
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 ounces white chocolate chips, melted

With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and sugar together in a large bowl until creamy - about 2 minutes. Add the pumpkin and beat on high until combined. Add the graham cracker crumbs, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and melted chocolate. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes until everything is combined. The mixture is supposed to be soft and thick. Cover mixture tightly and refrigerate for 1 hour or up to 24 hours. (I chilled for about 6 hours) Chilling is mandatory.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
Begin rolling chilled mixture into balls (about 1 teaspoon per ball) and place the balls on the baking sheets. The original girl had 35 on hers, I think I barely made it to 30, and that was making my balls pretty small, for me.  Chill balls in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or up to 24 hours. (I went overnight, felt like a good enough amount of time)
When you're ready to start dipping the truffles, begin melting the chocolate. Remove balls from the refrigerator and dip them in the chocolate. I used toothpicks to do this, but really, go with what makes you comfortable. Top truffles with a sprinkle of graham cracker crumbs, if desired.
Place balls back onto the baking sheet after you dip each one. Allow chocolate to completely set in the refrigerator before serving.

Guys, these are super delicious. I love them.

Pumpkin Silk Pie

Basically, I’ve been making this pie over and over for the last few weeks. It’s super easy and delicious, and we’ve had loads of events lately for food, being Thanksgiving, and my ward Christmas party, and all that jazz. So, lets dive in.

First, I cheat. I use store-bought graham cracker crusts. Because, and stick with me here, crusts are hard, and my time is super limited right now, with finals just around the corner. To start with, either have 2 graham cracker pie crusts bought, or go ahead and make those yourself, I’m no one to judge. Ok now that you have those, here are your ingredients:

8 oz package cream cheese, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
8-16 oz Cool Whip
2 cups whipped cream

Beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy, and no chunks of cream cheese floating around anywhere. Add the powdered sugar, pumpkin, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice, mix until well blended and smooth. Here’s where things get tricky. The place I got this from said to add 16 oz of Cool Whip. That’s a lot of Cool Whip, makes for a lot of pie. Then, I made it just by adding a hair over 8 oz, maybe 9 oz. And it’s the same. The amount it makes is just about the same, it tastes the same, it seems the same, so go with your gut, see how you like it. Spread the mixture into the two pie pans, and then put the pies into the fridge for a few hours, or overnight. You just want things to set is all. Then, when you’re ready to eat it, either pipe your whipped cream onto the pie or spread it, it doesn’t matter. Nobody cares if your pie is fancy. I (on this one pie, the only time I’ve done this) piped mine on using a Wilton 4B tip, so fance.

Even though it took forever, look how nice it looks? Awwww. Anyway, then enjoy the heck out of that pie. Because it’s amazing.

My Halloween Pumpkin

Here’s the problem with blogging every day right now: I have nothing going on. It’s just that school takes up so much of my time, since my homework takes several hours, by the time I don’t have any homework, I’m too burnt out to actually do anything else. Not that it matters, because by the time I don’t have homework, it’s usually 9:00 or 10:00 anyway. But I digress, nobody wants to hear about homework. So I dug into my phone, and thought, here’s a fun thing, the pumpkin that I did for Halloween.

I’ll be honest, I don’t like to carve pumpkins. The insides are gross and everything is so goopy, and the thing is just messy and I don’t like the smell. So every year, when we do pumpkins, Husband does the pumpkins, and I supervise in another room. But this year, he bought me a little kit that I could do a pumpkin without all the junk I hate. Behold: Iron Pumpkin

What a great looking pumpkin. I think I’ll just do this every year.

Pumpkin Pie Dip

For Stamp and Chat tomorrow, we’re all making (getting) our favorite dips and chips. Since I don’t really do chips and dip that often, I went for a dessert dip. I saw this on Pinterest and was super jazzed to try it. The ingredients are few, they are:

15 oz can of pumpkin
5 oz box of instant vanilla pudding (you won’t be making the pudding, you just need the powder)
16 oz cool whip, thawed
1/2 TB pumpkin pie spice
1/2 TB cinnamon

Mix every ingredient together in a large bowl. Chill for several hours before serving. To dip, you can use apple slices, Nilla wafers, or graham crackers.

Guys, this was crazy delicious. I can’t even explain how good this was! You can either dip stuff into it, or literally just eat it by the spoonful. It’s awesome.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies

I am already sad about this post, and let me tell you why. After making these AWESOME cookies, I forgot to take a picture. So now, I can give you the recipe, and I can tell you that the are the best cookies ever, but without a picture, how will you believe me?! Take my word on it, these are fantastic.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups quick oats
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups packed light-brown sugar
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin puree
1 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, oats, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger for 30 seconds, set aside. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip together butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until creamy (occasionally stop and scrape down sides and bottom of bowl throughout entire mixing process). Blend in egg then blend in vanilla extract and pumpkin puree. With mixer set on low speed, slowly add in dry ingredients and mix until combined. Mix in chocolate chips and pecans (if you want some chocolate to show through set some aside to press into tops before baking). Let batter rest 5 - 10 minutes (this just gives the oats some time to absorb the liquids so batter isn't so sticky and cookies don't spread so much). Scoop dough out on to parchment paper lined baking sheets, spacing cookies 2-inches apart. Bake in preheated oven 12 - 14 minutes.

These are awesome. They are really soft. They are super tasty. I recommend them.

Mini Pumpkin Pies

I meant to post this last week, but the entries got away from me, so I am just going to do it this week. For Thanksgiving, I wanted to contribute to my dinners with a dessert – individual mini pumpkin pies. I found the recipe on Pinterest, of course, and finally made it. The recipe is as follows, if you’d like it:

1 15oz can of pumpkin
1 12oz can of evaporated milk
2 eggs
2 Tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup sugar
1/2tsp of salt
2 boxes of ready-made crust (how many you use will determine if you need three or all four)

You will also need a cookie cutter (or some sort of circle) that is about this much bigger than your muffin tin, both the regular and the mini one. Lightly spray your pans with cooking spray. Unroll your crust and cut out circles, lay the circle on top of the muffin hole and gently press down to the bottom. From there gently press the crusts to the sides, covering the whole muffin cup.

Once I cut out as many circles as I can with the pre-rolled out dough, I combine it together and roll it out again and again. Combine sugar, pumpkin pie spice and salt together with a whisk. Beat eggs and then slowly combine pumpkin and add sugar mixture to that. Once that is all combined, stir in the evaporated milk. I used a 1/3 cup measuring cup that wasn't quite full to fill the regular muffin cups. I used 1/4 cup measuring cup that wasn't quite full to fill each mini muffin cup.

Fill all your mini pie shells to just below level with muffin pan top. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes for the regular sized ones and 25-30 minutes for the mini ones. Check done-ness by putting a knife in the center, if it comes out mostly clean they are done.

Enjoy with some fresh whipped cream!

Now, it was pretty easy to make this, just very time consuming. I forgot to take a pic with the whipped cream on it, because come one, Thanksgiving is a busy day. But this is delicious! Make it next year, guys.

Pumpkin Carvin’

Last night, for FHE, we got together with Adam’s family, and carved pumpkins. So after a little lesson, we got started. Except, I hate to carve pumpkins, so I just watched as everyone else carved a pumpkin. I did help, though, by choosing the design I made him to, so I feel like I did my part. I just sat on the couch, offering moral support to people.

See, look at them working hard. Finally, the finished product came, and he did a really good job!

I’ve never used a template on a pumpkin before, but their family all had, so it was nothing new to them. The pumpkins looked really good though. Maybe some time in my life, I’ll get to carve a pumpkin, but for now, I’m happy to just watch.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Brownies

When I saw this recipe on Pinterest, I was super psyched. The recipe looked awesome, the picture looked delicious, and I love both pumpkin and brownies, so I was psyched. I made the recipe, and it didn't quite look like I thought it would. I wasn't concerned, though, because pumpkin stuff always looks suspicious when you're making it, and looks great when you're done. I pulled it out of the oven, and they still looked not like the pic on Pinterest. I tried one, and while they're good, I feel like they're missing something. I don't know what though. Maybe more pumpkin needs to be added? Maybe more chocolate? I'm not sure. They are good, I just think that if I make them in the future, I can make them better. The recipe, in case you're interested:

1/2 cup pumpkin puree

1 whole egg
2 egg whites
1 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350˚F.  Line an 11″- x 7″-inch pan with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine pumpkin puree, eggs and oil until smooth.  Set aside.In a separate medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, spices, salt and brown sugar.  Add to the wet ingredients and mix until thoroughly incorporated.  Stir in the chocolate chips.Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly.  Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until passes toothpick test.  Cool completely before cutting.
And here's what mine looked like:



See. weird. But try them for yourself! They do taste good, there's no denying that.


Today, I am thankful for heat/heaters. How cold would the world be without it?

Carvin’ Time

As Halloween is in just a day, I thought it was an appropriate time to start carving my pumpkins. So, last night, I got a few from the local pumpkin patch, and got going. I found a pic of the way I did my pumpkins, and I thought it was adorable, so I gave it a try. It didn’t work out nearly as cutely as it did in the pic I saw, but I gave it a go, therefore, no one can criticize me. Ha! Here are my three pumpkins that I carved:

Boo! I thought these were awesome. And the reason I used the lighter colors for their eyes is because I thought it would make them look less spooky, and maybe like more approachable pumpkins, haha. But I like them. They’re now decorating my table.

Because I had many pumpkins left over, I decided to paint them. Why, you ask? No idea, it just seemed a good plan. So, I got out some paints, painted some little guys, left some alone, and then put them all in a clear bowl for decoration. I don’t know if it’s as cute as I saw it in my head, but it’s not hideous, so I’ll keep it out for a day or so.

And there it is. It’s not exactly like I wanted, but it’s not the worst thing I’ve ever done. Happy HalloweenEve!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Husband has left me yet again. Wait, that sounds bad. Let’s rephrase. Husband has gone out of town yet again, leaving me for many days alone in this house. So, of course, I have made myself a massive to-do list that I’ve been doing the last few days. Yesterday was the last of the list that I had written down, I only had like, 3 things left. One of which, was to make a treat. I stumbled across this of course on Pinterest, and had to make them. Here’s the recipe if you’re so inclined:

For the cookies:

3 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the coating:
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Dash of allspice
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk together to blend. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugars on medium speed until well combined. Next, still on medium speed, beat in pumpkin. Then, add the egg and vanilla extract. Lastly, add in the dry ingredients. Beat until combined, but do not over mix. Cover the dough, and refrigerate for one hour, until firm.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and spices for the sugar coating. Scoop dough (approximately 2 1/2 tablespoons) and roll into a ball. Roll the dough ball in the sugar mixture, and place on the lined baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie. Take a drinking glass with a flat bottom and moisten with water. Dip the glass in the sugar mixture, and use it to flatten the dough balls. Re-sugar the glass as needed.
Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. Remove when the centers of the cookies have set. Let cool on the baking pan for approximately 5 minutes, and then transfer to wire cooling racks to cool completely.

See. easy-peasy. Of course, after I mixed together my dough, and got a whiff of that, I was like, holy gross. It just smelled awful, but pumpkin treats usually do before they’ve cooked. After I smashed down the cookies, I snapped a pic (with cookie all over my hands, my phone got dirty)

And of course, I took one after they got out of the oven.

And let me tell you, when I pulled them out of the oven….. DELICIOUS, honestly, everyone should eat these. The recipe made 44, so I’ve eaten plenty and still have a lot. Maybe I’ll hand them out on Halloween night!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars

Yesterday ended up being a baking day. Not the whole day, just the end of it. Today is Canadian Thanksgiving, but in Canada, instead of celebrating it on the actual day, they celebrate it on the Sunday before, with their families. I know, I know…Canadians. So, Husband’s family celebrates it, of course, and the dinner was last night.  As we were getting ready to go over there, Husband’s like, oh we need to bring a dessert. Oh, good, so I had a whopping 30 minutes to whip something up. So, I thought of a crowd pleasing dessert, one that wouldn’t take too long, so I made my little brownie-rolo cupcakes that I’ve made many times now. So, I quickly got those made (thank goodness we had the stuff on hand) and we made our way on over. Because I had frosted the brownies when they were still a little warm, and had the lid on them on our way over, the frosting had started to melt a little, so I quickly removed the lid and let them breathe and cool down. I would have taken a picture, but I was in such a rush, I didn’t really have time.

Then, when I got home from the shindig, I wanted to make these pumpkin cheesecake bars I found on Pinterest. The picture of them, and the description, sounded awesome, so I was psyched. I followed the instructions to a T. I let the cream cheese soften, added the water, etc, etc, but my stuff didn’t turn out at all like her pics looked. And they’re…not very good. Here’s what it looked like after I tried to swirl in the cheesecake:

The cream cheese just made little…chunks into the bars, it didn’t really flow like I thought it would. I tried one when they came out of the oven, and they were all right, and then I tried one this morning, after it was cool, and to be honest, I don’t care for them that much. I don’t think I’ll make this again.

Here’s what it looked like after I pulled it out of the oven:

And here’s the recipe:

1 box angel food cake mix, the one step kind
1 15 oz can pumpkin
¾ cup water
½ tsp cinnamon
1 8ox reduced fat cream cheese, softened
Tablespoons of water

Cream the cream cheese, with a few tablespoons of water, to thin it out a little bit. (I added like, 5 TB of water, but I think maybe it’s supposed to be more?).  The water is just used to thin it out a bit. In a separate bowl, mix the cake mix, pumpkin, cinnamon and water together until it is smooth and well mixed. In a 9x13 dish (sprayed generously with a cooking spray), add half of the cake/pumpkin mix. Then, smooth it out with a rubber spatula. Drizzle half of the cream cheese over the top of it and take a spatula to smooth it over the top. Add remaining cake mix, and also the remaining cream cheese mix, (just making some layers). Finally, take a butter knife, stick it into the mix and go back and forth over the top of the cake, making figure 8’s, to blend it up a bit. Bake for 35 minutes at 375 degrees, or until toothpick comes out clean.

So, there it is. Maybe you can make it better, or maybe you like it the way it is. But in my case, I doubt I’ll be making it again.