Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Iced Pumpkin Cookies
Makes 36 cookies
3 WW PTS

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Glaze
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven 350
1. Sift flour baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into a big bowl and set aside.
2. In a stand mixer, or another bowl, mix sugar till fluffy and aerated. Then add pumpkin, egg, vanilla and mix well.
3. Slowly mix in the dry ingredients till it is all incorporated. Scoop out with a small ice cream scooper onto a cookie sheet. Wetting your fingertips with water slightly pat down the cookie dough so they bake with a flatter surface (otherwise they will dome out and it will be harder to frost).
4. Bake for 15 minutes, pull out and let sit on the cookie sheet for about 2 minutes before moving to the cooling racks.
5. Combine ingredients for the glaze to desired consistency, once cookies are cool frost using a bakers flat spatula.

*Original recipe from Relish Click Here to see their service! The original recipe called for 1/2 tsp of each ground nutmeg and ground cloves, I didn't have either on hand because quite frankly they are spices my household doesn't really like so I omitted them, if you like them feel free to add them in with the cinnamon. Also the orignal recipe called for 3 tbsp of milk for the glaze not 2 but I liked the frosting thicker vs. a surface crunch. Enjoy!

Halloween Sugar Cookies

To add to the weekend festivities we did sugar cookies and decorated them on Sunday, before we had dinner and went trick or treating. I was able to stay away from the Halloween Candy, but not these!

Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1.In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).

2.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

3.Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

*recipe used from allrecipe.com

Frosting
2/3 cup butter, softened

4 cups confectioners' sugar

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
4 drops red food coloring
1.In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, confectioners' sugar, and milk until light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and food coloring. Spread on or between cookies.

* Recipe from allreceipe.com

Chocolate Chip & Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

Regular Awesome Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe here but I added peanut butter chips as well. I would say if I make these again more peanut butter chips less chocolate chips. The key to these cookies are ice cream scooper for even cookies (they come out round and perfect every time) and then also the AirBake baking tray lined with parchment paper or a silpat.

Chocolate Chip & Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 egg
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/4 cup chocolate chips
*Nuts optional (husband prefers nuts, but Walnuts do funny things to my mouth)
1. Preheat oven 375 degrees. Cream sugars and butter  together. Add egg and mix well.
2. Add dry ingredients. Then chips.
3. Bake for 9 minutes, then let them sit on the tray for 2 minutes before moving them to a wire rack.

Perfect cookies every time!

Blackberry Almond Crumble

On Friday in the morning before it got too hot I made a blackberry almond crumble. I roughly followed this recipe in the food network magazine, but I used oats instead of cornmeal and blackberries instead of blueberries. It turned out delicious!

Blackberry Almond Crumble
Filling:
4 cups Blackberries
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp flour
Crumble:
3/4 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
pinch of salt
7 tbsp softened butter
2 tbsp cold butter (for top of crumble)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven 375, grease your pan.
2. Load 4 cups berries into your pan. Sprinkle sugar over top of berries, and tablespoon of flour.
3. In a separate bowl mix the crumble ingredients together with your fingers until the butter is incorporated nicely.
4. Evenly spread the crumble over the top of the berries.
5. Dot the top of the crumble with 2 tbsp of butter divided. Bake for 40-45 minutes until golden and bubbling.

For the magazine recipe click here. Also linked to Making Friends Monday, Meet Me Monday, Mingle Mondays, Tasty Tuesday, Tempt My Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table.

Cookie Jar

I have had a cookie jar on my wish list for years, I have a Christmas cookie jar but I don't have an everyday cookie jar. For those of you that don't know my husband has a major sweet tooth/ snack habit. He loves all those gross sugary things that are horrible for you, like Twinkies he can eat a whole box of Twinkies in one sitting. GROSS! He also loves all kinds of Little Debbie treats. I have refused at this point to buy these things anymore, they are expensive for the product itself and I don't really want my Molly to get into the habit of eating them. As a result I have gotten into the habit of baking my own sweets, thus the cookie jar was becoming more and more important. Enter a fabulous cookie jar as a birthday present from my mom. It is brilliant, and exactly what I would have picked if I had bought it for myself. Since then I have made cranberry white chocolate chip cookies, my ultimate chocolate chip cookies (see picture) and the BEST peanut butter chocolate chip cookies EVER! I have made two batches in a row they are amazing, I think it is the amount of brown sugar in the recipe that makes it so chewy and fantastic.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1/2	cup unsalted butter
1 1/2	cups brown sugar
1/2	cup sugar
1/2	teaspoon salt
2/3	cup creamy peanut butter
2	large eggs
1 1/2	teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2	cups all purpose flour
2	teaspoons baking soda
6	ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

[1] In large bowl, cream together butter, sugars, salt and peanut butter. Beat in eggs and vanilla and then add the flour and soda. Mix well and add chocolate chips.

[2] Roll balls of dough and drop onto greased cookie sheet 2" apart. Flatten a bit with the bottom of a glass. Bake 10 - 12 minutes and let cool.

Thank you cookies

I was telling my next door neighbor that I would make them something for helping us with the hot tub, they seem like very nice people and are always willing to help us if we need it, and vice versa. He at that point said that I made them some cookies a year ago around Christmas time that had cranberries, nuts, and white chocolate. He said that he had never had cookies like those before and wanted them. So that is what he got. Granted it is a week later, but you do what you got to do, as you saw in my previous post it was a hard week. This was my first opportunity, needless to say my husband is stoked for these cookies as well.

So after teacher/parent conferences yesterday I needed to get out of the way of my house-keeper so Molly and I set out to shop a few stores. I wanted a few things from Bed Bath & Beyond. We ended up getting a cookie sheet, parchment paper, and a brilliant ice cream scooper that will now be my cookie scooper. It is so nice to have uniformity when baking, it truly is the key look at how nice these look!

Just drizzled the cookies with white chocolate, now the glaze just has to set up.

Tin from Christmas that I got back from my sister-in-law, not too Christmasy and perfect for a thank you for helping us with our hot tub.