Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have all this lovely pumpkin puree that I made, and I want to make good use of it, so I made some yummy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  So good!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg (or egg replacer equivilant)
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (or more) chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Cream butter and sugar.  Add egg, pumpkin and vanilla - this mixture will look slightly curdled.
3. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.  Mix until well blended.
4. Add chocolate chips and mix.
5. Place by rounded teaspoons on an ungreased baking sheet about 1-2 inches apart.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until they just begin to turn golden.  Let cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes then remove to a cooling rack.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

So I've been feeling like seasonal cooking lately.  I am not a big fan of pumpkin pie, but that doesn't mean that I can't enjoy other pumpkin yummies!  I was inspired to make these when Jacen told me out of the blue that he wanted pumpkin muffins.  Keep in mind that he has never had pumpkin muffins in his life, so I'm not sure where he got the idea, but I was game for trying, even if it was a bit random.

For the pumpkin puree in the recipe, canned puree should work, but I made some fresh - I had always wanted to try it, and it was easy and I think tasted so much better!  If you want to make your own puree, take a pumpkin, cut off the top then cut it into quarters.  Cut out the seeds (like you would a butternut squash) and place on a baking sheet.  Stick it in a 350 degree oven for around 45 minutes, or until it is tender.  At this point the skin will peel right off.  Stick the pieces in a food processor and blend until smooth.  You can keep it in your fridge for about a week or so, and in your freezer for much longer (several months at least).  Easy and, oh, so good!

I get this recipe from this site.  She calls them muffins, but I think they are sweet enough (especially with the frosting) to be called cupcakes.

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
4 Tbsp butter, cut into pieces
1 heaping cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 egg (or egg replacer equivalent)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup golden raisins (I soak mine in boiling water for 5 minutes to plump them up)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Prepare your pan with cupcake liners.
2. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt in stand mixer.  Cut in butter and blend until fully incorporated.  
3. In a separate bowl mix together pumpkin, evaporated milk, egg (or egg replacer) and vanilla.  Pour into the flour mixture.  Add raisins and fold together gently until combined.
4. Pour into cupcake pan - fill each cup about 1/2 full.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Allow to cool for 15 minutes and then remove and frost.

Frosting:
1/4 cup softened butter
1 oz cream cheese
1/2 lbs powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Whip together ingredients until well blended.  I actually added a little more vanilla than called for and it was good.

Apple Pie Filling

Eilenora really wanted to go apple picking this year.  Apple picking is not like berry picking - picking that many apples means that you have to find something to do with them, so I decided to try to make canned apple pie filling.  Then we went to go picking the apples and found out that Butler's Orchard was already done with apples - so we bought some instead.  Next year we will pick them!

Never having canned anything before, I was expecting a much more grueling process than what we actually had to do.  And it was fun!  I got this recipe from Mormon Cooking - a cookbook I got for my wedding and haven't actually used much.  I should use it more, because this turned out really well.  Some of the cans I will use for pies, but I wanted to try it right away.  So I put it over vanilla ice cream.  It worked great as an ice cream topper. 


4 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup cornstarch
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
10 cups water
3 Tbsp lemon juice
2 or 3 drops of yellow food coloring
6 lbs apples, peeled, cored and sliced

1. Blend the first five ingredients together, then stir in water.  Cook and stir until thinkened.
2. Add lemon juice and food coloring.  Fold apples into cooked mixture.  Heat thoroughly.
3. Pack into sterilized hot quart jars (I used pint jars) leaving 1 inch of head space.  Put into hot water bath and process for 20 minutes.  One quart makes a 9 inch pie.  (Okay, so I deviated from this part quite a bit.  If you wash your jars in the dishwasher, and then use the heater in the dishwasher to dry them, the jars will come out clean and hot.  Add the hot apple mixture to the hot jars and put the lids on.  Then turn the jars upside down to cool.  The heat from the jar and apple mixture will seal the jar.  I got this tip from my sister, Tammy.  It seemed to work really well! - Then you don't have to use the hot water bath to process the jars.)

Halloween Decorated Cupcakes!

Yesterday I went to a "Craft 'til you Crash" night at church, and I signed up for the cupcake decorating class.  It was totally fun!  So, this isn't really a recipe, but I am going to talk about how to decorate like this.  I thought the chocolate work would be difficult, but it was really easy.  Both the cat and the tree are made out of chocolate. 

1. First, decide what you want to make and draw a picture of it - a simple outline is all you need.
2. Put your chocolate in a ziploc sandwich bag and microwave it in short bursts until it is all melted.  If you heat it too much, your bag will melt, so keep an eye on it!
3. Place your picture under a piece of wax paper.  Snip the corner of your plastic bag (make sure it is a small hole) and "draw" your picture on the wax paper using the chocolate.
4. If you want to put dusting sugar on it (like the cat above) make sure to put it on before the chocolate hardens.  Place your chocolate in the freezer to get them extra hard before putting on the cupcakes!

The rest of this decorating is just frosting, bone shaped candies and dusting sugar.  It was so fun!  I'm going to be trying more fun decorating soon.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This week I decided to make a classic.  The chocolate chip cookie.  I used to make these all the time.  Probably at least once or twice a month.  I stopped making them so often when we found out about Jacen's egg allergy.  I didn't want to make stuff that he couldn't enjoy also.  Then I found the egg replacer, and I was able to make them again!  They are pretty close to regular with the egg replacer, but they are just not quite the same.  If you aren't dealing with an egg allergy, I would totally just do it normal with the egg.  But, if you are trying to go eggless, the egg replacer works pretty well.  This is a recipe that I got from the Betty Crocker Cookbook.

3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter or stick margarine, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 large egg (or 1 1/2 tsp egg replacer whisked with 2 Tbsp water)
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 bag semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups)

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F
2. Beat sugars and butter with electric mixer until well creamed.  Add vanilla and egg and mix until blended.  
3. Stir in baking soda, flour and salt (dough will be stiff).  Add chocolate chips - I don't usually add the whole 2 cups.  Eyeball it to the desired amount of chips.
4. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.
5. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown (centers will be soft).  Cool 1 to 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire cooling rack.
6. Eat with a big glass of cold milk!

Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

I found the recipe for these cupcakes a while ago, and have been waiting til I was in the mood for non-chocolate sweets to try them.  Then Aedan wanted to go berry picking this week, and raspberries are what's in season right now.  I decided it was the perfect time to try these lemon cupcakes, and to make the frosting with the raspberries.  Since I made up the frosting, it isn't quite right yet.  Don't get me wrong, it tastes good, but the texture isn't quite right.  In the written recipe here I'm suggesting using more powdered sugar than I did to make the frosting thicker.


Cupcakes
 
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup oil
1 cup full fat coconut milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare cupcake pans with papers.  
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add sugar and brown sugar and mix. 
3. Whisk together oil, coconut milk, lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Mix until relatively smooth. 
4. Fill cupcake liners with a scant 1/4 cup of batter (should be just under 2/3 of the way full). Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden, and toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack and allow to cool completely.  (If making mini cupcakes bake for about 15 minutes.)

Frosting
1/2 cup fresh raspberries
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 Tbsp cream
1 1/2 - 2 cups powdered sugar

1. Using an electric mixer, mix together butter and 1 cup powdered sugar.  
2. Add the lemon juice, almond extract, cream and raspberries and mix.  Allow the raspberries to mash up in the mixing process.  
3. Add powdered sugar until frosting is the desired consistency.