Pumpkin Bars

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon cloves
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup (about half a can) pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup canola oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cloves.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add cloves and pumpkin and stir till combined.
4. Add the we ingredients to the dry and stir with a stiff spatula just until combined (there should be no streaks of flour left).
5. Pour batter into a 8x8 baking pan
6. Bake 30-35 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

Gingerbread Cookies

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!

In the middle of last minute pre-Christmas-guest cleaning, my 4-year old asked to make cookies. So we did. Tonight's batch are gingerbread. Soft, spicy gingerbread. Man the house smells good.  And I'm sorry that none of the cookies in the photo are decorated. We will probably do that tomorrow when my sisters are here, but I wanted to share my recipe for any last minute Christmas Cookie Bakers out there.

These are a lot of fun for kids to help with, especially the part where you add the baking soda to the molasses/sugar mixture. Do you know what happens when you mix an acid with a base? Do you ever stop to think how much kid science you can teach in a kitchen? Word of advice: use a much bigger pan than you think you might need, or you might end up with a mess like a science fair volcano(but stickier!)

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup dark molasses
• 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 sticks butter (1 cup) cut into tablespoon-sized pieces
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325. Line one or more baking sheets with parchment or a silicone baking mat.
2. In a 4-5 quart  pot, bring the molasses, brown sugar, and spices to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally.
3. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in the baking soda. (The mixture will greatly increase in volume).
4. Stir in the butter, a few pieces at a time, until melted. Add the egg.
5. With a very heavy duty spoon (seriously, wood or strong non-bendy metal, not a plastic handled rubber one here), add about 3 3/4 cups of the flour, plus the salt and stir until combined.
6. Knead the dough on a lightly floured board, adding the remaining flour, for about 30 seconds. The dough should be soft.
7. Roll about half of the dough out at a time to 1/8-1/4 inch thick. Keep the other half wrapped in plastic wrap and at room temperature.
8. Cut out cookies with cutters and bake on the lined cookie sheets for 10-12 minutes.
9. Decorate and enjoy!

Christmas Cookies

I'm a traitor, I know. I'm blogging today about my favorite all-time Christmas cookie recipe. The one that my family makes Every Christmas. Every. Christmas.

The dough is delish. The icing is devine. The decorations are...decorative.

But that recipe isn't here. Its over at the Soul Mate Author's Blog, where I am also talking about my new novel, The Paris Affair.

Yep, that's me. I live a secret double life. Part-time home chef. Part-time romance author. And lovin every minute of both.

Want that yummy recipe? Head on over here.

Want that yummy book? Try here.

Triple-Chocolate Chip Cookies

True story: I shared a bite of this cookie dough with my 4-year old son and he spit it out. I have no idea whose genetics this problem comes from, because raw cookie dough is one of the exceedingly few sweet-related food weaknesses my husband has (and we all know that I have a sweet tooth the size of Antarctica). And lest you all think I'm forcing salmonella upon my children, I do use pasteurized eggs.

Anyway, there recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 ounces dark chocolate, grated
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 1.5 ouce milk chocolate bar, broken roughly into about 1/4 inch chunks

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and grated chocolate and set aside.
3. With a mixer, cream the butter and two sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix until combined.
4. Carefully add the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar mixture and mix until combined.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips and chunks.
6. Scoop by 1-inch balls onto a cookie sheet. 
7. Bake 9-12 minutes. Let them cool on the cookie sheet about two minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
8. Good luck fending off the wild hoards of chocolate lovers while they cool. Or, just serve warm :)

Two Way Cocoa Oatmeal M&M Cookies

Many drop cookie recipes can easily be made into bar cookie recipes just by baking them in a cake pan instead of on a cookie sheet.

These are a sweet take on oatmeal cookies, with peanut M&M's for sweetness, crunch, and just a touch of protein. The cocoa flavor is good but not overpowering. I won't go so far as to say they're healthy, but the oatmeal makes me feel better about serving these after school :)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 2 cups peanut M&M's (about 2/3 of a bag)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325. If you are making bar cookies, grease a large cake pan. If making drop cookies, line two cookies sheets with parchment or silicone liners. (I did both, so I greased a 8" square baking pan and lined a cookie sheet).
2. Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
3. Fit your stand mixer with a silicone-edged beater and blend butter and sugars. Add eggs one at a time, beating about 30 seconds on medium in between.
4. Slowly add the flour mixture and beat until well combined. Add the oats in several batches. If you don't have a nifty SideSwipe beater, remember to turn off the mixer and scrape down your bowl every now and then.
5. Add the M&M's last and beat just until they are distributed (without the nifty beater, I suggest doing this by hand with a stiff spoon).
6. Spread dough evenly in the greased pan, or drop by generous (palm-sized) balls onto a cookie sheet.
7. Bake individual cookies about 22 minutes. Bars will take about 5-8 minutes longer.

4 Ingredient Amaretto Cookies

I was in extreme need of a cookie and I had cake mix on hand. I have given up chocolate until Easter, but I have almond extract. Put these things together with a mixer and I have a very fast, very easy recipe that reminds me of our wedding cake. Perhaps I should have added a raspberry filling...

Ingredients

• 1 boxed white cake mix
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 tsp almond extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
2. With an electric mixer, beat the cake mix, eggs, butter and almond extract until they form a soft dough.
3. Form dough into 1 inch balls and space about 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.
4. Bake about 9-12 minutes until lightly golden on the top and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Makes about 20 cookies.

Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Cookie Cake

So this one is not my best work. The concept was good--two layers of chocolate chip cookie sandwiching vanilla ice cream. But I think some of the details need improvement.

I guess I should explain why I am making a chocolate chip ice cream cookie cake at all. This is what I refer to as Cake Week in our house. My birthday, my son's birthday, and my mother's birthday all fall within a 5-day span. Add in the sandwiching weekends and the assorted cake-eating occasions (celebrate with my in-laws, celebrate with just the immediate family, celebrate with my extended family, celebrate with the preschool, celebrate with the non-preschool kid friends), I get caked-out.

My attempt at a cookie cake was (is) for the immediate family. The end result was extremely tasty, and it looked nice, but it had a few flaws.  Here is what I did:

Ingredients

• 1 recipe Nestle Toll House chocolate chip cookie dough. Yes, the one from the package.*
• ~1 pint vanilla ice cream (you could use more, but I had less on hand than I expected).
• Decorating frosting

Directions

1. Mix cookie dough according to the recipe.
2. Spread in two greased, 9" cake pans and bake at 375 for about 20 minutes, until the center is done.
3. Cool the cookies in the pans for about 10 minutes, then remove from the pans.  Cool completely.
4. Freeze the cookies for an hour or two before filling.
5. Soften the ice cream in the microwave on about 45-second bursts at low power until it is spreadable.
6. Spread softened ice cream on top of one cookie, then top with the other.**
7. Freeze stacked cake until firm, then decorate.***

Where I went wrong:
* I love the regular, boring, tried-and-true Nestle recipe, but I should have remembered that the cookies tend to crisp up when they cool.  Crisp cookies are hard to slice. Crisp, frozen cookies are nearly impossible to slice. Even with a sharp chef's knife.  If I do this again, I think I'd look for a more cakey recipe that is soft when cool.  Probably one without the real butter, which makes it tasty but crunchy.

** My second mistake was I should have topped one cookie with softened ice cream, then put it back in the freezer to firm up before topping with the other cookie.  Even pre-chilled, my cookie layers worked like slabs of styrofoam and kept the icecream filling from freezing up firm.

*** This is not so much an error as something I feel compelled to explain. I love to bake, and I decorate cakes and cookies. But I'm not really into the decorating thing. I spend more energy on the taste and preparation of the finished product than on the looks. Part of me just doesn't have the patience for all the detail work, and part of me really prefers to make food that is NOT too pretty to eat. I want my food consumed, not left un-cut on the buffet table. And my decorating style (which this time included store-bought cake candies and chocolate frosting leftover from the preschool cupcakes) totally reflects it :)