Thanksgiving Spread and Sweet Potato Casserole

Happy food hangover day! Or something of the sorts...

I had such a great Thanksgiving and have enough recipes to get me through several weeks of blogging!

I packed all my goods into a large (and I do mean large!) shoulder bag on Thursday and headed over to my friend India's apartment, where I found her assembling her father's recipe for homemade stuffing.

We assembled and baked and cut and diced and played around in the kitchen the entire afternoon and had fun arranging all our dishes in the oven.

Mid afternoon our friend Diandra joined us and made a delicious Walnut Soup and salad for us. Of course, we had to assemble all the food on India's kitchen table for picture time. Smile food!


In case you are wondering what all is on the table, here is our list:

Brisket (random, I'm aware)
Green bean casserole
Sweet potato casserole
Stuffing
Wheat rolls
Salad
Macaroni and cheese
Cornbread

We filled our plates to the nines and I (brilliantly) remembered to photograph my plate full of deliciousness. Jealous? You should be!


Even through all the rich food we inhaled, there was no way we weren't ready for dessert (obviously). India made her Dad's Apple and Berry Crumble (which I sheepishly didn't get a picture of) and a Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake from yours truly.

I probably don't need to tell you that we didn't even make a dent in the food that night and had so many leftovers its a bit out of control. Hope your Thanksgiving was as coma-inducing as ours was. Here is the recipe for the Sweet Potato Casserole I made. It is probably my favorite holiday dish and demand it every time I go home.

Sweet Potato Casserole
All Recipes

5 sweet potatoes (I used 3 extra large ones)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9 by 13 inch baking dish.

Bake sweet potatoes 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until they begin to soften. Cool slightly, peel and mash.

In a large bowl, mix the mashed sweet potatoes, salt, 1/4 cup butter, eggs vanilla extract, cinnamon, sugar and heavy cream. Transfer to the prepared baking dish.

In a medium bowl, combine 1/4 cup butter, flour, brown sugar and chopped pecans. Mix with your fingers to the consistency of course meal. Sprinkle over the sweet potato mixture.

Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until topping is crisp and lightly browned.

Thanksgiving Cookies

T-minus 24 hours until Turkey Day!

Or, in my case, Lack of Turkey Day.

I've was never a huge fan of Thanksgiving growing up. Despite the fact that I like to eat, Thanksgiving food never really did it for me. I'm not a huge fan of turkey, I don't like those marshmallowy sweet potatoes and there are many other things I would rather eat than mashed potatoes and gravy. I used to pile my plate high with green bean casserole (please tell me you know what this is) and then eat a ton of pie (typical).

Nowadays I have expanded my horizons and with a little help from some great cooks (ahem, JP, ahem), I now have some dishes that I simply CANNOT do without! That's why I'm super excited this year to be making Thanksgiving dinner! Well, MY version at least. Several of my friends and I are getting together and each bringing our favorite dishes. I'm super excited to not only try out their favorites, but have mine all together in one place!

Needless to say, upon arrival at chez Sugar tonight, I will be baking and cooking up a storm until tomorrow morning. Get ready to hear all about my adventures next week!

These little gobblers were made for Annie Bananie and her family to enjoy. Or, more specifically, to keep the kids quiet. Or something.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

I used this cookie recipe and this icing recipe.

Pumpkin Cookies, the Sequel

A friend at work who is always (ALWAYS) standing right behind me faxing house seat orders asked for some pumpkin cookies with chocolate chunks. Yes, she was very specific about the chunks, chips would not suffice. With my current affection for all things pumpkin and Thanksgiving just around the corner, I obliged.

These cookies turned out cakey and very flavorful. I preferred the other pumpkin cookies I made by a landslide, because I prefer my cookies on the chewy side more than the cakey side. The chocolate chunks were great too and added another flavor to the pumpkin and spices.

Pumpkin Cookies with Chocolate Chunks
Joy the Baker

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray.

Stir flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together in a medium bowl and set aside. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the eggs and sugar until smooth, about 1 minute. On low speed, mix the oil, pumpkin and vanilla until blended. Mix in the flour mixture to incorporate. Stir in the chocolate chunks.

Scoop 1/4 cup mounds of dough onto cookie sheets, spacing about 2 1/2 inches apart. Flatten lightly. Bake cookies about 16 minutes, or until tops feel firm. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Mint Brownie Cookies

Don't you just love it when you bake something, take it somewhere for others to partake and then you feel like a rockstar all day because you get so many compliments on them?

If you love that feeling, then make these cookies and take them to work. I had people asking me for the recipe, telling me I should open a bakery and generally making "yummy" noises at me while rubbing their tummies. In conclusion, I was a rockstar.

These cookies were very fudgy like a brownie and I absolutely fell in love with the mint chips I used in them (they are Hershey's Dark Chocolate and Mint chips). They were my perfect cookie: Chewy on the inside and crisp on the outside. Very impressive. Go cookies!

Mint Brownie Cookies
Adapted from Baking Bites

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 package Hershey's Dark Chocolate and Mint Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together melted butter and sugars. Mix in the eggs, stirring them in one at a time, then add the vanilla.

Stir the flour mixture into the wet mixture, until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes, until cookies are set and tops are slightly cracked looking. Cool on baking sheet for 5-10 minutes, until firm enough to transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Pumpkin Pie Bars

I'm not going to lie. I love pumpkin. I think that's pretty obvious here. Strangely enough, however, I am not a huge fan of pumpkin pie. Don't get me wrong. There's sugar in it, I'll eat it. I'd just rather something else.

I found this recipe for pumpkin pie bars and thought they would be a welcome change. I really liked the bars. The filling was like a pumpkin pie filling, but a little creamier. The crust was great! I liked the oatmeal in it. And the butterscotch chips on top really made did it for me! 

I wolfed down about half the pan of these, but Annie Bananie, my only other tester, didn't really care for them. She REALLY didn't like the butterscotch chips. Decide for yourself:

Pumpkin Pie Bars

Joy the Baker

1 1/3 cups flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup cold butter

1 1/2 cups quick cooking oats, uncooked

1 8-oz package cream cheese, softened

3 eggs

1 15-oz can pumpkin

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

butterscotch chips

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 13 by 9 inch pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides; grease foil. Mix flour, 1/4 cup granulated sugar and brown sugar in medium bowl; cut in butter with pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in oats.

Reserve 1 cup oat mixture; press remaining onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake 15 minutes. Beat cream cheese, remaining sugar, eggs, vanilla, pumpkin and spice with mixer until well blended. Pour over crust. Sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture and butterscotch chips.

Bake 25 minutes; cool 10 minutes. Use foil to transfer dessert from pan to wire rack; cool completely.

Funfetti Cupcakes

Recently, Spice and I discovered some things about ourselves that the other didn't know. I discovered that her eyes are green (I totally thought they were brown), her favorite color is orange and she LOVES funfetti cake! Who knew?!

I found a recipe so she could bake herself some. It was just a Martha recipe and we added colored sprinkles. I really liked the cake, it was very moist and had a good vanilla flavor to it. I liked the frosting, but I think it could have used some work. Spice got a lot of comments that it was too sweet and although that wasn't true for me (who are we kidding here?), I did agree that it was definitely on the overly sweet side.

I had a little trouble with the fact that these didn't have any chocolate on them/in them/around them...but once I got over that, they were delicious!

Billy's Vanilla, Vanilla Cupcakes
Martha Stewart

1 3/4 cup cake flour
1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch cubes
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Colored sprinkles

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour.

In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat. Fold in colored sprinkles.

Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about 2/3 full. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat process with remaining batter. Once cupcakes have cooled, use a small offset spatula to frost tops of each cupcake.

Billy's Vanilla Buttercream
Martha Stewart

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
6-8 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. With mixer on low speed, add 6 cups of sugar, milk and vanilla; mix until light and fluffy. If necessary, gradually add remaining 2 cups of sugar to reach desired consistency.

Oatmeal Cookies

I'm a sucker for oatmeal cookies. I really like them with chocolate chips. And lots of chewy goodness. Apparently Annie Bananie likes them as well because she asked me repeatedly to make her whole wheat oatmeal cookies and I finally did. Being a big nerd I am, though, I couldn't just make oatmeal cookies. I had to add cereal and candy bar chunks.

I really liked these cookies! There was a lot going on in them! I liked having lots of crunch in them and really liked the milky way explosion too! Annie Bananie wasn't a huge fan of them, she prefers her cookies flat and more buttery. These are a great take off from an oatmeal cookie! I learned the hard way to make sure the milky way chunks are surrounded by dough or else they will run when baked!


Oatmeal Cookies
Adapted from Allrecipes

1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup brown rice cereal
1 cup milky way chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets.

Cream together butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda and salt and stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in the oats, milky way chunks and brown rice cereal.

Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Fall Pumpkin Bread

Still trying to get rid of applesauce....

Do you need any? Send me your address and I will mail you some. Just kidding!

I love sweet breads. Especially pumpkin bread. There is something about it that just shoots me over the moon! My Stepmom probably makes the best pumpkin bread I have ever had, and I am always trying to replicate it, but to no avail. This bread was good, but there weren't any fireworks. I did like the cranberries and apples in it, but I think I prefer my pumpkin bread unadulterated. Nonetheless, good flavor, pretty moist, definitely enjoyed a few slices for myself!

Fall Pumpkin Bread
Adapted from Good Things Catered

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. light brown sugar
1/2 can (or 7.5 oz) pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
1/4 c. oil
1/4 c. applesauce
1/4 c. buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 medium apple (I like granny smith) peeled, cored, and diced
1 c. dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare 9x5 loaf pan.
In large bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and whisk to combine. In another large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, oil, applesauce, milk, vanilla and stir to combine well.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until just barely blended. Fold in apples, cranberries and pecans.

Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 10 minutes. BRemove from pan and let cool on wire rack completely (makes the slices much more clean.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Applesauce Muffins

Yes, more attempts to rid myself of the applesauce that is taking over the refrigerator.

Awhile ago, Spice bought a new muffin pan because I only had a 6 muffin one. She bought one of those silicone ones...which I am beginning to loath! I find the darned little guy frustrating! He is so absurdly flexible for a baking pan and bends way too easily for my tastes. I find that muffins and cupcakes don't cook very well in it either, requiring much more time than usual to bake. He is also extremely difficult to clean! I can't get him to be stable enough to scrub and just get so frustrated! Grrr...point being, I don't recommend silicone baking products. If they work for you, I give you major brownie points (brownies...mmmm).

Despite my frustrations, I am happy to say that these muffins are delicious! MUCH better the next day and I added a bit of a streusel topping just to make me happier! Because it's all about me, after all =)


Whole Wheat Pumpkin-Applesauce Muffins
All Recipes

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon raw sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease 12 muffin cups or line the cups with paper muffin liners.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice; set aside.

Combine the brown sugar, white sugar, oil, applesauce, pumpkin, buttermilk and beaten eggs and mix until well blended. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until combined.

Divide the batter evenly in the prepared muffin pan.

In a separate bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour, raw sugar, cinnamon and salt. Cut butter into mixture until it resembles a crumbly mixture. Top each muffin with streusel mixture.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes (unless you have a lame silicone muffin pan and then its more like 25 to 30 minutes). Cool the muffin pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan to cool completely.

Iced Oatmeal Applesauce Cookies

Our apartment is overflowing with applesauce. Not really, I guess, but I do have a HUGE tub of it in the refrigerator still. These were my first attempt at using up said applesauce.

I have a small bone to pick with Martha's people: How come my cookies were not like the cookies in the picture? I made them just like you said to, and even chilled them for awhile in the refrigerator! Please don't disappoint me again. I love Martha and would hate to have a reason to take the opposite stance. Thanks.

The cookies tasted great, but I guess I was expecting a chunkier cookie. I should have known that with the applesauce, they would spread out. These were very sweet and the maple glaze really put them over the moon!


Iced Oatmeal Applesauce Cookies
Martha Stewart

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup chunky style applesauce
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup

Put butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until combined. Add egg and applesauce, mix until well blended, 2 to 3 minutes. Mix in oats, flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Chill dough (I chilled it overnight).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drop dough onto baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake cookies until golden and just set, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets 5 minutes and transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Whisk confectioners' sugar, syrup and 3 tablespoons water until smooth. Drizzle over completely cooled cookies and let set.

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Frozen Yogurt

Confession: I am OBSESSED with frozen yogurt.

And I do mean obsessed. I've gone a little nuts. Yup, its pretty cold here, but I will still be craving fro yo. Even though it gets rock hard after sitting in the freezer for a day, I will sit there on the couch with a large tupperware container of the stuff and pick at it until my craving ceases. Yeah, I'm weird. I know.

My friend and I have also discovered Yogurtland here in New York. It is a self serve frozen yogurt place, with so many amazing flavors like snickerdoodle and cake batter. Then you also get to serve your own toppings! Like I said, OBSESSED. My friend India and I went there last week and almost froze our fingers off wandering around eating a vat of this stuff, its that delicious.

I usually just make David Lebovitz's Vanilla Frozen Yogurt, but I wanted to spice things up a bit with a little razzleberry action. I think I still prefer the real frozen yogurt, but this was a welcome treat! The tang of the yogurt matches well with the raspberries and creates a pretty darn good combination if you ask me!

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Frozen Yogurt
Foodnetwork.com

3 cups frozen raspberries
2 cups plain low-fat yogurt (I used Greek yogurt)
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips, preferable mini

Place raspberries, yogurt, sugar and vanilla in a food processor or blender and process until smooth.

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. Add chocolate chips during the last 5 minutes. Best if eaten within one day of making.

Applesauce

I really hate peeling and cutting apples. Probably tops the list of one of my least favorite activities, along with babysitting, flying and cleaning Spice's hair out of the bathroom.

However, I absolutely LOVE apples in general, including apple desserts, which makes it difficult to say no to the tedious activity of peeling and cutting the little buggers.

Haven't made anything with apples for a long while, so I made some applesauce. And don't you worry your pretty little head because I've got some plans for this applesauce. Actually, I HAD plans for the applesauce, but they are over now, I just haven't posted the excitement yet.

This was GREAT applesauce. I really like my applesauce without any sugar, but with lots of fun flavors. I used Simply Recipes' version and omitted the sugar because apples are sweet on their own! Step away from the sugar....


Applesauce
Simply Recipes

3-4 lbs of peeled, cored and quartered apples (I used granny smith, they're da bomb)
4 strips of lemon peel
Juice of 1 lemon (3-4 tablespoons)
3 inches of cinnamon stick
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cardamom

Put all ingredients into a large pot. Cover. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer 20-30 minutes.

Remove from heat. Remove cinnamon stick and lemon peels. Mash with potato masher.

Peanut Butter Blondies

I had high hopes for these guys...I mean, seriously, how can you go bad with peanut butter (unless you don't like peanut butter and then your just an oddball!)?! I was expecting some delicious bar cookie with a brownie-like texture and a subtle shade of chocolate.

I don't really think I got that. I was not overly impressed with these blondies. I suppose they came out well, because I got lots of compliments at work about them. I found them to be a little dry and not fudgy enough, not at all like a brownie should be.

I really wanted some gooey, peanut-buttery, lick your fingers good bar here. Not so much. I think they were better the second day, but still not all I hoped they would be. They were a very good cookie bar, don't get me wrong. Still delicious, but don't bake these thinking you will have a brownie. Not gonna happen.

Peanut Butter Blondies
Smitten Kitchen

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 large eggs, plus 1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F with rack in middle. Butter a 13- by 9- by 2-inch baking pan, then line bottom of pan with parchment paper and butter parchment.

Beat together butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until mixture is light and fluffy, then add peanut butter and beat until incorporated. Beat in whole eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla. Reduce mixer speed to low, then mix in flour until just combined.

Mix in chocolate chips (1 1/2 cups) then spread batter in baking pan, smoothing top.

Bake until brownies are deep golden, 40 to 45 minutes.

Cool completely in pan on a rack, about 1 1/2 hours.

Make ganache: Put chocolate chips (1 1/2 cups) in a heatproof bowl.

Bring cream to a boil in a small saucepan, then pour over chocolate chips and let mixture stand for one minute.

Gently whisk in butter until it is incorporated, chocolate is melted, and a smooth mixture forms.

Spread ganache on cooled brownies and let stand until set, about 15 minutes.

Leaf and Acorn Cookies

Nothing too special about these...except for the fact that they look freakin' phenomenal!

I made these for Annie Bananie to take to one of her classes. Apparently it was her day to bring something in, so I got to make it for her!

I was very pleased with how the decorating worked on these. I was going to try adding some sprinkles, but it proved a little too complicated. Especially considering these took me a good 4 hours to decorate! Haha. Being the huge dork that I am, though, I LOVED every second of it! My decorating skills still aren't perfect, but I'm getting there!

I used this cookie recipe and this royal icing recipe. Have a great weekend!

Chocolate and Vanilla Frosting For Sale

Yeah, those are big, ginormous tubs of frosting....

But guess what?! I made my first food related sale this week! Annie Bananie is determined to help me sell some of my baked goods and has been telling everyone she meets that her roommate bakes. Very sweet of her.

So one of her friends asked if I could make her frosting like the Magnolia Bakery's. Duh! She paid me to make her two tubs of frosting....how awesome is that?!

I've made the vanilla frosting before here, Magnolia's actual recipe. And I used Wilton's recipe for Chocolate Buttercream, which also tasted exactly like Magnolia's. I'm just cool like that.

Chocolate Buttercream Icing
Wilton

1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners' sugar
3-4 tablespoons milk

In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add cocoa and vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

Dorie's "Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies"

This past weekend I wanted to try a new sugar cookie cut out recipe and, of course, who better to go to than Dorie Greenspan herself? Tuesdays With Dorie baked up some of these awhile ago and I saw lots of posts about how good they were as roll out cookies. So far so good, right?

Eh, not so much. The dough was super soft and even though I managed to get them cut and on baking sheets, they puffed up and hardly kept their shape when baked. Boo. I quickly gave up and just started making them drop cookies with sprinkles.


The actual cookies were great! We couldn't stop eating them at our house. I really liked the texture. They were very crisp and chewy. I wouldn't try them as a cut out cookie, however. Just sayin'.

Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies
Dorie Greenspan

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
10 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder.

Cream the sugar and butter together with a mixer. Add the egg and egg yolk. Add the vanilla. Add the flour mixture slowly, mixing until all combined.

Refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll tablespoons of dough into balls and dip into sprinkles of your choice of simply place on parchment paper. Bake for 9-11 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

You know when you think you don't like something and then someone tricks you into eating it and you find out that you, in fact, love it?

My best friend growing up doesn't like chocolate, but her favorite kind of cupcake is red velvet. I have yet to tell her it is a mild chocolate cupcake dyed red.

When Annie Bananie first moved in, she told me she hated cream cheese frosting. Being the good friend/roommate I am, I tried to use buttercream frostings where I could. Example A. Of course, I couldn't help myself (mostly because I'm not a huge fan of buttercream) and made some cream cheese frosting for these bad boys. Needless to say, Annie Bananie tried one when I had them out on the counter and I get a text saying how much she likes them and the frosting! Um...excuse me. It's cream cheese frosting, Goofball! I am now convinced she really does like cream cheese frosting because she also really enjoyed this cinnamon cream cheese. Maybe I just wont tell her when I use cream cheese!

I made these cupcakes for the Halloween party. They were super duper soft, and very flavorful, probably since I overdosed on the spices a bit, but in a good way, I promise! I really had to fart around with the cinnamon frosting because I wanted to get the right texture to pipe it on to the cupcakes. I really liked the end result and it matched perfectly with the cake!


Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
Williams Sonoma

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (I probably used about 3)
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I probably used about 1/2 a teaspoon)
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (I probably used about 1/2 a teaspoon)
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon salt
1 15-oz can pumpkin puree
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup canola oil
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tins with cupcakes liners and spray with cooking spray.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, granulated sugar, brown sugar and oil. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking after each addition.

Add the flour mixture in three additions, stirring with a large wooden spoon until just combined.

Fill the muffin tins about 3/4 full. Bake until the cupcakes are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the tins and let cool completely before frosting.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
4 cups (approximately) powdered sugar

Mix cream cheese and butter until creamy. Add the vanilla and cinnamon while mixing. Slowly add the powdered sugar until you have the consistency you want.

Halloween Sugar Cookies

I hope you had an excellent Halloween! Our party was so much fun and, of course, everyone loved the food. Including myself =) I definitely had a few too many cookies, made pretty apparent by the picture below where my friend India and I are about to eat the entire plate!


I had so much fun decorating these cookies and they turned out super awesome! I really liked the recipe I used for the sugar cookies. I made sure to refrigerate the dough overnight and then after I rolled and cut out the dough, I refrigerated it again before I put it in the oven. The result? They didn't puff out at all and kept their shape almost perfectly. Not to mention they were also delicious.

I used the same recipe for royal icing that I used before here. I used Americolor soft gels to color the icing white, black, orange and green.


Cut Out Sugar Cookies
The Hungry Housewife

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the egg and extract and beat to incorporate.

In a separate bowl sift together to flour, baking powder and salt.

Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until combined. Divide the dough into 2 portions, wrap with wax paper and refrigerate 2 hours or overnight.

Remove the dough, roll out to 3/8 inch thick in between sheets of parchment paper and cut into desired shapes.

Place cut cookie dough back into fridge for 10-15 minutes. Bake cookies on an un-greased cookie sheet for 8-12 minutes. Cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. Cool completely before icing.