Halloween Pumpkin Spice Cookies with Maple Cinnamon Frosting

Happy Halloween! I finally got around to making some Halloween treats today even though they weren't really what I had in mind. With work and preparing for my fall festival this weekend, I didn't really have time to make anything too complicated. However, these were really really good (even though my decorating kinda sucks here). I made some pumpkin cookies a few weeks ago that I didn't care for but these were much better. And there are no artifical preservatives, flavors, or even colors. I admit that I do use food coloring/icing coloring when I make some of my desserts. It's almost impossible not to especially when making a dessert or cake to match a specific color or theme. But, I make everything from scrach and use real butter, real vanilla, cage free eggs and unbleached flour. I also use organic sugar when I can (it's pretty expensive so I use regular white sugar some of the time). And I stay away from shortening. I actually did find an organic brand made from palm oil and have used that a few times, but mainly stick with butter. Although these cookies definitely aren't healthy, I feel better that I am not eating cookies made from a box full of chemicals.  Anyways, hope everyone has a great Halloween tomorrow!

Ingredients
Cookies
1 3/4 cup unbleach all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking powder 

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp salt

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or use a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, etc.)

6 Tbsp unsalted butter

1 1/8 cups (packed) light brown sugar 

1 eggs

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/4 cup evaporated milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

 

Frosting
1 (8oz) pgk cream cheese
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (just use the rest of the can from what you used for the cookies)
1 Tbsp pure maple syrup
dash of cinnamon
3-4 cups powdered sugar

Directions
1. Pre-heat oven to 375. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
2.Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice
3.Cream the butter and sugar then add in the egg and mix well
4. Add in the pumpkin, evaporated milk, and vanilla until well mixed
5.Slowly add in the flour mixture
6.Put the dough into a large piping bag (or ziplock bag if you do'nt have decorating bags and cut of the tip) and pipe 2 1/2 inch rounds that are about 1/2 inch thick.
7.Bake for about 12 mins or until the tops of the cookies spring back when touched.

For icing, cream the cream cheese and pumpkin. Add in the maple syrup and cinnamon. Slowly add in the powdered sugar to desired sweetness. This icing will be a little runny because of the pumpkin.

To decorate the cookies, I just melted some chocolate chips and piped on with a decorating bag with a small tip.



Recipe source: adapted from myrecipes.com

Pumpkin Bread

I still have a bunch of canned pumpkin I'm itching to use up. So far I've made pumpkin coffee creamer, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (good, but not my favorite so maybe I'll try these again), and even a face mask.  I'm pretty sure I've made pumpkin bread before but it has been a really long. I didn't have a recipe on hand so I did some searching. When I came across a pumpkin-beer bread, I immediately booked marked it. We had some Octoberfest beer on hand and I had everything else I needed so I gave it a shot. I tweaked the recipe just a little and I'm pretty sure it was a success. I got home from work and more than 1/4 of the loaf was gone. I had a small piece before I headed to work this morning, and my husband told me he ate some for breakfast and took huge piece to work for later in the day. I can definitely tell when he likes something and when he doesn't. But of course he always tells me everything I cook or bake is good :) And I wanted to share some pictures of the cute pumpkins my husband actually grew in our backyard and the pretty fall bows I made when my mom came to help me get ready for a Holiday craft fair I am doing in November :)

Ingredients
Butter for greasing the pan
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp ground cloves
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 cup pumkin puree ( I used a little over a cup)
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup seasonal beer (I used Octoberfest, but use Pumpkin or some other fall beer if you have it)
* you could probably use pumpkin pie spice instead of each individual spice if you wanted

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9 inch loaf pan
2. Combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices
3.Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Stir in the pumpkin and brown sugar, then stir in the eggs. Add in the beer (and drink the rest while your bread bakes!)
4. Add pumpkin mixture to the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. Transfer to loaf pan
5. Bake for about 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean



Recipe source: adapted from L.V. Anderson on Slate.com

Butternut Squash Pizza

With the abundance of pretty fall squashes available right now, I promised myself I would try and make at least a few dishes with them.  To be honest, I've never really made much with butternut squash (besides a soup I made last fall) or any of the other varieties in season. However, I decided to try and cook with them, whether the dishes turned out or not. The first dish I made was a butternut squash pizza. I have been using a super easy homemade pizza dough recipe I found on a blog called Oven Love, and I have used it several times now. You can throw it together in just a little more time than it takes to call your local pizza shop. We will order the occasional take out (we live in the boonies and the pizza places won't deliver to us..crazy!) but I've been making some pretty good homemade pizza if I do say so myself. It may not be the fanciest or even the most amazing pizza dough/crust I've ever had, but it's simple, it's tastes good, and I know the ingredients that are in it. I got a bit annoyed that my pizza stuck to the peel and messed up my almost perfect circle but I have since found that using parchment paper works wonders. I made 2 different pizzas on Monday (this butternut squash pizza is from a few weeks ago) and used parchment paper instead of cornmeal and flour and it was so easy to slide it onto the pizza stone. Plus, I didn't have to clean the peel!  Anyways, I was skeptical of this pizza at first, but after one bite it is definitely a keeper. I tweaked the original recipe a bit and spread roasted and smashed garlic onto the dough first, and also carmelized my onions in balsamic vinegar instead of roasting. But feel free to make your own revisions if you like. There are endless possibilties when it comes to homemade pizza.

Ingredients
1/2 white or yellow onion, thinly sliced
1/2 medium to large butternut squash-peeled, seeded, and thinly sliced
1 head of garlic
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
3-4 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Asiago or Parmesan cheese
homemade pizza dough-click here for recipe (you can use premade/storebought if you want, but trust me-homemade is so much better)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Combine squash with the rosemary, about 2 Tbsp of olive oil, and a little salt and pepper in a baking or roasting dish
3.Chop the top off the garlic head, place in a small square of aluminum foil, drizzle with a little olive oil, and close up tightly. Place on a seperate baking sheet or right on your oven rack.
3.Bake squash and garlic for about 20 mins or both the squash and the garlic are tender.

4. While squash and garlic are cooking, heat a pan with a little olive oil and add the onions.  Cook for about 5 mins and then add about a tbsp or so of balsamic vinegar. Continue cooking until the onions are nice and soft.
5. Once garlic is cool enough to touch, squeeze out all the cloves and smash up with a fork.
6.Roll out your pizza dough on your pizza peel (unfortunately, my pizza stuck to my peel since I didn't know to use parchment paper when I made this. Cornmeal is supposed to work, but it didn't do the trick for me.)
7. Spread the garlic onto the dough

8. Top with the sliced squash and onions and sprinkle with however much cheese you want.
9.Bake for about 30 mins or until crust is lightly browned and cheese is melted.



Recipe source: adapted from: Allrecipes.com