Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

Tags

brown butter, cookies, Pumpkin

It’s finally starting to feel like fall here! I haven’t turned the air conditioner on for a few days and there’s a crispness in the air, especially at night. It’s so nice!! And with it finally feeling like fall, the craving of pumpkin and apples are really starting to push their way to the front of my mind. I don’t know if I saw these cookies the first time around, but thanks to round ups I was able to discover them (or potentially rediscover…).This was my first time making anything with browned butter because, like always, I’m slow to catch onto food trends. 😛 And oh my have I been missing out. The icing makes these cookies. They are of course good alone because they’re pumpkin, but the icing puts them over the top. I’m a now brown butter convert thanks to these cookies. I just make a delicious banana bread with a brown butter glaze. Again the banana bread is awesome alone due to the caramelized bananas, but the glaze sets it over the top. But I digress, if you’re a pumpkin fan try these! If you’re a browned butter fan, try these! And if you’ve never tried browned butter, try these ! Get my point? 😉One Year Ago: Pull-Apart Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Bread with Spiced Glaze and Portobello Pesto Pizza

Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

Cookies:
2¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1¼ teaspoons kosher salt
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1¼ teaspoons ground ginger
¾ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2¼ cups brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1½ cups canned pumpkin puree
¾ cup half-and-half or whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing:
4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
10 tablespoons (1¼ sticks) unsalted butter
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon half-and-half or whole milk, divided
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

To make the cookies: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs until combined. With the mixer on low, add the pumpkin, half-and-half and vanilla and beat until very well blended, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides as needed. Gradually add the flour mixture, mixing on low speed until just combined.

Drop by level tablespoons onto prepared baking sheets, spacing cookies 1 to 1½ inches apart. Bake for 12 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies spring back when lightly pressed. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and let the cookies cool for 5 minutes than remove them to the rack to cool completely.  Repeat with remaining batter.

To make the icing: Add the confectioners’ sugar to a large heatproof bowl; set aside.

Put the butter in a small saucepan, set over medium heat. Gradually melt the butter, swirling the pan occasionally, cooking it until the butter becomes golden brown. Remove it from the heat and pour it over the confectioners’ sugar, scraping the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the half-and-half and vanilla and stir until the icing is smooth.

Spread a rounded teaspoon of icing on each cookie. Add more half-and-half as needed to lighten up the frosting if it begins to stiffen. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.

Source: Tracey’s Culinary Adventures

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Pumpkin Roundup!

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Biscuit, breakfast, coffee cake, cookies, dessert, muffins, Pumpkin, soup

I’m a little late to the party but Fall is officially here… well, it was officially here over a week ago but we’ll just ignore that fact! Even though it’s Fall, we’re going through some crazy heat wave in Northern California. At least it’s cooling down enough at night to open windows and let in some cold, crisp air. But so many blogs are posting pumpkin recipes, and they all look so good, and I just can’t help but crave all things pumpkin and apple!

I bake with pumpkin all the way into spring, so it’s almost a year-round thing for me, but once summer rolls around I tend to lean towards fruits and bright flavors. Thankfully, we’re now into Fall and I can officially get away with using pumpkin again and not being deemed a weirdo! Well… still a weirdo, I guess, just for one less reason now! 🙂 Anyways, please check out the pumpkin goodness from this last year! These are some of my favorites that I’ve made multiple times already, or hope to make again soon. Enjoy!!

Pumpkin for Breakfast (or dessert…)!
1. Pull-Apart Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Bread with Spiced Glaze
2. Pumpkin Streusel Coffee Cake
3. Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
4. Pumpkin Waffles
5. Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Muffins

Pumpkin for the rest of the time!
1. Spiced Pumpkin Cupcakes
2. Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispie Treats
3. Pumpkin-Apple Soup
4. Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
5. Pumpkin Biscuits
6. Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies with Cranberries and White Chocolate

Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Muffins, and an Anniversary!

Tags

cinnamon, cream cheese, muffin, Pumpkin

As seems to be the trend for the last few months, I’m behind. Apparently I hit one year of blogging last week! Whoops, but yay! It’s been quite an adventure… and I must say I didn’t have a good start. Somehow, I thought that people would somehow find my blog all on their own and I just had to sit back and write posts. Oh how wrong I was, and how much I’ve learned! I’ve met so many amazing bloggers over the last year, and I want to thank all of you for your support and kind words. Before I post a new recipe, I want to do a little recap of some of the top posts over the last year.The most popular post was this awesome Pull-Apart Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Bread with Spiced Glaze, which was derived from the very popular cinnamon sugar pull-apart breads that swept the blogospere.Surprisingly enough, the second most popular post was the very first post I ever made, these Chocolate Cupcakes with Baileys Buttercream. Just goes to show how great it is! It’s also the first recipe that was shared on another blog!Third is Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Homemade Barbecue Sauce, because who doesn’t love pulled pork!And fourth is Blueberry Sour Cream Pie, which was another surprising hit. I think I assumed this post was a more unique recipe and hence wouldn’t be as sought after, but maybe that was it’s appeal!

Now before I bore you all to death, I just want to share a couple of my own favorites from this past year, which you might have overlooked or missed.Mango Bread. Tropical, moist, and oh so delicious!Croque Monsieur/Madame. Classic French food which makes for a simple yet indulgent meal.Broiled Shrimp with Tomatoes and Brie. Nuff said. You gotta try this!!

Anyways, on to the main attraction! It may not be a very celebratory food, but I do love me some muffins! Yes it’s pumpkin, and yes it’s spring, but I believe I’ve mentioned before that I eat pumpkin year round. It’s a super tasty superfood! I made these muffins once before, following the original recipe exactly and making my own vanilla glaze. They were very good, but the muffin was a little too tender for my liking, and the glaze didn’t quite match up as I wanted. So, on to take two and I was in heaven! I used my go-to family recipe for pumpkin bread, which is a little sturdier of a bread. Topping was the same, since that was perfect the first time around. As for the glaze, a vanilla glaze didn’t quite seem right for a cinnamon roll muffin, so this time around I made a cream cheese glaze. Yum!

So in conclusion, try these muffins and hurray for my first year blogoversary!!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Muffins
Yield: 15 to 16 muffins

Muffins:
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
½ cup vegetable oil
⅓ cup water
2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground ginger

Topping:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Glaze:
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
½ cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper liners; set aside.

To make the muffins: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and ground ginger; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the pumpkin puree, oil, water, eggs, and sugar. Slowly add the dry ingredients; mix until smooth. Split batter equally between prepared muffin tins, filling about ¾ of the way full.

To make the topping: In a small bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Crumble on top of uncooked muffins and swirl into the batter.

Bake the muffins for 17 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Move muffin pan to wire rack and cool for 5 minutes, then remove muffins and finish cooling on wire rack.

To make the glaze: In a medium bowl, whisk or beat together the cream cheese and powdered sugar. Stir in the vanilla extract; stir in 1 tablespoon of milk, checking the consistency and adding more milk as needed. Drizzle the cooled muffins with desired amount of glaze.

Source: Adapted/inspired from The Teenage Taste

Pumpkin Streusel Coffee Cake

Tags

breakfast, cake, cinnamon, coffee cake, Pumpkin, streusel

I lied about not posting sweet stuff, and for that I apologize. But this was just too good to not post sooner versus later. Besides, it’s breakfast not dessert, so that makes it a little better, right? 😉I’m a fan of pumpkin all year long. I love the color it adds to food, and of course the flavor! As soon as I saw this recipe, I knew I had to try it. And I have a few cans of pumpkin I stashed away that are just waiting to be used in something tasty! Unfortuntaely, the post mentioned that this was a very good coffee cake, but it wasn’t big on the pumpkin flavor. Thankfully, that was easy enough to remedy by replacing the sour cream with more pumpkin! This coffee cake is delicate and pumpkiny with a delicious layer of streusel on the top and in the middle of the cake. It was a huge hit with my little nephews, too, which is always a plus! 🙂 If you’re a year-round pumpkin lover looking for a delicious breakfast treat, this coffee cake is perfect for you!Pumpkin Streusel Coffee Cake

Streusel:
⅓ cup all-purpose flour
½ cup old-fashioned oats
½ cup light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

Cake:
1½ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup pumpkin puree

Glaze:
½ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon whipping cream
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

To make the streusel: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Add the butter, and use a pastry cutter to work it into dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs; set aside while you make the batter.

To make the cake: Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 9-inch springform pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and salt together. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the pumpkin puree and beat until incorporated. Gradually add the dry ingredients, mixing at a low speed just until combined.

Spread half of the batter in an even layer in the bottom of the prepared pan. Sprinkle half of the streusel mixture over the batter. Dollop the remaining batter over the streusel and use a spatula to spread it as best you can. Top with the remaining streusel.

Bake the cake for about 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 15 minutes then remove the sides of the pan and let the cake cool completely.

To make the glaze: Whisk the confectioners’ sugar, cream, and vanilla in a small bowl until the consistency is thick, but pourable; add more cream if a thinner consistency is needed. Drizzle over the top of the cake. Let the glaze set before serving.

Source: Adapted from Tracey’s Culinary Adventures

Pumpkin Pie

Tags

Christmas, cinnamon, cream, evaporated milk, pie, Pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, Thanksgiving

I had a very fun and successful day of holiday baking with my mom yesterday! We made our traditional array of cookies and goodies, including some new ones that we added this year. We made sugar cookies, cinnamon swirls, chocolate cherry thumbprints, melting moments, and pumpkin oatmeal cookies with cranberries and white chocolate. I have a list of cookies and candies I want to try this year, and hopefully they’ll be good enough to make the list for next year!

In the meantime, I wanted to share my favorite pumpkin pie recipe. I don’t know about the rest of you, but my family has pumpkin pie for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’m not a big pumpkin pie fan, unless it’s this pie. I discovered this recipe a few years ago, and have been making it ever since. It’s pumpkin-y, lightly spiced, and creamy, all of which makes for a delicious and perfect pie! The random amount of sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk are kind of inconvenient, but just save the leftovers for fudge or another pumpkin pie!Pumpkin Pie

1½ cups pumpkin puree
½ cup brown sugar
⅔ cup heavy cream
7 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
6½ tablespoons evaporated milk
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Pinch ground clove
Pinch salt
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
Pastry for 1 pie dough, or 1 prebaked pie crust

To prepare pie crust: Place rolled out pie crust in pie dish, leaving at least 1-inch overhang on each side. Ease dough into the plate by gently lifting the edge of the dough with one hand while pressing into the plate bottom with the other hand, making sure to not stretch the dough. Trim overhang to ½-inch beyond the plate rim. Fold overhang under itself onto the flat rim of the plate, and use a thumb and two index fingers to flute the crust. Refrigerate for 15 to 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Remove pie pan from the refrigerator and prick with a fork. Line the crust with 2 pieces of foil, and fill with pie weights, dried beans or uncooked rice. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil and weights and bake for 5 to 10 minutes until crust is golden brown and crisp.

To make the filling: Lower the oven to 325 degrees F.

In a medium saucepan, combine the pumpkin and sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the majority of the water has evaporated and the mixture has thickened, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the cream, milks, vanilla, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and salt. Add eggs and yolk, and whisk until thoroughly combined. Pour the filling into the pie shell and bake until set, about 45 to 55 minutes. Cool and serve.

Source: Adapted from Food Network