Pumpkin Pizzelles

I love pizzelles. It's not Christmas without them. I remember hundreds of pizzelles spread across the tables in my grandparents' basement - their second kitchen. Red ones. Green ones. They all had the same flavor, but I still think green was my favorite.

It's a few months until Christmas, but autumn is finally here. So many pumpkin recipes - too many to choose from. The other day, I had a brilliant, or what I thought would be brilliant, idea....pumpkin pizzelles. Some adaptation of the basic pizzelle recipe was required since I would be adding a moist ingredient (pumpkin). The final result, a brilliant idea! I think I'll be headed out to get some cinnamon ice cream to serve these with. Yum!

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions
1 Preheat the pizzelle iron.
2 Beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy, then add the eggs, pumpkin, and vanilla.
3 Sift the dry ingredients together, then fold into the sugar mix.
4 Lightly brush the pizzelle iron with butter, then drop a teaspoon amount of dough onto the iron. Close the lid and bake for 34-60 seconds.
5 Remove. Before the cookies cool, you can shape them into cones or rolls or shallow bowls, if you want, or leave them flat.
6 Repeat buttering the iron as needed and dropping on dough and baking it until all the dough is gone.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars with Nutella Frosting

This recipe is so quick and easy! You don't need to add the Nutella frosting, but why wouldn't you?!

1 cup butter, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

In a large bowl, beat together the butter, vanilla and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

Sift together the salt , baking soda, and flour and mix into the butter mixture. Fold in the chocolate chips. Mix until well blended. Press batter into a 9x13 inch baking pan.
Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into bars and let cool in pan on wire rack.

Nutella Frosting

I made a 1/2 batch of Hershey's Perfectly Chocolate Frosting and beat in 3 tablespoons of Nutella.

Chai Shortbread Cookies

This recipe is out of the December 2007 Cooking Light issue. I thought they'd be bigger in diameter than they were, but these are bite-sized, so don't be surprised when you make these!

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (about 6 3/4 ounces)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom (I omitted because I didn't have it. I used chinese 5 spice instead)
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Dash of ground cloves
Dash of freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup powdered
10 tablespoon butter, softened
1 tablespoon ice water (I used strong-brewed chai tea)

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through pepper), stirring well with a whisk. Place sugar and butter in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating at low speed just until combined (mixture will appear crumbly). Sprinkle dough with 1 tablespoon ice tea; toss with a fork. Divide dough in half. Shape dough into 2 (6-inch-long) logs; wrap each log in plastic wrap. Chill 1 hour or until very firm.

Preheat oven to 375°.
Unwrap dough logs. Carefully cut each log into 18 slices using a serrated knife. Place dough circles 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes. Cool on pans 5 minutes. Remove cookies from pans; cool completely on wire racks.

Orange Rooibos-infused Apricot and Walnut Biscotti

Instead of water, I brewed some orange-rooibos tea for the dough. I really liked the result and will try this with other teas and cookie recipes.

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

1 cup dried apricots, chopped

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons strong-brewed rooibos orange tea

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 large eggs

Melted Dark Chocolate

Preheat oven to 325°.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Stir in walnuts and apricots.

Combine 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water, rind, vanilla, and eggs, stirring with a whisk. Add egg mixture to flour mixture, stirring until well blended (dough will be dry and crumbly).

Knead dough lightly in bowl 7 or 8 times or until a dough forms (dough will be sticky). Divide dough in half. Shape each portion into an 8-inch-long roll. Place rolls 6 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper; flatten each roll to 1-inch thickness.
Bake at 325° for 30 minutes. Remove rolls from baking sheet (do not turn oven off); cool 10 minutes on a wire rack.

Cut each roll diagonally into 15 (1/2-inch-thick) slices using a serrated knife. Place slices, cut sides down, on baking sheet. Bake at 325° for 15 minutes. Turn cookies over, and bake an additional 10 minutes (cookies will be slightly soft in center but will harden as they cool). Remove from baking sheet; cool completely on wire racks.

A Classic: Peanut Butter Tassies

This is what happens when you're craving something sweet.......

1/2 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. creamy peanut butter

1/2 c. granulated white sugar

1/2 c. light brown sugar, firmly packed

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/4 c. flour

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 (14 oz.) bag miniature peanut butter cups

Cream butter and peanut butter; add sugars gradually, beating until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, beating well. Combine flour, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture, mixing well. Chill at least 1 hour.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Place in lightly greased tassie pans, shaping each ball into a shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes, dough will rise during baking. Remove from oven and immediately press a peanut butter cup evenly into each hot crust. Cool completely before removing from pan. Makes 24 tassies. Can be frozen.

Well, Hello Dolly!

I saw these "Hello Dolly Bars" on the Homesick Texan's blog. So she gets all the credit for this recipe. I used walnuts instead of pecans and they were fabulous! I will make these again...very soon!

HOMESICK TEXAN: HELLO DOLLY BARS

Don't you love that cute plate?

Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

After seeing these posted on The Nest What's Cooking board multiple times, I had to try it out for myself. I followed the recipe to a "T" and was somewhat disappointed with the results.

The batter was dry and the cookies didn't spread the way I was expecting. They were chewy and moist inside, but the outside was sorta dry, like a crust. I'm not sure what I did wrong that I'm not raving about these, but this just proved to me that I should just stick with my Nestle Tollhouse recipe. It's still #1.

This is the recipe from Allrecipes.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy.

Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon.

Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.

Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.