Iced Pumpkin Cookies

My darling college roomie Beanie sent along this recipe to me a month or so ago, alleging they were called by some "the best cookies ever." Clearly I had to give them a go, and I have to say they are definitely in the running for this lofty title. Yummers.


I have the house to myself this weekend, so I will obviously be baking and making a mess of the kitchen every chance I get. The above ingredients will be easily accessible on the counter at all times. Particularly the wine.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup pureed pumpkin
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp chives
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder

Glaze:
1 tablespoon melted butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 tablespoons milk
1/2 tsp salt


First off, cream together the butter and sugar. then add the egg, vanilla and pumpkin. Blend until smooth.
Mix together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

Mix the dry ingredients into the wet, until you have this tasty concoction.

Drop by tablespoon fulls onto a parchment lines baking sheet. Warning: Super Sticky.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Let your cookies cool, and in the meantime, mix up your glaze ingredients. It's really just as simple as throwing them all in a bowl, and whisking....

Once your glaze is of the desired consistency, dip each cookie in one at a time, and let the excess glaze drip off.

I added some sprinkles for good measure.

Glaze and all, these little babies are contenders for the "best cookie ever" badge of honor. Pretty damn good. enjoy!

Cocoa Banana Bars

I came across this recipe on allrecipes.com a month or so ago and decided I'd give it a shot the next time I had ripe bananas lying around. unfortunately we kept eating all the bananas I bought. Finally last week I bought a ridiculously huge bunch of bananas for the sole reason of having left over ripe ones with which to bake :)

Cocoa Banana Bars; Ingredients
1/2 cup butter
1 cups sugar
1 egg
vanilla
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder

First, cream together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in your egg and vanilla and mix until smooth.

Next, add in your mashed bananas and mix it all together.

Put all your dry ingredients in a large bowl, and mix 'em together. Make a well in the flour.

Then pour in your banana mixture. And stir.

Once your batter is evenly mixed, pour half of it into a greased baking pan. The recipe said to use a 9x13 pan. I followed directions, but ended up with this:

The half portion of the batter couldn't be evenly spread all the way through the pan. This made me think I needed to used a smaller size. So I went ahead and greased my good old 9x7 and made the switch. I love making dirty dishes, clearly.

With the remaining half of the batter, stir in the 1/4 cups of cocoa powder.

Spoon the chocolate batter over the regular batter, and swirl to make a marble looking pattern.

I wasn't all that great at the whole "swirling" thing. Haha. I need to practice I guess.

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. I ended up letting mine go for an additional 5, because the small pan made them thicker than originally intended. I think you really are supposed to use the big 9x13 size, because the batter does rise quite a bit.

Slice and enjoy! These were pretty yummy! They're like the love child of banana bread and brownies. Definitely give them a shot!

Classic Apple Crisp

After spending the last couple of weeks travelling, dog sitting, and baking in my aunts kitchen (apple pie mania day) I was really feeling the need to create something in my own house, just for fun. Baking as therapy. Ahhh.

Anyway, I have an exorbitant amount of apples left over from Pie day, even though we made 10 pies.

Why oh WHY do we always go for the big bag. Every year. We never learn. The small bag would more than suffice, but we just can’t stop ourselves. You can expect at least 2 more apple related posts in October.

I decided I would keep things simple and go with a good old fashioned apple crisp. I even ran out to the store to buy some vanilla ice cream.

Ingredients:
4 tart apples, peeled and sliced

¾ cups brown sugar

½ cup Flour

½ cup oats

1/3 cups butter, melted

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

First off, peel and chop your apples. This can be a painstaking process, unless of course you have this fabulous little gizmo.

This thing is the bomb. It’s totally one of those cheesy infomercial products but this one is LEGIT. It neatly peeled your apples and leaves you with a pile of pretty coil-shaped skins.

Core and chop your apples. Again, I use a nifty gizmo.

Once your apples are all evenly sliced, spread them out in a greased 8x8 baking dish.

Mix together all your dry ingredients. Pour the melted butter into the mixture and then spread this over the apples in your baking dish.

Bake at 375 for 30 minutes. A delightful, irresistible aroma of fall will drift through your house. I promise.

Let it cool a little, and enjoy with a big scoop of vanilla. Delish. So good. quicker than a pie with all the payoff.


I polished this off in about 3 seconds. There will absolutely be a round two before bed.

Happy Baking!