Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I can’t believe November is almost over! I mean seriously, where did the time go?

And with the end of November brings the end of pumpkin baking season, at least in my eyes. The only good thing about pumpkin season being over is that gingerbread and maple season starts. Boy do I love the taste of maple.

But to celebrate the end of pumpkin season I bring you these amazing pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Goodness these things are so addicting!

 

In all honesty these have become one of my favorite pumpkin recipes, this cake being my absolute favorite.

These little gems basically taste like a pie shoved in a cookie, especially if you under-bake it just a tad. They are soft, and kind of chewy in a very good way. And the addition of chocolate chips is just a bonus! Whoever thought of pumpkin and chocolate together was brilliant!

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 50 medium-small cookies
From My Blessed Life

Ingredients
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flours
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup dark brown sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg, room temperature
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
½ cup pumpkin puree
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon. In a large bowl, cream together the sugars and butter. Beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until incorporated. Stir in the vanilla and pumpkin puree. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Fold the flour into the pumpkin mixture. Mix until the flour is just incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Use a medium-small cookie scoop to distribute the dough. Bake for about 8 minutes or until the edges are set and the center is still soft. Cool on the pan for about 5 minutes before removing the cookies onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake

 

I am honestly starting to believe that time goes through a black hole and is never to be seen again. That is the only explanation as to why it seems like no time has passed and yet it’s already mid-November.

Today marks the 8^th week of 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats, a wonderful blog hop hosted by Brenda.

I absolutely love the holidays and all holiday food. But I have a strict flavor calendar. Like pumpkin in the months of October and November only and maple in late November and all of December. Gingerbread flavors are strictly for December only.

So because it is still November I’m going to post another pumpkin recipe. I hope to get a few more in before the end of the month.

 

Now I know I just said pumpkin is should stay within the October/November time frame, but some people are cooky and like eating pumpkin in December as well, which is why I’m including this pumpkin cheesecake for the Christmas Treats blog hop.

Now these were supposed to be bars, but I liked the idea of turning this cheesecake-pie combo into a circle because I have a spring form pan and that would make getting the cheesecake out so much easier.

I don’t have many recipes for cheesecake because it’s not really something I think about often or order when I’m at a restaurant. However, every time I do make cheesecake I wonder why I don’t make it more often. Quite frankly I can’t think of a good reason not to make cheesecake.

 

The filling is oh so creamy and soft and just mmmmmm. And the pumpkin shines through just enough. I have no complaints about the filling at all. If this was cooked by itself I would eat the entire thing with a fork.

The crust was a nice surprise. Most cheesecakes ask for a cookie/graham cracker crust, but this one is more of a pie crust, which I loved. I suck at making pie crusts and they never taste any good. But this one was yummy, yummy in my tummy.

The only complaint about this recipe was the cream cheese frosting. That thing liquefied so easily and I don’t understand what happened! It set up perfectly in the bowl, but as soon as I put it on the cheesecake it just became liquid. But don’t let that deter you from making this luscious dessert!

 

Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake
Adapted from Eats Well with Others
Makes one 8-inch round cheesecake

Ingredients
Crust
¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. sugar
Pinch of salt
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, cold and cubed
1 egg yolk

Filling
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
¼ cup sugar
¼ cups + 2 tbsp. pumpkin puree
1 tbsp. pure maple syrup
¼ tsp. pure vanilla extract
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
¼ tsp. ginger
1 large egg, room temperature

Frosting
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, room temperature
2 oz. cream cheese, softened
¾ cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Directions
Line the bottom and sides of an 8-inch round spring form pan with tin foil.

For the crust: place flour, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Rub the butter in with the tips of your fingers until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Mix in the egg yolk until the dough starts to come together. Pat the dough into a uniform disk and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate dough for about 30 minutes. Roll out dough between two sheets of parchment paper. Press the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan. Chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 F.

Dock the top of the crust with a fork and cover with tin foil. Bake for about 10 minutes. Take off the tin foil and bake for another 10 minutes. Allow the crust to cool as you make the filling.

Turn oven temperature down to 300 F.

For filling: beat the cream cheese in a large bowl until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until completely combined. In a medium bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, syrup, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Pour mixture into the bowl with the cream cheese and sugar. Mix everything together until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Whisk in egg.

Pour filling into the prepared crust and bake for about 20 minutes or until the edges are set and the center jiggles slightly. Refrigerate for 2 hours.

For the frosting: beat together the cream cheese and the butter until fluffy. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar. Stir in the vanilla and salt. Mix until smooth. Spread frosting over chilled cheesecake. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes before serving.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

 

I can’t believe it is almost the end of October and I haven’t shared any pumpkin recipes! But I will change that right now.

Today also happens to be the 5^th week of 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats. It is so insane to think that Christmas is that close!

So back to all things pumpkin: I always buy several cans of pumpkin puree because of all the ideas I have to use it with. And how any of those ideas are executed? Only a small fraction, which is sad because fall is the best time of all to bake. If it were acceptable to make things with pumpkin, maple, and molasses all year round I would be a very happy girl.

So for the 5^th week of Christmas Treats I’m sharing these lovely pumpkin cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting (two seasonal flavors wrapped into one!

 

 

I wasn’t too excited about these cupcakes when I took my first bite, but that all changed the second day. I think the flavors just needed time to soak in and deepen. The cupcake because super moist and perfectly spiced. One of my favorite things about nutmeg is the little specks is leaves in the batter it is added to. It promises and delivers great things every time.

The frosting was so creamy. I love a good cream cheese frosting; if I were only allowed to have one type of frosting for the rest of my life, it would be of the cream cheese variety. Although with this recipe I think I should have added a tad more powdered sugar to stiffen it up a bit and a little more maple syrup to make it taste more mapley.

Once again, thank you Brenda for hosting such a wonderful bloghop.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Slightly adapted from Diethood

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. nutmeg

1 cup sugar

½ cup canola oil

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup pumpkin puree

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Frosting

6 oz. cream cheese, softened

2 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cup powdered sugar

½ tsp. pure maple syrup

¼ pure vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a standard 12 cup cupcake tray with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and oil until smooth. Stir in the eggs, one at a time, until completely incorporated. Mix in the pumpkin puree and stir until combined. Stir in the vanilla. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and fold the batter until just combined.

Evenly distribute the batter into the prepared cupcake tray. Bake on the center rack for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle. Allow the cupcakes to cool in the tray for 5 minutes before removing them to a cooling rack to cool completely.

To make the frosting: beat together the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Gently add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Stir in the maple syrup and vanilla until completely incorporated. Frost cupcakes as desired.

Pumpkin Pie Cookies

Can you believe Thanksgiving is exactly two weeks away? I certainly can’t. It seems like a million years ago it was October 1^st and now half of November has flown by.

So I know most of you have your own traditional foods that make their way into your Thanksgiving Day feast, but I’m hoping you consider adding these simple little cookies to the holiday dessert table.

These are just little shortbread type cookies with a pumpkin pie filling in the center. The cookie is soft and crumbly, but not too crumbly and it has just enough snap to it. The filling should have been a little sweeter, but other than that, it tasted like the best part of pumpkin pie. Of course I’m talking about the filling here.

I know a million things are going in and out of the oven every minute on Thanksgiving, so I did a little experiment. I baked a batch as soon as I was done filling the crevices in the cookie, and then I froze the rest of it to bake later. It turns out I liked the texture of the frozen cookies better. They were softer and didn’t brown as harsh. So if you do make these for Thanksgiving, which you should, you can make them now, freeze them, and bake them while everyone is gorging themselves on turkey, cranberry sauce, and bread rolls.

And because these are perfect for the holidays, I decided to add them to the 7^th week of Brenda’s 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats blog hop. Check the bottom of the page to see what other holiday goodies await you!

Pumpkin Pie Cookies

Adapted from Heather Likes Food

Makes about 2 dozen

Ingredients

cookies

½ cup (8 tbsp.) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg yolk

½ tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 cup + 2 tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour

½ tsp. baking powder

1/8 tsp. salt

filling

¼ cup pumpkin puree

1 ¼ tbsp. sugar

pinch of salt

1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp. ground numeg

dash ground cloves

½ tbsp. beaten egg

½ tbsp. milk

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour mixture to the creamed butter and sugar. Beat until no dry spots remain. The dough will be crumbly, but it will come together when you form it into balls.

Take 1 tbsp. worth of dough and roll it into a ball. Place the ball on the prepared baking sheet and gently press down with the palm of your hand. With the back of a teaspoon, make an indentation in the center of the flattened dough. Place the tray in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes while you make the filling.

To make the filling, just whisk all of the filling ingredients until nice and smooth. Remove the chilled dough from the fridge. Scoop a heaping ½ tsp. worth of filling into each indentation.

Bake cookies for 11-13 minutes or until the edges have just started to turn brown. Cool on the tray for about 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. 

Cake Slice Bakers - October 2012: Pumpkin Walnut Cake

This is the best pumpkin bread you will ever taste. I’m being completely serious here. I know many people are skeptical when it comes to “the best” anything because who am I to tell you what is the best? I am no one, and I am telling you this really is the best pumpkin bread you will ever taste. I should end the post right here; right now, and just give you the recipe. In fact, I’ve contemplated doing so for a few seconds, but I’ve decided against it.

If you haven’t noticed already, it is the 20^th of October, which means it’s Cake Slice Bakers time! This marvelously tender cake is the last cake I am baking for the group. Like last year, each group member was allowed to pick any cake they wanted to bake and present. I did not have the luxury of choosing this cake only because the book is in Colorado and I am in South Carolina. Knowing I wouldn’t have the book with me, I asked my mom to go through the book and pick a cake that looked like something I would enjoy baking and eating (she has very different cake taste than I do). Last weekend my mom finally came through and gave me the recipe for the best pumpkin bread in the whole world. (Thank you mama!)

Yes, I know I’m still hyping up this cake, but I don’t care. I really don’t think I have tasted pumpkin bread any better than this, something I thought was impossible. Impossible because there is a pumpkin farm just a few miles away from my home in Colorado. This has the best pumpkin pickings, pumpkin pancake mix, pumpkin squares, and of coarse, the bestest pumpkin bread ever! I’m actually quite depressed that I can’t have that bread this year. But now that I have this recipe, I don’t think I’ll be to dissapointed.

I’m still not sure what to call this. I want to call it pumpkin bread, but the title in the book says Pumpkin Walnut Cake. Whatever, I don’t care, all I know is I can’t stop thinking about this cake.

If you are following me on Instagram (rblooney) you noticed I posted a picture of a cute little mini loaf pan, yeah I baked this cake in that cute little pan. I halved the recipe below and got four mini loaves out of it. I gave one loaf to a family friend after having dinner with her, who later that night e-mailed me asking for the recipe because it was the best pumpkin cake she has ever tasted (see I’m not the only one). That left three loaves for my roommates and me. When I came home from dinner, my roommates sheepishly asked if they could have some. I of coarse said yes, and the first words out of my mouth were “Oh my freaking god this is the best pumpkin bread I’ve ever tasted”. My roommates hurriedly agreed.

This ends the year of The Cake Book. Click here to see what the rest decided to bake. Stay tuned next month for the new book we will be baking from. And if you’re contemplating getting this book, I highly recommend it. It has been the best cake book I have ever baked from.

By the way, I’m so sorry this post is so frantic; I’m just really excited about this cake.

Pumpkin Walnut Cake

From The Cake Book by Tish Boyle

Makes one 9-inch square cake (you can also make it into a loaf)

Ingredients

1 ¾ cups (200g) cake flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

¾ tsp. ground ginger

¾ tsp. ground nutmeg

½ tsp. salt

2 large eggs, room temperature

¾ cup (142g) sugar

¾ cup (142g) brown sugar

½ cup canola oil

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

¾ cup chopped walnuts (I omitted this)

Directions 

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9-inch square pan with cooking spray; set aside.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt into a medium bowl. Whisk to combine and set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and the sugars together until creamy and pale. Add the oil, pumpkin puree, milk, and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Mix until all the flour has been completely incorporated. If using walnuts, stir them in now. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake on the center rack for 25-30 minutes. My mini loaves baked in about 20 minutes, so I would check around the 18-20 minute mark, just to be safe. When a toothpick is inserted in the middle, it should come out clean.

Cut into squares and serve. This cake is so good it doesn’t need anything on top, but if you are one of those people who need a garnishing I recommend a cinnamon glaze (1 cup powdered sugar, ¾ tsp. ground cinnamon, 1-2 tbsp. milk) or some caramel sauce (can be homemade or store bought). 

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Donuts with Cinnamon Glaze

It’s definitely starting to get cooler here. Every morning when I go to my car I see the windows are covered in condensation and when I drive I’m surrounded by fog. It kind of makes me feel like I’m in a horror movie. It’s kind of cool, yet kind of creepy in the same way. It’s cool because Halloween is just around the corner, but creepy because all I see on the roads are two little beams of light in a swirl of mist.

On a completely different note, I made donuts. Or is it doughnuts. I still can’t tell the difference. Maybe doughnuts are used for the fried variety because it’s actually dough. Yeah, I like that idea. These donuts (notice the spelling) are made in the super special donut pan that everyone and their mother now has, or at least it seems that way.

Like I said last week, I am on pumpkin mode right now. I can’t help but want to save, pin, mark, jot down everything that has to do with pumpkin. It is just an amazing flavor, especially when paired with all the good spices like cinnamon and nutmeg.

I got this recipe from the lovely Erin of Texanerin Baking. I’ve made one of her lovely treats on the blog already, and it was pretty dern good. These donuts are no exception. They are so soft and tender, like cake…only better. Say what? I don’t know. It’s funny how the same ingredients can yield totally different things. It amazes me every day!

Ok so back to pumpkin donuts. Like I said these are so soft and tender and the pumpkin shines enough to make your belly full of fall happiness. I also added a cinnamon glaze on top to give it a little extra cinnamon kick. The glaze I made isn’t too sweet and pairs perfectly with the warm flavors of this donut.

Happy Fall Baking!

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Donuts with Cinnamon Glaze

Adapted from Texanerin

Makes 6 donuts

Ingredients

½ cup + 2 tbsp. white whole wheat flour

1 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

¼ tsp. ground ginger

dash ground nutmeg

dash ground allspice

2 ½ tbsp. canola oil

¼ cup brown sugar

1 egg yolk

½ tsp. pure vanilla extract

¼ cup + 2 tbsp. pumpkin puree

¼ cup milk

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray a 6 count donut pan with cooking spray; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the oil and brown sugar. Beat in the egg yolk and vanilla until smooth. Beat in the pumpkin. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, followed by half the milk. Repeat for the remaining 2/3 flour mixture and milk.

Scrape batter into a piping bag (or do what I do and use a ziplock bag). *Helpful tip: place your piping bag/ziplock bag in a glass cup. Fold the tips over the cup for easy, mess-free sealing. Snip off the tip of your bag and pipe enough batter into the molds to fill between 1/3 and ½ full. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the donut.

Allow the donuts to cool in the pan for a few minutes before inverting them onto a cooling rack. If you have trouble getting the donuts to come out, run a toothpick around the sides of the outer circle and the inner circle. I feel the toothpick is better than a knife when it comes to the donut pan.

While you wait for the donuts to cool make the glaze. Combine ½ cup of confectioners’ sugar, a dash of cinnamon, ¼ tsp. pure vanilla extract and 2 or 3 tsp. of milk. Dip the tops of each donut into the glaze. Allow to dry for a few minutes, then go in for a second dipping to ensure a nice glaze.