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. 

Double Chocolate Cookies

I can’t believe it’s already the 6^th week of 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats. The weeks are quickly passing by and I don’t know where the days are going. All the papers I have to write, all the exams I have to study for, and all the homework I have to do isn’t helping either.

I do have Double Chocolate Cookies though, and that’s helping a little bit. Earlier in the year I shared another recipe for Double Chocolate Cookies, but you can never have too many recipes for chocolate cookies, right?

Like in my last post for double chocolate chip cookies, I was a little apprehensive when baking these. I wasn’t sure if the dough would turn into a puddle as it baked or if it would be rock hard. For some reason I don’t trust melted chocolate going into cookies.

These cookies turned out pretty nice though. They did not turn to sludge, but puffed up nicely. The chocolate was a little bitter for me, but I think if I had added just a little more milk chocolate chips or maybe substituted some of the melted semi-sweet chocolate for some milk chocolate, these would have been perfect.

Many thanks to Brenda for hosting this year's 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats. Take a look at the bottom of the page to see the wonderful sweets other bloggers decided to share this week.

Double Chocolate Cookies

Adapted from The Willow Blog

Makes 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients

4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

1 ¼ cups (150 g) unbleached all-purpose flour

6 tbsp. (30 g) cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature

1/3 cup (75 g) brown sugar

¼ cup (50 g) sugar

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 egg, cold

1 cup milk chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set it aside.

In a double boiler (or a heat proof bowl set on top of simmering water) melt the semi-sweet chocolate. Once melted, set aside to cool.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set the mixture aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the bugger and sugars until pale and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Pour in the melted chocolate and beat until incorporated. Add the egg and vanilla; beat until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Slowly add the flour mixture to the creamed chocolate mixture. The batter will become very thick. Fold in the chocolate chips. Portion out the dough using a small cookie scoop (mine was about 1 ½ inches in diameter). Space the cookie dough about 2 inches apart on the lined cookie sheet. Bake for 9-10 minutes. Cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

These taste great straight out of the oven, but if you are eating them after baking and want a nice warm cookie, place in the microwave for 12-14 seconds.

Oatmeal Fudge Bars

When it comes to the world of chocolate, I like it rich and dark. I have come to like a little bit of milk chocolate, but give me a choice between the two, and I will greedily take the dark chocolate bar. Plus I can’t resist the crisp snap dark chocolate makes when you break it in two.

Oats have a special place in my heart too. I have Quaker instant maple and brown sugar oatmeal for breakfast at least three times a week. Yes I know it’s not as healthy as actually making oatmeal from scratch, but I don’t care. It’s sweet and chewy and delicious. I will admit that I make oatmeal from scratch on occasion. I can’t resist the mouth feel oatmeal provides.

I’m also a fan of crunchies. Ever since I was little I would love a good crunchy chicken finger or granola bar. Plus, crumble toppings are my weakness. They are so sweet and crunchy and just amazing on anything.

These bars have every single component I mentioned above. It has am oaty base, which browns and crisps up beautifully as it bakes. The middle layer consists of pure decadence. It’s rich, dark, and ever so smooth, yet fudgy too. The middle layer of this bar is basically a brownie, but sort of like a chocolate pie filling. It’s heavenly. Then the top layer is made of leftover base crumbled all over the smooth chocolate layer.

Warning: this treat is very rich and highly addicting. It’s absolutely perfect for small get-togethers.

This post is part of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats, hosted this year by the wonderful Brenda of Meal Planning Magic.

Oatmeal Fudge Bars

Slightly adapted from Tracy’s Culinary Adventures

Makes one 9-icnh square pan

Ingredients

Base and Crumble

1 cup quick cooking oats

1 cup brown sugar

¾ cup unbleached all-purpose flour

¼ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. baking soda

1/8 tsp. salt

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

Filling

¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ tsp. salt

9 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped or chips

2 tbsp. unsalted butter

1 egg, room temperature

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325F. Line a 9-inch square baking pan with foil. Grease the foil with cooking spray. Set the pan aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the oats, brown sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Pour in the melted butter and mix until the dough comes together. Set aside about ½ cup of the oat mixture. Pour the remaining dough into the prepared pan, pressing down to create an even layer.

Bake for 8 minutes or until just slightly golden on top. Set the pan aside to cool for 1 hour while you make the filling.

Whisk together the flour, brown sugar, and salt. Melt the chocolate and butter over a double boiler. Stir until the chocolate and butter have completely melted into each other. Let the chocolate cool for about 5 minutes. Beat in the egg. Fold in the flour mixture. The filling will be thick. Pour the filling over the partially baked base. Smooth over the top with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle the remaining oat mixture on top.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the oat crumble has turned a golden brown. Place the pan on a cooling rack to cool completely (2 hours). Cut into squares. 

Cookie Sticks

I really don’t have much to say in this post. Usually I can find something to comment on, but today I don’t.  So I’m going to ramble on about the difference between cookies and cookie sticks. Sound good, good; if not then just scroll through the pretty pictures, ok?

When I think of cookies, I think little delights of gooey centers, crisp edges, and metly chocolate shavings evenly dispersed throughout. Ok well that’s the short version of my perfect chocolate chip cookie heaven, but I won’t go into full detail about that, unless you want to read an essay.

Cookie sticks are different because they are sticks. Yeah, I know, terrific reasoning, right? Well, when I think of sticks I think of hard things with a great snap. Biscotti are stick cookies. They are hard and have a great snap to them without being bricks. They also absorb milk beautifully yet hold their integrity nicely. Lets face it, it’s a sad day when you leave a cookie dunked in milk too long, and when you go to take a bite, it plops off right into the milk, splashing it everywhere. Then you have to look like a total fool while digging around in your cup for your missing cookie.

Like Biscotti, these cookie sticks are crisp and soak up milk like a dream. I usually don’t like dunking my cookies in milk because of the reasons listed above (broken cookie and spilled milk). However, when it comes to harder cookies, I love dunking them in milk because it makes them so soft and tender and spongy? Yeah, sort of spongy… but better tasting than a sponge.

Anyways, these are perfect little sticks for dunking. I may or may not have had more than my fair share of them. Whoops.

Cookie Sticks

Slightly adapted from My Baking Addiction

Makes 2 ½ dozen sticks

Ingredients

1 ½ cups (180g) unbleached all-purpose flour

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 egg, room temperature

½ cup (96g) sugar

½ cup (96g) dark brown sugar

½ cup canola oil

¼ cup (64g) creamy peanut butter

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup (83g) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, beat the egg and sugars together until smooth, creamy, and light in color. Beat in the oil and peanut butter until smooth. Stir in the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, making sure not to over-mix.

Divide the dough into two equal portions (I used a scale because I’m OCD). Form each portion into a 15x3 inch rectangle and set on the prepared baking sheet about 3 inches apart from each other. Note: the dough will be kind of greasy and hard to handle at first, but if you keep working it, it will eventually form into a rectangle.

Bake in the middle rack for 8-10 minutes. Cool on the pan for 10 minutes. Using a serrated knife cut the cookie logs into 1-inch sticks.