Oatmeal Pumpkin Spice S'mores Cookies

Oh hai guys.  I'm just going to pretend that I have not been neglecting this blog for two months.

And what better way to break the ice than with Fall's It Flavor:  Pumpkin Spice.  

You know you love/hate it.  It's everywhere.  Ice cream, coffees, donuts, trail mix, pancakes, pop tarts, tea... It's out of control.  Sometimes its overly sugary and disgusting, sometimes it's pumpkin spice heaven.  I have had pumpkin pancakes that make it taste like fall exploded in my mouth.  And I have thrown away an entirely full container of TJ's pumpkin spice chai tea latte mix that made my teeth hurt after one sip.  It's a pumpkin spice gamble.  

No gamble here, however.  These Oatmeal Pumpkin Spice S'mores Cookies are not sugary and disgusting despite having so many components.  The pumpkin is subtle, the dark chocolate not too bitter and the oats help to balance out the sweetness of the marshmallow glaze.  Yes you heard right, these cookies will give you the taste of a sweet marshmallow glaze in every bite. 

Oatmeal Raisin S'mores Cookies

Makes 25, bake at 350* for about 12 minutes.

Cookies

1 c. flour

2 1/2 c. oats

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 c. light brown sugar

1/2 c. butter, room temperature

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 c. pumpkin puree

1 c. dark chocolate chips 

Directions:

1. Sift flour, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and baking soda together in a bowl.

2. In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together until fluffy, around 5 minutes.  Add in egg and vanilla and beat until smooth. Add pumpkin puree and beat until smooth. 

3. On low, slowly add flour mixture to wet mixture and continue mixing until fully incorporated.

4. Turn off stand mixture and fold in oats and chips by hand.

5. Scoop dough onto lined cookie sheets and bake until edges start to slightly brown.  Remove from oven and let cook on a wire rack.  

Marshmallow Glaze

1 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp milk
3 tbsp butter
1 c. mini marshmallows

Directions: 
1. In a saucepan over low medium heat, melt butter completely.
2. Add marshmallows and stir until melted into butter.
3. Add milk and stir, remove from heat.
5. Slowly add powdered sugar and whisk mixture quickly until no lumps remain.
6. Pour over cooled cookies.  

I made these for no other reason than because I still owed people cookies from my AIDS Walk fundraising that I started back in April. Ha.  Hey, when it's hot it makes it really hard to bake.  Alas, it is now late October and the last heat wave from our California Indian Summers seems to have left us for good.  Chilly Fall mornings try to make me put on pants now. I'm resisting the pant wearing part of Fall, but the baking part?  I think it's time to embrace it wholeheartedly. I don't mine wearing aprons (or awesome baking gloves) one bit. 

xo,

Anna 

Walnut Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Happy Thanksgiving week everyone!

The holidays are well under way and I've already gained my obligatory five pounds of winter squish.  A little early this year because I just came back from a 7 day cruise to Mexico where I ate my face off, yes, but also because I just had my first of at least four Thanksgivings.

Yes you read that correctly.  I am having at least four Thanksgivings this year.  And of course I will be baking for all.

The first thing I've baked so far are these very autumn themed Walnut Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes.  After two or so years, I think I have finally perfected my pumpkin spice recipe.  I'm very excited about that.  I'll be adding nuts each time I make it now though, that's for sure. But I am also very happy with the aesthetic of how they came out.  (That means I think they're prettyyyyyy.)

At first I was not even excited about making these.  Until I made a basic pumpkin spice cupcake my own, of course.  Add walnuts.  Add a ginger molasses cookie crust.  And more walnuts on top.  Done.

But I also wanted them to LOOK like fall.  I had done leaves before and I loved how they had come out but they needed something more.  And then I remembered the teeny tiny little leaf shaped cookie cutter that I had bought almost a year ago in a set of cookie cutters at Sur La Table.  I bought it for the star to use on my red velvet cupcakes, but the pack contained a leaf too.  I searched about the grocery store until I found some type of candy I could roll out and settled on gum drops because of the added sugar sprinkle flare. They're quite easy to roll out once you get the hang of it.  But until you get the hang of it, it's a sticky mess so beware.

Gum Drop Leaves
Large Pack of Large Gum Drops/Spice Drops
Small Leaf Cutter

Directions:
1. With a rolling pin and medium pressure, roll on top of gum drop. Turn gum drop 90* and roll again.  Flip gum drop over and repeat until gum drop is mostly flat, about an 1/4 inch long.
2. Press cutter over gum drop and remove excess gum drop from sides before pushing out the leaf.
Tips:  The reason you are are slowly rolling out the gum drop is because if you apply too much pressure and roll it out flat at once, you will make a sticky mess.  You want the gum drop to retain the sugar on top so that it not only looks pretty, but also so that you can still work with it.  Once it's too thin you won't be able to use it anymore.


Initially I wanted to use ginger snaps.  Unfortunately I couldn't find them at the two stores I went to and it was pouring rain so I ended my search and bought molasses cookies.  I spiked them heavily with ginger instead.


Ginger Molasses Crust  (optional)
1 package (10 medium-large) of molasses cookies
2 tsp ginger
1/8 c butter, melted


1. Crush cookies with rolling pin and place in bowl.
2. Add melted butter to cookies, add just enough to make the crumbs workable.
3. Add ginger. Spice to taste.
4. Place one tablespoon of crumbs at the bottom of a lined cupcake tin and press down.
5. Bake in oven for 3-4 minutes at 350* and set aside to cool.



Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
Makes 15, Bake for 350* for approx. 15 minutes

1 1/8 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp all spice
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbls baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. oil
1 egg
1 c. pumpkin
1/3 c. sour cream
1/3 c. roasted walnuts

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, all spice, salt, baking powder and baking soda.
2.  In the bowl of your stand mixer, stir two sugars, egg, oil, pumpkin and sour cream until combined.
3.  Slowly add in your dry ingredient mixture to the wet mixture, beat on medium speed.
4. Fold in roasted walnuts.
5. Scoop batter onto the top of the ginger molasses crust and bake in oven for 15 minutes or until done.

Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8-oz package cream cheese
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Cream butter and cream cheese in stand mixer until smooth.
2. Add in vanilla.
3. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time and beat until fluffy.
4. Frost cupcakes.

I can't say how much the walnuts added to these cupcakes.  Really.

That and the fact that they bake up super fluffy and full of moisture.

Actually I think it's the combination of the spice and the walnuts and the ginger crust that makes these so good. When people first bite into the crust, they know it's good but they aren't even sure what it is except that they like it.

It's all the flavors of fall (dressed up with a bow of course) in your mouth all at the SAME time. Awesome.

Let's see what else I end up making this week.  Hopefully you fill your kitchens and your bellies with something wonderful.

xoxo,
Anna

Caramel Filled Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Oh,  these Snickerdoodles look so normal don't they?  Stacked up in rows, showing off their cinnamony sugar goodness.  But are you looking close enough?  There's a little something that's..  off about them.

These kinda things to be exact.

Pinner of all things (that's me) found this recipe for pumpkin snickerdoodles and I kind of threw up my hands in defeat.  Yeah, Hi Fall.  Pumpkin, cinnamon, spices, gingerbread, eggnog... we'll play. And we're bringing some caramel into the picture too.

Caramel Filled Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Bake at 350* for 12 minutes. Makes around 40 using a medium sized cookie scoop.

For Cookies:
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar1/2 cup light brown sugar3/4 cup pumpkin puree1 large egg2 teaspoons vanilla extract3 3/4 cups flour1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder1/2 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

For filling:
40 individually wrapped caramel candies

For Coating: 
1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Small dash of allspice

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg and set aside.
2. In an electric mixer, beat sugars and butter together until fluffy.
3. Stir in pumpkin puree. 
4. Add in egg and vanilla.
5. On low, stir in the dry ingredients into the wet until fully incorporated.
6. Cover cookie dough and put in fridge to chill.

Here's where things get real boys and girls.  Once the dough has been chilled enough to be firm but still malleable, take it out of the fridge and form equal sized balls.  A medium cookie scoop worked well for me. Then gather your filling and topping.

Next you'll want to either tear apart with your hands, or a knife like I did, the top half of the cookie.  Then place an entire caramel in the center then fully recover with the dough, rolling into a ball again.

Roll the dough in the topping completely, flattening slightly before placing on cookie sheet.

Bake in oven, and if you've done a good job at covering up all the sides you shouldn't have any spillage.  In case you haven't, that't okay too.

It gives for a sneak peak of what's to come.

And what's to come is a delicious cinnamony carmael bite of goodness.

I try not to eat too much of my baking, but I always have at least one.  I might have had more that one of these.  Or more than two.  Who's counting anyways? If Summer's over that means I'm allowed to pack on an extra 5 lbs of insulation right?  Winter's coming!

They taste very lightly of pumpkin.  Next time I'll try to amp that up.  But the caramel, especially if warm tastes oh so good with the cinnamon.  I also made a batch without stuffing.  Truth be told, those did not disappear as fast as these did.  I also did some with cream cheese.  I think I like stuffing cookies with things.  Best thing about these is popping them in the microwave for 30 seconds a day or two later.  Instant caramel goodness in your mouth.  

I'll be back real soon.  I have so many baked yummy things lined up, it's ridiculous. You're probably going to want to move into the guest bedroom now in preparation.

xoxo,
Anna