Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Snickerdoodle Cookies

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Makes about 2 dozen cookies, takes about one hour.

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This has become a staple in my Fall baking repertoire, for multiple reasons. One, they are delicious. Two, they're bite-sized. Three, Due to how moist they are initially plus the addition of coconut oil, they stay good for weeks in the refrigerator. I love pumpkin but one of the only downsides is that unless a recipe explicitly states you need an exact-size can amount of it for a recipe, you end up with leftovers in an odd amount. In my own recipes, I have that happen with my Pumpkin-Apple Streusel muffins from last week, and with this week I can use up the majority of that leftover with these cookies.

Ingredients

    1/2 cup Coconut Oil (melted)
    1/4 cup Dark Brown Sugar
    1 cup Sugar, divided
    1 teaspoon Vanilla
    6 Tablespoons Pumpkin (puree)   
    1 and 1/2 cups Flour
    1/4 teaspoon Kosher Salt
    1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder
    1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
    2 teaspoons Cinnamon, divided
    1/4 teaspoon ground Nutmeg
    1/4 teaspoon ground Cloves
    1/2 teaspoon Allspice
    1/2 cup (90g) White Chocolate Chips

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Directions

1. Melt the Coconut Oil. In a medium bowl, whisk the melted Oil, Brown Sugar, and 1/2 cup Sugar together until the brown sugar is fully combined.
2. Whisk in the Vanilla and Pumpkin. Once smooth, set bowl aside.
3. In a large bowl, toss together the Flour,Kosher Salt, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Nutmeg, Cloves, Allspice and 1 and 1/2 teaspoons Cinnamon.
4.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or spatula. The dough will be very soft. Fold in white chocolate chips.
5. Cover the dough and leave to set in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
6. Take out your dough and preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or baking mats.
7. Roll the dough into balls, about 1 Tablespoon of dough each.
8. Mix together the remaining 1/2 cup of Sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of Cinnamon. Roll each of the dough balls generously in the cinnamon-sugar mixture.
9. Slightly flatten the dough balls with a fork, as the cookies don't spread very much.
10. Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes, they will look soft and slightly under-baked.
11. Cool cookies for at least 10 minutes on the baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack and letting cool for a minimum of one hour.
12. Enjoy!

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Tips/Tricks

As with all Pumpkin and Banana baked goods, these cookies taste better a day or two later, though they are delicious immediately.

If you have Pumpkin Pie spice, you can swap the Nutmeg, Cloves and Allspice for 1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice instead.

For really longevity, you can store these bad boys in an air-tight container in the fridge. Just pull them out about a half hour before intending to serve so they can come back up to room temp. Because of the Coconut Oil, they harden up under 75 degrees and soften when they are at room temp.

You can store the unbaked dough in an airtight container in the freezer for several months. Sometimes I'll just double the recipe, roll out the dough into all 1 Tablespoon balls and then put half in an airtight container in the freezer and then all I need to do is thaw them in the fridge and roll in cinnamon sugar and bake when I want them...or if I have multiple holiday parties to go to and want to bring some to each.


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Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins

Makes 2 Dozen Muffins, Takes about 35-40 minutes


  Yum
   This recipe comes from my late grandmother, who by all accounts was a great baker. Her 3x5 index card of this recipe is succinct in instructions so I am going to try and keep this about the same.  In the fall and winter seasons, we are greeted with two predominant produce items that make their way into everything; Pumpkin and Apple. This recipe let's you have the best of both worlds; A pumpkin muffin that has small chunks of apple mixed throughout, relieving you of what I consider to be one of the hardest decisions to make of the season. The batter is thick, but don't be alarmed, this is an easy recipe that will satisfy anyone looking for their seasonal sweet-tooth fix.

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Ingredients:

Muffin

2 1/2 Cups Flour
2 Cups Sugar
1 Tbl. Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
2 Eggs (lightly beaten)
1 Cup Canned Pumpkin
1/2 Cup Oil
2 Cups Apples (peeled and finely chopped)

Streusel Topping

4 Tbl. Butter (softened)
2 Tbl. Flour
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 tsp. Cinnamon

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Directions

1. Preheat Oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and while you're waiting, peel and dice your apples.
2. In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine first 5 ingredients (Flour, Sugar, Pumpkin Pie Spice, Baking Soda, Salt)
3. In a separate bowl, combine Eggs, Pumpkin and Oil.
4. Stir in the contents of the liquid ingredients bowl to the dry ingredients bowl. This is slow going, looking entirely too dry until it finally all comes together into an orange-ish batter.
5. Once the wet and dry ingredients are fully mixed together, add in your finely chopped up apples and stir them into the batter.
6. In a small bowl, add your streusel topping ingredients together and use a fork (or your fingers if you work quickly) to crumble the butter into the mixture. You should have a bowl full of little clumps.
7.Lightly grease your muffin pans and drop the batter in, filling about 3/4ths of the way full. Top with streusel topping.
8. Bake on middle rack of oven for about 35-40 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

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Tips/Tricks

When baking, there are some things you should always be doing in order to make your bakes the best they can be. One of those things is sifting your flour so that it's lighter, and the second is using eggs and room temperature.

Any solid apple will work in this recipe, though as usual I suggest apples that are known for baking, Granny Smith's Mcintosh, Pink Lady's, Gala, Honeycrisp.

I don't often use a pre-made Pumpkin Pie spice mixture, since I usually have all the individual spices on hand, but that is how this recipe was written. If you don't have a pre-made pumpkin spice mixutre, you can make up a similar blend that is 1/4 teaspoons of Nutmeg, Clove, Allspice and a 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon.

As with all Pumpkin and Banana baked goods, something happens in the baking process that mutes their Pumpkin/Banana flavor that comes back in full force a day or two after baking. This means that should these muffins last longer than 24 hours, they will taste more strongly of pumpkin on days two and three. Ideally, you should bake these one day ahead of when you intend to serve them, for that full pumpkin flavor to really develop.
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Apple-Walnut Crumble with Chinese Five Spice

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Takes about 40 minutes, Serves 6So the base of this was a Williams-Sonoma recipe, and the style of crumble they were going for, I'm calling a "dry" crumble. It's not that this recipe itself is too "dry", otherwise I wouldn't be sharing with you guys, but instead it's a kind of apple crumble that isn't cooking the apples first into an apple pie kinda filling before topping with crumble and baking. Instead, this recipe just has you putting raw apples under some crumble topping and baking. I don't think one is better than the other, instead I think they both serve a purpose. This version, while I think would be delicious as a more traditional crumble dessert, is geared towards a quick, no-muss-no-fuss version. The same flavors (with a five spice twist!) while taking about half the normal cook time as a traditional version.

So the big twist here, Chinese Five Spice. If you're unfamiliar, Chinese Five Spice is a spice blend that is prevalent in a lot of Chinese cuisine. While ingredients may vary (and may actually have more than five spices) the typical Five Spice blend combines Cinnamon, Cloves, Star Anise, Sichuan Pepper and Fennel. The amount we're adding in here isn't enough for you to super notice every flavor that Five Spice brings to the table, but it's enough for you to realize this isn't your normal fall spice mix. Try it out for a very simple twist on a classic flavor profile!

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Ingredients

2 lbs. apples (preferably Granny Smith, McIntosh, Pink Lady)
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
2 Tbsp White Sugar
1 tsp. Chinese Five Spice Powder
1/2 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
3/4 Cup Old Fashioned Oats
1/2 Cup Dark Brown Sugar (packed)
1/3 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Walnuts (finely chopped)
6 Tbsp Butter (melted)
1/4 tsp. Salt

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Directions

1. Preheat Oven to 375 degrees F and make sure there is a rack in the center of the oven. Lightly butter or grease a 10-inch Pie Dish or 9-inch square baking pan or dish. Peel and Core apples.
2. Dice apples into about one-inch cubes. Transfer to medium sized mixing bowl.
3. Add lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, five spice and vanilla to the apples, use a spoon or rubber spatula to stir apples until all are evenly coated.
4. In a separate medium bowl, add oats, brown sugar, flour, chopped walnuts, salt and butter. Use stirring spoon, fork or rubber spatula to combine everything. Try to incorporate all dry ingredients with the butter, so that there is no completely dry parts left.
5. Take your apples, add them to your greased baking pan/dish of choice. Then take your bowl of crumble topping and lightly coat the top of the apples until there is a cohesive and even coating. Try to cover everything.
6. Bake! Apples should be fork tender and crumble topping should be browned. Takes roughly 35-45 minutes, check at 30 minutes.
7. Enjoy!

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Tips/Tricks

If you find that Five Spice isn't your thing, you could easily substitute with Pumpkin/Apple Spice powder, or 1/4 teaspoons of Nutmeg, Clove, Allspice and increase cinnamon to 1 1/2 teaspoons.

Different apples give different flavors, and you can experiment with a combination of apples. The only real requirement is that it has to be an apple that is considered a "baking" apple so that it will hold up when under heat. I used Pink Lady's because that's what I had on hand, but usually a Granny Smith is my go to. Honeycrisp are great if you can get them, but they are so expensive I often lean towards not using them in baked goods.

Top with whipped cream or a good Vanilla for a sublime time. One better, drizzle some good quality caramel sauce on top too!

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Sharing Mini - Orange and Huckleberry Honey Butter

Yum

I'm back with another little mini post, and once again it's a compound butter! Possibilities really are endless out there for compound butters, and I'll have more here and there in the future as I use up previous ones! This time we have a bit of a cheater, but it's a good one. This recipe combines the flavors of honey, huckleberry and orange into one nice little spread. You could use huckleberry jam for a concentrated huckleberry flavor, but in this version here we're hitting two birds with one stone and using a pre-made huckleberry honey butter to make this even easier!

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Special Tools Alert!


You will need something to get orange zest with for this recipe. I have a Microplane grater, but any grater/shredder that has a "fine" option will work.

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Butter (1 stick)
1/2 Cup Huckleberry Honey
 2 Oranges (for zest)

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Directions

1. Make sure your butter is softened before starting
2. Zest your two oranges into a small bowl
3. In a small mixing bowl, combine softened butter with zest and huckleberry honey. Whisk to combine.
4. Really whip it with that whisk. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for longest shelf life. Otherwise, enjoy within about two weeks at room temp!

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Tips/Tricks

Once again with compound butters, almost anything is possible. Toast up a Tablespoon of pecans or walnuts and then chop them up and you have yourself an even more complex and interesting whipped butter.

Perfect for breakfasts on toast or english muffins. A great topper for pancakes or waffles if you have a berry syrup to accompany it.

If you wanted to use huckleberry jam instead, use 1/4th Cup Jam and 1/4th Cup Honey to keep the proportions about the same.

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