Sherry Raisin Pumpkin Bread

There is no shortage of things which I love about  October. To list a few: pumpkins, my birthday, Halloween, scary movies, decorating ones house with cobwebs (I don’t have to vacuum those webs away!?), anything in the shape of a bat….The list goes on. I believe and hope that I have turned Michael into a lover of the fall, otherwise I have shoving candy corn down his throat for years with no reason! Eek!

That being said, we have made a deliciously simple pumpkin bread with sherry soaked raisins. It has been said that this may be our best baked item yet, which is exciting! What makes this recipe so interesting is that we use almond extract instead of vanilla and it gives it a really marzipan like taste. Yummy.

So happy pumpkin cooking time!

Love,

Francesca and Michael

*We will be using a loaf pan and a handheld electric mixer, so make sure you have one!

Ingredients: makes 1 medium loaf

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
1 ¾  cups all-purpose flour  
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 ¼ cups sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 ¼ cups pure pumpkin puree
¾  cup buttermilk
1 cup purple raisins
2 cups dry sherry
3 Tablespoons brown sugar

First thing to do is in a small sauce pan boil sherry and add brown sugar and raisins. Let simmer for about 20 minutes. When they seem hydrated pull them out, and lay them on a piece of paper towel to cool down.

While the raisins are simmering we are going to mix our pumpkin bread together. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, using your mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 6 minutes. Next add eggs, one a time, mixing thoroughly. Beat in almond extract.

Next step is while mixing on low speed; gradually add the flour mix until just combined. Add the pumpkin and buttermilk and beat until just combined. Last step is to add the raisins and fold them in.

With the remaining butter, butter the edges of your loaf pan, and pour in your batter until it is about an inch below the top, this way there will be no spillage.

Bake about 1 hour 15 minutes, until you can insert a toothpick and it comes out clean.

Slice and enjoy!

 

 

Valentine's Day Lemon Shortbread Cookie!

Happy Valentine’s Day!! We hope that you enjoy it, and spend it with the people, places, and animals, whatever you love! We are grateful for our parents, our siblings, our friends, neighbors, and our puppies and pet fish! Show the people you love a little appreciation today and whip up a batch of these delicious lemon shortbread cookies. They are so easy to make, and you can make them special by painting your loved ones name on the cookie. We decided to paint initials in a calligraphy style that keeps the look elegant and beautiful as a gift in itself.

* To write the initials you will need a tiny paint brush.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Ingredients: Makes about a dozen

Cookie:

1 cup butter, softened
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup lemon juice

Icing:

1 cup confectioners sugar
2 teaspoons milk
¼ teaspoon almond extract
Yellow food coloring
Blue food coloring

To start preheat your oven to 325 degrees, and let your butter sit out to soften. Cream butter and sugar together until completely combined. Add lemon zest and lemon juice, and mix. Now add flour a little at a time. The dough will seem really dry, but you will dump it out on to a flat surface and knead together by hand, it will meld together really nicely. Dust a rolling pin with flour and roll the dough out to be about a ¼” thick. Using a heart shaped cookie cutter, cut out cookies, lay on a dusted baking sheet, and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on the edges.

Once baked, pull out and let cool. While cooling, mix together all of the ingredients for the icing, except the blue food coloring. Color with the yellow food coloring until you reach the desired color. Once cookies are cooled, using a small spatula, cover the cookie in the icing. If you want to make the icing dry faster, you can add a teaspoon of cream of tartar into the mix. Let the icing dry completely before you paint names on.

Once the icing dries, place a drop of two of blue food coloring into a small bowl and a drop of water. Using your very small paint brush, dip into the mix and paint the initials of the one you love.

Now eat your cookies or give them out to the one you love!

Pumpkin and Bat Sugar Cookies

There are many shapes that could go to symbolize Halloween….witches, cauldrons, ghosts, ghouls. Two shapes however that will never fail to bring that fright and fun of Halloween are pumpkins and bats!!! These are cookies that are so simple to make, are fun to make with your friends or kids, because you can make them together and decorate them together. Michael and I chose a beautiful deep purple and a bright orange. Instead of plain old fashioned icing, we made a fantastic royal icing using orange blossom honey and a little almond extract. Enjoy these cookies, and make as many Halloween inspired cookies as you like!! Celebrate the 9th day of Halloween as we do our 13 days of Halloween countdown!

*You will want to refrigerate your dough for an hour before use, so keep this in mind with you time. Make dough ahead of time!

Ingredients:

Cookie Dough:
2 1/2  cups  all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled, plus more for the work surface
1/4  teaspoon  baking soda
1/4  teaspoon  kosher salt
1  cup  (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4  cup  granulated sugar
1 large egg
1teaspoon  pure vanilla extract

Icing:
1 cup confectioner sugar
2 tablespoon milk
2 tablespoon honey (we used orange blossom for extra flavor)
¼ teaspoon almond extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium sized bowl mix together flour, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl beat together butter and sugar until smooth. Make sure that your butter is at room temperature, otherwise it will be impossible to blend. Add the egg and beat until fluffy, about two minutes, then beat in vanilla.

Beating on a slower speed, gradually add and mix in the flour mix. Your dough is going to seem very stiff, which is what you want. Now place your dough flattened on a plate, and covered with plastic wrap, in the fridge for at least an hour.

Once an hour has passed, roll your dough out on a floured surface, to about a ¼ of an inch. Cut your shapes out using your cookie cutter. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies start to turn golden brown. Let cool. Then decorate by using your icing.

To make the icing simply mix your ingredients together and add food coloring to color as much as you want!!! Now eat!!

Trick-or-treat Biscotti

As an Italian I love biscotti, I have an affinity for any dessert that has almond in it to be honest. This treat is nothing less than a delicious Halloween twist on a traditional Italian almond biscotti using candy corn instead of slivers of almonds. The mix of the crunch of the cookie and then the chew of the candy corn is delightful to eat. Maybe you can make these and have them with your morning tea, or just offer them as a lovely treat for when people come to visit, but try them and you will not be disappointed. So celebrate the 10^th day of Halloween with our trick-or-treat candy corn biscotti!

Ingredients:
¾ cup candy corn
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Start by preheating oven to 300 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper and a little bit of flour.

Set aside all of your ingredients and most importantly chop up your candy corn into small pieces. In a small bowl whisk the eggs with the vanilla and almond extracts. In a large bowl whisk the flour with the sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in the chopped almonds. Then add the egg mixture and stir until a dough forms.

 Divide the dough in half, and on a lightly floured surface roll each half into logs about twice as long as wide. Place the logs on the baking sheet next to each other and bake for about 25 minutes or until they are firm until the touch. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Next move the logs to a cutting board and, using a sharp knife, cut logs into slices about 1/4 - 1/2 inch slices. Place the slices of biscotti on a new baking sheet and bake about 10-15 minutes, turn slices over, and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until firm to the touch. If you want them extra crunch, bake longer, and don’t be alarmed by the candy corn running. Remove from oven and let cool, if parchment sticks just peel it off. Let cool, and serve with tea, hot chocolate, or just eat!!!!

Halloween Pumpkin Milkshake

 

So we will fully admit that we love a good milkshake, and that a spiced one is possibly the best (besides strawberry). This is a simple recipe with all the fall flavors in it, we use soy ice cream in this to make it a bit healthier, and because milk can be very hard on your stomach. One special thing we have added is instead of the whip cream you expect, we have made an almond whip cream, which has the slight taste of marzipan, and is our new addiction.  The 11^th day of Halloween comes in style with a delectable shake!

Ingredients: Milkshake
6 tbsp whole milk
7 scoops soy vanilla ice cream
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
Pinch of cinnamon
Pinch ground nutmeg

Whip cream:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp confectioners sugar
1 tsp almond extract

 

 

 

 

So simple, take your milkshake ingredients and blend! Yeyuh!!

For the whip cream take your cream, add the sugar and almond extract and using an electric whisk, whisk it together until it starts to form into a thick cream. You don’t want to over whip, you want it to be just right, so that the cream can form a bit of a peak, but isn’t overly stiff.

Using a sandwich bag, pour the whip cream in, cut one of the corners off, and use it to top your milkshake with whip cream…top with some cinnamon…and drink!! Yum