Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal Cookies

October is our favorite month, not just because it is my (Francesca’s) birthday month, but it is when the holiday season starts, when food starts to become more comforting, and when you can start wearing more than just shorts.

In honor of everyone’s obsession with pumpkin spice everything, we have made a simple twist on a homemade classic in the form of pumpkin spic oatmeal cookies. Enjoy!

Ingredients: makes about 2-3 dozen

½ cup butter (softened)
¾ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar plus 5 Tablespoons
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground clove
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup pumpkin purée
3 cups rolled oats
2 Tablespoons unsweetened dark cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl beat together ½ cup butter and sugar until nice and creamy. Add in your eggs one at a time, with vanilla, and then beat well.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, clove, and salt. Mix together well.

In small batches, pour the dry mix into the sugar and butter mix.

One cup at a time, mix in rolled oats using a flat spatula of a large spoon.

On an ungreased and unlined baking sheet, form cookies. Make them by using a heaping tablespoon.

Bake for 15 minutes, turning half way through to achieve an even bake.

Now to make the chocolate drizzle: while the cookies are cooling, heat remaining 5 Tablespoons of sugar on medium low heat until completely melted, once melted add chocolate and completely mix together. You are going to want to make this pretty quickly because sugar can burn very quickly, and it gets very bitter. Trust us we have burnt sugar more times than we like to admit.

Now immediately drizzle the chocolate over the cookies and enjoy!!!

 

Halloween Pumpkin Cream Filled Spiced Cake with Caramel Frosting!

Michael and I just celebrated my birthday which was yesterday by going to our favorite noodle house on Sawtelle Blvd. and watching a little Nightmare Before Christmas. This is my favorite time of year, it is when the Holiday season starts, and when I really feel that we are able to get really creative with our food. Since I have a slight Halloween obsession we did 13 days of Halloween last year, this year we are going to take it a bit easy because we are having a fabulous Halloween Dinner Party!

We have made for you a wonderful spiced cupcake, filled with pumpkin whipped cream, topped with caramel frosting! Happy Halloween and happy birthday to me!!

*Assuming that you do not have piping bags, buy some sandwich bags and the inexpensive icing tube tips. Cut a corner of the sandwich bag, place tip in, and tape so nothing will get through. Voila!

Ingredients: makes 24

Cupcake:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½  teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs +1 yolk
1 ¼  cups buttermilk
1 ½  teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ginger

Whipped Cream:

1 ½ cups cream
¼ cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon almond extract
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon allspice

Caramel Frosting:

1 Lb brown sugar
1 cup cream
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup butter

I would start by making the whipped cream and the frosting so that you can allow them to chill.

The whip cream is super simple, just put all the ingredients in a bowl and whip together until it starts to get stiff and forms peaks. Refrigerate.

To make the frosting bring sugar and cream to a rolling boil stirring frequently. Let boil for 1 minute, add baking soda, then let boil one more minute. Remove the sugar and cream from heat, then add butter. Do not stir, just let the butter melt, and cool completely. Once cooled, using an electric mixer, mix until becomes a thick caramel consistency. Chill.

 To make cupcakes preheat oven to 350, and line two cupcake trays with cupcake sleeves.

In a large bowl beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 6 minutes. Beat eggs in one at a time, including the yolk. Add almond extract.

In a different large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and ginger. Add a 1/3 of the flour mix to butter, and beat. Next add ¾ cups of buttermilk, followed by flour, and continue until you mix everything together and beat it.

Spread mix evenly into cupcake tins and bake for 25 minutes or until you insert a toothpick and it comes out clean.

Once baked and completely cooled take everything out of the refrigerator and it is now time to assemble. First we want to fill the cupcake with the whipped cream, so using a small knife, cut a hole out of the top of the cupcake, removing the middle but keeping the top layer. This way you can pipe in the whipped cream, and put the top part of the cupcake on so you don’t see the cream anymore. Next filling your second piping bag with the frosting, cover the top with frosting, and if you want top with some Halloween sprinkles!

Happy Halloween!

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!

 

 

Graveyard Cupcakes

If you are going to bake a bunch of cupcakes and bring them to a party, they may as well be a graveyard of cupcakes. Not every single one needs to say RIP, be creative and make a gravestone for each person at the party. Freak them out with a little personalized grave!

What Mikey and I did for these cupcakes is make a spiced pumpkin cake, topped with a cream cheese frosting, and a gravestone made of gum paste.  So get creative, celebrate the 7^th day and the week until Halloween and spook your friends with their future grave site!

*Gum paste can be made from a mix or you can buy it premade at most cake shops or even Michael’s. The gum paste takes a while to dry so make the headstones a day in advance.

Ingredients:
premade gum paste
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
2 cups confectioner sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
 4 1/2 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising), plus more for pan
 2 tablespoons baking powder
 3/4 teaspoon salt
 1 1/2 cups milk
 1 1/2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
 1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup brown sugar
 7 large egg whites
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp allspice
2 tsp clove
2 tbspoons spiced rum

First things first roll out the gum paste and cut into the shape of a gravestone and let dry overnight. Once they dry, use black food coloring and a paint RIP or your friend’s names on.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line your cupcake trays with cupcake holders. We used brown cupcake liners to signify the dirt under the grass.

Get four bowls together, this is a bit of a jigsaw puzzle but you will see why. In one bowl sift together
flour, baking powder, and salt. In a second bowl combine milk, vanilla, and pumpkin puree, and set aside. In a third bowl beat butter with an electric mixer until the butter is pale and creamy. In a steady stream add continue beating until light and fluffy.

Reducing speed to low, add the flour mixture to the sugar mix in three batches, alternating between the milk mixture and flour, starting and ending with the flour mix.

In the fourth mixing bowl, beat all the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Fold one-third of the whites into the batter just until combined, fold in the remainder in two batches.

Pour the batter into the cupcakes holders so that they are about a ¼ of an inch to the top, and bake for 20 minutes. Make sure they are done by inserting a point and making sure it comes out clean.

When they are done remove from oven, and cool on a wire rack, and once cooled decorate by piping green frosting using our previous cream cheese frosting recipe, to create grass, and then place your gravestones on top! Build your graveyard! BOO!

Spooky Pumpkin Pancakes

Michael has always loved a great breakfast, so we make this in honor of him. This is perfect to eat Halloween morning. You get the spices of the season, pumpkin for Halloween, and that sweetness getting you ready for all the candy you will be consuming!

*You can use whatever kind of chip you want, but we specifically used cinnamon chips by Hershey.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 ¼ cups milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup pumpkin puree
½ cup Hershey Cinnamon chips

In a large bowl, mix together all of your dry ingredients. Make a well in the center of your dry mix and pour in milk a quarter cup at a time.

Next mix in the two eggs, and then your pumpkin puree. Mix until almost completely smooth, but still a bit lumpy. Now for the finale add in your caramel chips.

To make the pancakes you will want to use butter or a cooking spray to grease a frying pan. Use one large enough so you are able to make two pancakes at a time. Heat the pan on a medium high heat and pour about a ¼ cup of mix for each pancake. You will know to flip when little bubbles start to form, and then check the opposite side to make sure it reaches the same golden brown color.

Pile as many as you can on one plate and eat! You will love the warm pumpkin and melting cinnamon chips, smothered in syrup. Yum

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