Soft Spiced Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

It looks like all this "free" time over the holidays is lending itself to baking! I've been working collegiate basketball games, dedicating time to language-learning, reading and of course, playing piano.

The most recent recipe I stumbled across was for soft and chewy pumpkin cookies! I know it's the wrong season for pumpkin now, but after Thanksgiving I purchased a reduced-price can of pumpkin purée and this week, it finally occurred to me what to do with it.

Soft Spiced Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 1/2 c flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 t cinnamon
• 1/2 t nutmeg
• 1/2 t salt 
• 1 1/2 c granulated sugar
• 1/2 c butter, softened
• 1 c canned pumpkin
• 1 large egg
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1/2 c chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in medium bowl. Beat sugar and butter in large mixer bowl until well blended. Beat in pumpkin, egg and vanilla extract until smooth. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Fold in chocolate chips

Drop by rounded tablespoon onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until edges are firm. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes.

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The recipe yielded around 20 massively large cookies. I was using a table spoon to shape my cookies, like suggested in the recipe, but eventually switched to the teaspoon because they were so huge! The cookies never became crunchy, since this is a soft cookie recipe, but more retained the texture of something akin to pumpkin bread. Perfection :)

So who cares if it's not pumpkin season anymore... dig in and enjoy some delicious pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!

WHAT?! She lives?!

Oh man, it's been sooooo long since I've blogged, watched tv, worked out, cooked, etc....

I'm up to my neck in full-time grad school, teaching French classes, MLB PLAYOFFS and working collegiate athletics. Oh and the non-stop revolving door of meeting new people :)

I love it. It's totally what's been missing in my life since moving to Arizona. But I did have a second of free time a few weeks ago. Of course I chose to spend my moment baking, this is me we're talking about here :)

The dish of experimental choice was Hefeweizen Cupcakes with Fresh-Squeezed Orange Cream Icing! ...semi from scratch! Although the "buttercream frosting" was extremely drippy and runny, it set nicely in the fridge for a crunchy top layer with a huge punch of orange zest.

Apologies for the tiny pictures, I'm a Mac user now so no more Windows Live Writer :(

For the cupcakes, it couldn't have been easier! I merely followed instructions for a box of white, vanilla cupcakes (egg whites, water, etc.) and subbed a cup of Shiner Hefeweizen for the water, and then added in a few tablespoons of orange zest. That was the difference-maker.

And here is a recipe I found for the orange zest buttercream. It didn't set for some reason on my end -- perhaps I can blame that on the 100+ degree weather -- but a quick pop in the fridge did the trick.

These cupcakes were absolutely delicious! Beer cupcakes complete me :)

Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Yes, you read that right.

No, it wasn’t my birthday… but it should have been.

I freakin’ LOVE mint chocolate chip ice cream. And it’s got to be the green kind, not the cop out white minty variety (you can tell I’ve had a lot of experience eating mint chip ice cream before). In fact, if it weren’t for the holiday peppermint candy cane ice cream, mint chip would be the very top of my list. Thank God that stuff can only be found two-to-three months out of the year.

But I digress… let’s get back to my obsession with mint chocolate chip!

For the past week or so, I searched and searched for a decent cupcake recipe. After the success I had tweaking base recipes with peanut butter and lemon cakes, the mint thing couldn’t be that hard, could it?

Yes it could. The major problem I encountered with every recipe was that they were all chocolate-based cakes with mint flavoring and green mint frosting.

What I really wanted was green cupcakes that looked exactly like little scoops of ice cream. So I took matters into my own hands:

You’re lying to yourself if you don’t think those look like ice cream cups :)

Eventually I found a base for mint cupcakes (from the Sprinkles cupcake bakery!) and added my own touch.

I present to you:

Mint Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Fudgy Chocolate Frosting

(yields 14 cupcakes)

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour, sifted

1 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1/2 c skim milk

1 1/2 t peppermint extract

1/2 t vanilla extract

1/2 c (1 stick) butter

1 c sugar

1 large egg

2 large egg whites

1 1/2 mini chocolate chips

green food coloring

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In a small bowl, mix together milk and extracts; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly add egg and egg whites until just blended.
With the mixer on low, slowly add half the flour mixture; mix until just blended. Add the milk mixture and food coloring; mix until just blended. Slowly add remaining flour mixture, scraping down sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended. Finally, by hand, fold in chocolate chips.

Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Transfer muffin tin to oven and bake until tops are just dry to the touch, 22 to 25 minutes. Transfer muffin tin to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool completely in tin before icing.

For the frosting:

• 3 c powdered sugar
• 2/3 c cocoa
• 1/2 c butter
• 1 t vanilla
• 1/3 c milk

Sift together powdered sugar and cocoa. Melt butter. Add butter and vanilla to sifted mixture. Stir. Add milk to get desired spreading consistency. If more milk is required, add by tablespoon at a time. Can store up to 3 months in the freezer.

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There you have it! Mint chocolate chip cupcakes that taste EXACTLY like the ice cream – only better because they didn’t melt. Not like I’d let them sit around long enough to melt, please!

Other than that, I really can’t tell you how freakin’ good these were. You’re just going to have to make them yourselves :)

Just send me some in the mail… I “gave some of mine to friends and coworkers” and ate the other half of the batch myself in less than a week.

(P.S., I didn’t realize at the time, but I accidentally bought gluten free graham flour instead of whole wheat flour. So, there, these just so happen to be gluten free cupcakes too. And they still came out exactly like I’d hoped!)

Lemon Rosemary Cupcakes

Let’s take back anything I’ve ever said about cupcakes before. Ignore the chocolate stout and peanut butter bacon cupcakes.

These are literally the best tasting cupcakes I’ve made thus far (in my few weeks of experimenting with non-traditional cupcake flavors and frostings).

Don’t worry, I didn’t eat the rosemary sprig on top… that was just for decorative purposes :) The cupcakes were ridiculously easy to make; all I did was add to a standard box of yellow cake and instantly transformed regular cake to really delicious cupcakes!

LEMON ROSEMARY CUPCAKES WITH LEMON BUTTER CREAM

(Makes 12 cupcakes and enough frosting for 14)

Cupcake Ingredients:

• 1/2 box of yellow cake mix
• 1/3 c water
• 1/3 c lemon juice
• 1 T lemon extract
• 1/6 c vegetable oil (I just filled a 1/3 measuring cup up halfway)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c chopped rosemary

Butter cream frosting ingredients:

• 4 T butter (1/2 stick), softened
• 8 oz cream or mascarpone cheese (I went with cream cheese)
• 2 1/3 c powdered sugar
• 1 t lemon juice
• 1 t lemon extract
• yellow food coloring, as desired

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. While waiting, chop the rosemary into fine pieces. Next add all of the cupcake ingredients and mix until smooth.

Bake for 23 minutes, or until the tops start to get golden yellow.

For the frosting (taken from the recipe site): With a mixer, cream butter and mascarpone/cream cheese together until well incorporated and fluffy. Add lemon juice and lemon extract and 1 cup of sugar. Gradually add more sugar - you will need more sugar for it to be pipeable (stiffer) and less if you are just going to spread it on the cake. If you want your frosting yellow, add a few drops of food coloring as desired.

Garnish with rosemary!

These cupcakes were inspired by really tasty cookies my mom made a few years back. They were basically lemon cookies with lemon and rosemary mascarpone frosting sandwiched inside. If it weren’t for my travels in France and eating lavender and rose flavored ice creams, I don’t think I’d so openly embrace rosemary in sweets. Thank God I did, because it’s a really great addition to lemon-flavored treats!

Stumped with what to do, I called my mom and asked her what she thought I should do to the box of yellow cake (left over from the bacon cupcakes – with those, I had to add bacon and bacon grease and altered the oil/egg/water ratio than suggested on the box). Her solution was easy: replace the water with lemon juice! I thought that maybe 2/3 c of lemon juice would be a bit much in this case, so I opted to split the water and juice half-and-half. As usual, I licked every spoon before washing… you know, taste testing for quality… That’s when I figured to add a bit of the lemon extract I already had on had.

So look at that… one of my weekly goals this year was to get creative and think outside the “box” of cupcake mix. And I’ve done so THREE times already in two months! I’m way addicted to cupcakes and am thinking up at least three other flavor combinations to try next…

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt Pie with Balsamic Syrup

It is officially summer in Phoenix – well, it has been for a while. But yesterday was the hottest day of 2011 thus far, hitting 108 degrees in the afternoon. Lucky for us, it cooled down to 95 in the middle of the night.

It’s so hot my dog won’t even leave the shade. This guy’s No. 1 hobby in life is sitting in the grass barking at all the birds in our trees.

Desperate times call for drastic measures my friends. Frozen yogurt just so happens to be my favorite hot weather dessert. But this time, I made it dessertier. That’s a real word.

 

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt Pie with Balsamic Syrup (adapted from Sunset Magazine)

Ingredients:

• 3 c vanilla frozen yogurt, softened until easily spoonable
• 3/4 c stewed strawberries (cooked on the stove until preserve-like, without sugar)
• 1/4 c balsamic vinegar
• 2 T sugar
• 1 1/2 c fresh strawberries, quartered
• pre-prepared graham cracker pie crust (we used Oreo crumb)

Directions:

Stir frozen yogurt until smooth, then stir in cooked strawberries. Spoon into tart pan, set on a plate, and freeze at least 5 hours.

Just before serving, simmer balsamic vinegar, sugar, and 1 t water in a small saucepan over medium heat (do not let boil) until it coats a spoon, about 10 minutes. Let cool.

Top pie with strawberries. Thin syrup with water if necessary and drizzle onto each wedge of pie.

More pie tips:

• Let the pie soften for five minutes at room temp to make slicing easier.
• If you're having trouble freeing your pie from its pan, set it over a bowl of hot water for a couple of minutes and then slide a thin knife between the pan edge and the crust. It should pop right out.
• Make ahead: Once the pie is fully frozen through step 3, it keeps for up to four days, double-wrapped in plastic wrap.

Sunset has amazing recipes. Literally, as soon as I saw this one I wanted to make it immediately! I hope you do too, now :) Strawberries and balsamic is so delicious!

Week 8: Bake for a friend (without eating any!)

Every week in 2011, for 52-straight weeks, I hope to try something new and blog about it here. This is the eighth post in the series when I tackle baking for a friend (and not myself). Here you will find a list of all my weekly adventures thus far.

It's been a really, really long time since I've baked anything a friend. I don't actually know if I've even solely baked for friends before. Usually I selfishly get a craving for baked goodies, slave away in the kitchen and then once I've realized I made way too many to consume alone, I'll give half away. Or maybe like 10 percent away...

This week, I changed that. I baked cookies solely for a special friend. And it was super simple, in fact I baked with only six ingredients:

You'll notice I finished off the last of my home made peanut butter. Don't worry, I can always make more ;)

And oh yeah, I guess I should show you a picture of my friend...

That's right. I've never EVER in my life made dog treats before this week! What a week to do so, since Feb. 21 was Woodstock's one year anniversary with us :) I didn't really recognize his birthday on Dec. 28, so I figured this was the second-best time to do something special for my pooch (who am I kidding, I spoil the heck of out that little brat, see below).

As I said earlier, it's super easy to make your own dog treats. I've been reading up a lot on pet health and what exactly goes into pet foods and have actually revamped his diet -- gradually, of course, so he doesn't get sick. His food is all natural and contains no wheat or corn fillers. The first ingredient in dog food should be meat (not meat by-products). As for treats, that's a little different. These ones do have whole wheat flour and oats and flax. I know exactly what went into the dog biscuits. In all, it was fairly cheap to make and would save lots of money over time making at home than buying at pet stores.

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1/3 c peanut butter
• 1 mashed banana
• 1 T honey
• 1 c whole wheat flour
• 1/2 c oatmeal or flax meal (I used a combination of the two)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300° and lightly grease a cookie sheet. Sir the egg, peanut butter, banana and honey in a small mixing bowl. Once combined, stir in dry ingredients. Place dough on heavily floured surface (the peanut butter and honey make the dough VERY sticky) to knead and roll into a thin sheet. Cut out desired shapes. Bake about 30 minutes or until browning occurs on the sides. Set out to cool before showering your dog with love!

This project became even MORE fun when I not only discovered a doggy bone, but also a dachshund cookie cutter! I will admit though, for a 12-lb. dog, it's best to snap these in half and give him parts at a time. Woodstock absolutely LOVES them. To the point of hoarding the biscuits when I give them to him. He runs and hides either in his crate or under my bed to eat! The little guy begs at my heels more than ever, now that I've baked him special treats. I've created a monster.

Now... bring on the puppy pictures (from one year ago)!!!!

Pumpkin Banana Bread to solve all life's problems

Lately I've been having a lot of worries -- from unemployment troubles, to dental freakouts and even waking up to a flooded garage this morning. I needed to do something to help me be in a better place.

Baking sort of did the trick. It easily went down my knot-laden stomach and helped satiate me for a bit. Earlier in the morning/week, I had several cavities filled which is only part 1 of a two part procedure. I'm pissed; I brush 2-3 times a day, floss often and rinse my mouth with flouride solution daily. Stupid genetics. Anyways, they had to take out an existing cracked filling, because a cavity had formed beneath it. When all was said and done, my dentist looked me in the eye and told me there's a chance the procedure killed my nerve. In that case I'd need a root canal scheduled next week. But only if the pain gets out of control in the coming days. I should have been worriedly thinking about how painful root canals can be, but instead I was in tears about maxing my credit card, which this will do if I have to get the work done.

And then this morning, when J.D. left to go golfing with his coworkers, he freaked out and told me the garage was flooded due to a crack in the hot water heater. We've already had issues with this FIVE YEAR OLD HOUSE in the past month. Our HOA hates us, with neighbors continually complaining about Woodstock's "bark" (he only barks three times and then stops and he's an indoor dog, so he only goes outside to do his business). One anonymous cowardly neighbor left a pleasant note that we had recently done yardwork (ourselves, can't afford a gardner) and needed to pick up all the leaves before they blew into their yard. A.) We picked up all the major branches and clippings... B.) it had been windy the night after, so lots of dead flowers and leaves naturally fell off our bushes in the first place. My solution? I stole rocks from their frontyard and buried what few leaves were still on the ground in our rocks. You want passive-aggressive? You got it! Then one of our sprinkler heads seemed to be broken and our water wasn't turning off. The landlord tried to make US pay for the repairs.... I'm over this house!!!

Anyways, while I wait for my water heater to be replaced and the return of hot water, I'm going to close my eyes and enjoy another piece of this tasty pumpkin banana nut bread. Pumpkin spice and banana nut bread are my two favorite muffin flavors, so clearly this was a good marriage.

PUMPKIN BANANA NUT BREAD

Ingredients:

• 4 c all-purpose flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 2 t baking soda
• 2 t ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 t ground nutmeg
• 1 t ground ginger
• 1/2 t ground allspice
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin
• 3 ripe mashed bananas
• 1 1/2 c vanilla yogurt
• 1/2 c applesauce
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 c granulated white sugar
• 3/4 c brown sugar, packed
• 1 c chopped walnuts

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two loaf pans. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and salt until combined. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat pumpkin, bananas, yogurt, oil, eggs, sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Add the flour mixture, half at a time, and beat on medium until combined. Fold in walnuts.

Divide batter between the two prepared loaf pans. Bake for 45 minutes NOTE: I used one large loaf pan and ended up needing about 63 minutes to cook it all. After the 45 minutes, poke the middle of your bread and check to make sure it's not crazy gooey inside.

The One That Got Away

Yesterday needed to be an exciting, busy day for me to get my mind off a phone call that started my morning. I received what I imagine would have been the perfect job for me and for where I'm at right now. Except.... it was in Nevada. I'm in Arizona. I interviewed over the phone and then was flown out to Reno to meet all the co-workers and coaches who would be working with this position. It was very enticing. I was sold immediately upon my flight out to Reno.

But the mind can play some gnarly tricks on you when you've steadily been unemployed for the better part of three months. I really wanted the job. I still do. However, it was not practical for me and my situation so I had a long inner struggle trying to figure out whether or not I should take the opportunity. In order to keep my mind from exploding, I tried to keep busy with J.D. and Woodstock, allowing a day to really explore the Phoenix area and what I would be missing if I took that job.

We spent the afternoon picnic-ing and hiking around South Mountain Park, a network of regional mountain trails that overlooks Downtown Phoenix and the entire Valley of the Sun.

Sometimes a girl just needs some time alone with her dog to think.

By the end of the day, I'd talked to enough people who've done the long distance thing in favor of a job, I spoke with former co-workers, friends and family. The results came back split. I needed a break for dinner. Spaghetti squash it was then, with a zucchini asparagus marinara sauce atop. As delicious as it was, I was too nervous to eat.

Eventually I went to bed, tossing and turning and dreading the call I'd have to make in the a.m. With a heavy heart, I decided to turn down the position this morning. But, I freaked out. When the director didn't answer, I left a voicemail. How cowardly was that?!? Who leaves a voicemail??? Either way, I'm still hopelessly unemployed and in search of the right opportunity. It's so hard when companies aren't hiring and the positions I've applied for online keep getting reposted in search of new candidates. I wonder if I'm going to find as good a job in this area as what Reno had promised me...

It's funny because I've up and left so many times in my life for jobs that promised very uncertain futures. I packed up and moved to France with no idea where I'd be living. After living in Europe, I jumped into a job in collegiate athletics, a career that would be extremely demanding, despite not really having any previous experience in the field. I up and left my job in Stockton to move to Arizona with no promise of employment anywhere on the horizon. I've seemed to land on my feet each time. But I decided not to take the leap in this specific situation.

I just hope I made the right call; it takes a lot of courage to say no to a job you really want. Now I'm going to drown my sorrows in an afternoon of baking. Sleeping in late didn't help elevate my confidence level today. Maybe pumpkin banana bread will do the trick.

Time for some reflection

I feel like I've been having more major freakouts in the past few days than I've ever had in my life. Living off "savings" without a job to replenish that is a harsh awakening at only 25 years old. I thought I'd still be adding to my savings right now, as my ultimate hope is to soon buy a new car, or rent for as short a time as possible!

I guess we can't always plan everything out perfectly, now can we?

Anyways, while I evaluate my life and the direction in which it's heading (seriously considering being a TA and applying for a master's in French Comparative Literature at ASU), I'm going for a little blog makeover.

Now I am living on a pretty tight budget. So my goal is to eat under a certain budget each day. I'm going to go all Rachel Ray on you and say $40 or less a day, but this is more of a dialogue. As I realize where my money's going on food each day, I'll maybe cutback or boost food allocations on a weekly basis. We'll see.

But first, how about those peanut butter brownies I promised you a few days back?!?!

I cheated a bit to start here by using a regular old box of brownie mix. I would have liked to make them from scratch, but that would require going out and buying chocolate and the box has been sitting in our pantry forever now.

My favorite part about baking is that I always get to channel my inner child and LICK THE SPOON!!! I don't care that it had raw eggs inside... I used to lick spoons all the time when I was a kid and I turned out just fine. Then again, maybe I should stop licking spoons....

...NAH!!!!

I knew I wanted to jazz the brownies up a little so I googled peanut butter frosting recipes and came up with this fluffy PB frosting recipe from allrecipes.com.

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons milk, or as needed
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar

Place the butter and peanut butter into a medium bowl, and beat with an electric mixer. Gradually mix in the sugar, and when it starts to get thick, incorporate milk one tablespoon at a time until all of the sugar is mixed in and the frosting is thick and spreadable. Beat for at least 3 minutes for it to get good and fluffy.

I won a container of PB2 from Mary's blog before I moved and knew this was the best time to put it to the test! I think because it's just ground peanuts and doesn't contain any of the oils, it made for the perfect whipped topping! And it was super fun to mix.

The finished product (kind of looks like a meringue):

It really is one of the best brownies I've made! Notice how I said made and not had... I'm not that snobby :) And it made a ton, too. I didn't even use the entire mixture because look how fluffy it got. Let's just say, I'm happily eating a brownie (or two) a day, even after giving J.D. 1/3 to take to work and share.

And as for today's breakfast it consisted of a homemade tropical smoothie (Jamba Juice size, for half the price) and oatmeal.

Smoothie: 248 calories (if you drink all of it, I could only make it through 75%)

• 1 c watermelon (46 cal): the entire seedless watermelon cost me $1, so I'd say this was about $0.30 worth
• 1/4 mango (54 cal): one mango cost $1, so again $0.25
• 1/3 can chopped pineapple (36 cal): $1.50 for the whole can, so $0.50 spent there
• 3/4 scoop of Aria protein powder (32 cal): $9.99, one scoop is about 1/34 the can therefore $0.30
• 1 container of pomegranate light yogurt (80 cal): $0.50
• Total cost = $1.85

My oatmeal was the generic brand raspberries and creme which cost about $2 for the entire box. Therefore I spent $0.25 on the packet of oatmeal (130 cal). Then topped it with a small handful of chocolate hazelnut biscotti granola (75 cal). The entire box cost $3, so I doubt I even spent $0.25 for the handful.

There, that brings my breakfast tally to 453 calories (again, if all of the smoothie is consumed) and $2.35. Not a bad start to the morning! And guess what, my lunch is FREE because I didn't finish all of my dinner last night, so leftovers are in my future! Granted, I did have to budget out for dinner last night, so it really wasn't free, but as far as today's spending is concerned it is!