Week Six: Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Iced Pumpkin Cookies
Yields 36 cookies
Courtesy of allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cupos white sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour, baking poweder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls.
Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.
To make glaze, combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed to achieve drizzling consistency.

In the fall, I am always looking for new pumpkin recipes. I have always made pies before, but this time I wanted to do something else. Since they fit the cookie project mold, they came to fruition. I like recipes in which my cabinets already contain the ingredients and in this case, they did. I chose to dip the cookies in the frosting instead of drizzling so I had to make it a little thicker. These taste like little bites of pumpkin pie. I only baked them for 15 minutes so they are quite soft, but I like them that way. Bake them 2-3 minutes longer and they'll crisp up nicely. Yummy fall recipes!!

Week Five: Peanut Butter Choco Chunk Cookies GF

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Yields 16 servings
(C) Everyday with Rachel Ray

Ingredients:
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips or chunks

Directions:
Beat the first four ingredients in a mixer. Stir in chocolate. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Let cool on pans.

After the deboucle of the apple spice cookies, I broke the rules and went to a familiar favorite. We were off to see my GF mother-in-law and these were super-duper easy to make by the time we had to leave. Plus, I knew they would turn out. These are great. They are super peanut buttery and soft right off the pan as well as a few days later. They stay very well. They are (surprise!) gluten free! But you would never know it.

Fall Recipe: Homemade Apple Pie

Homemade Apple Pie
Yields one nine inch pie

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons white sugar
1/4-1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons milk
few shakes ground cinnamon

Place all ingredients in bowl and mix. Place in 9 inch pie pan. Press into bottom and up sides of pan.

Pie Filling:
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, or a few shakes more
1/8 teaspoon salt
few shakes of nutmeg
enough apples to fill pie crust, cored, peeled and sliced

Mix. Pour into unbaked pie crust.

Crumble topping:
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup butter
few shakes ground cinnamon

Mix into fine crumbs and pour over apples. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes.

I have alterede this recipe a bit. I am a huge cinnamon fan so I added it to each piece of the pie (all puns intended). I also am not a huge crust fan. I usually eat all the filling and leave the crust for my hubby, which he does not appreciate. So I added the cinnamon to force myself to eat the crust. I actually poured all the crumbs left of the crust from prior cut pieces into a bowl and ate just those. It is amazing. Since I am not a big top crust person either, I made a cruble topping. It is light and adds just a bit of crunch to the top. Love it. This might be the best apple pie recipe I've ever come up with. The second day it was almost gone. This is what is left the third day. I love me some apple pie...