Chocolate Ginger Halloween Cookies

Happy Halloween!

I made it just under the wire.

Okay, confession time. I’ve never really cared for Halloween.  Scary movies, dressing up, voluntarily going up to strangers (even if they would give me candy) – just not my thing.

Then my nephews and nieces came along.  How can you not get caught up in a child’s excitement? My sister’s kids LOVE costumes.  The only way my nephew agreed to dress up to be my other sister’s ring bearer was to explain that we would all be wearing costumes to the wedding.  As soon as he heard that, he was on board.  Now, whenever we have a family event, we always talk about what kind of costume we’ll be wearing.

But costumes aren’t just for weddings and Halloween.  My four-year-old niece can find princess attire to suit any occasion - dinner, birthday party, bowling.  And my nephew certainly knows how to dress up creatively.  I think Spiderman cowboy was my favorite, with Batman storm trooper coming in a close second.

To help them celebrate, this year I made them some chocolate ginger cookies.

Chocolate Ginger Halloween Cookies (adapted from allrecipes.com)

2 c sugar

1 ¼ c butter

2 eggs

2 t vanilla

2 ½ c flour

¾ c cocoa powder

1 t ground ginger

1 t baking soda

½ t salt

For topping

1/3 c sugar

1 t ground ginger

About 50 mellowcreme pumpkins

¼ c mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla and combine thoroughly.

Gradually beat in flour, cocoa powder, ginger, baking soda, and salt until combined.

In a small bowl, stir together sugar and ginger.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls and then roll in sugar-ginger mixture.

pretend this isn't blurry

Bake for 8-10 minutes. While the cookies are baking, melt chocolate chips.

When the cookies come out of the oven, dip the bottom of the pumpkins in the melted chocolate and place a pumpkin on each cookie.  Wait about 5 minutes and then transfer the cookies to a rack to finish cooling.

 

Pumpkin Muffins

Okay, I guess it’s obvious that I’m in a bit of a pumpkin rut – or is it just a pumpkin patch? 

Either way, I just can’t seem to help myself.  Fall means pumpkin – pumpkin bar cookies, pumpkin caramels, pumpkin chocolate chip donuts, and even pumpkin cream puffs. Yum!

Halloween is just around the corner.  Maybe I’m remembering all those fun evenings scooping out pumpkin goop.  My sisters and I would draw faces on the pumpkins and our dad would do the knife work.

When it would get dark, he’d head outside with a lit jack-o-lantern and do a little dance in front of the dining room window while we giggled at the floating pumpkin head.

So if you’ll bear with me for one more pumpkin recipe, I promise to branch out and embrace the many other flavors of fall.  In fact, I believe apple cider caramels are calling my name. . .

Pumpkin Muffins (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

1 c canned pumpkin

1/3 c vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 t pumpkin pie spice

½ t ground ginger 

1 t cinnamon

1 ¼ c sugar

1 t salt

1 ½ c flour

1 t baking powder

½ t baking soda

¾ c dried cranberries

Topping

1 t sugar

½ t cinnamon

½ c chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Put liners in muffin tins.

In a large bowl, stir together pumpkin, oil, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, ginger, cinnamon, sugar, and salt until thoroughly mixed.

Add flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Stir until just combined. Fold in cranberries.

To make topping, stir together cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl.

Divide batter among the muffin cups and sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture and pecans over tops.

Bake until golden brown and muffins spring back with a light touch, about 18 to 20 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.

Yes, Cat, I'm bringing them to the office tomorrow.

Chocolate-Covered Pumpkin Spice Caramels

You know those days (weeks) when the whole universe is plotting against you?  Sigh.

It all started with a can of pumpkin – one that is still hiding somewhere in my kitchen.

Plan A – My best friend and I were getting together to celebrate our birthdays. As an extra treat, I wanted to make her some pumpkin spice caramels. I poured cream into a pan, turned on the burner, and reached into the cupboard for the pumpkin.  It wasn’t there, so I checked another cabinet, and another, and another. Ack.

Plan B – So the next morning, I added “pick up pumpkin” to my list of errands. Long story short, at the register of the first store I discovered my wallet was still at home.  I finally made it to the supermarket (with the means to purchase the pumpkin), wandered a couple of aisles until I remembered where the pumpkin was, and came upon a great, big hole. Not one can of pumpkin was left. ACK!

Plan C – Okay, so a few days later, I had cream, I had pumpkin, I had butter, and whadda ya know, I had caramel. The next day I took the pan from the fridge so I could cut the candy and bring the treats to work. This probably would have worked better if I had cooked the caramel longer.  ACCKK!

Plan D – Chocolate and caramel, a match made in heaven, right?  I pulled out my candy molds, scooped little balls of soft caramel, and melted some chocolate. Ahhh.

Pumpkin Spice Caramels (from Chasing Some Blue Sky)

1 ½ c heavy cream

1 c canned pumpkin

1 t pumpkin pie spice

2 c sugar

½ c light corn syrup

¼ c water

4 T butter

1 t vanilla

Line an 8 x8 pan with foil and butter pan.

In a medium saucepan, stir together cream, pumpkin, and pumpkin pie spice. Heat the mixture until right before it starts to boil, then remove from heat.

In another (heavy bottomed) pan, stir together sugar, corn syrup, and water.  Over medium heat, boil mixture until it reaches the soft ball stage, 240°F.

Carefully add the pumpkin mixture to the sugar mixture and stir frequently, until the caramel reaches 240°F (I stopped at 230°, which wasn’t quite hot enough for caramel to set completely).

Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla.

Pour caramel into the prepared pan and allow to cool completely before cutting candy into pieces.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

I LOVE Fall!  The rich colors of the foliage, the smell of a wood fire, the rustling sound as you walk through a big pile of leaves – it’s all good.  And then there’s the food – apple dumplings, pumpkin pie, gingerbread, and caramel apples.  I hardly know which fall-inspired recipe to try first.

Should I usher in the season (yes, I’m jumping the gun a bit; humor me) with my favorite apple pie with cheddar crust or try something new, like the tempting autumn brittle I keep seeing on Pinterest?

There’s also the teeny, tiny evil part of me that rejoices to see my large, extended family of teachers head back to the classroom.  I know, I know.  They work ridiculously hard during the school year.  They also gloat (you know who you are) during summer, Christmas, and spring breaks.

Anyway. . . I was in the mood for a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie.  I’ve never had one, but they sound tasty, don’t they? So far, the recipes I’ve found are for cakey cookies and I’m craving something chewy.  Until I find/create what I’m searching for, these dense pumpkin chocolate chip bars will certainly tide me over.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars (adapted from Cookie Madness)  

¾ c butter

1 1/3 c brown sugar, firmly packed

1 t vanilla

¾ t baking powder

½ t salt

1 t cinnamon

1 t pumpkin pie spice

½ t orange peel

1 egg

1 c canned pumpkin

1 c flour

½ c whole wheat flour

1 c dark chocolate chips

2 T sugar

1/8 t cinnamon

3 ½ T finely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350° F.  Grease a 13 x 9 inch pan.

In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt butter.  Mix in sugar and microwave approximately 30 seconds, or until mixture starts to bubble.  Let mixture cool until tepid.

Add baking powder, salt, 1 t cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, orange peel, and egg.  Mix well.

Add pumpkin and mix well.  Then, mix in flours and chocolate chips.

The batter just needed a little something extra.

Pour batter into prepared pan.

In a small bowl, stir together sugar, 1/8 t cinnamon, and pecans.  Sprinkle over batter.

That looks better.

Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool in pan on a wire rack.

Threadcakes 2011

A couple weeks ago I learned about the Threadcakes competition. It’s an online contest where the amazing tee shirt designs from Threadless.(You’ll want to check them out if you’re not familiar with the site.) are turned into cakes. With only two weeks to go until the deadline, I started pouring over the hundreds of designs.  The choices were overwhelming, but eventually I narrowed down my selection to a few.

While I loved the Muppets tee, I had to consider my time constraints.  To do the cake justice, I’d have to spend lots of time tinting fondant just the right shades, then carving the cake and sculpting all the characters. I decided this might be a project for next year. This year my goal was to enter a cake. Next time I’ll be prepared to create something spectacular – or at least pretty darn good. 

Order the shirt
here.

                           

I kept coming back to the jack o’ lantern design and decided to go with it. The tee is kind of creepy and lots of fun, with a design within a design.

The first thing to do was bake.  I went with my standard cold oven pound cake to provide a sturdy surface on which to stack. Then, since I was making a jack o’ lantern, pumpkin cinnamon buttercream was a must.

I stacked the layers, did a little carving, and crumb coated the cake. Then it was time to cover it with orange fondant. 

I used a ruler to create some ridges and set the pumpkin aside.

Next I sketched the face and cut out the eyes and nose from black fondant and the mouth from dark gray fondant. I added to few stars and a crescent moon to the eyes and nose and applied them to the pumpkin.

Then I cut out the buildings from black fondant and laid them on top of the mouth and added white stars to the sky. Working with the teeny, tiny orange windows and lane dividers was tricky and more than a bit tedious, but I kept at it and got them positioned just right.

I shaped the two ghost figures with dark gray fondant and applied the mouth to the pumpkin.  A brown stem completed the jack o’ lantern and a fondant candle and flame finished the design.

Can’t wait to get started on next year’s cake!  Here's the link to my entry.

Oh, and be sure to check out all the amazing cakes on the Threadcakes site.