The method of preparation is unlike any cookie I’ve made, which intrigued me.   It might intrigue you, too.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 Tb. butter, divided
1 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2 Tb. chopped candied orange peel (optional)
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a saucepan, combine the cream, sugar and 3 Tb. butter.  Bring to a boil.  Add almonds, cranberries, orange peel and flour.  Stir to combine.  Remove from heat.

Drop cookies by the teaspoon at least 2-3 inches apart on baking sheet.  These cookies spread during baking, so space them well.  Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are brown and crisp.  Let cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes, then remove to cooling racks.

Melt chocolate chips with remaining 1 Tb. butter.  Drizzle chocolate over cookies.  Serve and enjoy!

A few notes:

I’ve made this recipe twice, once with candied orange peel and once without.  I was the only person who could taste a difference.  It doesn’t make or break the recipe.

I dropped my batter by the tablespoon.  I got 2 1/2 dozen cookies by this measure.

The first time I made them I drizzled chocolate on them.  The second time I didn’t.  They’re delicious both ways.  I liked them so much that I skipped the chocolate on the second batch.

I’m happy to add this recipe to my cookie recipe file.  It’s unlike any other cookie I’ve tried.  I hope you try them!

Jennifer

After my little comparison between cakes and life yesterday I figure the least I could do is share with you the recipe.  It’s one of those cake-mix-gone-gourmet recipes and we won’t even talk about how fattening it is.  We’ll just talk about how incredibly moist and flavorful it is and you can just file it away in your mind as an easy, sure-win Valentines Day dessert in the next few weeks.  It’s really good.  {And I’m lucky we have ten people to share with in my house; it means I can’t eat too much.}

I got the recipe from Bonnie at Cotton Way, but I did make a small change, which I’ll tell you about.

Here’s what you need to make this luscious cake.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

1 fudge cake mix
4 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water
1 large box instant vanilla pudding
1 cup sour cream
1 3/4  cup milk chocolate chips, divided
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup whipping cream

If you’re like me you got to the pudding and sour cream and in your mind you said, “Yep, moist!”  Oh yes, very moist.

In a mixing bowl, combine cake mix, eggs, oil, water, pudding and sour cream.  Mix together for 5 minutes.  Add one cup chocolate chips and stir in.  Grease a bundt pan and spoon batter into pan.  Bake at 350 for 55 minutes.  Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then invert.  Cool completely (at least another 30 minutes).

Here is where I diverted from the recipe.  It calls for a can of store bought chocolate frosting, and without offending any store bought frosting fans, I’ll just say that I don’t buy it.  Period.  So we needed another alternative.  I had some whipping cream in the refrigerator that needed to be used, so I whipped up some chocolate ganache.  It was fabulous, a great pairing with this cake.

For the ganache:

3/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup chocolate chips  (I usually use semi-sweet, but since I had just opened a bag of milk chocolate chips for the cake I used them instead, and surprisingly, it didn’t taste too sweet.)

In a small saucepan, heat cream and butter until just before it boils.  Remove from heat.  Place chocolate chips in a bowl and pour hot cream mixture over the chocolate chips.  Whisk until chocolate is completely melted and the ganache is smooth.  Let sit, stirring occasionally, while it cools.  You want it to cool to a good drizzling consistency, still warm enough to meander down the sides of the cake, but cool enough that it goes very slowly and doesn’t puddle.  It takes a little while, but it’s worth waiting.

Let the ganache set and serve that cake!  I hope you love it.  And here’s just one more picture of an incredibly moist cake with ganache on top.  I love the way it shines slightly in the light.  YUM!

Oh, we’ve been embellishing some mini notebooks this week over at Sisterview.  It’s a fun way to get the creative juices flowing, and would be a fun activity with the kids too. You could turn it into a Valentine as well.  Check them out!

Have a great weekend!

Hopeful Homemaker

True story:

She came home from school wanting to bake cookies for a friend.  After perusing the cookbook, she settled on peanut butter cookies and got started.  Part way through the recipe she inadvertently began following the cookie recipe on the adjacent page for chocolate cherry cookies.  She figured it out when her Mom asked why she was opening a can of sweetened condensed milk.   “Oh!”  was her first thought, and “Oh well!” was her second.

She finished mixing the ingredients she had in the bowl and baked them.  She worried that the dough was too dry.  The first pan came out of the oven and some taste testing began.  They were delicious!  Thus E-Doodles were born.  (The name is of her choosing.)   Slightly hard on the outside but amazingly soft and chewy in the middle.  The flavor was great and every one of us was disappointed that there weren’t more.

Want to try them?

Here’s the recipe:

E-Doodles

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup granulated sugar, reserved

Beat together butter and peanut butter until smooth and well-incorporated.  Add 1 cup sugar, vanilla and 1 egg.  Mix well.  Add cocoa powder and mix to combine.  Beat in flour, baking soda and baking powder.  Mix in chocolate chips.

Roll cookies into 1 1/2 inch balls and roll in reserved sugar.  Place on baking sheet and press the center of each ball down with the prongs of a fork.  Bake at 350 for 8 minutes.  Cool slightly and enjoy!  *Note:  these were SO yummy warm, and the middles were still really soft and chewy the next day.

This recipe is proof positive that sometimes our mistakes turn out great.  Of course, sometimes they don’t, but generally if we press on there is a way to make things work.  This was a reminder I needed this week.

Oh, and if you try them, please let us know.  It would really be good for my daughter to hear what you think.

Jennifer

So, I’m going to post a few super easy dishes that might help take some pressure off during the season.  These cheese sticks are a great side to soup or any other meal, but could also be made as an appetizer with dip or even served alone if you’re responsible for taking a dish to share at a holiday party.  My family devours them when I make them.

These cheese sticks have just two ingredients:  frozen puff pastry and parmesan cheese.  It’s one of those things you can always remember to buy, or is easy to keep on hand for nights when you’re in a pinch.

Here goes:

Crispy Cheese Sticks

Ingredients:

1 package frozen puff pastry, thawed
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Preparation:

Thaw puff pastry according to package directions.

Lay pastry on baking pan lined with parchment paper.  Carefully cut each pastry sheet lengthwise into 1 inch strips, then cut the strips in half to make them a nice finger food size.  Sprinkle grated parmesan cheese over pastry.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve!

At last I did it.  I fiddled with another recipe and came up with this one for a pumpkin lavender cake.  It did not disappoint.

This cake is doubly special to me because I also did some research on pumpkins and learned more about the Rouge Vif d’Etampes pumpkin.  It’s a French heirloom pumpkin which was first brought to the U.S. in the late 1800s and is now often referred to as a Cinderella pumpkin.  I learned that the flesh of this pumpkin is very thick, yielding much more pumpkin than most and that it also makes the most delicious pumpkin pies.  So, naturally, I bought one.  On Sunday I cut it in half, scraped out the seeds (which I’ve saved to plant next year) and baked it.  Can you believe how beautiful this pumpkin is?  The color is breathtaking, and the walls are very thick.

I could only fit one half on a baking sheet at a time and it yielded a huge bowl of pumpkin, probably enough for all my pumpkin baking this year.  (Yay for me!  I learned something new!)

And thus my pumpkin lavender cake was born, baked with homemade pumpkin puree.  I baked it in my pumpkin cake pan, but it would be especially pretty in a bundt cake pan as well.  {And if I’m honest, I’d say this cake pan makes it look more like a candied apple than a pumpkin, so maybe next year I should try a caramel apple cake in this pan!}  What really matters with this cake is its flavor.

Here’s the recipe:

Pumpkin Lavender Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon dried lavender buds
1 cup butter
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup heavy cream (or half and half will work, too)
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

Place the sugar and lavender in a blender or food processor and process until lavender is chopped and incorporated into sugar (*if you’d like to smell something divine, just savor this for a few minutes!).  Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl cream butter until light and fluffy.  Add 1/3 sugar mixture and beat.  Continue this until all sugar is added and mixture is creamy.  Add eggs, one at a time and beat well after each egg.  Add vanilla and beat well.

In a small bowl, combine pumpkin and cream and mix together.  In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.  Add 1/3 pumpkin mixture to batter and mix well.  Add 1/3 flour mixture and beat again.  Continue adding both the pumpkin and flour mixtures (alternating between the two) until all ingredients are combined.

Grease a bundt pan and spoon batter into pan.  Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Remove from oven and cool in pan for 10 minutes.  Invert onto cooling rack to remove cake from pan and allow to cool completely.

My first impression of the cake was that the lavender flavor was the tiniest bit stronger than the pumpkin.  Because of this I opted to frost it with my Brown Sugar Frosting to balance the lavender and increase the traditional pumpkin taste.  I sprinkled the top with lavender buds for a finishing touch.

My family loved it. They all liked different things more.  Some liked the frosting best, some liked the cake, some liked the pumpkin, some loved the lavender.  It was gone in an afternoon.  I loved savoring each bite, tasting the lavender and the pumpkin both.  I’ll definitely make this cake again, and it was a fun first effort at pairing pumpkin and lavender.

If you ever try it, let me know.  I’d love to get more opinions on the two flavors together!

Jennifer

Brown Sugar Frosting

6 Tb. butter
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2-3 tsp. hot water

In a medium saucepan, heat and stir butter and brown sugar until butter melts.  Remove from heat and stir in powdered sugar and vanilla.  Stir in enough hot water to make a smooth, spreadable frosting.  Frost cookies immediately.  If frosting becomes grainy and hard to spread, add a few more drops of hot water and stir until smooth.  If you’re using the frosting to frost a cake, you might need to add a few teaspoons to get the frosting to a spreading/glazing consistently.  Carefully spoon over cake and this frosting will beautifully creep down the sides.

Frosting pictured with Lavender Pumpkin Cake and with Pumpkin Cookies.

Enjoy!
Hopeful Homemaker

I saw this recipe on page 124 of the October 2011 issue of Country Living magazine and have had it sitting on my kitchen counter ever since.  One of my favorite things to do every fall is try new pumpkin recipes (as well as make old favorites) so this was a great opportunity.  I also love finding ways to use pumpkin in savory ways as well as sweet.

And so, last week I served this pasta to my family for dinner.  Honestly, I wasn’t sure what they would think, especially my husband, but they all raved about it and were relieved I had made two pans full.  I guess that means it’s a keeper!

So here is the recipe, in case you don’t have the magazine.  My family recommends that you try it!

Pumpkin-Ricotta Stuffed Shells

Ingredients:

24 jumbo pasta shells
1 Tb. olive oil
22 ounces fat-free ricotta cheese (2 1/2 cups)
1  (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree  *make sure you don’t get pumpkin flavored for pumpkin pie!
3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons (2 1/2 ounces) grated Romano cheese
1 large egg white (I just used a whole egg)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup fresh basil, chopped  (you can certainly cut back on this if you don’t love basil)
1 Tb. fresh sage, finely chopped (I used dried)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground pepper
1 (26 ounce) jar store-bought tomato sauce (I used spaghetti sauce)

Preparation:

Cook pasta shells according to package directions.  Drain and transfer to a baking sheet (or piece of aluminum foil) and drizzle with oil.  Let cool.

In a medium bowl, stir together ricotta, pumpkin, 3/4 cup Romano, egg, garlic, basil, sage, salt and pepper.  Mix well.

Spread spaghetti sauce in bottom of a 9×13 inch baking pan.  Fill each pasta shell with about three tablespoons pumpkin-ricotta mixture.  Arrange shells in pan.  Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  Remove foil, sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake 15 minutes more.  Serve and enjoy!

Note:  I prepared this dish the day before, stuffed the shells and stored them between layers of plastic in an airtight container overnight.  On the day I served them, my only prep was to pour the spaghetti sauce in the pan, arrange the pasta and bake!  They tasted delicious, and the few we had left were delicious the next day as well.

This was a delicious recipe.  It’s meatless and relatively low in fat, considering that it’s mostly “cheesy”.  According to the nutrition information provided by Country Living, one serving contains 321 calories, 22 grams protein, only 9 grams fat, 39 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams fiber, 977 milligrams sodium and 19 milligrams cholesterol.

I hope you’ll try it!

Hopeful Homemaker

This cake is one I’ve been making for years.  Shared by a friend, it combines the familiar flavor of pumpkin with the unexpected taste of butterscotch.  The butterscotch is mild enough that it doesn’t overwhelm the cake, and even people who usually dislike butterscotch give it compliments.

Pumpkin Butterscotch Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups butterscotch morsels, divided
2 cups flour
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 Tb. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup undiluted evaporated milk

Preparation:

Microwave 1 cup butterscotch morsels for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes.  Stir, microwave for another 20 seconds until smooth.  Stir together melted butterscotch, pumpkin, oil, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl with wire whisk.  Stir in combined dry ingredients.  Spray a 10 inch bundt pan with non-stick spray and spoon batter in.

Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool in pan for 30 minutes.  Invert onto wire rack to cool completely.

To prepare butterscotch sauce, heat evaporated milk over medium heat and bring to boil.  Remove from heat and add remaining 1 cup butterscotch morsels.  Stir until smooth.  Return to heat and bring to boil.  Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.  Spoon small amount of sauce over entire cake, reserving at least half the sauce to spoon over individual slices.

Enjoy!
HH

Several weeks ago I purchased this publication.   At the time I wondered a little at my decision, but now I’m thrilled to have it.  I’ve tried more than half a dozen recipes from it and they’ve all been delicious. It’s full of bookmarks, a spill, and tattered corners.  One of the things I love about it is having a picture of every recipe included.  I highly recommend it.

One of  the first recipes I tried was this recipe for pumpkin biscuits.  Our whole family enjoyed them and one son in particular begs everyone else for their biscuit while the rest of us enjoy dinner.

Pumpkin Biscuits
(recipe from Taste of Home Fall Baking publication)

Ingredients:
1- 3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2- 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup cold butter
3/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/3 cup buttermilk

Preparation:
In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Cut in 1/2 cup water until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Combine pumpkin and buttermilk, stir into crumb mixture just until moistened.  *Note:  I’ve made these twice now and both times I had to add a couple of tablespoons more milk.

Turn onto lightly floured surface, knead 8-10 times.  Roll out to 1 inch thickness; cut with a 2 or 2-1/2 inch biscuit cutter.  Place 1 inch apart on a greased baking sheet (or just use parchment paper).

Bake at 425 for 18 minutes or until golden brown.  **Another note:  the recipe calls for 1-1/2 tsp. melted butter to be brushed over the biscuits, but I haven’t added it.  It seems to me there’s already plenty of butter in them.

According to the recipe, one batch makes 6 biscuits if cut with a 2 1/2 inch round cutter.  The first time we made them, we cut them into 1 1/2 inch circles for taste testing and it made two dozen.  Last night I used a 2 inch cutter and squeezed 10 biscuits out of a batch.  Next time I make them, I’ll double it for my family.

I hope you enjoy this pumpkin recipe.
Jennifer

I simply spooned the filling into the cups and added some cinnamon flavored whipped cream to the top.

They were a great dessert for some dinner guests we had last weekend, and were a particularly big hit with some teen-aged boys.

They were a tasty seasonal dessert that was easy to serve and looked so pretty!