Pintertest Kitchen:Glazed {Maple} Brown Sugar Pumpkin Cookies

Let's talk.
What are your favorite flavors?
I pretty much am the quintessential white girl who will eat any and all things pumpkin.
Well, except the PSL at Starbucks. I used to love it when it first came out, I feel like the recipe has changed.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there.

What is here are these ingredients:

Whoa, how did that glass of wine get in there...

Alright much better.
Combined, these ingredients make some divine pumpkin cookies.

And let me tell you, I'm pretty picky about pumpkin cookies. I find that most of the time they have a weird cake like texture. With a sticky filmy coating.  Dislike.

These cookies have that same cake like texture, however no filmy business, and instead, are topped with a brown sugar glaze, which make the sticky factor irrelevant.

Speaking of brown sugar, do you have a favorite sugar? Granulated? Confectioners? Sanding?
Mine is brown. Hands down.

And this recipe calls for it in the cookie as well as the glaze.  I knew this would be good.

I also love any excuse to use my cookie scoop.
I consider her my magic wand in the kitchen.

The cookies came out of the oven beautifully, and cooled nicely while the next batch baked.

By the time the last batch was in the oven, I had the glaze simmering.
And here is where the best part comes in - add 1/2-1 tsp of maple extract to the glaze.
TRUST.

I also recommend subbing the vanilla extract in the cookie dough for maple extract.

Pour yourself a tall glass of milk, pile up some of these babies, light your favorite fall candle and enjoy.


Original Recipe by Sarah from Clover Lane:

1 cup butter, room temp

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla maple extract

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

Glaze:

3 TBS butter

1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 1/2-2 cups confectioners sugar

1/2-1 tsp maple extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and the sugar together still fluffy.

Blend in pumpkin, egg and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking soda and powder, cinnamon and salt.

Mix flour mixture into the butter/sugar mixture.

Drop tablespoonfulls 3 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheets.

Bake the cookie for 10-12 minutes until golden around the edges.

Remove warm cookies and transfer to racks.

Let cool completely for at least one half hour, then frost with glaze.

For glaze:

In a medium sauce pan, heat butter and brown sugar over medium heat until bubbly.

Cook, stirring constantly, for one minute or until slightly thickened.

Beat in the milk.

Blend in confectioner's sugar until the glaze is smooth and spreadable.

Keep the sauce pan over the stove on the lowest possible heat to keep from hardening.

I give this recipe 5 gold stars (one for each cookie I ate) and am linking up with Jessica's Pintertest Kitchen!

It's an exciting month to link up, she's got a giveaway going on - check it out! TRUST.

A Day By The Ocean Blue

My good friend Margaret has returned from the Emerald Isle and it just so happened to coincide with my celebration of Mr Columbus getting very, very lost. So we decided to catch up over a Coastal Adventure. Which usually is our go-to catch up adventure when she returns to the bay.

I loaded my green machine sweet bike into the back of my Rav4 (you may call it nerdy but I call it the absolute perfect car for me) and rolled over to Marge's where we loaded her ruby red Schwinn into the back as well. And we were coast bound.

We made the traditional stop at the HMB Coffee Company (and later decided we have never NOT stopped there first. We like tradition).  And cruised down Main St just in time for the announcement of the winners of the World Championship Pumpkin Weigh Off! 

I'm inclined to believe the best things really do grow in Napa as that's where this 1985 pounds of pumpkiny goodness hailed from. I wonder if they water him with wine?! 

After trying to get a few pics of the newest local pumpkin celebrity we had to escape the amateur paparazzi. Kanye would have NOT liked this scene. People were all up in this pump's biz. 

We went back to the car and unloaded our sweet rides and did a little warm up. 

More like Marge warmed up and I snuck a few shots of it.  And we were off. The best way to get your adrenaline pumping is definitely to cross Highway 1 on a bicycle. I'm adventurous when it comes to crossing streets - if the countdown is more than 3 seconds I like to go for it.

Facing a state highway while on a bike? Challenge accepted. 

We crossed and survived and were well on our way to the coastal trail. The same trail my family went to on Father's Day. 

On one side we have the gorgeous hills that separate us from the foggy-ten-months-out-of-the-year coast and on the other side we have the clear-blue-crisp-only-two-months-a-year Pacific Ocean.

Even the ice plant seemed to be changing it's wardrobe for fall. 

Eventually, 5.5 miles later we reached our destination.  And reward: Pumpkin Ale.

We sat outside under the hot October sun, and caught up on all things US and all things Ireland. 

Over fish & chips - the cuisine of the motherland as well as beer & cheese platter - the cuisine of the homeland:

Good news we biked the 5.5 miles back safely. Crossed the highway again safely. A little exhausted, a bit sunburned, and very sweaty. 

We couldn't end a day in Half Moon Bay in October coming home empty handed. 

So we each snagged the biggest pumpkin we could carry. (I think I pulled a muscle) And learned those wheelbarrows and wagons are there for a reason.

Coastal adventure complete!!!

One jack-o-lantern coming right up!

PinterTest Kitchen November 2012: Pumpkin Bars Make Me Happy!

The PinterTest Kitchen was one rocking linky last month.
Jess hosts it, and so many people linked up so many great tests!

I have been looking forward to the next one all month.

I also have been looking forward to a reason to use this Pumpkin Butter they sell at Trader Joes.
Thankfully, Mel posted this AWESOME recipe last week, and it was the perfect excuse to make these suckers!

I just never know what to use it for.
Pumpkins turned into butter?
What could be better.

Oh yes. MORE BUTTER.
Like Butter-Butter.
And Butterfinger.

The Butterfinger bars are actually used for sustenance while making this recipe. They are totally optional, and not included in the actual bars. I highly recommend adding this to your process.

Also, get a few helpers if you can.
They are extra good at cleaning up the floors if you spill anything.

Here's the deal - my pictures of the steps are similar to Mel's.
And, also, I was having issues with the focus on my camera - which I discovered later was some weird setting on the viewfinder piece. So I took all of these pictures looking blurry through the camera.
Thankfully, they turned out semi-ok.

I also was staying at my parents for the night while they were out of town for my mom's birthday.
She redid her countertops a year or so ago, and they are kind of my fav.
Also, her kitchen has better lighting than mine.
And she has the best oven.
It was a good day to PinterTest.

Someone was REALLLLLLY hoping for a big mess on the floor.
She was standing by for immediate duty, should there be an incident.
There was no incident.

Another fun part of the PinterTest kitchen is it always falls on the first Thursday of the month.
Communion Sunday falls on the 4th Sunday.
So,  it's the perfect scheduling to make goodies, share them on Sunday, and link up on Thursday!

I had used the Trader Joes vanilla cake mix instead of a name brand yellow cake mix, so there was about 2.5 oz less of mix in my recipe. It was totally fine, but my bars were probably on the gooey-er side.

Which was not a problem for me. 

Also, I wasn't really sure how to get a good picture of the final product on a plate. 

That is a skill I'm going to need to work on a bit next month. 

Also,  remember, viewfinder was out of focus.

Final result?
A+++
I LOVED THESE.
And I am pretty sure everyone at church did too.
The pan came home empty.
And I am 100% certain I'll be making these again ASAP!

I don't know about you, but I feel a little OD'd on pumpkin things these days, but for some reason, these were PERFECT. Kind of like a pumpkin coffee cake. HEAVENLY.  Thanks for sharing the recipe, Mel!

Linking up with Jessica!

You should too!

Get Me a Hat with a Buckle and Call Me a Pilgrim!

Guess who got her Pilgrim on last weekend?
Oh yes.
Your's Truly!

CuppaPilgrim Fact: Pilgrims eat olives.

First up, I got my craft on with the lovely EMJ the other night - at her Crafts and Crap evening.
Thankfully, with a name like that, Masters of Disasters are totally allowed.
Because usually when I craft, it ends up pretty crappy.

But, with the pressure off.
My crap turn out pretty freaking awesome.

I whipped up a journal for April of The Gingerbread Blog's Journal Swap (on it's way to you Steph!!)

And then I helped Ellen whip up this beauty of a thankful journal....for someone yet to be named....

I got rolling on a friendship bracelet.
Okay...maybe my skillz aren't exceptional in friendship bracelet world.
My 4-knots need a little work.
Especially on the blue row.
Let's just not bring up, okay?

And my favorite project, the fall garland.
I chose colors that were both fall-ish.
And match my living room.
Mission Accomplished.

So yes, handmade goods - very pilgrimy.
Don't you think?

But wait.
I'm about to take it to another level.

I made pumpkin pie.

Oh.
Just keep waiting.

Wait.
For.
It.

From these babies.

Yep. You can give me that buckle hat and cornucopia now.

While those suckers roasted, I whipped up my homemade crust.
I have been baking pumpkin pies since my Aunt gave me this crust recipe when I was around 8 years old.
But I always make them with canned pumpkin.
I didn't even know you could make a pie from actual pumpkins (I thought they needed to go to some crazy processing plant or something!

Do you love my recipe box and cards?
Back when I was 8, my mom gave them to me - since she wasn't using them.
Retro chic.

Then I cooled. Scooped. And pureed.

Before I went to EMJ's on Friday night, I whipped up THIS homemade pumpkin pie spice to add to a batch of Pumpkin Fluff (so good).

I told you, I'm straight Pilgrim these days.

I wasn't on a cruise. I was on the freaking Mayflower. Then growing some maize.

I used the TJ's recipe sticker that came on the pumpkin.

1 1/3 Cup Pumpkin Puree (each pumpkin made just exactly that)
1 Container of Sweetened Condensed Milk (1 1/3 cup)
1 Cup of Hot Water
1 Egg

and I spunked it up with 1 1/2 teaspoons of my own spice!

Bake at 375* for 55 minutes.

And voila!
Pumpkin pies from sc-rizz-atch.!!!

Not exactly the most pumpkiny colored pies.
Who needs Red 75 and Yellow 23 anyway.

It was very tasty.
OF COURSE!

Have I mentioned I'm not a perfectionist?
Rough edged crusts are my signature technique.
You should try it sometime.
It's very freeing.

You know what else you should try?
A slice of this pie.
The crack down the center gives it character.

DUH-LISH-US.

Bits & Bites

It's starting to look like recipe week all up in here.
So, it's unofficially.....

RECIPE WEEK!!!

Alright, now that we have that out of our system, let's move on.

 Two quick and simple recipes, the first I whipped up a few days ago: 

Q. What do you get when you mix Cake Batter Blondies with Strawberry Cake Batter? 

A. Cake Batter Redheads

bah-dum-bah! kchhh!

Although, these are more of a Strawberry Blonde.

And super yummy.

Inspired by Kristen who made the originals from this pin:

And next up, we have
PUMPKIN OATMEAL

oh yes, you read that right, pumpkin lovaaaaas,
we are turning boring old oatmeal into a 
sassy fall breakfast.
i have been making this for a while now, it is a cold morning favorite.
super easy, basic oatmeal with an autumnal twist.
GET. IT.

feel free to make with regular (non steel cut) oats
i like quick cook because it is whipped up in a flash.
but if you are all tradish about your oats, just stir in the pumpkin once they are cooked.

now like i said, GET. IT.