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Monday, October 26, 2009

Pumpkin cookies. Pumpkin cupcakes. Did you know I love Pumpkin?



Best Time of year...Pumpkin Cookies and Cupcakes!!
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies


One of my earliest memories of baking was when I was in nursery school.  Yeah, most kids remember playing with their friends in the playground or finger painting but I remember when we had ‘cooking” in class, which was usually for an upcoming holiday.  After we made our delicious treats, our teacher would send home a photocopy of the recipe just in case we wanted to make it again.  Recently, I came across one of those recipes buried in one of my desk drawers…Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies.

Every time we approach Halloween and then Thanksgiving, I think about these cookies.  Last night, at 1 in the morning when I should have been sleeping, I decided to go downstairs and whip up a batch to see if they are as good as my memory.

Here’s the recipe, its quick, simple and look how delicious they are!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies (For kids of all ages)



 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray cookie sheets with cooking spray
In electric mixer with paddle attachment—blend 2 sticks of butter with 1 cup packed light brown sugar and 1 cup of white sugar until fluffy, about 4-5 minutes.
Add 1 egg (slightly beaten) and 1 tsp vanilla
In separate bowl—combine2 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 cup of quick cooking oats, 1 tsp of baking soda, 1 tsp of cinnamon and ½ tsp salt.
Measure out 1 cup of pumpkin
Alternately add dry/flour ingredients and pumpkin to mixer starting and ending with dry/flour ingredients.
Stir in 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
Place by heaping teaspoons onto prepared cookie sheets and bake for 15-18 minutes
Cool on wire rack.


Since I have loved these cookies all my life, would love to hear some feedback if you made them for yourself or your family and what they think.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Pumpkin Cupcakes and More on Betty Crocker I Heart Cereal For Halloween


 
Today we were supposed to have the team over for dinner but practice and the dinner got postponed and for the first time since school started, I got to come home at 2:30 instead of 7 or 8 PM.  Phew, finally, I can get caught up on my HW and have some time to make a recipe that has to get off my mind.  Now that we stocked up on cans of pumpkin (they were on sale last week) and I already made my pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cupcakes are the next logical step.

I visited the website and blog of www.Crumblycookie.net where she had a comparison of 3 pumpkin cupcake recipes. The one by David Leite sounded so good and would be easy for me to adapt into this Halloween recipe idea I wanted to experiment with.

First things first—preheat your oven to 350 degrees and place liners in cupcake pans.  This recipe should make 18-24 cupcakes.

Now don’t be frightened, even though Halloween is around the corner before we get into the actual Pumpkin Cupcake recipe we have to make the bottom layer -Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal!



Start with 2 cups of finely processed cinnamon toast crunch cereal. 

Now add 5 Tbs of melted unsalted butter to the cereal and mix with a fork.  Mixture should be moist and hold together when pressed.  If not-add a little more melted butter.

Take one heaping teaspoon and place inside the cupcake liners and press down with your fingers covering the bottom only of the liner.




While you still have the food processor out—chop 1 – 1 ½ cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Place a heaping teaspoon of the chopped chips on top of the cinnamon toast crust and bake in oven for 5 minutes.


Let cool on counter while you prepare the cupcake mixture.




Beat 1 stick of butter with 1 cup firmly packed dark-brown sugar and ½ cup of white sugar for 5 minutes on medium speed.
In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt into a medium bowl.
Add 2 eggs, 1 at a time into the butter/sugar mixture and beat.
Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla to half a cup of buttermilk.  (I used powdered buttermilk by adding 2 tablespoons of powder to my dry ingredients and then added the vanilla to ½ cup of water)
Alternate adding the flour and milk (water) mixtures, beginning and ending with the flour.
Beat in the pumpkin until smooth.
Pour evenly into cupcake liners till they are about ¾ full.





Sprinkle remaining chopped chocolate on top of cupcakes and Sprinkle remaining Cinnamon toast crunch cereal mixture on top of cupcake. 


Bake at 350 for 19-24 minutes





.

I have some left over chocolate frosting from Friday when I baked for the football team, recipe is coming, I promise…so that’s what I am going to top these with.




Pumpkin Cookies and Pumpkin Cupcakes...maybe they go together?




Not as cute as when Bakerella did it... :(


With love and cupcakes,
CookTeen


 The Recipes: 


Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookie Recipe:
Ingredients:

  1. 2 cups all purpose flour
  2. 1 cup Quick cooking oats
  3. 1 tsp Baking Soda 
  4. 1/2 tsp salt
  5. 1 tsp cinnamon
  6. 1 cup pumpkin
  7. 1 cup (2 sticks margarine or Butter) 
  8. 1 cup packed light brown sugar (for a richer/darker cookie use dark brown sugar)
  9. 1 cup sugar
  10. 1 egg slightly beaten
  11. 1 tsp vanilla
  12. 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray cookie sheets with cooking spray 
  2. In electric mixer with paddle attachment—blend 2 sticks of butter or margarine with 1 cup packed light brown sugar and 1 cup of white sugar until fluffy, about 4-5 minutes. 
  3. Add 1 egg (slightly beaten) and 1 tsp vanilla
  4. In separate bowl—combine2 cups of all-purpose flour, 1 cup of quick cooking oats, 1 tsp of baking soda, 1 tsp of cinnamon and ½ tsp salt.
  5. Measure out 1 cup of pumpkin
  6. Alternately add dry/flour ingredients and pumpkin to mixer starting and ending with dry/flour ingredients.
  7. Stir in 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
  8. Place by heaping teaspoons onto prepared cookie sheets and bake for 15-18 minutes
  9. Cool on wire rack.





Cinnamon Toast Crunch Pumpkin Cupcake Recipe
Chocolate Crunch Bottoms Recipe:

Ingredients:

  1. 2 cups cinnamon toast crunch cereal, (finely crushed in food processor or blender)
  2. 5 Tablespoons Unsalted butter, Melted
  3. 1 - 1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate--chopped (in food processor)
Directions:

  1. Add 5 Tbs of melted unsalted butter to the crushed cereal and mix with a fork until all combined. Mixture should be moist and hold together when pressed.  If not-add a little more melted butter.
  2. Take one heaping teaspoon and place inside the cupcake liners and press down with your fingers covering the bottom only of the liner.
  3. While you still have your mini chopper out—chop 1 – 1 ½ cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips.
  4. Place a heaping teaspoon of the chopped chips on top of the cinnamon toast crust and bake in oven for 5 minutes.Let cool on counter while you prepare the cupcake mixture.
Pumpkin Cupcakes Recipe:  (adapted from David Leite via Smitten Kitchen)
 

Please note:  I omitted the pepper, cloves and ginger from the original recipe on Smitten Kitchen, didn’t think it would go with all the extra ingredients I was using.  And frankly, I don’t think I am a fan of black pepper in my cupcakes.  What are your thoughts about pepper and cupcakes?



Ingredients:

  1. 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
  2. 1 cup firmly packed dark-brown sugar
  3. ⅓ cup granulated sugar
  4. 2 cups cake flour
  5. 2 teaspoons baking powder
  6. 1 teaspoon baking soda
  7. 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
  8. ½ teaspoon salt
  9. 2 large eggs
  10. ½ cup buttermilk mixed with 1 teaspoon vanilla
  11. 1¼ cups canned solid-pack pumpkin
 Directions:
  1. Preheat the oven to 350° (175°C). Line a cupcake pan with 24 liners.
  2. In a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars on medium speed until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt into a medium bowl.
  3. Add the eggs 1 at a time to the mixer, scraping down the sides after each addition. Alternate adding the flour and milk mixtures, beginning and ending with the flour. Beat in the pumpkin until smooth. Divide the batter equally between the cups. (They’ll be about ¾ full.) Rap the filled pans once on the counter to release any air bubbles.
  4. Sprinkle remaining Chocolate and cereal mixture on top of cupcake.  Bake the cakes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 19 to 24 minutes. Cool the cupcakes on racks completely.

4 comments:

  1. wow! not only do those pumpkin cupcakes look amazingly delicious they are so pretty! i am starvingg you better bake those for me when I come back from college!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. mmmm those look sooo nice, now i just have to decide which one to make!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What exactly do you do with all these delicious looking creations? Donate? Give them to your friends? SEND THEM TO YOUR SISTER TO SHARE WITH HER FRIENDS BECAUSE THEY ARE DEPRIVED OF HOME MADE FOOD?
    Just wondering!! : )

    ReplyDelete
  4. Those are soo delish. I just want to get off my bed and make some! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

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