Is there anything better this time of year than pumpkiny, cinnamony treats fresh from the oven?!!
I’ve discovered a way to make a FABULOUS Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Cookie that is like no other pumpkin cookie you’ve ever had! These are crispy on the outside, chewy and gooey on the inside, and they are seriously BURSTING with cinnamon!
Most pumpkin cookies are “cake-like,” which is fine, but when you want a “cookie” to sink your teeth into, you have got to try these!
I had some pumpkin and was trying to decide what to make. I perused some recipes on Pinterest and came across a recipe that reminded me of my standby cookie recipe I use to make chocolate chips and blueberry white chocolate chips and so many other of my family and friends’ favorites. I decided to tweak it up a bit and found if I use my standard recipe, but substitute pumpkin for the eggs, change the ratio of sugars to a bit more brown, up the vanilla a tinch, and add a zip of cinnamon, I get these amazing Chewy Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Cookies.
Make some to share with your family and friends. They are sure to bring smiles. They would make a great addition to a Thanksgiving cookie tray or even a new one to add to your holiday cookie faves. Go stock up on you Hershey’s Cinnamon Chips and get baking!
Cream butter in electric stand mixer about 2 minutes. Add sugars and continue beating. Add vanilla and continue beating. Add pumpkin and slowly mix in to incorporate. Next add the baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Gradually mix in the flour on very low speed and just until all is incorporated. Stir in cinnamon chips with rubber spatula or wooden spoon.
Scoop dough with 1/4 measuring cup and roll into a golf ball sized ball. Place two inches apart on baking stone or prepared cookie sheet. Bake approximately 15 minutes until golden brown on the outside with crisp edges. Allow to cool on baking stone/cookie sheet for 15 minutes before removing to cooling rack.
Autumn is so leisurely lingering
and thoughts of pumpkins and trees in shades of oranges and red and yellow
are ever present.
I truly can’t remember when I have enjoyed the Fall season more.
The weather has been so beautiful.
Work has been busy.
Life has been full of exciting changes and anticipation.
One late evening this past week,
I felt the need… the urge… the desire… to paint.
I opened my palette and wasn’t sure what to do.
So I searched my Pinterest inspiration and found and amazing artist, Herry Arifin,
whose style totally intrigued me!
The looseness, the light, the brightness, the bold strokes and color
totally captivated me.
I used one of his paintings as an exercise to practice and created this.
It doesn’t even come remotely close to the talent of Herry, but it was sure fun to try.
And I made myself do it from memory and imagination and with freedom and abandon as opposed to looking at and copying.
It’s been fun watching friends post photos of their little “pumpkins” in pumpkin patches and dreaming of our little pumpkin. In fact, it is getting hard to think of much else!
This grandma-in-waiting is ready to take on the official role and title. Just a few more weeks to go!
She went to the office yesterday for a meeting and left me home to play.
Not only was it a beautiful Fall day…. she made a whole toy box out in the front yard for me to play with.
Isn’t she awesome?!
She put all these great little pumpkins on a bail of hay surrounded by flowers to make them smell nice. It really did look pretty, but I’m sure she wanted me to feel free to play with all these fun things. Right?
I had a blast tossing them around the yard.
After playing with them for a while, I discovered not only are they fun to roll around the yard, but they are DELICIOUS to eat too!
So I ate a few.
Seriously – am I the luckiest dog on the planet?!
Thanks Mom! The yard might not look quite as decorative as you left it, but I sure had a fun day!
Woofs & Wags,
Charlie
Charlie is an adopted dog with brown eyes and a white-tipped tail who brings joy and laughter to his family and friends. Charlie is a gifted writer, raving food critic, cat, chipmunk, and donut lover, and exceptionally photogenic model. Some of his best friends are Mike theUPS Man, Cliff the Mailman, and ANYONE who delivers pizza to the house. If you would like to read more guest posts by Charlie, simply type “Charlie” into the Search box at the top right hand corner of this link: thecreativelifeinbetween.com. If you would enjoy a companion like Charlie, please consider pet adoption.
Fall is such a great time to bake. I bake all year round, but Fall really lends itself to baking as it warms up the house and makes it smell so good….. apples, cinnamon, pumpkin, ginger…. awwwhhhh….
A couple of my favorite Fall cookies include a new one (Pumpkin Cinnamon Spice) and an old-time classic (Gingersnaps). So today is a TWO-fer cookie recipe day, as I couldn’t decide which to share!
The Pumpkin Cinnamon Spice were a first time effort, and we loved them! I found a recipe at Sally’s Baking Addiction Blog. The original recipe called for cinnamon chips, which my local supermarket was out of, so I found some Pumpkin Spice Hershey’s Kisses and chopped them up in the recipe. They turned out AMAZING! A couple weeks later, I found Nestle is now making Pumpkin Spice chips (so I snagged those along with several bags of Hershey’s Cinnamon Chips which were back in stock!) WOOHOO! I’m set for a while now!
The Gingersnaps are a perennial Fall favorite. My son, Nick, loves them best. I, however, reminisce about the memories they conjure up…
When the boys were little, we had a Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl (football game) every Thanksgiving morning in a ballfield our kids created with the neighbors between our yards. It was basically a clearing in the woods that was a baseball field in the summer and football field in the Fall/Winter.
All the neighbors would gather while fathers and sons played football, little girls played cheerleaders, and us moms took a break from cooking and watched the game standing by a bonfire with hot coffee or cocoa (or Beer! 🙂 ). I would always bake a fresh-out-of-the-oven batch of Gingersnaps that taste even better outside in the cold by a fire after playing football.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. Set aside.
Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add the pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla and mix until combined, about 3 minutes. Slowly add in the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Stir in the chips.
In a small bowl, mix together sugar and cinnamon. Shape dough into rounded tablespoons and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place balls 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet. Lightly press down on the cookies with a spatula or the palm of your hand.
Bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool slightly on baking sheet before removing to cookie rack to completely cool.
I can’t believe it will be NOVEMBER in a few days! Where did the time go? We hit close to 80 degrees F Tuesday, and it is still 70 degrees F as I write this post well into Tuesday evening with the windows wide open and the warm breeze blowing in.
I think we are going to be in for a brutal awakening in a few days as the weather forecasters are calling for that “S” word to hit for Halloween! YIKES!
Since I don’t have children at home anymore to create costumes for or grandchildren yet (patiently waiting – fingers crossed! LOL!) and don’t even get any trick or treaters living a bit far back off the beaten path, what is a girl to do but bake pumpkiny “stuff” for Halloween – right?!?
With a few cans of pumpkin still in the pantry and everything else I needed for this yummy recipe on hand that I discovered on Bakeaholic Mama’s blog, I had to try these Pumpkin Cream Cheese Filled Snickerdoodles that combine all the wonderfulness of pumpkin pie, cheesecake, and snickerdoodles ALL IN ONE COOKIE!
Marty gave them a THUMBS UP (and hopefully will remember to take most of them to the office tomorrow so we don’t eat them all)!
Hope you are enjoying the last week of October, wherever this finds you, and hope you will try this yummy treat.
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
¾ cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
Ingredients for the filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Ingredients for the cinnamon-sugar coating:
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground ginger
Directions:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
Beat together the butter and sugars on medium-high speed of electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Blend in the pumpkin puree. Beat in the egg and vanilla until incorporated. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Cover and chill the dough for at least 1 hour.
While the dough chills, make the filling. In a small bowl, mix together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Cover and chill this as well (for at least half an hour).
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and spices for the coating.
Take one tablespoon of dough and flatten it into a pancake shape. Place one teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture in the middle of the pancake. Form another tablespoon of dough into an equally-sized pancake shape, and place on top, keeping the cream cheese in the middle. Gently pinch together the edges of the dough around the cream cheese to seal, then gently roll into a ball. Roll the ball in the cinnamon-sugar mixture to coat. Repeat with the remaining dough to fill baking stones or cookie sheets, spacing the dough balls 2-3 inches apart. Flatten the dough balls slightly.Bake for approximately 10 minutes, or until they are slightly firm to the touch and the tops are beginning to crackle. Let cool on the baking sheets about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
At the first signs, I am perusing recipes and pins on Pinterest to find new and exciting pumpkin recipes.
I had a jar of Nutella that Nick wanted to try a while back that has just been sitting there begging to be used in some sweet form, so I decided on this recipe I found from Jenn @eatcakefordinner.
The guys loved them, and I had fun using my new micro-planer (from our Trip to the Strip) to add freshly ground nutmeg to these tasty little puffs of pumpkiny goodness. (what a difference fresh seasonings, herbs, and spices makes. Oh – if you could only scratch ‘n sniff this photo – which I DO NOT recommend!)
We might also be able to trick ourselves into thinking these are a little bit healthy……… pumpkin is a vegetable with loads of vitamins – and this recipes uses Greek yogurt too. Give them a try. They are a perfect Fall treat.
3 c. flour 1 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg 1 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 c. butter, room temperature 1 1/4 c. light brown sugar 1 c. non-fat plain Greek yogurt(or sour cream) 1 c. canned pumpkin puree 1 egg 1 tsp. vanilla 1/2 c. Nutella Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon; set aside. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Add the yogurt, pumpkin, egg and vanilla and mix until combined. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Drop spoonfuls of dough, about 1 1/2 – 2 Tablespoons each, onto a greased baking sheet. Flatten cookies a bit. They do not spread much while baking and they puff up quite a bit, so make sure to flatten them. Top each cookie with 1/2 teaspoon or so of Nutella, spreading out and swirling slightly. Bake cookies for 12-15* minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Makes 36-43* cookies.
*Jenn’s recipe said bake for 15 min, but I only needed 12 min in my convection oven. Also, Jenn said her recipe made 43 cookies, and I got 36.
the creative life in between 