Mini-Monsters

Monster Cookies seemed like a good baking project for Halloween. They're always a hit, soft and chewy and filled with sweet treats and no tricks. My recipe originally was for 12 large cookies, I prefer smaller cookies (some portion control but I think my family just eats more). I doubled the recipe and the result was about 4 dozen medium sized cookies. One dozen for our mini-monsters who came to trick or treat, two dozen in the freezer for a baked sale next week, and a dozen or so for munching.

Our mini-monsters this year were a LadyBug and Spooky Pookie. Spooky Pookie is wearing the ghost cape I made for her mother 30+ years ago. Traditions continue and LadyBug's mother crafted her shell with paper mâché. We're glad these little treaters live close!

MONSTER COOKIES                                               

1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened
⅔ cup creamy peanut butter
1 ½ cup brown sugar, lightly packed
2 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salty
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup quick oats
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup M&Ms (save some for adding to the tops of the cookie balls before baking)

(This is a stiff dough, somewhat hard to mix the chocolate chips and M&Ms into. I used some leftover bits of trail mix - chocolate chips, shredded cocoanut, small nut pieces - for part of the chocolate chips)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the baking rack in the center position.
2. In a large mixing bowl with the paddle attachment cream the butter, peanut butter, and brown sugar. Cream for about 3-5 minutes for a light cookie.
3. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the eggs and vanilla. Mix on medium speed just until these ingredients are incorporated.
4. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and quick oats.
5. Add these dry ingredients to the batter and mix until incorporated. Do not over mix.
6. With a rubber spatula fold in the chocolate chips and M&Ms.
7. Use a cookie scoop (large/3 Tablespoons size for big monster cookies) to form dough mounds.
8. Top each dough mound with a few more M&M's for a nice appearance after baking.
9. Bake for about 8-10 minutes. Remove from the oven when the edges are set and the centers may look slightly underbred. They will continue to bake and set on the hot cookie sheet. Allow to cool before removing them from the cookies sheet.

New Tricks for Favorite Treats

Trick or Treat - The treats are always the best. This Halloween I've done some new tricks with a couple of favorite recipes. My all-time-best-banana bread has become Pumpkin Bread and the always favorite Chocolate Peanut Butter Blossom cookies have become Pumpkin Blossoms.

PUMPKIN BLOSSOMS

Ingredients:

2 cups light brown sugar, packed

1 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 cup canned pumpkin

2 large eggs

pinch of kosher salt

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½  teaspoon ground nutmeg

½  teaspoon ground cloves

48 (or more) Hershey Kisses, any variety, unwrapped

Directions:

1.     Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Spray a mini muffin pan with baking spray. Set aside.

2.     In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar, butter, pumpkin, egg and salt until combined . Add flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Blend completely for 1-2 minutes.

3.     Using a small scoop, fill each muffin cup with about 1 ½ Tablespoon of batter.

4.     Bake for about 18 minutes. Removed from oven and immediately press a Hershey Kiss in the center of each blossom.

5.     Allow to cook in pan about 10 minutes. Remove from pan and enjoy. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

I  had lots of help unwrapping the Kisses!

Pumpkin Kisses didn't hold their shape as well as the
chocolate ones below. 

Today is a friends birthday, I'm sure there are disadvantages to having a birthday on Halloween, but it does make it easy to remember! So yesterday when I wanted to take her a seasonal treat, I altered the Banana bread I usually make by substituting 1 can of pumpkin for the 3-4 bananas.

Pumpkin Nut Bread

Ingredients: 

¾ cup butter, softened

1 package (8 0z) cream cheese, softened

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 ½ cups pumpkin puree

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups chopped pecans, divided

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition. Add pumpkin and vanilla; mix well. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, add to creamed mixture. Fold in 1 cup pecans.

Transfer to two greased 8 inch x 4 inch x 2 inch loaf pans. Sprinkle with remaining pecans. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 1 ¼ hours or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

In a small bowl, whisk the glaze ingredients (powdered sugar and pumpkin spice coffee creamer), drizzle over loaves.

Isn't this a lovely pumpkin color?

My favorite glaze ingredients

Scarecrow Bars for a Late Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween. Its been dark for an hour now as I write this, so most of the little goblins should be off the streets. But I wanted to share the Scarecrow Bars recipe that I made this afternoon for the three neighborhood trickers that come by our house. Of course, it didn't all go into their bags, so we're enjoying the treats too! This is a fun Halloween cookie/candy, but would also be good and seasonal for the next few weeks as well. This recipe has a variety of fall flavored ingredients, and the real surprise was that I had them all on hand! Or most of it - for the mini marshmallows I used the left over bag of Halloween shaped and colored marshmallows. The bag of candy corn I had was the 'autumn mix', including pumpkins which I cut into halves to make smaller pieces.

simple ingredients

HEAVENLY SCARECROW BARS

Ingredients:

1 box yellow cake mix

½ cup softened butter

2 eggs

3 cups mini marshmallows

½ cup corn syrup

¼ cup brown sugar

½ cup creamy peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups crispy rice cereal

2 cups salted peanuts

1 cup candy corn

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Beat cake mix and butter until combined.

Add egg and beat until well mixed.

Press into the bottom of ungreased 13x9-inch baking pan.

Bake until the cake/crust sets and the edges are lightly browned (15-20 minutes).

Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle marshmallows over the hot crust.

Bake 2-4 more minutes until the marshmallows puff up, and remove from the oven.

Combine the corn syrup, sugar, and brown sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla. Stir until smooth.

Stir in cereal and peanuts.

Spoon over marshmallow topped base and spread to cover.

Sprinkle candy corn over the mixture and gently press into the top.

Cool and cut into bars.

crust + marshmallows + corn syrup, sugar, cereal and nuts mixture

Completed - ready to cool and cut