Pumpkin-Pecan Spice Cookies

For Pumpkin Season, my goal is to try a new pumpkin recipe each week. This week's recipe is from Betty Crocker and I've made a few changes in the preparations. These cookies are soft  yet held their shape well in baking. BC suggests a candy coating  drizzle for added flavor and decor. I didn't think they needed that as they are tasty and moist without it.

Pumpkin-Pecan Spice Cookies

1 ½ cups packed light brown sugar

½ cup butter or margarine, softened

2 eggs

½ cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

3 teaspoons (1 Tablespoon) vanilla

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

⅛ teaspoon ground allspice

⅛ teaspoon ground cloves

pinch ground cardamon

½ cup finely chopped pecans (I reduced this from the original recipe)

1 cup white vanilla baking chips ( increased this and used pumpkin flavored baking chips)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking sheets or cover with parchment paper. 

2. In a large bowl beat brown sugar and softened butter on medium speed. Add eggs, pumpkin, and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking powder and spices. Stir in pecans and baking chips. Drop dough by tablespoons onto cookie sheet. 

3. Bake 12 minutes (between 10-14 minutes) or until edges are lightly browned. Remove to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. 

4. For candy coating drizzle, soften vanilla-flavored candy coating (almond bark) in a resealable plastic bag in the microwave. Gently squeeze bag until coating is smooth; cut off tiny corner of bag and squeeze bag to drizzle coating over cookies. Let stand until set. 

Look what I found at the big-city store - Pumpkin
Spice flavored baking chips!

Pumpkin Season

Is it really October? I think this month should be called "Pumpkintober". We celebrate the fall season with all sorts of pumpkin recipes. I love the pumpkin flavored recipes and have a grown son and son-in-law who claim pumpkin as their favorite flavor of treat (or maybe they're just 'tricking' me to bake more).
Pumpkins were also a favorite through history and story book times - "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater", "Cinderella", and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" all wove pumpkins into their stories. The love and lore of pumpkins is repeated in history many times. The  Native Americans grew Three Sisters Crops of pumpkins, corn, and beans; the Irish created Jack-O-Lannterns to celebrate what later became Halloween; and the European settlers scooped out the insides to mix with cream, eggs and sugar for the first pumpkin pies.
Pumpkins are usually about 15 - 30 pounds, but can grow to hundreds of pounds. Pumpkin Weigh-Offs are held throughout the United States to record the largest pumpkins of the season. This year's Kansas State Fair winner at 457 pounds wasn't a record setter, that was set in 2007 at 976.2 pounds.

Here's the recipe I made last week when Son was visiting. I was also able to save some for Son-In-Law that we visited later in the week. It is moist, and stayed moist for several days (after I hid it in the refrigerator so it wouldn't be eaten too quickly).

For the glaze, I softened commercial canned frosting in the microwave enough to drizzle over the top.

Moist Pumpkin Bundt Cake                                      

When alternating wet and dry ingredients, always start
and end with dry ingredients. This method ensures that
ingredients are well blended without overbeating. 

 Ingredients

2 ½ cups sugar

1 cup canola oil

3 eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

1 can (15 oz) solid pack pumpkin

(I also added 1 tsp. vanilla extract to enhance the flavors. You could use 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice instead of the individual spices)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine sugar and oil until blended. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and cloves; add to egg mixture alternately with pumpkin beating well after each addition.

Transfer to a greased 10-inch fluted tube pan. Bake 60-65 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack. Remove pan and cool completely. Dust with confectioners’ sugar or glaze.

Yield: 12-16 servings.

German Dinner

German food is more than sauerkraut! A German heritage may explain our fondness for some German foods. Recently we had a German dinner with German bratwurst purchased from a deli in Herman, Missouri on Pretzel Buns and German Potato Salad.








Pretzel Hoagie Rolls (adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Fall Baking)
¾ cup milk (not fat-free) *
¼  cup water
1 ½ Tablespoons sugar
1 package dry active yeast
2 ⅓ - 2 ½ cup all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 ¼ teaspoons salt

* To use skim milk, melt 2 teaspoons butter and add enough milk to make ¾ cup.
1. In a small saucepan, heat and stir milk and water and sugar over low heat until warm (110 - 115 degrees). Pour into large mixer bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top. Let stand about 5 minutes until foamy. Add 2 ⅓ cups flour, salt and butter. With the dough hook mixer attachment, beat on low speed for 2 - 3  minutes or until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat on medium-low speed for 8 - 10 minutes or until a soft dough forms. The dough should still be slightly sticky, if it is too sticky, beat in the additional flour.
2. Turn dough out onto a clean, dry work surface. Knead a few times, them shape dough into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface of dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double in size (about 1 hour).
3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
4. Punch dough down. Turn out onto a clean, dry work surface. Divide dough into six portions. Roll and stretch each  portion into an 11-to 12 - inch rope. Place ropes on prepared baking sheet. Cover and let rest 30 minutes.
5. To shape each bun, fold a rope in half. Hold one end of folded rope in each hand and gently twist twice in opposite directions (like wringing out a towel). Return twists to the prepared baking sheet.
6. This is the step where you usually dip the rolls into a pan of hot water and baking soda. I did not have success with this, the dough lost it shape. My method is to brush the rolls with a mixture made of 1 cup of very hot water in which 1 heaping Tablespoon of baking soda has been dissolved.
7. In a small bowl, combine 1 egg yolk and 1 Tablespoon of water. Brush dough twists with this mixture, and if descried, sprinkle with coarse salt.
8. Bake for 12 -15 minutes or until deep golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Slice and serve with bratwursts.

The dough is shaped, and brushed with water/soda
and egg yolk/water. Ready to bake.

Baked and browned, ready to slice and serve.

German Potato Salad (6 - 8 servings)
5 bacon strips
¾ cup chopped onion
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon pepper
1 ⅓ cup water
⅔ cup cider vinegar
¼ cup sugar
6 cups sliced cooked peeled potatoes

1. In a large skillet, fry bacon until crisp; remove and set aside. Drain all but 2 - 3 tablespoons of drippings; cook onion until tender. Stir in flour, salt, and pepper until blended. Add water and vinegar; cook and stir for 1 minutes or until slightly thickened.
2. Stir in sugar until dissolved. Crumble bacon; gently stir in bacon and potatoes. Heat through, stirring lightly to coat potatoes. Serve warm.

This German meal was easy and tasty!

Sunny Spinach Pie on a not-so-Sunny Day

Our church circle met this week on a glorious rainy day. The rain was welcome even though it made arriving at the meeting a wet experience and the thunder was startling. We were all glad for the rain after several weeks of dry weather and we were joyful to be meeting again after a summer break. The hostess for the morning's meeting had chosen a special recipe (found on-line), Sunny Spinach Pie. The pictured steps and 5 printed pages of pictures and instructions could seem daunting, but she assured us it was easier than you might think. As I read through the steps, it does seem that the hardest part is understanding the forming of the 'pie' into a sunburst looking creation. So, I'll try to explain the process without pictures, but if you need visuals, I've seen similar recipes on line at Pinterest and food websites.

Sunny Spinach Pie                                      

Dough: 17 oz. flour (1 pound of all-purpose flour equals about 4 cups, so about 4 ¼ cup flour)
      ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
     ¾ dry white wine (rice wine vinegar makes a good substitute)
     1 teaspoon salt
Place all dough ingredients in stand mixer and mix with dough hook until the dough is smooth and combined. (or mix and knead as you would other dough) Wrap in plastic wrap while you make the filling.

Filling:
    12 oz. boiled spinach (if using frozen be sure to drain well)
    12 oz. ricotta cheese
     1 egg
    3 oz. grated Parmesan cheese
    salt and pepper
    bread crumbs
Mix the spinach and ricotta. Add egg, Parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper (sprinkling of each). Mix well and set aside.

Unwrap dough and divide into two equal portions.
Using a rolling pin, roll out each dough ball to create a circle that is about 11 ¾ inches in diameter. (two circles of dough - the top and bottom crusts)
On the dough circle that will be the bottom, sprinkle bread crumbs to help absorb the moisture from the filling and to keep the dough dry. In the center of this dough circle, place a large dollop of filling. Spread the rest of the filling in a larger ring around the outside edge (about 1 inch from the edge) of the dough, leaving a space between the center mound of filling and the outer ring of filling.
Sprinkle the filling with grated Parmesan cheese.
Cover with the second dough circle. Seal the dough edges with your fingers, then a fork. Place a small bowl in the middle of the dough over the center dollop of filling and press lightly to make an indentation.
Leaving the bowl in place, cut the outside dough ring with filling into pieces approximately 1 inch wide at the outer edge, forming wedge shapes into the pie, keeping it attached at the center. Twist each slice and continue until all slices are cut and twisted. The filling will be exposed on the top and bottom sides of the slices.
Remove the bowl and sprinkle the center with poppy seeds.
Bake the spinach pie at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden.

Our hostess served the Sunny Spinach Pie with
Alfredo sauce and fruit. 

   

Soup to Share

It only takes a few days of mid-50's temperatures to make me think of soup for supper. This week seemed to be the start of Fall, regardless of what the calendar said. So a new Hamburger Soup recipe that isn't too heavy was a good start to the cooler season. The best part - my favorite ingredients: beef, tomatoes, and peppers. And it is quick to fix. Originally the recipe is from the Pioneer Woman's website, but I made a few changes.

Hamburger Soup                                                               

Ingredients: 

2 pounds ground beef

1 medium onion, diced

2 stalks celery, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can (14.5 oz) canned diced tomatoes

2 cups beef broth

2 green and/or yellow peppers, seeded and diced

4 whole carrots, peeled and sliced

5 whole potatoes

1 can (12-oz) tomato juice

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes

½ teaspoon ground oregano

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (or more to taste)

Preparation: 

In a large pot over medium-high heat, brown ground beef with onion, celery, and gargle. Remove the pot from heat and drain as much fat as possible. Return pot to range and add the rest of the ingredients. Stir to combine, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover pot and let simmer for 15-20 minutes until potatoes and carrots are tender. 

As with most soup recipes, it 'grows' to a larger amount than a small family can eat in a couple of days. So a few servings went to a friend who has been in the hospital, and a couple to the freezer to share with college-professor-son. "Soup to Share". 

Ole - Mexican Cookies

It was Fiesta time at our church a few weeks ago - the annual Mexican Dinner. Colorful decorations, Salsa music, tacos and enchiladas, all put together for the evening of visiting and eating. I was asked to make a recipe of Mexican cookies to serve with the ice cream for dessert.
The supplied recipe was called "Polvorones", according to Wikipedia this is a heavy, soft and very crumbly shortbread cookie often made with nuts. It is sometimes called "Mexican Wedding Cookie". The version we made was not heavy or overly crumbly, nor did they have nuts. It is an easy to roll and bake dough. So easy I will substitute this recipe for my traditional cut-out sugar cookies at Christmas. The subtitle of the recipe I was given is "melt in your mouth Spanish cookies", they do that and are very tasty.

Polvorones (Mexican Cookies)

The dough was easy to handle and
even to roll the scraps again and recut.

½ pound butter
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. brandy (I used ½ teaspoon brandy extract)
For sprinkling: ½ cup sugar and 2 Tbsp.  cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream butter with 2 kinds of sugar until very creamy and light. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
Add baking powder and salt to flour. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture in thirds. Add brandy (or extract).
Roll out on a floured board to about ¼-inch thickness. Cut with a 2-inch round cookie cutter. Place on greased cookie sheet or parchment paper and bake for approximately 12 minutes or until light golden color. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon while still hot.
Yields about 5 dozen.

 Sweet and soft, Yummy!

Honey-Zucchini Bread

Lock your car doors! Its zucchini season and if you haven't grown zucchini in your garden spot, your friends who did will be glad to fill that void. We use about 6 zucchini a year, so instead of planting, I wait for the generosity of others who are anxious to share their abundance.
This year I tried a new recipe for Zucchini Bread that I was pleased with. It is quick to make and quick to be eaten! The recipe (from Better Homes and Gardens Fall Baking) calls for honey. When I started the recipe I realized the honey jar was very low, but there's always a substitution. This substitution was one I'd been wanting to try - Agave (pronounced ah-GAH-vay).

 
Agave, also called agave nectar or agave syrup, is produced from a plant that grows in Mexico and southwestern U.S.  The plant looks similar to the yucca plant with spiky leaves; tequila is also made from this plant. It is sweeter than sugar and honey and has about 60 calories per tablespoon, compared to sugar's 40 calories per tablespoon. Some sources suggest substituting same amounts, some suggest using a little less agave than the honey called for.
I made the recipe once with agave and later with honey. I used the same measurement of the sweetener for each preparation. The loaves made with agave do taste a little sweeter.

Honey-Zucchini Bread                       

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 ½ cups coarsely shredded, unpeeled zucchini
1 ½ cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
½ cup honey (or agave)
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
½ cup granola

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease the bottom and ½ inch up on the sides of two 8x4x2-inch loaf pans, set aside. In a large bowl stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Make a well in the center of this flour mixture and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl combine eggs, shredded zucchini, sugar, oil, honey (or agave), and vanilla. Add this mixture all at once to the flour mixture. Stir until moistened, batter should be lumpy. Add nuts if desired. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pans, spreading evenly. Sprinkle with granola.
3. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. If necessary to prevent overgrowing, cover loosely with foil for the last 15 minutes of baking.
4. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely. Wrap and store overnight before slicing, or freeze for serving later.