christmas bake-off part five:

I know.
It is January. And half way through January at that.
But I made my friend's dog some cookies for Christmas, but didn't see him until this week. The cookies had started to mold (Mold!?! What's that? Oh yeah, it's what happens to food that isn't filled with chemicals!), so a second batch was required.

Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup pureed pumpkin
4 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons water
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together wet ingredients and sift in dry. Drop on cookie sheet in teaspoon-sized balls and prick the tops with a fork. Bake for 15-20 minutes until they come off of the sheet easily.

Let cool. Feed to your husband pooch. (What? They're made of people food!) And make them work for it, just because you can.

Here's Stella, the cookie recipient. She seemed to enjoy the cookies, but she'll eat anything.

I saved some for Lucy, my doodle, as well. She prefers to eat wallets, cardboard boxes, and sports bras, but refused to eat her usual treats when I started baking these. Here's a gratuitous picture of her.

the best kind of sandwich

This week, I threw away two boxes of sugar. Not two whole boxes, only the end of a box of white sugar and dark brown sugar because I couldn't seem to resist digging into them with a spoon. Just because I no longer eat run-of-the-mill baked goods doesn't mean I don't have a nagging sweet tooth. I usually can distract it with ridiculously "healthy" options like fresh fruit or a few glasses of wine, but when there's brown sugar on the shelf, my self control goes out the window. So, the leftover sugar went in the trash.

I baked half of a batch of snickerdoodles for an impromptu pregnant sister-in-law visit and planned on saving the second half for home group bake-off, but the sugar situation threw me for a curve. I couldn't bear to bake the rest without rolling them in cinnamon and sugar first! I scavenged enough packets of raw sugar to bake most of them for home group, but had a bit of extra dough. I tossed it in the freezer and baked it up tonight-- and the six cookies made for a lovely Friday night post-chili dinner dessert.

Accompanied by Haagan-Daz 5-ingredient brown sugar ice cream, it was quite the decadent treat.



At least, that's what I was told while eating my raspberries.

Here's the snickerdoodle recipe, if you're interested.

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon dark corn syrup (I know, corn syrup. Just do it.)

2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Cream together butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Refrigerate until cool and firm. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.
Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
Bake 6 to 8 minutes, until just brown at the edges. Remove immediately from baking sheets.
Let cool and sandwich with the best ice cream you can find. Eat while watching a wonderfully pretentious film like Helvetica.

(Modified from Mrs. Sigg's Snickerdoodles at allrecipes.com)

"How does it compare to Diddy Riese?" I asked the man, who had a belly full of chili, cornbread, and beer.
"Better," he mumbled, then promptly fell asleep.
I'm so manipulative.

glazed pumpkin cookies

Continuing with the "pretending it is fall" theme, I made some glazed pumpkin cookies. If I were cooler, they would have been made with fresh pumpkin instead of canned, but....

Here's the recipe, personalized from one I found on allrecipes.com

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon fresh ground cloves
1 tablespoon molasses
pinch of salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons milk, plus extra
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes (I only baked for 12, then left on the sheet for an extra 2) in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.
4. To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.

Please serve with hot chocolate.

I think next time I'd like to try this recipe for pumpkin whoopie pies!