Tag Archives: pumpkin

Pumpkin Eggnog Cookies

This eggnog cookies recipe uses pumpkin! This eggnog iced pumpkin cookies recipe will be your new holiday favorite.

Welcome to the second annual Cookie Week, hosted by Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic and Susan of The Girl In the Little Red Kitchen! We’ve teamed together with 10 other talented bloggers to bring you 5 fantastic days of cookie recipes to get you into the holiday spirits. Thanks to Imperial Sugar, Circulon, Peanut Butter & Co. and Page Street Publishing for being a part of Cookie Week!

Last year, I tried my hand at Eggnog Cookies. And I was super impressed with myself. (“Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble!”)

This year, I wanted to punch those up and take them to a new level. And therefore, I added pumpkin.

Boo-Yah.

I was worried if I replaced some of the eggnog with pumpkin, that there wouldn’t be enough of either flavor to shine through, but it turns out I had nothing to worry about. I could taste both the flavors, and love, love, love them together.

They are perfect for that tiny window of time between pumpkin season and eggnog season. They’re also perfect when you want eggnog season to start early, or you want pumpkin season to linger.

Supplies I used for this recipe:

Kitchen Aid Mixer, a definite must.
Half Sheet Panfor baking
Silicone Mat
Cookie Scoop (size 60), you almost can’t do this recipe without one.
Cooling Rack
2-quart batter bowl (mention my name and ask for 10% off!)
Spreading knife
Airtight plastic container
Parchment paper

You guys, having friends is awesome, and having blog friends is one of the great joys of my life.

So I really must tell you what my friends have done. Because they have some pretty amazing cookies too! Check this out:

Skillet Cookie by Cravings of a Lunatic
Pumpkin Cookie Cups with Biscoff Buttercream by The Girl In The Little Red Kitchen
Chocolate-Cherry Chews by Crumb
Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies by Cooking in Stilettos
Cranberry, White Chocolate, Crystallized Ginger Cookies by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
Dark and Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies by Hungry Couple
Dulce de Leche Filled Brownie Sandwich Cookies by Mind Over Batter
Muffin Top Cookies by Food Lust People Love
Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Sandwich Cookies by Chocolate Moosey
Pumpkin Eggnog Cookies by Jen’s Favorite Cookies

Other blogs participating later this week include:

Want more? Try these eggnog treats!

Save Print

Cook time

13 mins

Total time

13 mins

A cakey cookie made with eggnog and pumpkin, with an eggnog nutmeg glaze.

Author: Jen @ Jen's Favorite Cookies

Recipe type: Cookies

Serves: 4 dozen

Ingredients

½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup pumpkin puree
⅓ cup prepared eggnog*
¾ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups flour

GLAZE:

⅓ cup eggnog
2½ cups powdered sugar
¾ teaspoon nutmeg

Instructions

Whip butter. Add sugar and brown sugar and mix well. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.
Add pumpkin, eggnog, nutmeg, salt, and baking soda, and mix well.
Add flour and mix just until combined. Dough should be soft and sticky.
Scoop spoonfuls of dough onto a greased or lined baking sheet, and bake at 350F for 13-15 minutes.
For glaze, mix all ingredients together. Frost cooled cookies. Let sit a few minutes to let glaze harden.

Notes

*Store bought prepared eggnog is quite different than the homemade variety. This recipe was made using the store bought eggnog, which is what I recommend.

October 2014 Wrap-Up

I remember clear back in September, which was ages ago, people told me they were excited for October. For the pumpkin, and the fall weather, and the soup. And, while September might be my favorite of all months, and October isn’t too bad itself, I’m sort of dreading November.

Why? I had to turn on the heater. Just this week.

I don’t know why I live in one of those places that can host the winter olympics. I love warm weather and sunshine.

On the other hand, I love warm desserts and Christmas cookies, and OHHHHHH how I love Thanksgiving. It might be my favorite holiday.

So while I’m dreading scraping snow off my car and wearing gloves and putting extra blankets on the beds, I’m looking forward to baking up some lovely holiday inspired treats for you. I actually have some awesome stuff planned for November, but before we dive into that, let’s take a quick look back on October.

You know, just in case you missed something.

	Chocolate Buttermilk Donuts (With a chocolate milk glaze!) These beauties represent my first donut making attempt. And I have concluded that I need to make more donuts!
	Baking Essentials for Your Pantry After cleaning out and re-organizing my pantry, I thought I would share some essential ingredients every baker should have in their own pantry.
	Chocolate Sugar Cookies Simple sugar cookies cut into circles can be decorated a variety of ways. Here I show 5 Halloween decorating ideas involving chocolate.
	Almond Shortbread “Fingers” (With “Blood” Vanilla Pudding) Another Halloween cookie idea, this time I shaped shortbread into fingers and used colored pudding as a dip.
	Caramel Layer Cake with Caramel Buttercream My sister’s recipe this month is this gorgeous caramel layer cake. Don’t let the simple flavor profile fool you, this cake is one you will remember!
	Peanut Butter Cup Cookies Peanut butter lovers unite! These simple cookies are stuffed with peanut butter cups. It gives them an unexpected shot of extra peanut butter flavor!
	Roasted Red Pepper Hot Cheese Dip I roasted both red and jalapeno peppers, and married several kinds of cheese, to make these delicious hot dip. Great served with crackers or bread.
	Peanut Butter Brookies More ideas for you peanut butter lovers! These brookies are a layer of chocolate brownies and a layer of peanut butter cookie. What could be better?
	Dulce de Leche Sandwich Cookies This “sweet milk” has such a wonderful rich caramel flavor! I used it in the cookies, and as a spread to sandwich them. They are great plain or sandwiched!
	Samoas Brownies Building of my love of the Samoas Krispie Treats from several months ago, this time I use the chocolate-caramel-coconut combination on a brownie!

In other news, my Pumpkin Favorites board was featured in the Pinterest newsletter. I’m pretty proud of this board. I’ve worked hard to find some amazing pumpkin treats and meals to share with you there. If you are looking for Thanksgiving dinner ideas, you can also check out my new Thanksgiving Favorites board. This has a lot of savory and sweet ideas totally perfect for Thanksgiving.

Want to know what’s coming up in November? First of all, Cookie Week!! Lots of bloggers get together to share their favorite cookies, most of them holiday friendly, and there’s no way I’m missing an event like that. I’ll be posting some great new cookie recipes I’ve developed for this holiday season, as well as some fun ideas from the other bloggers. That will be happening next week, so stay tuned.

I’ve also been in talks with some of my favorite brands about bringing you some great deals, not to mention recipes using the products I love. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for great deals on baking supplies too. The best way to stay up to date on all this is to follow my Facebook page. I post about 3-5 times a day there, and love to share relevant recipes, collections, and baking deals.

Also? Pie. That’s right, Thanksgiving pie.

Chime in! Tell me what you love the most about these last two months of the year.

Pumpkin Buttermilk Donuts

Pumpkin donut recipe; You’ll love this buttermilk pumpkin donut recipe, with chocolate milk glaze!

Donuts mean Halloween to me. I think it’s because my grandparents always served donuts and cider when we went trick-or-treating at their house.

Of course, that doesn’t stop me from eating them every chance I get. My favorite are the cake donuts. Chocolate cake donuts. Obviously.

This is the year I decided to buy a donut pan and try my hand at my own cake donuts.

But before I tackle my favorite chocolate donuts, I thought I would try the pumpkin version. After all, pumpkin, donuts, Halloween, chocolate milk, they all go together, right?

Oh yeah, chocolate milk. Did I mention that? It’s perfect with pumpkin donuts.

I told you it’s my first time making donuts, right? Technically, it’s my second time. The first time I made the pumpkin donuts I made a total rookie mistake. I filled the donut pan too full, and even after 30 minutes in the oven, the donuts were still gooey and weird looking.

{Note to self: don’t overfill the donut pan.}

Also, they were not that tasty. Which is why I decided to add some buttermilk. It’s my secret ingredient for making all baked goods tasty.

Don’t believe me? Try one of these buttermilk recipes. I have a whole list of them.

I was pretty excited to use TruMoo Chocolate Milk to glaze these donuts with. TruMoo is a brand we’ve been using for years at our house. The swim coach told our son that chocolate milk was an excellent after-practice treat, and our son told us it was an absolute necessity. (He loves chocolate milk!)

I like giving it to him, because I know TruMoo won’t have any high fructose corn syrup or artificial growth hormones in it. In fact, an 8-oz glass has as much potassium as a small banana and as much calcium as 5 cups of broccoli! And he would much rather have chocolate milk than broccoli.

So what was once an occasional treat is now more or less a daily one. Which is fine with everyone. We love having TruMoo around.

Can’t get enough of TruMoo? Follow TruMoo on Pinterest for more delicious recipes and enter the Facebook contest for a chance to win weekly cash prizes through October 31! You can also enter the TruMoo Sweepstakes for a chance to win a family trip for four!

And if all else fails, you still have some very nice donuts for Halloween. Or whenever.

Want more? Try these dessert-like breakfast treats!

Spiced Zucchini
Crumb Muffins

Chocolate
Buttermilk Muffins

White Chocolate
Coconut Scones

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Pumpkin Buttermilk Donuts

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Cook time

10 mins

Total time

10 mins

A baked pumpkin cake donut with chocolate milk glaze.

Author: Jen @ Jen's Favorite Cookies

Recipe type: Donuts

Serves: 11 donuts

Ingredients

DONUT:

4 tablespoons butter, melted
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup pumpkin
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
½ cup buttermilk
1½ cups flour

GLAZE:

½ cup chocolate milk
4-5 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

For donuts, combine melted butter, oil, and brown sugar. Add egg, pumpkin, and vanilla and mix well.
Add salt, baking powder, and spice and mix well.
Add flour and buttermilk alternately, mixing just until combined.
Spoon batter into a plastic zipper bag with a corner cut off. Pipe batter into a greased donut pan, taking care not to over fill.
Bake donuts at 350F for 9-11 minutes. Turn donuts out, and let cool.
For glaze, combine milk and sugar. Spoon over cooled donuts. Wait a few minutes, and glaze a second time.

Notes

The glaze is quite thin. I had the best luck by glazing once, then freezing for a few minutes, and glazing a second time.
These donuts also taste great frozen!

Pumpkin Cookie Bars with Cinnamon Icing

Pumpkin cookies with icing; Cover these egg-free pumpkin cookies with icing and watch them come to life!

September is almost over, so I guess it’s time for me to hop on the pumpkin recipe bandwagon.

Which is not a problem. I love pumpkin desserts. The only problem has been that it has been unseasonably warm here, and it just doesn’t feel like fall yet.

This weekend, however, brought rain and lots of it. A big storm even woke me out of a dead sleep, which is not something that commonly happens to me. I can sleep through just about anything.

At any rate, the cool temps and overcast skies put me in the mood for pumpkin, and I dreamed up these pumpkin cookie bars and gave them cinnamon frosting, just for fun.

After I started thinking about them, I couldn’t wait to get started baking them! I broke out the pumpkin right away.

One nice thing about pumpkin is it is naturally wet, which means you can use it to replace eggs in a baking recipe. Lots of pumpkin recipes are sort of naturally egg-free.

Which is nice for the egg-allergy crowd. Especially if they are also the pumpkin-loving crowd.

And who isn’t?

I guess it’s time for me to embrace fall. I always hate to see summer go, but fall really is lovely too.

My dog is loving this fall weather. He sits outside in the sun, and just sits there, and sits there. It’s even better if it’s a little windy and he can put his face into the wind.

He’s probably in the mood for pumpkin cookies too!

Want more? Try these egg-free desserts!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Without Eggs

Condensed Milk
Cookies

Pecan
Sandies

Pumpkin Cookie Bars with Cinnamon Icing

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Cook time

25 mins

Total time

25 mins

An egg-free spiced pumpkin cookie bar with cinnamon frosting.

Author: Jen @ Jen's Favorite Cookies

Recipe type: Cookies

Serves: 15

Ingredients

BARS:

½ cup butter, softened
¼ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
⅓ cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon cloves
2 cups flour

FROSTING:

½ cup butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk or half & half
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

Cream butter and sugars. Add pumpkin and vanilla and mix well.
Add salt, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, and mix well. Add flour and mix until combined.
Drop dough into a greased or lined 9x13 dish or quarter sheet pan. Press and smooth dough until it evenly covers the entire surface. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes, until slightly browned on the edges, and not doughy in the center. Remove from oven and let cool.
For frosting, combine all ingredients in a bowl, using electric beaters to mix until smooth and creamy. Frost cooled bars.
Cut into 15 large or 20 small bars.

Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

Welcome to Day #4 of Christmas Week, a multi-blogger event co-hosted by Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic and Jen from Juanita’s Cocina! Each day we will be celebrating the holidays with a different set of Christmas-themed treats, as well as a fabulous Christmas giveaway. We hope you enjoy this fabulous event. Tune in each day starting today, Monday, December 9th and ending Saturday, December 14th.

***Disclaimer: This giveaway is being provided by Swissmar. #ChristmasWeek bloggers have not received product or been compensated as a part of this giveaway.***

I am quite literally the Queen of Procrastination.

Here is my list of things to do before Robb returns from his business trip:

Clean the house.
Do the laundry.
Pay the bills.
Make dessert.

Well, one out of four ain’t bad, right?

Truth is, the only reason I got the dessert made is that it is no bake, and uses a pre-made graham cracker crust, so I threw the whole thing together in about 5 minutes.

No exaggeration. FIVE MINUTES. A 6-year old could make this recipe.

It’s definitely going on my list of fastest and easiest dessert recipes EVER.

Since it’s Christmas Week and all, there are a couple things you should know.

First, there are lots of fantastic Christmas recipes being shared for this event. The recipes for today are listed at the very bottom of this post. Go visit them all, and you’ll find some fantastic holiday treats!

Second, there are giveaways every day for this event! For example, on Monday we opened a giveaway for a Magimix food processor giveaway. You can enter to win that prize by clicking here.

And today’s giveaway is a Swissmar Roaster!

Today’s #ChristmasWeek giveaway comes courtesy of Swissmar. Le Cordon Bleu has been a worldwide leader in gastronomy and hospitality for over 100 years and are widely considered the guardian of French culinary technique. Swissmar now combines this culinary expertise with their own knowledge and brand recognition to introduce this fantastic new line.

The Le Cordon Bleu ceramic ovenware from Swissmar are all freezer safe, oven safe, dishwasher and microwave safe. The French-inspired Charmant Collection 5 qt. Rectangular Roaster has scalloped edges and is beautiful enough to go straight from oven to table! To enter to win a Swissmar Roaster, read the details and use the Rafflecopter below!

***This giveaway is for one Swissmar Charmant Collection 5 qt. Rectangular Roaster (winner’s choice of color: blue, yellow, red, or white)! This giveaway is open to Continental US residents only . When the contest concludes, the winner will be chosen by random draw. The winner will be notified through e-mail and they will have 3 days to respond or another winner will be chosen.***

a Rafflecopter giveaway

5.0 from 2 reviews

Pumpkin Chiffon Pie for #ChristmasWeek

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Prep time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

A no bake light and fluffy pumpkin pie in a graham cracker crust.

Author: Jen @ Jen's Favorite Cookies

Recipe type: Pie

Serves: 6

Ingredients

6-8 oz. frozen whipped topping, thawed
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 pkg. (3.4 oz) vanilla or lemon pudding mix
1 cup pumpkin
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. nutmeg
½ tsp. ginger
1 graham cracker crust

Instructions

Mix all ingredients except crust together until smooth and fluffy.
Pour into a graham cracker crust, and chill for 30 minutes or longer before serving.

More Christmas Week recipes:

Mini Sugar Cookie Houses aka Hot Chocolate Mug Perches by Cravings of a Lunatic
Eggnog Cookie Truffles by The Weekend Gourmet
Spike Candy Cane Hot Chocolate by Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks:
Gingerbread Texas Sheet Cake with Lemon Frosting by Chocolate Moosey
Swirl Cookies by Noshing With The Nolands
Chocolate Raspberry Linzer Cookies by Pineapple and Coconut
Caramel Apples by My Catholic Kitchen
Homemade Caramels by Dinners, Dishes, and Desserts
Puff Pastry Ravioli Mince Pies by Food Lust People Love
Mounds Brownie Cupcakes by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
Hot Chocolate Pull Apart Bread by The Dutch Baker’s Daughter
Sausage Pinwheels by Comfortably Domestic
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Dough Truffles by Cupcakes & Kale Chips
Sugared Grape and Phyllo Tart by See Aimee Cook
Taffy Tan Fudge by Mom’s Test Kitchen
Double Chocolate Pecan Cookies by Cooking In Stilettos
Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal Bread by Liv Life
White Chocolate Candy Cane Fudge by Rants From My Crazy Kitchen
Devil’s Food Cake Cookies by Try Anything Once Culinary
Cinnamon Whiskey Balls by Home Cooking Memories
Pumpkin Chiffon Pie by Jen’s Favorite Cookies
Candy Cane Blossoms by Like Mother Like Daughter

Pumpkin Spice Nanaimo Bars

Easy nanaimo bars; This recipe for easy nanaimo bars uses pumpkin spice pudding for a fall flavor profile.

True story: This was my first time making Nanaimo Bars. And it was the first time my family had even heard of them.

Me: I think I’m going to make Nanaimo Bars.
Robb: What?
Me: Nanaimo Bars.
Robb: {pause} Mah-what?

I explained to him all about the no-bake layered goodness, the chocolate, the coconut, the cream filling. He just looked at me suspiciously. Robb has no imagination for food.

Then I explained all about the Canadian origins, and about the first place I ever heard of them. Which, strangely enough, was in one of my favorite movies, A Mighty Wind. (See a trailer for the show here) Then I did my best North Dakota / Canadian border accent, which netted me one genuine compliment from Robb. {It’s one of the few accents I can pull off.}

Robb: What are they called again? Mah-mine-ah?

Let’s not forget that it is now November. I have no idea where this year went, and I can’t decide whether I’m happy or sad to have it behind me. But that is beside the point. The point is, it’s fall, and I needed some fall flavors in these bars.

Enter Pumpkin Spice Pudding Mix. If you can find it {you’ll probably only see it at Walmart} you should grab a couple boxes. It’s nice to have some kind of special fall-flavored baked goods around this time of year.

Or, to be more precise, no-baked goods. Whatever.

Now that we’ve experienced Nanaimo Bar goodness, we’re going to have trouble forgetting it. Perhaps I’ll tell the kids that if they can pronounce it, they can have a bar. (cue evil laugh)

Mah-nee-nee? Na-mine-ah? Mo-nah-nee-nah?

More pumpkin spice goodness for you to enjoy:

Pumpkin Spice
Krispie Treats

Pumpkin Fudge
Cookie Bars

Pumpkin No-Bake
Cookies

Pumpkin Spice Nanaimo Bars

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Traditional no-bake nanaimo bars with a pumpkin spice twist.

Author: Jen @ Jen's Favorite Cookies

Recipe type: No-Bake Desserts

Serves: 9

Ingredients

CRUST:

½ cup butter
⅓ cup cocoa powder
¼ cup sugar
1 egg
1¼ cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup shredded coconut
¼ cup finely chopped pecans

FILLING:

¼ cup butter
1 box pumpkin spice pudding mix (3.4 oz)
¼ cup milk
1¼ cups powdered sugar

TOPPING:

4-5 oz. chocolate (or ¾ cup chocolate chips)
1 T. butter

Instructions

FOR CRUST: Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add cocoa and sugar, and quickly stir to combine.
Add egg before mixture becomes too hot, and mix well. Continue cooking and stirring another minute or so to let mixture thicken. Remove from heat.
Stir in cracker crumbs, coconut, and nuts. Press mixture into the bottom of a 9x9 pan, and let chill while you make the filling.
FOR FILLING: Soften butter, and combine with pudding, milk and powdered sugar. Beat until smooth. Spread evenly over crust layer.
FOR TOPPING: Melt chocolate and butter together in the microwave, in 30-second intervals, stirring between each. Quickly pour over other layers, and smooth with a knife.
Let bars chill for at least 1 hour before cutting into 9 large or 16 small bars. Keep in refrigerator, and serve chilled.

September Recap

September was a good month for Jen’s Favorite Cookies, and I want to thank you all for that.

This site saw lots of new viewers, lots of new followers, and some really fun recipes. I certainly do love sharing good food with you, with beautiful photography and fun stories. In fact, I love interacting with you any way I can. (If you haven’t yet, you should totally consider connecting with me on Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram!)

That being said, here’s a recap of what happened in September, and some of my other favorite things.

	Cheddar Bacon Scones These savory buttermilk scones contain cheddar, bacon, and green onions. I think these would be so great with a bowl of chili. I also describe why I’m a better foreman than apprentice when helping my husband with his building projects.
	Chocolate Zucchini Cookies These fluffy buttermilk cookies use shredded zucchini for texture. It might be the only way I can get my family to eat their greens! I made these after my neighbor brought me the biggest zucchini I have ever seen!
	24 Zucchini Recipes Since zucchini season is in full swing, I made this great collection of zucchini recipes for you. Many of these recipes are sweet, but some are savory.
	Chocolate Pudding This simple egg-free pudding is a favorite in Robb’s family. I interviewed Robb about what it’s like being married to a food blogger, he dishes about the strangest thing I’ve done for this blog, and you can read the truth about who does the dishes around here.
	Pumpkin Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars I used Pumpkin Spice Kisses to make a simple pumpkin fudge, and I layered it between chocolate chip cookie dough. The bars turned out kind of gooey, but it didn’t stop my family from devouring them in record speed.
	Orange Carrot Smoothie I love my green smoothies, but sometimes I crave a little something different. I used carrots and oranges to make this simple and healthy smoothie. These smoothies are almost a necessity for my too-busy son and his swim-fatigued body.
	Brownie Mix Cookies Use a brownie mix and some oil to put together these super easy chocolate cookies. These are the sorts of recipes I make when I wake up with cranium-splitting headaches.
	Pumpkin Roll Bars Every year, my sister-in-law and I make pumpkin rolls, and we hold our breath and cross our fingers, and hope they won’t crack. This year, I made them into bars. They taste just the same, but there’s no rolling required!
	Pretzel Toffee I rounded out the month with this simple and delicious pretzel toffee. It was my most popular post of the month! Toffee is much easier to make than most people realize, and if you pour it over pretzels you get that wonderful salt-sweet combination!

More September news: I created two new Pinterest Boards you might be interested in, a PUMPKIN RECIPES board, and a MUFFINS & SCONES board. I hope you’ll find me there.

I’ve also created a slideshow about how to use Pinterest. I made this for those of you who already know and love Pinterest, but would like to learn to use it better, and find some more great content.

Find the Pinterest Slideshow on SlideShare.net

Thanks for all your help and support this month. It’s been fun making these recipes for you! Stay tuned… October will bring fun homemade candies, fall cookies, and Halloween desserts!

Pumpkin Roll Bars

Easy Pumpkin Bars; These bars taste just like a pumpkin roll, but without the rolling! Try these easy pumpkin bars.

I love a good pumpkin roll.

My sister-in-law and I usually make 2 every year for Christmas. We store them in the freezer, bring them out all frozen and wonderful, cut a few slices, plop a big spoonful of fresh whipped cream on top, and savor slowly.

Then we get another slice.

This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions.

The problem is that pumpkin rolls are not particularly easy to make, and they are certainly not easy to make look good. The cake always cracks, or the frosting squishes out, or our rolling technique fails us, or some other disaster happens to make our pumpkin rolls really not beautiful.

Tasty still, but not beautiful.

I decided it was time I make life easier on myself. This year, I’m making my pumpkin roll into bars. This way, I can still get all the pumpkin-and-cream-cheese goodness without the rolling.

One thing I will say for these bars, they are a touch on the sticky side. Which isn’t a huge problem for me, because I prefer them frozen anyway. Continue reading “Pumpkin Roll Bars” »

Pumpkin Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

Recipe for pumpkin fudge; These chocolate chip cookie bars have a layer of pumpkin fudge inside! Use chocolate chip cookie dough and Hershey’s pumpkin spice kisses to create this amazing dessert!

I almost didn’t post this recipe. Almost.

My son, The Lizard, convinced me to do it, between bites.

The thing is, this recipe didn’t turn out exactly the way I planned it in my head. Actually, the taste of this bar was what I expected, but the pumpkin fudge ripple layer…

…it’s a little gooey.

A LOT gooey.

But it tastes so marvelously, fantastically decadent, I figured I would find a way to work around the too-soft texture.

And find one, I did.

I found two solutions, if I’m being honest.

SOLUTION #1: Refrigerate. The key to this plan is that you will be eating them directly from the fridge. If you tend to eat them one at a time, here and there, this is probably a good solution. It keeps the pumpkin fudge from getting too drippy. Just eat them fast.

SOLUTION #2: Freeze. This is a good option if you are planning to serve them to a crowd. Just take them out of the freezer about 20 minutes before you plan to eat them, otherwise people will break their teeth. I liked this a little better, because it gave me slightly more eating time before gooey-overwhelm set it.

Either way you do it, be sure to use parchment paper, or you will have a big mess on your hands.

Gooey or no, I had to share these because I love the Hershey’s Pumpkin Spice Kisses. They are kind of a seasonal treat, and you just have to use them all while you can!

The pumpkin kisses have a little spice in them, and I added some cinnamon to the cookie dough to match that. It takes the classic chocolate chip cookie and dresses it up for fall.

Love that gooey pumpkin, chocolate, cinnamon autumn dessert flavor!

Pumpkin Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

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Cook time

20 mins

Total time

20 mins

Chocolate chip cookie bars with a layer of pumpkin spice fudge.

Author: Jen @ Jen's Favorite Cookies

Recipe type: Bars

Serves: 24

Ingredients

½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. cinnamon
2 cups flour
1 cup chocolate chips
1 bag (10 oz.) Hershey's Pumpkin Spice Kisses
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Instructions

Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.
Add salt, soda, cinnamon, and flour and mix until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
For pumpkin fudge, unwrap candies and place in a glass bowl. Add condensed milk. Melt candy, either over boiling water (like a double boiler) or in the microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring between each, until smooth.
Line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper. Press about ½ to ⅔ of the cookie dough into the bottom of the pan. Pour pumpkin fudge evenly over the top. Use the remaining dough and drop in pieces over the pumpkin layer.
Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes.
Let cool completely, and chill thoroughly before cutting into 12 large or 24 small bars. Keep bars in the fridge or freezer.

Pumpkin Chip Oat Muffins

I made these pumpkin muffins for breakfast on Christmas Day. I was looking for something quick and easy, something that didn’t require sitting at the breakfast table, and these did the trick. Robb took a bite, and promptly gave me a thumbs-up.

That’s code for, “Make these again.”

Now that it’s January, I feel kind of behind the times on the pumpkin recipes. I mean, pumpkin recipes are SOOO 4-months-ago. All the really cool bloggers did their pumpkin recipes last October.

I made pumpkin cookies last October, too, but I ask you, why should pumpkin be relegated to fall? Shouldn’t truly delicious foods be eaten all year around?

That’s code for “Don’t think I’m not going to make this again in May.”

And July.

I ended up with a huge bowl full of left over goodies after Christmas. The giant bowl that normally holds fresh fruit was temporarily filled with peppermint bark, and candy canes, and peanut brittle, and Almond Toffee.

After a while, you just crave some real food. Something hearty and filling, something seasoned with spices rather than 5 kinds of sugar. Something, oaty, perhaps?

Incidentally, this recipe is very similar to the banana chocolate chunk muffin recipe, except with pumpkin it has a little heavier texture.

I like a food you know you’ve eaten. Don’t you? Continue reading “Pumpkin Chip Oat Muffins” »

Pumpkin Spice Krispie Treats

Let me preface this story by telling you that Robb and I get along great. We really do.

But, our differing personalities being what they are, sometimes the way we get along doesn’t look like getting along, exactly.

For example, Robb has this burning desire to take his humor one step to far. No, desire is not a strong enough word. It’s a need. An addiction. A mental illness, if you will.

Let’s say he starts out with a funny joke, we laugh, we talk about it some more, his joking turns slightly rude and offensive, and I stop laughing.

This, my friends, THIS is the moment when Robb cannot physically stop himself from pushing the joke one more step into the range of offensive. He can’t do it.

I simultaneously love and hate him for it.

Now, if Robb were here, he would probably mention to you my affinity for picking fights. It’s not that I actually want to fight, it’s more like I want someone to get involved, get emotional, challenge me, push me. Robb just never fights with me when I want him to. It’s SO annoying.

But Robb is not here, so I guess I can tell you that just today, HE picked a fight with me, and he was really looking forward to the “so there!” moment, but I was super sweet and didn’t fight with him, and he got no satisfaction at all.

So there.

Continue reading “Pumpkin Spice Krispie Treats” »

Pumpkin No Bake Cookies

These easy no bake cookies are made with pumpkin. Non bake cookies are a quick and easy solution!

When I say I’m getting a new oven, what I mean is, I’m taking the oven that’s been in my brother’s garage for 2 years.

I mean, some people like to go to the store, compare features, pick their favorite appliance, and purchase it new. But not me.

Our dining set used to belong to my parents. Our bed was a wedding gift. Our dresser used to belong to my parents. Our hide-a-bed couch used to belong to Robb’s parents. Our piano used to belong to my grandparents. Our car was 11 years old when we bought it. Even our television was a gift. I’m not so sure the kids were ours originally.

Strike that. Yes I am. I have fond memories of pregnancy, labor, delivery and postpartum recovery.

Fond.

I just want to be sure you are not deceived when you see me writing about my “new oven” on my Facebook page, or pinning tips about cleaning glasstop stoves.

While I’m waiting to get my old oven out and my new oven in, I’m making stovetop cookies. Easy, fast, delicious, no-bake, stovetop cookies. With pumpkin for fall. Continue reading “Pumpkin No Bake Cookies” »

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Turnovers

Remember when, in another recent pumpkin post, I told a story about my nephew trying to decide whether or not he should be a dog? This one little story has spawned a myriad of conversations in my life.

My mother tells me that it is a very real thing for little boys, deciding which animal/superhero/imaginary creature to become for their life’s pursuit. This is actually not hard to believe at all.

Should I be a lion or a crocodile?
SpiderMan or Batman?
Luke Skywalker or Yoda?
A giant or a dragon?

Decisions, decisions.

Robb explained it to me in great detail. He said he doesn’t understand how girls play. “They just talk!” And by that, he means the dolls don’t ever get violent. They never even try to push anyone off a cliff or shoot them with an arrow. “What’s fun about that?”

He went on to describe what he would do with two dolls/action figures. It started with one of them standing near the edge of the table so that he could fall off the cliff, probably into some lava. The other one climbed the tower (my cup full of Diet Coke) and shot things at the first one.

This kind of play would literally never occur to me.

The conversation turned to a debate between which superhero is best. And not a debate between Robb and me… a debate between Robb and Robb. SuperMan is too powerful… Batman has no powers at all… SpiderMan has that cool spidey sense… Iron Man has technology… It was making my head spin. The only thing that both Robbs could agree on is that no one wants to be the Hulk.

The Fruitarian agreed. This 14 year old has been the king of imaginary play since he was born. If we took his toys away from him, his fingers would become action figures. He confessed to being kind of an Iron Man guy. Except Thor has that cool hammer. When he throws the hammer, it comes back to him. Like a jedi. But that hammer is way more cool than a light sabre. Batman and SpiderMan are awesome, too. But no one wants to be the Hulk.

I’m seriously exhausted from listening to all these boys make all these completely imaginary decisions. My life is much more consumed with boring old practical decisions like what to make for breakfast. This is literally a decision that plagues my life.

Why isn’t there a superhero that swoops in and makes meals? There totally should be.

That superhero would never get any sleep.

Sometimes you just have to make the decision easier. Puff pastry + pumpkin + cream cheese is a total no-brainer. Is it a healthy breakfast? Not so much. But is it tasty? Absolutely.

Is anyone else disturbed by how many breakfast foods can double as desserts?

5.0 from 3 reviews

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Turnovers

Save Print

Cook time

17 mins

Total time

17 mins

A puff pastry turnover with pumpkin cream cheese filling.

Recipe type: Breakfast

Serves: 8

Ingredients

I box frozen puff pastry (2 pieces), thawed
½ cup pumpkin puree
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
⅓ cup powdered sugar
½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Drizzle:

2 oz. cream cheese, softened,
2 tsp. milk
3 T. powdered sugar

Instructions

Flatten out thawed puff pastry. Use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut pastry into 4 even squares. Repeat with second piece of puff pastry, for 8 square pieces total.
For filing, combine pumpkin, cream cheese, sugar, and spice.
Place a large spoonful of filling on each pastry square, putting the filling between the center and one corner.
Brush the edges of a pastry square with water, then fold into a triangle, pressing edges together to seal. Repeat with remaining pieces.
Place on baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 16-20 minutes, until brown.
Meanwhile, combine the drizzle ingredients in a small bowl. Prepare a piping bag, or cut a corner out of a plastic sandwich baggie, and place the cream cheese drizzle inside.
While turnovers are still warm, drizzle with the cream cheese mixture.

If you enjoy this recipe, you might also enjoy:

Pumpkin Cheesecake Hand Pies from Created by Diane

Pumpkin Gingersnaps from Jen’s Favorite Cookies

Apple Turnovers from Chocolate Moosey

This post linked up at: Tidy Mom; Romantic Home; Rattlebridge Farm; Simple Living with Diane Balch; Shabby Nest; Skip to my Lou; Between Naps on the Porch; I Should Be Mopping the Floor; Flour Me with Love; Sugar Bee Crafts; Not Just a Housewife; Mandy’s Recipe Box; Hope Studios; Blessed With Grace; Carolyn’s Homework; Back 4 Seconds; Lady Behind the Curtain; Sew Much Ado; Someday Crafts; Gooseberry Patch; Something Swanky; Miz Helen’s Country Cottage; Katherine’s Corner;

Pumpkin Swirl Sugar Cookies

This best pumpkin cookie recipe includes chocolate chips and marshmallows. It’s my favorite seasonal pumpkin recipe! This is the best pumpkin cookie recipe.

My sis-in-law has been making daily trips to the chiropractor. Which is super duper crappy… for her. For me, it’s been not so bad, because I volunteered to spend my afternoons with her kindergartener {Hubs calls him Happy Man} and let me tell you, he is a character.

This is the same kid who, two years ago, gave me the full on Ralphie wink-mouthclick-doublefingerguns move. What do you say to a three year old who does this?! {P.S. If you don’t get this reference, may I suggest watching this hysterical Christmas movie. And getting out more.}

The first day I picked him up, we had an interesting conversation which began with this comment from the back seat, “So, how’s your brakes?”

**crickets chirping** Ummm…

“Fine, thanks. How are yours?” He then regaled me with stories of changing brakes. This kid and his dad, and my husband, changed the brakes on both families cars one day. It was months ago, but he remembers it like it was yesterday. “Yours were so bad, we had to take the whole wheel off!” {replace the rotor}

The second day, we came up with words that start with the letter “J” as we drove home. Aunt Jen. Jellybeans. Jumprope. After lunch, I reminded him that pushing in his chair was a necessity, because the dog would certainly jump up on the table and eat his brownie. And, as we all know, chocolate is poison for dogs, so we have to watch out for that.

Continue reading “Pumpkin Swirl Sugar Cookies” »

Pumpkin Chip Cookies

A spiced pumpkin cookie full of chocolate chips.

Source: Food Network, this one courtesy of George Duran.

Yield: Around 4-5 dozen, depending on size.

I have a niece that is just a couple years younger than my daughter. She lives about 45 minutes away, but frequently spends weekends with us. She loves to play with my daughter, and the two of them are total BFF’s. When they are together, there is generally a lot of giggling and silliness, typical little girl stuff.

This weekend, my daughter had been invited to a birthday party, so my niece was stuck at our house, bored. We decided to make cookies to pass the time. She is the only child of a single dad, so baking cookies is not something she has a lot of experience with. She is also pretty unfamiliar with a lot of spices, so these pumpkin cookies turned out to be a great choice.

I always feel like pumpkin-based desserts are more appropriate for the last quarter of the year. But, even though it is spring, I was really in the mood for them. Plus, I got a can of pumpkin on clearance at the grocery store, so it was the perfect storm.

Continue reading “Pumpkin Chip Cookies” »

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