Snickerdoodle Pumpkin Cream Cheese Blondies

Adapted from: www.CulinaryConcoctionsByPeabody.com

I found myself searching blogs for something different to make (don't I always?). Once I saw this combination of pumpkin and blondie, I had to try it. WOW. I've made snickerdoodle blondies before, but this recipe is much better than the other one. Also from now on, whenever I make something that is cinnamon/sugary, I'm going to sprinkle cinnamon sugar on the bottom of the pan, as called for in this recipe. It gave the bottom of the bars a crisp sweetness that just perfected the dessert.

INGREDIENTS

BLONDIE
8 ounces (two sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup loosely packed light brown sugar
3 ounces Mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
2 eggs1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
Pinch of salt
¾ tsp. cream of tarter
¼ tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
2 cups all-purpose flour

Cinnamon Sugar for coating (about 1/3 cup)

PUMPKIN CREAM CHEESE FILLING
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
½ cup solid packed pumpkin
½ tsp. pumpkin pie spice
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
2 TBSP flour
½ cup granulated sugar

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a 9 by 13-inch pan. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar and move pan around to make sure that the bottom and sides are coated. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cream of tartar. Using a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugars. Beat for three minutes. Scrape down the bowl.
Add the Mascarpone cheese and beat until fully incorporated. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla and beat for another 30 seconds. On low speed add the sifted flour mixture. Mix until fully incorporated.
Spread mixture evenly into prepared pan. This will be hard as it is a thick batter. It may easiest to just wet your hands a little and press the batter into the pan. Then even it out afterwards with a spatula.
Using a clean bowl, cream together on medium high speed cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Add the pumpkin and beat another minute until fully incorporated. Add vanilla and egg, and beat until incorporated. Add pumpkin pie spice and flour and beat until incorporated.
Pour on top of snickerdoodle batter. The best you can swirl it around, they are very different consistencies and so this will be hard to do. Don’t worry, you aren’t trying to show the swirl, just get it in there. You might have to move some snickerdoodle batter back into place. Just press down with a spatula.
Sprinkle more cinnamon sugar on top of the batter.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, check your oven starting at around 25 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Cut into squares and serve.

Pumpkin Molasses Cookies

I thought these were pretty good - a mix between pumpkin and gingerbread and I even added a few white chocolate and butterscotch chips on the top for extra flavor. However, my husband and brother-in-law were not crazy about them. They said they were a bit dry. I'm posting the recipe anyway since I thought they were good! That's all that really matters, right? ;)


Adapted from: http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/

Yields 24 cookies


INGREDIENTS
2 1/3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp black pepper
8 Tbs butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup molasses
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1 large egg
1/2 cup sugar, for rolling



DIRECTIONS

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and pepper. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add the brown sugar, molasses, and pumpkin puree and beat for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the egg and beat for 1 minute more. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing until the flour and spices disappear. If flour remains in the bottom of the bowl, mix the last of the dry ingredients by hand to avoid over beating. You will have a very soft dough. Divide the dough in half and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Freeze for at least 30 minutes, or refrigerate for at least 1 hour. The dough is sticky, so the longer time it can chill the easier it is to work with. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Put the sugar in a small bowl. Working with one packet of dough at a time, divide it into 12 pieces, and roll each piece into a ball. Roll the balls in the sugar and use a the bottom of a glass to press down on the cookies until they are between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick. Transfer to cookie sheets. Do not over crowd. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12-14 minutes, or until the top feels set to the touch. Remove baking sheets from the oven. Let cookies cool 5 minutes on the sheets before transferring them to a cooling rack. Repeat with second batch of dough.

Silky Smooth Pumpkin Pie

My first pumpkin pie! I can't believe I never made one before. That's probably because I always want to make something "different", so I miss out on the basic pies and cakes. ;) The pie turned out well, however, I had some issues. I didn't roll my dough flat enough for the crust...since I don't have a rolling pin! What kind of baker am I?? Therefore, I used less filling and had to adjust the baking time. I actually liked the thick crust though. It could have turned out worse - as I reached for the nutmeg, I accidentally grabbed white pepper and realized it right before I dumped the 1/4 teaspoon into the pot....

Adapted from: www.smittenkitchen.com

INGREDIENTS

A half-recipe of your favorite pie crust, chilled (I used Smitten Kitchen's All-Butter, Really Flaky Pie Dough)

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

3 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree

1 cup drained candied yams from 15-ounce can (regular canned yams can be substituted)

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup maple syrup

2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger (I used 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground because I didn't have fresh ginger)

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon table salt

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Roll out dough on generously floured (up to 1/4 cup) work surface to make 12-inch circle about 1/8-inch thick. Roll dough loosely around rolling pin and unroll into pie plate, leaving at least 1-inch overhang all around pie plate.
Working around circumference, ease dough into plate by gently lifting edge of dough with one hand while pressing into plate bottom with other hand. Refrigerate 15 minutes. Trim overhang to 1/2 inch beyond lip of pie plate. Fold overhang under itself; edge should be flush with edge of pie plate. Using thumb and forefinger, flute edge of dough. Refrigerate dough-lined plate until firm, about 15 minutes.
Remove pan from refrigerator, line crust with foil and fill with pie weights or pennies. Bake on rimmed baking sheet 15 minutes. Remove foil and weights, rotate plate. Bake 5 to 10 more minutes until crust is golden brown and crisp. Remove plate and baking sheet from oven.
Make the filling: While pie shell is baking, whisk cream, milk, eggs, yolks and vanilla together in medium bowl. Combine pumpkin puree, yams, sugar, maple syrup, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in large heavy-bottomed saucepan; bring to sputtering simmer over medium heat, 5 to 7 minutes. Continue to simmer pumpkin mixture, stirring constantly and mashing yams against sides of pot, until thick and shiny, 10 to 15 minutes.
Remove pan from heat. Whisk in cream mixture slowly, until fully incorporated. Strain mixture through fine-mesh strainer set over medium bowl, using back of ladle or spatula to press solids through strainer. Re-whisk mixture and transfer to warm pre-baked pie shell. Return pie plate with baking sheet to oven and bake pie for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 300 degrees. Continue baking until edges are set (instant-read thermometer inserted in center registers 175 degrees), 20 to 35 minutes longer. Transfer pie to wire rack and cool to room temperature, 2 to 3 hours. (The pie finishes cooking with resident heat; to ensure the filling sets, cool it at room temperature and not in the refrigerator.)

Pumpkin Blondies

Perfect for fall baking! These Pumpkin Blondies were so good...I have to make them again (maybe for Thanksgiving or the Christmas Party?). I divided the batter in half and used butterscotch chips in one half and white chocolate chips in the other. My vote is for butterscotch, or a combination of the two. (1 cup of each mixed into the entire batter would be great!) The recipe also noted that you could use brown sugar or regular white sugar - I opted for brown sugar since white sugar tends to make recipes more crisp and I thought a blondie should be chewy. I'd be curious as to how they taste with regular white sugar though...maybe next time!

Adapted from: www.annies-eats.com

INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. salt
16 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1¼ cups brown sugar (original recipe calls for regular sugar)
1 large egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
½ cup chopped, toasted nuts (optional - I omitted)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a 9×13-inch baking dish with foil. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt. Stir together and set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well combined. Mix in the pumpkin puree. With the mixer on low speed add the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated. Fold in the white chocolate and butterscotch chips (and nuts, if using) with a rubber spatula.
Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan. Bake until the edges begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs, about 35-40 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool completely before cutting.
To serve, lift the cake from the pan using the foil and transfer to a cutting board. Peel off the foil and using a sharp knife, cut into 24 squares.

Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Brownies

Here we go! These were much better than my previous attempt at chocolate pumpkin brownies. I found two versions of this recipe - the original on Cara's Cravings blog and the second altered version at Beantown Baker's blog. I used the altered version since it made more pumpkin cheesecake batter, making it less of a "brownie". I'm sure they would be great either way though!

Adapted from: http://www.beantownbaker.com/

INGREDIENTS (makes 16 bars)

BROWNIE BASE
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder - I used Hershey's Special Dark cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon

CHEESECAKE BATTER
6oz cream cheese, softened - I used 8oz
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar - I used 1/2 cup
2 tbsp flour - I used 2 Tbsp + 2 tsp
1/2 cup pumpkin puree - I used 2/3 cup
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract - I used 1/3 tsp
1/2 tsp cinnamon - I used 2/3 tsp
1/4 tsp each ground ginger and ground cloves - I used 1/3 tsp

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8x8" square metal baking pan. Beat together melted butter, sugar, and vanilla, then beat in eggs one at a time. Combine dry ingredients and then gradually stir into butter mixture with a wooden spoon. In separate bowl, beat together cheesecake batter ingredients. Spread about 2/3 of chocolate batter into prepared pan, and spoon cheesecake batter over. Dollop remaining brownie batter over cheesecake batter. Swirl the batters together by running a butter knife back and forth through the pan.Bake for 40 minutes, or until center is set. Cool completely on wire rack and chill before cutting and serving.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

These were good, but they tasted more like muffins than cupcakes. I liked the cream cheese icing for these much better than the cream cheese icing I made for the Kahlua cupcakes. The consistency was much thicker! I was debating between these and cream cheese swirled pumpkin muffins and I kind of wished I had tried the muffins. However, these were tasty and kicked off the fall baking season!

Adapted from: www.joyofbaking.com

INGREDIENTS

CUPCAKES
1 3/4 cups (225 grams) all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
2 large eggs
1 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup pumpkin puree (canned or fresh)
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

DIRECTIONS

CUPCAKES
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in the center of the oven. Line 12 regular-sized muffin cups with paper liners or spray each cup with a non stick vegetable spray.
In a large bowl, sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and ginger.
In another large bowl, whisk the eggs until lightly beaten. Add the sugar and melted butter and whisk until blended. Whisk or stir in the pumpkin, water, and vanilla extract.
Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and stir just until the ingredients are combined. (A few streaks of flour is fine.) Evenly divide the batter among the muffin cups, and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

FROSTING
In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the butter and beat until incorporated and smooth. Add the vanilla extract and confectioners sugar and beat until fluffy (2-3 minutes). Pipe or spread the frosting on the cupcakes. Sprinkle with toasted and chopped nuts.

Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies

Ever since I made the chocolate chip pumpkin bread last year, I've been wanting to make something else with chocolate and pumpkin - it was such a great combination! However, I wasn't crazy about these brownies. They weren't chocolatey enough! They didn't taste bad but a bit of a cakey texture (I like my brownies fudgy!) and were a bit bland for my taste. My mom liked them though. I made half of a batch in an 8x8 pan since I was just testing out this recipe on a Saturday afternoon. I think I will continue my search for a good pumpkin brownie recipe!

Adapted from: http://www.foodandwine.com/

INGREDIENTS

PUMPKIN BATTER
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/3 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

CHOCOLATE BATTER
5 1/2 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/4 sticks (5 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 heaping cup large walnut pieces (about 4 ounces), optional

DIRECTIONS

PUMPKIN BATTER Preheat the oven to 350°. Lightly butter a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. In a small bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter with the cream cheese until smooth. Beat in the sugar, scraping the bowl occasionally. Beat in the egg, then add the pumpkin puree, vanilla, cinnamon and ginger. Stir in the flour.

CHOCOLATE BATTER Combine the semisweet chocolate and butter in a medium bowl. Set the bowl over a saucepan with 1 inch of simmering water and stir occasionally until melted. In a large bowl, combine the eggs with the sugar, vanilla and salt; set the bowl over the saucepan of simmering water and, using an electric mixer, beat at low speed until blended. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the mixture is warm to the touch. Remove from the heat and continue to beat until the mixture is think and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Using a large rubber spatula, fold in the melted chocolate. Sift the flour over the warm batter and fold it in just until combined. Fold in the walnut pieces.
Spread the chocolate batter evenly in the prepared pan. Using a tablespoon, drop dollops of the pumpkin batter all over the top. Using the back of a butter knife, swirl the pumpkin batter into the chocolate; don't overdo it or the swirl pattern will be lost. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Let the brownies cool completely before cutting.

White Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake

I was told this cheesecake "might possibly" be the best cheesecake ever tasted by my brother-in-law, so I'm going to ahead and say this cheesecake was fantastic. However, the white chocolate was supposed to be melted - I burnt it the first time and didn't have the patience to try it again, so it was more of a white chocolate chip pumpkin cheesecake. I guess I didn't do that bad of a job on it since I got great reviews at Thanksgiving!

Ingredients

2 cups cinnamon graham cracker crumbs (about 2 sleeves)

1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons of sugar, divided

1/4 cup butter, melted

3 (8oz) packages cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup pumpkin puree

3/4 cup white chocolate, melted

3 eggs-1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 Tablespoons caramel sauce for topping

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. For crust, combine graham cracker crumbs (I used a blender to crush them) with melted butter and 2 Tablespoons of sugar. Mix together and press into a lightly greased 9-in. springform pan. Set aside.

3. For filling, mix cream cheese and remaining sugar until smooth. Add pumpkin, white chocolate, eggs, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice, and mix until combined. Pour into springform pan and place pan on in a shallow baking pan.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes or until center appears nearly set when gently shaken. Let cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and drizzle caramel topping over the cake. Chill until ready to serve.

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake

I got this recipe from http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/ in my search for the perfect Thanksgiving recipe. It kind of tastes like Pumpkin Pie over cake - pretty good!

Cake:

1 (18 1/4-ounce) package yellow cake mix

1 egg

8 tablespoons butter

Filling:

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

8 tablespoons butter, melted

1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the cake: Combine all of the ingredients and mix well. Pour batter into a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan. Prepare filling.

To make the filling: In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Make sure not to overbake as the center should be a little gooey. Serve with fresh whipped cream.

*I tried to make a topping for this recipe as well - it looked like it needed something else - since I only did half of the recipe in an 8x8 pan, I took some of the extra cake mix and mixed with with butter and sugar. It definitely added to the goodness of the cake, but I think a crumbly cinnamon topping might be better.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

With the upcoming holiday season, I keep coming across recipes for pumpkin and chocolate, which seems like an odd combination to me. (I'm not sure why I would think that anything is odd with chocolate though!) I decided to try baking a Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. I found this recipe from Magnanimity's blog (http://5purposedriven.wordpress.com/2006/10/20/1051/). She says it can make bread or cookies but I found the consistency too watery to form cookies. I also added more chocolate chips than the recipe called for. The bread was excellent! I plan to try more recipes with this combination.

Makes 3 (9×5″) loaves

3 cups sugar
1 T ground nutmeg
1–15 oz can pumpkin puree
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup water
1 cup miniature semi-sweet chips (I used regular semi-sweet chips and added about 1.5 cups)
4 eggs
1/2 cup walnuts, optional (I omitted)
3 1/2 cups flour
1 T ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour three 9×5″ loaf pans. (I only made one loaf and cut the recipe in thirds.) Combine all dry ingredients in large bowl; set aside. In large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, oil,water, and eggs. Beat until smooth. Blend in the dry ingredients. Fold in chocolate chips, and nuts (I omitted, not a fan of nuts in bread), if desired. Pour batter into prepared loaf pans. Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire racks before removing from pans.
*Note: This bread should freeze well, half of it is actually in my freezer and I'll let you know how that is after Thanksgiving!

White Chocolate Ribbon Pumpkin Cake with Maple Glaze

This was actually supposed to be made as a full bundt cake, but I don't have that type of pan (some kind of baker I am!). I have mini-bundt pans, so I made mini cakes. ;) This picture is also before the maple glaze was added on top. I found this recipe from Cookie Madness (http://www.cookiemadness.net/?p=5026).

Filling:
3/4 cup white chocolate morsels or white chips or 4 oz white chocolate
8 oz cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour (13.5 oz)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 sticks (8 oz) butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 (15-16 oz) can pumpkin

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon maple syrup (I used sugar-free)
1/2 teaspoon maple extract (imitation can be used too)
2-3 tablespoons heavy cream (I used half & half)
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a large bundt pan or spray with flour added baking spray.
Prepare filling. Place white chips in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on high for 1 1/2 minutes, stopping every 30 seconds to stir. Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla into melted chips. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in vanilla extract. Beat in eggs, one by one and continue beating on high speed of electric mixer for 1 minute or until mixture is light. Stir in pumpkin. By hand or using low speed of mixer, stir flour mixture.
Pour about one third of the pumpkin batter into bundt pan. Pour white filling over pumpkin batter, keeping white batter away from sides of pan as much as possible. Pour remaining pumpkin batter over white batter.
Bake for 55 minutes or until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes; Turn from pan. Let cake cool completely before glazing.
Prepare glaze. Stir together sifted powdered sugar, maple syrup, 2 tablespoons of cream and salt. Beat until smooth. If glaze is too thick, add remaining tablespoon of cream. Drizzle over cooled cake; Store cake in refrigerator.
20 Servings