Soft iced pumpkin cookies

From gimmesomeoven.com.

•  Prep Time: 20 minutes
 
•  Cook Time: 20 minutes 

•  Yield: 3 dozen

Cookie Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice, plus extra for sprinkling
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting Ingredients:

• 8 ounces (1 brick) low-fat cream cheese, room temperature
• 3 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt until combined.  Set aside.

1. Cream together the butter, sugar and brown sugar on medium-high speed 1 minute till light and fluffy. 

1. Add pumpkin-egg-vanilla to the buttermixture and beat until just combined. 

1. Fold in dry ingredients until just combined. 

1. Drop pn cookie sheet by heaping tablespoonfuls or with cookie scoop. (These cookies tend to poof up slightly rather than flatten during baking, so shape them beforehand however you'd like. They won't rise much.)

1. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cookies are cooked through and bounce back slightly if you touch them.  Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool until they reach room temperature.  Then frost or drizzle with cream cheese frosting, and sprinkle with an extra pinch of pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon if you’d like.  Refrigerate in a sealed container for up to 3 days.

To Make Cream Cheese Frosting:

With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, butter and vanilla together on medium-high speed until smooth.  Gradually add in the powdered sugar until it is all combined and the frosting is smooth.  

If it is too thick, add in a tablespoon or two of milk (or water) until it reaches your desired consistency. 

If it is too thin, add in more powdered sugar until it reaches your desired consistency.

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No-Bake Lemon Blueberry Delight

 

By Kelli Foster.

INGREDIENTS

• 8 ounces 

  cream cheese

• 8 tablespoons 

  (1 stick) unsalted butter

• 12 

  whole graham cracker sheets (about 6 1/2 ounces), or 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

• 2 tablespoons 

  granulated sugar

• 1/4 plus 1/8 teaspoon 

  kosher salt, divided

• 1 1/2 cups 

  cold heavy cream

• 1/2 cup 

  powdered sugar, divided

• 2 

  medium lemons, divided

• 1 teaspoon 

  lemon or vanilla extract

• 1 (about 21-ounce) can 

  blueberry pie filling

• 1/2 cup 

  fresh blueberries

How to Make Lemon Blueberry Delight

1. Make the base. After mixing the graham cracker crumbs with melted butter, sugar, and salt, press the mixture into the baking dish. To ensure the base is super sturdy, use the bottom of a measuring cup to pack the crumbs firmly and evenly into the baking dish.
2. Prepare the whipped cream. Be sure to start with cold cream here. Whip the heavy cream and powdered sugar just until stiff peaks form. Transfer the whipped cream to a separate bowl so you can reuse the stand mixer bowl for the cream cheese layer (no need to clean it).
3. Beat the cream cheese layer. Beat the softened cream cheese, lemon zest, powdered sugar, and lemon or vanilla extract until super light and fluffy. Fold in about half of the whipped cream.
4. Assemble the delight and chill. Assemble by topping the graham cracker base with the following layers: cream cheese, blueberry pie filling, whipped cream, and fresh blueberries. Cover and refrigerate the delight for at least 4 hours (or up to overnight) to allow the dessert ample time to firm up. Giving the dessert plenty of time to chill makes for easier, smoother slicing.
5. Garnish and serve. Garnish with finely grated lemon zest, then slice the delight, and serve. Stacked layers are part of the appeal of this layered dessert. Make sure every slice is picture perfect by wiping the knife clean between cuts. 

Pecan snowball cookies

 

This is the Land O' Lakes snowball cookies recipe except for the parenthetical notes and the substitution of vanilla sugar for the regular powdered sugar! Makes about 48 dense, rich cookies.

2 cups pecans

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Reserve:

1/2 cup powdered vanilla sugar

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Process pecans in food processor until finely chopped (use some or all of the granulated sugar to help grind them). Transfer chopped pecans to bowl; stir in flour and salt. Set aside.

Cream butter and granulated sugar in medium bowl 2 minutes or until fluffy. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low; add nut mixture. Beat just until dough is combined.

Working with 1 tablespoon dough, shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place, 1 inch apart, onto ungreased cookie sheets. 

Bake 16-18 minutes or until very lightly browned. (If using insulated cookie sheet, may take longer. In my experience, the cookies don't exactly brown so much as they turn a little lighter. If you poke one with your finger and it still molds like dough, then it's not cooked through yet.)

Let cookies cool on cookie sheet 5 minutes; transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. (But it's easier to coat the cookies neatly with sugar BEFORE they cool completely, so do the next step, then let them finish cooling.)

Place powdered vanilla sugar into shallow bowl; roll cooled cookies in sugar to coat. Store in airtight container. If necessary, re-roll cookies in powdered sugar before serving.

Chunked potatoes a la Dad

 

Cut 1 stick butter into pats. 

Start boiling water maybe 45 min before ETD (estimated time of dining). 

Cut 4 russet potatoes (or more) into uniform chunks, put in a big round pot and cover with water a bit more than a half-inch above the potatoes. Can sit a while like this. 

Bring to boil, toss in about a tablespoon of salt, uncover and simmer 15 min - until you can stick a fork in a chunk easily. 

Drain and toss with butter pats, salt, black pepper. 

Steam everything in a Fasta Pasta!

This is an "As Seen On TV" gadget and yet also a low-priced kitchen marvel. There's something about the rectangular shape that helps things heat evenly in the microwave, and you can cook or steam many things without wrestling a giant pot of salty water. Read on!

Whole wheat fusilli pasta

6 oz. fusilli - cover the pasta with water, add 1 tsp olive oil and 2 pinches salt. Microwave uncovered 6 min. high, test one to see if it’s al dente. If still too hard, microwave another 5 min.

Texmati rice/wild rice/red rice blend (HEB’s “Rice Select - Royal Blend”)

1 c rice + 1.5 c water: Microwave uncovered 5 min. high, fluff with fork, add ½ c water and microwave 5 more min. high.

Minute rice

1.5 c minute rice, 1.5 c water, 1 tsp avocado or olive oil, 1 pinch salt. Microwave uncovered 3-4 min. high, fluff with fork, microwave 3 more min. High.

Asparagus spears

18-20 fresh asparagus spears + 2 Tbsp water. Microwave covered 5 min. high.

Frozen broccoli

For 10 oz. frozen broccoli, add 1-2 Tbsp water (just 1 Tbsp if there is a lot of ice on the broc). Microwave covered 5 min. high. 

Roasted Brussels sprouts (use Fasta Pasta to heat them so they roast well)

For approx 10 oz. frozen or fresh Brussels sprouts, halve them and add 1-2 Tbsp water (just 1 Tbsp if there is a lot of ice on frozen veg). Microwave covered 4-5 min. high, then toss with olive oil and salt. Line a sheet pan with parchment, spread the Brussels sprouts out on it, and roast in 400-degree oven till edges are brown.

Roasted cauliflower florets with Parmesan (use Fasta Pasta to heat them so they roast well)

For approx 10 oz. frozen or fresh cauliflower, add 1-2 Tbsp water (just 1 Tbsp if there is a lot of ice on frozen veg). Microwave covered 4-5 min. high, then toss with grated Parmesan, olive oil and salt. Line a sheet pan with parchment, spread the cauliflower out on it, and roast in 400-degree oven till edges are brown.

Baby new potatoes

10 oz. or so baby potatoes + 1 Tbsp water. Microwave uncovered 5 min. high. Poke with fork to see if tender; if still hard microwave another 2-3 min. Toss with olive oil and salt.

EXTRA: No Fasta Pasta necessary, just great way to make corn on the cob in microwave!

Fresh corn on the cob

2 or 3 fresh cobs in husks. Cut off ends of cobs, peel outer layers of corn husk off (leave about 3 layers of husk). If you have a microwaveable bowl, so that the corn cobs can sit in the bowl kind of suspended off the bottom but not touching each other too much, use that. Microwave uncovered, no additional water, on high 4-5 min. Pull them out, and – wearing two oven mitts!! – strip the husks off: Hold corn by the base (large end) in one hand; grab the husk with your other hand; twist and pull the entire husk up off the top. (Corn silk will come off with the husk!) Cut cobs in half and toss with olive oil and salt.

Walnut-cranberry baked Brie

 

• 1 (8-ounce) round Brie cheese 
• 2 tablespoons dried cranberries 
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme 
• 1 teaspoon chopped walnuts, toasted
  
  
  
  

• Using a serrated knife, remove topmost rind from cheese; discard rind. Place cheese, cut side up, in a small ovenproof baking dish; sprinkle with cranberries and thyme. Top evenly with nuts. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until cheese is soft and warm. Serve immediately with crackers.

Sugar cookies a la Alton Brown

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon milk

Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

1. 1.     Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.
2. 2.     Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
3. 3.    Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. If dough has warmed during rolling, place cold cookie sheet on top for 10 minutes to chill. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack. Serve as is or ice as desired. Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.
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