Perfect Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

After my last cake pop endeavor, I still have a ginormous can of pureed pumpkin in my fridge with only 3/4 of a cup gone. So once again, I scoured TasteSpotting and found this fabulous recipe for Pumpkin Snickerdoodles. I love this recipe because Lori, from her blog Recipe Girl, presses the cookie balls down with a sugared glass so that when they bake, they aren't puffy. Genius. I am always disheartened when my Snickerdoodles don't come out flat, so I was ecstatic to try her idea. I adapted the recipe slightly and I love the way they turned out. Perfect for this crisp weather. However, I STILL have pumpkin left. If I don't use it within the week, it will quickly be forgotten until I find it months from now after trying to figure out where that "smell" is coming from. Any suggestions on how to use my remaining cup of pumpkin?

pumpkin snickerdoodles.

cookies.
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup pure unsweetened pumpkin puree
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

rolling sugar.
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon allspice

1. Beat butter and sugars together in mixer with paddle attachment.
2. Add pumpkin, egg and vanilla and mix until combined.
3. Whisk flour through sugar in medium mixing bowl.
4. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture in segments. Mix until combined.
5. Cover dough and refrigerator for at least one hour until dough is firm.
6. Mix rolling sugar ingredients together and set aside.
8. Cover baking sheet in parchment paper or coat with cooking spray.
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
8. Remove dough from refrigerator. Roll into 2 inch balls and coat in sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on baking sheet.

9. Bake 12-14 minutes. (I varied mine between 10 and 15 and oddly enough, there didn't seem to be too much of a difference either way...so, I don't know. I guess do what you want, ha.)

Best Recipe 2011: S'Mores Cookie Bars.

Recently, my Dad got a fire pit from Costco, so at least once a week, it has been party at his house with of course...alcohol and s'mores. As of late, the weekly get-togethers have increased my love for 1. S'mores 2. My family 3. Alcohol....not necessarily in that order. So, summer life has been great this year and I will shortly be starting my first real nursing job (Yay!). In other news, Tim and I FINALLY bought a new camera so I no longer have to use my iPhone to take pictures of my wonderful baked goods. Anyway, I found this s'mores cookie bar recipe on the Hershey website. They have not just this amazing recipe, but so many others that I want to try out as well. I'm glad I tried this one though because it could be one of my favorite desserts ever. It tastes amazing right out of the oven and in my opinion even better once they are cool, but if you like them warm, you can always toss them in the microwave for a few seconds.

hershey's s'mores cookie bars.

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1 egg

1 1/3 cup flour *I put a little less flour and a little bit more graham cracker crumbs)

1 tsp baking powder

4 hershey's milk chocolate bars (or miniature, doesn't matter as long as they cover the pan)

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract *(I used 2)

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs *(I used about a cup and a little less flour)

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup marshmallow cream (aka marshmallow fluff)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

2. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy.

3. Add egg and vanilla. Beat well.

4. Stir together graham cracker crumbs, flour, baking powder and salt. Add to butter/sugar mixture.

5. Press half of dough into prepared pan.

6. Arrange chocolate bars over dough.

7. Spread with marshmallow cream.

8. Scatter bits of remaining dough over marshmallow and press to spread. I flattened the dough in my hands first and then put in the pan and pieced the dough together. Its not really as hard as it seems.

9. Bake 30-35 minutes or until lightly browned.

10. Cut into bars.

Cookies! Snickerdoodles: Round 2

So once gracious reader not only actually read my Snickerdoodle post (Thank You!) but actually proposed a second Snickerdoodle cookie recipe.  This was at least 1000 times better than the last one. I think the extra butter in the second recipe made a huge difference.  It was not "cakey" at all and no burned bottoms! Wooo! Because lets get serious...who wants a burnt bottom? Not I.

Look Mom! No burnt bottoms!

The recipe is listed in the comments of my first Snickerdoodle recipe, you can find it there.  In the meantime, I am just going to post a bunch of ridiculous pictures that I took with my sucky camera to fill the space of the recipe.  She has her own baking blog as well.  Check it out here: The Art of Baking.

  

cinnamon sugar snickerdoodle cookies.

Snickerdoodles.  I’ve been dying to make these.  Apparently they are a common “childhood” favorite, however; I don’t believe they ever took part in mine.  But I mean, cinnamon and sugar coated sugar cookie (essentially), how can that turn out bad? Initially, I was a little disappointed in the outcome of these.  Maybe my expectations were set too high as I am sitting here on a Thursday night, 80 degrees in DC in the middle of April and raining...working on that silver lining, but I wasn’t thaat impressed, initially.  They did grow on me though.  Not sure I would use this recipe again for this cookie but I am now set out to find a perfect snickerdoodle cookie, no offense Martha Stewart.

snickerdoodles.
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
     1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
8 TBSP (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup pure vegetable shortening (the solid stuff)
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 TBSP ground cinnamon
2 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper*.
2. Sift (or whisk) together flour, cream of tartar, salt, and baking soda; set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, shortening and 1 1/2 cups of sugar.
4. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.
5. Add eggs and beat to combine.
6. Add dry ingredients and beat to combine.
7. In a small bowl combine remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and cinnamon.  
8. Use a small ice cream scoop** to form balls of dough and roll in cinnamon sugar. 
9. Place about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes, rotating cookie sheets at 5 min***.

 

10. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

I used one batch with parchment paper and one without.  I had nonstick baking sheets and the parchment paper made no difference, just turned slightly crisp.  Which is fine, if thats how you like your parchment paper, not necessary though.

** Small ice cream scoop? I don’t even know what that means.  I used my fingers and got exactly 24 cookies which is what she got.  Guess I’m just good at sizing up balls...ha.

*** I baked the first batch for 10 minutes and they burned.  The bottoms were actually black.  I baked the 2nd batch for 7 minutes and they weren’t black, but still pretty dark.  I imagine these could be done at 5-6 minutes depending on your oven, just keep an eyeball on them.