Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Icing

More pumpkin stuff and cream cheese stuff? Yup, more pumpkin and cream cheese stuff! And I have a small confession to make about these cookies. I made them a year ago for a Halloween party I went to last year. By the time I got around to uploading the pictures Halloween was long gone, so I figured I'd wait to this year to post them. I'm actually very impressed with myself for remembering about them!

These cookies were a huge hit at the party I brought them too. But then again, would you expect anything less when you top a pumpkin cookie with cream cheese icing? I didn't think so. The cookies are light and cakey and frosting adds the perfect finishing touch.

The recipe makes a huge amount of cookies so feel free to scale it down, or just do what I did and make huge cookies! I ended up using about 1/4 cup of dough for each cookie.

Pumpkin Cookies with Cream Cheese Icing
Recipe: Adapted from www.allrecipes.com, Seen at My Baking Addiction

Ingredients

• 2 cups unsalted butter; softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 cups canned pumpkin (solid; not pie mix)
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups all-purpose flour

Directions
1. Cream butter, white sugar and pumpkin. Add eggs and mix well.
2. Sift together the baking soda, ground cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, salt and flour. Add to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
3. Drop from spoon to cookie sheet. Bake 13-15 minutes at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3-4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions
Mix the cream cheese with the butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla extract, and milk in a bowl. Heat in a microwave for 15 seconds. Drizzle spoonfuls over the cooled cookies and smooth with the back of a spoon or a spatula.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins

Hello, my new favorite pumpkin treat! Nice to meet you. Where have you been all my life?

Oh... are you expecting me say more about these? Are the pictures not enough to make you want to go bake them RIGHT NOW. Ok fine, I don't think words will do them justice, but I'll try. This muffin is a cross between a cupcake, pumpkin pie, and cheesecake. It's Fall in a bite. They're easy to make and even easier to look at. The only hard thing about these is watching them leave as your husband takes them to work.

I got the idea from these muffins over at Annies Eats. I used the same base, but instead of molding the cream cheese into log, freezing it, slicing it, and hiding it in the middle of muffin I decided to alter the filling a little bit and go black bottom cupcake style with these. I like the idea of the cream cheese showing so you know exactly what's in store. And the cinnamon sugar topping? That's just a nice little bonus that adds the perfect finishing touch!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Muffins
Muffin and Topping adapted from: Annies Eats
Makes: About 45 mini muffins (12 regular)

For the filling:

• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1 tbls flour
  
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the muffins:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/2 tbsp. plus 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup + 2 tbls vegetable oil

For the topping:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 tbsp. flour
• 3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Directions:

1. To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese, egg, flour and confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl and mix well until blended and smooth. Set aside.
2. To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.
3. To make the topping, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl; whisk to blend. Add in the butter pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two forks until the mixture is coarse and crumbly. Transfer to the refrigerator until ready to use.
4. To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin about 2/3 full with batter. Add a dollop of filling on top. (I would say I used about a tablespoon of batter and a heaping teaspoon of filling. They were pretty full going into the oven.) Sprinkle with topping. Bake or 14 minutes. Cool. Eat. Smile.
   

Caramel Corn

This post is going out with a disclaimer: This stuff is seriously addicting! I didn't even think I liked caramel corn that much, but I (along with 10 other people) could not stop eating this!

I took a giant batch of this to my friends place for Canadian Thanksgiving and even after we ate dinner and dessert, and everyone was as full as could be, hands were still reaching into the bowl of caramel corn because they just couldn't get enough. It's easy to make this festive and colorful by adding in seasonal candy. I added in candy corn to half of the batch and some fall colored m&m's to the other half.

Make this soon, but make sure you have plenty of friends to share with, because trust me if it's just you and the caramel corn, the caramel corn will win.

Caramel Corn
Adapted from www.allrecipes.com
Ingredients:

• 7 quarts plain popped popcorn
• 2 cups dry roasted peanuts (optional)
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F (120 degrees C).
   
2. Make popcorn and place in a large bowl (or 2 large bowls). I actually used a double bagged brown bag from the grocery store. It worked great and cleanup was easy!
   
3. Combine the brown sugar, corn syrup, butter and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring enough to blend. Once the mixture begins to boil, boil for 5 minutes while stirring constantly.
4. Remove from the heat, and stir in the baking soda and vanilla. The mixture will be light and foamy. Immediately pour over the popcorn in the bowls or bag. Stir to coat.
   
5. Bake for 1 hour, removing the pans, and giving them each a good stir every 15 minutes. After it has baked separate into pieces if need. Allow to cool completely, then store in airtight containers or resealable bags