Jack-O-Lantern Chocolate Cookie Sandwich

So usually I like to stick to the totally from scratch recipes, but the gourmet/specialty food isles at Homegoods, Marshall's, etc. with their cute little food mixes always catch my eye. This little Halloween mix was from Homegoods and was pretty fun to make.

It was super simple, came with the chocolate cookie mix, orange frosting mix and double-sided cookie cutter with the pumpkin shape and the cutouts for the face. The only disappointing thing was that it was supposed to make 12 cookie sandwiches and it only made 10 :( But they still turned out cute anyways! 9 days 'til Halloween!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Monkey Bread and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

So today marks the beginning of my obsession with pumpkin-based recipes. I love making things that go with the season, so right now it's all about apples, pumpkins, Halloween, Thanksgiving, anything fall. After browsing the endless possibilities of things you can make with pumpkin puree, I ended up choosing to make Pumpkin Cinnamon Monkey Bread and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars. 

The bread was kind of a scary decision, considering I hadn't made bread since I was eight and made the spontaneous decision to create cinnamon bread, which included biking all the way to the grocery store just to get the yeast. Needless to say, an eight-year-old trying to make bread all by herself didn't turn out too well, so I usually steered away from bread recipes from then on. However, since I was home on fall break with an entire day free to spend in the kitchen, I decided to give it a shot and I'm SO glad I did. This is not too easy of a recipe, as it requires many steps and a lot of time, but it's worth it for this bread which basically turns out like pumpkin cinnamon rolls! 

Pull-Apart Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Bread with Buttered Rum Cream Cheese Glaze

Ingredients:
Bread

• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup milk (room temperature)
• 2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 cups bread flour

Cinnamon Sugar Filling

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter

Buttered Rum Glaze

• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/8 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 Tbsp milk
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp rum 
• 1 Tbsp Cream Cheese 

Directions:

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, brown 2 tablespoons of butter, letting it bubble up and turn a dark golden brown but being careful not to allow it burn (turn black). To make sure it doesn't burn, as soon as you see the brown forming on the bottom of the pan, pull it off the burner - it will continue to brown a little! Also, if you're worried about it being almost burnt, just let it cool and taste it, you'll know right away. Once browned, remove the pan from the heat and carefully add the milk, return to the stove for just a few seconds to heat through and stir. Pour the milk and butter into the bowl of standing mixer fitted with a dough hook if you have one (I did mine by hand - still turned out fine) and allow to cool so it is no longer hot but also not cool (about 100-110 degrees F). It's really important that it's at this temperature range when you add the yeast and sugar because the yeast will die if it's too hot and not work if it's too cold! Once it has reached this temperature range, add the yeast and 1/4 cup of sugar and stir vigorously to dissolve as much as possible. Now just sit and wait as it proofs! Letting the yeast proof just ensures that the yeast is alive and working, and also gives it a little head start in the baking process.  It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to see some action, but if it doesn't look like this:

then your yeast is dead or isn't working! This happened to me twice before I decided that the entire strip of yeast packets were duds. Luckily my dad, who has been into making baguettes lately, happened to buy some yeast just the day before, so I was in luck! I actually let my yeast proof for an hour while I made the pumpkin chocolate chip bars, but after the yeast shows some action, add the the pumpkin, salt, and 1 cup of flour. Stir until combined then add the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time and knead for 6 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic and just slightly sticky. If the dough is too moist, add extra flour 1 tablespoon at a time. I had a hard time kneading all of the flour into the dough, and it took a couple minutes longer, but eventually it all got incorporated.

Move dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a clean towel. Allow to rise in a warm place for 90 minutes or until doubled in size. When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and flip out onto a clean floured surface and knead with hands for 1-2 minutes. Put it back in the bowl and let rise for another 10 minutes.


Right before the dough is done rising the second time, brown another 3 tablespoons of butter. Add the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and mix well. Making sure sugar evenly absorbs the butter. Set aside. Next, grease and flour a 9x5 loaf pan and set aside


Roll dough into a 20x12 inch rectangle. Cut with a pizza cutter into small rectangles. Dip the rectangles into the cinnamon-nutmeg-sugar mixture and press it into the dough to make sure it sticks, and kind of roll a little of the mixture into the dough and start to stack into the loaf pan, almost like mini cinnamon rolls. Once all of dough is in the pan, cover with a clean towel and let rise for 30-45 minutes.

In the meantime preheat an oven to 350 degrees. After rising in the pan bake for 30-35 minutes. Mine was a little crispy at the ends at about 33 minutes, so next time I would cook it more around 30.


After the bread cools a bit, make the butter-rum-cream-cheese glaze. Add butter, brown sugar and milk to a saucepan and let come to a boil. Immediately remove from stove and mix in powdered sugar, rum and cream cheese. Pour over the top of the bread and... voila!

Yay! I served it warm out of the oven with ice cream for my parents and I... it was way too easy to finish half of it in one sitting...


Now for the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars! I love getting suggestions from friends, and this recipe was given to me by my friend Freddie... so here ya go! Just as a forewarning, these "bars" don't really turn into your average cookie-type bar without a 24-hour wait and refrigeration. At first they're a little cakey, as many reviews said, but as time goes on, they condense a little and become more moist and "bar-like," also the pumpkin flavor really comes through more and more the longer you wait! Refrigerating them keeps them easy to handle and they taste much better!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars


Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) of unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 oz)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-by-13-inch baking pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

2. With a stand or electric mixer, cream butter and sugars on medium-high speed until smooth; beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Add pumpkin puree and mix well. The mixture will look somewhat curdled. Reduce speed to low, and mix in dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

3. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake bars for 35-40 minutes or until edges begin to pull away from sides of pan and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached.

4. Cool bars completely in pan and refrigerate overnight. Cut into squares and serve. Makes 24 bars.

Yum!

Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars

So, just when I decided to create a blog for all of the goodies I love to make in my free time, of course my camera dies. Regardless of the lower picture quality, these treats are quite possibly the best things I have ever made. I recently discovered the Betty Crocker website and all it has to offer, including multiple easy recipes that build upon Betty Crocker products such as their pre-made cookie and brownie mixes, etc. Hoping to create something fun for fall, I decided to pick something other than the usual chocolatey/cupcakey/cookie-type recipes I usually go for. This led me to the BEST possible outcome - the apple streusel cheesecake bars recipe from Betty Crocker. Although in the end they may seem like a complicated dessert to make, these bars are "semi-homemade" and besides the apple pie filling, cream cheese and Betty Crocker oatmeal mix, these amazing bars only require a few simple baking ingredients that most people will have at home - butter, sugar, flour, vanilla extract and only one egg. For easy access, here is the link to the recipe on the Betty Crocker website - http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/apple-streusel-cheesecake-bars/8cf62013-0676-4102-8d75-0f1ee6d3fa8f. However, I made some modifications to this recipe, which I include in the ingredients/instructions list for my bars:

Ingredients: 

• 1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® oatmeal cookie mix
• 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp firm butter or margarine (1 full stick plus a Tbsp)
• 2 packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened (I used regular, but low-fat and fat free are fine!)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1.5 cans (21 oz) apple pie filling, or enough to cover the cheesecake topping - to be honest, for this ingredient, you might want to go with the nicer quality. I bought one can of Kroger brand and one of a "gourmet" brand, and you could tell the difference. 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts - I left this out since a lot of people dislike walnuts, and it was still perfect! But... the nuts would add a yummy extra texture/taste!

Instructions:  

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom and sides of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray.
2. Place cookie mix in large bowl. With pastry blender or fork, cut in butter until mixture is crumbly and coarse (really takes some squishing using your hands to get the best result, the fork doesn't quite "cut it," literally). 
3. Reserve 1 1/2 cups crumb mixture; press remaining crumbs in bottom of pan - I ended up using almost all of the cookie mixture for the bottom crust because it wasn't thick enough at the edges. I had abou 1/4-1/2 cup of cookie mixture left after I made the crust. Bake 10 minutes. 
4. Meanwhile, in large bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, flour, vanilla and egg with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. 
5. Spread cream cheese mixture evenly over partially baked crust. In medium bowl, mix pie filling and cinnamon ( I chopped up the apples to make spreading easier). Spoon evenly over cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle reserved crumbs over top. Sprinkle with walnuts if desired. (At this point, I didn't have enough oatmeal topping left, so I made a simple streusel to crumble over the top - 1/2 cup sugar/brown sugar, 1/2 cup flour and 6 Tbsp butter. This should cover the rest of your bars if you don't have enough cookie mixture left!
6. Bake 35 to 40 minutes longer or until light golden brown (My oven was 38 minutes). Cool about 30 minutes. Refrigerate to chill, about 2 hours. For bars, cut into 6 rows by 4 rows - 1"x1" squares would be perfect for appetizers or mini desserts! They are super rich. Store covered in refrigerator.

SO GOOD! Such a great fall treat, I hope you all enjoy. Happy Fall! 

I hope to make something pumpkin-y or Halloween-y for my next post! :)

Happy Baking!