Halloween Sugar Cookies

More sugar cookies!  These were fun to make and decorate :)

Here's the recipe for the cookies:  

(I made the dough a couple days before and stored it in the fridge until I was ready to use it)

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups of flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup plus 3 tbsp of cool butter

1 cup of sugar

1 tsp almond extract

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt

2. Beat the butter with the sugar and vanilla until fluffy, then beat in the egg and yolk.

3. Sift the flour mixture over the butter mixture and combine just until well combined.

4. Wrap the dough, tightly, and cool in the fridge for at least  45 minutes.

5. Cut into cookies and bake in oven for about 12 minutes (325 degrees).

For the icing...

I always add some lemon extract to this recipe as I think it helps with the taste.

When decorating it is important to let colors dry before applying new colors.  Like for the ghosts I would apple the white and let dry for a couple hours and then go back and do the eyes.  Same for the bats.  For the candy corn I let time try between each color to allow for the icing to harden.

Molten Lava Cake

Something I've been wanting to make these for a long time!  They turned out great, only a couple minor alterations needing to be made.

I liked this recipe but I would be open to try another recipe because I am not sure if I love the texture.  When baking it is tricky to figure out when to take them out of the oven.  Something I learned was to use all the same size ramekins (because they cook differently).

These were also super rich.  I could only finish half of mine, and I am planning on next time making little mini ones about half or a third of the size to make it more manageable to eat (spilt one with two people) 

Ingredients
6 (1-ounce) squares bittersweet chocolate
2 (1-ounce) squares semisweet chocolate
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 stick) butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 large eggs
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons orange liqueur

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Grease 6 (6-ounce) custard cups. Melt the chocolates and butter in the microwave, or in a double boiler. Add the flour and sugar to chocolate mixture. Stir in the eggs and yolks until smooth. Stir in the vanilla and orange liqueur. Divide the batter evenly among the custard cups. Place in the oven and bake for 14 minutes. The edges should be firm but the center will be runny. Run a knife around the edges to loosen and invert onto dessert plates.


Recipe from Food Network

Pumpkin Puree

I love baking with seasonal fruit and vegetables and fall means it is pumpkin season.  I really wanted to take advantage of all the great fresh pumpkins this year but I have always been too lazy to actually make my own pumpkin puree and I always just used canned.  This year I thought I might as well try it out and make my own pumpkin puree so I could see if it was worth the effort. Totally was.  First get a sugar pumpkin.  Most grocery stores sell them, they are just a smaller size, but not the super small pumpkins.  Usually they are not near the pumpkins for decorating but by the vegetables.  You can always ask someone if in doubt, because I had the most trouble with this part of the making the puree.  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.

2. Wash the outside of the pumpkin.

3. Cut out the stem.

4. Cut the pumpkin into 1/8's (in half, in half, in half)

5. Dig out all the seeds.

6. Place the pumpkin on parchment paper on a baking sheet however you want (haven't found much of a difference on what sides I lay them on)

7. Bake for about an hour (whenever the flesh becomes easy to pull away with a fork).

8.  When cool enough to work with, but still hot, peel of cut off all the skin and discard.

9. Put all the pumpkin guys in a blender, food processor of use an emersion blender and mix well.

Such a better cooler and I feel so much better about eating this rather than all that canned pumpkin!

Enjoy!

Since I usually don't use all my pumpkin in one recipe I package the rest is freezer bags with all the air pushed out so they will keep longer.  In the fringe the puree only lasts about a week but in the freezer it can last up to 6 months (and some people say a year!) 

Pumpkin Scone Recipe

These are killer.  I like a denser scone while Jordan likes a scone that is more moist, so usually we like different scones.  These ones though, were a perfect mix and we both really liked them!  The bummer about these is they are really best the day of or the next day, so don't plan on keeping them for a long time.  A little time consuming considering that I made my own pumpkin puree too, but not bad if you know your way around a kitchen.

Highly recommended and I will be making these again. I also cut the size of each scone in half and they were still too big for my taste.  I like little mini scones as a good treat, but you will be addicted.  Do not overcook.

http://iowagirleats.com/2012/09/18/starbucks-clone-pumpkin-scones/