Rice Krispie Pumpkins

With just a few weeks to go until Halloween, I’ve prepared a little care package for my favorite preschooler, my goddaughter Maureen. She’s mildly allergic to cinnamon, so the pumpkin chocolate chip bread I’m sending will really be for her parents, and while I would’ve liked to have sent her some pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies, they’re not quite as sturdy for shipping.

These Rice Krispie pumpkins are a good alternative, as they can be packed in an airtight container with little risk of breakage between Pittsburgh and southern Maryland. My Rice Krispie treats use a high marshmallow-to-Krispie ratio, as I like a softer treat, but you can use an additional cup of Krispies if you’re after something a bit sturdier. I’m hoping that they’ll stay fresh during the few days they’ll be in transit!

If you’re not shipping your treats, you might consider adding some frosting or melted chocolate embellishments to make the pumpkins look like Jack-o-Lanterns. You could also gently press in some candy corn or other Halloween-related candy into the tops of the treats and simply cut them into bars if you like.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons margarine
4 cups miniature marshmallows
yellow liquid food coloring
red liquid food coloring
5 cups Rice Krispies

Preparation

Spray a 9 x 13 pan with nonstick spray; set aside.

In a large pot, melt margarine over medium heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted; add about 15 drops of yellow food coloring and two drops of red to achieve your desired orange color.

Add Rice Krispies and stir until completely coated with marshmallow mixture; immediately pour into your prepared pan and smooth out using a spatula.

Allow to cool completely, then turn out onto a sheet of parchment. Spray a pumpkin cookie cutter with nonstick spray and cut; reshape scraps and cut again, or hand-form into pumpkins.

Apple Crumb Bars

I will not be intimidated by caramel. Not even when I completely fail at a recipe for caramel apple shortbread and turn said caramel into something that could have probably been used as a weapon, so sharp were its edges.

Full disclosure: I’m no confectioner. I’m far better with baked goods than I am with candies, which is what caramel is, really. So when the failed recipe didn’t turn out, I chalked it up partially to my inexperience with this finicky substance and partially to the blogger who wrote some less-than-clear instructions regarding the length of time one needs to cook her caramel and what it will look like at different stages in preparation. Hint: “bubbly” and “glossy” are rather subjective terms, and I clearly have a very different opinion about what those words mean. Step-by-step photos of the process would have been immensely helpful, but there were none to be had. Anyway…

Realizing that I definitely need more practice with caramel-ish substances, I found an apple crumb bar recipe that includes a caramel apple layer between two crumb layers, and it turned out very well. I’m not a big fan of cooked fruit, even apples, but Mike proclaimed these bars delicious.

Ingredients

For the crumb layers:

3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
3/4 cup white sugar*
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar*
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, cut into cubes

For the caramel apple layer:

4 medium apples, diced (I used 2 Granny Smiths and 2 Empires)
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup cold water

*If you prefer, you can use 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar instead of the white/dark brown mix.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with parchment paper and spray lightly with baking spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, sugars, baking soda, and salt; stir to combine. Rub in the butter with your hands until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs; you can also cut the butter in using a pastry blender, but I found the rubbing method to be much easier.

Reserve 2 cups of crumb mixture for topping; press the remaining crumb mixture into the prepared baking dish and set aside.

Sprinkle diced apples evenly over the crumb layer.

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, butter, and water. Stir constantly and bring to a boil; once the mixture begins to boil, cook and stir for 2 minutes until the mixture is thickened and bubbly and looks like the photo below.

Pour the caramel mixture over the apples and sprinkle the remaining crumbs on top.

Bake for 38-40 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from oven and cool completely before serving; I put mine in the fridge overnight so the caramel would set up well.

You’ll want your caramel spice mixture to look like this. Don’t be intimidated by the caramel!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Last weekend, our friends Kash and Mandy got married. They’re an interfaith couple like we are, being Muslim and Christian respectively. Mike, my Jewish husband, was their celebrant; it was a lovely wedding, one of the most fun I’ve ever attended. At the reception, there was a traditional Pittsburgh cookie table, and I was happy to be able to bake some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to contribute to it.

I had a cup of pumpkin puree left over, which I’ve been keeping in the fridge and wondering how to use. This recipe was a great solution, requiring exactly one cup of pumpkin. I did adapt it slightly, because it originally called for pumpkin pie spice and I don’t keep that on hand. Fortunately, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and nutmeg can be mixed together to create pumpkin pie spice, and you can adapt the ratios depending on your preference. I chose to do equal half-teaspoons of each spice, with a extra dash of cinnamon.

An interesting aspect of this recipe is its use of melted butter, rather than oil, as the fat. Most muffins require vegetable oil or applesauce, rather than butter, which I always think of as more of a cupcake ingredient. Regardless, the end result is a moist, fluffy muffin that has a nice spicy flavor and just the right amount of sweetness from the chocolate chips. I used semi-sweet, but bittersweet would be a good choice as well.

Ingredients

1 2/3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, plus an extra dash if you like
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
8 tablespoons melted butter
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12- cup cupcake tins with paper liners.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and nutmeg. Stir together to combine.

In a small bowl, whisk together melted butter, eggs, and pumpkin; add to dry ingredients and stir until well-combined and no dry streaks remain. Stir in chocolate chips.

Using a two-inch cookie scoop, scoop batter into prepared cupcake tins, filling each cup about half-full. Bake for 16-18 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the centers comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack or serve warm.

Honey Cupcakes

It’s Rosh Hashanah! Tonight in the interfaith Kozusko-Marcus household we are celebrating with sweet foods, including these honey cupcakes with honey cream cheese frosting.

Many of the recipes I’ve seen for Rosh Hashanah desserts involve apples, or honey, or both; most celebrations tonight will feature apples dipped in honey in the hope of a “sweet new year,” and you can learn about this fun tradition from the fine folks here at aish.com. To me, honey cake is the Rosh Hashanah dessert…but a whole cake for just Mike and me seemed like a bit much. Are there honey cupcakes, I wondered? Indeed, there are. And why I’ve never baked them before is truly one of life’s great mysteries.

As many of you know, honey cake was my baking nemesis until a few years ago, when I found this great honey cake recipe. The cupcake version uses a completely different recipe, and is absolutely delicious, with a great aromatic twist from the cinnamon and lemon zest. I doctored up a frosting recipe that I found online to include vanilla extract to cut some of the sweetness and it worked very well.

Happy New Year, all! Leshanah tovah tikateiv veteichateim!

Honey Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
8 tablespoons butter, softened
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
zest of 1 medium lemon
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup milk

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; my batch yielded 16 cupcakes when cups were filled about half to three-quarters full.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla extract, lemon zest, and beat until well-combined, then add honey and beat until well-combined.

With the mixer running on its lowest speed, gradually add flour until the mixture is just combined, then add milk and mix until just combined. Scrape sides of the bowl frequently to fully incorporate all ingredients.

Using a two-inch cookie scoop, scoop batter into cupcake pans, filling about half to three-quarters full. Bake for at least 17 minutes, then check cupcakes for doneness; if cupcakes are not done, continue baking for 1-2 minutes and checking after each interval to be sure they don’t burn. My cupcakes baked for about 21 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool for just a moment in the pans, then cool complete on wire racks.

Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons butter, softened
1/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese and butter until well-combined and fluffy. Add honey and vanilla extract and beat until very well-combined. Add powdered sugar, one half-cup at a time, beating well after each addition.

Scoop frosting into a piping bag fitted with an open star or large plain tip; I used Wilton #199. Pipe frosting onto cupcakes; you will have more than enough, so reserve any unsued frosting in an airtight container in the fridge; I had about a cup left over because I didn’t pipe a ton onto each cupcake. Various web sources claim that you can store cream cheese frosting in the fridge for a few weeks, but I’d use it quickly…maybe bake a one-layer cake and use the rest on that.

Store frosted cupcakes in the refrigerator, but bring to room temperature before serving.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Peanut butter, chocolate chips, and oatmeal are all delicious on their own, but when combined in cookie form in this recipe they bring out the best in each other. These treats are among my favorites that I’ve made lately; they’re not too sweet, with interesting texture and a great combination of flavors.

If you’re not really a chocolate person (not that I could ever understand such a thing) you can omit the chocolate chips and just go with plain peanut butter oatmeal. You could also use peanut butter chips, or you could use crunchy peanut butter instead of smooth for some added texture. Either way, I’d recommend keeping these cookies small, because the oatmeal makes them pretty hearty.

This batch of cookies went to Southern Maryland with Mike this week; he’s visiting his parents, and our awesome cousins Barb and Robb and the incomparable Maureen, my goddaughter. I’m hoping that I’ll get a photo of Maureen eating one, but so far I’ve only seen a video of her with chocolate pudding all over her face. We’ll keep that one around for her wedding, of course.

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, slightly softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups flour
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line three baking sheets with foil or parchment.

In a mixing bowl, combine butter and peanut butter and beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Add sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, and baking soda and mix until well-combined, scraping the sides of the bowl often.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, then add vanilla and beat until combined.

Beat in flour, about one half-cup at a time, until well-combined. Stir in oats and chocolate chips.

Using a one-inch cookie scoop, drop dough onto prepared cookie sheets; you should be able to fit 12 cookies on each sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until edges are just golden brown; cookie centers will still look slightly puffy. Remove from oven and allow to cool on cookie sheets for about 5 minutes, then place on wire racks to cool completely.

Note: this recipe yields 60 cookies. Because I only have three large-sized baking sheets, I let each of them cool between batches before I scoop on another round of dough.

Fudge Rounds

When I was in college, my grandma Zella would send me care packages. As a graduate of secretarial school in the 1940s, my little Hungarian-born gram never had the experience of microcosmic college life that I had at Frostburg State University. There, on a little campus on the side of a mountain in Western Maryland, my entire existence was wrapped up in papers about subjects I’d never remember today, in presentations for my communications degree, in quarters for laundry, and in the simple joy of grilled cheese day at the dining hall.

Another great joy in campus life was the care package from one’s grandma, and my packages always included some home-baked good, such as Zella’s almond cookies or butterscotch chip cookies, a few cans of Pringles, and some kind of Little Debbie Snack Cakes. The variety of snack cakes depended on the season; in autumn, Fall Party Cakes arrived, and in winter, Christmas Tree Cakes. Any time of year might bring Swiss Rolls, Zebra Cakes, Oatmeal Cream Pies, or Donut Sticks. Despite being one of the best bakers I’ve known, Z definitely believed in the convenience (and affordability) of Little Debbie’s offerings.

I’m not sure if she ever sent me Fudge Rounds, but I bet my gram would be proud of this recipe below; it captures the essence of the Fudge Round perfectly and, dare I say, with even more fudgy goodness than its packaged counterpart. The recipe below is adapted from a few others I found online, adjusting quantities for what I believe to be softer cookies and sturdier filling. You may notice the addition of 1 tablespoon of flour beyond the standard 2 cups in the cookie recipe; my first test batch seemed too soft, even after a few additional minutes of baking, so I added some more flour to stabilize the dough and it worked very well. It’s also important to note the need for salted butter here; if you’re using unsalted, you’ll want to add some salt with your dry ingredients to balance the flavor.

Fudge Cookies

Ingredients

2 cups plus 1 tablespoon flour
3/4 cups cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups salted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line three baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and beat well.

Add flour mixture in three batches, scraping the sides of the bowl regularly; it will take several scrapings to fully incorporate all of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

Using a two-inch cookie scoop, drop scoops of dough onto parchment-lined sheets; you should have 6 scoops on each sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, until edges are set and centers are still puffy; remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on baking sheets for several minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely. I left my batches on for about 8 minutes each.

Cool cookies completely before filling.

Chocolate Filling

Ingredients

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3 1/2 to 3 3/4 cups powdered sugar
4 tablespoons warm water

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, cream shortening and butter. Add vanilla and beat until well-combined.

Add cocoa powder and 1 cup powdered sugar; beat until well-combined, scraping the sides of the bowl often. Add 2 more cups powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, mixing well and scraping the bowl between each addition. As with the batter for the cookies, it takes a while for the dry ingredients to fully incorporate with the wet ingredients in this recipe.

Add water and beat on low at first, then increase speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes, until filling is light and fluffy. Add remaining 1/2 to 3/4 cup powdered sugar, depending on the consistency of your filling; mine was quite thin, probably due to very soft butter in yesterday’s heat, so I added the full additional 3/4 cup to stabilize it.

Once the cookies have completely cooled, flip them all over; using a 1-inch cookie scoop, drop scoops of filling onto half of the cookies, spread with an offset spatula, and top with the remaining cookies.

Chocolate Drizzle

Ingredients

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Preparation

In a large glass measuring cup, melt chocolate chips and vegetable oil by microwaving in 15-second intervals, stirring between each. Pour drizzle into a pastry bag fitted with a small plain tip and pipe drizzle in wavy shapes. Allow chocolate to set before serving.

Store fudge rounds in single layers in airtight containers.

Brown Sugar Sandwich Cookies

For some reason there’s a surplus of sour cream in our fridge. A few weeks ago I bought two containers intending to make something completely different–possibly a chocolate cake, although I can’t quite remember now–and then Mike brought home a third to use as a baked potato topping earlier this week. It was a happy accident to discover that this recipe called for sour cream, as clearly, I have plenty.

Scientifically speaking, sour cream alters the texture of baked goods because of its acidity, making cakes and cookies lighter and moister than those without. These cookies are soft, but also have a delightful just-shy-of-crispy edge. The original recipe called for them to be frosted with a caramel mixture, but I decided to fill them with a vanilla cream instead to balance the nearly-caramel flavor of the brown sugar. You could certainly eat them plain if you like; next time, I’ll use more filling for each cookie than I did today, so I’d actually recommend doubling the filling ingredients in the recipe below.

Brown Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Generous 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, slightly softened
1 1/3 cups packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup sour cream

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

Add eggs and vanilla and mix until well-combined.

Add sour cream and mix until well-combined.

Add flour mixture in two separate batches, scraping the sides of the bowl in between.

Using a two-inch cookie scoop, drop scoops of dough onto prepared sheets, leaving a few inches between each as the cookies will spread. Spray your palm with baking spray and gently press each scoop of dough until the top is flattened.

Bake for 12 minutes; remove from oven and allow to cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely before filling.

Vanilla Cream Filling

Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, beat butter and shortening until combined.

Add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well between each addition.

Add vanilla extract and beat until well-combined.

To fill the cookies: flip half of the cookies over and spread filling on each; top with another cookie to create the sandwich.

Almond Paste

Now that I’ve made almond paste, I may never purchase it again. Seriously, this was so easy, I don’t know why I’ve never made my own almond paste before.

This all started with the Heath bit bars I made earlier this afternoon. Searching the pantry cabinet for some pecans, which I thought would add some extra crunch to the bars, I found none…but I did find a few cups of blanched almonds. I didn’t want to add blanched almonds to my Heath bit bars, but I did realize that they, along with a few other ingredients, could be ground into almond paste. Out came the food processor, and a few minutes later – also utilizing the leftover egg white from my Heath bit bars – I had my first-ever homemade batch of almond paste.

So, the question is: what will I bake with it? Almond clouds are a good idea…which only use egg whites and will leave me with some leftover yolks. Which is fine, because the yolks can go into lemon curd. And then, what will I do with the lemon curd? Oh, so many possibilities.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups whole blanched almonds
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons almond extract

Preparation

Place almonds in the bowl of a 7-cup food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process until almonds are finely ground.

Add 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, egg white, salt, and almond extract. Process until the mixture forms a ball; you’ll need to scrape the sides of the bowl a few times.

Break up mixture and add remaining tablespoon of powdered sugar, which will help make the paste less sticky. Process again; the mixture will return to a ball very quickly.

Carefully remove from the processor and pat with your hands, shaping paste into a log. Wrap in plastic and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.

Note: this recipe yields 15 ounces of almond paste.

Heath Bit Bars

This week at the office, my purchase of a Twix precipitated a discussion about favorite candy bars. There was great debate; some folks are Milky Way and Three Musketeers fans, while others (including me) favor Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers bars, or those ingenious Take 5 bars that include a pretzel, caramel, peanut butter, peanuts, and milk chocolate all in one delicious little package.

I’m also a big fan of the Heath bar, and with that ind mind, I picked up some Heath Milk Chocolate Bits in the baking aisle yesterday. There’s a great recipe on the bag for Heath bit peanut butter cookies that I fully intend to bake sometime, but because I also had the Twix bar on my mind, I decided to make a treat that would sort of combine the best of both worlds: a bar with a shortbread-like crust, milk chocolate chips, and Heath bits.

This recipe is adapted from one that I found on the Hershey’s website that used plain toffee bits, rather than Heath Milk Chocolate Bits. Next time, I’d like to sprinkle on some chopped pecans, or maybe even chopped salted peanuts, to add another dimension of flavor. You’re supposed to wait until these bars have cooled completely before you cut them, but as you can see by the glossy chocolate in the photo above, I simply couldn’t wait.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 cups flour
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 12-ounce package milk chocolate chips
1 cup Heath Milk Chocolate Bits

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter at medium speed for 1-2 minutes, until fluffy.

Add brown sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla and mix well.

Add flour and mix until combined.

Press crust mixture into the bottom of a 10 x 15 x 1 jelly roll pan, smoothing with an offset spatula as best you can for even browning.

Bake for 22-25 minutes, until top is golden brown.

Remove from oven and sprinkle immediately with chocolate chips. After about 5 minutes, spread melting chips with an offset spatula to cover the crust completely. Sprinkle on Heath Milk Chocolate Bits and let stand for just a moment, then spread with an offset spatula.

Allow to cool completely before cutting.

Oatmeal Spice Muffins

This morning I had a wee mishap in the kitchen, when I forgot to add the baking powder to my first batch of oatmeal spice muffins. Baking powder is an important leavening agent composed of both sodium bicarbonate, also known as baking soda, and acid salts that react with wet ingredients to create bubbles of carbon dioxide that lighten batter.

When you forget to add a leavening agent to a recipe, you’ll end up with a dense, flat finished product rather than a light, fluffy one; see the photograph below for the difference in my muffins. And, while baking powder and baking soda are related, they’re not necessarily interchangeable. If all you have is baking powder, you can use it in place of baking soda by doubling or tripling the quantity in your recipe. But, if all you have is baking soda, you’ll need to mix it with cream of tartar before substituting it for baking powder; just mix one part baking soda to two parts cream of tartar.

My second batch of these muffins turned out very well, though they’re not as sweet as I was expecting. Next time, I might add a bit of oatmeal streusel topping with brown sugar to ramp up the flavor. This recipe was adapted from another that I found online which was supposed to yield 12 muffins, but my batch only yielded 11. I suspect that these would be great as mini muffins, though.

Ingredients

2/3 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
dash of cloves
1/3 cup milk
1 beaten egg
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400. Line muffin cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, oats, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves; make a well in the center.

In a glass measuring cup, combine milk, egg, oil, and vanilla; add all at once to the well in the dry mixture and stir until combined. Batter will be lumpy, but that’s okay.

Add pecans and stir to combine.

Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full and bake for 17 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack or serve warm.

Below, you can see the difference baking powder makes. The muffin on the left is not only fluffier, but darker in color than the muffin on the right.

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