Love Hershey Chocolate???

If you love baking, and Hershey chocolate then hop on over to Marye at Baking Delights and leave a comment to win this fantastic basket! Just in time for the holiday baking to begin!! You have 3 chances to win and she is going to be giving 4 of these away...go now and check it out!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

I have made these cookies for years and they are always a hit. I made these for the bake sale for the Christmas Tea and sold out. These are perfect for your cookie swap or a gift. Very chocolaty and chewy in the middle.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
4 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups all purpose flour

Mix sugar and oil together, whisk until combined. Add eggs and vanilla, mix until combined. Mix in the rest of ingredients, batter will get stiff. After mixing, cover bowl and let chill for 1 hour. Scoop out spoonfuls of the dough and roll into 1 inch balls. Roll each ball heavily in powdered sugar and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes only.

Gingerbread Men

This is my first time making gingerbread men from scratch, instead of the roll of dough, and I am truly addicted to it! During a conversation with my closet blogger friend, who happens to live in the same town that I live in, Shanna, talked about her gingerbread recipe. She gave me nothing but fantastic reviews on this dough. Of course, I had to have the recipe and she willingly shared it. I totally agree with her on this. It is easy to mix together and very forgiving. One of the things that I really liked about it was that it did not spread. And the flavor is amazing! Thanks for the recipe Shanna! You rock! :)

This weekend is the annual Ladies Christmas Tea at my church. This thing is amazing each year. A theme is named and a committee of women get to planning. This year's theme is Holy Express based off of the movie Polar Express. There will be a general store, and this is where the baskets will be displayed for raffling off. And then there is the bakery and that is where these little guys come in handy. Every bakery has gingerbread men in stock at the holidays, right?

I will be making these again closer to Christmas!

Gingerbread

2/3 C brown sugar, packed
2/3 C molasses
1 t Ginger
1 t Cinnamon
1/2 t crushed cloves

3/4 T baking soda
2/3 C butter
1 egg
5 C all purpose flour

Heat brown sugar, molasses, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves to boiling point. Remove from heat, add baking soda, and pour over butter in a large mixing bowl. Stir until butter is melted, then stir in egg and flour thoroughly. Knead for a few minutes, then gather dough into a ball. Refrigerate dough until firm enough to roll easily. Roll on a lightly floured board and cut w/ shaped cutter of choice. Place on greased cookie sheet or parchment and bake in 325 degree oven for 8-12 minutes.

Trim the tree Thursday

Yes, I know, that is not a picture of my Christmas tree, and it goes against the whole trimming the tree thing, but....My tree is not up yet.

My new blog friend Brett from Hostess with the Mostess, is a blogging newbie and this is her first blog event. Trim the tree Thursdays. The good thing is that she said that it could be a holiday wreath on your door, it doesn't have to be just Christmas decorations. So, here it is, my front door with my fall wreath. Hopefully next week, I will have some sort of Christmas going on, but for now, just the fall wreath.

Hop on over to Hostess with the Mostess and show her some love. She has some yummy recipes posted as well!

Pumpkin Creme Brulee

A week or so ago, my friend Megan from Megan's Cookin, and I decided to this cookbook project. I have a ton of cookbooks, some of them I have not opened the first time, so this would be something to get me to use them. So, for the first round, I chose this Pumpkin Creme Brulee from Gale Gand's book Butter, Sugar, Flour, Eggs. I first saw her on the Food Network show Sweet Dreams. How I miss that show!

This is all that you would want in this dessert, pumpkin, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg...love it. The recipe said that you would get 4 creme brulee's out of this recipe, but I got 6! Bonus!!

Next up is Megan, I can't wait to see what she picks!

Pumpkin Creme Brulee
By:Gale Gand

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
2 pinches nutmeg
1 pinch ginger
1 pinch ground cloves
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup canned pumpkin puree
1/3 cup coarse sugar or raw sugar


Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

In a medium saucepan, heat the cream, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves over medium heat, stirring occasionally, just until it comes to a boil. Immediately turn off the heat and set aside to infuse at least 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the granulated sugar. Whisking constantly, gradually pour in the hot cream mixture. Whisk in the pumpkin puree. Pour the mixture into 4 ovenproof ramekins and arrange in a hot water bath. Bake in the center of the oven until almost set but still a bit soft in the center, 30 to 40 minutes. The custard should "shimmy" a bit when you shake the pan; it will firm up more as it cools.

Remove from the water bath and let cool 15 minutes. Tightly cover each ramekin with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic does not touch the surface of the custard. Refrigerate at least 2 hours, and up to 24 hours. When ready to serve, preheat a broiler to very hot (or fire up your kitchen torch).

Uncover the chilled custards. Pour as much coarse sugar as will fit onto the top of 1 of the custards. Pour off the remaining sugar onto the next custard. Repeat until all the custards are coated. Discard any remaining sugar. Place the ramekins on a baking sheet or in a roasting pan and broil until the sugar is melted and well browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Let cool 1 minute before serving.

November's edition of the Cookie Carnival

I completely bailed out on the Cookie Carnival for October. The baking slump bug had bitten me, and nothing much was coming out of this kitchen. A couple of weeks ago, I borrowed The Sweet Kitchen by Regan Daley from the library and wasn't sure if I like the book or not. This book is really thick, but there are not many pictures and half of it is baking tips and how to's. I know that stuff is helpful, but I was expecting all recipes.

A couple of days ago, I received my email from Kate revealing the November's Cookie Carnival and the chosen recipe was from this book. The Ultimate Chewy and Soft Chocolate Chunk Cookies. Now, I have been looking for a great chocolate chunk/chip cookie, had all the ingredients on hand, so what was I waiting for? Nothing. Mixed these babies up, baked them off and the verdict: Very, very good! Slightly crisp on the outside, chewy in the middle. I think the key to these cookies are that they don't spread, they puff up a little. And if you are looking for a cookie that is a great dunking cookie, this one is it. The day after, they are not as chewy in the middle, but not crisp and again, great for dunking in a glass of milk.

After having my doubts about this book, I am ready to dive into some more of the recipes.

The Ultimate Chewy and Soft Chocolate Chunk Cookies
INGREDIENTS
1 cup unsalted butter at room temp
1 cup tightly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3 cups plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
16 oz. flavorful bitter or semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

INSTRUCTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, or lightly butter them, and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, or stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, or a large bowl if mixing by hand, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Beat in the vanilla.
2. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture, and mix until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chunks.
3. Using your hands, shape knobs of dough about the size of a large walnut and place them 2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Stagger the rows of cookies to ensure even baking. Bake 12-15 for smaller cookies, 14-17 for larger ones or until the tops are a light golden brown. If the cookies are neither firm nor dark when they are removed from the oven, they will cool chewy and soft. Cool the cookies on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. If somehow they don't get inhaled immediately, they may be stored airtight at room temperature for up to one week.

Pumpkin Cloverleaf Rolls

Fall is here, and all I can think about is pumpkin and cranberries. I found this recipe in the newest addition of Family Fun Magazine and thought that they sounded good and thought I would give them a try. The verdict...they were ok. I think sweet, cinnamon and nutmeg with pumpkin. These are not very sweet at all. The only sweetener is honey in this recipe, so these would be good if you wanted to serve them at the dinner table. Now, my kids loved them with a little pad of butter on them. I did sprinkle a little sugar cinnamon mix on the top before baking, but I think next time I will add a little pumpkin pie spice to them.

Pumpkin Cloverleaf Rolls
By: Family Fun Magazine

3 3/4 cup all purpose flour, plus more for sprinkling
1 package or 2 1/4 tsp instant or bread machine yeast
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup canned or frozen and thawed pureed pumpkin
1 large egg
1/2 cup warm water
1/4 cup (1 stick) butter

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, yeast, and salt, and set it aside.

Pour the milk into a microwave-safe bowl or 4-cup glass measuring cup and microwave on high for 30 seconds. Whisk in the honey, pumpkin, egg and water. (The liquid mixture should be less then 110 degrees, anything hotter will kill the yeast.)

With a fork, blend the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture until you have a soft dough. cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Two hours before baking, turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead lightly. Melt the butter and set it aside in a small bowl. Divide the dough in half, then divide each half into 6 portions. Divide each portion into 3 pieces. With floured hands, roll each piece into a ball and dip it into the melted butter. Place 3 balls in a muffin cup. Continue until 12 muffin cups are filled.

Drizzle or brush each roll with 1/2 tsp of the leftover butter. Let the rolls rise in a warm spot until they are doubled in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. The 3 balls of dough will rise together to form a cloverleaf shape.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the rolls until golden, about 15-17 minutes.