Tis' the Season...

So I made these a while ago and they were a huge hit with the Boy and the extended family, so I figured I would give them a shot again.

Glazed Pumpkin Cookies! Yum.

Genius me decided that it would be a good idea to do a double batch of these delicious pumpkin treats, not thinking of my ancient mixer and how it would react. Look at this thing, it's no Kitchenaid.



Let's just say that it wasn't pretty. ;)

Pumpkin Glazed Cookies

Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 cup (8 tbsp.) butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract

- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 3 tbsp. milk
- 1 tbsp. melted butter
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.

3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.

To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.



Enjoy!

Let's start with a classic....

It's cookie time here in Keira's Kitchen and I have been baking up a storm! Almost every other day I find myself hanging out in the kitchen trying to decide what kind of cookies to make now. Snickerdoodles, sugar cookies, chocolate peppermint snaps, butter cookies, forgotten kisses or.... Chocolate Chips Cookies!!!!

So I figure we could start off with a classic for cookie season, Chocolate Chip cookies. It is the all American cookie and a staple around the holidays. Whether you choose to us classic semi-sweet morsels or M&M's there is really nothing quite like Chocolate Chip cookies!

Like a lot of people, I like to stick with the classic Toll House Chocolate Chip recipe. It's simple and I haven't met anyone who doesn't like these cookies.

Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup chopped nuts (but I never put this in because it just seems wrong!)
2 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels

Preheat your oven to 350
Combine flour, baking soda and sugar in a separate bowl. Beat butter, both sugars and vanilla extract in a large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Add chocolate morsels.
Bake for 11 to 13 minutes until golden brown. (I usually start checking it at about 8 minutes because I like mine really soft but that's just me.)


And then you get to eat some really delicious cookies. These never last very long at our house especially when friends and family know I have been baking, everybody all of a sudden "is just in the neighborhood." Hahaha. I'll just be flattered. ;)

Enjoy.

xoxo,
K

Gotta Start Somewhere

Hello there. Welcome to my blog.

I'm hoping to use this blog to chronicle my day to day struggles between the Administrative Assistant I am and the Baker I desire to be.

I have spent the better part of the last three years trying out different baking techniques and have actually found that I'm not such a disaster in the kitchen. There is nothing like having the smell of homemade chocolate chip cookies or pumpkin pie filling your house. I love watching my friends and family bite off the head on the giraffe shaped sugar cookies I just finished icing. Or seeing my nephew Timmy's face light up when I present him with a Lightning McQueen cake.

Basically, I'm obsessed with baking.

I don't have the most advanced equipment or a Bachelor's in Pastry Arts. I'm just your average twenty three year old girl with this never ending desire to be in the kitchen with my 1979 mixer and a endless supply of cookie recipes.

I'll be posting pictures, recipes and maybe some tutorials on how I do things in the kitchen. I'd love it if you hung out with me on my cookie baking binges!

Much Love,
K