Weekend bakination...

They say the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have a problem... Between baking for socialness on Saturday and baking some cookies for a friend's Sunday school class I ended up logging some serious cooking time this weekend.

These are the pumpkin muffins I described earlier, as well as some cheese muffins from a recipe I adapted from a Cooking Light recipe (I'll post it if anyone is interested).



I also baked the rest of the chocolate cookies, and made the amazing espresso shortbread cookies, which I believe originally came from a Dorie Greenspan recipe (it's only a matter of time before I break down and buy her fabulous cookbook) [Edit: I found one for 1/2 price on Amazon. I broke down and bought it. That didn't take long]. I've made these shortbread cookies twice. I don't keep expresso powder on hand, so I used instant coffee instead. One time I used 2 tablespoons and the other time I only used 1; go with the higher amount. I also tried it with dark chocolate and with toffee/chocolate. I didn't think it made a huge difference one way or the other; the toffee flavor doesn't really come out.


(shortbread)


(shortbread and chocolate cookies)

And lastly I made my usual chocolate chip cookies for the Sunday school class. This is a recipe I've adapted from a Mrs. Fields cookbook.

Cream together:

1/2 C butter (Earth Balance works fine for this recipe; I have a relative who is allergic to milk so I've tried it quite successfully).
1/2 C brown sugar

(optional: add 1/4 C white sugar in addition to brown sugar. I don't because I don't like super-sweet cookies, but I do find some people prefer it).

1 tsp vanilla
1 egg/ener-G equivalent (I use the equivalent because then you can eat the cookie dough without having to worry about salmonella. Also it's cheaper).

Add in:
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1.25 C flour

Mix until blended, then throw in a few handfuls of chocolate chips (the more the better; I probably use about a cup).

Eat cookie dough.

Bake remaining dough at 325 for 10-15 minutes (my oven runs pretty hot, so it doesn't take long). I like to take them out when they look just barely underdone and leave them on the cookie sheet to cool. This allows them to bake that last little bit while staying soft).

Pumpkinmuffingoodness

In my family we have a tradition of eating pumpkin ice-cream with hot fudge sauce. Not necessarily an intuitive pairing, but it's incredibly tasty nonetheless. This means that I try to add chocolate to any pumpkin recipe I can, with the possible exception of pumpkin pie because you just can't mess with tradition too much without being in danger of being stabbed to death with salad forks by angry traditionalists. If you don't like pumpkin and chocolate then I suppose (she conceded grudgingly) you could leave out the chocolate chips.

I made these tasty pumpkin muffins to celebrate the fact that the weather has finally cooled down and I'm no longer in danger of spontaneous combustion and/or melting. I very loosely based the recipe off of this one. However, it's sufficiently changed that I think I'd better list the ingredients anyway...

Mix in separate bowl:

1.5 C flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Combine until well blended:

3/4 C brown sugar
1 C canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1 tsp cardamom
2 eggs worth of Ener-G egg replacer (you could use eggs, but I don't if I can get away with using the egg replacer)
1/4 C oil

Stir dry ingredients into pumpkin mixture until just blended. Add in several handfuls of chocolate chips because everything is better with chocolate chips. Spoon into medium-sized muffin tin (should come out to exactly 12 muffins if you haven't eaten too much batter). Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes (my oven tends to run hot, test muffins by sticking something into the center. With the exception of melted chocolate chips it should come out clean if they're done). I use a sharp knife but I understand that non-grad students use a "cake tester," whatever the hell that is. Eat tasty muffins.