Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

     About two weeks ago, I went to visit my family in San Antonio for a couple of days.  My mother's kitchen is just so much better than my own.  For this reason (and the seemlingly endless supplies), I always feel the need to cook while I am there.  I will have to post of picture of my small kitchen sometime soon so that you guys can see the tight quarters that I am working in.  Going home though, reminds me that I hope someday I will have a kitchen as nice as hers except with gas appliances.  Maybe this doctor thing will eventually pay out after all of these sleepless nights and countless hours in books?  LOL.  Anyways, to celebrate the wonderful weather that we have had in Texas this October and the feeling of fall, I decided to make Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing from the Martha Stewart Cookie book.     

Above: My mom decided to take a picture of me icing the cookies.

Given the fact that I have already posted several of her recipes on my site.  I am only going to post a link to the recipe that I found on her website for the recipe.  Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing Recipe

Overall I give these cookies 4.2 out of 5 stars. They were simply delightful and I couldn't help eating them even if I tried to stay away from them. My favorite thing about these cookies was how incredibly soft they were! They simply broke apart... I am not going to lie...this characeristic was slightly magical. The brown butter icing tasted a little like cinnamon roll icing. It was really sweet...almost too sweet alone. However, it melded well with the cookies when I put them together and the cookies balanced the sweetness. When I make this recipe again, I may try to cut the recipe in half. The recipe produces TONS of cookies.  I was overloaded with cookies afterwards that even after giving away half of them, I still had cookies to eat a week later.  Craziness!  I highly recommend trying to make these cookies especially in the spirit of the fall season.  Enjoy!

Snicker's Cupcakes

I had this past Sunday off from work and was in the mood to bake.  I seized this rare opportunity to tackle a recipe that looked like it would take several hours of my time.  I have been reading Annie Eat's blog quite a bit lately and I have been wanting to tackle some of her scrumptious looking recipes.  An aside from baking altogether, just saying the word scrumptious reminds me of the 1968 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  I watched the movie over and over again when I was a kid.  There is a song in the movie where Dick Van Dyke sings about the female lead being "Truly Scrumptious".  Truly Scrumptious Video  Anyone remember this scene?  :)  The thought of the movie brings back good memories and I hope these Snicker Cupcakes from Annie Eat's blog are a scrumptious as my memories of the movie are.  Maybe they will be "Truly Scrumptious"...who knows...

Recipe from Annie Eat's

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

½ cup Dutch-process cocoa powder

½ cup hot water

2 cups all-purpose flour

¾ tsp. baking soda

¾ tsp. baking powder

¾ tsp. coarse salt

16 tbsp. unsalted butter

1½ cups sugar

2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk

1¾ tsp. vanilla extract

2/3 cup sour cream, at room temperature

For the caramel sauce:

8 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 cup sugar

1 cup heavy cream

¼ tsp. vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

For the filling:

24 fun-size Snickers bars, chopped

For the frosting:

16 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 lb. confectioners' sugar

1½ tsp. vanilla extract

1/3 cup caramel sauce

Pinch of coarse salt

2 tbsp. heavy cream

For garnish:

8 fun-size Snickers bars, chopped

White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake

I have only made cheesecake once.  About two years ago, I made a chocolate cheesecake for a friend from Cooking Light.  My mom recently bought me a cheesecake pan from Ross and I have yet to use it.  Mitchell mentioned on our camping trip that he really liked White Chocolate raspberry cheesecake from the Olive Garden.  So I have been meaning to make a cheesecake for multiple reasons for a while now.  So when Mitchell was in town last month, I wanted to make this particular White Chocolate raspberry cheesecake.  I found the recipe by typing White Chocolate raspberry cheesecake from the Olive Garden in google and it was one of the first websites to pop up.  He helped me make this delicious creation.