Lovin' From the Oven

Chocolate Buttermilk Cookies

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Man, was this week draining. So draining that it made me a little sickly child! 🙁 I had to leave work early today because I was scaring away customers with my man-ish cough. Oops.
The first thing I did was run straight to the store and buy 10 cans of soup. My go to is Campbell’s tomato bisque, but for some reason, I couldn’t find it at two different grocery stores! What the heck! So instead, I grabbed tomato soup in six different brands and hoped for the best.
Although, for the past hour, I’ve been watching the Food Network’s “Meat and Potatoes” and could really use some sweet BBQ right about now. A girl can dream.
These cookies are slightly adapted from spache the spatula, but they just didn’t tickle my fancy. I was intrigued by how much liquid was going into the batter (plus I had buttermilk to use up), so I gave them a shot. Needless to say, they failed my taste AND texture test. These tasted kinda funky and were just too soft. Is that even possible for the girl that loves soft and chewy cookies? Yes. Who knew? I felt that I was biting into a slice of bread rather than a cookie. That just ain’t right.
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
  • 3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 2/3 cup buttermilk
  • about 1 cup chocolate chips
  1. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the cocoa powder and melted butter until very smooth. Add in the sugar, vanilla, and buttermilk. Slowly add in the flour mixture and mix until just combined.
  3. Refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours. Then, preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  4. Scoop the dough onto the lined baking sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart.
  5. Dot the dough with chocolate chips (about 4-5 per cookie).
  6. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool further.

Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake & Winners!

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Before I go on, I apologize for being so late announcing the winners! This week has been extremely hectic at work with Condoleezza Rice and Vince Flynn coming back to back days. So here we go…

Number 84, Maren! Favorite baby name: Lily.
Next is number 14, Emily, who’s favorite baby names are Lucy and Stephen.

and last but not least, number 24— Mona! Her favorite baby names are Sotty, Otis, Scarlet, and Heather.

Congratulations! Winners: be expecting an email from me shortly. It was so fun hearing, well… technically reading, all of your favorite baby names! I think that’s one of my most enjoyable posts yet, so thanks for sharing!

I’ve always been a fan of snickerdoodles and have been trying to recreate it different ways, whether in cupcakes, muffins, and now bundt cake. This one is the most successful out of all of them! The bread was moist, sweet, full of cinnamon flavor, and even tasted like it had a cream of tartar kick even though there was none. The outside sugar crusted perfectly, giving it a crunchy layer. Thanks so much to Jamie Cookies it Up for passing along this recipe! This is what I did:
  • 3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 C white sugar
  • 2 1/2 C flour
  • 1 t baking powder
  • 1/2 t baking soda
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1 C butter, softened
  • 1 C sugar
  • 1 C brown sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 t vanilla
  • 1 C full-fat sour cream

  1. In a small bowl, combine 1 C sugar and 2 t cinnamon. Mix it together well.
  2. Generously grease or spray the inside of your bundt pan.
  3. Gently dust the entire inside of your pan with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Be sure you get inside all the little nooks. You will most likely only use about 1/3 C of the mixture. Set aside the leftovers to use in the middle of the cake.
  4. In a mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set the dry mixture aside for later.
  5. In a separate bowl, beat butter and both sugars until creamy.
  6. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each one.
  7. Stir in the vanilla.
  8. Grab your dry mixture and add it alternately with the sour cream. When both sour cream and all of the dry mixture are added continue to mix for 2 minutes.
  9. Spread 1/2 the batter into your pan. Pour the leftover cinnamon and sugar over the top. Spread the rest of your batter over the top.
  10. Bake at 325 degrees for 55-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.
  11. Cool for 10 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Pumpkin and Cream Cheese Muffins with Pecan Streusel

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I’d like to welcome fall with these pumpkin muffins. It all starts with a can of this:

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which eventually turns into this..
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and CHOMP!:
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Pet names— What’s your take on them? Before I dated my DB, I was the kind of girl that cringed every time I heard “honey,” “sugar,” “sweetie,” “muffin”… I just didn’t understand why people had the need to call each other food names when they had a perfectly functioning birth name.

I never used pet names with previous boys that I dated, and they never used it with me. But all of a sudden, nearly three years ago, a boy answered my phone call with “Hi, honey,” and turned me into the world’s biggest hypocrite. Somehow, I actually enjoyed those words leaving his mouth and three years later, we rarely refer to each other by our actual names anymore. How does that even happen?
Same thing goes for these muffins.. when I was little, I always told myself that I hated pumpkin. One day, I was given a slice of pumpkin pie at my friend’s house and I was sold. How did I hate this for 13 years of my life? Pumpkin was and still is amazing! I guess you just never know until you try.

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All I can say about these muffins is HOLY GUACAMOLE! These are just about the most delicious pumpkin creation that I’ve tried yet. Given, I haven’t made very many pumpkin recipes (see here, here, and here), but when you know, you know. Slightly adapted from Ezra Pound Cake, which was originally adapted from Country Living.

Filling:

  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
Streusel:

  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup pecans, chopped finely
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Pumpkin Batter:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 15 oz can of pumpkin
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Cream Cheese Filling: Beat the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Add the vanilla, and blend to combine. Place the mixture in a bowl and put in the freezer until batter is ready.

For the Pecan Streusel: Combine flour, sugar, pecans, butter, and cinnamon. Set aside.

For the Pumpkin Batter:
  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 24 muffin/cupcake cups. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, lightly beat the pumpkin, eggs, oil, and vanilla.
  3. Mix in the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and spices) into the wet mixture until just combined.
  4. Remove the cream cheese from the freezer.
  5. Evenly divide half of the batter among the muffin cups. Place about a tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture in the center of each cupcake. Fill with the remaining batter, completely covering the cream cheese.
  6. Sprinkle some of the pecan streusel on top of each muffin.
  7. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
p.s. Don’t forget to enter my giveaway if you haven’t already. It ends tomorrow at midnight!

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