Oatmeal, Cinnamon Chip, and Pecan Cookies

Hi all=) So the past few days I have been sick. Like REALLY sick=( Even as I type this post I'm still only just recovering. That being said, food is the last thing on my mind. I've barely been eating and I prefer to just sleep all day and watch tv. But I wanted to keep you guys updated and let you know what's going on with me.

Don't worry, my lovely boyfriend has been taking amazing care of me=) When I was starting to feel like I could eat again he made me tomato soup and the best grilled cheese sandwich ever! Whole wheat bread with swirled Colby jack cheese. Mmmmmmmm=) And he even skipped his after school track practices to bring me chicken noodle soup and OJ. He's the best!

Even so, I have this recipe I made before I got sick and I wanted to share it with you. You probably have all the ingredients for in your house. I knew I wanted to use up my cinnamon chips so I saw this recipe and adapted it to accommodate my needs. They have a great texture, and it has been awhile since I've had a good oatmeal cookie. We loved the flavors and though chocolate chips were called for in the original recipe, I liked the cinnamon chips better because combined with the pecans it tasted like candied nuts. Kinda. They are just really good so you should try them!

Oatmeal, Cinnamon Chip, and Pecan Cookies
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground clove
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup chopped pecans
10 ounces cinnamon chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla, and beat until well mixed, about three minutes. Stir in eggs, one at a time. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove in a separate bowl. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter with the mixer on low speed. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the second half. Stir in the oats, pecans, and chocolate chips.

Drop the dough, by the tablespoon, onto the cookie sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on a rack. Store at room temperature in a cookie jar or other airtight container.

PW Sweet Potato Casserole

This sweet potato casserole has the perfect balance. A not too sweet sweet potato base and a great nutty brown sugar streusel topping. I love me some streusel. Remember when I used to be streusel crazy? I seem to have moved away from it. Ehh, maybe 2011 well reunite us!


I actually went the homemade route this time and bought actual sweet potatoes instead of canned ones I the had to mash. I felt very authentic. It was really easy, too. I love cooking with sweet potatoes. In fact, I had planned on doing a week of sweet potatoes like I did with pumpkin, but never got around to it. But hey, who says I still can't?!


Bottom line, I got this recipe from the Pioneer Woman, so you know it's good. I tried it and so did my family, and we all loved it. Go for it!


Sweet Potato Casserole
from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

4 whole Medium Sweet Potatoes
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Milk
2 whole Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 teaspoon Salt
1 cup Brown Sugar
1 cup Pecans
½ cups Flour
¾ sticks Butter

Preparation Instructions

Wash 4 medium sweet potatoes and bake them in a 375-degree oven until fork tender, about 30-35 minutes. When they are finished cooking slice them open and scrape out the flesh into a large bowl.

Add 1 cup of (regular granulated) sugar, 1 cup of milk, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon of salt. With a potato masher, mash them up just enough—you don’t want to be perfectly smooth.

Now, in a separate bowl, add 1 cup brown sugar, 1 cup pecans, chopped (that means measure a cup of pecans, then chop them), ½ cup flour, and ¾ stick of butter. With a pastry cutter or fork, mash together until thoroughly combined.

Spread the sweet potato mixture into a regular baking dish and sprinkle the crumb mixture all over the top.

Bake in a 400-degree oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown.

Pioneer Woman's Best Coffee Cake. The Real Deal.

My days are still busy as all get out. I won't bore you but basically it's school, volleyball, homework, other sport events, fund raising for my trips, college stuff and other school events. But when I do find a small amount of time, it all goes to baking. It is my stress reliever and I can get my mind off of everything else. It's perfect.


Like this coffeecake. I know, not a great segway, but I'm short on time. I had really low expectations for this. Why? Who even knows. I mean, this is a recipe from the Pioneer Woman herself. How could I ever doubt it???? The ingredients are so simple. You have them all. And yet somehow, when they come together, you find yourself with an unbelievably good coffee cake.


I made a cream cheese glaze to go with it, but in all honesty, you don't need it. This cake is insane. Down right good coffeecake. I only made a half recipe because that's all our house can handle. I say go ahead and make this. GO!


Coffee Cake
from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE:

• 1-½ stick Butter, Softened
• 2 cups Scant Sugar
• 3 cups Flour, Sifted
• 4 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1-¼ cup Whole Milk
• 3 whole Egg Whites, Beaten Until Stiff
• 
  
• FOR THE TOPPING:
• 1-½ stick Butter, Softened
• ¾ cups Flour
• 1-½ cup Brown Sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Cinnamon
• 1-½ cup Pecans, Chopped

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat egg whites and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar. Add flour mixture and milk alternately until combined. Don’t overbeat. Fold in beaten egg whites with a rubber spatula. Spread in a well-greased 9 x 13 (or LARGER!) baking pan. A cake pan with higher sides would be best.

In a separate bowl, combine topping ingredients with a pastry cutter until crumbly. Sprinkle all over the top.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until no longer jiggly. Serve warm—delicious!

MSC: Applesauce (Pecan) Cupcakes

This months MS Cupcakes Bonus Bake was chosen by none other than... ME! I asked our founder Betty if a recipe had been chosen yet and she said I could pick. After careful consideration I decided the Applesauce Spice cupcakes would be a great pick that kept with the season. As an added plus, I had all the ingredients already in my house. So the very next day I set out to make them!

These came together so incredibly fast. Martha gives you an option of adding chopped pecans, and I would never so no to nuts, so I did. I had plenty left over from our last bake and just needed to toast them a bit.



After the addition of the nuts, I decided the name needed to be changed. I had turned simple applesauce cupcakes into full out pecan cupcakes! Whoops! I probably put wayyy too many in. The applesauce taste was not that present, but that was probably due to the extreme pecan flavor. I also felt these were much more like muffins than cupcakes. They were crumbly and a tad dry, which brings me to the next bit of news...

I kinda burnt them... Which has NEVER happened to me!!! But there's a first time for everything. With my oven I always take Martha's cooking times with a grain of salt. In the past I've had to cook them for up to 10 minutes over the suggested baking time. This time, at exactly the recommended time, they were done. However, I was skeptical and put them in for 2 minutes longer and it was two minutes too much. So they came out a bit dryer than I'd like and the wrappers needed some effort to pull off but they were definitely still edible.

I had wished to share these with some people at school but I didn't want to give something that wasn't my best effort=/ I did give a few to the bake sale for the Turkey Bingo I mentioned earlier.

For these cupcakes I made the browned butter cream cheese frosting like suggested. It paired very nicely and went well with the overload of pecans.

Out of the 18 serving size Martha said you'd get, I got 24. Figures.

Overall, they definitely weren't my favorite cupcake, but that's probably all my fault anyway. Would I make them again? Ehh, probably not=/.

Also, just so you know, I wrote this whole post with one hand because my cat was sleeping on the other=) (using shift was a nightmare!)

Browned Butter Pecan Pie

With all the left over goodies in my house during the holidays, it just didn't feel right to not give this pie some special attention. So I waited a few days to make it so all the others could clear out.

I haven't made a pecan pie ever in my life. And besides having a small sample of it at a Williams Sonoma store, I've never even tasted it before. In fact, I've never really made a pie before come to think of it. I did make a lemon cream pie, but with a store bought graham cracker crust, so it doesn't count.



I initially was looking at a recipe on and msn cooking page, but my mind was made up when I saw this browned butter pecan pie on Cookie Madness's blog. Also, I took a million pictures of this thing because I was sooo proud of it! I haven't tried it yet because it needs to cool and I'm off to work, but as soon as I try it I'll let you know!

Old Favorite Browned Butter Pecan Pie

1 ½ cups pecan halves
1 (4 oz) stick butter (regular or unsalted)
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark corn syrup (or use ½ dark plus ½ light)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 unbaked pie shell – use homemade or refrigerated

Lay 1 cup of the pecan halves on a cookie sheet and bake at 400 for about 6-8 minutes or until toasted. Let cool, then chop so that you have 1 cup chopped toasted pecans and about a half cup of pecan halves (these will be the border).

Melt the butter in saucepan set over medium heat and cook it just until it starts to brown. Remove from heat and let it cool for about 10 minutes.

Whisk the eggs lightly in a large mixing bowl. Whisk in the sugar, corn syrup, vanilla and salt. Pour in the semi-cooled browned butter.

Put the chopped pecans in the unbaked pie shell and pour the filling over the top. Use the remaining 1/2 cup pecan halves to make a border. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 325 degrees F. and bake for another 35-45 minutes** or until the sides are set but the center (about a 3 inch circle in the middle) is still jiggly. Remove from oven. Pie will set as it cools. Let it cool at room temperature for a few hours. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve. You can keep it at room temperature, but it won’t be as stiff.

Note: Deep dish pies usually bake 400 for 10 minutes and 325 for 45 minutes while smaller pie tins usually take the original amount of 400 for 10 minutes and 325 for 35 minutes.

Added later that same day: There are no words to describe the wonderfulness of this pie! Although I have nothing to compare this to, I know I never want to try any other pecan pie in my life!!! The sweetness of it is definitely there, and I love it for that! Ahh... the gooeyness is incredible! I also think the crust from Joy the Baker that I used was a perfect choice. Make this gloriousness this holiday season!!

MSC: Sweet Potato Cupcakes

Sweet potatoes. In cupcakes. With marshmallows. And pecans. These were a huge surprise taste wise. I expected to eat and some what like them, but never to love them.

I don't know if they were supposed to, but my cupcakes fell considerably. I was not upset by this or anything, (in the past my cupcakes tend to be on the mile high side), but I just wasn't sure if that happened to anyone else. I didn't toast my marsh mallows, either. Instead, when I wanted to eat one, I would top it with marsh mallows and put it in the microwave for 20 seconds. Then, I would top that with toasted pecans, 'cause I wasn't up for candy-ing. My co-workers were very skeptical to try these. They aren't the most appealing to the masses type cupcake out there according to looks, which is unfortunate because they are very good. Oh, well. Hah, some people told me they liked my pumpkin cupcakes after they took a bite. Oh, silly King's employees.

I halved the "makes 24" recipe and still got 21 cupcakes out of it. I may not have filled them as much as needed but usually my cupcakes grow considerably. Could this be linked to the falling?

Whipping this together was fairly easy, except for getting my butter to cream with the dark brown sugar and regular sugar. But I got it eventually.

These cupcakes definitely have a different taste than that of the others I've made. In the past there have been spongy, but not at all dry cupcakes. Yet these, were extremely moist. Isn't it incorrect to say creamy? Probably. So maybe not creamy, but.. Oh! Like pecan pie but with sweet potatoes! So maybe sweet potato pie actually... That's what it's like. So not very cake-like but enough to give structure yet definitely soft.

And as I was filling the cups, and tasting the batter, I thought it didn't taste so good and it'd be okay if this one wasn't a favorite. But boy was I wrong. Martha just never fails to please me! I loved these sooo much. Trust me, your mouth/stomach will thank you.

The pecans and marshmallows made me really nervous. I do not at all like marshmallows what so ever. But I went for it. The pecans, too, are necessary. Because the cupcake is really moist and soft, you need some sort of crunch to balance it off, and what better pair is there than sweet potatoes and pecans? Together, the marshmallows and pecans unite to form a super team and take your cute little cuppy cakes to super stardom status. I may be exaggerating just a bit, but these are perfectly joyful bites of Fall for your mouth.



Thanks a ton to Karen for hosting this month's bake.

MSC: Zucchini Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

When I heard what the month of September's cupcakes were going to be, I was ecstatic! Zucchini cupcakes not only sound delicious, but healthy too! Of course when I spread the monumental amount of cream cheese frosting over it, well that's another story.

To make these cupcakes is extremely easy. You really can't go wrong. Grating the zucchini was a breeze, just use a regular cheese grater and go to town, skin and all. The spices smell so aromatic as you add them in. My favorite part, though, was the toasted walnuts. Pop some walnuts in the oven and in a few minutes you can take your cupcakes from good, to AMAZING!

I took these to a family reunion and they were an immediate hit. Of course you're hitting only a small demographic of people on account of the zucchini, which is tragic. My dad of course said they looked wonderful, but no way would he even try a bite. Way to encourage my love of baking Dad.


I will admit these are extremely addicting and one cupcake will soon be followed by another until you lose count of how many you've actually had. Or maybe you made yourself forget on purpose?... Anyway, I made these ahead of time then froze them for two days. The morning of the day I needed them I took them out to thaw. I made the frosting the night before and refrigerated that. Unfortunately, it was extremely hot that day and the Battle with the Frosting began. Using the semi-frozen cupcakes to my advantage I was able to frost about a dozen before I was met with dripping frosting. Keeping calm (yeah right.), I just plowed on. Since I was transporting these to the party, I put ice packs between the Tupperware. They were perfectly fine by the time we got there and ready to be eaten!

I am so thankful to Tracey from Tracey's Culinary Adventures for choosing this month's recipe! I am a big fan of hers. You can find the recipe on her blog. Also, go here to see the Martha Stewart's Cupcake Club's official blogspot along with the other baker's who participated in this challenge.

Up next, September's bonus bake: Banana Pecan cupcakes with caramel buttercream.