Double Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

I came across this recipe just this year. We put a little candy corn on top after we frosted them! It was a fun festive treat.

1 1/2 C. cake flour
2/3 C. cocoa powder
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
1 C. plain lowfat yogurt
1 3/4 C. canned pumpkin (15 oz. can)
1 t. white vinegar
2 t. vanilla extract
1/2 C. unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 C. lightly-packed light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup mini chocolate chips
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt together; set aside. In a separate bowl, stir together the yogurt, pumpkin, vinegar, and vanilla extract, set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, and using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Alternately beat in the flour and pumpkin mixtures in thirds (for example, beat in 1/3 flour mixture followed by 1/3 pumpkin mixture and repeat until everything is combined). Fold in the mini chocolate chips.
4. Working quickly, spoon batter into cupcake cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Place cupcake pans in the center of the preheated 350 degree oven and bake approximately 25 minutes. Cupcakes are done when they spring back when lightly touched or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool pans on wire racks for 10 minutes then remove cupcakes from pans and let cool completely on the wire racks.
5. While cupcakes are cooling, prepare cream cheese frosting (recipe follows). When cupcakes are completely cool, spread with frosting.


Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 C. unsalted butter, softened
2 C. powdered sugar
1/4. t. vanilla extract
1/8 t. ground cinnamon
1/8 t. fresh ground nutmeg
In a medium bowl, beat together cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. If frosting is too soft, chill in fridge for 15-20 minutes.

Spectacular Peach Pie

1 baked pie shell
4 sliced peaches
1 cup sugar
3 TBSP cornstarch
2 peaches, mashed
¼ cup lemon juice
2 TBSP butter
1 tsp vanilla or almond flavoring OR ½ tsp nutmeg

Peel and slice 4 peaches into baked pie crust. In a small pan combine sugar and cornstarch, stir well. Add mashed peaches and lemon juice and bring to a boil. When mixture thickens, remove from heat and add butter and flavoring. Pour over sliced peaches and cool until set (about 2-3 hours). Serve with whipped cream, refrigerate left over pie.

Ham Rolls

Here's a receipe Heather made for conference weekend that we really liked. It's from easyfoodstorage.blogspot.com.



HAM AND CHEESE ROLLS

One batch of bread recipe/ or 1 loaf rhodes frozen dough, thawed
8 oz. ham or turkey thinly sliced
1/2 lb. shredded cheese (Jarlsberg is our family's favorite, but cheddar or whatever you have works great!)

Mix together:
1/2 cup dijon mustard
2-3 Tblsp honey.

Roll out dough in a rectangle as you would for cinnamon rolls. Spread mustard-honey mixture on dough, leaving 1/2 inch along edges. Lay meat slices on dough and sprinkle with cheese. Roll up jelly-roll style. Slice into 10-12 equal slices with a sharp knife. Place in greased muffin tin (for gourmet look) or place on greased cookie sheet (for easier clean up, use Reynolds non-stick Release foil--then you don't even have to grease it!). Let rise until double, about 45 mins-1 hour. Bake 400 degrees for 10 minutes until light brown. They can be baked at a lower temperature, for a longer time, as you would a loaf of bread, just watch them carefully! Serve warm, or at room temperature. Great for a picnic!

Cooks Note: Due to the ingredients, these rolls must remain refrigerated after baking, until they are consumed. Often, I will wrap the leftovers in individual sandwich bags and freeze them. They will thaw in a lunchbox and be ready to eat while staying cool until lunchtime. Once thawed they can be warmed up in a microwave easily for 15-30 seconds, and re-melt the cheese all over again!


EZ Dough Recipe (Makes 1 loaf) - This is for sea level, if you live in high altitude you may need to adjust the yeast)
This recipe came in the recipe book from my first breadmaker. We loved it so much, always seemed to be successful, and it used all our food storage, so I quit trying to mess with other recipes. I use it to make my cinnamon rolls, cover a cookie sheet with it to make pizza, quick dinner rolls, scones, fry bread, breakfast pastry, ham and cheese rolls, and my santa bread at Christmas (um...don't worry, I've already asked her to send me the recipe and pictures for this).

EZ Dough White Bread Version
1 1/8 cups warm water
1 3/4 - 2 tsp active dry yeast
2 Tblsp sugar (you can use a little more sugar if you like your dough a little sweeter)
3 cups flour
1 Tblsp vital wheat gluten
1 tsp salt
2 Tblsp nonfat dry milk
1 1/2 Tblsp butter/margarine or oil (My preference is the butter, but as long as you use the wheat gluten you can get away without adding any fat, by doubling the amount of wheat gluten to the recpie and omit the butter/oil.)

Add the ingredients in the order listed into a mixer bowl (like a kitchen-aid) with a dough hook attachment and mix on low for 10-12 minutes. Or mix it on the dough cycle in your bread machine. After all the mixing is complete, if the dough still seems too gooey and you are unable to handle it, add 1 Tblsp flour at a time, and mix after each addition until the dough is manageable with your hands.Let rise 45 mins -1 hour, punch down and use to make bread, cinnamon rolls, cookie sheet pizza, rolls, or anything else you can think of! Let rise after you have made your creation and bake according to the direction of the recipe you are making.If you are making it into bread, form into a loaf at this time, place in a loaf pan, let rise in a warm place 45 min -1 hour and bake 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and sounds hollow when lightly tapped.If you are making this recipe in a bread machine. Follow your bread machine's directions and add the ingredients in the order listed in their recommendations.


EZ Dough Wheat Version
1 1/4 cup warm water
1 Tblsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup honey or 1/3 cup sugar
2 3/4 cups whole wheat flour (or whatever combination white/wheat you like)+ 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
1 tsp salt
2 Tblsp nonfat dry milk
1 Tblsp butter/margarine/oil

Mix ingredients in order listed in mixing bowl of mixer with dough hook attachment (like kitchen-aid) for 12-15 minutes. Let rise until double, 1- 1 1/2 hours. Punch down, and shape into loaf or rolls. Let rise again until double and bake 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes until golden brown and sounds hollow when lightly tapped. If you are making this recipe in a bread machine, follow your bread machine's directions for wheat or whole grain selection and add the ingredients in the order listed for their recommendations.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

While we made one of my favorite cookie recipes today, I thought someone else might like it. I think it is pretty nearly perfect recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I put is chocolate chips and raisins.

It also is a good time to share one of my other new favorite resources, the Daily Plate on LiveStrong.

The Daily Plate is a calorie counter--you log what you eat, set a consumption goal, and it'll add up your calories as you go along. While I've never done the Weight Watchers thing, I've been told that there are some online similarities. It's been working really well for me to know how many calories I'm eating. You can search their database of food and you can add anything you like, including recipes. So, you can find my oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe posted there.