The Epic Tale Of The Pumpkin Ball

OK, so, it's not really epic. But I did promise it back in my second post so I figured I'd follow through now.

Once upon a time, I was at the grocery store looking for cake and bread mixes. I came across Pilsbury Pumpkin Bread mix. Nothing spectacular but I grabbed a box anyway. Little did I know that box would become a staple in my holiday baking for years.

On the side of the box was a recipe for Pumpkin, Ginger, Raisin cookies. I had no desire for anything "chewy" in my cookies so I omitted the ginger and raisins but I mixed in cinnamon, ginger powder. I mixed the dough and rolled it into balls. Each ball was rolled in a mixture of cinnamon, ginger powder and sugar. Baked them and ended up with these domed dense bread-y balls.

One of the best cookies I'd ever eaten. So I went a little crazy and bought a ton of bread mix and made these cookies for everyone I knew for the holidays. I was a student at the time and baking seemed the better way to go for holiday gifts.

For the next few years, every holiday season I would clean out several grocery stores of their pumpkin bread mixes and set to work giving everyone on my list tons of pumpkin balls. There was the year I got "creative" and hand painted the baggies that the cookies went into. That happened once. I realized I have neither the artistic talent, nor the space, nor the time to do that ever again. That was just a huge mess.

At any rate, my holiday cookie baskets changed and evolved and the pumpkin ball was made obsolete. I still make them on occassion for my mother-in-law who enjoys them, but I don't make them for the baskets or as my go-to dessert. I still have a soft spot for these pumpkin-y balls of yumminess.

Fast forward to Friday, January 15. I'm puttering around the kitchen wanting to bake but not really wanting to try anything new - what? It was late! - so I pull out a box of pumpkin bread mix and get to work.

One problem. I had forgotten the recipe. Yes, even using boxed mix, there is a recipe. So I made the bread batter recipe. And added flour. A quarter cup at a time, I ended up adding about a cup of flour to thicken up the batter. Even then, I couldn't roll it. It bacame more of a drop cookie as opposed to the normal rolled cookie that I knew. I figured, what the heck? Try and see what happens. Worst case scenario - they look bad.

I sprinkled the dopped cookies with a mix of sugar, cinnamon, and ginger powder and baked them until they were done. They turned out really tasty. I haven't done it yet, but I'm betting some cream cheese icing sandwiched between 2 cookies would be out of this world.

Here is what you need for pumpkin balls:

Add an egg and 1 stick of butter melted and you're set to make the dough.

Add in some cinnamon and powdered ginger to the dough.

In a separate bowl, mix sugar, powdered ginger and cinnamon. This is for rolling the balls in.

The following picture is from my "mistake" cookies (where I made the bread batter and added flour). I have no pictures of "real" pumpkin balls.

Recipe for the "real" pumpkin balls:

1 box Pilsbury Quick Bread Pumpkin mix

1 egg

1/2 cup butter - melted

cinnamon

powdered ginger

sugar

In a small bowl, mix powdered ginger, cinnamon and sugar. Set aside.

In a large bowl mix the bread mix with the egg and butter. Add cinnamon and ginger powder to taste.

Roll the dough into small balls and roll the balls in the sugar/cinnamon/ginger powder mixture. Set on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 12 minutes or until the cookies have puffed up and gotten slightly brown. You don't want to burn these.

Let cool and enjoy. Cream cheese frosting is a good addition or a nice powdered sugar glaze would be good as well.

And they all lived happily ever after.

FatCat

Are They Russian? Mexican? All I Know Is That They Taste Good!

Some call these cookies Russian Tea Cookies. Some call them Mexican Wedding Cakes. I call them buttery balls of deliciousness. That explode. In your mouth. It's awesome!

I got the recipe from the Penzey's Spices catalog. It was sent in by someone from New Jersey. Once I made the cookies and tasted them, I was shot back to my childhood when my grandmother would bake these. She added nuts, I think. I could be wrong. I have been before.

Unfortunately, I didn't do much picture taking with these. It was into the mixer and out to the pan and that was really it. Sorry. I promise more pictures on everything else. Or rather - I'll try.

The recipe is very easy and you get a TON of cookies out of one batch. I did a double batch and ended up with about 80 cookies.

Recipe:
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream the butter until fluffy using an electric mixer. Reduce the speed of the mixer and add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar. Mix until incorporated. Blend for 5 minutes on low. Add the flour, salt and vanilla to the mixer bowl and once moistened, increase the mixer speed to medium to make a stiff dough.

Once the dough is stiff, break off small pieces and form into one inch round balls. Place on a cookie sheet (greased, lined, whatever. I used foil lined pans). These cookies don't expand much so you can get a good number of them onto a pan.

Bake for about 12 minutes. You want to watch them very carefully and take them out when they just begin to get a touch of color. Don't over bake them. You don't want them to get brown.

While the cookies are baking set up a "sugaring" station. I poured some powdered sugar into a shallow dish and set up a cooling rack and a trivet for the hot pan to rest on.

When the cookies are done, put the hot pan on the trivet. Carefully remove cookies one by one (I actually did about 5 cookies at one time because they fit in my dish) and cover them with powdered sugar. Roll with a spoon to make sure that every surface is coated. Remove them to the cooling rack and continue the sugaring until all of the cookies are coated.

These cookies are so quick and easy to make you can whip them up to impress people with freshly made, home made, amazingly yummy dessert cookies.

As there are no eggs in the recipe, this is a safe cookie for someone with an egg allergy. It's also nut free. 2 major food allergies covered! Excellent!

The cookie is very flaky, tender and surprisingly delicate. The buttery taste makes this a fantastic cookie to have with tea or coffee. Or, really, to have any time.

Happy New Year of Baking!!
FatCat

How Sweet It Is...

As part of the Cookie Extravaganza that took place in my kitchen between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the sugar cookies were both my saving grace and my biggest headache. For weeks, I made dough and froze it so that I would save on time. Little did I realize just how many cookies I actually had sitting in my freezer waiting to be rolled, cut and baked.

Such an easy recipe and the result is a delicious, buttery, flaky cookie that holds its shape. You can make the dough and freeze it for up to 2 months or you can bake the cookies and freeze them. I don't recommend the latter unless you have a lot of space in your freezer. You don't want to end up with 14 dozen broken sugar cookies.

So I made my dough, I froze it, and when I was a couple days away from being ready to bake, I put it in the fridge to thaw. It worked brilliantly. The dough was the perfect chilled texture for rolling and cutting. By the way, rolling is a vicious tricep work out.

I rolled out my dough on parchment paper that I dusted with powdered sugar. I found that using powdered sugar rather than flour kept my cookies sweet and still kept the dough from sticking to everything.

Once the dough was rolled to the thickness that I wanted, I put as many of my cookie cutters as I could on to it. I fit them together like a puzzle to maximize the number of cookies I could get in one go. Alton Brown is to thank for that idea.

I baked them on foil lined pans. Depending on the pan I used, some I rotated and some I did not. Once I pulled them from the over, I let the cookies stand for a minute before transferring them to a cooking rack. Then I started the process all over again.

Once all of the cookies were finished baking and completely cooled, I made royal icing and decorated each one. By hand. Just me. 14+ dozen sugar cookies.

It was worth it. They turned out looking lovely.

 

There wasn't a container in the kitchen that wasn't filled with Sugar Cookies. All 4 of my square and rectangular Pyrex, my big roasting pan, a Le Creuset 7 quart dutch oven, and more Tupperware than I care to count. Let it be known, making 6 batches of this dough produces a lot of cookies.

Recipe:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups of flour
1 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder
powdered sugar for rolling

* dough freezes VERY well

Royal Icing:
2 large egg whites
2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice
3 cups of powdered (confectioners') sugar

For the cookies:

Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, mix until just combined. Add flour and baking powder in intervals. Dough will seem as if it doesn't have enough moisture but continue to mix with mixer until combined. Divide the dough into 4 equal parts, shape into 4 disks, wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate (or freeze) until firm.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough, using powdered sugar instead of flour for the rolling, to approximately 1/4" thickness. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and place on baking sheets. Bake 7-8 minutes until the edges are golden. Cool on a wire rack. Take the scraps and re-roll into a ball and chill again.

Repeat until all of the dough is used.

For Royal Icing:

Beat the egg whites and lemon juice together in a mixer. Reduce speed and gradually add in the powdered sugar. Beat until thick and smooth. If it is too thick, add a little more lemon juice or some milk. 1 tablespoon at a time. If it gets too watery, add a little more powdered sugar. Use immediately and store the remainder in an airtight container. I also saved what I wasn't using at the time with a damp cloth over it. Royal Icing tends to harden when exposed to air. You can divide the icing into different batches and use food coloring to add a little pop to your cookies.

Decorate your cookies with the icing. Allow to dry completely so the icing is totally hard.

Enjoy!!!

These cookies are do easy and the decorating possibilities are endless.

Happy baking!
FatCat

Feeling the Cancun Holiday Spirit

The last 2 years, my office has done something called a "Jingle Mingle." We have several floors in an office building and we rarely see others on the different floors. With this event we have the chance to eat, drink and be merry, all while wandering around the building.

Each department does a theme and sets up an area. They decorate, play music, set out food and beverages (adult and otherwise) and there is a competition for the best theme and execution of the theme.

My department opted to do a Mexican theme. We had homemade jalapeno poppers, plantains, empanadas, guacamole, salsa, homemade tortilla chips, margaritas, Malibu Rum and pineapple juice, and most importantly - Pina Colada Cake Balls!

I took a white cake mix and rather than using water, as the instructions said, I used pineapple juice. I also mixed in crushed pineapple. (ignore the Circus Cookies in the background - they weren't part of the recipe, they just wanted to be in the photo shoot.)

I used cream cheese frosting instead of my usual "regular" frosting. I need to play with the amounts - the dough ended up being pretty loose. Once I rolled it and chilled the balls it seemed a little easier to work with.

I dipped each ball in blue candy melts. I did this for 2 reasons. First, because it seemed festive and appropriate for a beach vacation theme. Second, because I wanted to finish off my bag of blue melts. I dropped each ball into the melted candy and rolled them around with a fork. Then I lifted them out and let the excess candy drip off.

I let the balls set on a tray lined with foil. Before the candy set I sprinkled each ball with shredded coconut.

After all of the balls had set I stuck a cocktail umbrella in each one. You can't have a Pina Colada without an umbrella in it, after all.

 

 

A very belated, Feliz Navidad!

FatCat

Cookies With a Rummy Bite

Joy Of Cooking has these little monsters listed as "Bourbon Balls." I didn't have bourbon on hand so I used dark rum. The result was a potent little ball of rummy-goodness rolled in powdered sugar.

I've made them before. Actually, my husband has made them before and I just helped. They're the perfect bring-to-a-party treat and they went over really well in my office, too. Because these cookies are "no-bake" the alcohol doesn't dissipate. That makes these quite potent, even though you're not using all that much alcohol in them.

You start out with 1 cup of confectioners' sugar and 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder. Whisk them together in a bowl until well combined.

Add in your 1/4 cup of rum (or bourbon).

Then add in 2 tablespoons of light corn syrup.

Stir into the sugar mixture until completely combined. Set it aside.

Crush to a fine crumb, 2 1/2 cups of vanilla wafer cookies. I crushed by hand and then used my Magic Bullet to make a fine crumb. Mix that into the cocoa mixture. At this point you can also put in nuts, dried fruits or anything else that you want into the dough. I didn't do it this time, but crystallized ginger is an excellent mix-in for the rum balls.

When mixing in the crumbs, start with a whisk and then use your hands as the mixture is too thick and difficult for a tool. You'll have to remove the dough from the inside of the whisk. Just giving you fair warning.

Once you add the crumbs to the mixture you need to work relatively fast. This hardens quickly and once it happens, you're done for and have a brick. I'm talking a brick that you can stick in your purse and do serious damage with. That's not good.

Take small pieces of dough and roll between your hands to form a ball. Roll the balls (as you go) in powdered sugar and set on waxed paper. If you store them between layers of waxed paper at room temperature they'll last for up to 3 weeks. If you can make it that long.

These balls of no-bake rum and vanilla wafer offer amazing taste. They're quick and easy to make and 1 batch will give you approximately 60 balls. They make great gifts and while they're traditionally a holiday cookie, you can't go wrong with these any time of year.

You can also make these non-alcoholic. My husband used Sprite instead of rum, but you can really use any kind of liquid that you want.

Rum (Bourbon) Balls

1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 cup Rum (bourbon)
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs (approximately 1 box of cookies)
1 cup fruit/nuts/etc (optional)
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Whisk together the 1 cup confectioners' sugar and 2 tbs of cocoa powder until well combined. Add in 1/4 cup rum and 2 tbs light corn syrup. Whisk together until completely moistened. Stick in 2 1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs and your optional fruit/nuts. Mix together to form a dough. Roll small pieces of dough between your hands and form balls. Roll the balls in 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar. Set on tray (foil or waxed paper lined.). Store in an air tight container between sheets of waxed paper. Can be kept for up to 3 weeks. I dare you to make them last that long.

Happy no-baking!
FatCat

I Am Not A Tart!

But these are. Part of the baking bliss that I have been in for the last week and a half included Linzer Tarts.

These little cookies (or not so little in some cases) are some of my favorites. Only I didn't know it until fairly recently. My father-in-law is also a fan of them.

A simple sandwich cookie that has a "window" punched out of the top and is traditionally filled with raspberry or apricot preserves. I used apricot. They turned out marvelous, if I do say so myself.

Months ago I bought my first Linzer Tart cutter. A uni-tasker, which I don't like, but it came with 6 different cutouts for the window. I got another cutter with Halloween shaped cutouts. Unfortunately, because it seems they don't sell the cutouts separately, I have to buy more cutters just to get the cutouts. Not the end of the world, but as I only need 1 cutter it's not a great option just to get some center cutters. I'm been thinking of just getting a few different biscuit cutters (fluted and "regular") and using fondant cutters as well as the cutouts I already have for the windows. The biscuit cutters would certainly be multi-taskers.

I just love to make these cookies. It's a lot of fun.

Cutting the cookies and the "windows"

Tart cutter and window cutter

 

Ready to go into the oven!

Freshly baked and sugared. Time to cool on a rack.

 

Completed. Aren't they purdy?

Linzer Tart Recipe

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Preserves of your choice (raspberry and apricot are traditional)

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Beat together in a mixer at medium speed the butter and brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Reduce speed and add flour mixture until just combined.

With hands "floured" with powdered sugar, form the dough into 2 balls and flatten each into a disk. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and chill until firm. At least 2 hours.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out 1 disk of dough on a lightly "floured" (with powdered sugar) surface. I found that rolling out on parchment paper or waxed paper worked very well. Cut out as many tarts as possible with the tart cutter. Using the cutout piece, cut windows out of half of the tarts that you just cut. Reform a ball with the scraps, wrap in plastic wrap and re-chill.

Transfer cookies to a cookie sheet (I lined mine with foil) and bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes. In my oven, 11 minutes was perfect. You just want the edges to become golden.

Remove the cookies from the sheet and put on a cooling rack. I set up a "sugaring station" for the cookies with the windows. While they are still hot you want to sift powdered sugar over the windowed cookies. If you wait until the cookies are cooled, the sugar will not stick. I place all of my hot "tops" on another baking sheet and sifted the sugar over them that way. Transfer your tops back to the cooling rack.

Continue this process until all of the dough has been cut and all of the cookies made and sugared.

Once the cookies are completely cooled, take an un-windowed cookie and spread approximately 1 teaspoon of preserves on it. Sandwich a windowed cookie on top. Viola! You have a Linzer Tart. Sandwich the remaining cookies in the same manner.

These are time consuming but surprisingly easy cookies to make.

Wishing you baking bliss during the holidays.

FatCat

Baby, It's Cold Outside

This weekend was busy. I baked, I saw people, I sang, and most importantly - I had fun.

It was a pretty miserable weekend, weather-wise. Saturday was spent running errands and getting gifts together and baking. Sunday was spent baking, singing and going to a friend's holiday party.

For this party, I figured it would be appropriate to make Penguin cake pops. Now, I collect penguins. Love them. I love their communities, I love how they care for each other, I love how they have no knees.

It was surprisingly easy to make these pops. Please forgive the horrible quality of the photos. Clearly I am not a photographer and obviously I have really awful lighting in my kitchen. I have to figure out how take better pictures. This is just getting embarrassing.

First, I shaped my cake ball. I used the same shape that I used when I made my Halloween ghosts.

 Then I dipped them in blue chocolate. I thought blue penguins would be festive.

Once the blue chocolate was set, I "carved" an oval-ish shape with a toothpick on bellies.

I painted the carved oval with green chocolate (if I was going to have blue penguins I was going all the way with the colors)

When the bellies were set, I started the face details. I used multicolored candy coated mini chocolate chips for the beaks and multicolored sequins for the eyes.

The final touch was giving each psychedelic penguin a different thing to look at.

 

They were a huge hit! This is definitely one to keep in rotation.

I really can't stay. I've got to go 'way.

Have a great one!
FatCat