Have Yourself a Merry Little Friday!

Happy Friday to you!!

Recipe review time!  I’ve been good and posted up some pretty decent vegan recipes, and now it is time to try out a recipe from someone else!  I found a great little recipe on ohladycakes and just had to try it out.  It is for pumpkin cinnamon roll cookies.  Autumn inspired baking?  I’m IN!

http://www.ohladycakes.com/2011/11/pumpkin-cinnamon-roll-cookies.html

There’s the link that will take you to the original recipe. 

And this is an example of the final product!  Little yummy tasty nom-noms if you ask me!

I ended up cutting the recipe in half because I just don’t trust myself.  I’d eat the whole batch if it turned out half-way decent.  And let me tell you–they were amazing!  So I’m very glad I don’t have a ton of these little guys sitting around, staring me in the face all weekend, saying “eat me! eat me! eat me!”  ….heh. 

More photos:

The cookie dough was easy to make and easy to work with.  Plus!

It rolled out and rolled up like a champ!

Once chilled, it sliced up like a boss.  Not crumbly, not too sticky…just perfect!

Waiting to go into the oven!  Look at how lovely.  🙂  I trimmed off the uneven edges and had a little taste of the raw cookie–super yum.  I was pretty excited to see how they would bake up!

They baked like a boss, too.  The house smelled great and I was literally dancing around the kitchen watching them.  Yes, I like my sweets.  🙂

Oh wait, you get glaze? Um, yes please! 

Uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh!  …YES. 

This recipe gets high marks for:

1.  Easy.  This recipe, given it has a couple of steps, was still pretty easy.

2.  Taste.  Like heaven! 

3.  Cuteness.  I made my cookies small, about 2 inches by 2 inches.  Easy to pop in your mouth!

4.  Looks impressive.  No joke. 

5.  Originality of recipe.  Pumpkin + cinnamon roll + cookie?  Uh, that’s AWESOME. 

I don’t really think I’d change anything about this recipe.  They could, perhaps be a tad sweeter, but that could mean I just need a wink more glaze.  Uh, more glaze?  Ha, yes please! 😉  Um, I like my sweets. I’d give this recipe a solid 9.5.  It is right on the fringe of getting a 10.  These cookies are pretty addictive.  Make them, share them, and enjoy!

So, here is the actual recipe, if you don’t feel like going and seeing what ohladycakes is up to.  But I honestly recommend going to her site.  She has some really amazing things on there and I want to eat them all!

From OhLadyCakes:

PUMPKIN CINNAMON ROLL COOKIES

 

1/2 cup vegan butter 1/2 cup powdered cane sugar 1 tsp unsulphured molasses 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract 2 tbsp almond milk 1/4 cup pumpkin puree 1/4 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp fine sea salt 1 1/2 cups unbleached flour

Filling 1 tbsp butter, melted 1/4-1/2 cup brown sugar 2 tsp ground cinnamon Glaze 1/2 cup powdered cane sugar 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract 2 tsp almond milk

 

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar, molasses, vanilla extract and milk on high speed for 1-2 minutes. Add the pumpkin puree and continue beating for an additional 30-45 seconds. Add the baking soda and salt; mix until combined. Add the flour, 1/2 cup at a time, scraping down the sides as needed. Mix until all of the flour is incorporated then pinch the dough to test the consistency; it should be smooth and have a bit of elasticity. If it’s too dry, add additional milk, or if it’s too sticky, add additional flour.

Line a flat surface with parchment paper and sprinkle with flour. Roll the dough out into a 10×18 rectangle (approximately 1/4″ thick). Brush with butter then sprinkle with brown sugar (up to 1/2 cup) and cinnamon. Roll dough tightly, starting at the long end, into a log. Transfer to a baking sheet and freeze for 15 minutes, or until firm.

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line a large baking sheet with a silicon mat or parchment paper. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1/2″ segments and line on baking sheet. Bake at 350˚F for 9-10 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. While the cookies are cooling, prepare the glaze by mixing the sugar, vanilla extract and milk. Once the cookies have cooled, drizzle with glaze. Store in an air tight container for up to three days.

Yield: 2-3 dozen cookies

 

 

Oh yeah, FRIDAY! Oh yeah, WEEKEND!

Happy Friday, everyone!!  I actually have time to post today!  Wow!  How did I get so lucky? 😉

So, new developments! 

1.  Warkak and Snozzle proof has been ordered!  Yay!  Not sure when it will arrive.  I’m much looking forward to seeing it though!  I’m still hopeful there are no errors and we can just say, “Yes, go warm up the presses and let’s do this thing!”  ….fingers crossed!

2.  We got some fun new software and will see if we can use it for my kickstarter campaign!  We may end up doing something super simple, once we realize how much time this all might take, but I’m excited regardless!  We will have to finesse the cover/tile image for kickstarter, too.  What we have isn’t playful enough.  So, hopefully we can do this, this weekend.

3.  I’ll be baking today!  Yay!  I’m making a carrot cake for a birthday party tomorrow.  Since it will have to travel for about an hour, I’m thinking I’m not going to get very fancy with it.  Carrot cake frosting can be so schmooply, too, and I don’t like putting buttercream frosting on carrot cake.  It’s just wrong.  Don’t know if y’all agree on that point.  I’ll probably just leave the cake as a sheet cake and transport it in the baking pan.  So, I’ve had a request that the cake be gluten free, which will be no problem.  I’ll also be making a vegan version.  Ha, so I guess this is going to be two cakes I make.  Oh well!  🙂

I think this is all.  For now.  I’ll post about the carrot cake and my recipe, probably tomorrow some time.  I love making a carrot cake–it is super simple.  Just dump all ingredients together, basically.  The only probably is peeling and grating all those carrots!