Hint of Chocolate, Pumpkin "cake" Cookies

These are freakin' phenomenal. Just saying. You know those large sized Libby's canned pumpkin? They make those way too big. I made muffins over at my family's place this past weekend and still had a good half of a can left, so what to do with it? Make these...

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 dashes ground ginger
1 small handful semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Butter should be softened slightly but not nearly melting. Cream together butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Stir in eggs and pumpkin with a wooden spoon.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and spices until well combined. Combine the mixed dry ingredients with the pumpkin mixture until well blended (continue mixing for less than 1 minute to avoid tough cookies).

Lightly stir in chocolate chips

Drop by teaspoonful onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 14 minutes. Be careful not to overbake or cookies will be dry. Makes about 17 or 18 cookies.

When completely cool, store in plastic zip bag.

Gooey Butter Cake ala Paula Deen

Yes, this recipe calls for an entire box of powdered sugar.

Yes, there are also 2 whole sticks of butter in this recipe.

Yes, it is totally worth it.

Ingredients

Cake crust:
1 18 1/4-ounce box of yellow cake mix
1 egg
1 stick of butter, melted

Filling:
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 stick of butter, melted
1 16-ounce box of powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter and beat together.

Next, add the powdered sugar (slowly) and mix well. Spread over cake batter and bake for roughly 40 minutes or so. Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.

Sorry no pic of this one.

Apple Strudel Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups chopped apples (I used the Stayman variety)
  
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat with a mixer together the butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Stir in apples, and gradually blend in the flour mixture, both by hand. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan cups.
4. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter with hands until mixture is like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over tops of mixture in muffin pan.
5. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to sit 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan.
   
6. Best served warm.
   

Individual Apple Monkey Breads

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 (7.5 ounce) cans refrigerated biscuits, separated and each cut into quarters
• 2 small apples or 1 huge apple, peeled, cored, and finely chopped
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 of a stick) of butter
  
• 1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 12 muffin tin.
2. Combine the sugar and cinnamon together in a medium bowl; add the biscuit dough in batches of 3 to 5 pieces and shake to coat. Alternate layers in each of the 12 muffin tin sections: 4 quarters, large handful of finely chopped apples, 3 quarters on top.
   
3. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat; stir the brown sugar into the melted butter. Bring to a boil; cook at a boil for 1 minute, remove from heat, and spoon over the apple and biscuit layers.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until cooked through, about 25 minutes. Allow the bread to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a plate to serve.
5. NOTE: YOU MUST PUT AN ALUMINUM FOIL LINED BAKING SHEET UNDER THE MUFFIN TIN TO CATCH ANY BUTTERY OVERFLOW. NOT DOING SO MAY RESULT IN A FLAMING OVEN. (learned from experience)