Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies (Dairy Free)

So another year has gone by and I have not posted anything on my blog.  It's probably the wrong time to attempt to start things up again but here it goes! Amongst mid terms and my last semester of college I may be jumping the gun but don't blame me for trying.  I'm entering the time of my life where I must start attempting to figure out what the heck I'm doing with my life and wow is it overwhelming.  I've got my head on straight and am taking things one day at a time with no rush to have a concrete plan. 

And one of my favorite times of year is upon us.  The leaving are changing colors and making there way to the pavement.  The rain should be coming soon and it's no longer ghastly hot outside.  With fall comes pumpkin everything which I never complain about.  Trader Joes is my favorite place to shop this time of year because they have everything from pumpkin ravioli, to pumpkin cream cheese, to candied pumpkin seeds.  I just can't get enough of it! And as I read my last blog post it is not so different from this one... raving about fall, what can I say!

So of course with the pumpkin frenzy I had to make something of my own.  Pumpkin cookies with chocolate chips, couldn't leave that second part out could I?? I didn't take pictures during the process of making these cookies but they are so easy that I'm sure you won't have any problems!

First off I want to acknowledge a new blog I've found called Two Twenty One where I found this amazing recipe that I will be using year round now that I've discovered it. 

There's really not many tips I can give for this recipe because it was just so straight forward and easy. One thing that I did tweak was that the recipe only calls for cinnamon and I used pumpkin pie spice instead which gave it that extra oomph but totally up to you. 

Ingredients:

This recipe makes 18-24 cookies. 

1/2 cup vegetable oil 
1 cup pumpkin puree 
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. milk (I used almond)
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (or cinnamon)
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups flour
1.5-2 cups chocolate chips 

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2.  In a medium bowl, combine oil, pumpkin, sugar, egg, and vanilla and whisk until combined.
3.  In small bowl combine baking soda and milk and stir into pumpkin mixture. 
4.  In another medium bowl, combine spices, flour, baking powder, and salt. 
5.  Combine pumpkin mixture and dry ingredients until uniform. 
6.  Fold in chocolate chips to desired amount. 
7.  Place dollops of cookie dough onto pre-greased cookie sheet (no need to space out a lot, I didn't find they expanded outwards much). 
8.  Bake for 12-13 minutes, allow to cool, and enjoy! 

Happy baking y'all!! 

Homemade Granola

Hello all! Super long time no see.  I am really hoping to get back into baking and blogging starting now because I miss it oh so much. 

I can't believe it has been almost a year since my last post- so embarrassing! Over the past year I have moved schools, joined a sorority, and trained several puppies to become service dogs.  After this semester I will only have two more until the real world swallows me up which is terrifying yet exciting. 

The recipe I am walking you through today is pretty simple- homemade granola.  I honestly forget where I got inspired by the recipe from so sorry about that.  It's basically just oats, dried fruits, and nuts and of course you can eliminate anything if it's not to your liking. 

So the fall is upon us and we all know what that means: apple pie, pumpkin spice, hot tea, and changing leaves.  The other day in class we had to go around the room and say what our favorite thing was about fall and my response was "pumpkin everything."  I swear I could eat pumpkin muffins every day and not get sick of it.  So most likely a recipe involving pumpkin is coming your way! 

I did overcook mine slightly which wasn't a huge deal but I would just advise that you monitor it fairly closely while its in the oven and make sure you take it out before it becomes super dark brown in color.  

I won't bore you anymore with my life story so here you go! 

Ingredients:

This recipe makes 5-6 servings.

2 cups old fashioned oats
1.5 cups of chopped nuts (almonds, walnuts, etc)
1/4-1/2 cup chopped dried fruit 
1/3 cup oil (I used olive oil)
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of ginger 
1/3 cup honey 
1/2 tsp vanilla 

Directions:

1.  Preheat the oven to 350.  Prepare a large cookie sheet by covering it with parchment paper. 
2. Chop up any desired nuts and/or dried fruit.  For my fruit I used mango, cranberry, and golden raisins. 

3. In a large bowl combine oats and nuts.  Add in oil and honey and stir thoroughly to combine.  Add in cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, and vanilla. 
4.  Spread out mixture onto the parchment paper.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes and stir occasionally adding in the dried fruit for the last 10 or so minutes of it baking in the oven. 

6.  Allow to cool and enjoy straight up or with yogurt! 

Happy baking! I'm happy to be back :) 

Peach Nectarine Cobbler

It's been quite awhile, hello all! I have been through a lot of major transitions lately with moving to a new city and whatnot so my apologies for being absent.  I have a few old recipes to post in the near future. 

This is a peach cobbler with a butter cookie dough frosting.  It is super duper easy, doesn't take long at all, is very sweet, and is great paired with some vanilla ice cream.

I made this in the summer when the weather was still incredibly nice and the fruit was amazing.  I used both orange nectarines and white peaches I believe.  I'm not going to lie, I made this ages ago so I don't remember the exact measurement of the fruit part (I do have exact numbers for the topping which is the most important).

I'll leave it up to you but I would recommend using 2-3 nectarines and 2-3 peaches and cutting them up.  You probably want to coat them with about 3/4 cup of sugar and some lemon juice.  You can play with the amounts (if you like it sweet add more, less sweet don't put as much).  I apologize for not making it straight forward but its pretty easy and variable.  

Below I will put the recipe for the topping!

I love each season for different reasons but the fall in Oregon is beautiful.  We have been blessed with great weather (which is just now seeming to leave us) and the leaves are falling from the trees in an array of great color.  In California I never really noticed the beauty of the Fall and the foliage here is in a much greater density so I am able to appreciate it. 

Also, the fall means fall foods like pumpkin! Anything pumpkin flavored is going to be something I like, so this time of year is amazing yet dangerous for me. 

Ingredients: 

This recipe makes 8-inch square pan of cobbler. 

Topping:

1/2 cup flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 stick unsalted, softened butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg yolk 

1/4 tsp. vanilla 

Fruit:

4-6 nectarines/peaches

1/2-1 cup sugar

2-3 tbsp. lemon juice 

Directions: 

1.  Prepare your fruit filling and place into a pre-greased 8-inch square pan. 

2.  Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl.

3.  Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Then, beat in the egg yolk and vanilla.  

4.  Mix in dry flour mixture.

5.  Dollop dough over the fruit (try your best to spread over evenly).

6.  Bake at 375 for about 40-50 minutes or when the crust is a golden brown color.

Enjoy this immensely! And make sure you use good, ripe fruit. 

Happy baking!