Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

It’s already week 9 of my 12 weeks of Christmas Cookies! Only 27 more days until Christmas! Have you started your shopping yet?

This week I called my sister and asked her if I could share her Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe on my blog. My sister is a wonderful cook and this is one of her family’s favorite cookies. It is a delicious, soft, moist, cakey cookie. Her recipe makes 5 dozen cookies. She often doubles that and freezes the dough so that she can have fresh, hot cookies ready in a flash for friends and family.

The recipe calls for shortening. My sister has tried using butter instead but the cookie sets up better with the shortening. Also, be sure and bake the cookies completely before removing them from the oven. Enjoy!



Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup shortening
3 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups canned pumpkin
5 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 12-oz.package chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375º. Mix the wet ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. Add chocolate chips. Bake 12 – 15 minutes.

For more delicious 12 weeks of Christmas cookies visit:
Megan from Megan's Cookin
April from Abbys Sweets
Denise from Keeper Worthy Recipes
Megan's from My Baking Adventures
Kim from Stirring the Pot

I'm submitting this recipe to Shelby, of The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch for November's Family Recipes, Memories of Family, Food and Fun.

Daring Bakers Cannoli

 

For November the Daring Bakers were challenged to put away our baking pans and get out the deep fry thermometer and oil! The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

I’ve only had cannoli a couple of times and I didn’t love it because I’m not a big fan of ricotta desserts. So I was happy when mascarpone cheese was offered as an alternative for filling our cannoli.

Deeba of Passionate about Baking has been posting fabulous desserts using her creamy homemade mascarpone and this was my chance to give it a try! I made an orange chocolate chip mascarpone filling for my cannoli that was fabulous!



My shells on the other hand were a disaster! I made the dough twice, but it would just not behave. I could not get it rolled out thin enough. It kept shrinking back. Consequently, my shells didn’t blister and were tough. I filled a few cannoli for the pictures but decided to save my luscious filling for something equally as wonderful.

In the end I decided to make individual cakes using Pioneer Women’s Best Chocolate Sheet Cake. Ever filled with orange chocolate mascarpone drizzled with a chocolate ganache. It was sinfully delicious and something I would definitely make again.



Thanks Lisa for a fun challenge. Visit Lisa at Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives for this month’s Daring Bakers recipe and tips on making cannoli. Too see the delicious cannoli the other Daring Bakers whipped up visit the Daring Baker Blogroll.

Mascarpone
Recipe adapted from Addicted Sweet Tooth

Ingredients:
1 litre cream (I used 25% low fat cream;you can use 36% whipping cream)
2 tbsp fresh lime/lemon juice ( juice of 1 ½ limes approx)

Method:
Heat the cream over a waterbath/double boiler until it reaches 180ºF/82ºC
Stir in the lime/lemon juice and keep at this temperature for a few moments longer until it starts to thicken.

Remove from heat, cover, and let sit at room temperature until it is cooled down a bit.

Refrigerate over night. The next day it will have thickened further.
Pour it in a strainer lined with multiple layers of cheesecloth or clean towel. Refrigerate for about 24 hours to let the whey drain

Orange Chocolate Chip Mascarpone Filling
16 ounces mascarpone
1 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon orange oil
zest from one orange
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Mix first four ingredients together until thoroughly combined. Mix in chocolate chips

Thanksgiving Side Dishes - Caramelized Corn and Green Beans with Pecans and Blue Cheese

I’ve been looking for Thanksgiving side dish recipes that I could make on the stove instead of the oven. I came across these two wonderful vegetable recipes that kick it up a notch but my kids will still be happy to eat.

I tried them out last night with a succulent grilled pork tenderloin. Both recipes are quick and easy, and will be a perfect addition to our Thanksgiving meal.



Green beans with Pecans and Blue Cheese
adapted for the Salt Lake Tribune

2 pounds green beans, trimmed
1½ tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup chopped pecans
½ cup crumbled blue cheese
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the green beans, return to a boil and cook until bright green and crisp, 3 - 4 minutes. Drain well and set aside.

Return the pan to the stove over medium-high heat. Add the butter and pecans and stir until the nuts are lightly toasted and fragrant, 2--3 minutes. Add the green beans and stir until heated through.

Remove the pan from the heat. Add the cheese and toss until melted. Season with salt and pepper.

Servings » 8




I saw this caramelized corn recipe on the Today Show and immediately set out to find it because it's a great way to dress up corn. It wasn’t on the Today Show site, but was included in a New York Times article.

Caramelized Corn
adapted from New York Times

Two 16-ounce bags frozen white corn
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper as desired

1. Drain corn between layers of paper towels until thawed, about 30 minutes.
2. In a wide skillet, melt half the butter over high heat. Add half the corn and cook, stirring often, until golden and browned (kernels may begin to pop), about 10 minutes. Stir in half the parsley and sprinkle with salt. Transfer to a serving bowl. Repeat with remaining corn, butter, parsley and salt.
Yield: 10 to 12 servings.

(The original recipe called for mint, but I wasn’t sure that would go over as well.)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

In addition to the traditional turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy we are having:


Two Peas and Their Pod Fresh Cranberry Sauce with Orange Zest


Wives with Knives Cranberry Tangerine Chutney

Paula Deen Sweet Potato Casserole
My favorite dinner rolls using Lovin' from the Oven's Brown & Serve Roll technique
Kids favorite Green Jello Cream Cheese Salad
My streusel topped version of Cranberry Apple Pie
Traditional Pumpkin Pie
Banana Cream pie in a graham cracker crust

(I’ll update with pictures after Thanksgiving)

Cherie’s Snickers Peanut Butter Cookies

For week 8 of my 12 weeks of Christmas Cookies I am featuring Cherie’s Snickers Peanut Butter Cookies.

My neighbor and friend, Cherie, is famous for her Snickers Peanut Butter Cookie. They are a large chewy but tender cookie loaded with peanut butter, peanut butter chips and topped with a mini Snickers bar.

Cherie and her family are moving this week, but before she left she brought me a plate of her scrumptious cookies, which she made with Milky Way instead of Snickers because she remembered Milky Way are my favorite. She is so sweet and we will really miss her and her family. She graciously allowed me to share her fabulous cookie recipe with you.

 

Cherie’s Snickers Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup creamy (or chunky, if you prefer) peanut butter
2 eggs
2 ½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 package Reeses peanut butter chips
1 bag mini size Snickers

Preheat oven to 325º

Cream butter, sugars and peanut butter. Add eggs. Add flour, soda and salt. Mix well. Stir in peanut butter chips.

Roll into balls. Adding the snickers can be done anyway you like. You can place the dough balls on your cookie sheet and press a Snickers mini, whole or cut in half, into the ball and bake. You can chop the Snickers into pieces and add it to the dough, roll into balls, flatten with fork and bake. You can roll into balls, flatten pretty thin and wrap the dough around a whole Snickers mini and bake. If you have mini muffin pans, you can fill it with dough balls and press a mini Snicker into it and bake.  Or any other combination you can think of.

However you decide, bake at 350 for 10 - 12 minutes.

Update:

Tips from Amanda of Amanda's Cookin': Remove from oven and leave cookies on cookie sheet for 2 minutes to rest. Slide parchment with cookies onto cooling rack and let cool for ten minutes. Remove from parchment to cooling rack to cool completely.

If you try to eat these cookies while still warm they may fall apart. Allow them to cool completely and they'll be fine. 

"Pay close attention to the cooling section or your masterpieces will fall apart before your very eyes. Darn, broken cookies, better eat those... oh don't worry though, I've heard that if you break a cookie, the calories fall out (snort)."


For more delicious 12 weeks of Christmas cookies visit:
Megan from Megan's Cookin
April from Abbys Sweets
Denise from Keeper Worthy Recipes
Megan's from My Baking Adventures
Kim from Stirring the Pot

Creamy Chicken and Green Chili Enchiladas and Thanks Yous

Lisa of Jersey Girl Cooks posted this easy and delicious enchilada recipe last December but I didn’t discover it until recently. My husband loved these enchiladas. After the first bite he said, “Oh, these are good.“ Then he said the same thing about ten more times. I loved that they were quick and easy as well as delicious!



Creamy Chicken and Green Chili Enchiladas
Recipe by: Dinners for a Year and Beyond
(makes 12 enchiladas)

4 bone-in chicken breasts or purchased already cooked rotisserie chicken
olive oil
salt
pepper
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon cumin
1/3 cup flour
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup salsa verde
1/2 cup light sour cream
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
12 6-inch corn tortillas (I used flour tortillas)
3 cups shredded light Mexican blend cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Place chicken on a large baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in oven for about 40 - 50 minutes or until the internal temperature is about 170 degrees. Remove from oven and let cool. When cool enough to handle, shred chicken into bite-sized pieces and place in a bowl. Set aside.

Meanwhile, heat a large saucepan to medium high and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the onions. Saute for 8 - 10 minutes or until the onions are lightly browned. Add the garlic and cumin and saute for an additional minute. Stir in the flour until blended and cook for a minute. Slowly pour in the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Cook for 2 - 4 minutes or until thickened. Add the salsa verde, sour cream, and cilantro. Stir to combine. Season the creamy green chili sauce with salt and pepper.

Add about 1 cup of the creamy green chili sauce to the shredded chicken and stir to combine.To assemble enchiladas get a large baking dish and spray with cooking spray. Dip a tortilla into the creamy green chili sauce and put it on a cutting board. (You can also put tortillas in the microwave for a few seconds to make them easier to work with.) Put a big scoop of the chicken mixture in the center, sprinkle with a little of the cheese, and roll up the tortilla to enclose the filling. Place the enchilada in the baking dish. Continue to fill all of the tortillas and put them in the baking dish. Pour the remaining creamy green chili sauce over the top and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Bake uncovered for about 20 - 25 minutes until bubbly and the cheese is melted. Serve hot with sour cream.

Thanks Lisa for sharing this wonderful recipe. Be sure and stop by her blog to check out all her fabulous recipes!



I also owe Lisa a big thank you because I was the winner of her My Blogspark General Mills Movie Moment giveaway! I received my tickets this week and I’m planning to take the family to the new Sandra Bullock film this weekend!

Starting in November, you can receive a free movie ticket when you purchase two specially marked packages of General Mills’ Cereals. After purchasing two cereals, visit generalmills.com/moviecash to enter the code found inside each box of cereal and print your free movie certificate good for admission to any movie.


Awards


I also owe a big thank you to Ninette of Big, Bold, Beautiful Food, my Daring Baker buddy, who recently received the Over the Top Award and passed it on to me!

Ninette always has wonderful recipe and great pictures of her beautiful food and recently wrote a touching post asking “are food blogs really about food? Maybe. Or maybe they're about sharing the joy of every day moments and what we have in common.” I couldn’t agree more.

I’m passing this award on to the following fabulous women with Over the Top food blogs:

- Katie at goodLife {eats}
- Jaime at Good Eats ‘n Sweet Treats
- Memória at Mangio da Sola
- Amy at Streaming Gourmet
- Rachel at La Fuji Mama



I also owe a big thank you to Fahrenheit 350° for awarding me the Lemonade Stand Gratitude Award. She recently celebrated her one year blogiversary with a fabulous week long giveaway! Her cute polka dot blog is filled with fun ideas and delicious food.


The rules of accepting and sharing this award are:

• Put the logo on your blog or post
• Nominate at least 10 blogs that show an attitude of gratitude
• Link to your nominees within your post
• Comment on their blog to let them know they've received this award
• Share the love and link to the person who nominated you
• Tell us how you've come to have an attitude of gratitude

I am grateful for all the wonderful friends that I have met through blogging. I usually start my day on Twitter and always leave with a smile. So I’m passing this award on to some of the wonderful, witty food bloggers who bring sunshine to my day:

- Janet of LaDue & Crew
- Megan of Megans Cookin’
- April of Abbys Sweets
- Shelby of Grumpy’s Honeybunch
- Asha of Fork-Spoon-Knife
- Barbara of Vino Luci Style
- Tiffany of Food Finery
- Cristie of The Table Runner
- Maria of Two Peas and Their Pod
- Becky of Vintage Mixer

Daring Cooks' November Challenge – Sushi

The November 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was brought to you by Audax of Audax Artifex and Rose of The Bite Me Kitchen. They chose sushi as the challenge. At first I wasn't going to do the challenge because I am allergic to fish and seafood, but how could I not do a challenge Audax was part of! Audax is always the first one to complete the Daring Cooks and Daring Bakers challenges and is always willing to answer any questions and give encouragement to everyone along the way. So since my daughter and son-in-law love sushi I invited them to come over and helped make sushi with teriyaki chicken. We used a variety of sauces - a spicy mayo, pesto and orange sauce.

The challenge consisted of parts:
Part 1: Making proper sushi rice
Part 2: Dragon sushi roll – an avocado covered inside-out rice roll with a tasty surprise filling
Part 3: Decorative sushi – a nori-coated rice roll which reveals a decorative pattern when cut
Part 4: Nigiri sushi – hand-shaped rice rolls with toppings 

Sushi actually means vinegared rice, which is the essential ingredient in every sushi recipe. My sushi rice turned out perfect! It was so delicious I would have been happy just eating that! But everything else was fabulous as well and it was a really fun evening. I am posting the rice recipe so I’ll have it handy for next time I make it. Visit Audax Artifex if you’d like the other sushi recipes. Thanks Audax and Rose for a great challenge!

PART 1 : SUSHI RICE (makes about 7 cups of cooked sushi rice)Preparation time: 1¾ hours consisting of :- Rinsing and draining rice: 35 minutes Soaking rice: 30 minutes (includes 5 minutes making the vinegar dressing) Cooking and steaming time: 25 minutes Finishing the rice: 15 minutesINGREDIENTS:

• 2½ cups uncooked short grain rice
• 2½ cups water
• For superior results use equal volumes of rice and water

Optional Ingredients

• 3 inch (75mm or 15 grams) square dashi konbu (or kombu) (dried kelp seaweed) wipe with a damp cloth to remove white powder & cut a few slits in the sides of the kelp to help release its flavours
• 2½ teaspoons (12.5 mls) of sake (Japanese rice wine)

Sushi vinegar dressing

• 5 Tablespoons (75 mls) rice vinegar
• 5 Teaspoons (25 mls or 21 grams) sugar
• 1¼ Teaspoons (6.25 mls or 4.5 grams) salt

DIRECTIONS: Rinsing and draining the rice

1. Swirl rice gently in a bowl of water, drain, repeat 3-4 times until water is nearly clear. Don't crush the rice in your hands or against the side of the bowl since dry rice is very brittle.
2. Gently place rice into a strainer and drain well for 30 minutes.

Soaking the rice

1. Gently place the rice into a heavy medium pot with a tight fitting lid (if you have a loose fitting lid use a piece of aluminium foil to make the seal tight).
2. Add 2½ cups of water and the dashi konbu.
3. Set the rice aside to soak for 30 minutes, during this time prepare the sushi rice dressing.

Preparing the Rice Vinegar Dressing

1. Combine the rice vinegar, sugar and salt in a small bowl.
2. Heat on low setting.
3. Stir until the mixture goes clear and the sugar and salt have dissolved.
4. Set aside at room temperature until the rice is cooked.

Cooking the rice

1. After 30 minutes of soaking add sake (if using) to the rice.
2. Bring rinsed and soaked rice to the boil.
3. Reduce heat to the lowest setting and simmer, covered, until all the water is absorbed, 12-15 minutes. Do not remove the lid during this process. Turn off heat.
4. Let stand with the lid on, 10-15 minutes. Do not peek inside the pot or remove the lid. During this time the rice is steaming which completes the cooking process.

Finishing the rice

• Turning out the rice

1. Moisten lightly a flat thin wooden spatula or spoon and a large shallow flat-bottomed non-metallic (plastic, glass or wood) bowl. Do not use metallic objects since the vinegar will react with it and produce sour and bitter sushi rice.
2. Remove the dashi konbu (kelp) from the cooked rice.
3. Use the spatula to loosen gently the rice and invert the rice pot over the bowl, gently causing the cooked rice to fall into the bowl in one central heap. Do this gently so as not to cause the rice grains to become damaged.

• Dressing the rice with vinegar

1. Slowly pour the cooled sushi vinegar over the spatula onto the hot rice.
2. Using the spatula gently spread the rice into a thin, even layer using a 45° cutting action to break up any lumps and to separate the rice. Don't stir or mash rice.
3. After the rice is spread out, start turning it over gently, in small portions, using a cutting action, allowing steam to escape, for about a minute.

• Fanning & Tossing the rice

1. Continue turning over the rice, but now start fanning (using a piece of stiff cardboard) the rice vigorously as you do so. Don't flip the rice into the air but continue to gently slice, lift and turn the rice occasionally, for 10 minutes. Cooling the rice using a fan gives good flavour, texture and a high-gloss sheen to the rice. The vinegar dressing will be absorbed by the hot rice. Using a small electric fan on the lowest speed setting is highly recommended.
2. Stop fanning when there's no more visible steam, and all the vinegar dressing has been adsorbed and the rice is shiny. Your sushi rice is ready to be used.

• Keeping the rice moist

1. Cover with a damp, lint free cloth to prevent the rice from drying out while preparing your sushi meal. Do not store sushi rice in the refrigerator leave on the counter covered at room temperature. Sushi rice is best used when it is at room temperature.

World Peace Cookies

For week 7 of my 12 weeks of Christmas Cookies I made World Peace Cookies. I’ve heard so many rave reviews of this cookie and I’ve been wanting to try them for a long time.

The cookie's creator, Dore Greenspan says there are more than 463,000 links on Google for her World Peace cookies. 

"The cookies, for those of you who don't know them, are chocolate sables, French shortbreads, but, because they've got more brown sugar than white in them, they've got more chew than most shortbreads.  They've also got a generous amount of dark chocolate chunks and enough fleur de sel, moist, coarse-grained French "finishing" salt (i.e., salt to be used in teensy quantities as a spice or condiment), to make them noticeably salty and completely addictive, in the way so many good things with salt are."

This really is a fabulous cookie! If you love chocolate and haven't given it a try, you should. I don't know why I waited so long!




World Peace Cookies
Baking: From My Home to Yours, Dorie Greenspan

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or a generous 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
Makes about 36 cookies.

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.

Turn off the mixer. Pour in the flour, drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don’t be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you’ve frozen the dough, you needn’t defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)

GETTING READY TO BAKE: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Working with a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you’re cutting them — don’t be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch between them.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won’t look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.

SERVING: The cookies can be eaten when they are warm or at room temperature — I prefer them at room temperature, when the textural difference between the crumbly cookie and the chocolate bits is greatest — and are best suited to cold milk or hot coffee.

STORING: Packed airtight, cookies will keep at room temperature for up to 3 days; they can be frozen for up to 2 months.

For more delicious 12 weeks of Christmas cookies visit:
Megan from Megan's Cookin
April from Abbys Sweets
Denise from Keeper Worthy Recipes
Megan's from My Baking Adventures
Kim from Stirring the Pot

Pecan Squares

Marta from the Pecan Blog contacted me recently and asked if I’d be interested in sampling Green Valley Pecan Company pecans. My husband is a huge pecan pie lover so I jumped at the chance.

I received a wonderful 1/2 lb. package of “the world's best, freshest, crunchiest, tastiest pecans” from the Pecan Store. So for week 6 of my 12 weeks of Christmas Cookies I went in search of a great cookie recipe that would highlight these beautiful pecans and I found a fabulous Pecan Squares recipe on MarthaStewart.com.

The pecan squares are a delightful mix of pecan pie and cookie. The pecans are baked in a luscious caramel filling atop a crisp brown sugar crust. My husband could not stop raving about these cookies. I couldn’t resist reorganizing the pecans on top after I took the cooked bars out of the oven and before the filling set. Okay, it was just an excuse to eat the carameled pecans, but they were so hard to resist!

This is a must try recipe if you’re a pecan lover. Thank you to the Pecan Store for sending me the delicious pecans. Visit their website and see all the fabulous products they sale that would make fabulous Christmas gifts. 

Pecan Squares 
from Martha Stewart.com

18 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup light-brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup light-brown sugar, firmly packed
6 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups (8 ounces) pecan halves
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Place rack in center of oven. Heat oven to 375 degrees. To make the crust: In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix butter and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add salt, and mix to combine. Add flour 1 cup at a time, on medium speed, mixing until fully incorporated after each addition. Continue mixing until the dough begins to come together in large clumps.
2. Press dough about 1/4-inch thick into a 9-by-13-by-1-inch baking pan. Prick the pastry with the tines of a fork. Chill until firm, about 20 minutes. Bake until golden brown, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool completely.
3. Reduce oven to 325 degrees. To make the filling: Place butter, brown sugar, honey, granulated sugar, heavy cream, and salt in a medium saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly until mixture coats the back of a spoon, about 1 minute. Remove pan from heat; stir in nuts and vanilla.
4. Pour filling onto the cooled crust. Bake until filling bubbles, 15 to 20 minutes. Carefully transfer pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Run a paring knife around edges of the pan, and invert onto cooling rack, leaving the pastry on the rack. Invert rack with pastry onto a cutting board, leaving the pastry on the board, filling side up. Use a sharp knife to cut into 1-by-3-inch bars. Store in an airtight container up to 1 week.

For more delicious 12 weeks of Christmas cookies visit:
Megan from Megan's Cookin
April from Abbys Sweets
Denise from Keeper Worthy Recipes 
Megan's from My Baking Adventures 
Kim from Stirring the Pot

Did you know?
- Pecan trees are native only to North America.
- Pecan trees can live for hundreds of years.
- 75% of the world’s pecan crop is grown in the sunbelt region of the U.S. (Southern/Southwest States).
- Pecans are cholesterol and sodium free. They are also a proven source for unsaturated fats that your body needs to stay healthy.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

Many of you know Jenny and her terrific blog, Picky Palate. Jenny recently had a fun Nordicware giveaway including a Nordicware Pumpkin Patch Pan, a Nordicware Pumpkin Loaf Pan, and a Nordicware Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake Mix. The giveaway was courtesy of csnstores.com and I won!

That’s right I’m the lucky new owner of two fabulous Nordicware pumpkin pans! So what’s a girl to do. Get baking of course! So far I’ve tried three pumpkin chocolate chip bread recipes. (The pans are fabulous by the way! Nothing stuck and they look so fun!)

First I used the Nordicware Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake mix that I won, adding chocolate chips. The mix was convenient and you could smell the wonderful spices in the mixing bowl. It had a nice flavor but if I used it again I would add some pumpkin puree to add more moisture.

I often buy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bread at Great Harvest Bread Company. Their pumpkin bread is fabulous! Moist and delicious with a perfect blend of spices. I’ve tried the last few years to find a recipe I liked as much, but haven’t been successful until now.

Amy at Streaming Gourmet posted a recipe for Ultimate Pumpkin Bread. Normally I would look at her recipe and say too much butter, too much sugar. But I decided maybe the reason I love the Great Harvest Bread so much is because of too much sugar, too much butter. So I decided to give it a try.

My son’s first comment after he took a bite was, “this tastes just like the pumpkin chocolate chip bread you buy.” I thought the recipe was fabulous, but it reminded me more of a delicious, moist pound cake with a wonderful sugary crust on the outside.

The third version I made using our family favorite light banana bread recipe substituting pumpkin for the banana and adding different spices. These were a bit heavy and my husband said, “These aren’t as good as the last one’s you made.” Of course not, they had half the fat, sugar and calories!

So the clear winner was Amy’s Ultimate Pumpkin Bread. Thanks Amy for sharing your recipe! Also a huge thank you to Jenny and csnstores.com for the fabulous giveaway! Here’s my version of Amy's recipe:

Ultimate Pumpkin Bread
Yields 2 Medium Loaves

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 cups granulated sugar
1 cup butter, really soft, half melted really
3 large eggs
1 16 oz can of pure pumpkin
1 cup mini chocolate chips

Method
1. Preheat oven to 350˚F and spray two medium loaf pans with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, spices, salt, baking soda, and baking powder and set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the wire whisk attached, dump in the sugar. Take the butter and put it in the microwave for about 30 seconds, so that it is half melted. Dump it into the sugar. Add the eggs. Cream these three ingredients together on medium speed for about 2 minutes or until fluffy. Add the pumpkin and combine well.
4. In three batches, add the dry ingredients mix gently until each batch is just incorporated. Scrape the sides between each batch. Mix in chocolate chips.
5. Pour batter into prepared pans.  Bake side-by-side for about one hour or until an inserted knife comes out clean the top is golden. The mini pumpkins baked for about 25 min.