Say it with Sprinkles: A baking blog filled with recipes & photos of sweet treats & savory eats.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

I suspect that you’re all eating modestly today in preparation for tomorrow’s gluttonous extravaganza, so maybe you aren’t interested in a cookie recipe right this second, right?  Haha, ya, I know  good one.  There’s nothing like the holiday season to really bring out everyone’s eating potential to the fullest- just anticipating a giant turkey leg smothered in gravy and cranberry sauce and then dipped in mashed potatoes is probably just about all that’s necessary to spark the appetite, days to weeks ahead of time.  You can totally handle these cookies.  You’ve got it under control.

I’d say these cookies were pretty standard, if by standard I meant completely not standard at all.  I mean, they look innocent enough.  You’ve seen chocolate chip laced cookies before, they’re pretty classic…even standard.  But something about the holiday season brings out a desire in me to bake with things that are green, and red, and probably glittery.

Since I had no edible glitter on hand, and since let’s face it, I’m not on an episode of Top Chef Just Desserts creating centerpieces out of chocolate that will probably tragically be thrown away 1o minutes after presentation, or like….that guy who used edible glitter a lot…I’m going with the holiday color variations.  Green pepper cookies?  Probably not.  But cranberries?  Doable.  Done.

Cranberry Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies

Ingredients:

* 1 Cup Butter flavored Shortening (or butter)
* 1 Cup Brown sugar, packed
* 1/2 Cup Granulated sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 tsp Vanilla extract

* 2 1/2 Cups All purpose flour
* 1 tsp Baking soda
* 1 tsp Salt

* 1 Cup Semi-sweet chocolate chips
* 1 Cup Pecans, roughly chopped
* 1/2 Cup Dried Cranberries

Directions:

Beat together the shortening and sugars with a stand mixer, or by hand, until fluffy.
Add in the eggs one at a time, mixing between additions. Add the vanilla extract and mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Slowly add the dry to the wet mixture, mixing between additions. Don’t overmix, though!

Stir in the chocolate chips, pecans, and cranberries by hand. Refrigerate dough for at least an hour, wrapped up, or covered.

Preheat oven to 350*F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.
Scoop out cookie dough using a dough scooper or a spoon (about the size of a golf ball). Bake 10-12 minutes, depending on your oven, until tops are golden brown. Allow to cool on the pan a few minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack, or directly to your mouth, if you feel like you can take the heat. =p

But seriously, don’t burn yourselves…

You probably shouldn’t let the fact that come tomorrow you’ll be knee-deep in cranberry sauce, doubled over in regret grasping your stomach as you slip into a turkey-gravy-pie-to- top-it-all-off coma affect your decision to make these or not.  You probably should go for it.

Despite the fact that it’s still hovering around the 80 degree mark during the day and staying fairly warm into the evening around these parts, I decided to open my first can of pumpkin of the year at the beginning of the month. I think I did a pretty good job of holding off until the season really hit, even while being tempted by food blog recipes featuring fall ingredients back in September and even August (!!!) I try not to burn myself out on seasonal foods toooooo early on (apples are a different story altogether – I’m looking at you, yet-to-be-posted apple galette!).

I did the usual pumpkin oats first and foremost, but really wanted to get myself knee-deep in pumpkin with these cookies! I couldn’t find a recipe online that I really liked the looks of, so obviously I improvised. These are my basic recipe with a few tweaks here and there, and for my first try, I think they came out pretty well. Not overpoweringly pumpkin-y…to be honest, I think they SMELL more pumpkin-spicey-fall-ish than anything! They’re a bit cakey, but I wouldn’t call them a cakey cookie; as far as I’m concerned, no one wants a cakey cookie. If I wanted a cakey cookie I’d probably just make cake. Or a cupcake. Or something else bready, duh.  It’s all about the chewy!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

* 1 cup bread flour
* 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
* 1/4 cup cornstarch
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1 tsp salt
* 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
* 3/4 cup margarine or butter flavored shortening
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
* 1/4 cup canned pumpkin (not the pie filling)
* 2 eggs
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350* F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat.

Cream together the margarine or shortening and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add in eggs one at a time, mixing between. Add the vanilla extract and canned pumpkin, and mix well.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.

Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture slowly, mixing between additions until well incorporated.

Stir in the chocolate chips by hand.

Drop golfball sized dough onto prepared cookie sheet. Bake about 11-12 minutes until just golden brown on top.

Still to do this month: World-record-holding corn maze! Maybe pumpkin carving.
Bring on the fall! =) What’s everyone doing for Halloween?

Let me start off by saying that some of my very best baking work is the baking work that just doesn’t end up on the blog.  Most likely, I think it’s because they’re the recipes I make all of the time, over and over as favorites and stand-bys; they rarely let me down.  And yet, they never seem quite impressive or novel enough to feature.  Upon typing that, I realize it’s just not fair.  At all.  Afterall, recipes like basic, delicious, chocolate chip cookies are always a crowd pleaser, and clearly deserve their 15 minutes!

Now, remember that time I said these recipes rarely let me down?  Well, they don’t.  But sometimes other kitchen nightmares get me a little disenchanted.  It’s really not the recipe’s fault at all.

This particular cookie story begins with the best of intentions, is wrought with untimely tragedy, and wraps up with a happy ending.  Sort of.

If you’ve never broiled a cookie, I envy you. I wish I could say the same.  Trust me, it’s not only NOT the way to go, it’s also not the type of situation you walk into the kitchen and expect to get yourself into.  Or to have someone else get you into, as the case may be.  That’s precisely where the kitchen sabotage portion of this story comes in to play.  Once again, I won’t name names (but it was my brother).  I wouldn’t want to throw anyone under the bus (but it was my brother).  I’m not that kind of person to just hold a grudge (but it was my brother).  So anyway, whatever happened, my brother happened to be BROILING peppers pre-cookie baking, so I bounded into the kitchen (GOOD INTENTIONS), expecting a smooth-sailing kind of cookie baking experience, only to pull the first pan of cookies out of the oven and find not the type of golden brown color you might want in a cookie.  Obviously I had adjusted the temperature, but had no idea there had been broiling going on, and that it was apparently still going on. (TRAGEDY!)

Needless to say, it took quite a few pans of cookies for the oven to reach optimal cookie baking temperature, even after settings were adjusted.  I don’t want to harp on it or anything (but it was my brother), so I guess I’m just going to maturely let it go.

The cookies you see here are the very. last. pan of cookies.  Not even a full pan.  Oh well, at least I got them, right?! (HAPPY ENDING…sort of?)

Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies
I know this cookie recipe by heart. I make it often, you could say. It’s simple, and perfect for changing up the add-ins, depending on what you’re in the mood for.

Ingredients:

* 1 cup butter flavored shortening
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 tsp vanilla extract
* 2 1/4 cups flour
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.
* 1 cup roughly chopped pecans (or any other nut you like, really)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350* F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silpat.

Cream together the shortening and sugars in a mixer, or by hand. Add the 2 eggs, mixing between additions. Add the vanilla and mix.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda.

Slowly add the flour mixture in intervals until well-incorporated. Make sure you scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go.

Stir in the chocolate chips and pecans by hand. Use a cookie scoop (the metal ice cream scooper looking things) to place 8 cookie blobs on your pan at a time (depending on the size of your cookie sheet).

Bake about 11 minutes. Let cool on the pan for about 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack….or just eating. I’d hate to be on the receiving end of angry emails from burnt-mouth readers who didn’t follow that step! 🙂

I’m not going to name names, yet again, but these cookies have been called the single greatest chocolate chip cookie ever (by my brother).  You should probably bake them (but not broil them!) (HAPPY ENDING!)

There are so many…a few…one or two…ok, there’s one good thing about the quarter system, and that’s the fact that while all the other kiddies are wrapping up their endless days of summer and getting ready to ship off back to school, there’s still another month before our fall quarter starts.

HOWEVER,…and that’s a big-time HOWEVER, I love the “back to school” fever that seems to infect students and moms alike, spurring sales on school supplies & shelves stocked with fall clothes, and by the time I’m actually supposed to be doing my “back to schooling,” the hype is all hyped out, the sales are done salesing, and all the good fall clothes are all tapped out.

I think the fact that I haven’t actually had a summer break and have been attending classes basically non-stop since Christmas break of 2010 is completely irrelevant in this situation, too, so let’s not bring that up. Just because I haven’t gotten my fix of bright, summery fun, carefree, class free summer days filled with the beach, boys, and iced coffee doesn’t mean I can’t lament the fact that summer will soon be coming to an end, and then self medicate that loss with a hefty dose of hope that back to school is truly more about good times with friends at football games and frat parties rather than hours of mind-numbing, soul crushing classwork. That’s what all the magazines and ads say, anyway.

So anyway, the moral of this babbling is, I want the “back to school” time of year to last longer. Ya, maybe stretch those sales out til say, the end of September? I wanna get on that band wagon when that time actually comes for us quarter system kiddies (not to mention us Californians, who dread the thought of cool weather clothing well into October), and not a moment sooner…because obviously, I don’t want summer to end at all, EVER! But, if it has to, it should end in crisp, cool weather, new school supplies, fluffy sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes, tailgate parties, and all the hype that everyone else gets to embrace when the summer gravy train departs until next year.

The other moral of the story is, make these yummy strawberry nectarine oat-y bars for busy, get the kids or yourself out the door mornings! They’re like strawberry topped oatmeal on the go =)

Strawberry Nectarine Oat Squares
Adapted from Oh She Glows

Ingredients:

Base:
* 1 1/2 Cups Oats
* 1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour (I needed to add about 1/2 cup more to get a thick enough “dough”)
* 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
* 1/2 tsp Salt
* 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
* 1 Egg
* 1/2 Cup + 2 Tbsp Margarine, melted
* 1/4 Cup Maple Syrup
* 2 Tbsp Almond Milk
* 1 Tbsp Sesame Seeds to sprinkle on top

Strawberry Nectarine Jam:
* 2 1/4 Cups Chopped Strawberry & Nectarine (Any ratio is fine- I used 1 nectarine and the rest strawberry)
* 3-4 Tbsp Sugar
* 1 Tbsp Cornstarch

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350*F. Grease or line an 8 x 8″ pan.

For the oat base, combine the oats, flour, baking soda, salt, and brown sugar in a mixing bowl.

Combine the melted margarine, maple syrup, almond milk, and egg in a separate bowl.

Add the wet mixture to the dry oat mixture, and stir to combine. You should get a pretty thick “dough”…if it seems too wet, add in a little extra flour, or more oats, or both until you get the right consistency.

Reserve 1/2 cup of the oat dough and set it aside. Press the dough evenly into the bottom of your pan.

Add your strawberry and nectarine mixture into a saucepan and heat on low for about 5 minutes. Add the sugar slowly, to taste. Heat for another 5 minutes until the mixture is juicy- use a spoon to pull out a few teaspoons of the juice in a mug or small bowl. Stir in the cornstarch. Add the juice and cornstarch mixture to the saucepan and simmer on low for about 10 more minutes, or until the jam thickens up. Take off heat and let cool for about 10 minutes.

Pour the jam on top of the oat base and spread evenly. Crumble the 1/2 cup of oat dough you reserved on top of the jam. Sprinkle with Sesame seeds.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, depending on how hot your oven gets. Allow to cool for 30 minutes before slicing.

For now, I think I’ll call these “back to summer school bars.” The calm before the fall!

There’s a pretty good chance that peach cobbler is my all-time favorite fruit dessert. There’s also a 94.7% chance that it’s my all-time favorite dessert, period.

Cherry and blueberry are right up there, neck and neck, if you must know, and they fight it out every summer, vying for my attention. At this point in the summer, peach is winning.

So…maybe it’s just my current favorite? My favorite until I make a blueberry pie? Fair enough.

My mom has the cutest little accidental peach tree growing in her backyard. A happy accident. For years it’s been a little sparse on the production line of things, if you know what I mean…and coupled with the fact that bugs apparently place peaches as high on their favorite fruit list as I do…there haven’t ever been quite enough to support my incessant fruit habits.

Unfortunately, there still aren’t.

I wish I could go on to tell you the classic story of a peach tree underdog that finally overcomes the odds to produce pounds and pounds of juicy, glorious peaches that end up keeping even the most insatiable peach habit at bay. You know the story I’m talking about, right? No? You didn’t hear that one as a kid? Weird. Anyway…

In that story, my kitchen would end up overflowing with a never ending stream of sweet, crumble topped peach cobbler, all because of that little tree. Happily. Ever. After! Good, yes?

However, delicious as those little peaches are, and try as that little tree might, this peach cobbler was a result of a little help from the fruit stand peaches I bought last week.

Peach Raspberry Cobbler
This cobbler is more like a “crisp” because of its crumble topping. Super easy to make, super delicious, and gluten free, too!

Ingredients:

Peach Filling:
* 6 cups Sliced peaches
* 1/2 cup Frozen raspberries, thawed
* 1 1/4 cup Sugar
* 1/4 cup Cornstarch
* pinch of salt
* 1 tsp cinnamon

Crumb Topping:
* 1 cup Oats
* 1 cup Oat Flour (I processed oats in a coffee grinder)
* 1 cup Margarine or Butter
* 1 cup Brown Sugar
* 1 tsp Cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 425* F.

Cut peaches into small slices and then half each slice (more bite-sized that way). Add peach slices to a large bowl along with the sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cinnamon.

Stir together well and pour into an ungreased 9 x 13″ casserole dish.

To assemble the crumb topping, add the oats, oat flour, cinnamon, brown sugar, and margarine or butter to a separate bowl. Using a fork, cut the butter in to the dry ingredients until well incorporated. You’ll get a clumpy, course meal texture.

Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the peach mixture.

Back for about 45 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown and the filling is bubbly.

Moral of the story: If you can’t get happily ever after out of your tiny backyard fruit tree, get it at the fruit stand or farmer’s market instead, and call it a day. Done!

Still love you, little tree! <3