Pumpkin Spice Cookies & Cream Cookies

Hello (virtual) world, I'm home! 

I hope you guys had a wonderful past few days and didn't miss me too much. ;)  I spent my fall break in New York City and it was an absolute whirlwind. I went on a little food industry tour and visited the Martha Stewart Living, Food52, Food & Wine, and West Elm offices, saw a few shows, visited the Jeff Koons exhibit at the Whitney, met up with some old friends, fainted on a random lady while I was in the emergency room with a friend who fainted at dinner, took a trip out to Valrhona's amazing new L'Ecole du Grand Chocolat in DUMBO, wrapped myself up in lots of sweaters and scarves, and conducted a lot of super scientific research (aka, eating dessert.) 

It was wonderful. Alas, I am back in New Orleans, which means I get to immediately go back to destroying my kitchen all in the name of food blogging. I just scheduled out the next month or so of desserts I want to make and the list is absolutely wild. Like, I-was-super-conscious-about-people-looking-over-my-shoulder-while-I-was-writing-it-all-down-and-judging-me level wild. 

In the meantime, we're going to keep things a little more classic around here. Can we all agree the pumpkins are the best part of fall? Because they are. While I'm not crazy fond of actual pumpkin desserts (I prefer to use them for more important purposes), pumpkin spice is where it's at. 

The stretch from October to April has always been my favorite time of the year, mainly because of all of the special festive holiday items that fill up my cart at the grocery store. I don't need these things, and frankly I never buy m&m's at any other time of the year, but there's just something about a special flavor or color mix that instantly makes me reach out and grab a few bags to "try."  I use that term loosely. 

Case in point: Pumpkin Spice Oreos. See, I was pretty certain that these would be absolutely disgusting when I saw these, but Nabisco really delivered. It only took me a taste of one cookie to get the mixer out and bake cookies with them. 

I have a few specialities when it comes to baking. You know, the recipes that people will ask me to make for them and continue nagging me until I finally cave in. Cookies & Cream Cookies are one of these. There's something so intoxicating about these cookies. It's probably the fact that there's a bunch of cream cheese and two cups of crushed up Oreos in the dough. Or maybe it's because I roll them in sugar before baking (because they obviously didn't have enough sugar in them in the first place). Whatever it is, they're *insert expletive of choice* delicious. While my traditional recipe is what I bake most often, this pumpkin spice version gives the classic cookies & cream cookies a definite run for its money.

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PUMPKIN SPICE COOKIES AND CREAM COOKIES

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1/2 cup cream cheese, softened

• 1 cup brown sugar, packed

• 1 egg

• 1 tsp. vanilla

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice 

• 3/4 tsp. baking soda

• 1/2 tsp. baking powder

• 2 cups Pumpkin Spice Oreos, chopped 

• 1/2 cup cinnamon chips

• sugar, for rolling

Preheat the oven to 350 F and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the brown sugar and egg, mixing for 3 minutes more. Mix in the vanilla. Add all of the dry ingredients and combines. Fold in the chopped cookies and cinnamon chips.

Roll the cookie dough into balls, then roll them in sugar, and place them on your prepared baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes, do not overbake. 

Cranberry White Chocolate Pecan Oatmeal Cookies

 ‘Tis the season for all things festive! So I just looked up at my calendar and it’s November 20th. Come again? Is it just me or does Christmas start earlier and earlier each year? The day after Halloween I went to Target to buy cheap candy and BAM! Christmas everywhere. I’m sitting here now, a week away from Thanksgiving, making sure I have time to bake all of my favorite fall treats before we’re too far into the land of eternal candy canes and gingerbread. 

So let me tell you a few things about these cookies. 1) They’re really good. 2) I’ve made them for like every holiday party in the past year. 3) They’re really good. I made these a few weeks ago for the annual Blackall pig roast. Le me tell you, these are a crowd pleaser. I don’t know what it is, but you’d think that I sprinkled cocaine throughout the dough because these were gone in two seconds. Seriously, these get rave reviews every time I make them! For those of you who have been asking me for the recipe, here it is (finally)! 

These cookies are perfect for the holidays. I took a traditional oatmeal cookie and threw in anything and everything that I thought would be good. This time, I decided to go with white chocolate chips, dried cranberries, some toasted pecans, and a few dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg. So good! If you don’t like those flavors, feel free to substitute anything you like. Coconut, white chocolate, and macadamia nut sounds divine. Dark chocolate and orange? I bet that would be delicious. What other combinations would be good? Let me know in the comments and maybe I’ll make you some! 

Cranberry White Chocolate Pecan Oatmeal Cookies

·      ¾ cups unsalted butter, softened

·      ½ cup sugar

·      ½ cup brown sugar

·      2 eggs

·      2 tsp vanilla

·      2 cups all-purpose flour

·      1 ½ cups old-fashioned oats (not steel cut!)

·      2 tsp cinnamon

·      1/8 tsp nutmeg

·      ½ tsp salt

·      ¼ tsp baking powder

·      1 tsp baking soda

·      1 cup white chocolate chips

·      1 cup dried cranberries (cherries would be good too!)

·      1 cup chopped pecans (any nut will work)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line baking trays with parchment paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugars 3-4 minutes until light and fluffy. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients — flour, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, baking powder, and soda — and mix until combined. Add the nuts, chips, and dried cranberries and mix one last time!

Scoop 2 tbsp mounds of dough onto prepared trays. Bake for 8-10 minutes (9 minutes was perfect for me!). Allow to cool on trays before serving! 

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