Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are one of my favorite cookies to make. They’re soft and delicious. I’ve even had people who don’t like pumpkin like these cookies. It is not a Martha recipe. I actually got the recipe from Allrecipes.com. They are super simple to make too. The hardest thing was finding the pumpkin at this time of year. Apparently pumpkin is not in all stores year round? I had no idea, because I usually only make pumpkin things when pumpkin is in season, so I have no problem finding it. For some odd reason though, I have been craving them this February. I finally found a can at Reem’s grocery store (of all places), and was super excited!

I actually have a little movie of the process of baking these, because I had an art assignment due. I chose to take pictures of my sister, Val pretending to bake them for my project. Then she ate them all. J

Linzer Hearts

I found this recipe in Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook and thought it would be perfect for Valentine’s Day.

I made these cookies with my sister for a Valentine’s Day treat. I didn’t have time to spend hours making cute Valentines, so these cookies ended up being my Valentine to everyone who had one.

They are a very elegant, heart-shaped cookie filled with raspberry preserves. The dough is basically a hazelnut shortbread. The recipe definitely does not skimp on the butter, that’s for sure.

You have to grind the hazelnuts in the food processor in order to make the dough. I ended up almost making hazelnut butter, because I pulsed them for too long, no thanks to my sticky buttons on my processor. (I have since cleaned them.) It was crazy to see the consistency of dry nuts turn into almost a smooth oily butter. I almost would like to try making some sort of nut butter now just see the transformation again.

Fortunately I ended up having two different sizes of heart shaped cookie cutters for the bottom and top parts of the cookies. You could also use the middle mini hearts for just plain shortbread cookies, but I chose to just keep adding them back to the dough and making more sandwich cookies.

They are definitely a cookie looks as good as they taste. I was not disappointed in any way by these cookies, other than they are very time consuming. Though that’s to be expected, especially in baking!

Margarita Cake

I am sad to say that I did not get a picture of this cake! It was pretty too! It was a bundt cake with a glaze and green lime zest on top.

So this cake is inspired by the actual Margarita drink. The cake itself even contains tequila and triple sec, as does the glaze. I brought this to a fiesta I was going to and it went so fast I didn’t even have a chance to have a piece, but I heard it was good! I sprinkled the top with lime zest for a pretty green color and put a little bowl of salt to be sprinkled on top each slice if you so chose.

I got this recipe from Allrecipes.com again. I changed a couple things. It was kind of a cheating recipe. It called for a cake mix and instant pudding. I used a lemon cake mix instead of an orange cake mix like it called for. I couldn’t figure out why it called for an orange cake anyway, because it is a lemon-lime drink.

Also, when I made the glaze it was REALLY runny, so I would encourage to just add the liquid a little at a time, or just add more sugar.