Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies—a winner during this holiday “span”

Pumpkin here, pumpkin there. Pumpkins get tossed into the mix everywhere during this holiday span of time.

But into chocolate chip cookies? I had never heard that one before (although I loved my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins on Thanksgiving morning.) I was very glad this recipe turned up when I did an Internet search to see what pumpkin goodies were “trending” this season.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies were so delightfully moist, soft, and chewy. Hubby thought they were unique and a great idea. Since they contained a healthy element of fiber (the recipe also called for 1 cup oats), did that give him a good excuse to sample a few extras from the cookie plate?

He thought so.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg (or 1/4 cup egg substitute)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup quick-cooking oats

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 cup fresh pumpkin puree (or canned pumpkin)

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

In a bowl cream butter and sugars until they are light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, oats, baking soda, and cinnamon; stir into creamed mixture alternately with pumpkin. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 13 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Makes 4 dozen. (Source: www.tasteofhome.com)

Apple-pear cobbler with an oatmeal muffin on top—that's the idea of this great dessert

Baked apples and baked pears—doesn’t that sound as though it would be a divine combination in a cobbler? Then top it with a crust that tastes like a warm oatmeal muffin—how absolutely scrumptious!

That was what I thought when I read the recipe for Caramel Apple-Pear Cobbler with Oatmeal Muffin Crust. I couldn’t wait to get it all whipped up and ready to stick into the oven. The results indeed were heavenly—as good as it gets where fall desserts are concerned.

One of the neat things about this cobbler idea is that its topping, the Oatmeal Muffin Crust, can just as easily be used to make regular oatmeal muffins. If you take the batter and spoon it into greased muffin cups in a muffin pan and alter the cooking time just slightly, some flavorful muffins will appear from the oven. But as a top layer for the combined apples and pears, it was just too good to be believed. Dig down past the oatmeal-muffin layer; you’ll find some tender apples and pears that have been merged to make a terrific filling.

The mixture is great with sugar-free ice cream or sugar-free whipped topping. All the thanks go to www.myrecipes.com, which reprinted the instructions for this wonderful cobbler from the September 2004 issue of Southern Living.

Caramel Apple-Pear Cobbler

3 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced (about 1 1/2 pounds)

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup butter

3 large pears, peeled and sliced

Oatmeal Muffin Batter (see below)

Garnish: toasted pecan halves

Combine first three ingredients in a large bowl. Stir to coat apples. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add apple mixture; bring to a boil and cook, stirring often, about 10 minutes. Add pears to skillet and cook, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Spoon the hot fruit mixture into a lightly greased 10-inch (8-cup) deep-dish pie plate or shallow 2-quart baking dish. Spoon Oatmeal Muffin Batter evenly over fruit mixture. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Garnish with toasted pecan halves if you desire.

Oatmeal Muffin Batter

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup uncooked regular oats

1/2 cup chopped dates (I subbed raisins)

1/4 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

3/4 cup milk (I used skim)

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1 large egg, lightly beaten (or 1/4 cup egg substitute)

In a large mixing bowl combine flour and next 5 ingredients. Make a well in center of mixture. Stir together milk, melted butter, and lightly beaten egg; add to dry ingredients. Stir just until moistened. (If you want to use the batter for oatmeal muffins, spoon batter evenly into lightly greased muffin cups in a muffin pan. Fill them 2/3 full. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Makes 10 muffins.)

Fun cones piled with healthy apple filling

I’ve had this one in my “Kid Fun Ideas” binder for many a day. Just completing a visit with those “kids” for whom I keep the idea file, I had to put together these Apple Pie Cones for them, especially since I still had numerous apples from my apple bushel basket that I acquired on our recent farm-stand visit.

The idea behind this treat (courtesy www.foodnetwork.com) was to use some fresh apples to bake up an apple filling and then to stuff it into an ice-cream cone. Sugar-free whipped topping went atop the whole assemblage.

I used 8 large baking apples (a combination of Granny Smith and Golden Delicious) that were peeled and chopped, then stirred with cornstarch, vanilla extract, apple-juice concentrate, brown sugar, and raisins. All this cooked in a baking dish in the oven for 40 minutes—the first 20 of that time covered with foil and the last 20 uncovered. By the time 40 minutes have passed, the mixture is the consistency of regular apple-pie filling. At that point it’s ready to fill up the cones. (The website says this recipe is courtesy Wayne Brachman, Retro Desserts, Harper Collins Publishers 2000).

We shared these finished cones with the grandkiddos, but cones bring out the kid in any person, so the big kids—Hubby and I—enjoyed this healthy treat as much as any younger person could.

Apple Pie Cones

8 large baking apples 

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup apple juice concentrate, thawed

1/4 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar

1/4 cup dark or golden raisins

8 ice-cream cones

whipped topping

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel, core, and cut the apples into 3/4-inch chunks. In a medium bowl whisk together the cornstarch, vanilla extract, apple-juice concentrate, and brown sugar. Add the apples and raisins; toss. Transfer to a 2-quart baking dish. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 20 minutes. Uncover and bake for 20 minutes more. Stir occasionally to ensure even cooking. The mixture is done when the apples are just tender and the filling is clear and thickened. Set aside to cool a bit. Scoop warm filling into the ice-cream cones and serve, topped with whipped topping.

 

Love pecan pie? Love apple cobbler? Get them both with this sweet treat

After I had cooked almost everything apple-y in the September 2011 Southern Living issue featuring the fall’s favorite fruit, I saw it in tiny print: find 25 more irresistible apple recipes at southernliving.com/apples.

More apple recipes? Surely no stone was left unturned from this bounty that I had just cooked my way through.

Ha! Was I wrong! Dozens of to-die-for, rich apple recipes awaited me at this amazing website. The first to pique my curiosity was this one for Apple-Pecan Pie Cobbler. I loved that these could be cooked in individual custard cups so that each person could have his or her own individual pecan pie (or is it apple cobbler?)

The recipe also noted that the mixture for the Pecan-Pie topping of the cobbler could be used separately to make Mini Pecan Pie Muffins in miniature muffin cups. But for now I wanted to try this combination.

So I could prepare this for Hubby’s Saturday-morning breakfast, I assembled as many of the ingredients and mixed what I could on Friday night so that on Saturday morning, I basically had only to cook the skillet apples and then layer everything into the greased custard cups. That way he wouldn’t have such a huge wait, which was a tough one under any circumstances after the wonderful aroma of this sweet treat began pouring from the oven.

The recipe didn’t mention anything about topping this with fat-free whipped topping or sugar-free ice cream; wouldn’t hurt, although these little cobblers stood alone without any addition.

Apple-Pecan Pie Cobbler

6 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced (about 3 pounds)

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup dark corn syrup

In a large bowl toss together first 3 ingredients. In a large skillet over medium-high heat melt butter; add apple mixture and corn syrup; stir often. Cook for 10 minutes. Divide hot apple mixture evenly between 6 lightly greased 6-ounce ovenproof ramekins or custard cups. Spoon Pecan Pie Muffin Batter (recipe below) evenly over hot apple mixture. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 6 servings.

Pecan Pie Muffin Batter

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking power

1/4 teaspoon salt (or salt substitute)

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 large eggs, lightly beaten (or 1/2 cup egg substitute)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large mixing bowl combine first 5 ingredients. Make a well in center of mixture. Stir together butter, eggs, and vanilla; add to dry ingredients; stir just until moistened. (You also can use this batter to make Pecan Pie Muffins. If making muffins spoon batter evenly into lightly greased miniature muffin pans. Fill three-fourths full. Bake at 425 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Makes 24 muffins.)

If this autumnal Apple Brown Betty can’t bring on fall, what can?

Since I prepared the first apple dish (Apple-Butterscotch Brownies featured in Monday’s blog), we’ve twice seen smidgens of rain. No big deluge, to be sure, but enough to cause a little dancing in the streets. Does the grass seem a tiny bit greener? The rain filled some of the dry crevices of our hearts, at least, because it represented hope that fall someday may arrive and along with it more rain!

The dish that (in my mind) heralded the second brief rainfall here was Apple Brown Betty, another of the wonderful apple desserts featured in this month’s Southern Living. I had questioned whether if I went on a bake-a-thon and cooked up every recipe in the magazine’s featured apple section, would a new season hurry on in?

Rain or no, the emergence of this terrific dish from our oven brought some rejoicing around here. Hubby kept asking, “What smells so good?” Nothing like something apple-y to fill every room in the house with a fall-like aroma. Just makes you feel good all over.

This Apple Brown Betty featured 4 cups of soft, fresh breadcrumbs; I used multigrain bread to add to the health factor. Four large Granny Smith apples, peeled and cut into wedges, layered with a breadcrumb-butter layer and a brown sugar-cinnamon layer, with a cup of no sugar-added apple cider poured over all.

Most people like to top a dessert such as this with ice cream or whipped topping, but honestly, that thought didn’t even cross my mind when I dug into my inaugural dish of this Apple Brown Better. The topping was a little crisp and the insides juicy with the healthy baked fruit. Other than the time required to peel the apples, this dessert made up in no time.

A great addition to the bring-on-fall collection!

Apple Brown Betty

4 cups soft, fresh breadcrumbs

1/3 cup butter, melted

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar (or 1/2 cup brown-sugar substitute)

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

4 large Granny Smith apples, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch-thick wedges

1 cup apple cider

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together breadcrumbs and melted butter. Stir together brown sugar and cinnamon. Place half of apple wedges in a lightly greased 11-inch-by-7-inch baking dish; sprinkle apples with half of brown sugar mixture and half of breadcrumb mixture. Repeat procedure with remaining apples, brown sugar mixture, and then breadcrumb mixture. Pour apple cider over top. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes to 1 hour or until dessert is browned and bubbly. Let baked dessert stand 10 minutes before you serve. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Pecans aplenty (and overripe bananas as well) call for a spectacular dessert

One thing we always have plenty of is pecans. I see big bags of them for sale (at big prices) in the grocery store and realize how fortunate our home is to be surrounded by pecan trees so we never have to purchase any of these cherished nuts. If we ever had a pecan shortage at our house, my mother's home, which still is in the family although my mother is deceased, has at least half a dozen pecan trees just down the block from us. This year looks like a lean one pecan-wise, but not to worry: the freezer is stocked with bucketloads from last year's huge harvest to last us until the next big pecan deluge. (My dad used to say that pecans arrive in tandem: one year plentiful one year lean, the next year plentiful, followed by the next year lean; whether that is scientific I don't know, but his observations over nearly nine decades certainly bore out his beliefs.)

His pecan trees were my daddy's pride-and-joy. He loved picking the nuts off the ground, cracking them with his thumb, and eating the sweet nut meat right there on the spot. I must say that we especially share this sense of pride as we tend our prized paper-shell pecan tree, with nuts so sweet, they're a dessert in themselves. The paper-shell is a mixed blessing. Situated right up next to the house, the tree has droppings that cause my eyes to itch and my contact lenses to become unwearable for a time, but the rewards are great when the sweet paper-shell nuts are harvested.

A dessert we've been enjoying all week showcases those splendid pecans while it uses up some about-to-be-overripe bananas and some wheat bread slices that were nearing the end of the line. Banana-Pecan Streusel Bread Pudding, which I first saw as a recipe from the Better Homes & Gardens website, looks sinful but is made with the healthiest of ingredients. Topped with sugar-free whipped topping (ice cream is recommended, but no ice cream for us, since Hubby's six-month physical is right around the corner), Banana-Pecan Streusel Bread Pudding not only is a wonderful dessert but also makes a great (and guilt-free) breakfast dish.

Banana-Pecan Streusel Bread Pudding

1 (12-ounce) can fat-free evaporated milk

1 1/3 cups mashed ripe banana (about 4 medium)

3 beaten eggs (3/4 cup egg substitute)

1/2 cup sugar (or sugar substitute)

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

3 cups torn bread cubes (from whole-wheat bread that's at least a day old)

1/4 cup packed brown sugar (if using brown-sugar substitute, use 1/8 cup)

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon margarine or butter, melted

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped pecans

sugar-free whipped topping (or ice cream)

Lightly grease a 2-quart rectangular baking dish; set aside. Stir together evaporated milk, banana, eggs, granulated sugar, vanilla, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and the almond extract. Place croissant pieces in prepared baking dish. Pour egg mixture evenly over torn bread pieces; press pieces down to be sure they are all moistened. In a small bowl combine brown sugar, flour, melted butter, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Stir in pecans. Sprinkle over bread mixture. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until a knife inserted near center comes out clean. Let stand for 30 minutes. Serve warm. If desired, top with whipped topping or ice cream. Makes 10 to 12 servings.

OK, fall's officially here now that I've made Sour-Cream Apple Cake Squares

Whatever the calendar says (and yesterday, the calendar truly said it), fall arrives when I've baked my first Sour-Cream Apple Cake Squares of the season.

No fall that I can remember in years ever has arrived in our family without my preparing this fabulous dessert to welcome the autumn. Fresh, crisp apples peeled and chopped fine go into the batter, seasoned with spice, to make this an ideal fall dessert. Company goes nuts over it; so--year after year--do folks around our family dinner.

My friend, Lori Haaland, prepared this dessert one evening when Hubby and I dined with her and her family back in the early 1980s when we all lived in Houston and her husband was on the staff of one of the churches there. I owe Lori a thank-you for many staples in my recipe collection--among them Copper Carrot Pennies (an identical recipe, furnished by my cousin, Yvonne, appears in my new cookbook, Way Back in the Country Garden).

The squares can be crowned with sugar-free whipped topping or even ice cream, if you really want to indulge. When this dessert is baking, the kitchen--and the rest of the house--fills with an intoxicating spicy aroma. Makes you ready for all the other fall icons--hot apple cider, pumpkin pie, turkey and dressing--and, oh yes, (if you live in Texas as we do), the end of our most-unfall-like summer temps!

Sour Cream Apple Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups brown sugar (I use brown-sugar substitute)

1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine

1 cup chopped pecans

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon salt (I use salt substitute)

1 (8-ounce) carton sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg (I use egg substitute)

2 cups chopped apples (I use Golden Delicious or Granny Smith)

Mix first three ingredients until they are crumbly; stir in pecans. Press 2 3/4 cups of this mixture into 13-by-9-by-2-inch pan. To remaining mixture add the rest of the ingredients and blend well. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped topping.