pumpkin chocolate chip cookies

Today felt like a great day to have cookies for breakfast. The baby woke me up at about 5:30am, and so i figured i better not waste the morning. I have never made pumpkin cookies before. So i was a bit nervous my kids wouldn't like them. As i was making them up though i was surprised at my 2.5 year old who started eating raw pumpkin from the measuring cup! I baked them on my pampered chef stone ( i love my stonewear ) and they came out so perfect, nice and high, fluffy, almost like cake, and they are not overly sweet at all. These are a perfect breakfast cookie :)

i think the thing that gives them that "special, oh my goodness i must eat all of these" flavor is the fresh grated nutmeg..ooh nutmeg!!


Ingredients:1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
2 t vanilla
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 cups flour
1/2 t salt
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 t cinnamon
1t fresh grated nutmeg
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the sugar and shortening for 3-4 minutes. Mix in the egg, vanilla and pumpkin. In another bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Add flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture. Mix just until combined. With a spoon, stir in the chocolate chips. Drop spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes.

Chocolate peppermint Cakeballs

Yay! I love Fall/winter baking season! I decided to kick off the season with Cakeballs! YUM! I love these little things. They are easy to make and there are endless possibilities and combonations! Today i made Chocolate Peppermint Cakeballs... and oh my word are they YUMMY!!

<--- So here are the ing. i used( Chocolate fudge cake mix, Ghiradelli peppermint hot cocoa mix, and hersheys kisses candy can kisses, the big bag ).
    Just follow the directions on how to make the cake. As soon as it is baked i cut mine up in the pan. Then i dump it into a large bowl( while its still hot ) I mixed the hot cocoa mix with milk( about a cup ) and stirred it all up together, then i dumped it into the bowl and stirred it all together. When it was nice and wet ( not runny, but sticks together well ) i used my medium cookie scoop from Pampered Chef. i made nice round balls, and put them on wax paper, on cookie sheets. As soon as i had them all lined up i put them in the freezer over night ( you dont have to wait over night, you just have to wait till they are frozen ).

In the morning i had my kids peel the wrappers of the candies and put them in my double broiler ( also pampered chef ) then i melted the candy down. Once it was all melted down i rolled the frozen cake balls one at a time in the melted candy and put them back on the wax paper. After i was finished with that, i put them back in the freezer to set. Once set i put them in a stoarge container :) and then i ate some :)

 Keep them in the fridge <3