Mmmm Mmmm Monday: Marbled Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies

I absolutely LOVE the fall...it means I get to bake with pumpkin! Pumpkin bread, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. You name it- we love it!

I found this recipe on BHG.com and knew right away I had to try it fast. I baked a batch up last night and they're all gone today!

Now, this isn't something you can just throw together real quick...this is brownies made from scratch, so be sure to give yourself about 30 minutes for prep time. And then they bake for an hour.

Here's what you need:

3 oz cream cheese, softened

1 Tbsp butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

6 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped

3/4 cup butter (1 and a half sticks) cut up

2 and 1/4 cups sugar

4 eggs

1/4 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 325*. Line a baking pan (or a regular raised-side cookie sheet) with foil, folding foil over the edges of the pan. Grease the foil and set pan aside.

In a medium mixing bowl beat the cream cheese and 1 Tbsp butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the 1/2 cup suger. Beat until combined. Beat in 1 egg, the pumpkin, 1 tsp vanilla, cinnamon and ginger until combined. Stir in the 1 Tbsp flour. Set aside.

In a small bowl, stir together the 1 and 1/4 cups flour, the baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a large saucepan combine the chocolate and 3/4 cup butter. Cook & stir over low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Gradually add the 2 and 1/4 cups sugar, beating with an electric mixer on low speed until just combined. Add the 4 eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg. Beat in milk and the 2 tsp vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture until just combined.

Spread chocolate mixture evenly in the prepared pan. Pour cream cheese/pumpkin mixture over the top of the chocolate batter. Using a butter knife, gently swirl the cream cheese/pumpkin mixture through the chocolate batter.

Bake 60 minutes or until center is just set when pan is gently shaken.

Cool in pan on a wire rack. Use foil to lift brownies out of pan, and then cut.

Makes 36 brownies. (Or 30 if you cut them a little bigger like I did :) ).

Mmmm Mmmm Monday: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have to say I think these may be my new favorite kind of chocolate chip cookie. I'm going to have to buy a ton of canned pumpkin this fall and stock it in my pantry so that I can make these babies all year long. Even my pumpkin-pie-hating sister liked them. (Yes, I make her try everything I make.)

Anyway, this recipe was just way too good not to share, so here you go!

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

• Combine pumpkin, sugar, oil & egg. In a seperate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg & salt. Dissolve baking soda in milk and stir in. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix well.
• Add vanilla; mix. Stir in chocolate chips.
• Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and back at 350* for 10-15 minutes or until lightly brown & firm.

I'm telling you...you won't be disappointed. I used a small scoop to make my cookies all evenly sized, and it yielded 3 dozen. The boys have been home from school for 30 minutes and between them and my sis & I, I think we're down a full dozen already. They're THAT good.

Autumn is here!

Today is the first dall of fall! I celebrated a day early by making pumpkin bread and buying some (more) pumpkin scented candles. Now if only the weather would get the memo and cool down some...

Carving Pumpkins

My favorite part of Halloween is picking out and carving pumpkins. We didn't go to the pumpkin patch this year, but we did get some great pumpkins.

Sophia decided to taste test the insides of the pumpkin while she was 'helping' clean them out. Hence the dirty face.
The finished products: Noah's pumpkin

Jonah's pumpkin. I picked this pattern because it just reminds me of my Jo.

I'm so happy that I can finally do girly pumpkins! Sophia's is Cinderella.

Mmmm Mmmm Monday: Pumpkin Bread

I thought that becuase it finally feel like fall here in South Carolina, that I'd share my favorite fall recipe. Pumpkin Bread. This is a huge hit in my house, and perfect for fall because the pumpkin pie filling (a staple for this recipe) is stocked to the brim on grocery store shelves. My husband loves it so much that he requested it be mailed to him during his last deployment. I sent it quite a few times, becuase every time I sent a loaf it was gone within hours, becuase everyone in the shop wanted some too. And when a recipe is well-loved by men in uniform, I consider it a success! So from our cozy house to yours, I give you pumpkin bread. Enjoy!


Pumpkin Bread
Prep time: 20 min
Bake time: 55-65 min.
Makes 2 loaves

3 cups sugar
1 cup cooking oil
4 eggs
3 and 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspooon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2/3 cup water
1-15oz can pumpkin

Grease the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of two 9x5x3-inch (or three 8x4x2-inch or four 7.5x3.5x2-inch) loaf pans; set aside. In a very large mixin bowl, beat sugar and oil with an electric mixer on medium speed. Add eggs and beat well; set aside.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Alternately add flour mixture and water to the sugar mixture, beating on low speed after each addition until just combined. Beat in pumpkin. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pans.

Bake at 350* for 55-65 minutes or until a cake tester (or toothpick) is inserted and comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes.

Now, here's where I differ from the recipe. It says to cool completely, then wrap in saran wrap and store overnight before slicing. But I'm a sucker for a warm slice of freshly baked bread, so I slice it up as soon as I remove it from the pan. I don't taste a difference between the two ways, other than it's not warm bread. So do as your little heart desires. Just savor the season!