Semi-homemade cupcakes

Most of the time I make everything from scratch. With food allergies, it's kind of a necessity. Sometimes, as a busy mom, I pick up a box of Betty Crocker cake mix for 99 cents and whip up a quick buttercream and call it a day!

For Thanksgiving, I had planned to make some gorgeous chocolate cupcakes adorned with little turkeys with candy corn feathers, Skipper (nut-free m&m style candy) faces and even an upside heart-shaped Cakemate candy for that hangy red thing the turkeys have. Then, life happened. All 4 of the kids came down with something ranging from a simple cold to pink eye to near hospitalization for asthma exacerbation. So instead, we went semi-homemade!

This Thanksgiving, in addition to being peanut, tree nut and sesame-free... we are also dairy-free. The baby has terrible eczema and some other signs that point toward a possible milk protein allergy so we're trying dairy-free for 3-4 weeks to see if it helps. Of course this happens to be during the month where we make tons of dairy-laden goodies! Some changes were definitely necessary.

I played around with some dairy-free buttercreams using shortening and Earth Balance butter; however, I couldn't find one that had the texture and taste that I desired. At the last minute, I decided to go with these cupcakes & a partially doctored canned frosting (yes, I'm admitting it)! Here goes....

Cupcakes

For the cupcakes, I followed the Divvies Chocolate Cupcake Recipe which can be found here: Divvies Cupcakes. I chose this recipe because in addition to being free of our allergens (peanut, tree nut and sesame), it's also free of dairy and egg! This recipe makes 1 dozen cupcakes.


Frosting

For the frosting, I went with a can of Pillsbury funfetti chocolate frosting. Scoop the frosting into your stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Add 1-2 cups of powdered sugar and 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract. Whisk on high for at least 5 minutes until the frosting becomes lighter in color and fluffy. This makes enough to frost 1 dozen cupcakes and to squeeze a bit of frosting into the mouths of your hungry begging children.

Topping

For the topping, I used Coastal Bay Candy Corn (4) and Pumpkins (4) in addition to the funfetti sprinkles that came with the frosting.

To fancy it up, I used a jumbo french tip. I love how these came out! Professional-looking with half the work!
  

                  

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Perfection

Ah, the chocolate chip cookie.  Crispy edges, chewy inside, ooey gooey chocolate chips.  The perfect chocolate chip cookie is like the little black dress in a woman's closet.  You can dress it up, dress it down, keep it simple, make it fun!  Everyone needs a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe in your repertoire and this one is PERFECTION.

My kids absolutely love these cookies and I often catch the adults grabbing one (or more!) from the cookie jar.  Everytime I bring these to a work potluck or friend's house, I'm always asked for the recipe. These are sure to be a family favorite!

Ingredients

2 cups + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
heaping 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

Melt your butter. I like to put it in the microwave in 10 second increments until there's about 1/4 left unmelted. Then I whisk it or stir it with a spoon until the warmth of the melted butter melts the last bit and it's cloudy and pale yellow.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar for 2 minutes.  Add in the egg, yolk and vanilla and mix until well combined.  Slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix on low until just combined.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  The chocolate chips will glisten in the batter. This is good!  The batter shouldn't feel sticky and it should easily slide off the paddle of the mixer.

Using a small cookie scoop (mine is about 2 tablespoons), drop into rounded mounds or balls on your prepared cookie sheet.  Bake for 13-14 minutes or until the edges are just barely starting to brown.  You'll want to remove them while they still appear a bit undercooked as they will continue to cook a bit and settle on the cookie sheet once out of the oven.

Source: Brown Eyed Baker

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Copycat Starbucks Pumpkin Loaf

Everyone has a weakness.  Superman had Kryptonite.  The Wicked Witch had water.  I have Starbucks.  I simply can't resist.  I love their warm, comforting drinks and the delectable pastries.  Every Friday morning, I treat myself to a latte and a pastry. I always look forward to fall when they begin to have their pumpkin loaf.  It's full of rich, pumpkin flavor, topped with those crunchy pepitas and has the perfect amount of spice.  BUT...  the past few weeks I have been disappointed to find that my local Starbucks is SOLD OUT of the pumpkin loaf by the time I arrive (which is before 7 am by the way!). What's a girl to do?

Make her own Copycat Starbucks Pumpkin Loaf of course!  The best part of it is that my son with food allergies (and my son and daughter without!) can enjoy it with me. My husband (who was a barista way back when) can whip up an incredible latte while I prepare some homemade hot (who am I kidding... warm!) chocolate for the kids as we wait for our loaf to come out of the oven.  It's the perfect weekend treat that you can slice into thick pieces and freeze to enjoy any time!  I omitted the pepitas since I knew the kids wouldn't be too fond of them.


Ingredients

2/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup milk
3 egg whites
1 cup canned pumpkin (I like Trader Joe's)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin spice
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
heaping 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour a loaf pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk the white sugar, brown sugar, milk and egg whites.  Add in the canned pumpkin and mix until well incorporated.

In a medium bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, baking soda, baking powder and salt).

Add dry ingredients into pumpkin mixture and mix on low until combined.

Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean (or with a few crumbs).  Allow to cool slightly, then remove from loaf pan and cool on wire rack.

Source:  The First Year Blog

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Scrappies!

Are you part of your local grocery store's coupon program or app?  If not, join!  Trader Joe's is the primary place where I shop and unfortunately they don't have a discount program; however, almost all of the other places do!  My favorite one is VON'S.  This past week they sent me a coupon for a FREE (no strings attached!) Pillsbury Pie Crust!  I was thrilled to make some "Scrappies" without having to go through the trouble of making a pie! You're probably thinking to yourself, "What's a scrappy?"  Well, it's a cute little name for a delicious treat that uses the scraps of leftover pie crust from your favorite pie!  

The best part about these cookies is that you have so much freedom to customize them and make them the perfect fit for your family!

Today, I'm showing you how to make Cranberry Scrappies!

Ingredients

For Cookies

Pie Crust (leftover scraps or 1 package of Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust, room temperature)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

zest of 1/2 a lemon

For Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

juice of 1 lemon

zest of 1/2 a lemon

nonpareil sprinkles

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 425° and line a cookie sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

Roll out your pie scraps or packaged pie dough.  Sprinkle with dried cranberries and the zest of half a lemon.  Top with remaining pie dough (or rolled pie scraps).  Roll with rolling pin to make sure that the cranberries and zest are nice and secure in the dough.  Cut into desired shapes. Place on your prepared baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges are golden brown.  Transfer to wire rack and let cool.

Meanwhile, prepare your glaze.  Place 1 cup of powdered sugar into a small bowl.  Add in the juice of 1 lemon and your remaining lemon zest.  Mix well and feel free to add more lemon juice until it becomes your desired consistency.  Drizzle tops of cooled cookies with glaze and quickly top with your nonpareil sprinkles. Enjoy!

Have fun with these cookies!  The possibilities are endless! Cut them into alphabet shapes, stars, hearts, or maybe your kids will beg you to make a triceratops!  

Some variations you can make are:

-Brown sugar and raisins with maple glaze

-Chopped pretzel pieces and mini chocolate chips with chocolate glaze

-White chocolate and dried cranberries with white chocolate glaze

-Shredded coconut with coconut glaze

Source: Inspired by Home Is Where The Boat Is

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Sprinkle Cookies

SPRINKLES!

In my 30 years on this earth, I've never met a child who didn't like sprinkles.  Growing up in New York, Italian bakeries were a staple!  Before any guests came over, before heading to a friend's home and especially every holiday, we'd run to the bakery and grab a few pounds of assorted cookies.  Everyone would quickly grab the delectable, buttery cookies.  The first to go were always the rainbow cookies. After that it was usually the butter cookies filled with jam or chocolate, dipped halfway in chocolate and covered in sprinkles.  Lace cookies were typically the third runner up. After a day or two, all that would be left were the sprinkle cookies.  My family would leave them sadly crumbling in the box.  Little did they know, those are some of my favorites!  I'd go to eat just one and 7 cookies and a bellyache later I'd finally put that box down.  These cookies were a huge part of my childhood.  Unfortunately, after moving to San Diego I never found a great Italian style bakery.  Rainbow cookies? Nobody's heard of them!  Every time a family member comes to visit from New York, they know they'd better bring a box of my childhood favorites.  Having a child with life-threatening food allergies; however, makes it a little trickier.  He can't eat any bakery cookies - let alone ones that have been sitting right next to cookies made with almonds and other nuts!  As such, I was determined to make him something even better!  Now, these aren't the buttery Italian cookies from my childhood (I'll save that for another post!) - those I'm still working on!  But in my experimentation and research I came across these and added my own little touch. So here we go... 

Sprinkle Cookies

Yield: 3 dozen

Ingredients

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 egg

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

heaping 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles (I used Cakemate brand)

2 tablespoons nonpareil sprinkles (I used Betty Crocker)

1 cup white chocolate chips (I used Trader Joe's brand)

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 375°.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.  Add in the vanilla extract and egg.  Beat until fully incorporated. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt.  With your mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture to the bowl of butter/sugar and mix until combined.  

Pour in the rainbow sprinkles, nonpareils and white chocolate chips.  Mix on low for 15-30 seconds, then mix the rest in by hand with a wooden spoon or spatula (to prevent the sprinkles from bleeding into the dough and to prevent the white chocolate chips from beginning to melt).  

Using a small cookie scoop (mine holds 2 tablespoons), drop the dough onto your baking sheet. Bake for approximately 10 minutes.  You'll want to slightly under-bake these so that they stay soft and chewy, so take them out before they turn golden.  Let cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet (while shooing away little hands that try to grab them) and then transfer to wire rack for to cool completely. 

If you're feeling extra adventurous, grab some Straus Family Creamery Organic Vanilla Bean Ice cream (one of the only ice cream companies that doesn't use ANY nuts in their facility! see note below), scoop and sandwich between 2 of the cookies and freeze for an awesome treat! 

Note:  Straus Family Creamery does not use any nuts or nut products in their ice cream; however, the chocolate that they use is processed in a facility with nuts. We stick to the Vanilla Bean ice cream which is what the company recommends for those with peanut and tree nut allergies.  

Source: Adapted from Tasty Kitchen.

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Iced Pumpkin Spice Cookies

I can't begin to tell you how many times I've sat down to start writing my first blog post and then just never did. Between 4 kids under 5, a demanding full-time job, cooking, cleaning, dealing with various therapies, nursing, handling my son's life-threatening food allergies... it just seems like there's never time!  I guess today's the day that I finally get this blog started and I'm just busting with excitement.  I'll admit, I'm no professional chef/baker, definitely not a photographer and writing has never been my strong suit; however, what I do have is a love for my family, food and managing to keep it all frugal!

Before my son's allergies to peanut, tree nut and sesame were severe - or rather, before we knew their severity, my oldest son and I would visit the local farmer's market every Thursday after I picked him up from daycare.  As we walked through the market, I'd point out all of the beautiful fruits and veggies and we'd throw some into our bag and continue along.  Being his young 3 year old self at the time, my son would gravitate toward the homemade baked goods.  The man there would always wear a funky beret and he'd snap his serving tongs playfully every time we came by.  Logan would pick out a cookie and I'd always have to get one too.  My favorite were always the soft pumpkin cookies with raisins and a deliciously sweet glaze. Logan usually picked a simple chocolate chip or one filled with sprinkles.  After a few unfortunately incidents where we had to use the Epi-pen, trips to the farmer's market came to a halt; however, I still longed for those pumpkin cookies! I scoured the internet, trying recipe after recipe until I found one that most resembled my beloved farmer's market find.

Iced Pumpkin Spice Cookies
Yield: Approximately 3 dozen

For Cookies:
1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree (I used Trader Joe's organic canned pumpkin)
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
scant 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup raisins

For Glaze:
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2-3 tablespoons milk
pumpkin spice (optional)

Preheat your oven to 375° and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicone mat.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar for approximately 3 minutes.  Add in pumpkin puree (don't be surprised by the look of the mixture at this point!).  In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, pumpkin spice and salt.  Add mixture to stand mixer and mix well until just incorporated.  Fold in raisins.

Using a small cookie scoop, drop the dough onto your baking sheet.  No need to leave much room in between!  I was able to fit 18 cookies on each sheet.  Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes.  Let cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and let cool completely.

Meanwhile, combine all ingredients for the glaze and stir until smooth. Feel free to add a bit more milk until it reaches your desired consistency.   Dip tops of cookies in glaze and gently swirl cookie so entire top is covered in glaze.  Sprinkle pumpkin spice onto the fresh glaze.  Allow to cool on a wire rack (I like to put a big piece of foil under the rack for easy cleanup!) The glaze will harden a bit and the cookies will be soft and deliciously sweet!

SOURCE:  slightly adapted from Avad Fan. 

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