Desserts!

I took the day off and did a little baking & cleaning yesterday. The baking was far more successful and rewarding than the cleaning!

This picture shows some of the chocolate cookies I made. My favorites are probably the one on top: dark chocolate candy cane cookies. The recipe comes from the Wisconsin Dairy Board and is oh so delicious! (I chop my candy canes with the food processor and leave them finer than the recipe calls for, which laces the entire cookie with pepperminty goodness.)

From Christmas 2009

I also made chocolate pixies, peanut brittle, chocolate-coconut macaroons (a no-bake cookie) and O Henry Bars (all of those are from family recipes, which I can share if anybody wants). I still want to make Spritz, but plan to wait until we have our new stove (since those cookies are prone to burning). Did I say new stove? Yes! We bought a new convection oven which comes on Friday, to replace the model we have now, which literally came with the house (as in when the house was built - around 1982!)

Prompted by "Shan in Japan" (long-time family friend who is a church planting missionary in Japan) here's the recipe for Pumpkin Smash (which I mentioned in one of the Thanksgiving posts):

1 32 oz can of Libby's pumpkin pie filling
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ginger
1 box yellow cake mix (use the cheapest kind you can get)
1 stick salted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350
Mix pie filling, eggs, cinnamon and ginger. Pour into an ungreased 9x13 glass baking dish
Pour cake mix on top of filling (yes, just dump the powder on there).
Try and get it even, else you'll wind up with nasty bites of just cake-mix, which is not good.
Pour melted butter over the top of all of it. If the butter doesn't cover too well, mix just the top part (cake mix & butter) a bit.

Bake 45 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Top with whipped cream.

Enjoy!