Acorn Donuts

Fun, autumn-y, and delicious, this is a variation on a recipe from  Disney Family Fun. Disney uses store-bought donut holes, chocolate frosting, pretzels, and crumbled toffee. Me being me, I made this into a semi-homemade recipe.

Donut Holes

Ingredients:
1 tube of biscuits
vegetable oil
honey roasted peanuts, finely chopped
Frosting, recipe below
Pretzels, broken into stems

Directions:
Separate your biscuits and lay them out on your work space. Rinse out an empty soda pop bottle. The size of the bottle doesn't matter. Remove the cap and press the opening of bottle into the biscuit. To get the dough out of the bottle opening, just squeeze the sides of the bottle. Repeat. Each biscuit yields 6-8 holes.

Fill a saucepan half way with vegetable oil and heat over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, submerge the donut holes in the oil. Cook until they are a golden brown, about 20-30 seconds. Place the donuts on a paper towel-lined plate and allow to cool.

Once cooled, frost the top third of the donut hole, roll in finely chopped peanuts, and insert a small piece of pretzel in the top of the donut hole to make an acorn.

Butter Cream Frosting

Ingredients:
1 cup powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3-1 tablespoon whole milk, optional

Directions:
Beat sugar and butter together on low speed until fluffy. Add vanilla and beat on medium until whipped. I like my frosting thick, but to get your desired consistency, add 1/3 tablespoon of milk until the frosting has the thickness you'd like. If you want to make chocolate butter cream frosting, add about 1 or 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder. You can also use peanut butter instead of frosting.  

Since Eric loves donuts so much, I also made these goodies:

Cinnamon-sugar donut holes

Butter cream, chocolate butter cream, and peanut donuts

Butter cream, chocolate butter cream, and peanut donuts

Enjoy!

~Krissy 

Check Out Other Autumn Recipes:
Pumpkin Penne Casserole 
Cheese Tortellini in a Pumpkin Sauce 
Cinnamon-Sugar Pastry with Pumpkin Dip 
Pumpkin Swirl Brownies 
Pumpkin Bread 
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds 

Mini Pies

Mini Chocolate-Marshmallow Autumn Pies

Mini Chocolate-Marshmallow Autumn Pies

Since it's autumn, I made my pies using a pumpkin cookie cutter, but you can tailor these mini pies for any occasion--turkey cookie cutters for Thanksgiving, snowman cookie cutter for Christmas, bunny cookie cutters for Easter and so forth. I filled some of my pies with chocolate chips and mini marshmallows (because that's what I had in the pantry) and others with a little cream cheese-pumpkin mix I put aside when making my pumpkin dip. But you could use jam, pie fillings, cream cheese, white chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, or peanut butter for the filling. The greatest thing about the pies--other than you can make them in a variety of shapes--no pie tin is needed!

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup shortening
5 to 7 tablespoon cold water
Filling of your choice
cinnamon-sugar mix (recipe to follow), optional

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in shortening using two knives until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add 1 tablespoon of water at a time until the mixture is moist and can be pressed into a ball. Shape into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and store in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes.

On a lightly floured board or work surface, roll the dough out so it has an 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out shapes using large cookie cutters. Each pie will require two "cookies." Put between 1 teaspoon and 1/2 of tablespoon of filling in the center of one "cookie" then place the second "cookie" on top and seal the edges by pinching them together. Dredge the mini pie in cinnamon-sugar mix, shake off extra spices, and place on a cookie sheet. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Cinnamon-Sugar Recipe

Mix 1/2 cup granulated sugar with 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon. Store in an air-tight container at room temperature.

Mini Pumpkin Pies
 
If you want to make mini pumpkin pies, I recommend using my pumpkin pie dip for the filling (recipe found here), but leave out the cool whip.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Cinnamon-Sugar Pastry with Pumpkin Dip

Pumpkin dip with cinnamon-sugar pastries

Eric's all-time favorite pie is pumpkin pie. This year he asked if I could make my pumpkin dip instead of pumpkin pie. That's how good this dip is.

I serve the dip on cinnamon-sugar pastry or ro-ro's as my maternal grandmother would say. She died when my mom was still growing up, but whenever my mom baked a pie from scratch, she would turn the dough scraps into what my grandmother coined as ro-ro's. For ro-ro's, cut the dough in strips, roll them into a log then dip them in a mix of cinnamon and sugar, and bake them. Instead of rolling the dough into bit-size logs, I use cookie cutters on the dough.

The pumpkin dip and sugar-cinnamon pastry make a great appetizer for an autumn dinner party or even Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin Dip

Pumpkin Dip

Ingredients:
8 ounce brick of cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 8-ounce tub cool whip, thawed

Beat the cream cheese in a bowl until it's creamy. Add sugar, pumpkin puree, and pumpkin pie spice and mix well. Gently fold in cool whip. Serve or cover and store in the refrigerator.

Cinnamon-sugar pastries

Cinnamon-Sugar Pastry

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup shortening
5 to 7 tablespoon cold water
cinnamon-sugar mix (recipe to follow)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in shortening using two knives until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add 1 tablespoon of water at a time until the mixture is moist and can be pressed into a ball. Shape into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and store in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes.

On a lightly floured board or work surface, roll the dough out so it has a 1/8-inch thickness. Cut out shapes using small cookie cutters (I used leaf and acorn cookie cutters). Dredge the pastry shapes in cinnamon-sugar mix, shake off extra spices, and place on a cookie sheet. Cook for 5 to 8 minutes or until the bottoms are slightly golden. Serve warm with pumpkin dip.

Cinnamon-Sugar Recipe

Mix 1/2 cup granulated sugar with 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon. Store in an air-tight container at room temperature.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Autumn Recipes:
Acorn Donuts 
Pumpkin Swirl Brownies 
Pumpkin Bread 
Pumpkin Penne Casserole 
Cinnamon-Sugar Pastry with Pumpkin Dip 

Pumpkin Swirl Brownies

Chocolaty, pumpkin-y, spicy, moist . . . this brownies recipe is not exactly simple, and it dirties an awful lot of dishes, but the end result makes the time and mess it makes is so worth it. The cayenne pepper adds an unexpected heat to the dessert, making it perfect for a chilly autumn day.

Ingredients:
1 stick of unsalted butter
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

4 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 inch glass pan with butter or cooking spray.

Melt chocolate chips and butter together in the microwave. To ensure you don't burn the chocolate, only microwave the chocolate for 20-30 seconds at a time, stir, then microwave again. Set aside.

Mix flour, baking powder, salt, and cayenne pepper together in a bowl. In another large bowl, combine eggs, sugar and vanilla extract. Beat on medium until well mixed and fluffy, about three minutes. Gradually beat in flour mixture until well combined.  Pour half of the batter into another bowl.

Stir in chocolate-butter mixture into one of the bowls. Add the pumpkin, vegetable oil, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice into the second bowl of batter and stir.

Pour the chocolate batter into the greased pan and then pour the pumpkin batter on top of the chocolate layer. With a small spatula swirl the two batters together to create a marble effect, but don't swirl too much; you don't want to blend the chocolate and pumpkin batter together.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. Insert a toothpick in the center of the brownies. When it comes out clean, the dessert is done. Allow to cool and serve.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Autumn Recipes:
Acorn Donuts 
Mini Pies 
Pumpkin Bread 
Cinnamon-Sugar Pastry with Pumpkin Dip 
Cheese Tortellini in a Pumpkin Sauce 

Pumpkin Bread!

Continuing on my pumpkin kick, tonight I baked some yummy pumpkin bread. However, I either lost my loaf pan in my last move or gave it to my mom because I rarely used it, so I baked my bread in a bundt pan.

Pumpkin bread in bundt form

Ingredients:
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup water
1 1/2 cup white sugar
1 3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 8.5x4.5x2.5-inch loaf pan (or bundt pan) with cooking spray.

In a large bowl add pumpkin, eggs, oil, water, and sugar. In another bowl mix flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. Blend the wet ingredients together while gradually adding the dry ingredients. Mix until well blended. Pour into pan. Bake for 50 minutes.

The pumpkin bread is delicious with butter or cream cheese. But since we like everything sweet in this house, I whipped up some cream cheese frosting that's sweet but not too sweet. This recipe only makes a small amount of frosting, just enough for a loaf of bread.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Blend all the ingredients in a bowl with a mixer. Spread on sliced bread.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Homemade Donuts and Elephant Ears

Being the sweet and loving girlfriend that I am, I surprised Eric with breakfast in bed. A nutritious meal of homemade donuts.

Mini Elephant Ears

Okay, that's a little bit of a lie. I am a sweet and loving girlfriend. But not sweet and loving enough to actually get up super early and make the pastry dough from scratch. I suppose the title should read Semi-Homemade Donuts and Elephant Ears. I used tubes of crescent rolls and biscuits to make my donuts.

Elephant Ears
Elephants ears are the easier of the two to make. Whenever we make crescents for dinner, we usually save two to three of the triangles in a Tupperware container so we can make them into donuts later.

Ingredients:
1 tube of crescent rolls
vegetable oil
granulated sugar
cinnamon

Directions:
Unroll your crescent roll dough and separate all the triangles. Generously coat the bottom of a skillet with the vegetable oil and heat over medium heat. Once the oil is hot use tongs to add the crescent roll triangles.

Frying the crescent rolls

Cook for approximately one or two minutes or until you notice the dough beginning to puff up. When the dough begins to puff, flip the triangles over and cook for about 30 seconds or until the dough turns a golden brown.

Remove from the pan and place on a paper towel-lined plate.

Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl. Dredge the elephant ears in the mixture cinnamon sugar or sprinkle the mixture on the donuts. Serve while still warm.

Donuts and Donut Holes
Donuts and donut holes take a little more oil and a little more work to make than the Elephant Ears, but they are just as yummy.

Ingredients:
1 tube of biscuits
vegetable oil
cinnamon sugar, optional
powdered sugar, optional
frosting, optional
glaze, optional

Directions:
Separate your biscuits and lay them out on your work space. Rinse out an empty soda pop bottle. The size of the bottle doesn't matter. Remove the cap and press the opening of bottle into the center the biscuit to make the hole in the center. To get the dough out of the bottle opening, just squeeze the sides of the bottle; it'll pop right out and you'll have donut holes. Repeat with the rest of the biscuits.

Fill a saucepan half way with vegetable oil and heat over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, submerge one or two donuts in the oil at a time. Cook until they are a golden brown, about a minute or two. Place the donuts on a paper towel-lined plate.

Eat your donuts plain or decorate with cinnamon-sugar (our favorite), powdered sugar, frosting, or glaze. I don't have a recipe for glaze yet, much to Eric's disappointment. Serve warm.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Yummy Butterscotch Cookies

Eric loves butterscotch . . . butterscotch candy, butterscotch pudding, butterscotch ice cream topping, butterscotch milkshakes. So I pulled out my ever versatile cake mix cookie recipe and made him butterscotch cookies. Four ingredients and approximately 25 minutes of time = delicious butterscotch goodness.

Ingredients:
1 yellow cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup butterscotch chips
 

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the cake mix, eggs, and oil together--either by hand or using a mixer--until the batter becomes thick. Add the butterscotch chips and stir. Use a tablespoon to scoop the dough and roll it into 1-inch balls. Place it on a cookie sheet, spacing the cookies 1 to 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes or until the cookie bottoms turn a golden brown.

Check out more cake mix cookie recipes here.


Enjoy!

~Krissy