not sick of pumpkin spice (yet)

...but i might be pretty soon

HI, HELLO, & HAPPY FRIDAY!

I hope you’ve all had a fabulous first full week of fall 😌

As someone who claims their favorite season is spring, I’m shocking myself with how excited I am for the fall this year. I really think it all boils down to the following:

1. giving each month a specific theme - this month is strictly pumpkin spice and cozy food (next month will likely be apples, plus Halloween)

2. excessively burning fall-scented candles (I’m on my 3rd Trader Joe’s Vanilla Pumpkin candle)

3. taking a trip to HomeGoods periodically to just absorb the fall-themed decorations - you don’t even need to buy anything, just walk around and absorb the fall spirit in the air (it works, I promise)

4. baking pumpkin/pumpkin spice desserts (I will be sharing my favorite pumpkin dessert I’ve made, maybe ever?)

I hope that helps 🤞 Now on to the substance of HH!!

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Now that my website is up and running, I will be spending the next 2 days updating it with recent recipes, including my fall rice gratin, spaghetti and meatballs, rigatoni pepperonata, pumpkin spice ooey gooey cookies, and my new favorite: pumpkin cheesecake cookies.

But in the meantime, here’s the recipe for some of my new favorite cookies…

Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies

Ingredients

Pumpkin Cookie Dough

• 1-15 oz. can of pumpkin puree

• 1/2 cup or 1 stick of unsalted butter, browned

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1/2 cup white sugar

• 2 eggs

• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 2 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp kosher salt

Cheesecake Filling

• 8 oz room temperature cream cheese

• 3 tbsp white sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Graham Cracker Coating

• 1 sleeve of graham crackers, crushed

• 2 tbsp brown sugar

• 1/4 tsp kosher salt

Preparation

1. Place pumpkin puree in a saucepan and cook on low, while stirring occasionally, for 20-25 minutes. Cook until puree reduces to about ½ cup (it will appear dark orange).

2. In a bowl, whisk together cream cheese, vanilla extract, and sugar until fully combined. Scoop 1-inch balls of the cream cheese filling and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet (you’ll end up with 12 total). Place in the freezer to firm up. 

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together butter and sugars until combined. Add eggs and whisk. Add reduced pumpkin puree and vanilla and combine well.

4. To the wet ingredients, stir in flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice. Roll out 1 ½ to 2-inch balls of dough (around ¼ cup of dough), and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet (you should end up with 12 rounds of cookie dough). Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. 

5. Preheat oven to 350ºF.

6. In a small bowl, mix together crushed graham crackers, brown sugar, and salt. Set aside. 

7. Once the cookie dough is firm, you can start assembling your cookies. Place a ball of cream cheese filling in the center of a cookie dough round (to make this process easier, rub your hands with a tiny bit of oil so the cookie dough doesn’t stick). Spread the cookie dough over the cream cheese ball to cover it. Roll the dough between both hands to form a round ball. Roll the cookie dough ball in the graham cracker mixture until fully coated. Place on your parchment-lined baking sheet and repeat this process with your remaining dough (make sure cookies are placed 3-4 inches apart on the baking sheet).

8. Bake for 15-16 minutes

If you’re a visual learner, watch this!

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Butternut squash shouldn’t be turned into a fruit crisp unless it’s supplemented with something acidic. See my failed attempt at defying the rules of balancing taste below:

I mean, of course, you can turn it into a crisp if you’d like (because after all, there really are no rules to what you can and can’t do in the kitchen), BUT it’s not going to taste utterly delicious.

A sweet, decadent fruit + a sweet, decadent crisp topping = too much sweet decadence. As they say in professional kitchens, “NEEDS MORE ACID!!!”

I think next time around, I’ll be adding a supplemental apple to brighten things up (aka add more acid).

Another week of dining out at a Mediterranean place, and this time, I got what I think is one of my favorite frozen desserts: Frozen. Greek. Yogurt.

this is an old picture of the same dessert from Nick the Greek aka proof that I really do order this dessert every time it’s available!!!

Being the person who only gets the plain tart flavor of froyo, frozen Greek yogurt is definitely in the same taste camp, so it only makes sense that I love it.

It’s light, fresh…delicious - it’s perfect. The only thing that separates frozen Greek yogurt from plain tart froyo is the option to get baklava on top. And for that reason alone, this is why this dessert is what dreams are made of.

Trader Joe’s Starfruit Sparkling Water - 7.2/10

Not my favorite flavor, but decent! It reminds me of a specific flavor of La Croix that I can’t quite pinpoint and am losing my mind trying to figure out (although I’m not shocked that a La Croix flavor is so faint I can’t remember it lol).

not my picture!!! (source: https://world.openfoodfacts.org/product/00730440/sparkling-starfruit-water-trader-joe-s)

There were so many kind comments left on my videos this week that made me feel oh so lucky! Thank you for being such a supportive community, ILYSM!!!!!!

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That’s all for this week!! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!!

💛,

Zoe