Pinata Cookies
1 cup sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
5 cups flour
1 tablespoon vanilla
mini m&m’s
1/2 cup powdered sugar (for frosting)
2 teaspoons milk (for frosting)
directions:
1. Cream sugars with butter. Beat in eggs. Add oil. Combine dry ingredients together, and then gradually add them to the mixture. Mix in vanilla and almond extract. Cover the layered dough and freeze for four hours or overnight.
2. Remove the dough from the container and unwrap from the plastic. Cut slices or shapes. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake them at 350 degrees for for 12 minutes.
3. For the middle cookies in each set, cut out the center where the M&Ms will go. Try to work quickly, because as the cookies cool, they are more likely to crumble or break. Let them cool on the baking sheet before you move them and remove the excess, outer cookie.
4. To assemble, take the first piñata cookie and lay it upside down so that the baked bottom is facing up. Outline the center of the piñata body with a “frosting glue” mixture of milk and powdered sugar. (1/2 cup of powdered sugar and two teaspoons of milk. If you put it inside a Ziploc bag and cut off a tiny tip of the bag’s corner, you can pipe it onto the cookie easily.)
Put the middle cookie on top of the frosting glue and add the M&Ms to the open center. Put another outline of frosting glue on the middle cookie and place the opposite-cut piñata cookie on top (so that the pretty side is facing out). Let these sit and harden for at least 30 minutes before you stand them upright.
Enjoy!
Pumpkin Spice Donuts
For Donuts:
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoons ground cloves
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup milk
For Coating:
1/2 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup sugar
1-2 tablespoons cinnamon (more if you’re a cinnamon lover)
1. Preheat oven 350 F. Butter a mini donut pan and set aside.
2. In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and spices together and set aside.
3. In a large bowl (or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment) whisk together oil, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, pumpkin and milk until combined. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the mixture and stir until just combined, careful not to over mix.
4. Using a pastry bag or a steady hand and a spoon, fill each donut cup with the batter. The donut cups should be fairly full, but not overflowing. Bake for 8-9 minutes, until donuts spring back when gently pressed (if you’re using a larger donut pan, allow them to bake for 12-15 minutes). Turn donuts out onto a wire rack and allow to cool for a few minutes.
5. While the donuts are cooling, melt butter in one bowl and combine the sugar and cinnamon in another. When donuts are still hot (but not too hot to touch), quickly dip each donut in melted butter, then coat in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Serve immediately.
Peach Cobbler
Preheat oven to 350˚F.
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
a dash of salt
3/4 cup milk
1 stick of melted butter
brown sugar
cinnamon
1 can diced peaches
1. Put 1 tsp of melted butter into each regular size muffin tin.
2. Combine the first 5 ingredients by hand… sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and milk.
3. Put 2 tbsp of batter into each regular size muffin tin… on top of the melted butter. Then put 1 tbsp diced peaches on top of the batter.
4. Sprinkle with brown sugar and then cinnamon. Bake the regular size muffin tins for 12 minutes.
Let them cool almost completely before taking out of pan. Enjoy!