If you’re a fan of Ghibli movies, you may remember the cute Susuwatari or Soot Sprites from Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro. These easy-to-make chocolate covered treats are also known as haystacks or tumbleweeds. They’re often made with shredded coconut or chow main noodles. I love using potato stick snacks for a delicious, crunchy salty-sweet snack.
In Spirited Away, the cute sprites are fed handfuls of Japanese konpietō candy. If you aren’t able to find it, candy star sprinkles are a nice substitute for decorating your Soot Sprites. (See the links below.)
Soot Sprite Treats
by Mari Vasseur
Chocolate covered potato stick snacks shaped like the beloved Spirited Away Soot Sprites
⅔cup (65g)chopped toasted salted cashews or peanuts (optional but recommended)
2cups (340g)semisweet chocolate chips
1cup (170g)butterscotch chips
1tablespoon (15ml)vegetable oil or neutral oil of your choice
A few dropsblack oil based food coloring (optional)
48Candy eyes
Konpeitō candy or pastel star candy sprinkles
Instructions
Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or wax paper. In an extra-large bowl, combine the potato sticks and nuts.
In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, combine the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and the oil. Heat in the microwave for 20 second bursts, stirring gently between each burst, until melted and smooth. Stir in the food coloring if using.
Pour the melted chocolate mixture over the potato stick mixture. Stir gently with a spatula until the mix is completely coated with the melted chocolate.
Scoop or spoon rounded 2-tbs-size portions of the mixture onto the baking sheets. Add candy eyes and stars. Refrigerate until set, about 20 minutes.
If you’re looking for an easy, delicious and cute Halloween bake, Brown Butter Monster Cookie Bars are perfect for you. These spooky bars are crisp and golden on the outside, buttery, soft and chewy on the inside. They’re loaded with milk chocolate M & M’s and semisweet chocolate pieces which makes these the best Halloween cookie bars ever! I used a chocolate bar broken into pieces, rather than chocolate chips because the chocolate pieces melt into generous, silky pools of chocolate. The fun part is adding the spooky candy eyes. You can even create expressions with sprinkle eyebrows.
Brown Butter Monster Cookie Bars
by Mari Vasseur
Crisp and golden on the outside, buttery, soft and chewy on the inside with M & M's and chocolate pieces. The best Halloween cookie bars ever!
14 oz (113g)semisweet or dark chocolate bar broken into bite size pieces
Candy eyes
Green sprinkles
Instructions
In a medium-sized, light-colored saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and cook until it's deep golden and fragrant. When brown specks start to appear, remove it from the heat and immediately transfer the butter with the brown specks to a large bowl. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line an 8-inch square baking pan*** with parchment paper, leaving a couple of inches of overhang.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl until well blended. Set aside.
Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla extract to the brown butter and stir until combined. Add the egg and egg yolk and stir vigorously for 1-2 minutes, until smooth and creamy. Stir in the flour mixture just until combined. Set aside a few of the larger chocolate pieces for the top. Gently stir the remaining chocolate pieces and the M & M's into the dough.
Press the dough evenly into the baking pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Arrange the reserved chocolate pieces on the top. Bake until the top is set and light golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the bars comes out with a few moist crumbs on it, about 20-25 minutes. Add the candy eyes and sprinkles while the bars are still warm. Let the bars cool in the pan.
Notes
*To find candy eyes, click here. **To find green sprinkles, click here. Alternately, if you have rainbow sprinkles, you can take the green ones out to use for your cookies bars if you don't want to purchase green sprinkles.***To find the 8-inch baking pan I used, click here.
It wouldn’t be fall without PSL’s and pumpkin bread. This ultra moist, plush version of pumpkin bread has mocha batter swirled through it and a rich chocolate glaze that takes it over the top. It’s dangerously delicious and nearly impossible to eat just one slice. I think this might just become your new favorite fall baking recipe.
Mocha Pumpkin Spice Bread
by Mari Vasseur
Soft, ultra moist pumpkin spice bread, swirled with mocha and topped with a shiny chocolate glaze
Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line the bottom of a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper. Grease and flour the insides with a mixture of equal parts unsweetened cocoa powder and flour.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda and salt until well blended.
Set aside one tablespoon (15ml) of the oil. In a large bowl, beat the remaining oil, the sugar, brown sugar, eggs, evaporated milk and vanilla extract until smooth and creamy. Beat in the pumpkin purée until incorporated. Stir in the flour mixture just until combined.
Place one cup (237g) of the batter in a separate medium-sized bowl. Add the cocoa powder, espresso powder and the reserved one tablespoon of oil. Mix until incorporated.
Place half of the pumpkin batter into the baking pan. Scoop the mocha batter into the pan, alternating with scoops of the remaining pumpkin batter. Swirl the batter with a skewer. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs attached (not wet batter), about 35-45 minutes. Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn the loaf out and continue cooling on a cooling rack.
Chocolate Glaze
Melt the butter, chocolate, and corn syrup together in a medium-sized heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water, making sure the water doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl. Stir gently until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly then spoon the glaze over the cooled loaf and let it drip down the sides.
Notes
To find the 9 x 5 inch loaf pan I used, click here.
Summer was such a happy season for me as a child that I didn’t want it to end. I still love summer, but now that I’m an adult, I begin to anticipate fall right around the time when I’m tired of harsh, hot temperatures, rumbling air conditioners and flies buzzing around at cookouts. Now is that time for me. It’s so hot where I live right now, that I’m welcoming the cool, crisp fall weather and all it brings.
The beautiful warm flavors of fall are perfectly captured in these Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Cakes. The moist, perfectly spiced cakes are topped with a cinnamon swirl which is basically cinnamon roll filling. I topped them with Vanilla Bean Icing, but you can also make it cream cheese icing by swapping out 1 tablespoon of the melted butter for 1 tablespoon of softened cream cheese, if you prefer. The optional addition of meringue powder helps the icing set up and gives it that crunch we love on glazed donuts. To find meringue powder, click here.
I used a shallow jumbo muffin pan to make these cakes. The muffin cups are 4 inches wide and 1 inch deep. A hamburger bun pan for 4-inch buns or six 4-inch cake pans will also work. To find the pan I used, click here.
Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll Cakes
Moist pumpkin cakes with cinnamon swirls and vanilla bean icing
⅔cup (4 5/8 oz or 145ml)vegetable oil or neutral oil of your choice
2largeeggs
1 teaspoonpure vanilla extract
1 cup (8 1/4 oz or 234g)pure pumpkin purée(not pumpkin pie filling)
Cinnamon Swirl
½cup (3 1/2 oz or 100g)packed brown sugar
1tablespoonall purpose flour
2 ½teaspoonsground cinnamon
pinch fine sea salt
¼cup (2 oz or 57g)unsalted butter, melted
Vanilla Bean Icing
2tablespoons (1 oz or 28g)unsalted butter, melted
½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste
½cup (2 1/8 oz or 60g)powdered sugar
½teaspoonmeringue powderoptional
pinchfine sea salt
2-3tablespoons (30-45ml)whole milk
Instructions
Pumpkin Cakes
Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line a 6-serving shallow jumbo muffin pan with jumbo muffin liners.* (The liners will fit by pressing them in around the inside bottom edges.) The muffin pan I used has cups that are 4-inches across by 1-inch deep. A hamburger bun pan for 4-inch buns or six 4-inch cake pans will also work.
In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg until well combined.
In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla until smooth and well combined. Mix in the pumpkin purée. Stir in the flour in two additions, just until combined.
Transfer the batter to the muffin cups, evenly dividing the batter among the cups. Pipe the cinnamon swirl mixture in a spiral on the top of the batter of each one.
Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake part comes out clean, about 23-27 minutes. Let the cakes cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Cinnamon Swirl
In a small bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt. Add the melted butter and whisk until well combined.
Transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a 1/4-inch wide round tip.
Vanilla Bean Icing
In a small bowl, whisk together the butter, vanilla bean paste, powdered sugar, meringue powder, salt and 1 tablespoon (15ml) of milk until well combined. Whisk in more milk as needed to reach your desired consistency.
Brush the icing on the cooled cakes with a small pastry brush or make the icing a little thinner and drizzle the icing on if you prefer.
This Perfect Pumpkin cake brings back memories. The tender, moist texture reminds me of the pumpkin cake bars I used to make in junior high. I got the treasured bar recipe from an old children’s cookbook. I lent the cookbook to a neighbor and never saw the book or the recipe again. Through trial and error, I came up with this perfectly spiced, soft fluffy cake, which I think is even better! It’s so delicious it doesn’t need frosting, but the classic pairing with cream cheese frosting takes it over the top.
⅔cup (150ml)avocado oil or neutral oil of your choice
2largeeggs
1teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1cup (227g)pure pumpkin puréeNot pie filling
Cream Cheese Frosting
6tablespoons (85g)cream cheese, softened
6tablespoons (85g)unsalted butter, softened
¾teaspoonvanilla bean paste or pure vanilla extract
1pinchfine sea salt
2cups (240g)powdered sugar, sifted
1-3teaspoons heavy cream, room temperature
Instructions
Pumpkin Cake
Preheat the oven to 325ºF (165ºC). Line the bottom of an 8-inch round cake pan* with parchment paper**. Grease and flour the insides.
In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg until well combined.
In a large bowl, beat the sugar, oil, eggs, vanilla and pumpkin purée with an electric mixer or by hand with a whisk, until smooth and well blended. Stir in the flour mixture, just until combined.
Transfer the batter to the prepared cake pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 38-43 minutes. Cool the cake in pan for 10 minutes. Remove the cake from pan and transfer to a cooling rack.
Cream Cheese Frosting
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together with an electric mixer, until creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract and salt until well combined. On low speed, beat in the powdered sugar. Keeping the mixture at low speed, beat in the heavy cream a little at a time until your desired consistency is reached. Stir with a spatula to smooth out any bubbles.
Notes
*To find the cake pan I used, click here.**To find the parchment rounds I used, click here.
Even though the weather is warm where I live at the moment, I’m dreaming about all the delicious fall treats I’ll be baking this year. Let’s look forward to cool, crisp weather, the smell of pumpkin or apples baking, and sipping a warm mug of something spicy while we wait for our bakes to come out of the oven.
Inevitably, every fall, the Harry Potter movies come on at my house and it’s nice to have some popcorn and sweet treats to enjoy while watching the movies. And these Harry Potter Inspired Pumpkin Pasties are perfect for that! If you’ve read the Harry Potter books, you may remember the Pumpkin Pasties being mentioned. There are many interpretations out there, but I imagined them to be crispy and flaky on the outside with a sweet pumpkin filling. I included a delicious flaky pie crust recipe here, but feel free to use store bought pie dough if you want to streamline the process. I sprinkled mine with raw turbinado sugar before baking which provides a sweet delicious crunch. You can also use maple sugar or sparkling sugar. To find the sugar I used, click here. And as a magical touch, I added some edible gold star glitter. To find the edible gold stars, click here.
Pumpkin Pasties
Harry Potter inspired sweet pumpkin filled hand pies
¾cup (170g)canned pure pumpkin puréeNot pie filling
⅓cup (66g)sugar
1largeegg
2tablespoons (30ml)heavy cream
½teaspoonground cinnamon
¼teaspoon ground ginger
⅛ teaspoonground nutmegpreferably freshly ground
Assembly
egg wash1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon (15ml) of water
coarse sugar
Instructions
Pie Crust
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt. Work the shortening into the flour mixture with your fingertips until evenly dispersed throughout.
Work the butter into the flour mixture with your fingertips, creating flat dime size pieces.
Mix the ice water and vinegar together. Sprinkle over the flour mixture a little at a time, stirring until dough comes together. You may not need all of the water depending on your climate.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Fold the dough over onto itself a few times. Do not overwork the dough! Form the dough into two disks. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least two hours or up to overnight.
Pumpkin Filling
In a medium-size bowl, mix together the pumpkin purée, sugar, egg, heavy cream, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg until well combined.
Assembly
Preheat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut the dough into twelve 5-inch* rounds, re-rolling the scraps as needed. Place the dough rounds a couple of inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets.
Place about 2 tablespoons of filling on each round, leaving a half-inch border. Apply egg wash to the edges of the rounds.
Fold the dough over and press the edges together. Crimp the edges with a fork. If any filling oozes out, wipe it up with a paper towel or it will burn.
Brush the pasties with egg wash. Cut a half-inch slit into the top of each pastie. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.
Bake until golden brown, about 18-20 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack.
My mom had a cupboard in the kitchen containing a few old cookbooks that she rarely used. As a child, I used to enjoy perusing them and looking at the baked treats. Some of the cookbooks were so old, they had black and white photos or even just drawings of the food. The ones with drawings interested me because they often depicted smiling children enjoying the treats.
When I started learning to bake, I found a recipe for French Breakfast Puffs in one of those old books. The title sounded so fancy, but they were really just simple muffins dunked in butter and rolled in cinnamon sugar. I have no idea what the name of the cookbook was or what happened to it, but the delicious muffin recipe stuck around for a while. I’ve tweaked the recipe so many times over the years, and most recently, I added pumpkin to it. These Pumpkin Cinnamon Mini Muffins are one of the best versions I’ve created. The inside texture of the muffins is soft and moist and it contrasts nicely with the slight crunch you get from the cinnamon sugar on the outside. They look so cute too, like little pumpkins, and they definitely make children smile!
To watch the Instagram video of these mini muffins being made, click here.
Pumpkin Cinnamon Mini Muffins
Soft, tender pumpkin mini muffins rolled in cinnamon sugar
⅓cup (80ml)vegetable oil or neutral oil of your choice
1largeegg
½cup (113g)canned pure pumpkin puréeNot pie filling
Topping
⅔cup (132g)granulated sugar
1 ½teaspoonsground cinnamon
6tablespoons (85g)melted butter
Instructions
Muffins
Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Grease and flour a 24-serving mini muffin pan.* Do not use muffin liners. (The muffins need to form an outer crust. This prevents them from absorbing too much melted butter later in the recipe.)
In a medium-size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg until well combined.
In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, oil, egg and pumpkin purée until smooth and well combined. Stir in the flour mixture just until combined. The batter will be thick.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, filling the muffin cups about 2/3 full. (I ended up with 22 muffins.)
Bake until toothpick inserted into the muffins comes out clean, about 10-13 minutes. Do not over bake! Be diligent, since over baking can happen very quickly with mini muffins. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Turn the muffins out and place on a cooling rack.
Topping
Whisk the sugar and cinnamon together in a shallow bowl until well combined.
Briefly dunk the warm muffins in melted butter, then roll in cinnamon sugar.
In early September, I saw someone announce the fall season on social media. In addition to people pointing out that it was too early for the announcement, the word police corrected the person with the word autumn. Since both terms are correct, we can call the season whatever we prefer. I think autumn is a pleasant sounding word, so I’ll use it for the rest of this post. Whatever you call it, these Pumpkin Spice Muffins are a perfect little celebration of the season. They have just the right amount of warm spices, making them so fragrant that your kitchen will smell like cozy autumn heaven.
I originally made them in mini loaf pans, but I thought they would be cute as muffins too. They’re so cute and delicious that I often give them as holiday gifts. This year I decided to try them in ramekins and I loved the results! I used 6-ounce ramekins, but you can use 8-ounce ramekins, any size mini loaf pans, a muffin pan or even an 8 or 9-inch loaf pan. Keep in mind that baking times will differ. To find the ramekins I used, click here.
Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Caramel Filling
by Mari Vasseur
Tender pumpkin spice muffins with caramel filling and luscious cream cheese frosting
Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Grease and flour seven 6-ounce ramekins or six 8-ounce ramekins or any mini loaf pans of your choice.
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, nutmeg and cloves until well blended.
In a separate large bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar together, with an electric mixer at medium speed, until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until incorporated. Beat in the pumpkin purée and vanilla extract until well blended. Stir in the flour mixture just until combined.
Divide the batter evenly into the prepared ramekins. Bake for 15-25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not overbake.
Cool completely if serving in ramekins or remove from pans after cooling for 10 minutes. Continue to cool on wire rack.
Make 3/4-inch wells in the center of each muffin. Fill with caramel sauce. (For loaves, poke multiple holes with a skewer. Fill with caramel sauce.) Top with cream cheese frosting and pumpkin seeds
Cream Cheese Frosting
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together, with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth and well blended. Do not over beat.
Add the vanilla extract and salt and beat until combined. On low speed, gradually beat in the powdered sugar incorporated. Add the heavy cream and continue beating at low speed smooth. Remove any bubbles by gently stirring with a spatula.
It’s Fall 2020. We need chocolate! We need pumpkin spice! And we need it drenched with caramel! These satisfying brownies check all of the boxes with multiple layers of comfort. A rich chocolate brownie is the base. The next layer is heavenly pumpkin cheesecake. The topping is a buttery crumble that rivals the best crumb cake. Finally, as if that isn’t enough, it’s drizzled with caramel sauce!
If it sounds complicated, don’t worry, it’s not. Each layer is super easy to make. You can use your favorite store bought caramel sauce to top it with. Vanilla ice cream and/or whipped cream are optional, but highly recommended toppings also. Just saying.
The layers go unexpectedly well together and make the perfect dessert for Halloween or Thanksgiving. I’m even going to add these beauties to my Christmas dessert table this year. Enjoy! You deserve it.
Pumpkin Cheesecake Crumble Brownies
Chocolate brownies with pumpkin cheesecake and crumb topping, topped with caramel sauce.
½cupcaramel sauce, purchased or homemadewarmed if desired
Instructions
Crumb Topping
In a medium bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt.
Cut in butter using a pastry blender or your fingers until well-combined and crumbles are pea-sized. Press crumbles together to make large quarter-sized chunks.
Set aside in refrigerator.
Pumpkin Cheesecake Layer
Preheat oven to 350º. Line a 9-inch square baking pan with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth.
Add pumpkin, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg and beat until well combined. Set aside.
Brownie Layer
Melt 1 stick of butter in a large microwaveable bowl.
Stir in sugar until combined
Stir in cocoa powder, vanilla, baking powder and salt.
Add the eggs and beat until smooth
Add the flour and mix until just combined.
Spread brownie batter into prepared baking pan. Smooth with a spatula.
Spread pumpkin cheesecake batter over the top of brownie batter. Smooth with a spatula.
Sprinkle crumb topping evenly over the top of pumpkin cheesecake layer.
Bake for 40-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted into pumpkin cheesecake layer comes out clean.
Let cool completely. Cut into squares and serve with caramel sauce.
One of the best things about Halloween is all of the adorable costumes worn by the littlest trick-or-treaters. I’ll never forget the year my young daughter was dressed as a flower with chubby cheeks. She enjoyed wearing her costume and eating her Halloween treats, but spooky costumes and trick-or-treating weren’t for her. She was the type of toddler who cried at the sight of a mall Santa. She even screamed in terror once when Ronald McDonald paid a visit to our local McDonald’s.
So in honor of those tender hearted little ones, I created some not-so-scary, pretty-darned-cute Yetis and Green-Eyed Monster cookies. You can use your favorite cutout sugar cookie dough and you don’t need any special skills to decorate them. The icing is fondant instead of frosting or royal icing which makes these cute monsters the ideal mess-free (almost) cookie decorating project for kids!
For these cookies you’ll need:
One batch of cutout sugar cookie dough
Food coloring- I used Wilton Icing Color in Rose
Cookie cutters
Parchment paper
Scissors
X-acto knife or paring knife
White, purple, green and pink fondant or any colors of your choice. I made lavender by combining purple and white.
Sprinkles- I used a combination of two parts orange sprinkles and one part pink sprinkles
Piping gel
Small food safe brush
Edible marker- I used Americolor Gourmet Writer
Candy bananas, sugar pearls or any edible decorations of your choice
Divide your cookie dough in half. For the Yeti cookies, color one half of the cookie dough with pink food coloring. Wrap remaining cookie dough in plastic and set aside in refrigerator.
Roll out the pink dough and cut out the Yeti cookies. The Yeti cookies are 2 1/2 inch by 3 1/4 inch rectangles. I used a clean, recycled food can as a cookie cutter. I opened the can with a can opener at both ends, rather than using the little key that comes with the can. If you don’t want to use this method, you can make a pattern out of parchment paper and cut out the cookies with an X-acto knife or a paring knife.
For the Yeti faces, cut two small 1 1/2 inch x 1 inch rectangles with rounded corners out of parchment paper. The first one will be used to place on the Yeti cookies to keep the sprinkles off of the faces. Place small parchment rectangle on an unbaked cookie. Apply sprinkles, pressing them gently to make sure they adhere to the cookie. Remove the parchment rectangle and repeat with remaining cookies. Bake according to your cookie dough recipe. Let cool.
Roll out white fondant to 1/8 inch thickness. Use the remaining small parchment rectangle as a pattern to cut out a face for each Yeti cookie with an X-acto knife or a paring knife. Brush a bit of piping gel onto each cookie face area. Apply the white fondant face cutouts to the cookies. Let dry for at least 30 minutes, then draw eyes and a mouth with an edible marker. I made rosie cheeks with a small amount of petal dust applied with a cotton swab. Brush dabs of piping gel to apply the banana candy horns. I also added pink fondant flowers and sugar pearls to make my Yeti cookies extra cute.
Roll out the remaining cookie dough and cut out the Green-Eyed Monster cookies. I used an apple tree cookie cutter, trimming off the trunk part. If you can’t find an apple tree cutter, you can use a blossom or sun cookie cutter. Bake according to your cookie dough recipe. Let cool.
Roll out the lavender fondant. Cut the fondant using the same cutter you used for the cookie dough. Brush piping gel onto cookies and apply the fondant shapes. Let dry at least 30 minutes.
For eyes, roll out white and green fondant. I used the large end of a piping tip to cut out two white circles and two green circles for each cookie. Attach the green circles to the white circles with a dab of piping gel, offsetting them slightly. I used a tiny blossom punch cutter for the pupils and applied with piping gel. Use an edible marker to draw eyelashes and a mouth.
