ground nutmeg – Page 2 – Brownie Mischief

Apple Spice Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

Posted on October 29, 2021February 12, 2026 by Mari Vasseur

These Apple Spice Cookies were one of my most popular cookies last fall so I decided to bring them back a little early this year. The combination of cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla in this cookie dough will remind you of cinnamon rolls and apple pie and inspire you look forward to fall.

The apples in this recipe are cooked briefly on the stovetop to bring out the flavor and create the perfect texture. Dropping raw apple chunks into cookie dough or cake batter is usually not a good idea. If you’ve ever baked an apple pie, you know that apples release liquid as they cook and that liquid will end up in your baked cookies, creating soggy spots. So definitely don’t skip this step!

These gorgeous, golden brown cookies are perfectly delicious on their own, but extra credit goes to the Brown Butter Icing for taking them over the top!

Make sure to head over to Instagram to watch the video of these Apple Spice Cookies being created: Click here

Apple Spice Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

Spice cookies with fresh apples and brown butter icing

Print Recipe

Course Dessert

Servings 12 cookies

Ingredients

Cooked Apples

1 tablespoon butter
1 cup (4 oz or 113g) chopped apples (1/4-inch pieces) I used one large Granny Smith apple
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Apple Spice Cookie Dough

1 ½ cups (6 3/4 oz or 191g) all purpose flour, sifted
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ cup (4 oz 113g) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (7 oz or 200g) packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
½ teaspooon pure vanilla extract

Brown Butter Icing

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ cup (2 oz or 57g) powdered sugar, sifted
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
pinch fine sea salt
1-2 tablespoons whole milk

Instructions

Cooked Apples

Melt the butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Add apples, sugar and cinnamon to the skillet.
Cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples are tender, about 4-5 minutes.
Remove from heat and let cool completely. Drain any excess liquid from the cooled apples.

Apple Spice Cookies

Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy.
Beat in the egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract, one at a time, until well combined
Stir in the flour mixture, just until combined.
Fold the the cooled apples into the cookie dough.
Divide the dough into 12 equal golf ball size portions and place them 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
Bake until golden brown, about 11-13 minutes. Let cool 1 minute on the baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Brown Butter Icing

In a small saucepan, cook the butter over medium heat until golden brown and fragrant. When brown specks start to form in the bottom of the pan, remove from heat.
Immediately transfer the browned butter to a small bowl. Whisk in the the powdered sugar, vanilla extract, salt and 1 tablespoon milk. Add more milk as needed to reach desired consistency.
Drizzle the icing over the cooled cookies.

Notes

NOTE: If your cookies spread too much when baking, refrigerate dough for 30 minutes, then bake as directed.

Keyword cookies, holiday, thanksgiving

Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Caramel Filling

Posted on October 11, 2021February 18, 2026 by Mari Vasseur

pumpkin spices mini loaves with caramel filling

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

Print Recipe

Course Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert

Servings 7 muffins

Ingredients

Pumpkin Spice Mini Loaves

1 ½ cups (191g) all purpose flour, sifted
1 ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
½ teaspoon ground ginger
⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg preferably freshly ground
1 pinch ground cloves
½ cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (200g) brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup (225g) pure pumpkin purée
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
⅓ cup (100g) caramel sauce, purchased or homemade
¼ cup (28g) roasted, salted shelled pumpkin seeds

Cream Cheese Frosting

3 ounces (85g) cream cheese, softened
6 tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, softened
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 pinch fine sea salt
2 cups (240g) powdered sugar, sifted
1-2 teaspoons heavy cream, room temperature

Instructions

Pumpkin Spice Mini Loaves

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.

Keyword muffins, pumpkin, pumpkin spice

Fairy Puffs

Posted on July 1, 2021February 12, 2026 by Mari Vasseur

My dad used to take me on walks in the woods to look for fairy rings when I was a child. I wanted to see a real fairy so badly! I read a book about fairies, hoping to learn more about them. Fairies love little cakes, milk, honey and butter so I’m sure these Fairy Puffs would be fairy approved.

My Fairy Puffs recipe is loosely based on an old favorite mini muffin recipe. I tweaked it quite a bit, including the addition of pink dragonfruit powder. Dragonfruit has a subtle flavor, so the bright fuchsia powder is mostly for color. But oh what a beautiful color it is! You can find dragonfruit powder in healthy food stores or online. To find the dragonfruit powder, also known as pink pitaya powder, I used, click here.

Decorating these little cuties was so entertaining! After sampling multiple variations of sparkling sugar and cinnamon sugar, I decided that dipping the bottoms of the muffins in butter and cinnamon sugar, then dipping the tops in butter and sparkling sugar gave them the perfect balance of sugar and spice. I had purchased some edible flowers a couple of days prior, and they added a pretty, magical touch. The flowers I used are called bachelor’s buttons and I got them at a local gourmet flower seller.

sugared mini muffins with edible flowers

Fairy Puffs

Print Recipe

Course Breakfast, Brunch

Servings 24 mini muffins

Ingredients

Fairy Puffs

1 ⅓ cups (6 oz or 99g) all purpose flour, sifted
3 tablespoons dragonfruit powder *See note below
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Scant ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
⅓ cup (2 5/8 oz or 75g) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup (3 1/2 oz or 100g) granulated sugar
1 large egg
½ cup (4 oz or 118ml) whole milk

Topping

½ cup (4 oz or 113g) unsalted butter, melted
½ cup (3 1/2 oz or 100g) granulated sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ cup (3 1/2 oz or 100g) sparkling sugar crystals **I used combinations of white, pink, purple & blue
edible flowers (optional)

Instructions

Fairy Puffs

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease and flour a 24 serving mini muffin pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, dragonfruit powder, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
Add egg and beat until smooth.
Add flour mixture and milk alternately in two additions and mix just until combined.
Transfer batter to prepared muffin pan, filling muffin cups about 3/4 full.
Bake until toothpick inserted in center of muffins comes out clean, about 12-14 minutes. (Be careful not to over bake. Check a few minutes early. Small muffins can dry out easily.)
Let cool in pan for 5 minutes. Remove puffs from pan and transfer to cooling rack. (Loosen puffs with a small offset spatula or butter knife if necessary.)

Topping

Combine granulated sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl.
Place colored sparkling sugar crystals in another shallow bowl.
Dip the bottoms of each puff in melted butter, then into cinnamon sugar mixture.
Dip the tops of each puff in melted butter, then into sparkling sugar.
Decorate with edible flowers if desired.

Notes

*To purchase dragonfruit powder, click here.

**To purchase pink sparkling sugar crystals, click here.

Keyword cake, muffins

Pumpkin Cheesecake Crumble Brownies

Posted on October 28, 2020February 12, 2026 by Mari Vasseur

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.

Print Recipe

Course Dessert

Servings 12

Ingredients

Crumb Topping

1 ½ cups (6 3/4 ounces) all purpose flour
½ cup (3 1/4 ounces) brown sugar
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

Pumpkin Cheesecake Layer

¾ cup (6 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 cup (8 ounces) canned pumpkin
2 eggs
6 tablespoons sugar
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Brownie Layer

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 ⅛ cup (8 ounces) granulated sugar
½ cup (2 1/8 ounces) Dutch-Process cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
3 eggs
¾ cup (3 3/8 ounces) all purpose flour
½ cup caramel sauce, purchased or homemade warmed 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.