Give Thanks! Apple Cider Mimosa and Mini Pumpkin Pies

Oh Pinterest, you’ve done it again: delicious, festive, and easy recipes to celebrate Thanksgiving! If you need a last-minute signature cocktail or an easy dessert recipe to bring to your Thanksgiving feast tomorrow, we recommend these seasonal treats.

Apple Cider Mimosa, is a different take on the favorite, traditional, and boozy brunch drink! We adapted this recipe from The Cookie Rookie.

INGREDIENTS:

• Apple Cider-we used Trader Joes apple cider
• Brut-we used Michelle Brut, but your favorite sparkling wine or champagne should be just as tasty.

DIRECTIONS:

We eyeballed a shot of apple cider and filled the rest of the flute with the sparkling wine. Voila!

 

Apple Cider Mimosa

 

Mini Pumpkin Pies adapted from Make and Takes Mini Pumpkin Pies:

• pumpkin pie filling for one 9-inch pie (we used the recipe right on the can)
• two 9-inch pie crust doughs – pre-made from a box
• round cookie cutter 4 inches in diameter- we used the pumpkin pie filling can to cut out the dough.
• mini muffin tin
• whipped cream

1. Prep your dough. Using  a small round cookie cutter or base of a can, cut out circles from your two 9-inch pie crust doughs.

Use the pumpkin can to cut out perfect circles!

 

2. Place each circle into a pre-greased muffin tin. Press them in, letting the sides come up for a fun look. Score the bottom of your dough with a fork to keep the crust from bubbling up as it cooks.

3. Pour your filling into each muffin tin cup. Fill them to the very top.  We had leftovers of the filling!

4. Bake your muffin tin pumpkin pies at 425 for  about 15 -20 minutes. Keep an eye on them!

5. Let these cool on a wire rack for at least an hour to let the pumpkin filling set.

6. Add a dollop of whipped cream to each individual mini pie.

The cutest bite of pumpkin pie!

 

This Thanksgiving, we are thankful for our life long friendship.  And the delicious sips and sweets we’ve shared with you so far this year. Happy Thanksgiving!

And, Happy Fall Sipping and Baking!

xoxo, Colleen and Sarah

 

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Chip Cookies

Now that Halloween is over, we thought our readers might have some extra candy hanging around the house.  Or, if it is all gone, like ours was, you can take advantage of post-Halloween sales!  We liked the idea of creating a cookie by using up that leftover Halloween candy, so decided to use one of our favorites, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.  We adapted Desiree Campbell’s Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe.  Try them out–the vanilla pudding mix makes them softer than regular chocolate chip cookies and nothing with Reese’s peanut butter cups in it can ever be bad.  We hope you enjoy making and eating them as much as we did.

REESE’S PEANUT BUTTER CUP CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Author: Desiree Campbell

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 8 minutes–it may have been the old oven or size of the cookies we made, but it took around 12 minutes for our cookies to be done!

Total time: 18 minutes

Almost done…

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Cup { 2 sticks } butter, softened.
• ¾ Cup Granulated Sugar
• ¾ Cup Packed Brown Sugar
• 1 Tb. Vanilla Extract
• 2 Eggs
• 2¼ Cups Flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 Box { 3.4 oz } Vanilla Instant Pudding- this gives the cookies a fluffy texture!
• 1 Cup Milk Chocolate Chips
• 20 to 25 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat your oven to 350ºF.
• Peel and cut the Reese’s into fourths. Don’t chopped them… You don’t want them to fall apart.

Tip: As soon as you are done cutting put your Peanut Butter Cups in the freezer and leave them there while you make the rest of the cookies.This will make them firm and they won’t melt away when you add them into your dough.

• Beat soft butter, brown and white sugar and vanilla in a large bowl.
• Add the eggs, beat well until creamy.
• Add the rest of your dry ingredients including the instant pudding.
• Stir in the chocolate chips.
• Take out those delicious chunks of peanut butter cups and add them to the batter. Stir it gently with a wooden spoon. Don’t over do it you want to see and bite into those small chunks later.
• Drop the batter by teaspoons onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 8 minutes. The first batch always takes an extra minute. DO NOT OVERCOOK! Cookies will get harder as they cool down.
• When they are baked remove them from the cookie sheet to a wire rack. Enjoy!

While we baked, we sipped on some Masciarelli Montelpucciano, a nice red wine, which paired perfectly with the spaghetti and turkey meatballs we had for dinner.

 Happy Fall Sipping and Baking!

xoxo, Colleen and Sarah

Fall Sweet Potato Fluffins (Fluffy Muffins!) and Spiced Apple Cider with Brandy

Our Fall Sips Setup!

We’re back! Fall is here, and to celebrate we paired Cinnamon and Spice Sweet Potato Muffins with Spiced Apple Cider with Brandy.

Sarah spotted the Averie Cooks: Cinnamon and Spice Sweet Potato Bread recipe on Pinterest. She got a lot of re-pins so we knew we had to make this delicious and fluffy treat! Instead of bread, we opted to make muffins and top them with walnuts for an extra crunch. The muffins took less time to bake and it was easy to share the individual portions.

Sips & Sweets tip: One of the most important things to keep in mind when baking with a friend: dividing the deliciousness!

Colleen’s favorite fall drink is spiced apple cider with a kick of brandy… not a #PSL (pumpkin spice latte). She still enjoys a PSL but pairing a special fall drink with your favorite liquor can’t really be beat in our opinion. You can also try hot apple cider with bourbon or whiskey. The sweetness of the brandy is quite tasty though.

To make the spiked spiced cider, mix one mugfull of your favorite cider (we used Alpine packets mixed with boiling water) with one shot of brandy, and enjoy!

Sweet Potato Fluffins (adapted from Averie Cooks)

INGREDIENTS:

about 1 1/2 cups mashed sweet potatoes (2 medium or 1 very large)
3 tablespoons water
2 large eggs
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/4 cup buttermilk (we used plain greek yogurt!)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar (we subbed Truvia baking blend #sohealthy)
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (we used Pumpkin Pie Spice)
pinch salt, optional and to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a muffin pan with cooking spray; set aside.

Peel the sweet potatoes and chop them into 1-inch sized chunks. Place chunks in a large, shallow microwave-safe bowl. Add 3 tablespoons water, cover, and cook on high power for 15 minutes, or until potatoes are soft. Pour off any water. Mash sweet potatoes.  Put them in the fridge for a few minutes to cool so you don’t scramble the eggs.

To the sweet potatoes, add the eggs, oil, greek yogurt, vanilla and whisk until combined; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients – flour, sugars, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, pumpkin pie spice, pinch of salt, and whisk to combine. Pour the wet sweet potato mixture over the dry ingredients, and stir to incorporate. Colleen dug her hands right in there to gently mix the fluffy ingredients together.

Colleen the mixing master

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full. Drop a few walnuts on top. Bake for 16-17 minutes or until centers come out clean.

Sarah getting the muffins ready to bake!

Taste test while they’re still warm, then enjoy another muffin just to be sure.  Store in ziploc bag or airtight container for up to 1 week (if they last that long!)

 Happy Fall Sipping and Baking!

xoxo, Colleen and Sarah