Mini Pumpkin Pie Croissants

Oh the weekend.  Sometimes I wish they were longer.  I've been busting my butt at work and it's starting to take it's toll on me. I only get to see BP on the weekends, so we always make the best of them.  I miss him like crazy during the week though.  When talk of weekend baking came up there were two possibilities.  The mini pumpkin pie croissants or the amazing Pumpkin Brown Butter Cupcakes.  I was pulling for the cupcakes - these things are amazeballs.  Flat out scream fall and it's been cooler here weather wise and I'm ready for fall in all of its glory - well let me just say that there really isn't a fall in Northern Virginia.....it's still in the high 70's low 80's here lately.  I'll take it.  I don't miss the colder weather up north that's for sure.  So yes, I was pulling all I could for BP to choose the cupcakes.  Telling him how amazing they are, showing him a picture of them (to be clear - it was a sad photo of them, it did them no justice at all).  And after the debacle that was the cookies last weekend, the croissants won.  Side note - cupcakes will be made this weekend.  BP must know the wonder that is these things. 

Let me say, these things are ridiculously easy and so tasty.  So tasty.  If you can open a tube of croissants then you can handle this recipe.  Need a snack real quick?! This is your treat!!  Get the hint yet? :)

BP was ready for these bad boys.  Couldn't wait for them.  And Sunday is now football day and baking day - I mean you gotta have treats during football. 

Fresh from the oven

BP came upstairs as I was pulling these out of the oven.  He said they smelled amazing and asked if they were ready to try.  I said yes, and him and his dad quickly came in.  What happened next I wish I had on video because it was priceless.  BP takes one and the way his eyes lit up I knew this was a hit.  His dad comes in and takes two and steps off to the side.  He tries one, looks at me and says 'oh those are good' and comes back and takes a couple more to fill up his plate and goes back to watching the Red Zone.  Priceless.  That is now one of my favorite moments with BP's dad.  Still on the fence with these?  Look at the picture above when those bad boys came out of the oven.  Now look at this one - taken less than 2 minutes later.......

Yep.......that good

.......these little bad boys are almost all gone.  It was a good laugh for sure.  But a sure sign of a hit.  So get to baking people!!

Mini Pumpkin Pie Croissants

makes 32

 

Filling:

2 tubes crescent rolls

8 oz cream cheese - room temperature

one cup canned pumpkin

1 1/2 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice

4 tbsp sugar

 

Coating:

4 tbsp. sugar

1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice

 

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpats.  
2. In a large bowl beat together cream cheese, pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and sugar together until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  In a medium bowl, mix together sugar and pumpkin pie spice until evenly mixed.  Set aside for later. 
3. Unroll each crescent roll and slice each one in half lengthwise.   Spread about 1 1/2 tsp of filling over each crescent roll. 
4. Roll each one, starting at the wider end down to the smaller end.  Roll each mini croissant in sugar mixture until evenly coated.  Place on prepared cookie sheets.  Repeat until all are made.
5. Bake for 10-13 minutes, rotating halfway through, until croissants are lightly browned and baked through. 



The Baking Gods Strike Again

Ah the weekend.  Time to relax, have some fun, and of course football.  BP and I had a stellar weekend lined up for us.  Saturday was a day of fun with friends going to National Harbor to see the Red Bull Flugtag event.  This was tons of fun, even if the weather wasn't so good and rainy. After getting back home, soggy and wet, it was time to relax. 

Sunday rolls around - and this means one thing - football.  Now BP and I will never have a problem team wise unless our teams wind up in the Super Bowl against each other.  And on a side note, our teams have similar colors so the fact that his basement is a Cowboys shrine doesn't bother me at all.  I do love blue and silver - and of course go Patriots! :) 

It was just going to be us Sunday, no one was coming over.  I was still going to bake.  Up on the menu was some Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and some Spinach and Artichoke Dip. 

We went to the store to pick up the necessary items for the cookies and then the baking began.  Cookies first.  Now, cookies, I know what you're thinking.  How can these get messed up?  Let me tell you I have no clue what happened here.  I followed the directions, and this is what happened.......

womp womp womp

......now to be fair the directions did say that the dough could be refrigerated.  It wasn't necessary but suggested.  Ok, I could skip it.  Out came these bad boys - flat, spread out like discs, but tasty.  Really tasty.  And to make matters even worse, they fell apart when you picked them up to move them or eat them.  Needless to say the dough went into the fridge to firm up. 

On to the dip! This turned out fantastic - no mess ups here. 

nom nom nom

Yep - this was a winner.  Which made me feel a little better since cookie failure was taking place upstairs, waiting for round 2. 

Cookies 1 CB 0.  I let the dough chill for over 2 hours - back to the oven they went.  The Baking God struck again.  Flat disc cookies that were still really tasty but not what they should look like.  BP and his dad lovingly at some, kind of heaped them all together into a "cookie" and ate them.  I have to admit so did I.  Yes, tasty, but ugly as sin.  BP suggested to just mush them all together and make them into cookie balls.  Excellent idea - best boyfriend ever.  Definitely a keeper :)  But for the most part, we just ate them as a giant clump/cookie type thing. 

Still not really sure what happened, the recipe was followed exactly, ingredients were mostly all new.  I still can't figure out where it went wrong.  But I will conquer this recipe.  Oh yes - we will meet again cookies.  And this time I will prevail.  Needless to say, no recipe will be posted until I have it right! :)

Peach Cobbler

BP and I got invited to go peach picking with some friends of ours.  Little did I know that we would be going to the middle of nowhere for it.  But all kidding aside, we had a great time.  And it left us with two bags of peaches.  That's a lot of peaches - I knew a baking request would be coming.  And sure enough, BP asked for some peach cobbler - and his dad couldn't of agreed more.  Cobbler was on it's way!!

Now, my favorite sous was needed for this.  Let's face it, me peeling and slicing 8 peaches without getting myself hurt - not in the cards.....and since we weren't feeling like a trip to the ER with a knife slice across my hand, BP was in charge of this.  And I have to say, this is the hardest part of the recipe people.  There should be no excuses not to make this one.

Football season has started and BP has an annual kick off Sunday event at his house.  Music to my ears - this meant I got to bake!  Nerdy I know, but it was a good excuse to make some things.  We decided that the cobbler was off limits to guests on Sunday - just for BP and his dad.  For a moment I didn't think it would make it to Sunday, half of it was gone by Saturday night.  The sign of a hit :) 

gooey and warm food porn

It was eyed during Sunday by a few guys, and they tried their best to have some.  But S'mores cookies and cupcakes were for them.  Gotta give them credit for trying though. 

So, even if you're lazy this recipe works well there too! Use frozen peaches and premade biscuit dough.  There is no excuse to not try this if you're a fan of peach cobbler. 

Peach Cobbler

makes one 9x13 pan

 

8 peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced

1/3 cup sugar

zest of a whole lemon and it's juice

heaping teaspoon of cornstarch

 

Biscuit dough:

one cup boiling water

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

heaping tsp baking powder

2 big generous pinches of salt

1 stick cold butter

 

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Peel, pit and slice peaches and place in large bowl.  Add sugar, lemon zest and juice and cornstarch.  Gently mix to coat.  Don't overmix or use force, and make sure there are no pockets of cornstarch anywhere.  Be as gentle as you can.
3. Pour peach mixture into pan and bake for 12 minutes.
4. Make Biscuit dough:
1. Bring a cup of water to boil on the stovetop.  While that's getting to boiling, in a bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. 
2. Take cold stick of butter and cut into chunks and toss into flour mixture.  Knead butter into flour mixture until the mix looks like the butter has been incorporated enough and you have little wads of flour-butter balls. 
3. Gently mix flour/butter mixture and drizzle some of the boiling water into the mix (you wont use all of the water - you will actually use less than half of it), just until it hangs together as a dough.  The butter will melt and disappear into the mix as you add the water.  There you have it - you have biscuit dough.
4. At this time your peaches should be done.  Take it out of the oven and scoop big spoonfuls of biscuit dough (or premade dough) over the top of the peach mixture.  Don't worry about covering everything - it will spread out during baking. 
5. Bake for 30 minutes, until top is golden brown .