Fall Baking with Jennifer Fabulous and Kerrie Lovely

When we're not busy stalking rockstars and crashing frat parties, Kerrie and I enjoy spending peaceful evenings at home, baking and chatting quietly over coffee.

This past weekend we decided to have a little fall baking party (well, um, party for two, I guess, haha). We made the most delicious, moist pumpkin cookies in the world and steaming pumpkin spice lattes that could give Starbucks a run for its money.

But first, we needed to go grocery shopping! We ended up driving to another town so we could access a 24-hour grocery store, since we began our fall party at midnight.

As you can see, once we got there, I managed to squeeze my 500 pound ass into this kiddie cart.



Fifty pound Kerrie, of course, had no trouble bouncing around in a regular cart. Lol.



After we purchased our baking supplies, I decided to try my hand at The Claw. Unfortunately, I didn't win anything.



So I decided to use the rest of my money to ride the fake horse in the grocery store's entrance.



Kerrie joined in the fun!



Finally around 1:30 a.m., we got busy baking at Kerrie's house.



And then we enjoyed our hard work! It was scrumptious!





Kerrie insisted I give you both our recipes from our fabulous fall party, and I agreed.

Here is the recipe for the pumpkin cookies. As I said earlier, these cookies are super soft and moist. They almost taste like cake, they are so good. (Kerrie and I changed up the recipe a little bit by replacing the icing with cream cheese frosting and added orange frosting designs on top).

Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.
2.In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.
3.Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.
4.To Make Glaze: Combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed, to achieve drizzling consistency.


Pumpkin Spice Latte

Ingredients:
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons canned pumpkin OR 1 teaspoon of Torani Pumpkin Spice Syrup (your choice)
2 tablespoons sugar or sugar substitute - you can halve this amount
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1-2 shots espresso (about 1/4 cup of espresso or 1/2 cup of strong brewed coffee if you don't have an espresso machine.)

Directions:
In a saucepan combine milk, pumpkin and sugar and cook on medium heat, stirring, until steaming. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla and spice, transfer to a blender and process for 15 seconds until foamy. If you don't have a blender, don't worry about it - just whisk the mixture really well with a wire whisk.

Pour into a large mug or two mugs. Add the espresso on top.

Optional: Top with whipped cream and sprinkle pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, or cinnamon on top.

I hope everyone had a happy and cozy weekend!