Gingersnap Cookie Pizza with Cookie Butter Glaze

You knew it was only a matter of time after our Oklahoma City Trader Joe's opened that I post a recipe with cookie butter. Cookie butter isn't new to me, but now it's at arms reach (DANGEROUS). See here and here where I've used cookie butter before!

Cookie butter is great. There is nothing not to love about cookies ground up into a sweet spreadable delicacy. My everyday use for this stuff is spreading it on graham crackers for a nighttime snack, but I really try to limit my intake because it's a deep black hole once you have one bite. It pulls you down this rabbit hole where one taste turns into four or five or more spoonfuls. I've found that baking it off into sweet treats is the best way to make the jar disappear.

I'm on a cookie pizza kick! After making my sugar cookie with strawberry icing and chocolate chip M&M cookie pizza, I had been plotting what my next cookie pizza would be. 

This combo is perfection. I took my mom's ginger cookie recipe and adapted it to turn into a cookie pizza. Cookie butter already has a gingerbread taste to it, so it only makes since to turn it into a glaze and lather it all over the top! 

One big soft ginger cookie smothered in cookie butter. All the heart eye emojis!! 

Gingersnap Cookie Pizza with Cookie Butter Glaze

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
3 Tbsp. molasses
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
extra sugar

Cookie Butter Glaze:
1/4 cup cookie butter or biscoff spread
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
3 Tbsp. milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a large mixing bowl or round object, about 10 inches in diameter, trace a circle on the parchment paper. Flip the parchment paper over so you don't get any pencil or pen marks when you spread out the dough.

Cream butter and sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and molasses and mix on low. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure the molasses is evenly distributed. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and ginger and mix on low until the dough comes together.

With clean hands spread the dough out on the parchment lined baking sheet. Spread the dough out, filling the circle shape you drew. Sprinkle the top with extra sugar. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Start on the low end. The key to yumminess in this cookie pizza is for it to be slightly underdone! I found 11 minutes to be perfect, but that is according to my oven. Let it cool completely.

Once the pizza is cool, make your glaze. In the electric mixer with the whisk attachment or using a handheld mixer, whisk powdered sugar, cookie butter and milk until fully mixed. It should be the consistency of thick glue. Using a spatula, spread the icing over the cookie pizza leaving about a half inch border around the edges. Sprinkle the top with cinnamon.

Cut with a pizza cutter and enjoy!

All hail Trader Joe's being in Oklahoma and all hail cookie butter! Huzzah! 

Annie

Bites of My Life

Lots of fall cooking and recipes and an uninvited kitchen injury to pair. Last week was busy yet passed by slow. With this being the last week of the month I have an inkling it will buzz by. Here's to hoping so, yet also holding on to time as the best time of the year arrives. 

-Love my days when I work from home. I get my space all set up with work materials, drink essentials (TJ's matcha mix), and visual inspiration like The Scout Guide that just made it's launch in OKC.
-It's pumpkin bread season and I shared my family's recipe last week.
-Also shared this family favorite of Sausage Tortellini Soup which I happily enjoyed all week!
-Fig jam, prosciutto, parmesan and apple open face sammy. Unfortunately this lunch turned into this...
-One swipe of the apple on the mandoline, led to a swipe of my thumb on the mandoline. It was a bloody Thursday to say the least. 
-Picked this seasoning up on a whim and I'm putting it on everything!
-My dad and I have been going to a local chili cook-off together for the past 3 years. It's one of my favorite events of the fall. We decided next year is the year I enter!
-Cheers to brandy ices and being the youngest at the bar by 40 years.
-Dressed like a pig and ran (walked) a 5K. Just your average Saturday.
-Sunday got off to a lazy start while staying in bed then enjoying a pumpkin green smoothie bowl for a late breakfast. 
-Sunday prep for this week's dinner. Keeping on my soup game with this butternut squash soup. 
-When dad smokes ribs, I (and Gabe) come running. 

Annie

Sausage Tortellini Soup with Parmesan Crisps

I mentioned in yesterday's post how this time of year makes me nostalgic for family recipes. With the holidays coming up, I start longing for Kathleen and dad's Thanksgiving dressing, my Aunt Gina, Claire and I's apple pie, my mom's creamed corn...I could go on forever. Aside from holiday recipes there are a handful of family recipes I crave. Exhibit A, this Sausage Tortellini Soup. 

I remember growing up and this soup always showing up on that first really cold day. With the couple chilly days we've had, my taste buds immediately wanted this soup. Although, I actually made this soup on Monday when it was a near 90 degrees. Not quite soup weather... maybe my cooking will help Oklahoma get its fall weather act together!

Growing up we always had sausage tortellini soup with a big wedge of skillet cornbread. Not that I don't loooooooove my fam's cornbread, but I wanted to try something new. Raise your hand if you've had those parmesan crisps they sell at Whole Foods (hand raised high). Last week I was there and they had them out as a sample. I embarrassingly went by three times for another bite. They are just baked cheese but kind of get away as being a cracker. 

I did my best to recreate those coveted parmesan crisps so I didn't have to hand over nine bucks for a box of something I could make at home. I bought a cheap wedge of Parmigiano-Reggiano at Trader Joe's then grated it on a box grater. I love the way they turned out and they pair perfect with this soup!

Sausage Tortellini Soup with Parmesan Crisps
yields 10 cups

Ingredients:
1 lb. Italian sausauge
1 large onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, pressed
3 (14½ oz) cans beef broth
2 (14½ oz) cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 cup dry red wine
2 carrots, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsps. dried Italian seasoning
2 small zucchini, sliced
1 (9 oz) pkg. refrigerated cheese-filled tortellini
*Parmesan Crisps

Directions:
Discard sausage casings. Cook sausage, onion and garlic in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, stirring until sausage crumbles and is no longer pink; drain and return to pan.

Sir in broth and next 6 ingredients, bring to a boil. Reduce heat, simmer 30 minutes. Skim off fat. Stir in zucchini and tortellini, simmer 10 minutes. Serve each bowl with a parmesan crisp!

*Parmesan Crisps:
Freshly grated parmesan cheese
Black pepper

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a silpat or parchment paper.

Using a box grated, great your parmesan cheese. I used a combination of two sizes of grates. Drop heaping tablespoons of parmesan onto the lined baking sheet. Pat out into 2 1/2 inch circles. Sprinkle with black pepper. Bake for 10 minutes, but keep an eye on them, they may need less time. Let them sit on the baking sheet for a few minutes. Gently lift off, be careful they are delicate. 

Family recipes really are the best. I've been on a kick of remaking some of my favorites from growing up. What are some of your favorite family recipes?

Annie

Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin bread, there's nothing better. Pumpkin bread is the quintessential pumpkin food. It's been around waaaaay longer than PSLs, pumpkin spice puppy chow, pumpkin protein bars, pumpkin spice cookie butter and all the other commercialized pumpkin foods. 

This time of year makes me nostalgic for old family recipes. With the holidays coming up, I've been digging through my mom's recipe binder to resurface some of my favorites like her ginger cookies, sausage tortellini soup (more on that later this week) and this pumpkin bread. It's the best darn pumpkin bread around and deserves to be shared. 

I baked up eight, count 'em, eight loaves this weekend. Six of them were sent off to be used as gifts, but two are taking home in my freezer to be pulled out when the pumpkin bread hunger strikes! It took a few loads into my KitchenAid to complete all the bowls of batter, but well worth it, that is my kind of therapy. Follow below to snatch this family tested, Annie trusted and fall approved recipe!

Pumpkin Bread
yields 2, 9 inch loaves or 3, 8 inch loves

Ingredients:
2/3 cup shortening
2 2/3 cups sugar
4 eggs
1, 15oz can pumpkin puree
2/3 cup water
3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsps. baking soda
1 1/2 tsps. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cloves
2/3 cup pecans, chopped

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350ºF. Generously grease and flour 2, 9 inch or 3, 8 inch loaf pans and set aside.

Cream shortening, gradually add sugar beating well. Add eggs, mix well. Stir in pumpkin and water.

Combine flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon and cloves; add to creamed mixture, mixing well. Fold in nuts, reserving a few. Spoon into loaf pans. Top with extra pecans. If using 8 inch pans bake for 55 minutes, 9 inch pans will bake 1 hour and 10 minutes or until the toothpick trick comes out clean.

What's your favorite pumpkin recipe? Mine 100% is this bread!

Annie

Bites of My Life

Winding down from a weekend I don't want to end. Nothing crazy happened and that's exactly why it was so great. Started with a solo sesh dinner, just me, my book and my you-pick-two then joined some friends for Girl on The Train. I didn't read the book which consensus says was a good thing; left for more suspense during the movie. 

Saturday woke up for breakfast and barre with Lindsay then football and bowling with friends. Ended the day making loaves of pumpkin bread and settling into the couch for a triple feature of You've Got Mail, Friends With Benefits and A Walk to Remember. 

Today consisted of the new season of Barefoot Contessa starting, a neighborhood kitchen tour, trip to Trader Joe's, walk with my mom, and a delicious dinner cooked not by me, but for me. A weekend of r&r that I want to repeat ASAP!

-New fav snack: handful of TJ's semi-dried frozen figs microwaved for 20 seconds with AB and CB drizzled on top.
-Celebrated the amazing company I work for with killer views and tasty treats. 
-Cheers to The Social Order Dining Collective being offish!
-I love sneaking over to my parent's house for lunch. Even when my mom thinks there is nothing in the fridge I feel like it's always full with the best goods. 
-Shared my go to work week lunch last week, did you catch the post? Another one of last week's posts here.
-Recipe test round one of Carrot Pecan Muffins. First round came out good, but I'm still perfecting the recipe.
-A perfect delivery of Perfect Bars. I'm a Perfect Bar virgin and can't wait to try these! 
-I hadn't had Panera in about a year and the craving came on strong. Pulled up a table for one before joining my friends at Girl on The Train. 
-Saturday gameday went from football to bowling with a gameday brat on the side. 
-No better smell than loaves of pumpkin bread baking in the oven. Made a huge batch of my mom's pumpkin bread this weekend, recipe will be shared this week!
-The dreamiest pantry in one of the houses on the Nichols Hills Kitchen Tour.
-When you and your UT roommate make a bet on the OU/Texas game and you come out the winner! Bet was if Texas lost, Lindsay had to make me dinner, if OU lost...well we don't need to go there. 

Annie