Hoot Owl PB & Chocolate Cookies for Thanksgiving!

This month's Make&Take was hosted by Pam, and as always she dazzled us with her baking creativity! Are these the cutest cookies ever! Our Halloween Day session was complete with every detail to get us into the Fall spirit! A touch of Halloween and a cookie recipe to carry us through to Thanksgiving!

Hoot Owl Cookies

From Joann's recipes 

1 cup of brown sugar

1 cup of white sugar

3/4 cup of peanut butter

3/4 cup of margarine or butter

Cream the sugars and butters together

Add :

3 eggs (one at a time)

2 teaspoons of vanilla

Blend well.

Add:

4 teaspoons of baking powder

1 1/4 teaspoons  of salt.

4 and 1/2cups of flour

(1 cup of flour at a time)

Mix well and  then make into a ball.

Take off 1/3 off the ball and add 5 tablespoons of cocoa with it to make the chocolate part of the owl.   Blend well.

Roll out the chocolate cookie dough into a log that is 20 inches long.  

Make the vanilla dough into a log and then flatten it out into a 4 inch by 20 inch long rectangle.

Lay the chocolate cookie dough in the center of the vanilla dough and wrap the vanilla dough around the chocolate dough.  Then roll the dough on the counter gentle until it is rounded and smooth.

Cut in  1/8 to 1/4 inch slices.

Take two slices and lay them side by side on cookie sheet.  (place them tightly together).  Pinch the top corners to form the ears of the owl.

You will need a can of cashew nuts to use for the beak of the owl.

Put a cashew in the center of the two cookies to form the beak.

For the owls eyes.  You will need 4 ounces of cream cheese.  I put the cream cheese in a pastry bag and use a # 3 tube to put a dot for the white of the eye.

You will need a bag of chocolate chip for the pupil of the eye.  Place one chocolate chip on the dot of cream cheese and press down gentle.

Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.  Remove from heat and cool on rack.

Make 3 dozen.

While we were waiting for the owls to bake up, Pam provided a wonderful Fall lunch. It was Halloween Day so we had black and orange cheese ravioli with her famous pumpkin ragout sauce, delish! Then darling brownie ala mode with chocolate spiders.

  

These cute little favors are Halloween s'mores. Package 2 graham crackers, 2 small individual snack size Hershey bars, a one darling ghost marshmallow peep on top. The perfect party favor! 

Pumpkin Sauce Recipe for Pasta

Original recipe makes 4 servings Change Servings

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons minced sweet onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped

• 1/3 cup low-fat milk
• 1 teaspoon ground sage
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 pinch ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat, and cook and stir the onion and garlic until the onion is translucent, about 3 minutes. Whisk in the chicken broth, and bring to a boil; whisk in the pumpkin puree, chipotle peppers and their sauce, milk, sage, salt, coriander, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Allow sauce to come to a simmer, then lower heat to hold at a simmer until serving time.

Make and Take Gals Magic: Chocolate Covered Oreos with Transfer Designs!

Make and Take was at MJ's place this month. A scorching 85 degree day in Portland and we were able to relax and enjoy the beautiful breeze coming through the window. We caught up with the summer happenings over coconut milk parfaits, then on to a yummy project.

Chocolate covered Oreos with cocobutter design transfers. They work just like our childhood tatoos that we applied with water, but these of course are with chocolate. We tried a couple methods. Our cookie molds had a raised image: LOVE. So we tried some with and without. To have a flat surface we simply put a round disk of the transfer plastic with the design on the bottom, cocobutter facing up so that it would transfer onto the hot tablespoon of chocolate that went in next.

Once the chocolate was put into each mold the pounding commenced. This ensured no air bubbles and a level top surface where the design would be imprinted.

Finally to off the mold with more chocolate and give another tapping to get the air out. Place in freezer 10 minutes until set.

Once solid, pop out onto a cookie sheet and remove the plastic backing from the transfer. Walaa, beautiful Oreo cookies for any special occasion. 

Lunch time! We liked the chocolate off our fingers and sat down to a vegetarian quinoa medley with Pear and Blue Cheese Flat bread. My bad, I forgot about dessert so baked a pumpkin pie and served with ice cream. A bit early for fall dessert, but there we are... loved every bite!