Cinnamon Spice Candy Corn Sugar Bites

 This week I am prepping for a Halloween package to send all they way to Cali, for my dearest sista friend who is In the navy. Living in a barrack where she can't bake or cook anything, I know these baked treats will be very appreciated! Love ya Kara! 

  I saw these candy corn frosted cookies on Pinterest one day, and since I haven't messed much with cookie decorating, I thought, I think I can make these easier! I took a regular sugar cookie recipe and added a few of my favorite fall inspired flavors for a kick on a classic sugar cookie. These are so easy I'm sure any of you can give it a try. 

1 cup soft salted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1/4 cup cookie butter

( south Florida friends, I know this is hard to find around here, use biscoff spread, or maybe even peanut butter instead)

3 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tbs cinnamon

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/4 tsp ginger 

Yellow food color

Red food color

1/2 cup mixed cinnamon and sugar 

 Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg and beat well. Spoon in the cookie butter and mix until combined. Sift together the dry ingredients into the wet and mix on low until a dough forms. 

  Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap, press 1/3 of the uncolored dough into the pan. Now dye the rest of the dough yellow. Press 1/3 of the yellow dough over the uncolored dough. Now add a little red to the leftover yellow, that will make orange. Press the orange over the yellow. 

 Cover with plastic wrap and cool in fridge for atleast 4 hours, or up to overnight. 

  Remove the dough slab by pulling up on the sides of plastic wrap. Slice off the outer edge to begin cutting the triangles. 

 Ready to make some candy corn? Cut the dough into about 1/2 inch strips.

 

Now lay flat on your cutting board and cut into triangles. This is the method I used: 

One cut, two cut, three cut....

  A little tedious, but once you get the hang of the motion, time will pass quickly. Place the little candy corns on an ungreased baking sheet, bake at 350 for 8 to 12 minutes. Keep a close eye, these little jewels can burn quick and easy. No one likes a burnt candy corn. Remove from oven and gently toss in a pile of cinnamon sugar. The sugar sticks better when the cookies are warm. 

WARNING: cookies are delicious, and bite size. Side effects: sugar coma, addiction. ENJOY! 

Blueberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

      Blueberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

1 1/2 sticks room temperature butter

1 cup granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 1/4 cup blueberry compote (see below) 

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2/4 cup milk

1/4 cup sour cream  

Blueberry compote:

2 cups fresh blueberry a

1/4 cup sugar 

2 tbs cornstarch

 Cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes until the blueberry are popping and turn into a thick smooth compote. 

  For the cupcakes, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add the eggs, one at a time, until fully combined. Sift together the dry ingredients, add alternately with the milk, and the sour cream. Mix until combined. Add the compote and mix until just combined evenly throughout the batter. Preheat an oven to 350, line cupcake tins with liners and evenly distribute the batter. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Chessecake Filling

8 oz cream cheese

1 cup granulated sugar 

2 cups fresh whipped cream

 Whip the cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Fold in the whipped cream. Put the filling, in a piping bag with a filler tip attachment. That was easy! 

To fill the cupcakes, let them cool then poke the filler tip in the middle of the cupcake and squeeze for a few seconds until the cupcake is filled. Don't overfill or the cupcake will crack in half. 

Blueberry Cream Cheese Buttercream: 

4 oz cream cheese

1 stick room tempature butter

1/2 cup cooled blueberry compote

2 cups powdered sugar

2 tbs heavy cream

 Whip the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and whip until light and fluffy. 

 Frost the filled cupcakes with the buttercream. I then topped mine with an extra swirl of blueberry compote. Beware, these are rich and cheesecakey and may put you into some sort of a coma! Enjoy! 

Srirachi Chorizo Wontons

 Chorizo sausage is so good. It's cheap, and can be found in any grocery store, normally by the sour cream, and tortillas. These are a little time consuming, closing up all the wonton wrappers, but cook in just minutes. They could easily be assembled ahead of time, and fryed when your ready for them. 

1 cup ground chorizo 

1/2 cup crumbled cojito cheese

1/2 cup cooked corn

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

4 tbs Srirach sauce

Garlic Powder

1 package premade wonton wrappers

Salt 

Pepper

Dash of Cayenne Pepper

Combine all ingredients until well combined. 

To crumble the cojito cheese, I broke into small blocks and ran it through the food processor until it was the consistency of fine crumbles. Cojito cheese can also be found by the sour cream in your grocery store. ( Its the same kind of cheese, the delicious white queso is made from) which by the way, would make a delicious dip for these wontons! But today we are making these spicy, so a srirachi glaze will top these fried wontons. 

 To assemble, simply lay about a Tbs of filling on the wonton wrapper.

 

 Fold the wrapper over, pinch the edges together, and seal with a light egg white wash.  Bam, it's that simple, a little time consuming, but all in all, pretty easy. 

 Now heat a saucepan of vegtable oil, and fry for about a minute and a half until the shells are golden brown, and crispy. Let cool on a paper towl to drain the excess oil. 

For the glaze, I used a store bought sweet thi chili glaze, and added srirachi to it to heat it up quite a bit. But dipping these in a spicy ranch, queso, or salsa would be equally as delicious. 

 Don't bite into one right away, ya might burn your tounge off! 

Strawberry Milkshake Cupcakes

I have had the thought for these rolling around in my mind for a few weeks. 3 fails, to 1 success. Finally after different variations, this is my final play on these strawberry milkshake cupcakes. They offer the same silky malty flavor of a milkshake, but in a cupcake form. A sweet strawberry buttercream filling, and a simple whipped cream frosting makes for a scrumptious cupcake. 

Cupcake Batter 

1/2 cup room temp salted butter

1 3/4 cups sifted flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup milk

3 eggs

1/3 plus 2 tbs strawberry Nesquik powder

1/2 tsp vanilla

 Cream the butter and sugar and eggs. Add the flour and baking powder alternately with the milk, starting with flour, and ending with flour. Add the strawberry powder and vanilla, and mix until the batter turns pink and is fully combined. Bake in cupcake liners for 12 to 15 minutes on 350. Let cool. 

Filling

1/2 cup room temp butter

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

3 tbs heavy cream

1/3 cup strawberry Nesquik Powder  

1 tbs strawberry jello powder

 Whip all ingredients in a stand mixer until fluffy. It will be a brighter pink than the batter, due to the extra strawberry jello flavoring. After round one of not being strawberry enough, I added the jello flavoring as well. 

 When the cupcakes are cooled, they are ready to be filled. Pour the filling into a piping bag. I have a filler tip, it's long and pointed at the end, perfect for filling cupcakes. Stick the tip square into the middle of the cupcake and squeeze gently to fill the cupcake with the buttercream. Fill all the cupcakes with as much filling as they can stand, don't overfill, or the tops will crack. 

 Between the cupcake itself, and the sweet filling, a simple whipped cream works well with the cupcakes. Plus who doesn't like whip cream on there strawberry milkshake? If your not good at making homemade whip cream ( or don't have a best friend in the kitchen, aka kitchenaid stand mixer) a scoop of cool whip will suffice. But here is how I make my whip cream

1 cup heavy cream

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

 Chill your mixer bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer for 20 min. Add all of the whopping 3 ingredients and put on low for 1 minute, then kick it up to high speed, and whip until thick. Yes friends, it is that easy, and so much better than that can stuff people dare to put on pumpkin pie, and ice cream sundaes around the world. 

 Now let's cut into one of these beauty's and possibly have it for lunch!