Happy Fall Bark

What is it about fall that makes my sweet tooth come out like whoa?! I saw the inspiration behind this recipe on Pinterest...and then found myself buying the necessary ingredients at Harris Teeter the next day.

Ingredients
1 package white chocolate bark/candy melts
Oreos
Candy Corn
Sprinkles (I used rainbow since I didn't have Halloween/fall colored ones!)
Anything else you want in your bark...pretzels, Reese's pieces, M&Ms...you decide!

Directions
1. Break apart Oreo cookies and spread across a baking tray.
2. Add candy corns. (I saved a few to put on top so not all of them would be covered in white chocolate!)
3. Melt bark according to instructions.
4. Using a spatula, spread melted bark on to the baking tray to desired thickness.
(Optional: add sprinkles/candy corn on top for more color!)
5. Cool in refrigerator until hardened. Use a knife to break apart into pieces.

It's that simple. It didn't take me more than 10 minutes to make. And I honestly didn't even look at a recipe since the method is pretty self-explanatory.

I kinda think it looks cute too. Such a fun treat.
But don't get me wrong. This stuff is dangerous.
So dangerous that I had to do this...

Yep. Owning it. I liked loved it so much that I had to give it away in fear of consuming the whole container to myself. Plus, Mark and his sales team deserved the Saturday work day sugar high pick me up, right? :)

P.S. In that note I was (obviously?) kidding about the healthy part. It's a fall treat. Mark texted me from work asking how it was healthy. I thought I was being funny...sigh. Oh well. #storyofmylife I tried!

Happy Fall [Bark], Y'all!

Pop on over and visit Nina -- because what girl doesn't love flowers in her hair? :) 

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

 It's officially fall and officially October. Pumpkin flavored everything has taken over every store. And today...I'm going to contribute to that madness.

This past weekend, my brother (our family's best baker) and I made pumpkin snickerdoodles. They were Pinterest inspired, of course. And they did not disappoint! The original recipe is from this lovely blog, and now I'm going to share it with y'all! She conveniently formatted the recipe in printable and PDF version [seen below]. Cheers, Sarah!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Recipe adapted from Recipe Girl
Makes about 4 dozen

Ingredients:

Cookies:

• 1 cup {2 sticks} salted butted, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened pumpkin puree
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 & 3/4 cup bread flour {or all-purpose flour if you don't have bread flour}
• 1 & 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Sugar Coating:

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• Dash of allspice

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in pumpkin until well combined.
3. Add egg and vanilla extract.
4. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
5. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
6. Cover the dough and refrigerate for one hour until firm. {Or overnight.}
7. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
8. In a small bowl, mix all ingredients for the sugar coating.
9. Roll dough into 1 & 1/2 inch balls, then roll in sugar mixture, and place on cookie sheet.
10. At this point, you can flatten the dough with the bottom of a cup, but I prefer mine to be thick and fluffy.
11. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Via High Heels & Grills Blog

Eric (my bro!) and I followed the recipe to a t. The only thing we did a little differently was make the cookies ginormous. :) My mom looked at our cookie pan and told my brother they were way too big. Like dough-bigger-bigger-than-a-golf-ball sized. But as our resident baker, he didn't care and knew they would be even better jumbo sized. Yep. Go, brother, go!

Here was our result! Hello! Big, thick, soft...almost like a muffin top and a cookie had a baby, and this was it.

So good? So good that I had three that night and one for breakfast on Sunday morning. With a cake bite. Which I raved about yesterday in case you missed it. Breakfast of champions, folks. As a self proclaimed salty over sweet girl, I sure have had a major sweet tooth lately. Sorry bout it. Not really though.

Happy fall baking!

Pop on over and visit Nina -- because what girl doesn't love flowers in her hair? :)