Happy Halloween, lovely people!
Have I told you about my sister? I think I’ve let you in on some fun tidbits . . . like how I’m living with her this year, that she owns awesome kitchen gadgets (hellooo food processor), and that I learned all my baking skills from her. Though she’s a lot more organized in the kitchen, believe me. Somehow I missed that tutorial?
But the most important point about her today is that she loves holidays just as much as I do! Which is pretty ridiculous, considering my insane level of holiday cheer (I’m SO excited to break out my Little Miss Christmas shirt!). As lovers of the holidays, one of our favorite things to do is spread the holiday spirit through treat bags.
Why yes, I do actually own this sign. What can I say? I’m a festive person!
This has led to some pretty crazy baking (mis)adventures for us. One time, a day of testing molten lava cakes led to a sugar high for me, followed by a massive headache, resulting in my sister basically force-feeding me dumplings to stabilize my blood sugar as I tried to simply wallow on the couch. True. story. By the way, that was literally the first time I realized that consuming too much sugar could produce such a terrible result. Before that point, I thought people were weak when they talked about getting “sick” from too much candy. Yeah, point taken.
In celebration of Halloween, she decided to make treat bags for her co-workers! And by that I mean, we made treat bags for her co-workers. I may also have eaten some of the cookies (and I also tested the pecans just for quality purposes). However, that’s really not the point.
The point is, treat bags are delicious, sorta nutritious, and totally brighten the days of the recipients! Especially if they are bestowed with cute little treat tags tied on with ribbon. The treat tag pictures, by the way, are most definitely not my work. Way too profesh (from here). These are super adaptable for all seasons/holidays as well.
For the bags, we decided to make the cinnamon-glazed pecans that my best friend Hannah and I tested out this past weekend! If you’re buying these from a vendor/store, stop it right now. As Hannah put it, “Man, we’ve been getting ripped off for years!” Because these pecans are quite easy to make at home. Though we tried out a recipe using brown sugar, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice, I would actually recommend just using brown sugar and cinnamon. Hannah tried this simpler version at home and gave it mad props.
We also made two kinds of cookies. One cookie is based off these award-winning chocolate chip cookies that I adapted in my very first post. These are, as I said, my very favorite chocolate chip cookies – so ridiculous soft and melty! For the second, we tried out these amazing Peanut Butter Cup Pudding Cookies. There’s really no going wrong with chocolate and peanut butter, and these were just about perfect. Simply based on my own tastes, I’ve slightly increased the pudding amount in my version below (more chocolate always), and changed up the ratio of white to brown sugar.
What are you waiting for? Make treats, eat treats, trick or treat . . . whatever you do, I wish you a safe and happy Halloween!
Cinnamon-Glazed Pecans (Adapted from Tasty Kitchen)
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients
- 8 oz pecans
- 1 egg white
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, beat egg white with a fork until frothy. Add pecans to bowl and toss to coat evenly with the egg white. Add the brown sugar and cinnamon, then toss to evenly coat pecans.
- Pour pecans onto the parchment-lined baking sheet and spread them out til they form a single layer. Bake for 10 minutes, stir, then bake for another 7 to 9 minutes until pecans begin to brown. Remove from oven, then place parchment paper with pecans on cooling rack until completely cool.
Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from All Recipes)
Yield: About 40 cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cups packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1 (3.4 oz) package instant vanilla pudding mix
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk together flour and baking soda, set aside.
- Cream together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in instant pudding mix until smooth.
- Beat in eggs and vanilla, then blend in flour mixture.
- Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoonful onto ungreased baking sheets.
- Bake for about 11 minutes in preheated oven, or until edges turn golden brown. Note: The cookies may look (and feel) a bit underdone when they’re first removed, but if the edges are starting to turn brown, they’re done!
Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Cookies (Adapted from Six Sisters’ Stuff)
Yield: About 40 cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks (1 cup) butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large (5.1 oz) box instant chocolate pudding
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 1 (10 oz) bag peanut butter chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt, then set aside.
- Cream together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in instant pudding mix until smooth.
- Beat in eggs and vanilla, then blend in flour mixture.
- Stir in peanut butter chips. Drop by rounded tablespoonful onto ungreased baking sheets.
- Bake for 9-10 minutes in preheated oven.
