Twincess Designs: Book Club Treats

I hosted book club at my house last night. It’s always fun getting together but as of yesterday morning I had no idea what I was going to make. I also knew that I wanted it to be quick to make but still yummy because I would have to do the grocery shopping and cooking with my two boys in tow. I ended up googling Book Club Appetizers and a ton of recipes popped up. I decided on some fun fall recipes.

(Please excuse the picture quality as one of my girlfriends had to remind me last minute that I should take some so I snapped a few real quick with my IPhone. Recipe credits are at the bottom of this post.)

Here’s what I made:

Pumpkin Pie Bites

2 refrigerated ready-to roll pie crusts

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter

Optional
1/2 cup chocolate morsels
vegetable oil
re-sealable plastic bags

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Use a circle cookie cutter or small glass to cut shapes for each pie crust.
Press dough shapes into a 24 cup mini muffin tray. Apply egg whites from one egg to the top edges of each pie. (I skipped this step)
Mix cream cheese, sugar, canned pumpkin, remaining 2 eggs, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice together until thoroughly combined.
Spoon mixture into each pumpkin-shaped pie crust.
Bake for 12-15 minutes.
Remove pies to cool.

Makes 24 pies. Keep refrigerated.

To decorate, melt chocolate in a heat-proof bowl in the microwave on medium. Heat in 30 second intervals, stirring in between until melted. Add a little vegetable oil to make the chocolate more fluid. Transfer to a re-sealable plastic bag and cut the corner off. Drizzle or draw jack-o-lantern faces on pies.

Cream Cheese Toffee Apple Dip

8oz cream cheese

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

2 tsp vanilla (Please not that the original recipe says 2Tbs That is way too much!)

1/2 bag of toffee bits

Whip softened cream cheese until smooth. Mix in sugars, vanilla, and toffee bits. Chill. Serve up with apple slices.

Cranberry and White Chocolate Cookies

This is actually a recipe that I have had for a while. I love it! I usually makes these at Christmas because of the white and red.

Makes: 30 Cookies Time: 30 minutes

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 cup quick-cooking oats

9 Tbs. soft butter

½ cup soft dark brown sugar

½ cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

½ cup dried cranberries

½ cup roughly chopped pecans

¾ cup white chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Measure flour, baking powder, salt and oats into a bowl. Put butter and sugars into another bowl and beat together until creamy. Then beat in egg and vanilla extract.

2. Beat in the flour mixture, then cranberries, pecans and chocolate chips.

3. Roll tablespoonfuls of dough into balls, then place them on your cookie sheet and squish down with a fork. Bake for 15 minutes until cookies are tinged a pale gold. Remove to cool.

Happy Baking!