Tag Archives: Dough

Mama, May I?

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My goodness – it’s been quite a while. …I know, I know – I start every.single.post. in pretty much the same manner, as of late.

While I might not be blogging as often – the blogosphere is not far from my mind…and food is – most definitely – not far from my mouth.

I had been resisting the urge to get into the *holiday* spirit…I always feel bad for Thanksgiving…it’s that middle child – and between Halloween and Christmas, the kings of the “gimme, gimme” holidays, it often gets overlooked.

Not by me. I absolutely LOVE Thanksgiving! Dare I say it is my favorite one?

  • One. Any holiday based on consuming copious amounts of comfort food is A-okay in my book.
  • Two. I love spending time with my family – catching up, watching football and just been bums.
  • …and Three. It’s just great to be with family – solely for the reason that you want to be together…no gift giving/receiving…it’s based on being selfless..not selfish.

My tree and decorations won’t be up until December – but I don’t think that Thanksgiving would mind if I love on some holiday flavors…like eggnog…and gingerbread.

Speaking of gingerbread…. I’ve had my eye on Mama Pea’s Pumpkin Molasses Cookie Dough Balls …. Basically, all of her little cookie concoctions have been on my “to make ASAP” list…and the gingerbread-y flavors of the pumpkin molasses cookies finally got me baking.

Pumpkin Molasses Cookie Dough Balls

adapted from Mama Pea

Makes 24  30 dough balls — I used a Tablespoon to scoop & got 30 cookies out of this batch

  • 1 c. whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 c. unbleached organic flour  – I used regular all-purpose
  • 1 T. ginger
  • 2 t. baking soda
  • 1/2 t. baking powder
  • 1 t. cinnamon
  • 1/2 t. salt
  • 1/3 c. vegan margarine (i.e. Earth Balance) — I used margarine…but it wasn’t vegan
  • 2/3 c. canned pumpkin
  • 2/3 c. organic sugar + additional 1/4 c. for rolling – I used what I had left of natural sugar and then the rest – just plain ole granulated sugar
  • 1/4 c. molasses

Instructions

  • In a medium bowl, combine flour, ginger, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
  • Using an electric or stand mixer, cream together margarine, pumpkin, 2/3 c. sugar and molasses.
  • Gradually add flour mixture to wet ingredients, mixing until a dough comes together.
  • Chill dough for 30 minutes or more. When dough is chilled, preheat oven to 350 degrees and pour remaining sugar into a shallow bowl.
  • Scoop dough into balls and roll until smooth.
  • Roll each ball sugar until completely covered.
  • Transfer dough to a cookie sheet and continue until sheet is filled.
  • Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cookies should be set, but still a bit doughy. (I needed the full 10)
  • Allow cookies to cool on the pan for several minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Loved these. 

My favorite part of these lil’ beauties is definitely the texture…doughy but still light and fluffy.

I might play with the amount of molasses in these the next time I make them…they’re great as is – but I’m a huge fan of that molasses/gingerbread flavor and wouldn’t mind punching it up maybe a notch or two.

However – if you’re craving gingerbread…

go.

make these.

now. 

eat.blog.repeat.

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Repeat…as in – repeat a meal.

You know – I was little disappointed in myself yesterday. I mean…the pictures of my pizza certainly didn’t do it justice, and I felt, for the first time in a while, that I blogged just for the sake of getting a post out there (bad, Jil!).

I mean, I loved that pizza – enough to quickly slap together a post about it – but you know what, it deserves more. It deserves a better post. (Yes, I’m essentially talking to a pizza, here…)  YOU deserve a better post.

Stay with me here…

So here we go…take 2! aaaaaaand action.

A long, long time ago (for some reason, this prompted Weird Al Yankovic’s play off “American Pie” – “The Saga Begins [Lyrical Adaptation of ‘American Pie’” – to run crazily through my brain – don’t ask, haha), I had an addiction to tortilla pizzas - specifically BBQ tortilla pizzas. I don’t know why, but I never graduated from tortillas to actual pizza dough…even though it was sitting in my freezer all this time.

Honestly, it’s really fun to play with your food!

Plus, pizza is always better when it’s awkwardly shaped, right? P.S. I really like this dough, I picked it up from Trader Joe’s, but it’s made by the Portland Pie, Co. – really easy to work with – major plus!

Regardless, this time around I sprinkled it with some garlic powder before shoving it into a 450 (yes, I got brave!) degree oven for a couple of minutes to just firm up – no toppings, nothin’.

Took the dough out (only sustaining a slightly burned finger in the process – don’t you hate when oven mitts don’t do they’re job!), and topped it with a good slathering of Dinosaur BBQ sauce – this stuff is magic – and a big ole heap of spinach…well, as much as I could get away with on the pizza.

Then layers of mozzarella and red onion were sprinkled.

450 degrees and 10 minutes later…. voila!

Oddly shaped…yes – I feel like this somewhat resembles a tribal mask or something.

Delicious – absolutely. Honestly, this pizza was infinitely better than last night’s…crispy and flavorful – it doesn’t get much better.

I mean seriously – thin crust at it’s best! …and out of my own, teeny, tiny oven! Who knew!!?

Now…to make the leap to making my own dough…I’ll wait on that one.