Haunted Gingerbread Houses

Have you guys seen the kits at Micheal's for the Halloween gingerbread houses?

Truth be told, I thought it was just silly.... we do them at Christmas, so I am not so sure what I thought was silly about having some fun with this around Halloween.

Then I came across this masterpiece by Marion from Sweetopia.

Via Sweetopia

Is that not the coolest thing you've ever seen? I am inspired to make a gingerbread house! Not sure if that will happen, I seem to have a bit of an impromptu Trick-or-Treat party happening at my house. IF I don't get time this year I am making a mental note for next year!

If I don't get to post tonight - Happy Halloween - see you Monday!

Pumpkin Biscotti

I love biscotti... love it. Once I figured out how to make it and realized it is not brain surgery I wanted to make every kind of biscotti I could think of: orange cranberry, chocolate chip, mint chocolate... etc.

So the other day I got the idea to try and figure out a pumpkin spice biscotti... with a glaze of some sort. Sounds yum right?

Here is the recipe I used:

2 + 1/2 Cups flour
1 + 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp of nutmeg... a dash... basically
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (honestly I took a heaping scoop from the can with the 1/2 cup measure.)
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 Cup chopped pecans

Mix together all the dry ingredients and set aside. Beat pumpkin and sugar until light and fluffy and add in eggs and vanilla. Gradually add in dry ingredients and incorporate well.  A stand mixture is the best for this... biscotti is a really sticky dough.

Divide dough in half. Shape each half into a 2" wide log and place on greased cookie sheet. (Or parchment paper)

Bake 20-30 minutes in preheated 350 F oven until lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool on cutting board for about 10 minutes (until it's cool enough to handle). Slice on an angle into about 1 inch wide pieces you'll want to use a serrated knife for this. Place cut side down onto cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes longer at about 325 F until cookies are dried  (flip it over the biscotti during the last five minutes). Place on wire racks to cool. You can leave it out to crisp up overnight if it's still a bit chewy and you would rather a crisp cookie.

After the taste test I figured a sour cream glaze went best with it - so here's how that goes:
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
heat everything in a saucepan until boiling and then just dip the biscotti in and let set.

I'm telling you - this is delish!

*added note:
So... the glaze does NOT set. In fact it makes it soggy. Sadness.
Skip the glaze people, skip the glaze.

* found the glaze over on Our Best Bites that will do the trick!