Fall Baking

Today is my Monday, thanks to good ol' Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492!  I ended up spending a good part of my weekend baking... and it was so fun!

On Friday, I stocked up on pumpkin puree and tried out Jen's Pumpkin Apple Muffins.  I wanted something to make waking up at 6 am for our yard sale a little more bearable, and these definitely did the trick!  I ended up doubling Jen's recipe, and Jeff is planning on enjoying them for breakfast this week too.

I'll be making these again for the fall season for sure... The pumpkin and apple together are delicious!

{picture from Jen}

Yesterday, I spent most of the day baking with my Yiayia (grandma)... one of my favorite things to do!  We started with a family favorite, a huge batch of koulouria (or the Greek twist-shaped cookies).  I think others make these in a circle or 'S' shape, but our family always braids the dough and keeps the size small.  I personally think that the larger cookies get too dry.

The dough is easy to make, but the time commitment with twisting each cookie has me re-thinking my decision to add these to Christmas tins for gift-giving this year...

We made about 150 of these cookies (hey, they're small! and they keep really well just stored in an air-tight container).  Then decided to try out my Yiayia's new Pampered Chef cookie press... Spritz cookies are normally reserved for the holidays, but we found the pumpkin disc in her new set and couldn't resist!

So cute!  I liked the Pampered Chef cookie press overall, but the cookie size is much larger than the one that I have (or that my Yiayia used to have).  For these pumpkin cookies, it didn't matter much... and despite no change in taste, I think I still prefer the small size!

Then just when I thought I was done with my baking... I ran out and picked up some chocolate chips and walnuts last night to make these Betty Crocker oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies (that I blogged about here).  Back by popular demand Jeff's request.

Phew!  You'd think that I would be done for a while, but now I'm brainstorming something delicious and fall-inspired for Jeff's birthday in a few weeks!  Any suggestions?