The BEST Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies + Video

It was hard work but someone had to do it. We searched for the best pumpkin chocolate chip cookies recipe and today we are sharing it with all of you!!

Why are pumpkin chocolate chip cookies so popular? Even if you don’t like them, you probably know someone who can’t get enough of these festive cookies. We are going to walk you through the steps for making them.

These pumpkin cookies thick and chewy, loaded with chocolate chips and perfectly spiced with those fall flavors we love!

Creating This Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

You know where this all started for us, don’t you? The grocery store. It’s not very often that I buy cookies at the grocery store because:

1. We enjoy making cookies together.
2. We love cookie dough (don’t you dare pull the egg thing on me. I know, I know).
3. I happen to think we make really good cookies, so why buy them?

None of that matters when it comes to pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. We tried so many recipes and just didn’t love them so we kept buying the big, pillowy cookies on a tray from the store. Until last year. Last year everything changed. We discovered the most melt in your mouth pumpkin cookie recipe EVER.

You see, Pinterest was bonkers about pumpkin last year. I’d say it was one of the biggest pumpkin years ever, and with all of the pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipes we just had to start testing them all. And you know what, it was the one that was plastered all over Pinterest we liked the least.

We discovered that often those really high cookies were either too dense and soggy or 90% of the time way too dry. So scratch that. We needed pillowy but height was no longer a concern.

Too little or too much pumpkin led to flavorless or eating squash tasting cookies. We found that 1 cup was the perfect amount. Recipes that were doubled or even tripled didn’t come out as well so we stuck to our 3 dozen batch.

It took some time and patience, but now that we’ve discovered the secret to making truly phenomenal pumpkin cookies with gooey chocolate chips, we’ll never go back to the store-bought kind.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients

The ingredients for these pumpkin cookies are nothing out of the ordinary, but the &l

Cinnamon Roll Pigs in a Blanket Dunkers [+ Video]

Oh, mama! We made this cinnamon roll pigs in a blanket recipe for breakfast the other day and it’s our new go to breakfast!

For this recipe we wrap a cinnamon roll around a sausage link to make the most delicious sausage dunkers. We will teach you how to make a maple butter sauce for dipping them in too. The combination of sweet and savory in a breakfast recipe is totally my jam! Remember our cinnamon bread bacon stuffing at Thanksgiving?

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Johnsonville Italian Sausage. The opinions and text are all mine.

What are Pigs in a Blanket?

Pigs in a blanket are an appetizer or breakfast food consisting of small sausages wrapped in pastry.

I think everyone has heard of “pigs in a blanket” right? I certainly have and then when Cade and I were talking about what to do for our next post with Johnsonville, we knew we wanted to make a kid friendly Christmas breakfast recipe and I suddenly realized I don’t know anything. Then I said, what about our own version of pigs in a blanket, you know with the pancakes.

And Cade informed me that most pigs in a blanket recipes are actually hot dogs or franks in crescent dough or puff pastry. What?! All these years and I didn’t know! Well, this is still our breakfast take, cinnamon roll pigs in a blanket dunkers with a maple butter sauce.

That’s right, maple butter sauce. Cinnamon Rolls. And of course, breakfast sausage links.

Ingredients for Cinnamon Roll Pigs in a Blanket

For the sausage dunkers, all you need is 2 ingredients! So simple! For the maple butter sauce, you’ll need just a handful of ingredients, most of which you’ll have already at home. Here is what you will need:

• Grands Cinnamon Rolls
• Johnsonville Turkey Fully Cooked Breakfast Sausage: we chose to use precooked sausages to save on time but you can cook your own sausage if you prefer

Paula Deen’s Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake

Paula Deen’s Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake is a yellow cake crust topped with a creamy pumpkin layer and the most popular pumpkin dessert at our Thanksgiving table.

This is the very first recipe I had ever made from the Food Network. Paula Deen inspired something in Cade and I and that is the only reason this blog exists.

Cade’s from the South and as super poor newlyweds we didn’t have much entertainment that didn’t cost money and since cable was free in our apartment we would watch Paula cook up delicious foods and I got to learn about Cade’s Southern side.

It was so fun to surprise him with classic southern dishes like, Fried Chicken, Southern Macaroni and Cheese, Perfect Pecan Pie and Tomato Basil Pie. But then we saw a few pumpkin recipes using pumpkin puree like, pumpkin cake, pumpkin gooey butter cake and other pumpkin dessert recipes.

We just knew Thanksgiving was going to be extra special.

Our First Thanksgiving Home as Newlyweds

Cade and I had been married for just shy of a year and we had gone home to Washington for the holidays. It felt so special to finally be a married couple enjoying the time with family. We had been thinking up pumpkin ideas for weeks.

I can’t remember why I was making pumpkin recipes, it must have been that we decided to not do pumpkin pie or something but either way this gooey butter cake ended up being what I chose and my whole family has been hooked on Paula Deen’s Gooey Butter Cake recipe ever since.

Now, I’ve waited this whole time, choosing to not post any Food Network recipes because I totally get how hard those chefs work, but after almost 12 years I decided that:

• it’s one of our favorites
• it’s already all over the web
• you want to know the recipes that people are obsessed with so you can make it a family favorite too!

What Ingredients for Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake Crust

• Egg
• Butter
• Cake Mix

Start off by making the crust with the above in

Teriyaki Chicken Casserole [+ Video]

This classic baked teriyaki chicken casserole recipe is easy to make and the perfect crowd pleasing recipe for a busy weeknight dinner or potluck.

It’s everything you love about takeout without leaving your house! Casseroles are great for dinner because they’re easy to throw together and comforting to come home to. This casserole combines chicken with a sweet savory glaze mixed with tasty fried rice and loads of healthy vegetables!

Before You Begin…

I know, this is kind of like a souped up fried rice, but I’m still calling it a casserole since we are adding in a few extras. We start with our ham fried rice recipe for the base of this casserole. If you haven’t already, you’re going to want to read that post because there’s a secret to making perfect fried rice. Both the fried rice and the teriyaki sauce can be made a day or two ahead of time.

How This Recipe Came to Be

One night after we made a huge batch of the fried rice, our fridge died. And I mean, died. We went just over two weeks without the dang thing while we waited for parts to come in. That first day I knew I needed to throw together a casserole because we didn’t have anything for dinner that night, so the teriyaki chicken casserole was born and what a blessing in disguise because it turned out awesome-sauce!

Well, there were a few months that were bitterly cold and we were feeling so grateful for a warm house. Because almost two weeks after the fridge died our furnace went out. Yaaaaaay. (Can you hear my sarcasm?). What a blessing it was that it was winter so we were able to keep condiments, butter, and such outside.

We learned that we can survive without the fridge. It changed our eating habits and was quite hard, especially for a food blogger, but it just took creativity for meals and helped us to remember to be grateful for our modern day conveniences.

And in the end we made a killer rice casserole recipe with teriyaki chicken, broccoli, fried rice and extra sauce. So maybe in the end the whole fridge debacle was worth it. Because this teriyaki chicken casserole is that delicious. 

Where Does Teriyaki Chicken Come From?

Teriyaki is a cooking technique where foods are grilled or broiled in a glaze of soy sauce, mirin and sugar. It is usually associated with Japanese cuisine, but the technique is used in many Asian cuisines. Teriyaki chicken is a Japanese-American cuisine.

What’s in Teriyaki Chicken Casserole? 

For this easy chicken casserole, you’ll need fried rice, a chicken breast, a packag

The Best Apple Crisp Recipe [+ Video]

We’ve tried a lot of recipes out there but this is hands down the best apple crisp recipe we’ve found and it can totally be made ahead or frozen.

The apples are coated in a heavy cream and flour mixture to make them all saucy and caramel-y (no, that’s not a word but go with it) and then the oat topping is like a giant, cinnamon oatmeal cookie. It’s wonderful — this is seriously the BEST apple crisp recipe. 

Creating This Apple Crisp Recipe

There are probably 5 million recipes out there for apple crisp and this is certainly the season for all of those recipes to be all over Pinterest. Maybe we are a tad crazy to be posting this, but I happen to absolutely love hot apple crisp with a scoop of creamy, melty vanilla ice cream. Cade likes to drizzle a little caramel sauce or dulce de leche over the top of his ice cream but I’m a classics girl so I like it just how I grew up with it. 

My family loved crisps and cobblers growing up almost as much as we loved our musicals. Tell me you love them too. What’s your favorite? If you haven’t watched any, well you better get on that or I’m going to be knocking at your door. Seriously. And while you watch them make this homemade apple crisp.

Homemade Apple Crisp Ingredients

This apple crisp has two main parts: the apple filling and the crisp topping.

For the filling, you’ll need:

• Apples
• Butter
• Flour
• Lemon Juice
• Heavy Cream
• Vanilla
• Brown Sugar
• Granulated Sugar
• Cinnamon
• Nutmeg
• Salt

For the crisp topping, you’ll need…

• Flour
• Old-Fashioned Oats
• Brown Sugar
• Cinnamon
• Salt
• Unsalted Butter

We didn’t want to deviate too far from the classic apple crisp recipe, because why mess with a good thing, right? The measurements for each ingredient can be found in the recipe card at the end of the post.