have you ever heard of the five love languages test? it’s a personality test that measures the ways that you best give and receive love: service, words of affirmation, physical touch, gifts, and quality time. everyone is different, and you can have different combinations for how you most like to give love and how you best get it from others.

i’d like to propose a sixth love language: food! obviously i love to make food - way more than i actually love eating it. most of all, i love to feed others, especially if i know their favorite comfort foods. one of my hallmates, SE, asked me what my ideal perfect day would be like. i loved that question :) and you know, it really truly would be:

-wake up well rested, and spend the first hour of the morning moving very slowly, because we all know i’m not very good at mornings.
-yoga on the beach
-cook from noon to five by myself, making all sorts of courses, in the perfect kitchen with the perfect ocean view
-have everyone that i love come over, and have a huge dinner on the beach. be able to spend time with every person from all seasons of life, and have the people that i love get to know each other.
-as the sun goes down, start a bonfire - music, conversations, prayer, laughter, lms, kelloggs, family
-watch the waves crash through the night with the right person

:) anyways that wasn’t my point at all. the point is that as i was making this pumpkin butter, i couldn’t help but think about how my best friend SD loves loves loves butternut squash. it’s her ultimate comfort food (after salt and vinegar chips and sour gummy worms of course), and she wants it at every home-made meal. well i wish i could be at uva right now to cook for you, but for now, this will have to do. love you sarahbear.

pumpkin butter 

very easy to make. especially if you have pumpkins lying around from halloween or other autumnal festivities that are just waiting to be used to their fullest potential :) take all the pulp of your pumpkin, and purée it down in your blender. so so so much better than the canned stuff! this (about three cups of pumpkin goodness) will go in a big pot with 3/4 cup of milk, pinches of cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, and 3/4 cup of brown sugar. i chose this ratio of sugar because i like my pumpkin butter to not be very sweet, but rather to retain that delicious rich squash aroma. 

bring this to a hard boil and then reduce heat and simmer for about half an hour. after this, your pumpkin purée will be thickened and this will smell beyond. amazing. beyond. amazing. it reminded me of birthday dinners at the davis household, when butternut squash is a side dish to anything and everything, even mexican food :) anyways, that’s your pumpkin butter. i enjoyed almost all of it on my breakfast toast, granola, pretty much anything that i could spread it on. this is fall in a jar, people!

chocolate pumpkin thumbprint cookies

so after devouring most of that with my neighbors, i wanted to use the precious remaining pumpkin butter wisely. soon it was obvious what i had to do… thumbprint cookies. and the combination of dark chocolate and spicy pumpkin is perfect. plus who doesn’t love a good buttery shortbread cookie?

the dough is started by creaming together 1 cup butter and 1/2 cup sugar. add 2 egg yolks and a couple drops of vanilla and well combing this wet mixture. to it, incorporate 2 cups of flour and a pinch of salt. this dough should form into a ball - wrap in plastic wrap and chill it for at least half an hour.

once chilled, break off 1 inch balls of the dough and literally use your thumb to create cute little indents. fill these centers with a little dollop of pumpkin butter and top with a chocolate chip! place your cookies on a greased pan and bake for 20 minutes in a 350 oven.

these cookies are the perfect combination of smooth buttery cookie and slightly bittersweet hints of pumpkin and chocolate. they turn out simple and elegant, and two entire batches were gone in a matter of minutes at a recent party that i took them to. i promise this is such an easy cookie, and they will be perfect for thanksgiving potlucks that might be coming up!

i enjoyed them while doing a little crafting - i hope you make these little bite sized cookies soon. sarahbear, let’s bake up a batch when we are reunited in just one week. i can’t wait at all.

Posted 1 year ago with 1 note