How did everyone’s week go? Did you survive it? I feel like I barely survived this week. It was one of those weeks that had me giving it all to God, and praying that I make it through. Every day seemed like some new stressful thing happened. My husband was gone most of the week too, so that always makes my stress level ten times worse. It was just a week of life troubles, contractor troubles, and car troubles. I’m so glad it is over, and I am so ready for Thanksgiving week! Thanksgiving is when I get to make one of my favorite pumpkin desserts, which is pumpkin pie!
With Thanksgiving happening this week, I wanted to share with you all of my favorite pumpkin desserts! They are all recipes I found on Pinterest, and they are absolute favorites in my house. I make some of these at least once a month during the fall, and they disappear very quickly. All of them are simple enough recipes that your kids can get involved too! I mainly do pumpkin desserts during the fall, because I have tons of pumpkin puree to use up. Plus, they are just absolutely delicious!
Pumpkin Puree
If you check out my post from a few weeks ago about the Simple Pumpkin Spice Cake I made, there is a section on making your own pumpkin puree. You can find that post at https://homelovedmama.com/simple-pumpkin-spice-cake-baking-and-decorating/. I highly recommend making your own, instead of using the canned pumpkin puree. There is a taste difference! My husband, who wasn’t fond of pumpkin, now loves pumpkin desserts since I started using fresh pumpkin puree. It really is so good! If you don’t make your own pumpkin puree, I am sure that these pumpkin desserts will still taste absolutely delicious!
Pumpkin Pie
Since I already mentioned that it was one of my favorite pumpkin desserts, let’s start with the pumpkin pie. This recipe is so yummy! It is simple enough that my daughter does a lot of this recipe with me. She of course loves to crack the eggs. That is always her favorite part. She gets upset, if I make a dessert and don’t let her crack the eggs. All of the ingredients get mixed into one bowl. You have one bowl on Thanksgiving day that is dirtied. This of course can be done the night before if you don’t have time the day of Thanksgiving. There is just something about one dirty bowl to clean on Thanksgiving Day when you spend all day cooking and dirtying all of your pots and pans.
Anyways, my daughter is always asking if she can help make something on Thanksgiving. This recipe is the perfect one to bring your kids in on. Once everything is mixed together though, it is an adult only recipe. The mixture is very liquidy, so it must be carefully poured into the pie crust. Then it has to be very carefully put into the oven as level as possible. Other than that, it bakes, cools, and goes in the refrigerator until it is time to eat! The perfect pumpkin pie for after your large Thanksgiving meal!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
These cookies are the softest cookies I have ever made. They are difficult to store, because if you stack them on top of each other, it is difficult to get them apart in one piece. A lot of the time though, most of the cookies disappear before I even get them off of the cooling racks. This is one of those recipes that you can make any day with very little time. If you need to store them, I like to put them in a sealed container in the refrigerator with a piece of parchment paper between each layer. These cookies do not dry out, and will stay super soft and yummy!
There is only one odd thing in this recipe, that I have never done in any other recipe. It has you dissolve the baking soda in milk. Make sure you do this in a separate bowl, and then add it to the liquid ingredients. Other than that, it is a very simple and straight forward recipe.
Make sure you bring your kids in on this recipe as well. Cracking eggs and pouring all the ingredients in is always so much fun for my daughter. If you have a cookie scoop, it makes it easy for your child to drop the cookies onto the pan. Parchment paper is very important for this recipe. I pull the baked cookies onto the cooling rack still on the parchment paper. These cookies are so soft that it is so much easier to remove them from the parchment paper when they are completely cooled. When you are done reading this, go make them, and watch them disappear!
Pumpkin Donuts
This is the perfect breakfast item for Fall! These donuts are so soft, and so simple. Again, another one that your kids can help you with. This recipe comes topped with a cinnamon sugar mixture, but they also taste great with a simple icing. I made these Halloween donuts for our Halloween party this year with icing, and they were a big hit!
When you read through this recipe and start adding ingredients to your bowl, be careful to watch out for amounts on certain items. Normally you would add the ingredients that it says with the amounts in the ingredient list. In this one, it says to add 1 cup of sugar and then later 3/4 tsp of cinnamon. This is because the rest of the sugar and cinnamon will be used for the cinnamon sugar mixture that the donuts get coated in. I have accidentally added the full amount of sugar before. It still tasted great though!
One last thing! Make sure you really coat each donut shape on your pan with cooking spray, including the center part. These donuts like to stick and can be difficult to get out of the pan. I always take a knife carefully around each donut to loosen their grip from the pan before taking then out of the pan. Hopefully that makes sense!
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread
I make these each year for my husband to take to work, and his coworkers love them! They actually request them, so I am more than happy to provide them. Plus we love having them as a snack at home.
It is important when making these to get the cream cheese mixture as soft and smooth as you possibly can. This just takes some extra stirring. If it isn’t smooth enough, it will be difficult to spread a layer of it into each loaf of bread and muffin. Even if it doesn’t spread well, it will still taste amazing! Just make sure you put them in the refrigerator before you enjoy one. They are so much better cold!
I don’t have a large bread pan, so I end up making three small loaves of bread. These are great little gifts to hand out to neighbors. Then I continue to bake by adding mix to my regular size muffin pans. This is what I sent to work with my husband. With the rest of the mix, I put them in my mini muffin pan. The mini ones stay home and become little treats for all of us after dinner. They are the perfect size for my toddler to eat as well! With all of these different pans, you will need to check on your bread and muffins periodically as they bake to see if they are done. They will all have different times in the oven.
Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
Any kind of sugar cookie will always be the recipe that my daughter will take part in. Even if she doesn’t help mix the ingredients or roll out the dough, she will always be standing there ready to cut out all the different cookie shapes. These sugar cookies are delicious plain. If you want to make the icing that is in the recipe, it makes it extra tasty. For my little family, I make a ton of these, cut them into small shapes, and use them in place of our animal crackers during Fall. My 18 month old son absolutely loves them! He learned how to say cookie, because he loves them so much. These cookies bake up very quickly. The longest part of this recipe is rolling out and cutting out the cookies.
Each year, during the holidays, when you walk into Joann’s fabric and crafts store, you can find these awesome punch out cookie cutters in the middle of the main aisle. They are great, because they add details to your cookies that you don’t really want to decorate. I have Halloween, Fall, and Christmas punch out cookie cutters. They make these simple cookies so pretty!
Go Make Some Yummy Pumpkin Desserts!
I hope you are able to make at least one of these for Thanksgiving this week! If you do make your own pumpkin puree, make sure you use it up! You can most definitely keep using pumpkin through Christmas. Plus, all of these recipes can be made over and over again during the holidays for no reason other than you just want a tasty treat. We always have some form of dessert in our refrigerator to snack on during the holidays.
I hope you enjoy these pumpkin desserts! Have an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends this week! Thank God for all of the amazing blessings that surround you!