Chocolate Peanut Butter (Vampire) Bites

 These flour-less cookies are very intensely chocolate. One or two will kill a craving pretty handily.

Ingredients:

4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate (I used 1/2 an 8oz bar)
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 large egg (lightly beaten)

1/4 cup sugar to coat (I used red to make them look a little vampiric this time)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave in a large bowl. I melt it at 30 second intervals, checking it and stirring to break it up. Once it's about half melted, I go down to 15 seconds and stop when it is just all melted. Be careful not to scorch it.

Stir in peanut butter until well blended, then add sugar, salt, vanilla. Once the other ingredients are well blended, add the beaten egg. It might not look right at first, but keep stirring until a sticky dough forms. Something about the egg causes the rest of the ingredients to firm up.

Roll dough into 1" balls. Place the additional sugar in a small bowl and roll each ball to coat. Place an inch or so apart on a baking sheet and press down lightly with your palm to flatten them a little bit. They won't spread too much at all.

Bake until cookies start cracking, 10 to 12 minutes. Be careful not to overcook them or they will taste scorched. Cool 5 - 10 minutes on sheets to set the cookies (or they will crumble). Transfer cookies to racks to cool completely.

Makes about 2 dozen bites.

Spicy Pumpkin Gingerbread Cookies

These cookies are not too sweet, but spicy and soft like old fashioned molasses cookies.

Ingredients:

Wet
1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 tsp grated fresh ginger (optional, but awesome - I use a microplane grater for this)
1 tsp vanilla


Dry
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp hot pepper flakes or cayenne pepper (optional, I put more...but start small)
1/8 tsp ground black pepper (secret ingredient, don't leave it out)

1/4 cup sugar for coating (I like the texture of raw sugar with larger grains, but regular sugar or cinnamon sugar would be fine)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat butter and sugar together until creamy. I use a hand mixer for this. Blend in pumpkin, molasses, grated ginger, vanilla, and egg.

Whisk together dry ingredients. Mix them into wet ingredients until well combined. The dough will be a bit sticky. You can chill the dough until it is firm enough to roll into 1 inch balls or don't, if you don't have time. Sometimes I just flour up my hands and work with it.

Roll the balls in turbinado sugar until lightly coated and place them on a baking sheet an inch or two apart. Press them down gently with your palm into disks. Bake for 10 minutes, or until they get cracks on top. Don't overbake them or they will be dry. These are great with a little peanut butter and coffee.