"buttercup bites" (recipe)

Buttercup Brownies / Buttercup Bites

Ingredients:

1 15 oz can pumpkin

1/4 c peanut butter

1/2 c canola oil

2 eggs

1 c whole wheat flour

1 c rolled oats

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

 

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  You may use a hand or stand mixer if desired, but I just stirred everything together with a wooden spoon. In a medium mixing bowl, stir together pumpkin, peanut butter, oil, and eggs. Once blended, stir in flour (substitute a gluten-free flour if desired), rolled oats, baking powder, and salt. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 baking dish and spread batter in dish. (I used stoneware; glass is probably fine but may alter cooking time and texture.) Bake 25-30 minutes, depending on oven.

I made these tender dog treats for my sweet Yellow Lab, Buttercup. She definitely seems to like them, but then Labs will eat rocks and think ice cubes are treats. But really, I tried them and think they are pretty tasty. One of my cats even likes them, and we all know how picky cats can be! They are not sweet, so you won't be able to fool your kids into thinking they are people-cookies, but sugar is a no-no for our furry friends.

I let the cookies cool a few minutes when they came out of the oven, then cut 48 small squares while they where still warm. Once cooled, I removed the cookies from the pan and cut each one into four small bite-sized treats. Buttercup would happily eat the entire tray whether as one cookie or 100, but I am using these as a tasty reward whenever she hops down into the cabin since she used to balk at the top of the stairs before I broke down and just starting bribing her.

These bar cookie style treats were very simple and quick. Down the line I may try adding more flour and rolled oats to create a drier dough that can be rolled for crispy cut cookies, which could also be decorated if desired. However, because I have a small galley and oven aboard, rolled cookies take a lot of space and time to prepare.

Here's Buttercup looking sad that her beach is all frozen and hoping spring will arrive soon. In the meantime, she's pretty happy to enjoy her new cookies and snuggle up inside the boat. Hope your furry crew enjoys the recipe!

playing cookie fairy

Now and again, and particularly in the winter when baking helps warm up the boat, I like to do some baking and walk around town playing "cookie fairy." 

My butterscotch brownies are always a hit and bar cookies are the most time-effective for making large quantities, but I also wanted to take a stab at some sugar cookies. I made several dozen sugar cookie bunnies. Why bunnies? Well, because this is Running Rabbit Kitchen. Because I like bunnies. Because rabbits are a sign of renewal and rebirth appropriate to the New Year. Because it is the only cookie cutter I have.

A large kitchen is a plus when making sugar cookies, but I managed in my itsy bitsy galley nonetheless. I could only bake a dozen at a time and only have one baking sheet that fits in the teeny tiny oven, so thank god for parchment paper. The sprinkles were really messy, so I would only do those again if I did royal icing after baking the cookies and put the sprinkles on top of the icing. Next time I will probably spring for the fancy pretty colored sugars for sprinkling on top of the cookies. I also sprayed some of the cookies with purple "cake grafiti" which is basically food coloring spray paint. The rest I sprinkled with plain, old-fashioned granulated sugar. 

Both the raw dough and the finished product were delicious. These were my first sugar cookies and I think next time I will cut them a little thicker. Thicker equals squishier cookies, thinner equals crisper. Both are good, but I think I like them a little on the squishy side. I used the recipe for "Ethel's Sugar Cookies" from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book. The recipe is a little different because it uses powdered sugar rather than granuated sugar. Instead of almond flavoring I used orange oil. Next time I am considering dipping the ears in chocolate so they taste like an orange milano cookie, except better, because they are homemade.

Here are the little bags of cookies to gift to friends and strangers:

Happy New Year. Strive to practice random acts of sweetness, because it makes the world a happier place.