4 Simple Recipes to Try Over Break

Ava Fowler and Jing Wang - December 4th, 2023

As the holidays are fast approaching, there are many foods and desserts families look forward to eating, and today we’ll be teaching you four easy recipes to make for loved ones! We will start off with the recipes for an addicting loaf of pumpkin bread (speaking from personal experience, you literally won’t be able to stop eating it) followed by a recipe for some silly gingerbread people. Then, for the ever-neglected holiday of Thanksgiving, there’s a simple recipe for pumpkin pie! We even have a small bonus “recipe” on how to make whipped cream as well, so stay tuned for that! Finally, even though it’s not as festive, we also included the classic Snickerdoodle cookie. The recipes we used will be linked at the bottom of the article in case you want to look at the original!

Pumpkin Bread!

Steps: 

1. The pumpkin bread was very straightforward to make. First, I preheated the oven to 350°. Then, I put parchment paper on a loaf pan and greased it with butter.

2. With a whisk, I mixed the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger.

3. From there, I mixed the wet ingredients--pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water, and sugar-- using a stand mixer.

4. With the stand mixer running with the wet ingredients, I sifted the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture.

5. After it was blended well, I poured the batter into the pans, and there was enough batter for 2 ½ loaves.

6. I put the bread in the oven for 50 minutes and checked to see if it was ready by poking the middle with a fork. It needed a bit more time so I left the bread in the oven with the oven turned off for about 8 more minutes. After that, the bread was crumbly, a bit moist and not too sweet.

Gingerbread Cookies

See below: Dry and Wet Ingredients & Finished Products

Steps: 

1. You will need two large bowls for this. In one bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking soda, ground ginger, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves.

2. In the other bowl, get the softened butter and beat it until it’s smooth. Then, combine the butter with molasses and brown sugar until it comes together. Finally, add the egg and vanilla extract and beat all the wet ingredients together.

3. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

Pumpkin Pie

Steps:

1. Prepare pie crusts in a regular pie dish

2. Preheat oven to 450°F

3. In a medium bowl, mix all dry ingredients (sugar, salt, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground ginger, nutmeg).

4. Stir in pumpkin and milk, mix well

*I didn’t have milk so I used ½ cup heavy whipping cream and ½ cup water and it turned out fine 

5. Pour pumpkin mixture into prepared pie thing

6. Put in oven for 10 minutes, then lower the heat to 350 and wait 40-45 minutes 

*I accidentally left mine in for over an hour but nothing bad happened it still tasted fantastical

Steps for whipped cream:

Pour all 3 ingredients into a mixing bowl.

Whip into stiff peaks then serve!

Snickerdoodles 

“The cookies were very tasty. Paired with a fresh drink, they were the perfect snack to have. I would rate them a 9.3/10 and recommend them to anyone wanting to try.”

                                                                                                     -Aidan Hobbs

                                                           ☆☆☆☆☆

Steps:

1. preheat the oven to 350°F

2. In a large bowl mix flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt then set aside

3. Cream together the barely softened butter and sugar then add eggs, vanilla and mix well.

4. Add dry Ingredients to the wet ingredients .

5. In a small bowl, combine ⅓ cup sugar and 2 tbsp cinnamon for the coating.

6. Scoop out cookie dough and roll into a small ball then roll the ball in the coating until coated to your liking.

7. Place cookies 2 inches apart on your prepared pan.

8. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cookies sit in the turned off oven to set for a bit. Once cooled they are ready to eat!