You know those cookies in the blue tins that pop up at grocery stores and pharmacies during the holidays? Maybe you've had them at your grandma's or in the office. We all love them. Well....they're not so hard to make at home. And the results are more tender, crumbly and can be slightly less sweet than those tinned cookies. There's really no comparison with homemade.

We piped our dough into circles using a large star tip and sprinkled the top with sugar for crunch and sparkle. But you can use a smaller start tip and pipe them as bars or use a cookie press for a variety of shapes. You can also dip any shape into melted white or regular chocolate and decorate with sprinkles to dress them up. Check the end of this post for tips and options.

This recipe, slightly adapted from one by @browneyedbaker, makes about 36 cookies. They freeze well and can be kept in a sealed container at room temperature for around a week. They travel well, too - you can even fill your own tin! 

We're going to end pumpkin season with this surprisingly simple - yet stunning - pumpkin bundt cake swirled with chocolate ribbons. Superfast in the mixer (and a SideSwipe beater, of course), but can be made with just a whisk or your hand mixer. 

The trickiest part is the layering. You'll be using 1/3 of the pumpkin cake mixture to combine with cocoa and cinnamon in a small bowl. Alternate pumpkin layers with thin chocolate-pumpkin layers and you get this! It really wowed the folks at a family dinner. Moist, pumpkiny and not overly spiced. Perfection.

The recipe is minimally adapted from a recipe from @zoebakes. We made half a cake for our small group (and to use some leftover pumpkin). Normally the cake will yield 10-12 healthy servings.

Cake

• 1 cup (240ml) vegetable oil
• 1 cup (215g) sugar
• 1 cup (235g) brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 15-ounce (425g) canned or homemade roasted pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup (185g) sour cream (can sub in whole milk yogurt)
• 1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2-1/4 cups (295g) all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon all-spice (we didn't have so subbed with pumpkin pie spice)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Chocolate Layer

• 2 Tablespoons (20g) dark or dutched cocoa
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Optional Topping

• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

This time of year we put a lot of miles on our mixers. With holiday gatherings, parties and gift-giving just around the corner, you need your mixer to be ready to handle it all. It's especially important if you only use your mixer this time of year.

Below find our handy checklist for making sure your KitchenAid is up to the tasks ahead.

Good luck and happy baking!

How do you like your pumpkin? How about in individual pumpkin cheesecakes - some with chocolate chips and some with homemade salted caramel and chopped, toasted pecans? That's what we made recently and wanted to share our recipe.

We made mini and bite-size cheesecakes in muffin and mini-muffin pans with paper liners. We love the smaller size. No water baths, no worries about cracked tops. And everyone gets their own!

We thought we'd also raise the crust bar a little and used ground Biscoff Lotus cookies for the crust. But you can substitute graham crackers or something similar.

This delicious recipe is adapted from one from Sally's Baking Addiction, a source we love for reliable and well-tested recipes. 

These are perfect for Thanksgiving, a fall brunch, or an office party. They're so good, we recommend you make a double batch!