Raspberry-Almond Thumbprints

Cream together:
¾ cup softened butter
½ cup white sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
Gradually add 1 ¾ - 2 cups flour until you get a soft dough. Roll into 1" balls. (If dough is too sticky, refrigerate 20 minutes) Using your finger, or similar shaped utensil (wooden spoon handle?) form "thumbprints" in each cookie. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. (The bottoms of the cookies will only be starting to brown.) While cookies are still warm, re-indent each thumbprint. Cool and fill with raspberry jam. Drizzle the following glaze over cookies:
2 tsp soft butter
½ tsp almond extract (or vanilla)
1-2 Tbsp milk
enough icing sugar to make a thin icing

If you really only make the balls 1", you will get about 5 dozen. I think half a recipe of glaze is plenty for the cookies, and half the amount almond extract that the recipe asks for is enough, in my opinion.

Pumpkin Donuts

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup pumpkin
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup shortening, butter, or margarine, softened

In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking soda. Add pumpkin, eggs, milk, and shortening, butter, or margarine; beat with an electric mixer on low speed till mixed.

Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a very large star tip with a 1/2-inch opening (can be purchased at any specialty kitchen store and most craft stores. Pipe onto 2 greased baking sheets in 3-inch circles. Bake in a preheated 375 degrees F oven for 10 minutes, or till golden brown. Cool doughnuts on a rack over waxed paper.

Baked donuts??? That's not how Renee and Karla roll, so instead we spooned small amounts of the dough into hot oil and fried them. Then we rolled them in the following mixture:

1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

You will want to make them very small so they cook all of the way through. At first I used a medium cookie scoop, but that was way too big. I ended up doing about a teaspoon of dough for each one by the end.

The original recipe is from here.

Fresh Fruit Dessert

Crust:
1 1/2 c. flour
1 stick of butter (melted)
1 c. finely chopped pecans
Bake @ 350 degrees for 15 minutes in a 9x13 pan.

Cream Cheese Layer:
8oz. cream cheese
8oz. cool whip
1 c. powdered sugar
Beat together in mixer and spread over top of cooled crust.

Fruit Topping:
2 c. sugar
2 c. water
6 T. cornstarch
pinch of salt
Bring to boil stirring constantly until thick. Take off of heat and add 1 box of jello (whatever flavor of fruit you are using) and cool. After it has cooled add 2 quarts of fresh fruit. The spread fruit topping over the cream cheese layer. Cool in fridge for at least 2 hours before serving. Enjoy!