Baking is an excellent way to get friends and family into the holiday spirit.   Here are two of my favorite dishes to make during the holiday season.

To start of the fall season I enjoy making pumpkin muffins. Pumpkin muffins are simple to make and are not very time consuming. The ingredients needed to make these include:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 vegetable oil

Step 1: You start off by preheating your oven to 350 degrees and lining up your muffin pan with your paper liners

Step 2: Then in a large bowl mix together your flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger until it is combined well

Step 3: In a different bowl mix together your sugar, oil, pumpkin , eggs, and water and mix until the mixture becomes smooth

Step 4: Combine your flour and pumpkin mixture and stir until the mixture is combined together

Step 5: Evenly divide the muffin batter into the muffin cups while making sure the cups are almost full

Step 6: Bake the muffins for 20-25 minuets at 350 degrees, to check if the muffins are done you can insert a toothpick or a fork into the center of the muffin and if the batter does not stick to it then they are done

Step 7: Let the muffins cool off completely before eating them

Another one of my favorite dished to make are cinnamon rolls. While cinnamon rolls are more time consuming they can be more fun to make than the pumpkin muffins.

The ingredients you will need for the cinnamon rolls includes:

For the dough:

4 1/2 cups of flour

1 1/4 cup of lukewarm milk

2 large room temperature eggs

1/3 cup of  softened butter

2 1/2 tsp of yeast

1/2 tsp of salt

1/2 cup of sugar

For the filing

1/3 cup of softened butter

1 1/2 cup of brown sugar

3 1/2 tbsp. of cinnamon

1 tsp of vanilla

For the icing

1/3 cup of softened cream cheese

1/4 cup of softened butter

1 tsp of vanilla

1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

Step 1: start by adding your butter and eggs to a bowl and mixing them together

Step 2: slowly add milk to the butter and egg mixture while stirring them together

Step 3: add your salt and sugar to your flour and mix them together

Step 4: add the yeast to the wet mixture and stir it, then slowly add in the dry mixture while stirring them together

Step 5: as the dough starts to form start kneading the dough with your hands adding more flour as needed, knead the dough until it is still stretchy, but not too sticky

Step 5: cover the inside of a bowl with oil and place the dough inside, cover the bowl with saran wrap

Step 6: place the bowl in a warm place and let the dough rise for 2 hours

step 7: to prepare your filling add your vanilla to your butter and mix them together and in a separate bowl mix your cinnamon and brown sugar together

Step 8: to prepare the icing in a bowl add your cream cheese, butter, powered sugar, and vanilla mix these ingredients together

Step 9: to roll out the dough sprinkle flour onto your counter and place the dough on it

Step 10: take your rolling pin and roll the dough out into a rectangular shape

Step 11: spread the vanilla, butter mixture onto the dough and then sprinkle on the cinnamon, brown sugar mixture and pat it into the dough

Step 12: to roll the dough start at the end of the dough and slightly pull it, pinch it, and roll it over

Step 13: continue to roll the dough until all of it is completely rolled up

Step 14: cut off the ends of your roll and continue to cut up the rest of the roll to to your desired cinnamon roll size

Step 15: coat the bottom of your baking dish with butter and place the cinnamon rolls inside the dish

Step 16: cover and let the cinnamon rolls rise 30 minuets

Step 17: set your oven for 400 degrees and let them bake for 14-18 minuets or until they are golden brown

Step 18: spread the icing onto the cinnamon rolls

Step 19: let them cool off before eating them

I enjoy making these dishes because they are a great way to get into the holiday spirit and they are fun to make. My family also really enjoys sitting together and eating the baked dishes and they are great to share with friends. It is also very rewarding to have people enjoy the things you make and this is a great way to achieve that feeling.