This is an older post, originally posted in 2011, that I’m highlighting this December. My daughter and I were looking through old blog posts, trying to decide on a birthday dessert for her upcoming day, and she died laughing at how terrible the photos were for this post (they were pretty bad). So I remade the cake this week updating not only the photos, but the recipe as…
This past week I was on Twin Cities Live for their 12 Days of Cookies that airs each year around the holidays. I made these cheesecake cookies, and wanted to include them here as well because they are so delicious. On the show I didn’t add the chocolate drizzle, but I made them again this weekend and liked the added touch. They are good either way (you could…
One of my favorite holiday treats is pumpkin bread and I make quite a few loaves every year, some for giving, some for keeping. This version comes from Michelle Lopez’s new cookbook, Weeknight Baking. It’s based on a recipe from the Tartine: A Classic Revisited cookbook, and it is quite delicious. Michelle makes hers with granulated sugar sprinkled on top instead of the cream cheese icing, but I…
I have no recollection of the first time I tried monkey bread, but somewhere in my youth, or childhood, I must have done something good because it was included in my growing-up experience. Whenever my mom made it she used store-bought bread dough, which made assembling much easier (I never once saw a jar or packet of yeast in her kitchen). She’d roll small pieces of dough into…
I decided to see what would happen if I played around with my Sweet dough recipe – adding apple cider instead of milk, for an Autumn-ish type of breakfast bun. The rolls came out beautifully, with the faintest apple flavor. I’m not one for apple chunks in my buns and rolls (I find them distracting), so instead, to draw out the apple flavor, I opted for an apple…
Nigel Slater describes an apple in his book Ripe as a “quick hit,” but the pear as “something to take our time over.” I would have to agree and have always been partial to pears over apples, especially when it comes to pies. Here, however, I’ve combined them; this pie is chockfull of fresh pears, and their juice is cooked down with a good splash of hard apple…
Pumpkin Scones These scones are a family favorite, and might be what we wake up to this Christmas morning. “If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it.” —Lucy Larcom NOTES: Putting another baking sheet nestled directly underneath the one the scones are on helps keep the bottoms of the scones from browning too quickly before they fully bake. If you like the bottoms extra…
We’ve had a heat wave here in Minneapolis, which I’ve welcomed with open arms for two reasons: last year we were robbed of a fall (it rained and was cold and the sun rarely shone and we never got our bright, crisp, Autumn days) and I’m not ready to let go of summer quite yet. I’m still drinking an Iced Americano through out the day, my windows are…
This post is sponsored by California Walnuts. As always, all opinions are my own. I’m a fan of cake, of course, and while I’ve made plenty of layer cakes and snack cakes on this site, I realized that I could also do with a sheet cake, an essential for birthday parties, picnics, and other large get-togethers. This one is double chocolate, with sides coated in candied walnuts. I’ve…
There has been a slight chill in the air the past week – just the faintest whisperings of September – so naturally I found myself in the kitchen baking bundt cakes. I used to make an Espresso Bundt Cake back in my bakery days, but I found the recipe slightly lacking and dry when remaking it in my home kitchen. I decided to revamp my Lemon Poppy Seed…
