I am doing a happy dance tonight because we just ordered a new refrigerator! I am super stoked. It's so much bigger than the one we have now, and the freezer is on the bottom. It'll be nice to not have to squat to get things out of the fridge. Plus, since we are getting this new one, we will have a refrigerator in the garage now. No more having to borrow space in other people's fridges and freezers. Things are looking up for this holiday baking season!

Anyway, these cookies. People love these. It's a spiced cookie that has chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and toffee pieces in it. They're soft, chewy, and have a great blend of flavors. While these aren't my personal favorites (because I'm not a big butterscotch fan), I know a lot of people who absolutely love them. I always make a huge batch of them over the holidays. Cookies are one of my favorite things to bake, so I'm looking forward to sharing a lot of cookie recipes with you guys in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

Butterscotch Spice Cookies Recipe
Makes about 5 dozen
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1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch ginger
Pinch nutmeg
Pinch cloves
3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1/2 cup English toffee bits

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time until blended. Scrape down the bowl as needed. Add in the vanilla, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves and mix until combined. Add in flour and mix on low until incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, toffee bits, and walnuts (if using).
 
Form the dough into one-inch balls and place on an ungreased baking sheet two inches apart from each other. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool on the pan for one minute and then remove to a wire rack or a flat surface to cool.

Source: Taste of Home Fall Baking Cookbook 2010

I have been searching for cinnamon chips everywhere. I love cinnamon, so I knew that cinnamon chips would be right up my alley. I had almost given up and was going to order them online until I was browsing Walmart. And guess what...there they were on one of their baking endcaps! So, I did what any normal person would do--a happy dance and then I bought four bags. And then I busted them open as soon as I got home. Hey...at least I made it home first. I have been known to tear into a loaf of bread in the mile from the grocery store to my house because it was too tempting.

I debated about what to do with these four bags of amazing goodness and I settled on snickerdoodles for my first experience. And they were a huge success. I love my snickerdoodle recipe. They're soft and they stay soft, which is a very important quality for cookies in my opinion. Studded with these cinnamon chips, they are incredible. If you don't have or can't find cinnamon chips (but check out Walmart!), they are just as good without them. I served these to a group of guys who were watching an Ohio State football game, and there was one left at the end of it. Considering there were only three guys eating them, I'd say that's a very successful cookie recipe.

Cinnamon Chip Snickerdoodle Recipe
Makes about 2 dozen
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1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup cinnamon chips

1 cup cinnamon sugar

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the egg and beat on low until combined. Add in the cream of tartar, baking soda, and vanilla and mix until combined. Mix in the flour until incorporated. Fold in the cinnamon chips.
 
Form the dough into one-inch balls and roll in the cinnamon sugar. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper and place the balls about two inches apart from each other. Bake for 12 minutes until the edges are set and let cool on the sheet for one minute. Remove to a flat surface to cool.

Source: Adapted from somewhere, but I don't remember...it's been years since I got this recipe. If it's yours, please let me know!

The first time I ever made an apple pie, it didn't go so well. I think I cheated and used a pre-made crust, but I spent a lot of time peeling, coring, and slicing apples. I put it all together and was excited about how amazing it smelled. And then I cut into it and found that there was a pool inside my pie. All of the apple slices were hanging out in a crazy amount of delicious-smelling liquid. Mocking me. I hate kitchen failures, but I really hate baking failures. So I didn't give up but I did get smart and take a pie class at a local cooking school.

While the class was great and taught me a lot (and boy did I have a lot of questions for that poor instructor), the pie crust recipe never worked outside of the class. I hate that. However, I got the recipe for this amazing apple streusel pie, and this alone made the price of the class well worth it. If you like apple pie, brown sugar, and oatmeal cookies, you will love this pie. Like shove it in your face love it. Essentially it is a thick brown sugar oatmeal cookie on top of an apple pie. I swoon. I had to get this pie out of my house because I had resigned myself that I would eat the entire thing, fork by fork, until it was gone. I figured it would take me a week or so, but I knew I could and would do it. I had zero will power when it came to this pie. So when my parents called looking for a dessert, I happily told them they could eat the rest of my pie. Let them test their will power! I highly recommend you make this for Thanksgiving and Christmas and every other time of year when the calling for pie hits because this one is absolutely incredible.

Apple Streusel Pie Recipe
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1 9-inch pie crust, unbaked

For the filling:
3-4 cups Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced (about 3 apples)
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon butter, melted

For the streusel topping:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup oats
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons butter, cold (1 1/2 sticks)

Press the pie crust into the pie plate and crimp the edges.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and move a rack to the lower third of your oven. This should keep the pie crust from browning too rapidly.

In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch, and cinnamon. Add the apples and toss to coat. Drizzle the lemon juice and melted butter on top of the apples and stir until coated. Spoon into the prepared pie crust.
 
To make the streusel topping, mix together the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Use a pastry blender or fork to cut the cold butter into the brown sugar mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Pour this mixture on top of the apples, making sure it goes all the way to the crust. It's a lot of topping, but you'll want to use all of it.  

Bake for 50-60 minutes or until the pie is bubbly around the edges. Check the pie halfway through to ensure the crust isn't getting too brown on the top. If it is, cover it loosely with foil. Let cool before serving.  

Recipe from Kitchen Table Cooking School

It may surprise some of the people who know me, but I haven't always been a baking and cooking enthusiast. Through high school, I regularly ate parmesan noodles and grilled cheese sandwiches. When I was a single girl, I was all about pasta, pasta, and more pasta. I bought treats from the grocery store. (I know, right? I couldn't even splurge for bakery treats.) If I made chocolate chip cookies, it was purely so I could store the dough in fridge and chow down on it over a couple of days. (I wanted to say a week there to make myself look a little better but we're all friends here, right?) And then when I got too lazy to do that, I bought the packaged cookie dough (again from the store) and kept that in my fridge. I'm not saying that I never baked...every year before Christmas, my mom and I made a large assortment of cookies from her 1974 red Betty Crocker cookbook that she got from her mom at her bridal shower, I made boxed brownies, and cakes from mixes.

My first cookbooks were ones on how to doctor up cake mixes, recipes for your bread machine, Cooking for One (yikes! Singledom!), and Weight Watchers for when I thought I weighed more than I should, which is extremely ironic because now I wish that I weighed what I weighed back then and I don't have that cookbook anymore. In fact, I don't think I ever made a recipe from it either. 

So when did I make the turn you ask? I think it was mainly when I started dating my now-husband, Shamus. I knew that I couldn't get away with serving pasta for every meal (although I tried and now he has a serious aversion to it). Cooking for two is so much more fun and interesting than cooking for yourself. I started baking more regularly, too. He loves chocolate chip cookies, so I set out to find the perfect recipe since I actually had to start baking my cookies. I took a community college cake decorating class before I met him and learned some good tricks and slowly started to bake more often. Getting a Kitchen Aid mixer certainly helped me want to bake more often. 

One day I was baking with a friend, and we were going to make sugar cookies and oatmeal raisin cookies. I was making my family recipe for the sugar cookies, but I wanted to find a great recipe for soft and flavorful oatmeal raisin cookies. I did some internet hunting and found this one. I'm in love with these. They're soft and stay soft (because that's what makes a good cookie in my opinion), and they have wonderful spices. They're perfect at any time of the year, but they're especially great during fall with lots of cinnamon and cloves. If you have raisins that have been sitting in your pantry for awhile (guilty!), letting them soak in hot water for about 10 minutes really plumps them up and softens them. I highly recommend it.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies Recipe
Makes about 40 cookies
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1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups oats
1 cup raisins

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spray baking sheets with non-stick spray.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugars with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add in the vanilla, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt and mix until combined. Mix in the flour and then add the oats. Once the oats are fully incorporated, mix in the raisins.

Form the cookie dough into one-inch balls and place 2 inches apart from each other on the greased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are lightly brown. Cool for two minutes on the sheet before removing to a flat surface to cool completely. Store in an airtight container or bag.

Source: I don't remember where I got it...maybe Allrecipes? If you know, please tell me!

I have a confession to make...I've never had granola. The thing is, I don't like yogurt. At all. And since most people (I think) put their granola on top of yogurt, it's not something I've ever really been interested in. Until, that is, I saw it on this website. I love pumpkin, and I love pumpkin/fall spices. So you pair that with some oatmeal and other mix-ins and then bake it, I can get behind that.

When I read the recipe, it looked like a lot of sugar to me. While I like sugar, if I'm really going to be eating my calories at breakfast, I want a croissant or a cinnamon roll. Granola is supposed to be healthy, right? So I cut down the sugar. This (obviously) makes it less sweet, but I think it's great. I went light on the mix-ins and only added in larger amounts of raisins, pumpkin seeds, and pecans. Most people are more adventurous than me, so I'm going to include the recipe for all the mix-ins below. Feel free to add/subtract whatever you want. You can definitely make this recipe what you want. And certainly serve it over a container of yogurt, or if you're like me, in a bowl of milk.

Pumpkin Granola Recipe
Makes 4-5 cups
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3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups old-fashioned oats
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup pecan halves, chopped
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

In a large bowl, stir together the pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, brown sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla. Add in the oats and other mix-ins and stir until everything is coated and combined.

Spread onto the baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 20 minutes. Stir and then bake for another 15-20 minutes. Let cool completely; it will harden/crisp as it cools. Store in an airtight container or bag.
 
Source: Barely adapted from A Bitchin' Kitchen who adapted it from Pastry Affair

After 20 hours of traveling, I'm back home in Denver from France. However, I still am crazy jetlagged, so I'm going to keep this short and sweet. Definitely sweet.

Last week I told you that I would show you a great variation on the pumpkin muffins. Well, here you go. Pumpkin cupcakes with caramel frosting or a cinnamon cream cheese frosting. I really couldn't decide which was my favorite, so I highly recommend that you do whatever sounds best and then try the other one with your next batch. Decisive, right? Sorry, like I said, I'm jetlagged. The caramel buttercream tastes very fall-like and the cinnamon cream cheese frosting provides a nice tang. I had some leftover cream cheese frosting in my freezer, so I dusted cinnamon on top of the frosting, but you can mix it in  the frosting. That's probably what I'd do next time, even though the dusting is pretty. Either way, these cupcakes will be a big hit!   

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese or Caramel Frosting Recipe
Makes 36 cupcakes
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Note: This provides recipes for a cinnamon cream cheese frosting and a caramel frosting. Both are wonderful paired with the pumpkin cake, so I recommend you choose which one sounds best to you. You don't need to make both.

For the cupcakes:
2 1/4 cups sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/3 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
4 eggs
15 ounce can of pumpkin
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup canola oil

For the cinnamon cream cheese frosting:
1 1/2 packages cream cheese (12 ounces)
12 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2-1 teaspoon cinnamon

For the caramel  frosting:
1/2 cup butter
8 ounces brown sugar (about 1 cup + 2 tablespoons packed)
1/4 cup milk
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 cups powdered sugar

To make the cupcakes, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together the first nine ingredients. Form a well in the dry ingredients, and add the eggs, pumpkin, buttermilk, applesauce, and oil into the middle. Mix those ingredients together, and then stir everything together until just incorporated. Line 36 muffin tins with liners. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter into the liners or until they're about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.

To make the cream cheese frosting, in your mixing bowl fitted with the paddle, cream together the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla and salt and mix until incorporated. Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time and mix until smooth. It's best to weigh your powdered sugar because your amount in cups will depend on your humidity. Mix in 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and taste. If you like a stronger cinnamon flavor, add more. Transfer to a piping bag and pipe onto cooled cupcakes. 

To make the caramel frosting, in a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add in the brown sugar and bring to a boil while stirring. Stir in the milk, baking soda, and corn syrup and bring to a boil again. Remove from heat and cool completely (about an hour). Transfer to a mixing bowl, add the powdered sugar, and mix on medium speed until it's creamy and smooth. Transfer the frosting to a piping bag and pipe onto the cupcakes.
 
Sources: Cupcakes from Taste of Home, cream cheese frosting from The Pioneer Woman cookbook, caramel frosting from Big Book of Cupcakes 

I love pumpkin, but I never really started using it for more than pumpkin pie until a few years ago. In fact, I never really knew the amazing-ness that is pumpkin bread until I went to a work meeting in Chicago about five years ago in the month of October. There was a Starbucks in the hotel, and I needed some breakfast. I had never really gone to Starbucks before because I am not a lover of coffee, so I checked out their pastry case and chose a piece of pumpkin bread. And then I fell in love. In a big way. When I got home from my meeting, I researched recipes for pumpkin spice bread and haven't turned back since. Let's face it, I cannot pay $4 for a piece of the bread. So now I can get my fix whenever I want it.

Another beauty of this recipe is that it's a one bowl, mix by hand recipe. It's so easy...maybe a little too easy.

This is a recipe that I do not adjust for high altitude. It works great as is. This recipe makes two loaves so you can make two and eat both or freeze one (they do freeze well), or you could make a loaf and muffins or cupcakes. I'll show you the cupcake variation next week. Because really, what could go wrong when you add some frosting?

Pumpkin Spice Bread and Muffins Recipe
Makes two loaves or 36 muffins or a combination
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2 1/4 cups sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/3 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
4 eggs
15 ounce can of pumpkin
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/3 cup canola oil

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together the first nine ingredients. Form a well in the dry ingredients, and add the eggs, pumpkin, buttermilk, applesauce, and oil into the middle. Mix those ingredients together, and then stir everything together until just incorporated. If you're making loaves of bread, divide the batter between two greased 9-inch loaf pans. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans.

If you're making muffins, line 36 muffin tins with liners. Spoon about 1/4 cup of batter into the liners or until they're about 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool before eating.
 
Source: Taste of Home 

Hello best breakfast ever. I was trying to think of creative ways to use apples, and I came up with apple pie plus cinnamon roll. And then I wanted to use the sauce that I fell in love with because, well, because I want to put that sauce on everything. Even my mashed potatoes...well, maybe I wouldn't go that far. Maybe. So, you have apple pie cinnamon rolls with a brown butter cinnamon rum glaze. And I should stop talking there because if that hasn't convinced you, I don't know what will. Seriously people. You need these in your life.

I'm not going to lie, they do take a little bit of time to make. But, you can split things up. You could make the bread dough, the apples, and the glaze on one day and then you could assemble and bake the second day. If I wanted to devour these on a Sunday morning, I would make the bread dough on Saturday and stick it in the fridge to rise. On Saturday, I also would make the apples and then place them in the fridge to cool and stay put until I needed them. You could make the glaze on Saturday or while the rolls are baking on Sunday. So, there is some work, but it's manageable and soo worth the effort!

Because really, aren't you worth the work of apple pie + cinnamon rolls + brown butter + cinnamon rum? I think everyone is. By the way, if you don't drink or you have kids, it's not really rum. It's rum extract. It lends a warmth to the glaze without the buzz. So please, go make these. Like now.

Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
Makes about 24 cinnamon rolls
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For the dough:
6 1/4 cups all purpose flour (794 g/28 ounces)
2 teaspoons salt
6 tablespoons sugar
5 teaspoons instant yeast
2 cups + 2 tablespoons lukewarm milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil

For the apple filling:
4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice

For the brown butter glaze:
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon rum extract
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon

To make the dough, mix the yeast with the sugar and warm milk and let sit for about 5 minutes. Measure the flour into the bowl of your mixer, add in the yeast mixture and oil, and mix with the paddle until everything is incorporated. Add in the salt, switch to the dough hook, and mix on low speed until a smooth, tacky ball of dough forms. Transfer the dough to a greased bowl, cover it, and let it rise until doubled, about 1-2 hours.   

When the dough is almost done rising, make the filling. In a large saucepan, stir together the sugar, cinnamon, and cornstarch. Add in the sliced apples and lemon juice. Cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat and let cool for about 5 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

To assemble the rolls, divide the dough in half. Roll it out on a floured surface into a long rectangle, about 15x25 inches or so. The dough will be thin. Spread half of the apple filling onto each rectangle. The apples won't cover the entire rectangle, but you want to make sure they're evenly spaced and that the juice covers the rectangle. Roll the dough up from the long side and then cut it into 2-inch pieces. Place the slices into greased cake pans, cut side down. Let sit for about 15 minutes to rise. Bake for 25-30 minutes until browned on top and cooked through.

To make the glaze, in a medium saucepan melt the butter. Stir and watch as it gets foamy and then starts to turn brown. When it turns into a dark honey color and smells nutty, quickly stir in the sugar, flour, and salt. Gradually add the water. Bring to a boil and cook and stir for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add in the extracts and cinnamon. Pour on top of the warm cinnamon rolls.

Dough recipe from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day
Glaze recipe adapted from Taste of Home Fall Baking Cookbook

I first saw this recipe two years ago and ripped it out of my Taste of Home magazine and placed it in my recipe binder. And then I kept coming across it but never actually made it. I've said before that I'm not really a big fancy pancake eater. I like the simple classics. But I finally tried these, and now I'm kicking myself. Why oh why didn't I do this sooner?? The pancakes, as you would expect with any good pumpkin recipe, are very moist and flavorful. The cinnamon brown butter? Oh my. I halved the entire recipe since the hubs doesn't like pancakes, and I poured half of the butter over the stack. Clearly I was watching my diet that morning! It was worth it though...it's such a great fall morning breakfast that I definitely will be making often. 

By the way, this recipe calls for ricotta cheese. I wasn't expecting that, and since I didn't read the recipe ahead of time, I did not have any ricotta. After scouring my fridge, I did see cottage cheese. Normally I would pulse the cottage cheese in my food processor to get rid of the clumps, but I was lazy and didn't want to pull it out. So I mashed it with a fork. There were still small clumps in my pancake batter, but it tasted just fine to me. I wouldn't really recommend using cottage cheese as is though. Next time I'm planning on buying some ricotta so I can try them with that. 

I wasn't planning on sharing this recipe for a few more weeks, but it's supposed to snow in Denver Saturday morning so I'm busting them out. And if I'm enjoying them, you should too!

Pumpkin Pancakes with Cinnamon Brown Butter Recipe
Makes about 16 pancakes
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For the butter:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

For the pancakes:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/3 cup milk
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup ricotta cheese

In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and keep it on the stove until it foams and then starts to turn brown. Scrape up the brown bits, add the cinnamon, nutmeg, and maple syrup, and remove from heat. Stir in the pecans if using (or you can place them on top of your finished pancakes). 

In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, milk, sugar, pumpkin, and ricotta cheese. Stir in the brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add in the flour and stir until just incorporated. 

Heat a skillet over medium heat and spray with cooking spray or melted butter. Drop about 1/4 cup of batter on the skillet and cook until bubbles form on the top (about a few minutes). Flip the pancakes and cook until golden brown. Serve with the butter. 

Source: Taste of Home  

Do you ever have a late-night craving for dessert but don't want to ruin the healthy eating you've done during the day? This happens to me pretty frequently. My mom told me about this dessert years ago, and it's pretty perfect. Essentially it's apple pie filling so you lose the calories from pie crust, and you don't have to eat that stuff that comes from the can. Is that really even apples?

This really should be "baked" apples because it's done in the microwave. Hence the easy part. I indicated in the recipe to use one tablespoon of butter but you could easily halve that amount to save some calories. Another way to save calories is to use Splenda or another sweetener. But I know there are people out there who think that sweeteners are the devil more or less, so use what you prefer. The next time you have a dessert craving in a bad way, I highly recommend this.

Easy "Baked" Cinnamon Apples Recipe
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1 apple, peeled, cored, and sliced
1 tablespoon butter
1 packet of Splenda or 1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Microwave for 3-4 minutes, stirring halfway through, or until apples are tender.