Soft Pumpkin Cookies (Pumpkin Cake Bites)

Some people like crunchy cookies, other likes soft, chewy cookies- I like both, but today I’m standing up for cakey cookies. Perhaps these would be better named as cake bites, since the dough is looser than normal cookie dough and the resulting texture is more like a cakey pumpkin blondie than a cookie, but the [...]

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Chicken Pot Pie with Easiest Pastry Crust

Just look at that photo above- do I even need to say anything to encourage you to make this pot pie? Feel free to bake this in individual ramekins so you can serve them in their baking dishes. With this rustic dish, that would be a beautiful presentation. Interestingly enough, this dough is very similar [...]

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Eggless Chinese Five Spice Cookies

pretty pecan pinwheels! As I continue with my baking kick, my mind turns to cost. What ingredients can I cut out and still have a great cookie? Butter? No way. Sugar? Not in a million. Flour? Fat chance. Eggs? Hmm….And that’s where we begin. In nearly every traditional cookie recipe, eggs lend texture, flavor, rise, [...]

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Easiest Cookies, Part 1: Chocolate-Dipped Pecan Meringues

Ok, so I guess I’m on a baking kick. Its just that D and I have a few friends coming over to watch football tonight and tomorrow night, and I couldn’t help but bake some goodies to munch on during the game. I made both palmiers (recipe in part deux) and chocolate-dipped pecan meringues (recipe [...]

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Pumpkin White Chocolate Cream Puff “Napoleon”

There are some no-brainer food combinations that come to mind when I think of things to make for dessert: chocolate and mint, chocolate and cherry, chocolate and coconut, chocolate and almond, chocolate and peanut butter, white chocolate and berries, hmm…chocolate, white, milk, or dark, seems to compliment an inexhaustible list of flavors, huh? However, chocolate [...]

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Slow Cooker Oatmeal with Baked Pears

Healthy and decadent are two words that seldom appear in the same sentence, but this breakfast is entitled to both descriptions. While winter doesn’t offer as plentiful a bounty as the other seasons, there is no excuse to exclude fruit from your breakfast. When its cold outside and snow covers the ground, all we can [...]

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Your New Favorite Chocolate Pecan Pie

I used to work at this company where a few of my friends who like to cook would get together every Wednesday and one person would make lunch for the rest of the group. People in the group called it the “lunch club”, while people who wished they were in the group called it the [...]

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To-Die-For Pumpkin Ginger Bars

Of all four seasons, autumn has the best food. Its like Goldilocks and the three (well, four..) bears: Winter’s food is too heavy, Summer (and Spring) food is too light, and Autumn’s just right. Vegetables and Fruits get the attention they deserve, and the spices are warm without being heavy, simultaneously sweet and savory. It [...]

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Getting Back to the Basics: Banana Muffins

Newton’s third law states that “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction,” so it comes as no surprise that the fast food industry is currently being attacked by a stronger-than-ever coalition of extremely vocal and well-supported food alarmists. Now don’t get upset, I’m no fast food junkie. However, I do believe in [...]

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Baking with Lorna Sass (2007 James Beard Award Winner!)

Smart Bran Whole Wheat Raisin Cookies Photo from Nature’s Path Let’s face it, many of us cooks pride ourselves on knowing how to make something healthy taste good, even if we’re not super health-conscious eaters. After all, its much easier to make something with loads of fat and sugar taste good, since as we know [...]

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