Snickerdoodle Bars

 Um.  OMG.  These were so delicious.  Chewy. Sweet.  Cinnamony.  Make these.  Yum.

Snickerdoodle Bars (or Blondies)
Source: Lovin' from the Oven

Ingredients:
2 2/3 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp salt
2 C brown sugar
1 C butter, softened
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla
2 tbsp white sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of turbinado sugar

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9×13 pan. 

-Combine flour baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and set aside.

-In a large bowl, beat together butter and brown sugar until creamy.  Add in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, and beat until smooth.

-Stir in the flour mixture until well blended. Spread evenly in prepared pan (I had to use my fingers to press into place.  This dough is thick). Combine the granulated sugar, cinnamon, and turbinado sugar in a little bowl. Evenly sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture over the top of the batter.

-Bake 25-30 minutes or until surface springs back when gently pressed. Cool before cutting. Makes 20-24 bars.  They are very thick and almost rich, so make the cuts on the smaller side.

Perfect Apple Crisp

Not going to lie. This WAS pretty perfect. Perfect crunchy top. Perfect warm and gooey apples. Just...perfect! And the best part? Super easy to make!

The Perfect Apple Crisp

as seen on The Girl Who Ate Everything, adapted from Allrecipes,

Ingredients

10 cups all-purpose apples, peeled, cored and sliced (I used about 6 Granny Smith apples)

3/4 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 cups quick-cooking oats

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup butter, melted
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.Place the sliced apples in a 9x13 inch pan. Mix the white sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, nutmeg, and ground cinnamon together, and sprinkle over apples.

3.Combine the oats, 2 cups flour, brown sugar, pecans, baking powder, baking soda and melted butter together. Crumble evenly over the apple mixture.

4.Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

Banana Split Cake

I made this for the 4th of July and HOLY COW was it amazing. Everyone who tasted it loved it and it was really pretty easy. Sometime I will FOR SURE be making again because it was such a huge success. Perfect for a hot summer day because it is a cool and refreshing dessert.

Banana Split Cake
adapted from Kraft.com

Ingredients:
9 graham cracker crumbs
1 cup sugar, divided
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 8-oz packages cream cheese, softened
1 can (20 oz.) crushed pineapple in juice, drained
6 bananas, divided
2 pkg. (3.4 oz. each) vanilla instant pudding
2 cups cold milk
2 cups thawed whipped topping (AKA: Cool Whip), divided
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Directions:
-Mix crumbs, 1/4 cup sugar and butter; press onto bottom of 13x9-inch pan. Freeze 10 min.
-Beat cream cheese and remaining sugar with mixer until well blended. Spread carefully over crust; top with pineapple. Slice 4 bananas; arrange over pineapple.
-Beat pudding mixes and milk with whisk 2 min. until well blended. Stir in 1 cup whipped topping; spread over banana layer in pan. Top with remaining whipped topping. Refrigerate 5 hours. Slice remaining 2 bananas just before serving; arrange over dessert. Top with nuts.

Triple Citrus Cheesecake

A refreshing cheesecake with lots of zippy citrus flavors. Perfect for an Easter dessert!


Triple Citrus Cheesecake
from Kraft.com

Ingredients

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, melted

4 pkg. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

2 Tbsp. flour

1 tsp. vanilla

4 eggs

1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice

1 Tbsp. fresh orange juice

1 tsp. grated lemon zest

1 tsp. grated lime zest
1 tsp. grated orange peel

Directions

Preheat oven to 325°F if using a silver 9-inch springform pan (or to 300°F if using a dark nonstick 9-inch springform pan). Mix crumbs, brown sugar and butter; press firmly onto bottom of pan. Bake 10 minutes.

Beat cream cheese, granulated sugar, flour and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. DO NOT OVER-BEAT. I apparently did, which is why my top cracked. Stir in remaining ingredients; pour over crust.

Bake 1 hour and 5 minutes or until center is almost set. Run knife or metal spatula around rim of pan to loosen cake; cool before removing rim of pan. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Store leftover cheesecake in refrigerator.

Apple Cake

A staple at most of our holiday parties and family gatherings, my mom's apple cake is always a hit. For Halloween, I decided to make this to serve with hot cider upon our trick or treaters' return. Delicious and moist and relatively easy, it is definitely worth serving at any fall gathering.

Mom's Apple Cake
Ingredients
3 Eggs
1 1/2 C sugar
1 C oil
2 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C chopped nuts (optional)
4-6 apples, peeled and chopped (I used 5)

Directions
-Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x13 baking pan
-Beat eggs, sugar and oil until well blended. Add rest of dry ingredients and combine.
-Fold in apples
-Spread in pan and bake for one hour, until golden brown on top.

7 Days of Pumpkin: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Another score from Annie's Eats. This girl loves pumpkin as much as I do and her blog is chock full of yummy pumpkin recipes to try. If you are a fan of the Starbucks pumpkin cream cheese muffins, these are very close to that, with the added bonus of a crunchy streusel topping.
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
Makes 24 muffins ( I found this to be exact!)
as seen on Annie's Eats, adapted from BakeSpace

Ingredients:

For the muffins:

3 cups flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. ground cloves

1 tbsp. and 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

4 eggs

1 ¼ cups vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

2 cups pumpkin puree

For the filling:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

For the streusel topping:

½ cup sugar

¼ cup and 1 tsp. flour

4 tbsp. butter, cubed

1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

Directions:

To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and powdered sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and whip until smooth. Form into a log on plastic wrap or foil, making sure that the diameter is small enough to fit into the well of a muffin pan. Wrap the log up tightly and freeze until slightly hardened, 1-2 hours.

To make the muffins, combine the flour, spices, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Mix well and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, sugar and pumpkin puree. Mix until well combined. Add in the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined.

To make the streusel topping, combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Mix together with a pastry blender or two forks until crumbly.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line two muffin pans with paper liners. To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well halfway with batter. Remove the cream cheese log from the freezer and slice into 24 equal slices. Place a slice in each muffin well. Divide the remaining muffin batter evenly among the muffin cups, on top of the cream cheese. Sprinkle the streusel topping over the top of the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool completely before serving.

7 Days of Pumpkin: Pumpkin Crunch

In honor of my favorite baking season, FALL!, I decided to dedicate the entire first week of October to all things pumpkin! My first recipe came from my mother-in-law, who knows I adore pumpkin. I have no clue where she originally got the recipe, but it was certainly yummy. The texture of the middle layer is very much like pumpkin pie! How can you go wrong??




Pumpkin Crunch

Ingredients:
1 box yellow cake mix (I would like to try with spice cake mix)
1 can pumpkin puree
1 can evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 1/2 C sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 C chopped pecans or walnuts
1 C butter, melted

Directions:
-Grease bottom of 9x13 pan and preheat oven to 350 degrees
-Combine pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a bowl with a mixer until well-blended.
-Mix well, pour into pan, and sprinkle dry cake mix on top. Top with nuts and drizzle melted butter on top.
-Bake for 50-55 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm and would be delish with a whipped topping or vanilla ice cream!

Zucchini Bread

A few years ago, I was working hallway duty during 1st period and one of the cafeteria workers brought me a piece of zucchini bread. It was the moistest, most delicious zucchini bread I had ever had and I begged her for the recipe. She brought it to me the next day and this has been my go-to recipe ever since! And I NEVER peel the zucchinis because I love seeing the little green flecks throughout the bread.
Zucchini Bread
Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients
3 C flour
3 eggs
2 C sugar
1 C oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 C grated zucchini (pared if desired, which I never do. I like the green flecks in the bread)
1 C chopped nuts (optional)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 C sour cream

Directions
1. Grease and flour two 9x5 loaf pans. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Sift flour into large bowl. Beat eggs and add with rest of ingredients to flour in bowl. Mix well making sure all the zucchini and flour is mixed into the batter.
3. Scrape bowl often and keep mixing for several minutes. Pour into greased pans and bake in oven for 1 hour. If toothpick comes out clean, bread is done. If not, check every 5 minutes until done.
4. Let cool in pans on wire racks and store in plastic wrap. Freezes well.

Blueberry Almond Cake with Lemon Drizzle

This recipe popped up yesterday from Beantown Baker and I knew I immediately had to make it. I made a list because I was missing a few things and ran to the grocery store. It was well worth the extra trip. It was simply amazing. The cheesecake filling covered in blueberries was an extra surprise and was creamy and delicious. It was pretty lemony, which is ok with me because I love lemon.

I would suggest using a springform pan; I used a 9-inch cake pan and it would have looked so much prettier had I been able to remove the cake from the pan. But my springforms are still packed away somewhere from when we moved (a year ago, yes). I also overbaked the actual cake part because the cream cheese filling wouldn't set. But, even with that, it was still AH-MAZING.

Blueberry Almond cake with Lemon Drizzle
as seen on Beantown Baker, adapted from Modern Comfort Food

Ingredients
For the cake: 1 1/2 cup flour 2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt A pinch of nutmeg, freshly ground 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature 1 cup brown sugar 2 eggs 2/3 cup plain yogurt 2 tsp fresh lemon juice 1/2 tsp almond extract

For the topping:
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 C sugar
1 tsp flour
1 egg
2 tsp lemon zest
2 C fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 C sliced almonds

For the drizzle:
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 C powdered sugar

Directions:
1.Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 9-inch round cake or spring form pan and lightly dust it with flour.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Gradually add 1 cup brown sugar and beat for approximately one minute until light and well blended. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for approximately two minutes after each addition. Alternately, add one-half of the flour mixture and one-half of the yogurt, beating briefly on low after each addition. Repeat. Stir in the lemon juice and almond extract. Pour the cake batter into the prepared baking pan.
4. In a mixing bowl, beat together the cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon flour, 1 egg, and the lemon zest for approximately two minutes until very smooth and creamy. Spoon this cheese mixture over the cake batter and spread, leaving a one-inch margin of cake batter exposed around the perimeter of the cake. Sprinkle the blueberries over the cream cheese mixture and the sliced almonds around the perimeter of the cake.
5. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake to room temperature and serve.
6. For the glaze, whisk together the lemon juice with the powdered sugar and drizzle the mixture over the top of the cake.

Berry Crumble

A delicious way to use all of those yummy summer berries! I did not have any raspberries, so I used some strawberries instead. I also doubled the recipe but am posting Ashlee's original recipe. If you can bear putting the oven on for a little bit during the heat of summer, this was definitely worth it!

Berry Crumble
courtesy of A Year in the Kitchen
Serves 4 (I doubled the recipe so we had a larger pan, which really just meant we had larger servings)

Ingredients
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
pinch of salt
1 tsp almond extract
1 lb cherries, pitted and halved
1 pint of blueberries
1 pint of blackberries
1/2 pint of raspberries (I used strawberries instead)


1/2 C rolled oats
1/4 C white whole wheat flour
1/4 C packed brown sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp butter, cold
1/4 C unsweetened applesauce

Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Directions
-Preheat oven to 325
-Mix berries with sugar, cornstarch, salt, and almond extract and pour into a baking dish.
-Mix oats, flour, brown sugar, salt, and baking powder.
-Cut butter into oat mixture with pastry cutter or forks.
-Add applesauce and stir to combine.
-Crumble oat mixture over berry mixture in baking dish.
-Bake 20-25 minutes; serve warm with a side of vanilla ice cream.

Berries-N-Bits

I wanted a light, refreshing dessert to serve while my brothers and sister-in-law were over for a cookout. A good friend made this for our Superbowl party and I had to make it again. It is a delicious switch to spring and summer desserts from the more heavy desserts of the fall and winter. Plus, who doesn't love teeny chocolate chips!

Berries-n-Bits
Ingredients
1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
1 large packet instant vanilla pudding mix
1 1/2 C cold water
1 tub whipped topping
36 vanilla wafers
3 qts strawberries or assorted berries (I used strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries)
3/4 C mini chocolate chips

Directions
-In a bowl, combine condensed milk and water and mix well. Add pudding mix and beat until smooth. Chill for 5 minutes. Fold in whipped topping.
-In bottom of 3 quart glass bowl, layer two cups of pudding mix. Top with half of cookies, half of berry mixture, half of chocolate chips. Add another layer of pudding, cookies, berries and chocolate chips. Garnish as desired.

PW's Carrot Cake

Oh my goodness gracious. I am so glad I stumbled across this recipe on Ree's blog! It was moist and delicious and the frosting was just sinful. It was a huge hit at our Easter dinner and several people asked for the recipe before leaving! But bake at your own risk: this icing is deadly. I decided to go for a bunt cake because I just did not have the time nor the patience to frost a layer cake and come up with a cute way to decorate it; I would not do it any other way now!
Sigrid's Carrot Cake
from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients
For the cake:
2 C sugar
1 C vegetable oil
4 whole eggs
2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 C shredded carrots (peeled)

For the icing:
(if making a layer cake, double the frosting recipe, but I had MORE than enough for a bundt cake)
1 stick regular butter, softened
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1 pound powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 C pecans, finely chopped

Directions:
-Mix together sugar, oil and eggs in a large bowl. In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add to first mixture and combine. Stir in carrots.
-Pour into a greased/floured pan of your choice. Bake at 350 degrees until finished (25-50 minutes, depending on what pan you use. For a bundt, I baked mine for 50. A sheet cake will need WAY less).
-Cool cake completely before frosting.
-While cake is cooling, combine cream cheese and butter. Add sugar and vanilla and beat until combine. Frost cake. YUM!

Mini Cheesecakes

I love cheesecake. Like, REALLY love cheesecake. And when I was looking for an additional dessert to serve on Easter, I found these bookmarked and decided to give them a whirl.

What a huge pain in the ass they were, too. Katie warns about the Nilla wafers being too large. And sure enough, they were. If I was going to make these again I would make two adjustments. The first would be make a crumb crust of the Nilla wafers and the second would be MORE LEMON!

Mini Cheescakes
Courtesy of Good Things Catered, originally from Gourmet

Ingredients:
About 30 Nilla wafers
1 8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1/3 C sugar
2 tbsp sour cream
1 egg
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 375
-Line mini cupcake tin with liners and place one Nilla wafer in the bottom of each (warning: the stupid Nilla wafers will be too big; be prepared to shave some off)
-In bowl of stand mixer, combine cream cheese and sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
-Add sour cream and egg and mix well to combine.
-Scrape sides of bowl, add lemon and vanilla, and mix well to combine
-Remove bowl from mixer, scrape sides, and beat by hand to ensure ingredients are well mixed.
-Using a mini cookie scoop or teaspoon, fill cups almost to the top.
-Bake for 15 minutes
-Refridgerate at least 4 hours before serving

Brownie Pudding

February's flavor of the month from Bake at 350: CHOCOLATE!  My favorite!

I was finally able to participate!  And lucky me that this recipe popped up on my Google Reader just in time!  It was warm and deliciously rich...and FOTM gave me an excuse to make it on a random weeknight!

Brownie Pudding

as seen on Annie's Eats, from Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics by Ina Garten

Ingredients

½ lb. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the dish

4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
¾ cup cocoa powder
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

Directions

-Preheat the oven to 325˚ F.  Lightly butter a 2-quart oval baking dish.  Melt the 2 sticks of butter and set aside to cool.

-In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the eggs and sugar.  Beat together on medium-high speed until thick and light yellow in color.  Meanwhile, combine the flour and cocoa powder in a medium bowl and whisk together until blended.

-When the eggs and sugar are finished mixing, scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the mixing bowl.  Add the flour-cocoa powder mixture to the bowl as well.  Mix on low speed just until combined.  With the mixer still on low, slowly pour the melted butter and mix again just until combined.

-Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.  Place the baking dish in a larger baking pan.  Add very hot tap water to the outer baking pan to create a water bath, coming halfway up the side of the baking dish.  Bake for 60 minutes.  The center will appear very under-baked, that is the way the dessert should be ( I think I baked mine for just a few minutes too long because it was not as gooey as Annie's).  Allow to cool slightly before serving with ice cream.

Pumpkin Blondies

So, in the whirlwind that is fall and winter baking, I stocked up on two things: cans of pumpkin and cranberries.  The cranberries are frozen, just waiting for a random spring or summer day when I am longing for that tangy treat.  And this week, I have been craving something pumpkin.  I have had this recipe saved for AGES and saw someone else make pumpkin blondies on another random blog, so decided now was the time to try them.

Per Annie's directions, I used white chocolate and butterscotch chips and she was correct; it is the perfect combination.  It cheered me up on a very dreary Cleveland February day!

Pumpkin Blondies

courtesy of Annie's Eats

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. salt
16 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1¼ cups granulated sugar (or brown sugar)
1 large egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
½ cup chopped, toasted nuts (optional)

Directions:

-Preheat oven to 350

-Line a 9x13 pan with foil

-In a medium bowl, combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt.  Whisk and set aside.

-In bowl of electric mixer, fitted with paddle attachment, beat together sugar and butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

-Beat in egg and vanilla until well-combined.

-Mix in the pumpkin puree.

-Turn mixer to low and slowly add dry ingredients, mixing until just incorporated.

-Fold in white chocolate and butterscotch chips (and nuts) with rubber spatula

-Spread batter evenly in a prepared pan.  Bake until the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs, about 35-40 minutes.

-Transfer pan to wire rack and cool completely before serving.  To serve, lift the cake in the foil from the pan, remove the foil, and cut into 24 squares.

Pumpkin Roll

Pumpkin roll. YUM. A delightful Thanksgiving recipe, but something I found intimidating.

That is, until this year.

Now? In all honesty, this is a super easy dessert to make and is always a hit with a crowd! And anyone I talk to has said that Libby's recipe (as in, the canned pumpkin people) is the best recipe. Ina Garten even used the cake recipe on her Food Network Thanksgiving special!

Libby's Pumpkin Roll and Cream Cheese Filling

Courtesy of Libby's

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 1/4 C powdered sugar (to sprinkle on towel)
• 3/4 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 large eggs
• 1 C granulated sugar
• 2/3 C pure pumpkin puree
• 1 C chopped walnuts (optional)

Filling:

• 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
• 1 C powdered sugar, sifted
• 6 tbsp butter or margarine, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Powdered sugar (optional for decoration)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375° F. Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan; line with wax paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle a thin, cotton kitchen towel with powdered sugar.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and granulated sugar in large mixer bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts.

Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. (If using a dark-colored pan, begin checking for doneness at 11 minutes.) Immediately loosen and turn cake onto prepared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together, starting with narrow end. Cool on wire rack.

Bake cream cheese, 1 cup powdered sugar, butter and vanilla extract in small mixer bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake.

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

Fall Harvest Bread: Cranberry Edition

Just after finding this recipe, Katie updated it with new ingredients! And because I have been stocking up on cranberries for the upcoming season, I just HAD to make it! Instead of pecans, I used walnuts because I had them. It is a wonderfully moist and dense bread, so definitely have a cup of coffee or glass of milk handy! I doubled the recipe and packaged up a loaf for someone that C works with who had given him a non-working riding lawnmower, which C then rebuilt and it now works like a charm!

Fall Harvest Bread
Courtesy of Good Things Catered (an updated version of this recipe, with cranberries...YUM!)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. light brown sugar
1/2 can (or 7.5 oz) pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
1/4 c. oil
1/4 c. applesauce
1/4 c. milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 medium apple (I like granny smith) peeled, cored, and diced
1 c. fresh cranberries
1 c. chopped pecans (I used walnuts)

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Prepare 9x5 loaf pan or 5 mini loaf pans(or can sub muffin pan or double recipe for cake/bundt pan).
-In large bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and whisk to combine.
-In another large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, oil, applesauce, milk, vanilla and stir to combine well.
-Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until just barely blended..
-Fold in apples, cranberries and pecans.
-Spoon batter into prepared pan (it will be all lumpy - don't worry).
-Bake for 60-70 minutes (35-40 minutes for mini loaves) or until wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean.
-Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 10 minutes.
-Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack completely (makes the slices much more clean.

Fall Harvest Bread

Pumpkin and apples. Perfect! Katie recently posted an updated version of this on her blog with fresh cranberries and pecans and I think I am going to give it a whirl this weekend! I still have some granny smiths in the fridge so why not? And seriously. The lighting in my kitchen SUCKS.

Fall Harvest Bread
adapted from RecipeZaar, discovered on Good Things Catered

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. light brown sugar
1/2 can (or 7.5 oz) canned pumpkin
2 large eggs
1/4 c. oil
1/4 c. applesauce
1/4 c. apple juice (I did not have any, but used apple cider!)
1 small apple (I like granny smith) peeled, cored, and diced

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Spray 9x5 loaf pan (or can sub muffin pan or double recipe for cake/bundt pan) with pam with flour for baking -- or grease and flour.
-Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt in bowl.
-Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, oil, applesauce, and juice in large bowl.
-Mix until just blended.
-Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture and stir until just moistened.
-Fold in apples.
-Spoon batter into prepared pan (it will be all lumpy - don't worry).
-Bake for 60-70 minutes or until wooken pick inserted into center comes out clean.

Apple Biscuit Bars

These were awesome. The apple filling was perfectly cinnamony and the biscuits were not too sweet and moist as can be. The perfect after-dinner dessert, and since it is only an 8x8 pan, we did not have a ton of leftovers to tempt me this week!

Apple Biscuit Bars

courtesy of Good Things Catered

Ingredients:
2 ½ c. flour
½ c. sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 stick butter, chilled.
¾ c. milk
1 tsp vanilla

6 small apples, peeled, cored and diced
2/3 c. sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 packet gelatin

1 egg white
raw sugar

Directions:
-In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
-Whisk to combine and cut butter into dry ingredients until pieces about pea-size.
-Add milk and vanilla and mix lightly until combined into a soft dough.
-Wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
-Meanwhile, combine apples, sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice in saucepan over medium heat.
-Cook, stirring occasionally until apples soften well, about 20 minutes.
-Stir in gelatin, boil for 30 seconds and move from heat and set aside to cool.
-Preheat oven to 425 degrees and prepare an 8x8 pan.
-Remove dough from fridge, divide in half, and spread half of biscuit mixture into bottom of baking pan.
-Spread apple mixture over top of biscuit mixture.
-Roll out remaining biscuit dough, place on top of apple mixture.
-Brush with egg white, sprinkle with raw sugar and place into oven to bake.
-Bake until biscuit top turns slightly golden brown and center is bubbling, about 25 minutes.
-Remove from oven and let cool completely before cutting and serving.

Notice the layers...YUM!