So you’ve been sharing space with the dog for a week now. You thought that since you like getting power tools for gifts, your wife would love the new vacuum cleaner. Well, I’m going to help you get out of the dog house and back in your own bed. Both you and Fido will thank me so give yourself a flea dip and read on.

You’ve tried buying flowers, leftover candy, even one of the really expensive Teddy bears and she is still looking for a good divorce lawyer while Fido is looking at your neck wondering if he can get a good bite on it.

The way to get back in her good graces is simple — cook her favorite meal for her and give her some of these tasty homemade chocolate-covered caramels. This will show her how much you care about her and no one can resist the sweet, rich, gooey goodness of these candies.

Caramel is really easy to make, but it does require some attention to detail. The heat is the key to good caramel: Get it too hot and it will get hard instead of gooey, not hot enough and it will be runny. This makes good popcorn balls, or ice cream topping, but it is hard to dip in chocolate.

Chocolate-covered Caramels

Ingredients:

caramel

• 1 cup butter
• 2 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

chocolate

• 1 pound milk chocolate
• 1 tablespoon butter

Grease an 8 x 8 inch pan.

Melt the butter in a large sauce pan on medium heat.

Add the brown sugar, corn syrup, and condensed milk to the butter.

Stirring constantly heat the mixture to 242 to 248 degrees F. I usually shoot for 245 degrees. I have no particular reason for that temp other than it falls in the range and is easy to see that mark on my candy thermometer. My wife always uses the cold water drop method to tell when her caramel is ready. I have never had good luck with that method so I stick to the thermometer.

When the temp is reached remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Pour into the 8×8 pan and let cool until it is set. I like to let mine sit over night in the fridge to get good and set. This makes it much easier to cut into pieces and to dip in the chocolate.

Once the caramel is cooled cut it into one inch squares. You can see from the picture I did not get all of them exactly one inch square, but they taste just as good.

Melt the chocolate with the tablespoon of butter. You can do this in the microwave, or you can use a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler pan use a metal bowl that will fit on top of a sauce pan leaving enough room in the pan for an inch or two of water. Make sure that the bowl does not touch the water or you will get the chocolate too hot and have problems.

When the chocolate is melted dip the caramel pieces in and coat them thoroughly. Place them on a sheet of wax paper on a cookie sheet and place in the fridge to cool.

After she eats a few of these I guarantee you will be back in her good graces and not fighting Fido for that dirty old blanket anymore.

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One of the treats that I wanted to make as Valentine’s Day gifts (but didn’t quite get to) were crispy skillet cookies. I thought it would be fun to get my hands dirty with the five-year-old and turn a sugary recipe into a healthy treat. I did both last night and lived to tell the tale, both about the fun we had rolling the cookies in the coconut and about how delicious the recipe turned out. I know I say this a lot, but you really wouldn’t even guess that these were healthy … honest.

But they are good on so many levels — tasty, sweetened naturally, flourless, which means wheat-free and gluten-free in this case, easily made 100% organic and did I mention tasty?

Let me just make a few notes for you. Since Keith brought me home an organic brown rice cereal that was lightly sweetened (but he did the shopping so I wasn’t going to nitpick!), I left the agave out at first. They were plenty sweet but a bit tricky to stick together. If I squeezed them tightly in my hand while the mixture was still good and warm, I was successful.

Toward the end, when the mixture began to cool, I needed to squirt on a little agave syrup to help them stick together. So my suggestion, and the way I altered the recipe, is to use the unsweetened puffs and add enough agave to make the mixture sticky. I’m thinking a couple of tablespoons would be more than plenty. You could also just add more dates and chop them very finely and make sure you heat the mixture very well to get them nice and gooey.

Crispy Skillet Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chopped dates (or more to help cookies stick better)
• 3 tablespoons organic butter
• 1 egg, well beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups organic rice puffs
• 3/4 cup sliced almonds
• agave syrup to taste (try about 2 tablespoons)
• 1 cup flaked coconut

Mix dates, butter and egg in heavy skillet. Melt over low heat; cook for about 5 minutes on low heat, until bubbly. Remove from heat; add vanilla, rice cereal and almonds. As soon as the mixture is cool enough to handle, roll (really squeeze) into small balls and roll in coconut.

I tried mixing it up a bit and rolled a couple in carob powder. Yeah, don’t do that, although I think cocoa powder would be heavenly!

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I don’t know where you’re sitting right now, but I’m in the D.C. area, and we are currently under a blizzard warning. This, of course, comes after the 2-3 feet of snow that got dumped on us over the weekend. Suffice it to say, I’ve become intimately acquainted with my home over the past several days.

So what do you do when you have two people off of work and a toddler in the house? You certainly don’t clean, as the state of my living room will attest. Instead, you eat, pray for the baby’s naptime, and eat some more. I’ve used this time to make my vegetable muffaletta, as well as some to-die-for spicy molasses cookies.

My friend Lauren over at Baking, Books and Booze, posted this molasses cookie recipe after the last time she got hit with a snow dump. I had never had them before, and honestly molasses cookies didn’t sound terribly appealing to me, but I had all of the ingredients and clearly nothing better to do, so I went for it.

I basically followed the recipe she posted, except, like her, I kind of kicked up all of the spices a little bit. Plus, I added my new favorite thing for desserts: Chipotle peppers. The funny thing is, is that I always forget how large the holes are in the chipotle peppers bottle, so I kind of dumped more in there than I was planning.

However, the cookies turned out awesome. It’s like cookies and candy got married and made hot, fiery love. These guys are definitely spicy, but are so good that even my 16-month-old doesn’t care about the burning, and has been known to snatch these right out of my hand as I’m eating.

They’re super quick and easy to make (they only bake for 10 minutes), and are so worth the mild effort put into them. So whether you’re stuck in the snow, or just know the value of a good cookie, you should definitely give these bad boys a shot.

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It’s no secret that chocolate and I are very, very good friends. Even though I think that Valentine’s Day is a made-up holiday created by the card companies and perpetrated by every other retailer in the world to guilt us into spending our hard-earned money on our loved ones because you must make a showy display of your affection, I still think any reason to celebrate chocolate is valid. Romance, not so much. Do that every day, if you must. But chocolate … well, do that every day too, but make it extra-special for Valentine’s Day.

I haven’t decided what chocolate dessert Keith and I will cook up for Valentine’s Day yet, but I sure have found plenty of contenders. Frankly, chocolate-dipped strawberries would suit me just fine, but Keith wants to try something a little more decadent. That’s fine by me because I’ve got a long, long list of decadent chocolate desserts just waiting to be chosen.

I’m head-over-heels in love with Mexican hot chocolate (as is Kona) so this Mexican chocolate tart with cinnamon-spiced pecans is definitely in the running. It’s a little labor-intensive, so we’ll see. It’s hard to justify when I can make a flourless chocolate cake with five ingredients and toss in some cinnamon and vanilla, you know?

Now this recipe for chocolate espresso spelt cake is one I can definitely get into. There aren’t a lot of recipes I find designed to use my favorite flour, so I usually just substitute. It’s loaded with dates, so I’d definitely cut back on the sugar because I know it would be far too sweet for my taste. I want to enjoy the bitterness of my chocolate, not mask it with sweetness.

Will Keith allow me to fall back on one of my old favorites, chocolate orange truffles? These are so rich you won’t be popping them like candy, although you’ll feel so special just savoring the one or two that you do indulge in.

One of my favorite local restaurants, Romaine’s, has a killer fallen chocolate cake dessert. It’s laying in a puddle of raspberry coulis and topped with homemade vanilla ice cream and creme fraiche and it’s so close to perfect that you’ll want to skip dinner and order two. These individual chocolate melting cakes might just do the trick, and probably aren’t too shabby served with the caramel sauce and coffee ice cream recommended. Or maybe these molten chocolate cakes are where I’m going…. Then again, this recipe for falling chocolate cake with raspberry sauce might be THE very same recipe as Romaine’s, right down to the sprig of mint.

How about a good ol’ chocolate mousse? It’s been a long time since I’ve had chocolate mousse (probably since my father stopped making it and become obsessed with all things creme brulee) and that might be just the thing to top our romantic dinner for two. Or three, if Owen has his way.

One last recipe I’ve been dying to make is this chocolate almond torte … flourless with almond meal and lots of bittersweet chocolate. I’d leave out the vile almond extract (who likes that stuff?) and maybe add some vanilla instead.

I’ll report back with the recipe we actually do for our special dessert, and in the meantime, you can do two things for me. Either vote in the comments for which one of these recipes you’d do, or let me know what you’ll be making!

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There’s something about gifting someone with homemade food that makes everyone feel good. I love to prepare food gifts with the five-year-old, and when we give them to loved ones, it’s that much more special because we did it together and made it by hand. That goes way beyond “it’s the thought that counts” in my book.

Heck, we even tried to make never-fail fudge this Christmas, but we all know how that turned out. In that case, it was only the thought that counted, because that’s all we ended up with (besides that pile of crusty chocolate crud).

This Valentine’s Day, my food gifts will be of the no-cook variety, with maybe some of my famous zucchini chocolate chip cookies thrown in for good measure. Who can resist a cookie with hidden veggies? Even Owen, who loathes all things squash, will gobble up these cookies.

I’m thinking of packaging up a variety of these treats in cute cello bags I grabbed in the Target one-spot (I know it’s no longer called that but I forgot the bargain words they renamed it) with some homemade Valentine cards. It’s amazing how cutesie one becomes when you have a kid to do projects with….

The kids in your life may appreciate these semi-healthy truffles-for-kids, chocolate earth balls. I really don’t know why Whole Foods Market named them that, because they sound kind of gross, when in fact they are basically chocolate, peanut butter and honey, with a few seeds and some coconut added in for good measure.

Chocolate and nuts? Sign me up for these fruity, nutty, chocolate Valentines. Basically, you melt chocolate, stir in some heart-healthy trail mix and then eat it all before you can wrap it up all pretty, like in the picture. I got some heart-shaped rubber ice cube trays and I’m thinking I could make these very adorable.

I know I said no-cook, but these crispy skillet cookies look too good to pass up — and they’re still no-bake. We’ll health them up with organic brown rice puffs, no added sugar (that amount of dates should be enough, although I’ll just use a little agave syrup if not) and carob powder instead of powdered sugar.

I might even throw in some chocolate-dipped mango, or instead choose some dried fruit that has no added sugar. Banana chips maybe, or apple rings or apricots. Hmmm… now I’m thinking about dipping some honey spelt pretzel sticks in chocolate too.

Admit it — you’d be my Valentine if you got an assortment of these treats as a gift … right?

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Rich, steaming hot chocolate, topped with whipped cream and made in my own kitchen is what I’ll be drinking New Year’s Eve.

With a touch of good vanilla, this delicious treat is one that more than makes up for no alcohol to ring in the new year. You’ll have to let me know what you think.

My recipe for hot chocolate starts with 2% organic milk. I know, it costs more than regular milk.  However, you won’t be spending a lot on alcohol, so just think of the money you’re saving!  In addition, because I am a chocaholic, I have to put Ghirardelli cocoa powder in my hot chocolate.  Hershey’s cocoa powder is fine in a pinch, but Ghirardelli cocoa powder really satisfies my chocolate craving!  Lastly, a good vanilla extract is a definite ‘must have’ to add the needed zip to the chocolatey treat.  My hot chocolate recipe is a family favorite, and one that is easy to prepare.

Divine hot chocolate
Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
*serves between 2-4 people

Ingredients:

• 4 cups organic 2% milk
• ¾ teaspoon good vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup sugar
• ¼ cup cocoa powder (use Ghirardelli natural unsweetened cocoa powder for best flavor)
• dash of salt (I use about 8 granules of Kosher salt)

Put milk and vanilla extract in 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup, and microwave about 4 ½ minutes on high (microwave times will vary).

While the milk is being microwaved, combine sugar, cocoa, and salt in a separate bowl.  Whisk the dry ingredients together.  When the milk is hot, check to see if there is skim on the top.  If there is skim, take a spoon or fork and remove it.  Pour about ¾ of a cup of the hot milk into the dry ingredients and whisk together ‘til smooth.  Then add the chocolate mixture to the hot milk.  Whisk again ‘til smooth and combined.  Microwave another 60 seconds.

Pour into two or more cups, and top with whipped cream.  Enjoy!

With a cup of this delicious hot chocolate in hand, instead of getting ribbed for drinking no alcohol on New Year’s Eve, you will be the envy of many.

If you don’t imbibe on New Year’s Eve, what drink do you like to have in hand to welcome the new year?

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Ah, the cupcake! The trademark of children’s birthday parties: rich and creamy top of icing and sprinkles, tasty, cakey goodness below the paper wrapper… and a disaster for the egg-allergic.

However, like most everything else, there is an alternate recipe for cupcakes that has nary a yolk. If you do it right, and add some butter cream frosting to boot, there isn’t much difference between an egg-included and eggless vanilla cupcake.

Vanilla Cupcakes (No Egg Edition)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 2/3 cup soft, light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1 cup water

Preheat your oven to 350. Line or grease a small muffin pan. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Stir in the sugar, then add the remaining ingredients and beat until you have a smooth, liquid batter.

Pour or ladle the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them up 1/8 inch from the top. Bake in oven for about 20 minutes until risen and firm to touch. Wait two minutes, then remove and cool on wire rack.

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Alternate title: A quick way to make up for the Completely-Fail Fudge

In the interest of teaching Owen that it’s OK to make mistakes, but we still need to make up for them, I insisted on making another homemade food gift after my attempt at Never-Fail Fudge went completely awry. Admittedly, I was far too chicken to try fudge again, but I did think that we could handle dipping yummy little pieces of edible goodness in melted chocolate.

Enter an impromptu trip to Ocean State Job Lot for yard waste bags (which apparently you can’t get in the midst of winter) and an unneeded foray into the gourmet food aisle. The dried mango simply called out to me and practically screamed to be dipped in chocolate. How could I refuse? Sure, it set me back $1.60, but I decided to live a little.

At home, I sifted through the pantry closet and unearthed the last bag of Ghirardelli 62% chocolate chips, leftover from the fudge debacle. Then, on a whim, I decided to use the rest of the white chocolate chips (leftover from the cran-crackle bars … recipe coming soon) to dip too, so the result was a beautiful, multi-colored gift.

Chocolate Dipped Mango

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Ingredients:

• 1 4.5 ounce bag sweetened dried mango pieces
• about 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
• about 1/3 cup white chocolate chips

Melt the chocolate in 30 second increments in a small microwavable bowl, stirring in-between sessions. I did mine for a total of 1 minute, 30 seconds each. Then, dip the mango pieces into the chocolate. Lay on wax paper to harden. Package as you like. I put mine in clear cello bags and tied with raffia and a pretty gift tag.

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Homemade bread studded with dried currants, golden raisins, blanched almonds, candied citron and orange peel is a delicious German Christmas treat.

Growing up, my mother made stollen every Christmas, but used a non-traditional, more pastry-like recipe.  When I saw the traditional stolen recipe in the December issue of Martha Stewart magazine, I knew I had to make it.

The hard part was kneading the dough.  Just think of it as your arm workout for the day, as you’ll be kneading dough for about 10 minutes!  It’s much easier if you have a helper to sprinkle more flour as needed.  As you push on the dough, make sure to use the heel of your palm, and turn the bread dough a quarter turn each time you knead.  In addition, you must sprinkle in the dried fruit as you push on the dough.  Knowing this, I took all the dried fruit and mixed it up into one big bowl.  That way, I simply put my sticky hands in the bowl and sprinkled the dried fruit into the dough, one handful at a time.

Since you have to let the dough rise two times, about two hours each time, this is a great recipe to do on a lazy afternoon. Despite the lengthy prep time, it’s worth the wait.

Christmas stollen

Based on the recipe in the December 2009 issue of Martha Stewart Living

Ingredients:

• 5 ½ cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for surface  (I used about 6 ½ cups total.  I did not sift my flour.)
• ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground mace
• ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 cup whole milk, warmed
• 5 ounces (1 ¼ sticks) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon plus ½ teaspoon active dry yeast (from two ¼-ounce envelopes), dissolved in ¼ cup warm water
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 7 ½ ounces golden raisins (1 ½ cups), soaked in ¼ cup fresh orange juice (I used orange juice from a carton)
• 5 ounces dried currants (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) soaked in ¼ cup Cognac
• 5 ounces blanched almonds (1 cup), coarsely chopped
• 4 ounces diced candied citron (2/3 cup)
• 2 ounces diced candied orange peel (1/3 cup)
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 2 lemons (for their juice)
• Vegetable oil, for bowl
• 3 cups confectioners sugar
• 4-5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, salt, mace and nutmeg in a large bowl.  Stir in milk and melted butter.  Add dissolved yeast and the eggs.  Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth.
2. Drain raisins and currants.  Add raisins, currants, almonds, citron, orange peel, and lemon zest to dough, and continue kneading until incorporated, about 10 minutes. If dough is sticky, knead in more flour.
3. Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl.  Cover with plastic, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, 1 to 2 hours.  (Note:  I put the dough in an unheated oven to rise.) Punch down dough, divide into 6 even pieces, and roll each piece into a 15-inch-long log.  Braid 3 logs together, and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Repeat with remaining 3 logs. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in volume, about 2 hours.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake stollen until golden brown, 35 to 40 minutes.  Ice the stollen while it is hot.  Put wax paper underneath the cooling rack holding the stollen.  To ice, beat together confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice. If icing is too thick, add more lemon juice.  It should be a little thinner than pancake batter, not as thin as maple syrup, but not as thick as waffle batter.

The stollen tastes like delicious homemade sweet bread, reminiscent in texture to challah bread.  It is taken to the next level with the delicious dried fruit and the currants soaked in cognac. Drizzle the baked treat with lemon icing while it is still hot for an unconventional but tasty twist.  The lemon icing will soak into the stollen as it cools.  However, if you prefer the traditional stollen icing, mix up 3 cups 10X sugar with 5 tablespoons milk and drizzle when the stollen is cold.

Your family will love this traditional Christmas bread.  I know mine did!

What are some traditional Christmas treats that you make?

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As you may have read already, Deb McDuffee’s attempt at “Never Fail Fudge” failed miserably. There were probably many factors to this — weather, age, alien invasion, philosophic ramblings about the threshold of pain evaporated milk can maintain while being boiled. The most important of these factors is… she did it wrong.

The secret to “Never Fail Fudge” is, if you follow the directions, it never fails. Oh, it may not feel and taste like the fudge you get at the boardwalk on a hot July day, but it’s certainly close. Come, let’s take a look at the recipe and see what happened.

First, here’s the recipe for “Never Fail” white chocolate fudge (based on this one):

Never Fail White Chocolate Fudge

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 small can (5 ounces) evaporated milk
• 1 jar (7.5 ounces) marshmallow fluff
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp. vanilla
• 1 large (12 ounces) package white chocolate chips

First, doubling the recipe was probably not a good idea. For some reason, when you multiply ingredients in baking, particularly when it involves sugar, the results turn out badly. Best thing to do in this case is to make two separate batches. That way, if one goes terribly wrong you can potentially salvage the second batch.

To start the recipe you mix the first five ingredients together and stir them over low heat until well blended. The next two steps are the most important. Once the mixture is well blended you want to get it to boil over moderate heat. During this process you want to make sure that you’re not confusing air bubbles from boiling. Normally, the air bubbles will be larger and take more time to pop then what you would see during the boiling process. In this step the best thing to do is let your nose do the work; if you start to smell even a hint of burning you need to move to the next step.

Which is stepping into Harry Potter’s shoes, and stir that concoction up like you were making Polyjuice Potion. You need stir constantly for 5 minutes — not stir once in awhile, not stir for only two minutes. Constantly. Five minutes. If you absolutely need to double all the ingredients make it ten minutes. The mixture will change color, so don’t be afraid. And the soft ball test… screw that! Again, go with what you see in the saucepan and what you smell.

After five minutes, get that bad boy off the heat and add the vanilla and chips. Unless you want a pile of goo in the middle of your saucepan don’t add the entire package of chips at once. Add them in a little at a time in order for melting to occur evenly. Once the chips are completely melted you can pour the contents into a greased pan (13X9X2 works well) and let it cool. Don’t put it in the refrigerator immediately after pouring. In fact, there’s no need to refrigerate it all! Just wait until it completely hardens, about 30 minutes, then cut and serve.

There you are! The secrets to “Never Fail Fudge”. Debbie, I’ll be waiting for your report on the next, and correctly prepared, batch.

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Spice and tang combine to create a treat that is nearly irresistible.

Though the Ginger-lemon pinwheel cookies are gorgeous and delicious, their preparation tested my patience.  These cookies require a lot of prep work, and test your arm strength.  Intrigued?

When I saw the Ginger-Lemon Pinwheel Cookies recipe in Cooking Light’s December 2009 issue, the beauty of the pinwheel cookies in the picture drew me in and compelled me to make the treats. Light on the outside, then gingery brown on the next layer, these cookies will compete to be the star of any cookie tray.

The first taste of these delectable pinwheel cookies will delight you.  The ginger is not very spicy, and blends quite well with the lemon in the cookie.  The molasses sweetens things up, and each bite of the cookie will give you a taste of the ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg contained therein.  The texture of the cookie reminds me of a nice shortbread cookie; definitely not soft, but not hard.  Each bite of this gingery lemon pinwheel treat will crumble into your mouth, and paired with a cup of hot tea, this cookie is one you will savor to the last morsel.

One thing I chortled over were the photos of perfect rectangles of the ginger and lemon doughs in Cooking Light.  The dough was exceedingly hard to work with, much to my frustration.  I did my best to get it rolled into a semblance of a rectangle.  I was unsuccessful with the lemon dough, but I did a little better with the ginger dough.  The good news is that despite the two doughs not meshing together perfectly, when I rolled them together, it was fine.  The ends were a little lacking for lemon dough, but other than a couple inches on both sides, my pinwheel cookies looked like the picture, though not quite as perfectly round!

Because I love ginger, I think next time I’ll double the ground ginger in the recipe to 1 ½ teaspoons.  Other than that, this recipe’s a keeper.  But I’ll only pull it out for Christmas, when I have all afternoon and evening available to dedicate to making cookies.  While absolutely delicious, this cookie recipe requires a lot of chilling.

Do you have any cookie recipes that you love, despite being a bear to make?

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This has not been my year for making sweets. First, I completely botch a gift batch of Never Fail Fudge (oh, sweet irony… pun intended) and then I make these cran-crackle bars for my cookie swap and the crust just simple falls apart. They should be called cran-crumble bars. I have a fix idea for them, but I didn’t want to risk it one night before the swap, so I looked to Rich’s recipe for coconut macaroons to save my sorry baker’s butt.

Me being me, I healthed them up something good, and honestly, they are a complete dream. They’ve made up for my December cookie-baking foibles and I feel worthy of writing for a food blog once again. When you make them, you’ll know just what I mean, and you’ll be petitioning to be the Next Iron Chef.

Healthy Chocolate-Coconut Macaroons

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup spelt flour
• 2 3/4 cups (about 8 ounces) shredded un-sweetened coconut
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• 2/3 cup coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons agave syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup grain-sweetened chocolate chips, finely chopped (I used my Pampered Chef equivalent of the Slap Chop)

Mix together the dry ingredients (the first three), then stir in the rest. I found that letting the batter sit a few minutes before making the cookies allowed the liquids to soak into the dry, making them hold together better. I completely agree with Rich — you’ve got to mush these suckers into balls yourself. Simple dropping them onto the cookies sheet doesn’t make a pretty cookie or one that stays together well.

I rolled balls about 1 to 1.5 inches, and cooked them at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.

These are so good that I’m making another batch tomorrow to replace the Completely Fail Fudge that I tried to make as gifts. I actually feel a lot better about gifting a recipe that won’t wreak havoc on the recipients’ liver and glycemic load too.

Just so you believe me that I actually can bake, this recipe for cardamom snaps is also a complete winner … I promise.

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Since I came out of the womb nearly 41 years ago, chocolate in every form has been my friend. Particularly when it came in a cakey substance. So, whenever a brownie came across my path, I would devour it — even if it belonged to someone at another table. That was a problem, since many brownies produced by folks at home and the finest restaurants of Passaic, New Jersey tended to be dry numbers with burnt undersides.

Then, a few years ago, I discovered butterscotch blondies and immediately fell in love. True, there was no chocolate to be found in these squares of delight, but the sweetness of the butterscotch without the heaviness of the brownie made up for that. Plus, as long as you greased the bottom of the pan and watched the clock to get them out in time, there was nary a burned one in the bunch.

Butterscotch Blondies

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) softened butter or margarine; unsalted is better
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups (12 ounce package) butterscotch chips

Heat over to the UHT (Universal  Heating Temperature) of 350 degrees. Grease a 13 X 9 X 2 inch pan.

Beat the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in a large bowl until it’s creamy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well. In another bowl sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add the dry mixture into the butter mixture, blending well. When done, stir in the butterscotch chips, mixing well.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan (the batter will be very thick and you’ll need to spread it across the pan). Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the center is set. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

The final step… serve warm with a glass of cold milk.

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Growing up Jewish, one of the things I looked forward to each year was Passover. Not because of the never-ending Seder that lasted longer than it took for Moses and his gang to cross the Red Sea, but because of the dessert that came after the pomp and matzo. Mainly, I looked forward to the macaroons; those sweet and delicious temptations that went easily into your little kid mouth in one bite (and usually one chew). A child bent on spending a considerable amount of time in the bathroom could down an entire can of Manischewitz macaroons in one setting.

Little did I know, even while I was pushing a chocolate-chip macaroon down my gullet, that what I was eating wasn’t a true macaroon. It was only later, only a few months ago, in fact, that I discovered a true macaroon — crunchy and golden on the outside, chewy and full of coconut on the inside. From then on, I vowed to make my own macaroons for Passover and beyond.

Coconut Macaroons

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 2 3/4 cups (about 8 ounces) shredded sweetened coconut
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup sweetened condensed milk (about 7 ounces)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to the UHT (Universal Heating Temperature) of 350 degrees. Grease a large cookie sheet.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, coconut, and salt. Then, add the condensed milk and vanilla extract; mix well. The result will be a very sticky batter.

Roll the dough into 2-inch balls and drop them about the same amount of inches apart on the baking dish. Place in the oven for somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes, or until the tops of the macaroons are golden brown. Remove immediately from the pan to cool. Makes somewhere in the area of two to three dozen macaroons.

Tips:

• If you don’t like getting your hands messy, you can place a heaping tablespoon of dough onto the baking dish. However, it seems that rolling them in your hands turns out much better.
• Due to the condensed milk the dough is very sticky. To avoid more of the dough from sticking to your hands than the pan, moisten them with warm water every so often.
• If you child has allergies to soy and/or egg, this is a perfect cookie alternative for them. My 3-year-old son, who has those allergies, loves these cookies.

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Is it possible for someone — someone who doesn’t actually have a sweet tooth — to love ginger snaps as much as I do? The chewy inside, the crispy outside, the zing of the ginger, the mellow sweetness of the molasses. Cookie perfection, I tell ya!

In an effort to mix things up a bit this year, I went for it … I made the cardamom snaps I mentioned earlier this week in my cookie roundup post. You might think that someone like me, so resistant to change, so in love with ginger snaps, would have a hard time embracing a recipe that rewrote all that cookies mean to me, yet embrace it I did, and how!

While the recipe was nearly perfect in its own rite, you know how I do that darned healthy thing that I do … so of course I substituted this and that, cut way down on the sugar and ended up with a guilt-free recipe (if only it didn’t have calories!) that I’m proud to serve to my kid. When he gets old enough to realize that all of his treats growing up were actually good for him (or at least not detrimental to his health), I’m probably going to catch an earful!

Cardamom Snaps
Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.
Inspired by Better Homes and Gardens’ Cardamom Snaps, made healthier by me

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup organic butter
• 3/4 cup palm sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cardamom
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup organic blackstrap molasses
• 1 egg
• 2 1/4 cups spelt flour

For the coating, mix together:

• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon cardamom

Using your amazing KitchenAid stand mixer (or any other mixer you’d give your life to have forever), beat the butter until creamed, then add the palm sugar, baking soda, 1 1/2 teaspoons of cardamom and the cinnamon. When combined, beat in molasses and egg. Gradually beat in flour.

Here’s the fun part, the part that you definitely need a five-year-old helper for: Roll the dough into 1-inch balls, roll into the coating mixture and place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

This recipe makes 3-4 dozen cookies, depending on how much batter you snitch and how big your 1-inch balls really are. Mine seem to grow the more I make. This is starting to sound a little dirty, so bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes, until set at the edges and cracked a little on top. Cool on a wire rack, and try not to eat them all at once.

Do you see the gorgeous turbinado sugar crystals sparkling in the photo? Don’t use anything else; they just won’t be as pretty. Are you daring enough to veer from the ginger snap tradition? You’ll be glad you did!

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Christmas cookies have never been a real tradition in my family. I think my mother would admit that she’s not a huge fan of baking. She can, and she has some great recipes, but she’s not the type to make fifteen different types of cookies come holiday season. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I saw her bake a cookie. In any case, last year I was inspired to bake some Christmas cookies. I think it was a snowy, cold day and I didn’t want to leave the house, so I turned on the oven and got to work.

I had looked through several recipes before stumbling upon a couple different recipes on Epicurious.com. I noticed that some of these recipes were all based off the same base dough recipe. That simplification of the whole process was too good to pass up.

The base recipe is Gourmet’s Basic Butter Cookie Dough. From this simple dough you can make eight (yes, eight!) different cookies. They are: spritz wreaths, raspberry hazelnut triangles, orange cranberry oatmeal cookies, mocha butter balls, jewel bowl cookies, spiced icebox butter cookies, apricot stars, and almond butter crisps.

I haven’t tried all of the different recipes yet. Last year I made the spiced icebox cookies and the jewel bowl cookies. The base dough is really simple to make, and it makes a ton, so you can whip out a lot of cookies with very little effort. These would be great for a cookie swap. I love spiced cookies, and I thought the the spiced icebox butter cookies turned out really well. To be honest, they didn’t even need the glaze that is called for in the recipe. The jewel bowl cookies were great as well. I used blueberry preserves and I was happy with how they turned out.

The dough is easy and quick to make, but the cookies themselves will take a while. It’s not because there is anything challenging, but the recipes just make so many cookies that you constantly have to be in the kitchen, circulating pans in and out of the oven. On a cold wintry day though, sometimes that the best thing you can do.

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It’s that time of year. You know the one — when weird people like me go in search of sprouted spelt flour, agave syrup, palm sugar and other healthy and low-gluten substitutes so that even my food sensitive kid can indulge in a few holiday goodies. Yes, even I am involved in a holiday cookie swap, with my wonderful girlfriends who bake with all of the weird stuff too, just so Owen can eat cookies. Mark that on your list of “things a good friend does for you.” I know I have!

I’ve been scouring the internet for cookie recipes and I know in the next few weeks I’ll be making several of them, but for my cookie swap recipe, I’ve decided on these cran-crackle bars. Of course I’ll use agave and brown rice syrup instead of the corn syrup, spelt pretzels for the pretzel twists, palm sugar instead of brown sugar and the healthiest white chocolate I can find. Yes, they’ll still taste good! Now stop berating me and take a look at these other cookie recipes I found.

Black forest cookies – Martha Stewart, I want to hate you for all that you stand for — how inadequate you make the average woman feel, your focus on the material things in life… but then you go and create another fabulous cookie recipe that makes me want to wash your feet with my hair or something slightly less weird but equally stalker-ish.

Heidi Swanson never lets me down, and I don’t even want to hate her, but I’m just not picturing the taste and texture of shortbread melding with shredded carrots and apples to make apple and carrot shortbread. What do you think — would that work?

It’s OK, because she’s definitely redeemed herself with these sparkling ginger chip cookies…. You know that I think chocolate pretty much goes with everything, but combined with something as luscious as ginger cookies? Heidi, you’re my hero once more.

Did you drool a little when you saw that picture of the peanut butter cookies at the top of the post? Yeah, I did too. Imagine how happy I was to find the recipe right under the picture on Flickr? And, they’re made with agave syrup too — thanks norwichnuts!

Tart cherry cheddar squares … what do you think? I’m thinking yum, because the combination of fruit and cheese is historically amazing almost any way you slice it. I’m thinking less sugar, all-fruit preserves, sprouted spelt flour and organic butter and cheese and I’ve actually got a healthy-recipe-in-disguise.

There’s no question in my mind that I’ll be making these cardamom snaps this season. I love ginger snaps and I love cardamom, so this one’s a no-brainer.

White chocolate candy cane drops are not your average cookie with chips and candy cane chunks added in for good measure. No, these cookies have white chocolate melted right into the batter … how rich and luscious can you get?

I hope you noticed how hard I tried to not share a bunch of chocolate cookie recipes with you. I rose above my cravings and tried to present a well-rounded group of cookies that even appealed to the chocolate lover without a particular sweet tooth. What cookies will you be making this holiday season?

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Have you tasted Toffee-Topped Fudgy Brownies?  No?  Well, you’re in for a treat.  I just made a whole batch, and the chocolaty aroma is divine.  The good news is they’re not hard to make.  The bad news is, just like seeing delicious food made on TV, if you want them, you’ll have to make your own.  Read on for the recipe.

Chocolate is a universal love.  When my daughter’s violin teacher asked us to bring something sweet to the violin recital, I mentioned Toffee Brownies. Her eyes lit up, and with a knowing smile she declared, “Homemade is good, too!”

This Christmas season, you don’t have to compromise on a chocolate treat.  Make it yourself.  Your friends and family will thank you.  I will warn you, these brownies are decadent, delicious, and addictive. Even better, they are a dessert you can make ahead of time—so you have time for holiday fun!

This is a recipe given to me on a recipe card by my mother, origins unknown.  It’s old enough that I had to adjust the amount of Toffee Bits I added, since Heath had downsized the bag from 10 ounces to 8 ounces.  Ho ho ho!

Toffee-Topped Fudgy Brownies

Ingredients:

• 1 ¼ sticks of butter (10 tablespoons)
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 1 ½ cups flour
• ¾ cup Hershey or Ghirardelli unsweetened chocolate cocoa powder
• 3 1/3 ounces (or nearly ½ of an 8 ounce bag) Heath bits or Almond Toffee Bits
• ¾ cup Hershey Chocolate Mini Bits

Grease 13×9x2 pan.  Baker’s note: I sprayed Pam on my Pyrex dish.  Melt butter over low heat.  Pour the melted butter into a mixing bowl.  Stir in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, beating just until blended.  Combine flour and cocoa; gradually add to butter mixture, stirring just until blended.  Do not over-mix.  Spread batter into prepared pan.  Sprinkle with Toffee bits and Mini Chips.  Bake 35 minutes at 350 degrees or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool completely in pan on wire rack.  Cut into 36 squares.

If you want to freeze some or all of the brownies for later in the Christmas season, wait for the pan of brownies to cool on a wire rack.  Then cut them into 36 or more squares.  Take Saran Wrap and group nine or so brownies in plastic wrap.  Repeat three more times, so that you have all the brownies encased in plastic wrap.  Then place the brownies carefully in freezer bags and store them in your freezer.  I was able to get two of the wrapped brownie packages into one-gallon size freezer zip bag.  I now have two-gallon size freezer bags full of plastic wrapped Toffee-Topped Fudgy brownies in my freezer.

I sneaked one brownie before I wrapped and froze the rest. Oh. My.  Gosh. The chocolate brownie is fudgy on the inside and crunchy on the top.  Pair with milk, and you’ll be in chocolate heaven.

What are some of your favorite Christmas treats?

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As a young man living by himself, I tend to accumulate overly ripe bananas quite often. When this happens I usually go to my favorite banana bread recipe: Tyler Florence’s. Recently I was looking for something different to do with my leftover bananas. I scoured Epicurious for a great recipe and one stood out to me: Banana Chocolate Walnut Cake.

It was sort of a no-brainer. With a title like that how could I go wrong? I like bananas. I like chocolate. I like walnuts. Most importantly: I like cake.

So how did it turn out, you ask? It was pretty darned good. I used some really high quality chocolate, which always makes recipes like this particularly delicious. The cinnamon chocolate and walnut on the top and inside of the cake really worked to elevate this from standard banana bread to a high class cake that could be served at any time of day. I’m not really into chocolate in the morning, but if you are, this could absolutely be served at breakfast time. It could also be served as dessert after a nice meal (or let’s face it, even after a hastily prepared week night dinner).

I liked the addition of yogurt in the cake. Like buttermilk, it added a nice zip and kept the cake really moist and dense. The cake itself pretty much tasted like standard banana bread because, well, it was pretty much standard banana bread. There’s nothing wrong with that! Again, with the added touch of the topping, this recipe really becomes something more than just banana bread. I brought leftovers to my office and it was very popular.

I didn’t have the nine inch square baking pan that the recipe called for and I think I spent about twenty minutes trying to figure out what the right pan was to replace it. I ended up choosing my eight inch baking pan, figuring that it was close enough. It turned out fine in the smaller pan, so if you don’t have every size pan, don’t stress over it.

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It’s that time of year again, that time where you stress out about meals and menus, traveling and family. Maybe it’s because I’m a vegetarian and I don’t fall into the lovely Tryptophan-induced turkey coma that most of America does every year, but Thanksgiving has always seemed like a lot of work for very little payoff.

However, since we recently moved back near my family and Cooper is a year old now, this year seems like the perfect time to get into the holiday spirit. Since five of the seven people who will be attending our Thanksgiving dinner are vegetarians, it’s going to be a mostly veggie meal. People are always asking what we eat on Thanksgiving, because if you take out the turkey, folks somehow seem to forget that there are any other food products on the table. That’s why I’m sharing our menu with you, so if you’re having a vegetarian Thanksgiving, or just want to know how such an abomination can happen, this will help you out.

1. Tofurkey: Every year, there’s always some jackass who asks if we’re having a Tofurkey. I always say no, because about 10 years ago we actually tried one, and it tasted like crap. However, this year we will actually be serving one, with the idea that the Tofurkey technology has improved over the past decade. So, you know, cross your fingers.
2. Butternut Squash Risotto: I already told you guys about it. I can only hope that it turns out as amazingly well as the first batch did. Seriously. To. Die. For.
3. Corn Casserole: My mom is bringing this over. It’s the fattiest, most ridiculous use of a vegetable ever. Also, so good!
4. Green Bean Casserole: Straight outta the Campbell’s kitchen. It’s a classic, and my dad is bringing this over along with the aforementioned Tofurkey.
5. Garlic mashed potatoes: Okay, that’s not a link to a recipe, but that dude made the best Thanksgiving garlic mashed potatoes I’ve ever had. Luke’s in charge of them this year, and I have the utmost faith that he’ll be able to properly replicate them.
6. Mustard-glazed carrots: Generally I like my baby carrots plain, or with a little bit of butter, but Luke made these a while ago, and they are delish. Pro tip: use brown sugar instead of regular.
7. Asparagus Hollandaise: My dad is making this well. He is apparently cooking his face off this Thanksgiving. This is not something that normally happens, so it should be interesting.
8. Pumpkin Cheesecake: My friend Lauren recently made this and wrote about it on her website, along with some biscuits that look delicious and that I may sneak in here. I wanted to make a fancy dessert, and a pumpkin cheesecake seems like a great use of my last bag of pumpkin.

With Thanksgiving dinner still a good 24 hours away, this menu will probably be adjusted and added to. There will be salads, and perhaps appetizers, and probably a pie thrown in there somewhere. Hey, who knows. Maybe this group of vegetarians may even find a vegetable on the table that’s not completely covered in some sort of fatty sauce. Regardless of what we add, I will tell you one thing you won’t be seeing anywhere near my table:

THERE WILL BE NO EFFING SWEET POTATOES.

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The lemonilla cake has become a family favorite, and even though Owen has a lot more choices now, he still chooses this one almost every year (I think we may have ventured out into carrot cake territory last year, but I’m pretty sure that had almost everything to do with the cream cheese frosting). As I was baking it for this year’s five-year-old birthday celebration, I couldn’t help but stop to write about this magical cake, to sing the praises of the delicious combination of lemon and vanilla and to thank the Vegan Chef for her innovative recipe.

Another thing I love about the lemonilla cake is that even though it calls for wheat flour, it works great with spelt. A lot of recipes do, but I’ve yet to find a yellow cupcake recipe that I can bake with spelt flour and have it come out moist.

The lemonilla cake — with no eggs and no butter — come out rich and moist and perfect every time. I can switch out the flour, change up the sugars, use whatever oil I have in the house and it works. I love knowing that I can bake this cake right before people come over and not have to worry that it will be a complete flop. I do believe — gasp! — that there are some recipes on the internet that are not tested. I know, say it isn’t so, but it can’t be possible to have tested a recipe that comes out so incredibly bad, as some that I have tried.

Have I convinced you yet of the yummy goodness that is the lemonilla cake? And you can even bake it if you’re out of eggs….

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Next Thursday is Thanksgiving. And despite all of the advertisement, it’s not a day off from work to go shopping for so-so deals on so-so electronic gizmos to give away for Christmas. Thanksgiving is a day to give thanks for all that is right and good in your life. A day to spend with family and to show them how much you care about them and how much they mean to you by spending the whole day slaving in a hot kitchen to give them a feast to eat that they will probably complain about anyways.

The traditional Turkey dinner with stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, cranberry sauce, and a vast variety of cakes, pies, puddings and other sweet desserts takes a couple of days to prepare and minutes to plunder. By the end of the day, it looks like the Food Network has exploded all over the kitchen. There are plates, bowls, and pie tins everywhere with varying amounts of leftover food in them. The ritual of putting all of those leftovers in the fridge has become an art form of crafty stacking of plates, bowls, and tins that were never meant to be stacked together empty, let alone with food still in them.

This year for Thanksgiving I plan to stay away from the family and have a quick non-traditional dinner.

I think I will start with my bacon fried taters. This is a great breakfast, and one of my favorites. Follow that up with a big piece of my peach upside down cake and I will be ready to face the day.

For lunch I want something that is good for watching football. With none of the family around to want to watch the Thanksgiving parade or some sappy old movie, I should be able to sit down and enjoy the football game. I think some nachos and fries will be perfect for lunch. Another big piece of peach upside down cake and a few bottles of Landshark, a couple slices of bacon bear pepperoni pizza and I will really enjoy the football.

After all of this heavy food I think I will go with something lighter for dinner. I will start with my redneck salad. Add some of my grouse fried rice and the appetizers are covered. For the main course I will go with my super cheesy lasagna. And for the perfect end to a great meal the Crusher’s apple crisp with lots of whipped topping.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving.

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This is part four in my series of pumpkin dessert recipe roundups. I’ve already looked at cheesecakes, trifles, and bread puddings. And you thought pumpkin pie was the only thing you could serve at Thanksgiving! For this post, I’m turning my attention to pumpkin cakes.

Who doesn’t love cake? It’s really the ultimate dessert, isn’t it? That’s why we serve it at all the important milestones of our lives. You get married, there’s a cake. Baby shower? Cake. Birthday? Cake. You get the picture.

Pumpkin is a great ingredient to use in cakes. I love spicy desserts, full of cinnamon, nutmeg, and other classic flavors of the fall. These cake recipes all include these wonderful flavors that are associated with pumpkin and offer something different for those of you who don’t love custard (which is part of bread pudding, pumpkin pies, and trifles). Plus, just about all of them include cream cheese frosting. Is there anyone who doesn’t like cream cheese frosting?

This recipe for pumpkin raisin bars is what I used last year for Thanksgiving. They turned out to be delicious, but I had some issues with them. For some reason, the center of the cake completely collapsed when I took it out of the oven. I think I was too concerned with making sure that they didn’t overcook, that I undercooked them. Luckily, it made a huge amount of the bars, so I was able to salvage the parts that were cooked, and just slathered even more cream cheese frosting on them. They turned out really well, despite my issues.

Nothing sounds better to me than this pumpkin cake with sage ice cream and pumpkin cherry compote, but come on? Who really has the time to make a compote, bake a cake, and whip up a homemade ice cream during this crazy holiday season? I know I don’t, which is a shame because I love sage and I really want to try it.

If you’re a huge fan of pumpkin pie and apple pie, you may want to try this recipe that combines the best of both: pumpkin-apple streusel cake. It looks delicious and I’m sure that the two flavors mesh really well together. Nothing says fall like apples and pumpkin.

If you’re looking for something a little more traditional, how about this recipe for spiced pumpkin layer cake with cream cheese frosting. It may just look like a basic layer cake, but with coconut, pineapple, and dried currants stuffed into the cake, there’s a lot going on.

With a title like pumpkin gooey butter cakes, is it any wonder that this recipe comes courtesy of Paula Deen? Essentially, she just undercooks the cakes to leave the center a little gooey. Isn’t that I what did last year?

This pumpkin-honey cake recipe caught my attention because the cream cheese frosting has pumpkin in it too. The directions have a whole lot of decorating instructions, though, and that makes me a little nervous. I’m a lot of things, but expert cake decorator is not one of them.

Do any of these recipes have your mouth watering?

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I’m continuing to scour the internet for you, providing all sort of pumpkin dessert recipes for you to consider for your Thanksgiving feast. I’ve already discussed pumpkin cheesecakes and pumpkin bread puddings. In this post I want to discuss an option that may not even be on your Thanksgiving dessert radar: trifle.

I know I, for one, always think of trifle as a summer dessert, with its layers of cake, fruit, and custard. My siblings and I were obsessed with our mother’s trifles when we were growing up, always begging for her to make it. With layers of peaches, berries, pound cake soaked in orange juice (and sometimes liquor, when we got older), and vanilla pudding, they were (and continue to be) truly delicious. It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that I never thought about making a pumpkin trifle.

That all changed, however, when I was looking for something different to do for a Thanksgiving dessert a few years ago.  I caught an episode of Paula Deen’s show and she was making a pumpkin gingerbread trifle. She made it look incredibly easy and delicious. I thought it was a perfect recipe to try, and it was a big hit. Indeed, it was very easy to make. Essentially, all you have to do is make some pudding, bake some boxed gingerbread, and then put everything together. As I said, it won a lot of good reviews.

Paula Deen’s is not the only recipe for pumpkin trifle, though. Epicurious has a competing recipe for a pumpkin gingerbread trifle. If you have the time, and want to feel like more of a gourmet, this recipe is probably for you. It includes a recipe for homemade gingerbread to use, as well as a pumpkin mousse to layer it with.

I’ve longingly looked over this recipe for autumn trifle with roasted apples, pears, and pumpkin caramel sauce for years now, but I’ve never had the guts to try it. Guts may not be the right word, because there’s nothing in it that I think would pose a problem, but it looks like it takes a lot of time, which I generally don’t have. Who does? In any case, it looks amazing, with homemade cinnamon pastry cream, pumpkin sauce, and roasted fruit, all layered with lady fingers. This is the type of recipe I would love someone else to cook for me!

Finally, there is this recipe for pumpkin praline trifle. It’s advertised as very similar to a tiramisu, so if you like the famous Italian dessert, you may want to check this out. It definitely sounds great, with the mascarpone cream, pumpkin filling, and ladyfingers.

Have any of these recipes piqued your interest?

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I’ve been digging through all the pumpkin dessert recipes out there so you don’t have to! This is the second in my series of posts about pumpkin desserts, the first being about pumpkin cheesecake. In this installment, I want to turn my attention to one of my favorite desserts of all time (whether or not it’s made with pumpkin): bread pudding.

I love, love, love, love, love bread pudding. There is something so rustic and soul-warming about it. It’s the perfect texture due to the combination of bread and custard. Aside from that, it’s incredibly versatile. If you’re a chocoholic you can add chocolate chips, chunks, or sauce. If you love fruit, you can add just about any type of berry, bananas, apples, or anything else. Of course, if you just like bread pudding, there’s the great standby recipe.

This post, however, is dedicated to pumpkin bread pudding, a great option for your Thanksgiving feast. The recipe that I’ve used is this one from the Inn at Sandwich Center: pumpkin bread pudding with caramel sauce. The thing that I really love about this recipe is that there isn’t too much sugar in it. In fact, it’s surprisingly not sweet, which is why you have to drench it with caramel sauce. It’s nice, though, that everyone can control how sweet they would like their portion to be. Make sure you don’t forget the caramel sauce though, because as I implied, the pudding itself isn’t quite sweet enough. Honestly, you can just buy a jar of caramel sauce. If you’re embarrassed, pour it into a sauce pan to heat and serve, no one will ever know.

Epicurious has a competing recipe for pumpkin bread pudding with caramel sauce. It doesn’t seem like there are enough eggs to make a really luxurious custard though. I do, however, have to admit that it seems a whole lot easier than the Sandwich Inn’s recipe.

This recipe is pretty unique because instead of adding a pumpkin custard to leftover bread, it adds custard to pumpkin-cranberry bread. Of course that creates a whole other step of having to bake the pumpkin bread itself, but it’s definitely a unique take on the dish, and it has me curious. If you’re curious too, check out pumpkin bread pudding with cranberry caramel sauce.

OK, so it’s not bread pudding, but this recipe for pumpkin ginger rice pudding looks fantastic. If you’re being ambitious, I would recommend giving it a look. It calls for fresh pumpkin (or butternut squash), so it’s probably a little too involved for me. I’m perfectly happy to open a can of pumpkin, thank you very much.

This recipe for pumpkin ginger bread pudding has all the same great flavors as the rice pudding, but it too expects you to cook your own pumpkin. I do love Anne Burrell, though, so I’ll give her a pass.

Are you as big a fan of bread pudding as I am? Will you be serving some pumpkin bread pudding at your Thanksgiving this year?

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