Cinnamon Chip Scones

Cinnamon Scones are one of my favorite coffee store treats. When I found Hershey's Cinnamon Chips at the grocery store, I figured I should try them. I've made Cinnamon Scones before, but with cinnamon and sugar.


Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons salted butter, cold
• 1 cup Hershey's Cinnamon Chips
• 1 cup whipping cream

Directions

• Preheat oven to 450. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone baking mat.
• In a large mixing bowl, whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
• Cut the butter into 1/4" cubes. Toss into the flour.
• Using a Pastry Blender, cut butter into the flour mixture until it resembles crumbs.
• Stir in the cinnamon chips.
• Stir in the whipping cream with a heavy silicone spatula just until the dough looks like a crumbly ball. It does not need to hold together.
• Carefully turn the dough out onto a lightly floured countertop, pastry mat, or clean surface (I have an oversized wooden cutting board that I never use for cutting, only for dough).  Try not to make a mess. crumbly dough tends to crumble all over the place.
• Press the dough together with your fingers to form a flattened disk, about 1" high and 8" wide (dinner plate size).
• Using a knife or Pastry Scraper, cut the disk into 8 wedges (like cutting a cake).
• Transfer the wedges to the lined cookie sheet (the pastry scraper does double duty here--triple duty if you use it to scrape dough bits off your pastry board during the cleanup stage).
• Bake 12-15 minute until golden brown.

Top o the Mornin'

What, green coffee cake isn't Irish? Doh.

Plain Tasty Blueberry Muffins

Don't bother with the box mixes. Their tiny canned blueberries have nothing on the flavor of fat fresh or frozen ones. The rest of these ingredients, minus the lemon zest, are probably in your pantry anyway (well, I hope you store the milk, butter, and eggs in the fridge, but you know what I mean).

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 teaspoon powdered lemon zest* (or 1 teaspoon fresh)
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup butter (half a stick), melted and cooled.
• 2 cups frozen blueberries (or fresh, if they're in season). No need to thaw.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. You could also grease them, but I find that the blueberries frequently stick anyway (or maybe its my pan?)
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk  the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest. Toss the blueberries in the flour.
4. In a medium mixing bowl (I usually use a quart-sized liquid measuring cup to make pouring neater), whisk the milk, egg, and melted butter.
5. Pour liquid ingredients into the dry and stir with a silicone spatula just until combined (that means no more visible patches of flour).
6. Divide evenly into muffin cups.
7. Bake 18-22 minutes until the tops are lightly golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

*I buy the powdered lemon zest from Penzeys, and store it in the fridge to keep it fresh. No affiliation, just a happy customer.

Breakfast Casserole

Today's breakfast was inspired by leftovers we needed to eat up:  hamburger buns from last weekend, pre-cooked sausage from a family pizza night,  shredded cheese from a taco dinner...It took about five minutes to assemble last night, and the only prep time this morning was to pre-heat the oven. Plus, I am extra-proud of myself for coming up with a tasty, hearty recipe that isn't too fattening. According to CalorieCount.about.com, our breakfast clocks in just under 300 calories per large serving (4 servings from a 9x9 pan)

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1 cup pre-cooked turkey breakfast sausage crumbles
• 3/4 cup shredded cheese (I used a Mexican blend)
• 2 hamburger buns (or 4 hearty slices of bread)
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
• dash salt and pepper

Directions

1. Cut the hamburger buns into 1/2 inch cubes and spread in a 9x9 pan. Sprinkle with sausage crumbles and half of the cheese.
2. Whisk the milk, eggs, mustard powder, salt, and pepper together. Pour over the bread/sausage.
3. Top with remaining cheese.
   Refridgerate overnight.
4. Pre-heat oven to 375. Cover the pan with aluminum foil. Bake 45 minutes until thoroughly cooked. Remove the foil during the last 10 minutes of cooking to allow the cheese to brown.

Pumpkin Pancakes

 I have no idea why I haven't posted this recipe before, since it was one of the reasons I started this blog. Well, that and my kids' insatiable desire for pancakes. My recipe card is dated October 5, 2008, so I've been making these for a while.  I did make one tweak today from my original version and used melted butter instead of oil. They were delicious. And they are now gone.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon cloves
• 1 beaten egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 tablespoons melted butter (or 2 tablespoons cooking oil)

Directions

1. Heat griddle (mine is cast iron set over two burners turned to a smidge higher than medium...your settings may vary).
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the dry ingredients (flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and spices).
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, canned pumpkin, and butter.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir with a sturdy spatula just until combined.
5. Lightly grease your griddle with oil or cooking spray (no spraying over an open flame please).
6. Pour batter by 1/3 cup scoops (I use a soup ladle) onto heated griddle. Flip once the edges are dry and the bottom is lightly browned.
7. These pancakes are pretty moist and sometimes need more time than normal ones.

Makes about 8 4-5" pancakes.

Pumpkin Muffins

For this twist on one of our favorite fall breakfasts, I changed up a regular pumpkin bread recipe to use coconut oil for the fat. Coconut oil is a naturally occurring, completely vegetarian saturated fat (made from coconuts, duh). It is solid at most room temperatures, and melts at about 76 degrees. (It's also good for making homemade Magic Shell...and homemade cosmetics, but that's a post I haven't gotten around to writing)

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 can pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup coconut oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400. Grease muffin cups with cooking spray (I ended up with 17 muffins, so a 12-cup and a 6-cup muffin pan).
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk 1 cup of the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, and ginger. 
3. Add the pumpkin, milk, eggs, and coconut oil.
4. Beat on low speed until combined. Beat on medium for 2 minutes.
5. Stop the mixer, add the remaining cup of flour, and beat on low-to-medium until combined.
6. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups. Cook 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Chocolate Chip Scones

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
3. Cut butter into 1/4" cubes and toss in the flour. Then cut with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
4. Add cream and stir with a spatula just until it starts to come together (we are going for somewhere between pie crust and biscuit here).
5. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and ball it up gently with your hands. Don't over-knead, just sort of squeeze until it all sticks together.
6. Flatten the dough out into a rectangle, about 8x10x3/4". Using a bench scraper, slice into 8 squares (or triangles if you prefer.
7. Transfer the scones to the baking sheet and bake 12-15 minutes until they are lightly golden brown on top.

Yeasted Waffles

Waffles for me are like pancake's fussy cousins. To the casual onlooker, they are just pancake batter baked in a funny pan. And yet, they are a treat I have yet to really master.

There are two main types of waffle batter. Quick batters rely on some combination of baking soda, baking powder, and (sometimes) egg whites for leavening. Yeasted waffles rely on (you guessed it) yeast.

I usually end up making the non-yeasted variety because yeast requires hours to rise, and I prefer to sleep in the wee hours of the morning rather than make batter. But the quicker kind usually has a big downside: most of them require one or two egg whites beaten to stiff peaks. As much as I dearly love my stand mixer, it is incapable of whisking less than about six egg whites. And doing it with a hand mixer takes 5-10 minutes of non stop bowl-scraping and blending. Don't even think about doing it with a plain old whisk unless you are bored and looking for an upper arm workout.

I found a great deal on a deep waffle maker recently, so I thought I would take it for a whirl with actual overnight yeast waffles. The result is shown in my photo above (forgive any uneven browning...it takes a while to learn the quirks of a new cooking tool).  The batter was pretty fast to make (stirred up about ten PM last night), and the prep work this morning was mostly unpacking the new toy and reading its instructions.

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups milk (I used skim)
• 1 stick (1/2 cup, 8 Tbsp) butter, melted
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

1. Whisk melted butter into the milk..
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the dry ingredients. Add the butter/milk mixture and whisk together (I really mean whisk here--I promise it will work better than a spatula and the batter is not heavy).
3. Whisk the eggs and vanilla together, then add to the rest of the batter. Whisk well.
   Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight.
4. Heat your waffle iron. If necessary, brush the plates with cooking oil (avoid using sprays because excess spray will bake onto the plates).
5. Take the batter out of the fridge and stir.
6. Pour onto the waffle iron and bake according to the directions. Typically that means baking until it mostly stops steaming.
7. Serve warm, or set cooked waffles on a wire rack so the bottoms don't get soggy (keep them on a rack in the oven set to warm/200 if you are not going to eat them right away).
8. Leftovers can be frozen and re-heated in a toaster for quick weekday breakfasts

Walnut Streusel Bread from Cooking Light

My October issue of Cooking Light arrived this week, and of course I devoured the issue as soon as I could (uh..read the issue. I didn't really eat it. Poetic license, you know...)

The cover story was about quickbreads, a topic near and dear to my heart (and my waistline, ahem), so I was excited to try one of their lightened versions. We frequently have muffins or bread for a weekend breakfast. I chose the Walnut Struesel Bread recipe because 1. I had walnuts and cinnamon and buttermilk on hand and 2. The cover photo looked really yummy.

My overall assessment: it was good. It wasn't exactly earth-shaking though. In fact, the recipe is an awful lot like the coffee cake recipe I posted a while back, except with walnuts and sized for a loaf pan. Still, it was yummy. That photo above was all that was left after my husband and kids sliced into it for their first round of breakfast.

While I was scrolling through their site looking for a link to the recipe (which I couldn't find) I did find a whole list of additional quick bread recipes*. Feel free to check them out and drool.

Ingredients
Streusel**

• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• Dash salt
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 2 tablespoons walnuts, chopped

Bread

• 9 ounces all-purpose flour (about 2 cups...I got to use my baking scale!)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 5 Tbsp butter, softened
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup fat-free buttermilk (my local supermarket only carries 1%, so I guess I upped the fat content of the finished product by a smidge)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. (The recipe calls for a 9x5, but mine are all 8x5..no problem, it just took a few extra minutes to bake).
2. In a small bowl, combine Streusel ingredients and stir to combine. It will look a bit like wet sand. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
4. With a mixer, cream the softened butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, then the vanilla. Make sure you scrape the sides of the bowl.
5. Alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter/sugar/egg mixture and beat until combined.
6. Pour about half of the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Top with about half of the struesel. Repeat with remaining batter and streusel.
7. Bake about 45-50 minutes (mine took about 55-60 because of the pan size) until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool for about 5 minutes on a wire rack before removing the bread from the pan.

*No, I don't get any affiliate fee or anything for mentioning their site or their recipes--I'm just a happy subscriber who pays my own way). In fact, I hope they don't mind that I am posting about their recipe on my blog!
**Amusingly, the spellcheck on the app I use to blog doesn't contain the word "struesel". It's helpful suggestion: stressful.

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
• 1 egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup cooking oil
• 2 teaspoons shredded lemon peel (I used Penzey's dried lemon peel)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

For the glaze

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and poppy seeds and set aside.
4. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the egg, milk, oil, lemon peel, and 1 Tbsp lemon juice.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry all at once and stir with a spatula just until blended.
6. Divide into 12 muffin cups. Bake 15-20 minutes.
7. Stir the remaining lemon juice and sugar. While the muffins are still hot in the pan, brush each one with the lemon glaze with a pastry brush.
8. Remove from the muffin pans and cool.

Red, White, and Blue Baked Donuts

I've made baked donuts before, with generally good results. Muffin recipes work really well in donut pans, as muffins are typically moist and fast to bake.

This time I used the Wilton baked donut recipe. It uses cake flour, buttermilk, and nutmeg for a lighter cake part with that hint of spice.

Ingredients

• 2 cups cake flour, sifted
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• ¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp. salt
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tbsp. butter, melted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425*F. Spray doughnut pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large mixing bowl, sift together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Add buttermilk, eggs and butter. Beat until just combined. Fill each doughnut cup approx. 2/3 full.
3. Bake 7-9 minutes or until the top of the doughnuts spring back when touched.
4. Let cool in pan for 4-5 minutes before removing. Finish doughnut with glaze and sprinkles
5. Makes 12 doughnuts 

Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar 
• 1 tsp vanilla 
• 1-2 tablespoons milk 
• food coloring

Cinnamon Scones

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450.
2. In a large mixing bowl, stir flour, white sugar, baking powder and salt. 
3. Cut the butter into 1/4 inch cubes and toss in the flour. With a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse crumbs.
4. Stir in the heavy cream until the dough lightly comes together
5. Turn the dough out on a pastry board and gather into a flat rectangle, about 8x8, that holds the crumbs together.
6. In a small bowl, stir the brown sugar and cinnamon.
7. Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar over the dough. Fold the dough around the cinnamon, keeping the sugar to the inside, and flatten back out again. Repeat several times until the cinnamon sugar is distributed in layers through the dough.
8. Re-form the dough into about an 8x8 rectangle. Cut into 8 pieces.
9. Line a cookie sheet with a silicone baking mat. Transfer the scones and bake about 12 minutes until golden brown.
10. Allow them to cool on the sheet at least five minutes.
11. Serve with coffee.

Easy Cinnamon Crescents

Cinnamon is one of the primary breakfast food groups, and I am constantly coming up with new ways to indulge in the morning. These cinnamon rolls are super-easy and super-tasty and the entire batch disappeared almost as soon as my family got to the table.

Ingredients

• 1 can refrigerated crescent roll dough
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

For the glaze:

• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375. Line a cookie sheet with a non-stick silicone mat, parchment, or non-stick foil (Trust me, these are sticky).
2. Unroll the crescent dough into a single layer on the cookie sheet. 
3. Brush the entire top surface with melted butter. Sprinkle the brown sugar evenly over the whole surface, and then sprinkle the cinnamon evenly over the whole surface.
4. Separate individual triangles and roll them up, starting with one long edge.
5. Bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown and flaky. 
6. Allow the rolls to cool for about 10 minutes on the pan. If you take them off too early, the melted sugar will stick to your plate. The non-stick liner allows them to cool in place and for the brown sugar to harden enough to move the rolls.
7. Meanwhile, for the glaze, stir the vanilla and powdered sugar. Drizzle in enough milk to make the glaze easy to pour.
8. Drizzle glaze over cresecent rolls and enjoy.

Makes 8

Homemade Blueberry Granola

All the cool people make their own breakfast cereal. From scratch. And it's super-healthy. Well, sort of. There is fat (oil) and sugar (2 kinds). But I bet you can pronounce every item in the ingredient list, and its easy to go organic.

Ingredients

• 3 cups 1-minute oats
• 2 cups rolled barley
• 1/4 cup flax seed meal
• 2 cups chopped pecans
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups dried blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325. Line a large, deep baking sheet ("jelly roll" size) with non-stick foil or parchment paper.
2. In a very large mixing bowl, whisk syrup, sugar, oil, vanilla, and salt. Stir in the oats, barely, flaxseed, and nuts. Do NOT add the blueberries.
3. Pour the oat and sugar mixture onto the baking pan, spread it evenly.
4. Bake 40-45 minutes. Let cool about an hour in the pan. Break it into pieces and stir in the dried blueberries.
5. Store in a cool, dry place. Makes about 9 cups (about 18 servings).

Frosted Baked Donuts (with sprinkles!)

My pre-schooler loves donuts (what kid doesn't), but I'm not about to feed him fried ones all the time. These are made with a muffin-batter "cake" and are baked. Frosting (leftover canned frosting from another project) and a few sprinkles dress them up nicely. OK, so they're not exactly health food. But they are tasty and easy enough for a 4-year old to help with (he was in charge of stirring and frosting).


Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 beaten egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Frosting (about 2-3 teaspoons per donut)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Grease a donut pan with cooking spray.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt, and set aside.
4. In another large bowl, whisk the egg, milk, butter, and vanilla.
5. Add the milk-egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a spatula just until the batter is mixed.
6. Spoon the batter into the muffin pan. This makes exactly 12 donuts in my pan, but fill yours about 1/2 full, and use any excess batter to make mini-muffin-pan "donut holes".
7. Bake about 15-18 minutes until they are lightly golden brown on top.
8. Let them cool in the pan at most about 5 minutes.
9. Frost and shake with sprinkles.

Coffee Cake

Merry Christmas!

This morning I wanted to make our family's favorite coffee cake. In fact, I think the original recipe was called Favorite Coffee Cake. The version we've been making for thirty-something years calls for regular milk and shortening, so I updated it a bit to use real butter and buttermilk.

The streusel topping on this cake is more of a streusel filling. It tends to sink down into the middle of the cake, leaving rich pockets of buttery cinnamony sugary goodness. We usually fight over the middle pieces of the cake, where the most cinnamon filling rests.

Ingredients
Cake:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled
• 1 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs

Cinnamon Topping/Filling

• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons butter, softened

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x13 baking pan.
2. In one extra-large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk the melted butter, buttermilk, and eggs.
4. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Pour into the baking pan.
5. For the topping/filling, mix all the ingredients together until well blended. Crumble/Drop evenly over the top of the cake batter.
6. Bake 35-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Pumpkin Mini-loaves

This recipe makes just enough pumpkin bread for two mini-loaf pans, which in our house is about one breakfast worth. It is also a great way to use up the rest of the canned pumpkin left from making Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup al-purpose flour
• 1/3 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/3 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon butter, melted and cooled
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease two mini loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, and ginger.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk the pumpkin, sugar, butter, egg and vanilla.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir with spatula just until combined and there are no streaks of flour.
5. Divide batter evenly between the two mini-loaf pans.
6. Bake about 20-25 minutes until the top is lightly golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

  We are entering my favorite season: baking season. Between two grocery trips I have managed to stock up on canned pumpkin, cranberries, cream (for making scones), chocolate, and buttermilk. I would love nothing more than to spend an entire weekend in the kitchen, stocking my freezer and padding my thighs for the cold weather to come. Alas, I am fresh out of entire weekends. So I'll settle for one of our favorite Saturday morning breakfasts: pancakes. Pumpkin pancakes.


Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon each nutmeg, ginger, and ground cloves
• 1 beaten egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• non-stick cooking spray

Directions

1. Preheat griddle to medium heat or to the pumpkin setting or to 350 degrees (depending on your griddle!)
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and spices.
3. In a small mixing bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, canned pumpkin, and oil.
4. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry and stir with a spatula just until blended.
5. Spray the griddle with the non-stick cooking spray. 
6. Pour batter into 4" pancakes, spreading them lightly with the back of a spoon or ladle as necessary to avoid super thick spots.
7. Cook on the first side until the top is slightly dry and the bottom is a light golden brown and then flip. Remove from the griddle when the second side is a golden brown. The extra moisture in the pancakes makes these take slightly longer than normal to cook. Don't get antsy and turn up the heat or you will have scorched dough!

Caramel Apple Muffins

The grocery stores are full of apples and cider and tempting candy. These muffins are hearty, moist, and plenty sweet. Perfect for a crisp fall morning with a cup of steaming apple cider or espresso.  

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup (half of a stick) butter, melted and cooled
• 1 apple, peeled, cored, and diced into 1/4" pieces (about 1 cup)
• 6 caramels, chopped into 1/8" pieces
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper baking cups.
2. Set aside about 1/4 of the chopped apple, 1/2 of the chopped caramels, and 1/2 of the chopped pecans for topping.
3. In a large mixing bowl, stir the flour, oatmeal, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, and spices.   Toss in the remaining apple pieces.
4. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the egg, milk, and cooled, melted butter.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir with a spatula just until combined. Stir in the un-reserved caramels and pecans.
6. Distribute the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Top the muffins with the remaining bits of caramel, apple, and pecan.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cowboy Coffee Cake

We are still unpacking from our move to a new house and getting used to the new kitchen.The new kitchen comes with a new oven to learn, so I've been leaning towards familiar recipes that I know work for me. Ovens can run hot or cold, and if they are out of level or have old heating elements then food can cook unevenly. So far, I think this new oven runs pretty true to temperature, though it takes a lot longer to pre-heat than my last couple. 

This coffee cake recipe is a variant of one that my family has used for years, but with the spices in the cake instead of in the topping.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 3/4 cups dark brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 egg
• 2/3 cups buttermilk
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Grease a 9" square baking pan.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, and salt.Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until it looks like crumbs. This will be the base for both the cake and the struesel topping.
4. Remove 1/4 cup of the flour/butter/sugar mixture and set aside in a separate bowl. Add the nuts to the 1/2 cup struesel topping and toss together.
5. To the large bowl, add the baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
6. In a medium mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs with a whisk. Add the buttermilk and whisk until combined.
7. Add the liquid ingredients all at once to the dry, and stir with a spatula until well mixed.
8. Pour batter into the baking pan. Sprinkle the top with the struesel-nut topping.
9. Bake 35-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.