Homemade Salted Caramels

I am very excited about these homemade salted caramels. They are just as delicious as the caramels you'll find in a gourmet candy shop. They are so unbelievably tasty!

I've been totally intimidated about making candy. For example, what the heck is "hard ball stage?" How is it different than "soft crack stage?" How do these caramels end up chewy while this pecan brittle ends up crunchy?

Espresso Chiffon Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

This Espresso Chiffon Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting is both light from the chiffon layers, and rich from the fudge buttercream.

I don't make cakes very often, mostly because I'm pretty bad at frosting them (and stacking the layers so they don't look like the leaning tower of Pisa).

Brownie Cookies

These Brownie Cookies are just about the most chocolaty cookie I've ever made... or eaten.  

These Brownie Cookies have such a deep chocolate flavor. They include both chopped unsweetened chocolate as well as unsweetened dark cocoa powder, and a good amount of bittersweet chocolate chips.

Spinach and Bacon Sheet Pan Quiche

This Spinach and Bacon Sheet Pan Quiche is so "spinachy" and delicious! 

I love this Spinach and Bacon Sheet Pan Quiche. It is loaded with spinach, enough so that I'm pretty sure you're getting a complete serving of leafy greens.
 

Pumpkin Rolls with Salted Maple Butter

These pumpkin rolls with salted maple butter are over the top wonderful for a holiday dinner. They're also perfect for sandwiching leftovers the next day. 

You can pull the dough for these rolls together and set it aside in the morning to rise while you are assembling the rest of the holiday meal. You can even make the dough a day in advance, and let it rise in the refrigerator. The rolls themselves only take about 15 to 17 minutes to bake, which is perfect timing while your turkey or roast is resting.

Mini Fougasse with Sourdough Starter

These Mini Fougasse are so flavorful, and are perfect with dips, tapas, and sauces. 

Break them apart warm from the oven and drag them through your favorite stew or olive oil and balsamic.

Mini Cheese Puff Crackers

These mini cheese puff crackers are made from a dough of equal parts flour, cheese, and butter. They are crumbly and cheesy, and are the perfect nibble with a glass of dry white wine. 

It's very hard to stop at just one. They are fabulous straight out of the oven, and pretty much melt in your mouth.

No Knead Brioche Hamburger Buns

I've always been curious about brioche hamburger buns. The idea of serving a juicy hamburger in a rich and buttery bun sounds totally decadent.

Gruyere, Caramelized Onions, and Watercress Buns

I'm pretty thrilled with these savory vegetable buns with Gruyere, caramelized onions, and watercress.

First, Gruyere cheese is a wonderful thing. It's a hard cheese with a fairly mild flavor, and is totally amazing when melted. Then, how can you resist caramelized onions? Combined with the Gruyere, it's kind of like French onion soup in a roll. I added a handful of watercress for its peppery flavor. These were very tasty.

Caramel Custard Tart with Sliced Almonds and Pumpkin Seeds

This Caramel Custard Tart with Sliced Almonds and Pumpkin Seeds is so completely decadent and rich. It can also be quite the showstopper with its deep caramel color and the toasted nuts and seeds. I used toasted and salted pumpkin seeds in this tart to compliment the sweet caramel, which turned out to be a great choice. 

Chocolate Brownie Crackle Cookies

These Chocolate Brownie Crackle Cookies are so chocolaty, tender, and moist. They are melt-in-your-mouth good. Imagine brownies, but in the form of a cookie!

I've made similar cookies before. Check out my Chocolate Truffle Cookies, and my Chocolate Truffle Cookies with a Crackle Crust. However, this is the first time I've tried making the cookies with powdered sugar on top.

For the first batch, I dusted the cookies with the powdered sugar prior to baking....

Fudgy No-Butter No-Flour Brownies

These fudgy no-butter no-flour brownies are actually made with almond flour. They are really easy to make. All you need is one bowl.

Little Lemon Loaf

This little lemon loaf is about as lemony as a lemon loaf can be. It's loaded with lemon zest and lemon juice. It also gets its yellow color enhanced by yellow corn meal.

Cinnamon Apple Twist Bread

This cinnamon apple twist bread has these things going for it:

1. It's beautiful.
2. It's delicious.
3. It's impressive.
4. It's easy.
5. Your friends will admire you. 

What more do you need?

The dough is rolled up like cinnamon rolls, but instead of slicing the rolled up dough cross wise like the rolls, the dough is sliced lengthwise, and then braided, cut side up, to create this gorgeous swirly bread.

These loaves would be perfect for breakfast or brunch. You could also leave off the glaze if you want something a bit less sweet. I think it would be awesome as a hostess gift with the glaze on the side.

The apple filling calls for Intant ClearJel, which is a thickener that is great to use with fruit pie fillings. I happened to have it on hand (of course I did, because you never know, right?). f you don't have it, you can use flour, corn starch, or tapioca.

Cinnamon Apple Twist Bread

Dough

13 ounces pastry blend flour (or a blend of 65% all purpose and 35% cake flour)

1 1/2 ounces potato flour or potato flakes

3 T sugar

1 1/2 tsp instant yeast

1 1/4 tsp salt

3 T slightly softened butter

1 tsp vanilla

1 large egg

1 C milk

Filling

1/2 C sugar

3 T Instant ClearJel or flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 C peeled and grated apple (about two large crisp apples), I used Braeburn

1 T lemon juice

Glaze 

2 ounces powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp boiled cider (optional)

1 T apple juice

Instructions

Dough

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix all of the dry ingredients with a whisk. 
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix for about a minute until the dry ingredients are wet. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes. 
3. Knead the dough with the dough hook for 10 minutes. The dough should be slightly sticky, so add a bit of water if the dough is too dry. 
4. Put the dough in an oiled bowl and spray the top with spray oil. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 90 to 120 minutes.

Filling

1. Mix the cinnamon, ClearJel or flour, and sugar in a medium bowl. 
2. Mix the apples and lemon in a small bowl. Toss them with the cinnamon sugar mixture.
3. Cover and set aside.

Assemble the Loaves

1. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and press it down gently to deflate it. 
2. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and roll each into 10 by 12 inch rectangles. 
3. Spread the filling over each piece and roll, starting with the 12 inch side, into logs. 
4. Cut each log in half lengthwise, and keeping the cut side up, twist the two pieces like a braid, and press the ends together and tuck them under (see the loaf above). Repeat with the second log. 
5. Place the twists onto a parchment lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until puffy and nearly doubled, about an hour or two. 
6. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the loaves for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for about an hour before glazing. 
7. Using a fork, drizzle the bread with the glaze. 

This recipe was slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour and is the recipe that the bakers of the Avid Bakers Challenge are making for October. 

Roasted Vegetable Focaccia

This roasted vegetable focaccia is the perfect vehicle for all of the zucchini from your or your friends' gardens. Roasting vegetables definitely brings out the sweetness in them and the results are seriously tasty.  I took this focaccia to work the day after making it. I set it in the break room with reheating instructions. It was a huge hit and gone by 10am.

The original recipe calls for roasted green onions. Unfortunately, I burned the green onions into pieces of charred straw.

Fortunately, I found a sweet onion in my pantry, which I sliced, tossed in olive oil and King Arthur Flour Pizza Seasoning, and roasted for about 15 minutes. It turned out to be the perfect addition to this bread.

The participants in the Avid Baker's Challenge are making this recipe from King Arthur Flour this month. To see the original recipe, click here.

Roasted Vegetable Focaccia

Ingredients

Starter

57 g cool water

Pinch of instant yeast

60 g unbleached all purpose flour (I used King Arthur Flour)

Dough

All of the starter

1 tsp instant yeast

57 g lukewarm water

120 g unbleached all purpose flour

Scant 3/4 tsp salt

6 g nonfat dry milk

13 g olive oil

Topping

3 medium zucchini, trimmed and sliced

olive oil

King Arthur Flour pizza seasoning, or other Italian seasoning

1 sweet onion, peeled, halved, and sliced

8 to 10 ounces of grape or cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. To make the starter, mix the ingredients in a smallish bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit overnight, about 12 to 14 hours. 
2. Combine all of the ingredients, including the starter, in the bowl of a stand mixer. Knead for about 7 minutes on the second speed. 
3. Place the dough into an oiled bowl and let rise for an hour, covered. 
4. Deflate the dough, re-cover, and let it rise for another hour. 
5. In the meantime, toss the zucchini in olive oil and pizza or Italian seasoning and bake in a 400 degree F oven for about an hour, turning it over half way through. Remove them from the oven earlier if they are golden brown.
6. Toss the onions with olive oil and pizza or Italian seasoning and place them on one side of a half sheet baking pan. Place the tomatoes on the other half of the baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees F.
7. Set all of the vegetables aside. 
8. When the dough is ready, sprinkle olive oil into a quarter sheet (13 by 9 inch) pan. If you don't have one, use half of a half sheet pan. 
9. Place the dough into the pan, and dimple it with your fingers to spread the dough out. When the dough begins to spring back, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rest for 15 minutes. 
10. Continue to dimple the dough and nudge it out to fill the pan. 
11. Place the zucchini on top of the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest until puffy, about 2 to 3 hours. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
12. Bake the dough with the zucchini on a lower rack of the oven for 15 minute. Remove the pan from the oven and top with the tomatoes and onions.
13. Bake for another 10 minutes. 
14. Remove from the oven, move the bread to a wire rack, and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. 
15. This bread can be reheated in a toaster oven at 350 degrees F for about 5 to 10 minutes. 

This bread has been Yeastspotted 

Cherry Scones

These cherry scones began with a basic scone recipe from King Arthur Flour. I added dried cherries, but you could add raisins, chocolate chips, nuts, or any combination of "add-ins."

If you place the shaped scones in the freezer for 30 minutes prior to baking them, you will get a higher rise. I'm not sure why, but it definitely worked. I guess it has something to do with relaxing gluten. Regardless, these scones rose beautifully.

These are easy to make. They are best served warm fresh out of the oven, but are also good re-warmed in a microwave for 10 seconds. They are wonderful with butter and jam. Keep any leftover scones in a sealed container.

I baked these in a Mini-Scone Pan so I shortened the baking time to about 17 minutes.

Cherry Scones

Ingredients

325 g unbleached all purpose flour

67 g sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 T baking powder

1 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces and placed back into the refrigerator

1 C dried cherries

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

113g to 152g milk or cream (113 g was plenty)

Instructions

1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. 
2. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with a pastry cutter or granny fork until the mixture is crumbly. 
3. Add the cherries and stir.
4. In a different bowl, mix the eggs, vanilla, and milk.
5. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir until just mixed.
6. Divide the dough in two and form it into two 6 inch circles on a parchment lined baking sheet. The thickness should be about 3/4 inches. 
7. Cut the circles into 8 wedges and pull the wedges slightly apart. Alternatively, you can use a 
8. Place the baking sheet in the freezer, uncovered, for 30 minutes. 
9. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. 
10. Bake the scones for 17 to 25 minutes, depending on their size. They are done when they golden brown. 
11. Cool for about 5 minutes on the pan, and then serve. 
12. Store leftovers wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature. 

The Avid Bakers of the Avid Bakers Challenge are continuing to bake recipes from the King Arthur Flour website. Check out how other bakers fared with this recipe. 

English Digestive Biscuits

English Digestive Biscuits were evidently created in the Victorian Era to add whole grains to the English diet. Also, because they originally contained bicarbonate of soda, they were thought to aid in digestion. They are practically health food!

They are similar to a Graham cracker, but a lot more cookie-like .... and a lot more elegant.

This dough is really easy to roll out and work with. No chilling necessary. I combined all of the ingredients in a food processor, but you can also mix them with a pastry blender or your hands.

The only changes I made to the original recipe were to add a half teaspoon of salt, and to substitute 2 ounces of dark brown sugar for 2 ounces of the confectioners' sugar. I also used a square cookie cutter. For a more traditional look, use a round cutter without scalloped edges.

This recipe was originally published in The Baking Sheet Newsletter in December, 1991 by King Arthur Flour, and is the recipe of the month for the the Avid Bakers Challenge. Each month, the bakers in the group make the same recipe, often adapting it to their taste. This year, we are baking recipes from King Arthur Flour. If you'd like to bake along, click >here< for more information.

English Digestive Biscuits

Ingredients

1/2 C (2 ounces) Unbleached all purpose flour

1 1/2 C (6 ounces) whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C unsalted butter, cut into about 12 pieces

2 ounces dark brown sugar

1/4 C (1 ounce) confectioners' sugar

1/4 C cold milk

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 
2. Pulse the flours, baking powder, salt, and butter in a food processor (or mix with your fingers).
3. Add the sugars and milk, and pulse just a few times.
4. Place the mixture on a piece of wax paper and form it into a disk. 
5. Place another piece of wax paper on top of the dough and roll it out to a 1/8 inch thickness. 
6. Remove the top layer of wax paper and cut the dough with a 2 1/2 inch cookie cutter and place the cookies on the baking sheet. Pull the scraps together, re-roll, and continue to cut out more cookies. 
7. Prick the cookies with a fork, and bake, one sheet at a time, for 15 to 20 minutes. 
8. Cool on a wire rack. 

Tuscan Coffeecake

This Tuscan coffeecake was developed by PJ Hamel (of King Arthur Flour fame) after visiting an Italian bakery in Vermont. As she describes it, it was "Italian-Italian, not American-Italian."

While this is called a coffeecake, it is actually a yeasted bread filled with fruit, nuts, and lightly enriched with a bit of sugar and butter.. but not too much. It is brushed with a vanilla sugar mixture prior to baking to give it a nice crunchy glaze. It's reminiscent of panettone, without all of the fuss.

Only issue? How to evenly distribute the fruit throughout the loaf when shaping. I'll have to work on that.

Knowing that certain members of my family who shall remain nameless would probably not like the walnuts included in the original recipe, I substituted chopped dried apricots. I also substituted dried cherries for the dates called for in the original recipe. In addition, I added 1/8 tsp of Fiori de Sicilia, an Italian flavoring that combines the flavors and scents of vanilla and citrus.

Keep in mind that you will need to make the starter the night before making the bread. It can sit out on your counter for several hours to get bubbly and develop flavor. It's super easy so don't let the word "starter" stop you from trying this delicious bread.

This bread was chosen for the Avid Bakers Challenge for February. Each month, we are baking a recipe from the King Arthur Flour website. To see how other bakers fared, check out the Avid Bakers Challenge page. You'll find lots of delicious looking variations.

Tuscan Coffee Cake

Ingredients

Starter

1 cup / 4.25 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or European-Style Flour (I used the European style)
1/2 cup cool water
1/16 teaspoon instant yeast

Final Dough

All of the starter
2/3 cup water
2 3/4 cups / 11.7 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or European-Style Flour
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 large egg
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/8 tsp Fiori de Sicilia, optional

Add Ins

1 cup dried apricots, chopped
3/4 cup golden raisins
3/4 cup dried cherries, soaked in hot water and then drained

Glaze

2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon water

Instructions

1. Mix the starter ingredients in a one quart bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to sit overnight, until bubbly.
2. Mix all of the dough ingredients in a stand mixer or bread machine until smooth, about 7 minutes. 
3. Place the dough into an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for about an hour (if your kitchen is really cold, you should let it rise longer). If it doesn't completely double, that's okay. 
4. Knead the fruit into the dough, and shape it into a ball. Place the ball into an oiled 9 inch cake pan and flatten it a bit, cover with plastic wrap, and allow it to rise for about 30 minutes. It should just crest over the top of the pan (the loaf will rise even more in the oven). 
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
6. Mix the glaze ingredients and brush the top of the loaf with the mixture. 
7. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until the top is golden and the interior of the loaf reaches 190 degrees F. 
8. Allow it to cool in the pan for five minutes. Remove it from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack. 

Sharing with Yeastspotting

Cinnamon Swirl Pumpkin Rolls

One of the things I like about this cinnamon swirl pumpkin roll recipe is, while it is incredibly tasty and sweet, it is relatively low in fat compared to most cinnamon roll recipes (I said "relatively" so take this with a grain of salt), compared to most cinnamon bun recipes. It is also easy to make.

Just throw all of the ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer and knead. If you have a kitchen scale, you don't even have to get much else dirty.

These roles are best served warm fresh out of the oven. The next day, I recommend a 10 second turn in the microwave to freshen them up. Really tasty.

Cinnamon Swirl Pumpkin Rolls Recipe

Recipe slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour 

Ingredients

Dough

8 ounces (by weight) canned pumpkin puree

2 large eggs

2 ounces warm water (less if it's really humid)

2 ounces softened butter

10.5 ounces unbleached all purpose flour

7 ounces white whole wheat flour

1 ounce dry milk powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 1/2 ounces brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp instant yeast

Cinnamon Swirl

3/4 C sugar

1 T ground cinnamon

Glaze

2 ounces confectioners' sugar

1/4 ounce butter

1 3/4 tsp milk

Instructions

1. Add all of the dough ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer and stir until the ingredients are moistened.
2. Knead the ingredients with the dough hook for about 7 minutes, until you have a smooth dough. 
3. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for about 90 minutes, until doubled. 
4. Roll the dough out into a 14" by 22" rectangle. 
5. Spread the cinnamon sugar over the dough, leaving 1 inch of a short edge free. 
6. Roll the dough up into a log, ending with the short end that is not covered with filling (so that you can seal up the log).
7. Cut the dough into 9 equal pieces and place them into an oiled 9 inch square pan. Pat them down so that the pieces touch.
8. Cover and let rise for about an hour. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
9. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes. 
10. Turn the rolls out onto a wire rack to cool and make the glaze by mixing the ingredients.
11. While the rolls are still warm, drizzle them with the glaze. 

Crusty Apple Pie

Imagine an apple pie that that is mostly crispy and crumbly crust. A pie that has just enough cinnamon apples to keep the two layers of flaky crust apart.

I'm not very practiced in pastry dough (still learning), and when I assembled this pie, I had some trouble rolling out the dough. It was a little dry, and the edges were really jagged. I mean, really jagged, kind of like a map of Sicily. Fortunately the dough was pretty forgiving, and after some patching, I had a couple of rustic circles.

The pie is baked on a baking sheet or pizza pan, not in a pie pan. I baked mine in a dark pizza pan, which resulted in a very crispy bottom crust.

This pie is really good, and the crust, which contains both butter and cream cheese, is really flaky. If you like crust, make this pie. It's kind of a galette with a top crust. I loved it.

This recipe is part of the October Avid Bakers Challenge. We are baking recipes from the King Arthur Flour website.

Crusty Apple Pie Recipe

Slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour

Crust Ingredients

8 1/2 ounces unbleached all purpose flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 ounce buttermilk powder

4 ounces cream cheese

5 ounces cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces.

1 1/2 to 2 ounces ice water

Filling Ingredients

1/2 C sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon mixed together

1 1/4 pounds apples (I used Granny Smith), cored, peeled, and halved, and thinly sliced

2 tsp lemon juice

1 ounce salted butter, cut into small cubes

Sparkling sugar and milk for glazing

Instructions

1. In a food processor, add the flour, cream cheese, salt, and buttermilk powder. Pulse about 8 times.
2. Add the butter pieces and pulse a few more times. You should still see butter pieces.
3. Dump the dough out onto your work surface and sprinkle with some of the water and press the dough together to see if it is enough to hold the dough together. Add more water, a little at a time, until the dough just holds together.
4. Divide the dough into a 9 ounce piece and a 10 ounce piece. Form each piece into a disk, wrap each in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours. 
5. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 425 F.
6. Lay a piece of parchment on your work surface and roll out the larger piece of dough to a 13 inch circle on top of the parchment. Move the dough, parchment and all, to a pizza pan or rimmed baking sheet.
7. Toss the apple slices in the lemon juice to keep them from browning.
8. Spread the sugar/cinnamon mixture on top of the dough circle.
9. Arrange the apples on top of the cinnamon sugar.
10. Dot the top of the apples with the butter.
11. Roll the second piece of dough out into a 12 inch circle. Lift the dough and place it on top of the apples.
12. Fold the bottom dough edges over the top piece and crimp them together.
13. Brush the dough with milk or cream, and sprinkle the top with sparkling sugar.
14. Cut holes or slits in the top dough.
15. Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes, and then lower the temperature to 375 degrees F. Bake for an additional 25 to 35 minutes. The pie will be done when the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling.
16. Cool on a rack in the pan for at least an hour before slicing.