Lesson #173: Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Hello Fall! We are in full swing in Ohio with falling leaves and colder temperatures! The season has definitely influenced my baking because I've been making a ton of Fall-flavored desserts.

This is a tender buttermilk coffee cake that is perfect anytime of day. The cake has a swirl of cinnamon & sugar throughout and is topped with a walnut crumb topping and chopped apples.  I enjoyed a piece with a cup of hot tea!

LESSON LEARNED: Use whatever apples you have on hand. I used a mixture of sweet and tart apples - this cake turned out great!

Recipe for Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Lesson #161: Peach Crumble Pie

I haven't made a peach pie since these vanilla bean peach pies last year, so I decided it was definitely time to bake a peach pie again. I really have a dislike towards runny, undercooked peach pie fillings, so I turned to a pie book I checked out from the library for help. In this peach pie recipe, the thickener is quick-cooking tapioca. I don't normally have this item in my baking pantry, so I had to go in search of it, but it really did the trick! The peach pie filling was perfectly set by the time it finished baking. :)

LESSON LEARNED: Use peaches which are ripe, but still firm. They are much easier to slice!

Recipe for Peach Crumble Pie

Lesson #159: Cherry Crumble Pie

I was perusing the library last week and I happened upon a cookbook entitled "Perfect Pies". It's written by Michele Stuart who owns a pie bakery and won a bunch of national awards for her pies. So far I've baked two of her pies and I'm completely in love with the book!

The first recipe I tried is for a cherry crumble pie. It combines fresh cherries over a flaky, buttery crust and topped with a brown sugar & cinnamon crumble. Really - it's like half cherry pie and half cherry crumble. We ate a few slices and then I had to give some away so we won't eat the whole thing! Trust me - you won't be disappointed with this pie :)

LESSON LEARNED: If the crumble topping isn't your thing, double the pie dough recipe and make a double-crust pie.

Recipe for Cherry Crumble Pie

Lesson #150: Snickerdoodle Cookies

Snickerdoodle cookies are one of the classic American cookies. I was thinking about entering these cookies in our local county fair in a few weeks, so I wanted to make a test batch. I made one of my favorite chewy sugar cookie doughs- which I love because it's slightly tangy with the addition of cream cheese- and generously rolled it in cinnamon and sugar. The result is a soft, chewy cinnamon/sugar cookie. I'll let you know if these are winners! :)

LESSON LEARNED: If you make these cookies on a hot & humid day, you may want to refrigerate the dough before you roll it into balls. When I made these cookies, I didn't have to refrigerate the dough, but it was starting to get sticky as I handled it.

Recipe for Snickerdoodle Cookies

Lesson #144: Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Nothing brightens my day more than making homemade bread. Especially GREAT homemade bread. Trust me - I've made some pretty bad loaves over the years. I've made this recipe a few times now and it's ABSOLUTELY AMAZING every time I make it.

The bread dough is part whole wheat flour and part white flour. A little honey, an egg, and canola oil are mixed in to create a soft and squishy baked over-sized loaf. Swirled inside is a mixture of butter, brown sugar, and lots of cinnamon. Don't be shy with using a lot of cinnamon - it makes this bread stand out from typical loaves! Enjoy!

LESSON LEARNED: The leftover bread is great for French Toast the next day!

Recipe for Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Lesson #129: Sticky Buns

I was craving sticky buns the other day, so I decided to try a new recipe for raised sweet bread. I really like the base recipe (which is the bread part), but the cinnamon/sugar/pecan ratio was a little off in this recipe. I decided to post it to share the bread recipe and to document this first attempt at sticky buns.

I'm looking for sticky buns which are soft and pillow-y, but not too sweet and sugary. I want to taste the cinnamon in every bite! This will be a good challenge for myself to try new sticky bun recipes.

LESSON LEARNED: These sticky buns are pretty sweet. Cut them into small pieces to serve.

Recipe for Sticky Buns

Lesson #70: Cinnamon-Sugar Pull Apart Bread

My family enjoyed this bread as part of breakfast on Christmas morning. This wasn't the first time that I made this bread and my mom was very excited when I unpacked it as a surprise on Christmas Eve.

I really enjoy making homemade bread and, for me, this bread is a lot of fun to make. You begin by mixing up the bread dough and letting it rise. Then, you roll out the dough, brush it with melted butter, and sprinkle it with cinnamon/sugar/nutmeg. Next comes the fun part :) You slice it into 6 vertical strips, stack the strips, and cut it again into 6 equal squares. Finally, you stack the squares on top of each other and place them in a bread pan. The end effect is pretty cool and looks tricky to make (even though it's super easy!).

LESSON LEARNED: Sometimes fancy looking bread can be simple to make.

Recipe for Cinnamon-Sugar Pull Apart Bread

Lesson #46: Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon & Sugar Doughnuts

Last weekend, my mom bought me a doughnut pan (kinda like a cupcake pan, but it's in the shape of doughnuts). I'm a sucker for new baking gadgets, so I had to try it out right away. I didn't have any recipe bookmarked for doughnuts, so I decided to use the recipe off the back of the packaging for the pan. Plus, since these are baked doughnuts, not fried, I thought they are a touch healthier. It turns out that it's a pretty good recipe and a fun baking pan!

The doughnuts are light & fluffy - not at all like the super dense cake doughnuts you buy in the store. The key to the lightness is cake flour, which contains less gluten than regular all-purpose flour. Then, I added pumpkin spice to give these doughnuts a little extra "fall" flavor. They are also made with buttermilk which makes them a bit tangy.  Finally, I dipped the finished doughnuts in butter and rolled them in cinnamon/sugar. DELICIOUS! My afternoon class DEVOURED them in 5 minutes :)

 

LESSON LEARNED: Homemade doughnuts are amazing!

Recipe for Pumpkin Spice Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts

Lesson #28: Cinnamon Crunch Ice Cream

I've been slowly perfecting my homemade ice cream. If you add too much water (either through non-fat milk or fruit), the ice cream becomes icy and less flavorful. If you add too much cream, the ice cream tastes like frozen whipped cream.

I saw a recipe in Bobby Flay's cookbook that used an equal proportion of whole milk and cream while adding additional egg yolks. The result is a very custard-like base that gets better after it sits a few days. I mixed in a cinnamon granola and -viola - you have cinnamon crunch ice cream!

This ice cream is very rich and creamy. The cinnamon granola adds a nice amount of crunch and a touch of sweetness. This is definitely an INDULGENT ice cream!

LESSON LEARNED: Adding extra egg yolks makes a custard-like ice cream.

Recipe for Cinnamon Crunch Ice Cream

Lesson #12: Cinnamon Sugar "Toast" Cupcakes

When I was growing up, one of my favorite ways to eat toast was buttering it and then sprinkling a mixture of cinnamon and sugar on top. In fact, I still prefer to eat toast this way! So, when I came across a recipe for a cinnamon sugar cupcake, I had to try it.

This is a buttery yellow cake and the frosting really packs a cinnamon sugar punch. The consistency of the frosting is a mixture of a traditional powdered sugar/butter frosting and a whipped cream frosting, so it's sweet but also light. I think I might have let my butter get too soft when preparing the frosting, but it works in this cupcake because you can really taste a butter flavor. I garnished the cupcakes with a little caramel sauce, but pieces of cinnamon toast crunch cereal would also be great and give the cupcake a little bit of texture. This cupcake really does taste like eating a piece of cinnamon sugar toast!

LESSON LEARNED: This breakfast flavored cupcake is just as good as the original inspiration!

Recipe for Cinnamon Sugar "Toast" Cupcakes

Lesson #3: Cinnamon French Toast Cupcakes

On Friday, I decided to surprise my husband by making French toast for breakfast. We had some leftover sourdough bread from the week (I've been making my own sourdough starter for the last three weeks by "feeding and watering" it everyday....but that's story for another post!), so I cut into pretty thick slices, dunked into into my egg/milk/brown sugar batter, and sauteed it in some butter. Well, I think I cut the slices too thick and the egg didn't soak into the bread, so it didn't quite turn out. It was a poor excuse for French toast.

Later that day, I thought I could redeem my baking skills for the day and transform my French toast Flavors into a cupcake. The end result was a cinnamon cupcake with a sweet (yet slightly tangy) maple cream cheese frosting. They were WAY better than my first attempt and, honestly, who wouldn't want to eat a cupcake for breakfast?

LESSON LEARNED: Cinnamon french toast is a yummy cupcake flavor!


Recipe for Cinnamon French Toast Cupcakes