Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Before we get to these cookies, this seems like as good a time as any to introduce you to Esteban, the newest member of my kitchen tools family. I'd been wanting a Kitchen Aid stand mixer for years, and eventually decided I'd get myself one for my 35th birthday. Well, then I discovered they're not quite as expensive as I'd thought, so I decided to not wait for 35. Then they were on sale, and the sale ended on my birthday, which seemed like a sign from the kitchen gods. And the nice lady at Bed Bath & Beyond let me use a 20% off coupon even though it was already very much on sale. Win! Also, when she asked if I wanted a gift receipt, I said yes, because I felt selfish buying a big-ticket item for myself. Does anyone else do that?

In case you're interested in specs, I got the KitchenAid KSM150 Artisan Series 5-quart tilt-head stand mixer with pouring shield in Empire Red. This article was super helpful in helping me decide which model to get.

Anyway, Esteban has been settling in nicely and churning out scrumptious breads and cookies. He's a stud when it comes to kneading yeast dough. But not too studly to scoff at mixing up shortbread cookies with flowers in them.

Oh hey, what a segue! I made these cookies for house church Easter feast. Since I apparently felt the need to make a million of them, there were leftovers that got to go to the office with me on Monday. Initially I wasn't planning to post this recipe (hence my comment below about not remembering how much lavender to use in the lavender sugar--oops), but the praise from friends and coworkers was effusive enough that it seemed only right to snap a few pics and share the recipe. They may seem kinda froufrou, but the men in my life were enjoying them at least as much as the women.

This may go without saying, but be sure to culinary lavender, which you can often find with other dried herbs in the grocery store. Personally, I like to buy it at Natural Grocers because for just a few bucks you can get a bag that is quite large. Seriously, I shared about half of my lavender with a friend and still had enough to almost fill a pint-sized mason jar. Lots of fresh lavender flowers at nurseries and florists have been treated with pesticides you don't want in your cookies.

Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies
Adapted from Port and Fin
Yield: about 30 cookies

Ingredients
2-1/4 cups unsalted butter (that's 4-1/2 sticks), softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
1-1/2 Tbsp. dried lavender buds
Zest from about 3/4 of a lemon
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
5-1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/8 tsp. salt
Lavender sugar, for dusting (optional)

Directions
First, get out your butter so it can soften at room temperature.

Grind or very finely chop your lavender. I used a Magic Bullet; you could use another small electric grinder/chopper, a mortar and pestle, a clean coffee grinder, or a good old fashioned knife and cutting board. In a small bowl, combine the lavender, sugar, and lemon zest. Mix it up well and set aside, ideally for at least 15 minutes so the flavors can infuse.

If you're using lavender sugar, make that now while you have your lavender-grinding implements out. Basically, grind up some lavender and mix it with sugar, like you just did above. I forgot to write down the quantities I used for this, but I think I did about 1-1/2 tsp. lavender buds for about 1/3 cup sugar. That yielded way more lavender sugar than needed for dusting 30 cookies, so I'm looking forward to finding ways to use up the rest of it.

In a good-sized bowl,* cream the butter and sugar-lavender-lemon mixture until well combined. (Use the paddle attachment if using a stand mixer.) Add the vanilla and mix some more, until it's incorporated. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and salt. Gradually add to the butter mixture, and keep on mixing until a dough forms.

Turn dough out onto a clean countertop, divide it roughly in half, and shape into two logs that are about 2 to 2-1/4 inches in diameter. Flatten each side of the logs (to produce squareish cookies). Wrap each log in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least an hour to let the dough firm up.

Preheat oven to 350. Remove cookie dough from the fridge and use a sharp knife to slice cookies off the logs. Aim for about 1/3 inch thick. I know we don't normally think in terms of a third of an inch (why is that?), but 1/4 inch felt too thin, but a 1/2 inch would have been too thick. Arrange cookies on baking sheets that aren't greased or lined with parchment paper or anything. Leave a little room for the cookies to spread.

Bake for 10-14 minutes. You want them to still be kinda soft, but a little browned on the bottom.** Gently remove cookies to a wire rack. Sprinkle with lavender sugar (or plain sugar) while they cool.

Notes
*My 5-quart bowl was veeerry full. Esteban technically did okay with this quantity of cookie dough, but he struggled a bit and spit out some flour a couple times.
**The best way to check for brownness on the bottom is to lift up a cookie with a spatula, try to finagle the your body and the cookie so you can see the bottom, inevitably drop or break the cookie in the process, and be forced to eat the poor broken cookie. Lest it feel neglected.

Pear and Apple Galette with Cinnamon Whipped Cream

There's something therapeutic about rolling pastry dough, creating something beautiful and comforting, and sharing it with people you love. 

Pear and Apple Galette with Cinnamon Whipped Cream
Yield: 6-8 servings

Crust 
1/3 cup oat flour (see notes)
1/3 cup white whole wheat flour
1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
14 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter (that's 2 Tbsp. shy of 2 sticks)
1/3 to 1/2 cup ice water

Filling
2 large apples (I used Granny Smith)
3 medium pears (I used Bosc)
Juice of 1 lemon
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
3/4 tsp. turbinado sugar or granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Whipped cream
2 cups (1 pint) heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Make the crust: Add flours, salt, and sugar to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a couple of times. Then cut the butter into cubes and add to the food processor bowl. Pulse until the mixture is crumbly. Pour in about 1/3 cup of ice water while pulsing, adding up to 1/2 cup if necessary. You're looking for a loose dough that's moist enough to hold together but not so wet that it turns sticky. Turn dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap, wrap tightly, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Prepare filling: Wash your apples and pears. Cut pears in half and remove the core and that little fiber running from the stem to the core. Slice into 1/4-inch slices. You can nibble on the outermost slices--they don't work as well in the galette arrangement, and you'll have plenty of fruit. Slice your apples into 1/4-inch slices to match. I put my sliced pears and sliced apples into two separate bowls, which helped when it came time to arrange the fruit on the crust, but you don't necessarily have to do it that way.

Squeeze your lemon over your cut apples and pears. In a small bowl (like a cereal bowl), combine brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg, and ginger. Sprinkle this mixture over the apples and pears, and toss them gently but well. Hang onto the cereal bowl; you'll use it later.

Assemble the galette: Remove chilled dough from the fridge, and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll until the dough is about 1/8 inch thick, maybe a little thinner. You're aiming for basically round, but this is not an exact science. Mine was more oval-shaped, and about 12 inches in diameter in the shorter direction. Be sure to fully pick up the dough a few times while rolling, to keep it from sticking to your counter.

Line a baking sheet or pizza pan with parchment paper, and transfer your dough onto it. Turn on the oven to 425. Arrange sliced pears and apples in an overlapping pattern, leaving a 1- to 2-inch border around the edge. I alternated the pears and apples so each slice of galette so each slice of galette would have a good balance of both fruits. I wound up with about half a pear and half an apple left, which made a lovely snack while the galette baked.

Fold the edges of the crust in over the edge of the fruit. Again, this is not an exact science and isn't intended to look meticulous. Rustic is the goal! Get your remaining 2 Tbsp. butter and cut it into little cubes. Dot them over the surface of the fruit. Now, remember that cereal bowl from earlier? In it mix your 3/4 Tbsp. turbinado sugar and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, then sprinkle that over the whole galette.

Bake at 425 for 45-50 minutes, rotating the pan about halfway through to ensure even cooking. You want the fruit to be tender and the crust to be nice and toasty.

While the galette is baking, put a medium mixing bowl and your beaters into the freezer to chill, do some quick kitchen cleaning, and munch on any leftover fruit pieces.

Make the whipped cream: Into your chilled bowl pour the heavy whipping cream. Beat for about a minute on high speed, until it's kinda foamy and just starting to thicken. Gradually add the sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Continue beating on high speed until stiff peaks form. Chill until ready to serve.

Serve the galette warm, at room temperature, or chilled. Use a sharp knife to cut it into wedges, and dollop each serving with whipped cream.

Notes

• Instead of buying oat flour, you can easily make it yourself. Just add a heaping 1/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats to a small food processor, and give it a whirl.
• Crust adapted from The Faux Martha, filling and method from The Kitchn, and cinnamon whipped cream from Genius Kitchen.
• As written, I had far more whipped cream than was necessary. You could probably halve the whipped cream measurements and be perfectly fine. 
• If you're lucky enough to have leftover galette, it actually warms nicely in the microwave. About 60 seconds for one serving was perfect for me. 

Autumn Recipe Roundup

It's no secret that autumn is my favorite season. And fall foods are my favorite of all the seasonal foods. So with October 1 just around the corner, here are some yummies to enjoy this season!

Pumpkin Apple Cider - Take the classic spiced hot apple cider and inject some pumpkin into the mix.

Pumpkin Coconut Pancakes - Coconut and pumpkin may not be obvious friends, but their flavors go together so beautifully.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Bourbon Glaze - A labor of love, but oh is it lovely to eat these!

Harvest Galette with Gruyere, Acorn Squash, and Caramelized Onions - Don't let the poor quality of my photo scare you off. (Seriously, what is happening with that onion situation?) This galette is one of my favorite dinners I've ever made.

Pumpquinoa - Pumpkin stuffed with quinoa, sausage, cheese, herbs, and veggies . . . what's not to love? See also version 2.0.

Sausage- and Apple-Stuffed Acorn Squash - Again, not a great photo, but these squash boats are super tasty and not very hard to make. And although I make a big deal about pumpkin, acorn squash is secretly my favorite.

Balsamic Roasted Pumpkin and Friends - A simple roasted side dish. Chopping everything does take some time, but the end result is worth it!

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies - Easy and delicious!

Pumpkin Monkey Bread - Need I say more? Really?

And a few from around the interwebs:

• Balsamic Onions, Ricotta, and Butternut Squash Galette - Do yourself a favor and make this. It's a bit time intensive due to the different components, but it's well worth it. I've gotten rave reviews from friends both times I've made this galette.
• Pumpkin Poblano Casserole - I saw this recipe recently in a Cooking Light magazine and am SO excited to try it out!
• Pear Cranberry Crisp - Pears and cranberries, warming spices, and an oatmeal crisp topping. Yes, please! 

What are you looking forward to making this season?

Prickly Pear Lemon Bars

Today I bring you prickly pear lemon bars. They're a great way to use up a bit of prickly pear juice, and they're a fun twist on classic lemon bars. I've made these a few times and have received many compliments from people who normally find lemon bars to be too sweet and puckery, but like the milder sweetness and balance of flavor found in these bars.

Initially, I was suspicious of how well pecans would go with prickly pear, but I trusted the recipe and went for it, and I must say these flavors play together exceedingly well. The pecans add a lovely richness and...well...nuttiness that helps balance the tartness and sweetness of the dessert.

Prickly Pear Lemon Bars
Yield: one 9 x 13 pan (halve the recipe for an 8 x 8 pan)
Adapted slightly from Cupcake Project

Crust Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
1/2 cup butter, slightly softened

Filling Ingredients
1-1/3 cups sugar
4 egg whites
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 to 1-1/2 tsp. lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp. prickly pear juice
1 tsp. baking powder
2-4 Tbsp. powdered sugar (for dusting)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9 x 13-inch pan with cooking spray.

Use a pastry blender, forks, or a food processor to combine all the crust ingredients until crumbly. Press into your baking dish. Bake for 15 minutes.

Mix together all filling ingredients except powdered sugar (I use an electric hand mixture). The mixture will be really runny. This is good.

Pour filling mixture on top of the pre-baked crust. It's perfectly fine if the crust is still hot. Bake for 20 minutes, until filling is set. Let cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar, then cut into squares and serve.

Panna Cotta (and Pasta Night!)

Photo credit: Chai Green

A couple weeks ago, I had some friends over for a hands-on dinner party, and we tackled two of my 2015 food goals in one night: pasta and panna cotta. I made the pasta dough and panna cotta ahead of time, and once my friends arrived, I put them to work helping roll pasta.

For the pasta dough, I used the recipe from Cooking at Home with the Culinary Institute of America. Basically all you need is flour, a bit of salt, egg, and a bit of oil. For rolling and handling technique, I found this article from Serious Eats to be very helpful. It's also a good read if you like to get real nerdy about your food. We used the old-school hand crank pasta rollers and cutters, for which you really do need two people--one to turn the crank and hold the machine in place, and one to feed the dough through the rollers and catch it as it comes out. I don't understand how people manage a hand crank roller by themselves! Making fresh pasta was a lot of work, but it was fun work with friends who were willing to pitch in and work for their dinner. And it tasted so good!

It was Lynn Rosetto Kasper of The Splendid Table podcast who inspired me to make panna cotta, so I originally planned to use her recipe. However, she uses sour cream in hers, and I couldn't find lactose-free sour cream for my lactose-intolerant guest, so I used The Kitchn's recipe instead. It tasted delicious, looked and felt fancy, and was actually really easy to make. And you can easily vary it up with different toppings or even different kinds of milk or flavorings. I will definitely make panna cotta again. See tips and topping ideas in the notes below the recipe.

Also, for an appetizer that night, I made simple peach-basil crostini. Simply slice a baguette, spray or brush lightly with olive oil, and spread out on a baking sheet. Then broil for just a few minutes until toasted (watch closely!). Then chop up some fresh peaches, and toss it with some thinly sliced fresh basil. Scoop the peach-basil mixture onto the crostini, and you've got a tasty, summery bite. A bit of ricotta or creamy goat cheese probably would have been a nice addition. Bonus: the peach-basil mixture tasted sublime on the panna cotta.

Panna Cotta

From The Kitchn

Yield: 6 servings (6 oz. each)

Ingredients

1-1/2 cups whole milk

1 Tbsp. powdered gelatin

1/3 cup sugar

1-1/2 cups heavy cream

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Fresh raspberries, chopped fresh peaches, or other toppings of choice (see notes)

Directions

Pour the milk into a saucepan (off the stove) and sprinkle the gelatin evenly over the top. Let sit for 5 minutes. The surface will get wrinkly and the gelatin will be slightly dissolved.

Set the saucepan over low heat and warm the milk gently, whisking frequently. The milk should never boil, simmer, or even start steaming. If it starts to steam, remove it from the heat and let it cool slightly. The milk should get warm, but not so hot that you can't hold your finger in there for a few seconds. After about 2 minutes of warming, rub a bit of the milk between your fingers to make sure it's smooth and doesn't feel gritty at all.

Add the sugar to the milk, whisk it, and continue warming until the sugar is dissolved. Again, make sure the milk doesn't get too hot. This whole process of dissolving the gelatin and the sugar shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. 

Remove the saucepan from the heat. Whisk in the cream, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. Let the mixture sit out so it cools to room temperature. Whisk it again, then pour into wine glasses, ramekins, or other container of choice. Chill for 1-2 hours or more. The longer it chills, the firmer it will be. Add toppings of choice and serve.

Notes

• Topping ideas: Fresh raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries (puree some for a sauce, if desired). Chopped fresh peaches, tossed with fresh basil, if desired. Drizzle of thick, good-quality balsamic vinegar. Drizzle of honey. 
• The gelatin we're using here is plain, unflavored, unsweetened gelatin. In other words, not Jello. I found it in the Jello and pudding section of the grocery store, and the brand I got looks like this. It had 4 little envelopes of gelatin powder, and it took almost two envelopes to measure 1 Tbsp. 
• When I got ready to pour the milk mixture into the wine glasses, I found it helpful to line a cookie sheet with non-slip shelf liner, then put the wine glasses on that. It made it easier to move them into the fridge all at once with no slip 'n' slide action.
• The Kitchn has two panna cotta articles that I found helpful: How to Make Panna Cotta and Why Panna Cotta Is the Perfect Dessert. In both articles, she mentions that sometimes the milk and cream can separate into layers of lighter and heavier fat levels while the panna cotta chills. In the first article she recommends using half and half (instead of milk plus cream) to combat this, and in the second article she recommends allowing the mixture to come to room temp and whisking again before pouring into ramekins. I went with the latter solution, as you see in the recipe above.
• If you want to unmold your panna cotta to serve it, see the instructions in the How to Make Panna Cotta article linked above.

Cranberry Orange Cinnamon Rolls

Do you ever get on a kick with a certain food or ingredient? I seem to get a bit obsessed with cranberries every winter. Even though cranberries are in season in the fall, I always associate them with winter. Maybe because they're red, which I associate with Christmas, which goes with snow, which goes with winter. Or maybe it's because their tart flavor is perfect for brightening even the dreariest of winter days. Besides, pumpkin keeps me plenty busy all fall, so a girl's gotta have something to obsess over when it becomes less acceptable to put pumpkin in everything.

So when my mom and I were discussing cinnamon rolls the other day while plotting to make some in our respective homes, and when I started thinking about what kind of twist I could put on them, cranberries sprang to mind. (I had just made pumpkin oatmeal cinnamon chip cookies the previous weekend so didn't think I could get away with making pumpkin cinnamon rolls that weekend.)

I poked around on Google to get a feel for good ratios of cranberries:sugar:dough. By far, Smitten Kitchen was the best version and most informative I came across, though I added some embellishments of my own. For the cranberry filling, I added a bit of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, with inspiration from the cranberry crostini from a couple years ago. I also used butter and cream cheese in the filling, since I think cream cheese adds a delightful extra gooeyness factor to cinnamon rolls. And I sprinkled in some almonds as well.  I was also tempted to add a bit of fresh thyme, since the cranberry thyme scones recipe I found a few weeks ago was superb. That may still happen the next time I make these rolls.

For the dough, I wanted to let my bread machine do the mixing and kneading, so I used the cinnamon roll dough recipe from the little book that came with the bread machine, but added some orange zest per Smitten Kitchen's recipe.

My other adjustment to the dough was to leave out the yeast. No, this was not intentional. No, the dough did not rise very well at all without it (funny how that works). An hour into the rising time, the dough didn't seem any larger, but I attributed it to the cold weather. After a couple more hours, I started thinking through what could be wrong, and it finally hit me: I had no recollection of getting the yeast out of my fridge and measuring any into the dough. So I worked some yeast into the dough, and after another 2-3 hours of rising time, it finally puffed up a bit. So if you make these rolls, do yourself a favor and add the yeast at the beginning like a normal person.

Cranberry Orange Cinnamon Rolls

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen and my bread machine's recipe book
Yield: 12 rolls (more if you cut them a bit thinner)

Note: Plan to prepare the dough and shape the rolls the night before, then let them rise overnight in the fridge, then bake the next morning

Dough
Zest from 1 orange or 1-1/2 clementines - use about 3/4 in the dough and 1/4 in the filling
1/2 cup water
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. oil
1-1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

Filling
3 Tbsp. butter, softened
2-3 Tbsp. cream cheese, softened (I used reduced fat)
1 to 1-1/2 cups fresh cranberries (thawed, if frozen)
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 of the orange zest from above
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. cloves
1/16 tsp. nutmeg
A couple handfuls of sliced or chopped almonds (optional)

Icing
2 cups powdered sugar
About 1/4 to 1/3 cup water (or orange juice)
Smidge of maple extract (or vanilla)

Directions
Make the dough and let it rise: Following your bread machine's directions, measure all dough ingredients into the bread machine, then use the dough cycle. (Alternatively, if you don't have a bread machine, just use your preferred yeast dough making method. Smitten Kitchen's recipe and instructions are great and include directions for those who have a stand mixer and those who don't.) Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a towel, and let rise until doubled in size. Punch down before rolling out and shaping into rolls. (Note: many bread machines include this rise time as part of the dough cycle. If yours does, you don't need to let it rise twice before shaping.)

Make the filling: If they're not already out on your counter, get out the butter and cream cheese to let them soften. When they're soft, stir them together in a small bowl; set aside. Pick through your cranberries and discard any suspicious ones. Use a food processor to pulse the cranberries until they're pretty finely chopped but aren't a puree (or just chop them finely by hand). Scrape out into a small to medium bowl. Then add the brown sugar, orange zest, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Stir to combine well. Set aside.

Go ahead and spray a baking pan. I think the pan we used was an 11 x 7 glass baking dish.

Roll and shape the dough: When the dough has risen, punch it down and work out any large air bubbles. At this point, you may need to let the dough rest for 5-10 minutes before rolling out. On a well-floured surface, roll the dough into a rectangle about 18 inches wide by 12 inches deep. Spread the butter and cream cheese mixture evenly over the dough. Then spread the cranberry mixture evenly over the dough. For both the butter/cream cheese and the cranberry mixture, I used a basic soup spoon to scatter dollops of filling around the dough, then used the back of the spoon to spread it around. It doesn't have to be perfect. Sprinkle in the almonds, if using.

Now, use a knife or pastry cutter to cut your rectangle in half, into two 9 x 12-inch rectangles (this will make it easier to roll. Starting with one of the 9-inch edges near you, roll the dough up and away from yourself, rolling as tightly as possible. There will be some cranberry juice leaking out. Embrace it. Using your knife or pastry cutter, cut the log into 6 or 7 slices, each about 1 to 1-1/2 inches thick. Carefully transfer each slice/roll to the prepared baking pan. Repeat the process with your other 9 x 12 rectangle.

Rise again, then bake: Cover your baking dish with plastic wrap, then place in your fridge overnight. The next morning, remove rolls from the fridge about 30 minutes before you want them to go into the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Make the icing: While the rolls bake, measure powdered sugar, water, and maple extract into a medium bowl. Use an electric mixer to mix until well combined and smooth. Start with less water; add more as needed to reach your desired consistency. When the rolls come out of the oven, drizzle with the icing.

Notes

• If you have a favorite cinnamon roll dough recipe, just use that but add orange zest.
• I was a little worried that the fresh cranberries would release too much juice and result in soggy rolls. But that wasn't the case at all! To quote from Smitten Kitchen, "that puddle of cranberry juice run-off jams into a gooey brown sugar cranberry caramel and winds around and through the buttery, tender yeast-raised spirals." Yes, please!
• These rolls were quite sweet, but not quite too sweet for my taste. I think they would have been equally good with about 1/4 cup less brown sugar in the filling. 
• For the almonds, I used a very light hand. So they were barely there but didn't add a whole lot of taste or texture. I think walnuts or pecans would also be good.
• I made my icing with water, but orange juice would have been lovely. Also, the quantities above yielded more icing than we used; you may prefer to use more icing than we did.

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies! They combine all my favorite cookie element into one amazing cookie. They're pretty filling thanks to the oats and peanut butter. And they're less unhealthy than a lot of cookies out there--sweetened with maple syrup instead of refined sugar, full of oaty goodness, gluten-free if you care about that, and using dark chocolate instead of semi-sweet.

I may or may not eat these for breakfast sometimes. Because oatmeal and maple syrup are breakfast food, right? Please don't judge me.

And please make these cookies.

That is all.


Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted slightly from Cookie and Kate
Yield: 28 cookies (more or less depending on the size of your cookies)

Ingredients
2/3 cup natural peanut butter
2/3 cup real maple syrup
4 Tbsp. butter or coconut oil, melted
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2-3/4 cup rolled oats, divided (or use 1-1/4 cups oat flour plus 1-1/2 cups rolled oats)
1 to 1-1/2 cups dark chocolate chips
2-4 Tbsp. whole wheat flour or oat flour (optional)

Directions
To a medium-large bowl, add the peanut butter, maple syrup, butter/coconut oil, vanilla extract, and egg. Using a mixer, blend until well combined, scraping the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the salt, baking soda, and baking powder; mix again until well blended.

Measure 1-1/4 cups oats into a small food processor. Blend until the oats resemble a coarse flour. Add ground oats and remaining 1-1/2 cup rolled oats to the bowl with the wet ingredients. Using a wooden spoon, stir the dough until it's mostly combined; add the dark chocolate chips; stir until well combined. If the dough seems too wet, add 2-4 Tbsp. whole wheat flour, as needed.

Move oven racks to the upper and lower thirds of your oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop cookie dough into balls/heaps (they don't have to be tidy) and arrange on baking sheets. I used a cookie scoop that's about 1-1/2 Tbsp. For a flatter cookie, smoosh each mound/ball down a bit; for taller cookies, don't smoosh them.

Bake for 12-15 minutes total, switching the upper and lower pans with each other about halfway through the baking time. They're done when they starting to brown around the edges and on the bottom, but are still pretty soft to the touch. When they're done, remove both pans from the oven and allow the cookies to cool fully on the baking sheets (they'll keep cooking while they cool, which is why it's important to pull them out of the oven while they're still pretty soft).

These cookies taste great right away while they're still warm and gooey. They also store well in Tupperware for a few days. Whatever you can't eat or share within a few days, put in a Ziploc bag and toss into the freezer; retrieve 1 or 2 whenever you need a quick cookie fix!

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Bourbon Glaze

I'm not going to write much about these because a) the recipe is really long with several notes at the end, and b) I think the title speaks for itself. But I will say this: these cinnamon rolls took a boatload of time, and they were worth EVERY second. They turned out sweet, gooey, super soft, and basically the same thing as happiness on a plate.

One quick matter of business before we get to the recipe. I opted to mix and knead the dough in my bread maker. So the dough-making directions below are taken almost word-for-word from The Pioneer Woman, and I cannot personally vouch for how the process works. This was a little too much dough for my bread machine (most of its recipes call for 3 cups flour, and this recipe has 4-1/2) so it overflowed a bit but thankfully didn't make too big a mess. If you go the bread machine route, make sure your machine can handle this much volume, or cut the recipe in half.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Bourbon Glaze

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman 
Glaze adapted from my Pumpkin Monkey Bread recipe
Yield: 24 rolls

Dough 
1-1/2 cups milk (I used 2%; original recipe was for whole milk)
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sugar
2-1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (1 envelope)
1 cup pumpkin puree
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/2 cup additional all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Additional flour for kneading and rolling

Filling
3/4 cup butter, melted, divided
1/2 cup brown sugar (I used dark)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
8 oz. cream cheese, very soft (I used reduced fat)
1 cup finely chopped pecans

Glaze
6 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. maple syrup
2 Tbsp. brown sugar (I used dark)
2 Tbsp. rum or bourbon

Directions
Make the dough:* In a large saucepan, combine milk, vegetable oil, and sugar. Heat until hot but not boiling; remove from the stove and allow it to cool until it's warm to the touch but not too hot. Sprinkle the yeast over the surface of the liquid and allow it to sit for 5 minutes. Stir in pumpkin puree.

Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Sprinkle it into the saucepan and stir until it just comes together. Cover with a dish towel and set in a warm, draft-free place for 1 hour.

After an hour, the mixture should be very puffy and at least doubled in size. Whisk together the additional 1/2 cup flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir into the dough until fully combined.

Roll out the dough: Dust your countertop and hands with flour. Turn dough out onto the counter and form into a rectangle. If it's too sticky, work in additional flour until it's handleable, but don't work in too much extra flour.** Flour a rolling pin and roll the dough into a large rectangle, roughly 30 inches wide by 10 inches deep.

Add the fillings: Melt 3/4 cup butter and set aside to cool slightly. In a small bowl, combine sugar and filling spices. Dot the dough with globs of softened cream cheese, then use a dull butter knife (or the back of a spoon) to carefully spread it.*** It will not spread perfectly; that's okay. Pour about 1/4 cup of the melted butter over the dough and cream cheese, and use your fingers to spread it around evenly. Sprinkle sugar mixture evenly over the surface of the dough, followed by the pecans. Pour the remaining butter into two 9 x 13 x 2 inch pans, and swirl it around so it evenly coats the pans.

Roll, cut, and bake: For a more manageable rolling process, cut the dough in half, so you're left with two rectangles that are 15 inches wide by 10 inches deep. Starting at the top, roll each rectangle toward you into a large log, rolling as tightly as possible as you go. I frequently had to use a floured rubber spatula with a sharp edge to gently loosen the dough from the counter. End the rolling process the with seam down on the counter.

Use a sharp (floured) knife or dental floss to cut each of the two logs into 12 rolls (I find it's helpful to make hash marks before cutting). Nestle the rolls into the buttered pans. Cover each pan with a damp towel (one that's okay if it gets stained) and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for about 20 minutes. (Tip: Heat oven to 200, turn OFF, and place rolls in the warmed oven to rise.)

If rolls are rising in the oven, remove them. Preheat oven to 375. Bake for 15-25 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges, rotating the pans halfway through. Mine took exactly 20 minutes.

Make the glaze: Combine butter, maple syrup, brown sugar, and bourbon in a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat, whisking constantly, for 3-5 minutes, until sugar is dissolved and browned, butter is nice and foamy, and some of the alcohol has cooked out. Drizzle glaze evenly over the cinnamon rolls. Let them cool for a few minutes before serving.

Notes
*Alternatively, if you have a bread machine that's big enough, put all dough ingredients into a bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Use the dough cycle to make the dough, knead it, and let it rise.

**At this point Ree said the dough should be really sticky, and you should work in just enough flour so you can handle the dough. At this point, mine was more like batter than dough, so I ended up working in at least another cup of flour before I could actually handle the dough. Perhaps I mis-measured the flour initially, or maybe the bread machine method made for a wetter dough.

***On all the fillings, leave a 1/2 inch edge along the bottom of the rectangle with no filling. This will help it seal better when you roll everything up.

Coconut Chocolate Pumpkin Pie

I'm going to start with two apologies. Okay three. First, I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long. Let's blame surgery for that one. Lots of time prepping for surgery and dealing with insurance companies + having little energy after surgery = not so much time for cooking. Add to that awesome friends who brought me meals, and my kitchen has been lying fairly dormant the last few weeks.

Second, I know I've been overloading you with pumpkin lately (is there such a thing as too much pumpkin?), but bear with me for one more pumpkin recipe because this one is perfect for Thanksgiving. (Okay two more, because I have a pumpkin cinnamon rolls recipe that's begging to be shared.)

Third, forgive the lack of good photos. I made this pie for a Thanksgiving gathering of friends last night, and my focus was on spending time with my friends rather than bringing my nice camera and finding a spot with good lighting and yadda yadda yadda. So a quick camera phone snapshot will have to do. But the recipe is yummy enough to share even without mouthwatering photos to go with it.

Now that that's over with, let's move on. I'm always a fan of putting a fresh spin on a classic, and I'm always a fan of putting pumpkin and coconut together. So when I saw this Pumpkin Coconut Pie recipe in the latest Food Network Magazine, it wasn't a hard decision to make it for house church Thanksgiving.

Fun tidbit: This was my first time to make pumpkin pie. Ever.

I took the filling from the Pumpkin Coconut Pie recipe and swapped out the crust for a chocolate one based on this Pumpkin-Chocolate Chiffon Pie, also from Food Network Magazine. I thought the result was delightful, and I received several compliments on the pie. The texture was nice and creamy, and the flavor was not overly sweet or overly spiced. The coconut flavor came through nicely and played well with the chocolate and pumpkin.

So if you haven't nailed down your desserts yet for your Thanksgiving feast(s), I'd highly recommend including this pie in the dessert spread.

Coconut Chocolate Pumpkin Pie

Adapted from Food Network 
Yield: 1 pie, 8-10 servings

For the crust
5 oz. chocolate graham crackers (1/3 of a 15-oz. box)
1/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut
3 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. butter, melted

For the filling and topping
1 (15-oz.) can pumpkin puree
1 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 Tbsp. rum or coconut rum (optional)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/4 to 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut (for topping)

Directions
Make the crust: Spray a 9-inch pie plate and preheat the oven to 350. Pulse/process the graham crackers and coconut in a food processor until finely ground. Pour into a bowl and mix in the 3 Tbsp. sugar and melted butter. Stir with a fork and/or your fingers until well combined. Pour into prepared pie plate, pressing the crumb mixture along the bottom and up the sides. Bake 15-20 minutes, until set, and move to a rack to cool completely.

While the crust cooks then cools, make the filling: Reduce oven temp to 325. In a large bowl, gently whisk together all of the filling ingredients (except shredded coconut) until combined. Pour into cooled crust and place the pie on a rimmed cookie sheet. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the center of the pie is almost set but still jiggles a bit. Move to a rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile, toast the coconut: Heat a large skillet over medium-low heat. Spread out the shredded coconut in the pan and cook, stirring often, until toasted and fragrant. Remove to a plate to cool. When the pie comes out of the oven, sprinkle toasted coconut around the edges of the pie.

Notes

• For the crust, the original recipe said to do everything in the food processor. However, I got sugar lodged in the crevices of my lid, so when I went to take the lid off in order to add the butter, I almost couldn't get the lid off because of the sugar granules stuck between the lid and the bowl. So as you can see above, I rewrote the directions above so the sugar wouldn't be in the food processor. I think it's good to have the coconut and graham crackers whirling around in there together, though, so the coconut gets chopped up a bit more. 
• The original crust recipe also suggested adding 1/4 tsp. orange zest to the crust. I left that out because I already had a good trio of chocolate-coconut-pumpkin and didn't want to risk having too many flavors. If you try it with the orange zest, I'd love to hear how it turns out!
• Be sure to allow plenty of time for the pie to cool. 

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

All you non-pumpkin-lovers out there, I'm gonna need you to bear with me for the next few posts. Because there's been a LOT of pumpkin going through my kitchen lately. Pumpkin apple cider, sugar and spice roasted pumpkin seeds, another round of pumpquinoa, and hopefully soon some pumpkin soup. But first, some pumpkin snickerdoodles.

When you love pumpkin as outspokenly as I do, friends tend to think of you when they see amazing-sounding pumpkin recipes. Which is awesome, because not only am I finding delicious pumpkin recipes from around the interwebs, but I'm also receiving the best of the recipes that my friends are finding! Such was the case with this pumpkin snickerdoodle recipe. One of my friends sent me this recipe in late August when it was still regularly in the high 90s, and it sat there in my Facebook inbox torturing me for about a month before it got cool enough for me to justify making them.

They were worth the wait! They were lightly sweet, nicely spiced, and a wonderful excuse to use pumpkin! They were a little more cakey than I'd like, but I learned from another friend that leaving the egg out of pumpkin cookie recipes makes for a less cakey cookie. Apparently the pumpkin plays the role that the egg normally would, so having both is unnecessary.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Adapted ever-so-slightly from Recipe Girl
Yield: 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg (omit for less cakey cookies)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3-3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Rolling Sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. allspice

Directions
In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream the butter until fluffy. Add white sugar, brown sugar, and pumpkin, and beat well. Mix in egg (if using) and vanilla, scraping the sides of the bowl to incorporate all the ingredients.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Working with a little bit at a time, mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients, just until incorporated.

Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour, until dough becomes slightly firm. Mix together the rolling sugar ingredients; set aside.

Preheat oven to 350, and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Shape the cookie dough into balls, using about 1-1/2 Tbsp. of dough for each one. Roll each cookie dough ball in the sugar mixture, coating well. Place on cookie sheets and press slightly for taller cookies like mine, or press more for flatter cookies.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, until they are slightly firm to the touch. Let cool on the pan for about 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to finish cooling.

What's Cookin'?

Despite my obsession with photographing my food, I do sometimes leave the camera out of the picture (pun fully intended), usually just for the sake of time. Or because I just want to eat the food without waiting! Or because I just moved and haven't found my camera yet.

So here are some recipes I tried recently and liked, but didn't take the time to photograph and therefore am not going to spend a whole blog post on. I'm borrowing photos from the site where I got each recipe.

Avocado Tuna Salad from Prevention RD - This salad is simple, cool, refreshing, and perfect for a quick summer meal. AND it uses avocado, rather than tons of mayo, to make it creamy and full of good nutrients. I followed the recipe pretty exactly, except I omitted the red onion and using garlic salt (sometimes I'm weird about raw onion and garlic). This was great on Wheat Thins, and I imagine it would also be good on a sandwich, in a wrap (maybe with some spinach?), or with pita chips.

Hummus "Cheesesteak" Hoagies from Cooking Light - These were pretty good! I used a homemade hummus rather than store-bought, but otherwise followed the recipe fairly closely. If you're like me and don't have a gas stove, you can roast your poblano pepper in the oven. Just beware that if your smoke detector is anything like mine, it will go a little crazy with the poblano-roasting process.

Banana Chocolate Chip French Toast Casserole from Foodie Crush - This was a tasty treat, but not as amazing as I had anticipated. To Foodie Crush's credit, I think the modifications I made (using honey oat bread instead of cinnamon swirl, and using coconut milk instead of cow's milk) were not great choices.

Spiced Pork Tenderloin with Sauteed Apples from Cooking Light - This dish was absolutely amazing! I seem to remember that I used red onion instead of shallots, and added a splash of cider vinegar and a splash of red wine. The spice combination on the pork was pure heaven, and went perfectly with the sweet apples, tangy vinegar, and red onions. Do yourself a favor and make this!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Upside Down Cake from the Green Mango Cafe & Bakery Cookbook, as seen on Pinch of Yum - If we didn't have enough pure heaven from the spiced pork tenderloin, here's an extra dose from this dessert. I made this for house church, substituting a brownie mix for the chocolate cake layer, and it was out of this world. Whatever you do, don't skip out on the sauce that you drizzle on at the very end.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies

It was 92 degrees today where I live, but my friends in the Northeast got snow. So it's not too late for pumpkin recipes, right?

I've never been consistently good at cookies--and more often than not have been consistently bad at cookies--but I'm proud to say I've successfully made these babies twice. Both times elicited much praise and many happy sighs from my coworkers, and both times I confess I ate far more cookies than someone who's trying to maintain her weight should.

Most grocery stores carry cinnamon chips in the same section as chocolate chips and butterscotch chips. If you want a chewier cookie, make the cookies a little larger; if you want crispier, make them smaller. I recommend the chewy option, myself.

Whether it still feels like winter where you are, already feels like summer, or is somewhere in between, I hope you enjoy these little bites of pumpkiny oatmeal goodness.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies

Printer-friendly
Slightly adapted from Eats Well with Others
Yield: 3 dozen

Ingredients
1-1/4 cups flour (I use 1 cup all-purpose, 1/4 cup whole wheat)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1-1/2 cups cinnamon chips

Directions
Whisk flour, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In a second bowl, use a mixer to cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes on medium speed. Add in the egg and vanilla and mix until well-combined, scraping down the sides as necessary. Stir in the pumpkin puree.

Slowly add in the flour mixture. Fold in the oats and cinnamon chips.

Preheat oven to 375 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop the dough by the Tablespoon onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies are set and golden. Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

per cookie, from My Fitness Pal

Pumpkin Monkey Bread

Most of the time, I try to cook fairly healthy food. But friends, there is nothing healthy about this recipe. Nothing. I didn’t look up the nutrition stats, because why would we want to know? If we’re going to indulge, let’s do it right—and part of doing it right means living in ignorant, syrupy bliss about the calories, sat fat, and sugar. Right? Right.

This monkey bread adventure began with my friend Lauren sharing with me a recipe she found for Pull-Apart Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Bread. I drooled, thanked her profusely, and immediately put it on my “must make” list. Now, recipes sometimes sit on said list for quite some time, because I read way too many food blogs and food magazines, and add recipes to this list much more quickly than I can actually make them. Several weeks later my friend Jordan showed up to work one day with leftovers from her weekend of baking, and one of them was this same recipe! Then I posted on my blog that I might make this bread during Thanksgiving week. My friend Megan saw my link on Facebook, commented that she thought she’d make it, then several hours later followed up with, “Make it. MAKE IT! You will not regret it!” She was right.

I bought this mug for 49 cents at Goodwill. I chose this
particular one because it's the color of pumpkins.

Based on feedback from both Megan and Jordan that the rolling-out-slicing-stacking-slicing-more-and-arranging-in-the-pan method in the original recipe was really complicated and made for a big cinnamon-and-sugar mess all over the kitchen, I decided to make mine more like a monkey bread. Also, the shape of the bread pieces in the original recipe kinda weirds me out a little. I’m not sure why. Don’t judge me.

I used my bread machine to make the dough; but if you don’t have a bread machine, you can follow the dough-making steps on the original recipe. I also wanted a more syrupy, less glazey sauce to pour on top, so I made it more like the buttered rum sauce from my Pumpkin French Toast Casserole. Oh, and since my house was cold because I’m too cheap to turn on the furnace, I used this tip when it was time for the dough to rise a second time:

“Searching for a warm draft-free place to allow yeasted bread to rise? Preheat oven to 350° for about 2 minutes. Turn off and place covered bowl in warm oven.”

Now, there are a lot of steps here, but none of them are hard. This bread will take a lot of time from start to finish, but a lot of that time is spent waiting. So this is a great recipe to make when you have a long, leisurely morning (or afternoon), with plenty of time between each step to clean the kitchen, do laundry, watch TV, listen to the movie your neighbors are watching next-door, write, process food photos, or do whatever else strikes your fancy.

Pumpkin Monkey Bread

Adapted from Willow Bird Baking, as seen on Sunny Side Up
Yield: 1 loaf pan
Printer-friendly

Bread Ingredients
2 Tbsp. browned butter
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
2-1/2 to 3 cups flour
2-1/4 tsp. (1 envelope) active dry yeast – or 1 generous tsp. rapid rise/bread machine yeast

Coating Ingredients
2 Tbsp. browned butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Sauce Ingredients
3 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
1 Tbsp. rum (or appropriate amount of rum extract or vanilla extract)

Directions
To brown the butter: Heat butter in a small skillet over medium heat. Cook until the butter turns medium-dark golden brown and smells irresistible. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes in the pan. The butter will continue to cook a bit in the pan, so take that into account when you decide how dark to let the butter get before removing it from the heat.

To make the dough: In a bread machine pan, combine the bread ingredients in the order recommended by your bread machine manufacturer. Select the dough cycle and let it do its thing. For the flour measurement, start with 2-1/2 cups, and when you machine gives you the, “Hey! Check on the dough and see how it’s doing!” beep, add more flour if needed. Mine definitely needed it. My machine’s dough cycle includes an hour for the first rise. If yours doesn’t, be sure to let your dough rise in a warm place for about an hour before continuing.

To prepare the coating: Brown some more butter; set aside. In a large, wide bowl, combine the sugars and spices for the coating. Grease a loaf pan.

To assemble the monkey bread: When dough has risen, punch it down and turn out onto a clean, floured surface. Knead a few times with your hands. You can work in a bit of flour here, but not too much, because you’ll want the dough to be sticky. Pinch (or cut) off small amounts of dough and roll into balls about an inch in diameter. Roll in the sugar mixture and arrange in the prepared loaf pan. Be sure to get them good and heavily coated with the sugar mixture. About halfway through, drizzle a bit less than half of the browned butter over the sugared dough balls. When all the dough balls are in the pan, drizzle the rest of the browned butter over the top. Cover pan with a clean, damp towel and allow dough to rise for 30-45 minutes.

Note: You should have quite a bit of sugar mixture left over at the end of my assembly process, and it may be tempting to sprinkle it into the pan. Don’t. I was tempted, too, and I’m really glad I didn't  This bread is going to be insanely sweet and rich as-is, and I think that if ALL that sugary goodness was mixed in, it’d be too much. So, either discard the excess sugar mixture, or save it for some future use. You could even use some of it for the sauce.

To bake the deliciousness: Preheat oven to 350. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until top is deep, golden brown. It helps to tent the pan with foil for the first 20 minutes of baking time, and remove the foil for the remaining 10-20 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan on a wire cooling rack for 20 minutes. Go a little crazy with anticipation.

To make the sauce: Heat your skillet once more over medium heat and whisk together butter, brown sugar, and maple syrup until sugar is dissolved and butter is browned. Remove from heat; whisk in the rum.

To serve: Use a plastic knife to loosen the sides of the bread from the pan, and carefully turn it out onto a plate. Place another plate on top, and flip it so it’s now right-side-up on the second plate. Pour butter rum sauce over top, and serve.

I've always kind of hated my blue counters, but they sure do provide
nice, photogenic contrast to orange, pumpkin-based dishes.  

Pumpkin French Toast Casserole with Buttered Rum Sauce

This is my new favorite breakfast. It’s cozy. It’s sweet and spiced. It’s got crunchy pieces and gooey pieces. It’s perfect for a 46-degree Saturday morning when you’re still trying to make it another month before firing up the furnace.

For the French toast casserole part, I pretty much followed a halved version of a recipe on Buns in My Oven. Though honey oat bread is my favorite French toast base, so I used that instead of French bread. I also decided to cube my bread instead of slicing it and doing two layers in the pan. Mostly because I didn’t start the bread soon enough the night before and wanted desperately to go to bed. So cutting the fresh hot bread into cubes was how I could make it cool more quickly so I could assemble the casserole. I’m pretty happy with my decision, though I suppose maybe this should be called bread pudding since the bread is cubed. (?) In fact, if you need a good dessert idea, call this bread pudding and—voila!—you’ll have a dessert instead of a breakfast.

For the sauce, I combined elements of Paula Deen’s praline topping recipe as seen on Buns in My Oven, with elements of the buttered rum sauce from this Pull-Apart Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Bread recipe that a friend shared with me (yes, I will be making that recipe soon).

Part way through baking, I was worried that the cubes on top would turn into croutons and be unpleasant. But the texture was great! Pouring the buttered rum sauce on top part way through baking helped moisten the top layer. Parts of the top layer were definitely more crispy (though not quite crouton consistently, thankfully), which provided a nice contrast to the gooeier layer below.

This casserole reheated really well, though the texture was not quite as nice and varied when reheated.

Pumpkin French Toast Casserole with Buttered Rum Sauce

Adapted from Buns in My Oven

Yield: 4 servings (one 11 x 7 dish)

Ingredients

About 8 oz. bread, cubed (I used honey oat bread)

1 Tbsp. melted butter

3/4 cup milk

2-1/2 eggs (2 eggs + 1 egg white)

3/8 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

1/8 tsp. ginger

Pinch of cloves

For the sauce

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1/8 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

1 Tbsp. rum (or substitute vanilla extract; or substitute 1/4-1/2 tsp. rum extract)

Directions

The night before: Spray an 11 x 7 inch glass pan and arrange bread cubes in the bottom. Whisk together remaining ingredients (through cloves). I find that the whisk attachment on my immersion blender is great for whisking eggs and leaving no globs behind. Pour over the bread cubes; cover and refrigerate 8 hours or overnight.

The morning of: Remove casserole from fridge. Preheat oven to 350. Bake, uncovered, for 40-60 minutes, until casserole is browned and heated through. Mine took 40 minutes, but the recipe I was following said 50-60 minutes.

For the buttered rum sauce: About 20-30 minutes into the casserole’s bake time, put butter into a microwave-safe dish. Microwave in 20-second intervals until melted. Stir in brown sugar and stir until mostly dissolved. It may require a couple more 20-second trips to the microwave. Stir in pecans, cinnamon, nutmeg, and rum/vanilla/extract. Remove casserole from oven and drizzle with sauce. Return to the oven for the remainder of the baking time.

When it’s finished baking, allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before digging in. You can eat it as-is, or add a drizzle of honey or syrup and/or a dusting of powdered sugar.

Ideas for next time

• For extra rich and gooey, I might make twice as much buttered rum sauce—half of it for pouring on top of the casserole for the last 10-20 minutes of baking time, and half saved to drizzle on right before eating. Especially if serving as a dessert rather than as breakfast. 
• I wonder what this would be like with light coconut milk instead of regular milk. And/or coconut oil instead of butter in the sauce.