Apple Cinnamon muffins a wonderful way to fill the kitchen with wonderful aromas. These muffins are full of diced fresh apple and those lovely autumn spices- cinnamon and nutmeg. I wanted to marry up the amazing taste of apple pie with the satisfying bite of muffin without the overwhelming sweetness of a dessert and I think it hit it with this recipe.
Late fall is harvest time for cranberries here in Northern Ontario. The beautiful red jewelled berries grow in marshy areas and you need good rubber boots to go picking them. These berries are quite tart and most recipes incorporate them with a lot of sugar to balance the tartness but I like to let the tartness shine through. This recipe for Fresh Cranberry Lemon Muffins is the perfect backdrop to showcase the tart flavour of the little berries. The lemon zest and cardamon spice play up the cranberries quite nicely.
My daughter was home from Law School for our Thanksgiving long weekend and she requested a Soft Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookie. Now that is a recipe that was not in my repertoire so some google searching was in order. The first one that caught my attention was on Pinch Of Yum and I used her recipe for soft cookies as my base. I made mine without using any appliances as I thought that the softer touch would be key to keeping the texture chewy. A soft chewy cookie is a difficult beast to master without having to add bad things like corn syrup or shortening to your recipe, but I think this one nails it just right. I think it is the mixing by hand and just slightly underbaking the cookies that are the important points.
Who says you can’t eat cake for breakfast? This Apple Breakfast Cake is like one big muffin that you can cut into little slices or big slices depending on your appetite. The mixture of apple, raisins and dried cranberries add sweetness without being over-powering because it is the spice of the cinnamon and the fruit that you want to taste not sugar. Cutting back on the sugar content of recipes really does let the other flavours shine through.
If you are a chocolate lover then this recipe for Chocolate Zucchini Loaf is just for you. It is a double chocolate recipe as there is both cocoa and chocolate chips in the loaf. And of course there is zucchini so as that is a vegetable this loaf is technically healthy, but you would never guess that there was zucchini in it. Dessert is a great way to sneak some veggies into those anti-veggie in your house as they would never be suspecting it.
Pumpkin season!! And yet another pumpkin recipe and yes this Pumpkin Crumb Bars is another bar recipe! But…this bar recipe is like a Date Square gone Pumpkin. The difference is in the filling – this bar filling is a fluffy custardy pumpkin filling that is just delicious layered between the oatmeal base and crumb topping. Speaking of that crumb topping, it is a little over the top with the addition of pecans and toffee bits added in. You can’t go wrong with making this bar for dessert.
With fall almost upon us, it is the perfect time for another recipe with rich pumpkin flavour and an added bonus- brown sugar fudge topping. Bars and squares are so easy to whip together, they transport well and what’s even more important you can make the serving size whatever you desire. Be careful with these Pumpkin Bars with Brown Sugar Fudge Frosting though as you will be tempted to cut the entire pan into 4!
It is that time of year again…autumn. The time for warm spices and pumpkins which together means Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes! At the farmers market this weekend I bought a really beautiful pie pumpkin and the farmer assured me it was a very sweet variety. Instead of peeling and cubing and boiling the pumpkin I simply cut it in half, removed the seeds and put if cut side down on a parchment lined baking sheet and baked it for 90 minutes. Then after letting it cool I scooped out the flesh – cooked pumpkin ready to go! That one little pumpkin gave me 6 cups of cooked pumpkin- amazing and it was only $4.
If you garden is anything like mine it is overflowing with tomatoes this time of the year. Once you have had your fill of toasted tomato sandwiches and salads try these stuffed tomatoes for something a little different. Very similar to stuffed peppers but they use up all of those flavour bombs growing in your garden. If you don’t have a garden then this time of year you can find beautiful field tomatoes at your local supermarket. With all of the other fresh vegetables in season you can add what ever strikes your fancy. For this version I used only veggies and rice, but you could add ground beef or pork or even sausage to the stuffing.
Garden harvest time can mean trying to figure out what do with all of those zucchinis that have just appeared in your garden or on your front doorstep courtesy of your neighbour. Besides eating it as a vegetable with dinner you can bake with zucchini as well. It can take the place of shredded apple or carrots in a recipe. This recipe for cinnamon zucchini cake with maple frosting is the perfect reason to grow zucchini in your garden. Other than the green flecks in the cake it is difficult to discern the flavour of the zucchini as the amazing taste of cinnamon shines through.The zucchini and applesauce add moistness and body to the cake and therefore there is very little oil in the ingredient list.
