Caramel Apple Oatmeal Crisp

This is one of those desserts that I make every single year.  It just wouldn't be Fall without some caramel apple crisp.  I highly recommend topping with vanilla bean ice cream and caramel sauce.

Pull out your stretchy pants.  Skinny jeans will be "out" in a few years anyways.

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Raspberry Swirl Rolls {& Sweet Roll Tips!}

I used to not be a good sweet roll maker.  Mine always turned out dense and dry.  After lots of trial and error I discovered I was adding WAY too much flour, especially in the rolling out process. My mind-frame of what the dough should look and feel like was totally wrong. I thought if it was sticky at all I hadn't added enough flour.

Lately I've discovered the secret to good sweet rolls is actually adding the least amount of flour possible.  This is what will make your rolls tender and moist.  Your dough should still be very sticky when you put it in a bowl for it's first rise.  After the first rise it loses some of it's stickiness and you can get a better idea of whether you need to add a little more flour or not.

One of the best things you can do to help you use the right amount of flour is use a kitchen scale to measure it.  I've included flour weight below for this recipe like I always do for my cookies.  This really takes a lot of guesswork out of baking sweet rolls.  Especially if you're at a high-altitude.

The other thing I do is use Pam spray instead of flour when rolling out my dough.  Sometimes you will have to add a bit more flour to get your dough to rolling consistency, but rolling the dough on a flour covered surface can really drown your dough in flour unnecessarily.  By spraying your rolling surface and rolling pin with Pam you can keep the dough from sticking, while avoiding adding excess flour.

Finally, make sure you take your rolls out of the oven when they're just barely done.  You don't want raw dough but you really don't want to overbake either or your product will be dry. 

For these raspberry swirl rolls I used raspberries from my garden and the filling was a bit tart.  Taste your berries before beginning and if they're tart add some extra sugar to your filling.   These are best the day they're made.  After that they will begin to dry out like most sweet rolls. These are tender and yummy but I think they would be even better with a cream cheese frosting, so feel free to substitute that for the glaze if you want.  

Happy carbohydrate inhaling!

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White Chocolate Berry Burst Bread

So, I'm wondering, is it normal to have a whole shelf in the pantry that's your shelf??  (Aka- "Children if you eat this I will personally throw all your nerf guns into the wilderness and escort you to the orphanage.")

I walked in to our secondary pantry yesterday and realized I had an entire shelf of hidden food.  Banana Nut Crunch (Dude, children, that stuff is expensive.  No, you cannot have a bowl), Chocolate Peppermint Stick Luna bars, Honey Nut Shredded Wheat.  Gingerbread Oreos.  It's kind of gotten out of control.

Is this normal?

Is this a rite of motherhood or do I have a strange hoarding problem I never realized before?  I really don't want to be on the show hoarders.

On the other hand, when you hoard berries from your garden all summer and hide them away in the freezer, you get to make this bread.  So sometimes hoarding is a good thing, right?


This bread is full of berries and is lightly sweetened.  You can substitute some quick oats to make this healthy enough for breakfast, or you can add extra white chocolate chips to turn this into a sweeter snacking/ dessert bread.

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Rocky Road Caramel Apples

A girl like me can't just make regular old caramel apples for Halloween.  I'm all about the toppings.  How many calories can we load on one apple anyway?  These Reeses apples are my favorites.

This year I made a rocky road version. Totally Disneyland worthy!

Pretend you don't notice I forgot the almonds.

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Apple Pie Caramel Apples

 Pie.  In apple form.

It's a good idea.

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Gooey Chewy Caramel Popcorn Balls

Chewy popcorn balls are a Halloween tradition for us.  I highly recommend eating them while watching a Halloween movie.  Like maybe a cheesy 90's one with a cat named Binx and references to 'yabos'. 

If you know what I'm talking about, I love you.


These popcorn balls are very sweet and heavy on the caramel.  If you like a higher popcorn ratio you can add an additional half bag of popcorn. These stay soft and chewy even once cooled but need to be eaten the same day.  The popcorn gets "stale" after that so unfortunately these aren't great to make ahead.

This is a recipe you'll want to read through before beginning because if you don't live at sea level you may need to do a little calculation to find the right temperature for cooking your caramel. 

That said, I've made these several times without a candy thermometer, just cooking about 5-7 minutes and they've been fine every time.  They may just stick to your teeth a little more.  :)   I live 4500 ft above sea level so I can't vouch for that happening if you live at a very different altitude, but so far these have been foolproof for me. 

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Candy Corn Krispy Treat Bites

The Christmas music is playing at my house today and the 4 boxes of Christmas decor are all hanging out in the laundry room waiting for that pesky Thanksgiving holiday to be over.

 (kidding.  but not entirely.)  

Christmas is great.  People are nice and I get to buy lots of things and travel and husband gets to take off work.  I am religious so more than anything I love that most of the Christian world focuses on the Savior at this time.   What's not to love about it?

That said, I'm obviously having a panic attack about all these Halloween treats that I made last month that I REALLY want to share with you.  ((But that I also REALLY want to get out of the way so holiday baking can begin.)

 Get ready for a posting marathon my friends!

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Hidden Candy Corn Cupcakes

I learned something today.  Which is,

 If you don't like random people talking to you and staring at you, don't go out in public with a kid dressed up like a mad scientist with white-dyed hair standing 6 inches out in all directions and freaky black eyebrows. 


Obviously.

 Right?


Next year I will pre-arrange my grocery shopping and other errands around children's Halloween parties and the need thereof for them to be dressed like freaks and thus the center of attention.

Don't get me wrong I love this holiday but strangers talking to me and watching me makes me nervous.  The little alert in my head says STRANGER DANGER- STRANGER DANGER.

Also it takes 45 minutes to grocery shop instead of 10 and I'm not great at small talk.


Since I'm pretty sure your kids won't get enough of a sugar high today I thought I'd make you some cupcakes.  You have to cut into the middle first though, for the surprise!

Have a very happy and safe Halloween my friends!!

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Halloween Sugar Cookies

Nom Nom Nom. 

I think my favorite thing about holidays is the sugar cookies that can be adapted for them.  This is the same recipe I used for Firework Sugar Cookies and if you haven't tried it, you need to! They're sweet and satisfying and addictive.

I love this method of piping cookies with regular frosting.  They turn out super cute and it's SO much easier than the royal icing/pipe & flood method.

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Vampire Bat Bark

Halloween is in... 1 1/2 days, and I still have tons of treats to post. No matter what I do, I seem to always be behind these days. The pictures just keep piling up.  Life has been so crazy lately I can't blog every day or two like I want to.  This week for example I've been busy watching my 2 year old throw up all over the table at Chick-fil-a, cleaning up my 4 year old after he peed his pants at a movie night at our friends' house, and biting back curse words while attempting to make my husband's Halloween costume with my electronic cutting machine. (yes... I said husband's costume there.)

Also I've been listening to Taylor Swift's RED on repeat for several days, and buying sparkly champagne colored shoes.

These things are necessary to lift one out of a depression when the temperature plummets down into the 30's.

What's up with that? 

I hope you all have a very Happy Halloween on Wednesday! Don't forget to pick all the poisoned pieces of candy out of your kids bags.  I hear this year that means Reeses, Milk Duds, and Kit Kats.  At my house anyways.  ;)

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