Chocolate-Dipped Caramels

Who needs store-bought candy when you can make your own?

Just kidding.  I'll take a box of See's chocolate any day.

Rum raisin please. 

But sometimes it is fun to make your own- especially for Valentine's day or Christmas.  For this recipe you will need a strong stirring arm (be ready to stir for half an hour or so) and an uninterrupted period of time.  Caramels need lots of attention, so send your kids hunting for snipes or something. You will also need a candy thermometer and access to google to check the elevation of where you live.  (More details on that are in the recipe below.)

Full disclosure- I have made these several times without using a thermometer.  I am totally not recommending this, but it can be done if you're in a bind.  This is the trick: Watch for when you run a spatula through the middle of the pan and the caramel stays separated for just a second before running back together.  You should be able to see the bottom of the pan.  If you've never done caramels before you may want to follow this up with a cold water test just to double check that your caramel is ready. If you take it off the heat now you'll get a fairly soft moldable caramel that can be wrapped around pretzels or pressed into the insides of chocolate.  If you continue to cook for another few minutes or so you will get a slightly firmer caramel that is better for eating by itself.

Good Luck!

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Christmas Sugar Cookies

Nothing says Christmas like sugar cookies, right?  I've posted this sugar cookie recipe before, but I wanted to share these ones all decked out for Christmas.

It completely frustrates me when I see piped cookies online but there's no information on what tips were used.

I'm not a tip aficionado.  I can't just look at a design and know which tip created it.  So to be nice, all the tips and techniques I used are listed below so you don't have to get angry and eat a bag of mini Starbursts like me. 

I mean, hypothetically of course.

That's never happened.

I may not be a piping expert, but I love doing these buttercream-piped sugar cookies. They are so versatile and fun. You can change them for any season, holiday, or party.

Looking for a Halloween Version?  How about 4th of July?

Summer?

I even have a Baby Shower version.

Don't worry, a Valentine's Day version is totally coming.  

Happy Sunday!

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Peppermint Cookie Krispy Treats

Although I haven't blogged for awhile, I did do some baking around the holidays and I took photos so I could post them someday. These Krispy Treats were one of my favorite new recipes of the season. Inspired by the Peppermint JoJo's at Trader Joes, they are the perfect holiday treat.  Super fast and simple enough that your kids can help you make them.

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Peppermint Bark Buddies

Sometimes I make recipes and then post them two months later.

Honestly, it has been a busy few months and I needed a break to reevaluate my priorities and how I was allocating my time.  I feel like my kids will only be little for so long, and I don't want them to look back and remember me as always being in the kitchen and on the computer or constantly fending them off from treats that have yet to be photographed.  (Seriously, they hate that.)   I am slowly trying to rearrange the way I do things to make this a more positive aspect of my life and my children's lives. I am trying to get back to baking for them, and for other people, not for a blog post that sounds fun to write. 

I really did miss blogging.  I like to share pieces of our lives and treats that make us happy, but I am such a perfectionist that it was making me crazy.  Here's to being sporadic, imperfect, and a better steward of time in 2014.

Hope you all had wonderful & safe holidays surrounded by family & friends.  

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Maple Pecan Cinnamon Rolls

Some days I fail at life.  Last month Chase missed half his school Halloween party because he's on a year-round system and I forgot his track was on an early out schedule for the day.

 Never mind that the rest of the school and all of the buses were on a regular schedule for the day. (What!?)

This post is kind of like that. Today I'm posting an instagram photo to introduce you to these rolls.  That's right.  Instagram. They were SO good, gooey and nutty, that they were gone practically before I could blink.  Life fail.

Whatever though.  The point is that you need these in your life whether they were taken with a DSLR or a cell phone camera.  You won't judge me, right?

There is a TON of filling in these and that means that a lot of the brown sugar and nuts melts down to the bottom of the pan and makes the most delicious, sticky, toffee-like, mixture underneath.  Add the maple frosting and these rolls are a little piece of Autumn heaven.

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French Silk Coconut Cream Pie

Oops.  Sometimes I find pictures I took a few weeks a year ago and forgot to post.  This marriage of chocolate and coconut cream pies comes from Dorothy at Crazy for Crust, and was a big hit at our Thanksgiving table last year. 

If you have problems deciding what kind of pie to have, this recipe is for you.  Not that I'm limiting you to eating a single flavor of pie or anything.  But honestly, it's way easier if you can knock out two flavors in one pop. And then you have even more room for 5 other kinds of pie.

Thanksgiving is alllll about the pie.  Can I get an 'Amen'?

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Gooey Apple Coffee Cake

I may have to rename November "the season of brown".  I just noticed everything I've posted lately is BROWN.  It is the curse of Fall baking.  Usually I try to stagger my posts so that colors are equally distributed on the picture bar at the top of my blog, (I totally have problems), but this month is seems like everything I have is brown.

Brown can be delicious though right?  

Brownies.  Brown butter.

What about brown sugar glaze?  

This coffee cake is moist and gooey and has a delicious brown sugar glaze drizzled over the top.

Totally breakfast-worthy. 

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Malted Chocolate Frosting

This.  Frosting.

Slather up a few layers of chocolate cake with this stuff and you have a little piece of heaven. You can even eat it on graham crackers if you can't wait long enough for a cake to bake.

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Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze

I've spent the last few days in bed with a huge box of tissues and my trusty little bottle of Nyquil.  I am dying to get up and bake, but baking is 95% less fun when you can't smell or taste, and also nobody wants a sick person to bake for them.  No one.

Luckily I have lot of recipes photographed just waiting to be edited and posted so hopefully there will be lots of action here this week. 

Also luckily, I just started watching Lie to Me on Netflix and while this is supposed to be treadmill material, this week I'm cheating.  So I have something to keep me company while I'm stuck in bed.  By the end of this week I'm going to be an expert on facial expressions and will probably be qualified to work for the FBI.  There are benefits to being sick after all.

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Snickerdoodle Bread

When I first made this bread, people kept asking me what in the world was in it.  And I was like, Ummm.  Cinnamon.  

And sugar...

And I didn't mean to look at them like they were idiots, but really, I couldn't figure out what they were asking.  Turns out I'm the idiot because it finally dawned on me that what they were wondering about is the cinnamon chips. 

Truly, the magic of this bread is found in those cinnamon chips.  You could put those things in mud pies and they'd taste good.  I am a total convert, and the possibilities are endless.  I love them in this moist bread but they are equally wonderful in cookies, mixed into hot chocolate, or eaten by the spoonful from the bag. 

Totally your choice. 

This bread is a great starting point though. 

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