And so it begins!

Don't get me wrong, I'm a Halloween lover. But I can't deny that half my excitement for Halloween is knowing the next day we'll wake up to full blown fall, when I can shamelessly obsess over florescent orange leaves on the trees and bundle up in cozy scarves and bake as many loaves of banana bread as my holiday loving little heart desires! 

The hubs is not a fan of winter. He's dreading the first snow. For him, November 1st marks a steady decline into miserably cold weather and sundown at 5pm. I've been warned not to even think about putting up the Christmas tree until the day after Thanksgiving, but I've been sneaking out bits of holiday decor when he's not home and trying to draw some festive spirit out of him a few weeks early. For example, the adorable ceramic Santa cookie jar from my grandparents... How can he say no to such a thing... when it's full of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies? He simply can't, and he didn't, thusly, Santa is already prominently on display in our kitchen and should safely remain so long as he never runs empty.

HALLOWEEN

 THANKSGIVING

CHRISTMAS

 IN THE KITCHEN

Pumpkin Seeds from our carving pumpkins - Salted, spicy, cinnamon & sugar

 

 Baked stuffed apple / GF banana pancake with berry topping

 Pumpkin beer bread / GF pumpkin chocolate chip mini muffins

 Chicken & veggie quiche

Apple Squash Galette

Makes 2 galettes

Ingredients:

o   Full batch of below pie dough recipe

o   1 ½ lbs butternut squash (peeled, seeded, sliced)

o   3-4 large granny smith apples (peeled, cored, sliced)

o   1 tsp ground cinnamon

o   ¼ tsp each round nutmeg, cloves, salt

o   3 tbsp wheat flour

o   1/3 cup brown sugar

o   1 ½ cup sugar

o   2 tbsp whiskey

o   2 tbsp coarse decorating sugar

o   2 tbsp apricot jam

Directions:

o   Set dough on lightly floured surface and roll into a large round about 1/8 in thick. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet and chill until ready to fill.

o   Preheat oven to 375 degrees with a rack on bottom rung. Lay squash pieces on a greased baking sheet. Roast, turning once, until tender when pierced.

o   Mix apples, spices, salt, flour, both sugars, and whiskey until evenly coated. Add squash and toss to combine.

o   Pour filling into center of dough, leaving a 1 ½ inch boarder. Fold edges over filling, allowing dough to pleat as you go. Dip a pastry brush in apricot jam and brush folded edges of dough. Sprinkles with course sugar.

o   Bake galette until browned and bubbling, about 75 minutes. Let cool before cutting. Best served slightly warm.

 

Pie Dough

Makes two pie crusts

o   Mix together 3 cups flour, 1 tbsp sugar, and 1 ½ tsp kosher salt in a food processor.

o   Add 1 cup cold, cubed unsalted butter and pulse into pea-size pieces.

o   Drizzle 2/3 cup very cold water over crumbs and pulse just until moistened.

o   Turn dough out onto a work surface and gather into a ball, turning to combine any dry crumbs.

o   Divide dough in half, form each piece into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, chill at least 30 minutes.

 

Luxardo Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter at room temperature

½ cup sugar

2 eggs at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

2 cups wheat flour

1 cup chopped almonds

Luxardo Apry or Pruny Jam

Directions:

With electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar on high speed for about 3 minutes.

Separate yolk from egg white. Set aside egg whites. Add yolks and vanilla extract to butter mixture and mix. Then add flour and salt to the mixture.

Place the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In shallow dish, whisk egg whites until bubbly and frothy. Chop almonds (I suggest tossing a couple handfuls into a food processor and pulsing a few times). Roll dough into one-inch balls. Dip nuts into egg whites and roll in nuts.

Place balls on parchment lined cookie sheet. Press thumb lightly into center of each ball. Fill each cookie with ½ tsp of Luxardo jam. 

Bake for 12-15 minutes until slightly firm. Cool and serve!

 

Gluten Free Cupcakes

I just realized I never posted about these gluten free cupcakes I made for my coworker's birthday! 

Okay, well, let me just say before you get too proud of me, that I didn't make them from scratch. I had tossed the idea around but wound up deciding that since gluten free baking requires entirely different ingredients from traditional baking, none of which were previously in my kitchen, and because I only had one evening with which to throw these together, there simply wasn't time to buy all the necessary goodies and risk the first batch not turning out. There is a wonderful little gluten free grocery store near my work where I managed to find a cake mix. I got the yellow cake mix and added some almond extract for flavor, tossed out the frosting mix that came with it and made a basic sugar frosting mix with vanilla extract. I topped off the cupcakes with fresh blueberries and refrigerated them overnight. 

To make the "Happy Birthday" banner I used a toothpick, scrapbooking paper and a gold paint pen. I used one level of a cupcake tower and paper shreds for presentation.

I'm definitely inspired to do a bit of ingredient shopping next time I can get over to that shop so I can start practicing gluten free baking from scratch.

 

Spice Cupcakes

Somehow my coworker Lynda made it to her 30's without realizing that women get a full week to celebrate their birthday! After all these birthdays of only allowing herself one day of birthday fun, we've been stretching her birthday out at the office. 

Today I brought her cupcakes with plenty to share. She wanted carrot cake so I made a first ever try of it last night and couldn't get them to turn out. I think the carrot shreds were too big? After running out of carrots I went for a spice cake instead, but still topped them off with cream cheese frosting and sugar sprinkles.

Easter Weekend in Phoenix

I realize that my love of Phoenix seems rather unreasonable, considering it is a flat, hot, desert, but it's honestly one of my favorite places for a weekend get-a-way. One of my very dear friends lives there, as does most of my extended family, so there's always wonderful company to be had. And the food, oh my goodness, you can't help but stumble into good food in Phoenix! 

My absolute must-dos for every visit are brunch at Postino, where the bruchetta and bellini never fail me, and happy hour at Sandbar, which has a location conveniently located around the corner from my friend's house. Sandbar literally has a sand patio by their outdoor bar, surrounded by a DJ booth and cabanas for your Sunday Funday pleasure. Get the nachos, trust me... and the margaritas... there's a reason why they cut you off at three margaritas. 

Some people love the Scottsdale night life, which is some of the best in the state, but I'm generally more than happy to pass on that for the poolside sunshine, a baseball game at the Diamondback's immaculate new stadium, and shopping in the countless outdoor malls.

Easter Treats

Now that I've done cakepops for my coworkers a few times, I decided to change it up for Easter and do a throwback to my childhood with chocolate nests! There was some initial disappointment when I didn't walk in with cakepops, but as soon as I started handing out these little goodies everyone was on board. They're so quick and easy you have no excuse not to throw a batch together tonight!

INGREDIENTS

1 bag of chow mein noodles (I used the Safeway brand, Asian food section)

1 bag of Reese's chocolate chips

1 bag of Cadbury chocolate eggs

1 package of Peeps

DIRECTIONS

Melt chocolate chips. I like to do this on the stove top in a glass bowl over a pot of boiling water as opposed to in the microwave. While you can use the microwave, it's very easy to burn the chocolate. If you need to thin the melted chocolate (with the Reese's you will), add a little bit of Crisco.

Gently fold in 3/4 bag of chow mein noodles, being careful not to crush the noodles, until they're all coated in chocolate.

Use hands to shape the mixture into little nests on wax paper. Place the eggs in the nests before the chocolate dries so they'll stick and won't roll off later in transport. Allow nests to dry completely.

Decorate any way you like! I cut squares out of a roll of cellophane, placed a handful of decorative grass in the middle, topped with the nest and a yellow Peep, and tied it closed first with a twisty and then a ribbon.

Recipe makes 10 nests.

Homemade Sprinkles

You know how much I love holiday themed baking, be it cupcakes or cakepops or full on cakes. Holidays just don't seem complete without customized treats. This morning I stumbled across a blog tutorial showing how to make your own sprinkles. Never more will I have to visit every store in town to find just the right color! And just think how far you could take this with flavors!

Homemade Sprinkles

8 ounces powdered sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg white
1 tsp vanilla, or other extract
Assorted food colorings
As many piping bags as you have colors, each fitted with a small pastry tip

Mix the first four ingredients until a semi-thick paste forms. Divide the paste into as many portions as you have colors, tinting each batch with the color of your choice.
Put the colored paste into a piping bag and, on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper, pipe out long, thin lines. Take care the lines do not touch each other.
Repeat the process with the remaining colors and allow the piped lines to dry for 24 hours.
After the time has elapsed, use a bench scraper or knife to scrape off the dried sprinkle lines and then to break/chop the lines into little pieces.
Store in an airtight container, indefinitely.

(Photos from The Kitchn's version of the above recipe)

A Belated St. Pattie's Day

My coworkers had been giving me a hard time about not bringing them any baked goodies lately (it had been since Halloween!) so I promised them St. Pattie's Day cakepops. But, I wound up being out sick with bronchitis most of that week and it didn't happen. I decided to make it up to them with a belated batch of vanilla-almond cakepops dipped in green chocolate and topped with sugar crystal sprinkles. 

Better late than never!

Chocolate Bowls

I haven't been doing much by way of creative baking, something I used to post frequently, but the other day I saw a chef on TV making chocolate bowls and got inspired! 

Melt chocolate and, while no hotter than 90 degrees, dip balloons into chocolate and set on wax paper. Place in freezer for ten minutes to harden. Remove from freezer, pop balloons, and fill with whatever you like! I filled mine with french vanilla custard and fresh fruit.

Tips: Use white water balloons so the dye won't transfer. I swirled in some white chocolate before dipping for a marbled look. Make sure the chocolate isn't too hot - seriously - we learned this the hard way by exploding a balloon, spraying scalding hot chocolate everywhere. Pop the balloons quickly rather than letting the air slowly ooze or the chocolate will crack.

Loving these major falls deals!

This is what happens when I go to discount fashion stores in search of supplies for my Halloween cakepops... Sometimes they have festive sprinkles and such in their baking section and I was having a hard time tracking down a couple of things.

But seriously, come on now, how could I not! Literally two fall seasons have come and gone as I have hunted for reasonably priced boots like these - Riding boots generally run $300+. I found this pair by Chinese Laundry on clearance for $70 at Nordstrom Rack (their store on 9th in SF is stellar!). And this blouse? It was meant to be! I walked up to the baking isle and blam! There is was hanging from a rack of pans, size Medium, oh so Kimberly in bone and sparkle with a clearance tag of $15. It would have been a crime not to take it home. And if it helps my case, I did buy sprinkles too.

Happy Halloween!

I'm usually far more fun for Halloween than I was this year. Between feeling a little under the weather and work having been extra intense the last couple of weeks, I just didn't get into it. That being said, you know I never pass up an opportunity for holiday baking! A handful of us ladies at the brewery decided to dress up for work, and I couldn't help but add to the festivities by treating them to cakepops! 

Sunday I stayed in my jammies all day, cooked sourdough french toast, sipped mimosas, watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," and baked. Despite not feeling so great, it was pretty ideal.

 

I found some fun decorating ideas online, which were harder than I expected, thanks to the major fail that is Wilton edible ink pens, but I managed to knock out a bunch worth sharing. If I was going to do these designs again I'd probably cut out stencils for the jack-o-lanterns and use cake graffiti spray. For the eyeballs, it would have been easier to toothpick on red food coloring and let dry, or even pipe on really thin lines of red chocolate.

Spice cake pumpkins, White cake eyeballs and mummies