Pumpkin Gingerbread with Cream Cheese Frosting

| posted by | 7 Comments

Pumpkin Gingerbread with Cream Cheese FrostingYou know me, but do you really know me?  The weird quirks, the oddball eating habits?  

Do you know I’m the type of person who pours herself a bowl of raisin bran then picks through the next 6 inches of cereal, foraging for bonus raisins?

Do you know I like my leftover pizza heated just to the point of cheese un-coagulation and not a degree more?

And do you know that I ate the cream cheese frosting off of every batch of pumpkin bars my mom made during my childhood, leaving behind a sad pan of naked treats?  And blamed my brothers?  Yeah…

But I’m getting older and I’m trying harder to keep my weirdo-ness under wraps.  I’m getting better about keeping my dirty mitts out of the cereal box, I promise I won’t fly off the handle if the cheese on my day-old pizza starts to bubble.  And if I make a pumpkin dessert that requires cream cheese frosting, I’ll use an almost obscene amount to make up for my years of misdoings.

So here’s a fall pumpkin gingerbread cake, layered with decadent cream cheese frosting.  The cake is dark from molasses, rich with pumpkin, and deeply flavored with ginger and a handful of other warm spices.  I made it to share with my parents because, well, they’ve got some catching up to do when it comes to fully frosted pumpkin desserts.

[Read more…]

Pear & Candied Ginger Muffins

| posted by | 7 Comments

Pear & Candied Ginger Muffins

I have a strange stubbornness when it comes to turning my furnace on for the first time each fall.  I try to hold out until November 1st, telling myself we could totally get another run at 75° sunshine.  I need to believe al fresco dining isn’t out of the question for the next 6 months, that I won’t soon be wearing long underwear.  I can’t give in; I can’t let go of summer and I can’t acknowledge that winter’s knocking at my door.  

So I avoid the truth and spend the month of October shivering.  Shivering and shivering and…

…baking.  I spend a good deal of time baking.  A hot oven helps with the chattering teeth and a warm treat with a cup of coffee makes most situations tolerable.

My latest attempt at baking away my October shivers was a batch of pear and candied ginger muffins and they provided just the warmth and comfort I was looking for.  The muffins bake up impossibly light and fluffy.  They’re loaded with chunks of ripe pear and candied ginger and a spicy ginger-lemon glaze puts them firmly in the “can’t wait to make them again” recipe file.

[Read more…]

Apple Cake with Caramel Sauce

| posted by | 17 Comments

French Apple Cake with Caramel Sauce

My mom makes a great apple cake.  It’s baked in a tube pan, loaded with cinnamon, and drizzled with a brown sugar glaze.  Anytime I go over for dinner in the fall, it’s the dessert I expect/demand.  She’s made it all my life and it tastes like home.

But it’s her cake and I’m grown; it’s time I find my own apple cake.  An apple cake that tastes like my home.

So I’m on the prowl for apple cake recipes.  I’m looking for unfussy, rustic cakes, that can be pulled together in a moment’s notice.  I’m looking for the kind of cake you can quickly mix up when you get a “is it alright if I stop by in an hour?” call.  The kind of cake you can have in the oven 10 minutes after that call, its aroma filling your house with everything good about fall as you race around, shoving unmentionables under the bed and attempting to eliminate the dog hair tumbleweeds from every corner.  

My first contender is a (slight) adaptation of a French apple cake that I found on David Lebovitz’s website but is actually from one of Dorie Greenspan’s cookbooks.  It’s a dead simple apple cake that is made with ingredients you will most likely already have on hand.  I chose to serve it with caramel sauce this time around, but I think it would be just as nice plain with your morning coffee or an afternoon cup of tea.

[Read more…]

Maple Walnut Cookies

| posted by | 3 Comments

Maple Walnut CookiesCool fall days always leave me longing for an afternoon cup of coffee.  And somehow that cup of coffee just does not seem right without a warm cookie at its side.  And if that cookie involves cinnamon and spice, maple or molasses, all the better.

So what are waiting for?  Let’s bake ourselves up a late afternoon treat, a batch of soft maple syrup and walnut cookies.  Let’s forget all that salad and veggie talk from last week and just accept that life happens and so do cookies. 

[Read more…]

Fig & Rosemary Schiacciata

| posted by | 6 Comments

Fig & Rosemary SchiacciataThis, for the record, is exactly what my dreams are made of.

It’s a warm slab of schiacciata, studded with fresh figs, sprinkled with rosemary, sea salt, and sugar.  It covers all of my crave bases: sweet, salty, carby, plus it reminds me of my one of my favorite cities.

Il Duomo di Firenze

Schiacciata is, in my estimation, the official snack of Florence.  It’s a dimply flatbread, a lot like focaccia, that’s really loaded up with olive oil.  You can stop in to a panificio, stand in line with kids being treated to an after-school snack and old women on their grocery run, and hold your hands up to indicate just how big a slab of schiacciata you’d like.  You might think you’ll bring it home, save it for later, but once it’s in your possession and you can feel that it is indeed still warm, you have no choice but to eat it right there, street side.  It’s okay, you’ll be in good company.  I can’t imagine anyone, young or old, being able to walk home without nibbling at least a corner.

So that’s regular schiacciata, but come fall another sort of schiacciata descends on the lucky Florentines: schiacciata all’uva.  That’s the one I’m riffing on today.  Normally, it’s made with grapes, but because I don’t live under the Tuscan sun and do not have access to good, flavorful wine grapes, I’m making it with fresh figs instead.

Sound good?  Shall we get started?

[Read more…]