Chewy Cookie Butter Granola

Sometimes failure turns into a beautiful thing.

I mean, take the 80s, for instance. Mismatched earrings, stirrup pants, gigantic bangs...there are a few things that I am definitely not sad to see go. But on the other hand, I find myself owning and wearing an increasing amount of neon that just doesn't get old! It's like I'm walking around in multicolored bits of sunshine!

Which leads perfectly into my next comment. The sun is shining and it should feel like spring out there! But instead it's freezing cold and I'm a little sad. So, I decided to attempt (yet again) a batch of chewy granola bars...which turned into a complete and utter fail since they didn't seem to have any desire to remain in anything slightly resembling a bar shape.

So, I gave my crumbles a few tweaks and voila! Chewy granola! This stuff is a perfect ice cream topper, yogurt mix-in or whatever...just eat some!

Chewy Cookie Butter Granola [click to print]

• 1/4 c. butter, melted
• 1/4 c. agave nectar
• 1/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 c. Speculoos Cookie Butter
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 2 c. quick oats (not rolled)
• 1 c. unsweetened puffed rice cereal
• 3/4 c. cinnamon chips

1) For thicker bars, line 8" square pan with parchment paper or 9" square pan for thinner bars. In large bowl, combine oats and cereal; set aside. 

2) In saucepan, stir together butter, agave and sugar, stirring over low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to medium-high until mixture begins bubbling. Reduce to low heat and allow to cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cookie butter, vanilla and salt. Pour cookie butter mixture over dry ingredients and stir immediately to evenly coat, making sure there aren't any dry pieces.

4) In separate bowl, melt 1/2 c.cinnamon chips in 30 second intervals, stirring well between each nuke, until smooth. Stir into oatmeal mixture. Spread mixture onto prepared pan and sprinkle remaining cinnamon chips over mixture. Refrigerate until firm.

Source: Adapted from Bakerita

Monkey (Ginger)Bread

The first time I had monkey bread was during college. We were having a breakfast bash and my friend brought this hot, gooey mound of pull apart bread and I realized that I was in love. I've always gone a little weak at the knees over sticky, caramelized, breaded pastries and this stuff is no different.

Except for this isn't your ordinary monkey bread. This stuff tastes like the holidays and is packed with fragrant spices and molasses. And, it's really a lot easier than it sounds!

Monkey (Ginger)Bread [click to print]
makes 1-bundt

For bread

• 3-1/4 c. flour
• 2 T. pumpkin pie spice
• 2-1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (or 1pkg)
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 c. whole milk
• 1/3 c. warm water
• 1/4 c. molasses
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

For coating (prepare in separate bowls)

• 3-4 T. unsalted butter, melted
• 1 c. brown sugar

1) Generously coat bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray with flour (very important to use the kind with flour!). 

2) In bowl of stand mixer, whisk together flour, spice, salt and yeast. Add milk, water, molasses and vanilla. Continue mixing with hook until dough starts climbing the hook. 

3) Turn dough onto floured surface and knead until dough forms a smooth ball. Place in oiled bowl and cover with damp cloth and set in warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 1 to 1-1/2 hours. 

4) When risen, transfer dough to floured surface and gently punch down and shape into 8" square. Use a pizza cutter to dough into 64 pieces. Coat each ball in melted butter, then brown sugar and start piling into bundt, trying to distribute them somewhat evenly. 

5) Cover bundt with damp towel and place in warm area to rise about 1 hour; the dough balls should be puffy and about 1" below top edge of bundt pan. 

6) Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake 30-35 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan no more than 5 minutes. Turn out onto plate and allow to cool another 10 minutes before serving. 

Source: Adapted from Food 52

Banana Honey Bread

I promise I'm not going all health-food on you (not that it's really a bad thing, it's just not "me", ya know?), but this bread is amazing and it doesn't even have any added sugar in it! Or butter! It's like I'm morphing into someone else. Except for I'm not. And just to prove it to you, I made my very own batch of vanilla scented butter, recipe coming shortly.

But back to the topic at hand...this bread has a soft, spongey texture and is oh-so-moist. The smell of honey fills your home with an intoxicating scent that will make you want to eat the entire loaf while hiding in the pantry (or hall closet, in the case of my tiny apartment) so you don't have to share. But I'm a giving person, so I resisted that urge and didn't do that...this time. I promise I won't judge you if you don't decide to be so gracious.

So get ready for what is quite possibly the easiest banana bread recipe ever.

Banana Honey Bread [click to print]
Makes 1 loaf

• 2 c. flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 c. honey
• 1/2 c. applesauce, no sugar added
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 3 bananas, mashed (about 3/4 c.)

1) Preheat oven to 350 F. Generously coat loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

2) Whisk together flour, soda, cinnamon and salt; set aside. In mixing bowl, beat honey, applesauce and vanilla until well combined. Add eggs and bananas. Add dry ingredients and continue mixing until just combined.

3) Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 60-65 minutes or until done.

Source: Adapted from 8 Weeks to a Better You

Pumpkin Gingerbread

Every Christmas, my mom and I (and sometimes my sister) would bake and bake and bake. We'd scoop and cut and slice probably hundreds of cookies and sweet breads, and, thanks to our benevolent taste testers who would die before we delivered any less-than-perfect treats to our neighbors, we ended the whole project with just barely enough to go around. My mom would sweetly scoot us kids out the door, reminding us to smile and sing loud enough for our old neighbors to hear, and off we went! My favorite house was right next door, at Reverend Fred Donaldson, or "The Rev" as his license plate said. He was a giant of a man, was missing part of one finger on his left hand and always sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" right back to us in his booming choir voice.

I know it's a little past Christmas and pumpkin season now, but this has gotta be one of my absolute favorite sweet breads. There's nothing like the smell of pumpkin and ginger baking in a hot oven to warm up your home and singing voice!

Pumpkin Gingerbread [click to print]
Makes 1 loaf

1 c sugar
1/2 butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1/4 c molasses
1 c. pumpkin puree
1-3/4 c. flour
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (OR 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp nutmeg)
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda

Whisk together dry ingredients and set aside. Combine sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla; mix until smooth. Add molasses and pumpkin; mix until blended. Add dry ingredients in about 3 additions, scraping, scraping sides of bowl as needed. Mix until blended.

Coat loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. Pour batter into pan and bake at 350 for 55-65 minutes. Reduce heat by 25 degrees if using glass loaf pan.

Source: Adapted from AllRecipes

Sweet Sixteen: Cinnamon

This week's photo round up is all about that fragrant cinnamon spice!

Row 1: Auntie Anne's Pretzels, Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake, Apple Cinnamon Donuts, Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies

Row 2: Apple Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting, Scrumptious Baked Cinnamon Breakfast Bites, Blueberry Cinnamon Cakes, Brown Butter Ginger Cookies

Row 3: Caramel Apple Coffee Cake, Chocolate Cinnamon Date Truffles (sugar free!), Cinnamon Bark Cookies, Cinnamon Blondies

Row 4: Cinnamon Creme Brulee, Cinnamon Roll Cookies, Cinnamon White Chocolate Fudge, Pumpkin Spice Pull Apart Bread

Cinnamon Banana Bread

Every year at Christmas, my family exchanges names. A few years ago, my sister in law, Breezi Queen of Scrapbooking and Blogger Extraordinaire, made this really cute cookbook for me. The entire book, including each and every page, is covered in plastic in an effort to protect itself from this above-averagely-messy baker. One of my all time favorite recipes from this book is "Betty's Banana Bread." I'm not sure exactly who Miss Betty is, but she's related somehow and made (makes?) awesome banana bread. Here's my version of this easy sweet bread!

Cinnamon Banana Bread   [click to print]
1 c. sugar
1/3 c. butter, softened
2 eggs
3-4 bananas, really really ripe and black
1/3 c. water
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1-2/3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 T. cinnamon

Mash bananas well. Whisk in water and vanilla. Set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, soda, salt, powder and cinnamon; set aside. Cream together sugar and butter until pale yellow and fluffy-ish. Add eggs one at a time, incorporating well between each addition. With mixer on low speed, add half of dry mixture, then all of banana mixture, then the rest of dry mixture; this should only take about a minute. Generously coat loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray. Pour batter in pan. Generously sprinkle cinnamon sugar over top of batter; this will give the bread a nice crisp crust. Bake at 350 for 55-60 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Sixteen Sweets: Caramel

Row 1: Apple Cider Caramels [Dolce by Dana], Apple Pie Caramel Apples [A Bit of Bees Knees], Banana Chocolate Chip Cake [The Baker Chick], Caramel Apple Cupcakes [Hot Polka Dot]

Row 2: Caramel Apple Cupcakes [Indulge], Caramel Apple Rolls [Fantastical Sharing of Recipes], Caramel and Chocolate Oatmeal Bars [The Black Peppercorn], Caramel Corn [Dabbling in the Delicious]

Row 3: Caramel Maple Pumpkin Pie Smoothie [Love Veggies & Yoga], Caramel Stuffed Pumpkin Spice Cookies [Love Big, Bake Often], Inside Out Caramel Apples [Domestic Fits], Monkey Bread [A Sage Amalgam]

Row 4: Chocolate and Salted Caramel Mug Cake [Babble], Caramel Apple Bundt Cake [Week of Menus], Caramel Apple Cake [From My Sweet Heart], Cinnamon Caramel Apples [Mind Over Batter]

Crock Pot Apple Butter

I love the smell of Fall. Warm jackets, crunchy leaves, crisp air, fresh, cold apples. When I was little, my family and I picked bags and bags of apples at a friend's orchard back home in Pennsylvania. I sat on the kitchen floor while my parents worked on making and canning everything appley and proceeded to take a bite out of each and every apple I could get my hands on. 

Last week when I was at the grocery store, the apples were all just staring me down. Gala, Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, McIntosh, Pink Lady, everthing! Now I have about 8000 different apple recipe ideas floating through my head, so here's the first: Apple Butter. I know, I know, it sounds like a long, tedious process, but it really isn't! This recipe will make your entire home smell like the holidays and it only takes a few minutes to throw together and a few hours in a crockpot!

Crock Pot Apple Butter   [click to print]

6 apples

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. cloves

1/2 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 c. light brown sugar

1 c. apple cider

1 lemon peel

Peel apples and chop into pieces about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick; add to crockpot. Add spices, salt, sugar, cider and lemon peel. Stir to combine. Cook on high for 1 to 1-1/2 hours, or until apples are bubbly. Reduce heat to low and cook for 6 to 8 hours, stirring 2 or 3 times throughout. Turn off heat and allow to cool about 1 hour. Remove lemon peel and pour mixture into food processor or blender; puree until smooth. 

Source: Adapted from Baked Bree