I know, it doesn't seem as practical or sane to make a cinnamon roll as it is to buy one of those nice tubes in the refrigerated section and bake them.  I'll tell you why.  One day I wanted a cinnamon roll, but being a new mother, I still haven't gotten a good hang on going to the store with my little guy.  He's only slightly more patient than his father when it comes to shopping, and then there's all that baby gear, like the diaper bag, the car seat, and either a carrier or stroller.  By the time you get loaded and unloaded, you've spent almost as much time going to the store as you would making these cinnamon rolls, and you wouldn't have nearly the quality.

What I came up with satisfies my coconut AND chocolate cravings.  I think I have a little work to do on the texture, but overall I am pleased.  They freeze and reheat well, so you can make up a batch and save some for later.

Chocolate Chip-Coconut Scones
A Lauren original, inspired by Heather's Dish and Martha Stewart

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup sugar
3 Tb butter, cut into small cubes and chilled
3 Tb coconut oil, chilled, broken or cut into small pieces and put back in fridge to chill
3/4 cup canned coconut milk, with the chunks
3/4 cup shredded coconut, toasted
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment.  In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.  Cut the butter and coconut oil into the flour mixture (usig a pastry blender, two forks, or even your fingers) until you have a mixure that looks like coarse meal or sand, with a few larger (pea sized) pieces of fat still visible.  With a fork, stir in the coconut milk.  If it looks too dry, add more milk 1 Tb at a time.   Gently stir in the toasted coconut and chocolate chips.

Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface and pat into a 6-inch circle. Cut into 6 wedges and transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush tops with some of the remaining coconut milk if desired. Bake until golden, 16 to 18 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through.

• Sugar cookies, rolled out, punched into shapes like bells, trees, stars, mittens, reindeer, and decorated with frosting or sprinkles
• Gingerbread men and houses
• Fruitcake Cookies (I can't believe I've never given the recipe- will try to fix that soon!)
• Those store-bought slice and bake sugar cookies that are dyed in the middle to look like a Christmas tree or Santa's hat
• Those small, pre-made butter cookies that have red or green sprinkles and sometimes look like a wreath

Either way, the cookies are tasty, and the dough can be frozen for later use.  They're addictive, so beware!

Chocolate Sugar Cookies
from Smitten Kitchen

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Whisk dry flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in mixer. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.

Roll out cookie dough on floured counter. Cut into desired shapes, brushing extra deposits of flour off the top. (It does disappear once baked, though, so don’t overly fret if they go into the oven looking white.) Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 8 to 11 minutes (the former for 1/8-inch thick cookies, the latter for 1/4-inch cookies) until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffed.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

                                 

When they first come out of the oven, they are puffy, but don't worry; they will settle.

Notes

• If you visit the original post site (the link to the original post is the recipe title), you will see that Averie's cookies are a bit thicker.  I used about half the dough she uses for one cookie, so that I'd have more.  This may have affected the candy corn staying in tact.
• I baked mine 9 minutes, just like the recipe suggested.  Some still looked too underdone, and even after about 5 mins. were too soft to pick up from the baking sheet.  After further cooling- maybe 30 minutes- they were fine to pick up.

• I made the actual muffin as the original poster wrote them, but I left out the glaze.  I am just not much of a glaze girl on cake doughnuts or muffins.  For the glaze recipe, just click on the recipe title, which doubles as a link to the original post.
• These freeze well.  Wrap them individually and place in a zip-top freezer bag.  Thaw either on counter or in microwave about 30 seconds.

They freeze well and can make a nice homemade gift.  It comes together easily and is so good.

Zucchini Bread
Adapted from Southview Bapt. Cookbook/Joyce Riley

3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 c. chopped pecans
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 Tb. vanilla extract
1 tsp. almond extract
2 cups shredded, unpeeled zucchini
1- 8 oz can crushed pineapple, drained

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prep either two loaf pans, two muffin tins, or a tube pan by spraying with oil or cooking spray and coating with flour (or in the case of muffin tin, use liners).  In a large bowl, stir or sift together dry ingredients (flour- cinnamon).  In a medium bowl or large measuring cup, mix together the eggs, oil, sugar, and extracts.  Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix until just blended.  Stir in the pecans, zucchini, and pineapple.  Pour the mixture into your pan(s), distributing the batter evenly throughout the chosen pans.  Bake loaf pans for approx 1 hour, muffins 18-20 minutes (or longer, depending on your oven), or a tube pan for around 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Bread is done when lightly browned and a tester comes out clean.

Notes

• The original recipe called for a full cup of oil and 2 cups of sugar.  In an effort to reduce the greasiness of the bread, I decreased the oil, and have found about 3/4 cup to be a good amount.  You may need to go up or down depending on your own tastes and preferences.  Same with the sugar.  
• I added almond extract where it was not previously included in the recipe, and reduced the vanilla extract.  The original recipe calls for 2 Tb. vanilla and no almond.  I think the almond helps increase the sweetness while reducing the overall sugar content.  

I'm not sure why we haven't tried baking cookies as foreign policy yet, but these are apparently the ones to bake if we ever do try.

I made these cookies when I wanted to make an easy, no-fuss dessert and when I didn't want to have to shop for a lot of special ingredients, and these were perfect.  I had heard and read great things about them from a friend and other food bloggers who are big fans of Dorie Greenspan.  I've had the Baking: From My Home To Yours cookbook for several years, and am slowly working my way through the recipes, and this is one you'll be able to come back to and make for numerous occasions.  The cookies are a chocolate sablé, so they're pretty intensely flavored and have a crumbly texture.  The chocolate chips make for a nice, smooth element in the midst of the rest of the cookie.  They're a nice change up from the "normal" cookies, and I loved them.  Oh, and the cookie dough before it was baked?  Fugeddabouit.  Delectable.

We all enjoyed it.  I want more.

I can't remember if I've told you this or not, but I can still remember the first time I had a scone.  It was my freshman year of college, and one morning in our cafeteria there were these triangular, tough biscuits with blueberries.  They were topped with coarse sugar.  I decided to try one and absolutely loved it.  Slightly sweet, dense, and not dry, flecked with blueberries- they were a whole new baking experience.  I had no idea what they were, and I had no idea other people outside the Gardner-Webb cafeteria knew what they were.  Later, on another morning, a friend of mine remarked something about these little triangular biscuits and called them scones.  Oh, so these are somewhat familiar to others.  Hmm.  And so began my love of these little gems.  Those still hold the place of best scone ever in my mind, and I am slowly working to dethrone them.

I sort of get on these quests for the holy grail of whatever recipe.  Please tell me I'm not the only one.  The cinnamon roll holy grail recipe quest is not yet ended, but this one is definitely a top contender.  First I tried out Peter Reinhart's Cinnamon Rolls, and they were very good.  They were a more substantial bread than these were, which is why my quest continued.  The cinnamon roll recipe has to be one of the absolute most popular Pioneer Woman recipes, and PW and others have created a lot of great variations.  This recipe makes a flip ton, and Pioneer Woman was right, if you give these as gifts, the recipients will want you to make them again.  This could be my fault, but they spread out/rose more than I'd expect the Holy Grail Recipe to do, which is why my quest continues.  Still, if I stopped here, I'd likely not be disappointed.

The dough- all rolled into a long rectangle.

 

The mess after.

This recipe is simple, and I halved the recipe because of its magnitude.  I still got something like 4-5 pans of cinnamon rolls.  Sometimes playing with baking ratios, even halving things, can mess with it, so as I said, I could be to blame for the bread to filling ratio not being exactly what I want.  Either way, do try this.  Regardless of my ratio comment, these are wonderful.  Especially the topping.  The topping is oh-so-good and to die for.  One good thing is that you can break the whole project up into stages, making for less to do on the day you want to serve them.  Serve these with a nice cup of coffee.  Or another cinnamon roll.



I am posting the halved recipe, as I made it.  Visit PW's website- the recipe title is the link- for her full recipe, beautiful step-by-step photos, and variations.

PW Cinnamon Rolls (original recipe)
from Pioneer Woman

2 cups Whole Milk
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
1/2 cup Sugar
1 packages Active Dry Yeast, 0.25 Ounce Packets (about 2 tsp yeast)
4 cups (Plus 1/2 Cup Extra, Reserved) All-purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
1/2 Tablespoon (heaping) Salt
 Plenty Of Melted Butter
1 cup Sugar
 Generous Sprinkling Of Cinnamon
 _____
 MAPLE FROSTING:
1 box (4 cups) Powdered Sugar
1 teaspoons Maple Flavoring
1/4 cup Milk
2 Tb Melted Butter
2 Tb Brewed Coffee
Dash teaspoon Salt

For the dough, heat the milk, vegetable oil, and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat to just below a boil. Set aside and cool to warm. Sprinkle the yeast on top and let it sit on the milk for 1 minute.
Add 8 cups of the flour. Stir until just combined, then cover with a clean kitchen towel, and set aside in a relatively warm place for 1 hour. After 1 hour, remove the towel and add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and the remaining 1 cup flour. Stir thoroughly to combine. Use the dough right away, or place in a mixing bowl and refrigerate for up to 3 days, punching down the dough if it rises to the top of the bowl. (Note: dough is easier to work with if it’s been chilled for at least an hour or so beforehand.)
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
To assemble the rolls, remove half the dough from the pan/bowl. On a floured baking surface, roll the dough into a large rectangle, about 30 x 10 inches. The dough should be rolled very thin.
To make the filling, pour 3/4 cup to 1 cup of the melted butter over the surface of the dough. Use your fingers to spread the butter evenly. Generously sprinkle half of the ground cinnamon and 1 cup of the sugar over the butter. Don’t be afraid to drizzle on more butter or more sugar! Gooey is the goal.
Now, beginning at the end farthest from you, roll the rectangle tightly towards you. Use both hands and work slowly, being careful to keep the roll tight. Don’t worry if the filling oozes as you work; that just means the rolls are going to be divine. When you reach the end, pinch the seam together and flip the roll so that the seam is face down. When you’re finished, you’ll wind up with one long buttery, cinnamony, sugary, gooey log.
Slip a cutting board underneath the roll and with a sharp knife, make 1/2-inch slices. One “log “will produce 20 to 25 rolls. Pour a couple of teaspoons of melted butter into disposable foil cake pans and swirl to coat. Place the sliced rolls in the pans, being careful not to overcrowd. (Each pan will hold 7 to 9 rolls.)
Repeat the rolling/sugar/butter process with the other half of the dough and more pans. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cover all the pans with a kitchen towel and set aside to rise on the countertop for at least 20 minutes before baking. Remove the towel and bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until golden brown. Don’t allow the rolls to become overly brown.
While the rolls are baking, make the maple icing: In a large bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, butter, coffee, and salt. Splash in the maple flavoring. Whisk until very smooth. Taste and add in more maple, sugar, butter, or other ingredients as needed until the icing reaches the desired consistency. The icing should be somewhat thick but still very pourable.
Remove pans from the oven. Immediately drizzle icing over the top. Be sure to get it all around the edges and over the top. As they sit, the rolls will absorb some of the icing’s moisture and flavor.

This is the view into my back yard right now.  I am in snowy heaven.  It started snowing yesterday, which in the foothills of Western NC is a rare sight.  The entire Western half of the state, if not the entire state, is completely shut down.  You from the North, go ahead and laugh it up.  The bread and milk sections of grocery stores here are entirely depleted, and I'm all "darn it, I don't have enough butter to make croissant dough," or "what if I want cauliflower?!"

My breakfast this morning- the scones and french pressed coffee, on a tray and sitting on my couch while watching snow.  Perfect.

When it snows, we hole ourselves up in our homes, sometimes make snow cream and hot chocolate, and enjoy the falling snow.  I also get the urge to bake, and yesterday I chose to make mini vanilla bean scones, from Pioneer Woman.  I love the Starbucks version, but who wants to pay that much for baked goods?  While not a perfect imitation (and who said it had to be?), these are good.  They're pretty quick to whip up, and they're pretty easy.  I made them as-is, but for cost reasons will likely modify the recipe when I make it again.  I'll post that in the notes section.  Visit her website (link is the recipe title, below) for detailed, step-by-step photos and instructions.



Mini Vanilla Bean Scones
from Pioneer Woman

SCONES
3 cups All-purpose Flour

2/3 cups Sugar
5 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/4 teaspoon Salt
2 sticks (1/2 Pound) unsalted butter, frozen
1 whole Large Egg
3/4 cups Heavy Cream (more If Needed)
2 whole Vanilla Beans

GLAZE
5 cups Powdered Sugar, Sifted
1/2 cup Whole Milk, More If Needed For Thinning
1 whole Vanilla Bean
 Dash Of Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Split the vanilla beans down the middle lengthwise and scrape out all the vanilla "caviar" inside. Stir caviar into cream and place empty pods inside cream as well.  Set aside for 15 minutes.

Sift together flour, 2/3 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt.

Using a cheese grater, grate the butter, half a stick at a time, into the flour mixture, and cut in with fingers, a pastry cutter, or two forks. Keep going until mixture resembles crumbs.

Mix vanilla cream with egg, then combine with flour mixture; stir gently with a fork just until it comes together.

Turn dough onto a floured surface and lightly press it together until it forms a rough rectangle. (Mixture will be pretty crumbly.) Use a rolling pin to roll into a rectangle about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick. Use your hands to help with the forming if necessary.

Use a knife to trim into a symmetrical rectangle, then cut the rectangle into 12 symmetrical squares/rectangles. Next, cut each square/rectangle in half diagonally, to form two triangles.
Transfer to a parchment or baking mat-lined cookie sheet and bake for 18 minutes, removing from the oven just before they start to turn golden. Allow to cool for 15 minutes on the cookie sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

VANILLA GLAZE
To make the icing, split one vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the caviar. Stir caviar into milk; allow to sit for awhile. Mix powdered sugar with the vanilla milk, adding more powdered sugar or milk if necessary to get the consistency the right thickness. Stir or whisk until completely smooth.
One at a time, carefully dunk each cooled scone in the glaze, turning it over if necessary. Transfer to parchment paper or the cooling rack. Allow the glaze to set completely, about an hour. Scones will keep several days if glazed.



Notes

• Vanilla beans- World Market has good prices, if you have one near you or are planning to be near one in a city.  Some supermarkets and health food stores carry them, and of course you can always order online.  They are EXPENSIVE, though, and for this budget-conscious cook, they're at a bit too much of a premium for this to not be a "special" ingredient.  I did some searching online, though, and most likely I'd use a vanilla bean for the glaze, since it's the most visible, and use 1-2 Tb vanilla extract in the scones themselves.  That is the alteration I'd make
• These were crumbly, and some fell apart during the glazing process.  I ended up dunking the bottoms and then pouring the rest of the glaze over the top.  That worked pretty well.  Just make sure you put them somewhere the excess can drip off, like a cooling rack.

Biscotti is so great with coffee...or tea, hot chocolate, or alone.  Homemade biscotti leaves store bought biscotti in the dust.  I've had this recipe for years, and I make it each year at Christmas to give as gifts and to enjoy some for myself.  It's delicious.  If you like Nutella, you will love this one for its nod to the hazelnut-chocolate combination.  I actually like giving biscotti more than other cookies/homemade candy because it's kind of unique.  It's twice baked, so it keeps longer than other candies and cookies.  That is, if it lasts that long, which in my house, it doesn't.

Shaping the "logs"

There are a couple steps involved in biscotti, but it's still easy.  Make this for yourself and the coffee lovers in your life!

Instead of makin' it rain...makin' it snow!

Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti
courtesy of Food Network/ Gourmet Magazine, circa 2006

Makes approx 30 biscotti

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
6 Tb (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup blanched hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 Tb. confectioner's sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 F and butter and flour a large baking sheet, or line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.  In another bowl with an electric mixer, beat together butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and beat until combined well.  Stir in flour mixture to form a stiff dough.  Stir in hazelnuts and chocolate chips.

On the baking sheet with floured hands, form dough into two slightly flattened logs, 12 inches long and 2 inches wide.  Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar, if using.  Bake logs for 35 minutes, or until they are slightly firm to the touch.  Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes.

On a cutting board, cut biscotti diagonally into 3/4 inch slices.  Arrange the biscotti, cut sides down and up, back on the baking sheet, and bake until crisp, about 10 minutes.  Cool on a rack.

The biscotti will keep in an airtight container at room temperature 1 week and frozen up to a month.

Notes

• I've made these with very few tweaks, but the one small tweak I know I've made is to not blanch the hazelnuts.  Do you know how much trouble it is to remove the husks off hazelnuts?  I prefer to save the time- I have made it both ways, and I can't tell a significant enough difference. 

Between now and Christmas, I'll likely be just posting Christmas goodies- good for gifts, parties, or eating yourself...not that I'd know anything about that.

So this fudge isn't real fudge.  You don't need a candy thermometer or a perfect, sunny day for it to work out.  It is, however, quick and easy, and will set up on the rainiest of days, which is good, because the past two Christmases around here have not had the best weather surrounding them.  Most importantly, while the texture is a little different from true fudge, it's still very tasty, and nobody has refused it yet.



Drew's grandmother is one of those people who you find it difficult to buy gifts for, because she has no hobbies, every square inch of her house is packed with stuff, so there's not a lot of room for anything else.  She does, however, have a big sweet tooth, and loves fudge, and she does not care about the semantics of fudge.  I have made this for her pretty much every year since I've been part of the family, and she has come to expect it.  When she gets my gift of fudge she literally squeals with delight and promptly eats a piece and hides the rest behind her back so that no one else in the family can eat any.  It's pretty funny.

So without further adieu, from the Eagle Brand recipe collection, I give you their recipe for chocolate fudge.



Chocolate Fudge (Condensed Milk Fudge)
from Eagle Brand recipes

makes approx. 2 pounds of fudge

1 can condensed milk
18 oz (3 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Line an 8 or 9 inch square pan with foil, wax paper or parchment; set aside.

In a medium pot, combine the condensed milk, chocolate chips, and salt.  Melt over medium low to medium heat.  Once melted and smooth, remove from heat and stir in vanilla.  Pour and spread the mixture into a prepared pan to make an even layer.

Chill the fudge 2 hours or until firm.  Cut into bite sized squares.

Not to sound too Pollyanna, but the changing of one season into another is just a special time.  The transition into fall is a great one, isn't it?  Days are still warm, but not sweltering while mornings and evenings are invigoratingly crisp.  Humidity decreases or disappears altogether.  Produce changes.  Food flavors change.  One of my absolute favorite fall treats is the pumpkin muffin from Starbucks.  Warm from spices, full of pumpkin flavor, and with a touch of cream cheese, it's something I look forward to all year.  The pumpkin seeds on top are also a nice touch. 



I was almost inconsolable last year because I didn't get to buy a muffin.  I did, however, find an at-home recipe that is as good as the Starbucks muffin, and probably healthier since it's smaller and homemade.  If you like pumpkin things, do try this.  It's also a lot more affordable, since the Starbucks muffins are $2.25 a piece, and I'd bet these are 50 cents or something each.



Inside-Out Pumpkin Muffins
from King Arthur Flour

1 cup pumpkin purée
2 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup boiled cider (for best flavor), or dark corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice; or 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon + 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves + 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour