Christmas really snuck up on my this year. Thanksgiving happened, and then BAM! Everyone was posting pictures on Facebook of their Christmas trees while I still had all my fall decorations up. I am now a little bit more prepared for the upcoming festivities, but the preparations have definitely kept me on my toes.
Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate! In case you’re jonesing for some cookies that are holiday-appropriate but still a little out of the ordinary, I’ve concocted this recipe for Pumpkin Spice Rugelach. I feel like fall came and went in an instant, and I’m still not ready to let go of pumpkin spice just yet. Since these cookies are distinctly not for Christmas, I felt it was reasonable to hold off on the eggnog, gingerbread, and peppermint awhile longer and hang onto pumpkin spice for just one more bakeventure.
As you may be aware, Thanksgiving is this Thursday. In light of this, I’m releasing this week’s recipe post a couple days early. If you’re looking for another dessert for your Thanksgiving dinner, you’re in luck! This rum cake is a real crowd pleaser. I made it for a dinner party this past weekend, and there was none left at the end of the night (the uneaten cake was split between some of the party goers and taken home). Multiple slices were had and a new favorite was declared by some. In short, it was pretty popular.
Is anyone else as obsessed with the Great British Bake Off as I am? After finding it on Netflix, I tore through a season in about 3 days. It has all the fun food information that any cooking show has (perhaps a bit more than some), with none of the catty nonsense of the American varieties.
Last weekend, Josh and I went apple picking and came home with more apples than I care to admit (ok, I’ll admit it: approximately 25 pounds). In my defense, Jonagolds are my favorite cultivar apples and they seem to only ever be available for about 2 weeks a year. Since we were too late to pick any last year, I might have overcompensated juuuuust a bit this year. Three gallons of home-canned apple pie filling later, I still had more apples left than any normal person should eat in a week.
This week, I was a bit stumped when it came to figuring out what to bake. I had a few ideas, but none of them were grabbing my attention and making me excited to get into the kitchen. Cheddar chili pepper dinner rolls? Blah. Vegan cake: Meh. The next chocolate chip cookie butter taste test? Eh, I guess if there’s nothing else… These thoughts loafed around my head all weekend until I started to resign myself to the idea of baking something boring or skipping the bakeventure entirely (I know, blasphemy). Then I was reminded of my mother-in-law’s monster cookies.
You may get sick of all my apple posts soon enough, but I never will! This bakeventure started out with a well-intentioned attempt to make caramel apples my husband can actually eat. He likes apples, particularly when they’re covered in caramel and peanuts, but has a strange allergy which makes his throat itch when he eats them raw. Cooked apples aren’t a problem, so I figured there must be a way to give him that tart-sweet-crunchy sensation that embodies fall without any of the itchy throat.
After my last attempt at Bear Claws, I knew I would have to try again. I can’t let a baked good triumph over me, after all. Despite the 85 degree weather, I cranked my oven up to 400° and turned out some pastries which were actually worth the (extremely minimal) effort.
Sometimes, baked goods don’t turn out quite as you planned. This was definitely the case with this weekend’s chocolate bear claw experiment. While they weren’t a complete and utter failure, they were bad enough that I made myself throw 11 out of 12 of them away. Still, just because this pastry flopped doesn’t mean the experience was a complete loss. In today’s post, I’ll go through exactly what I did this time and give some suggestions for future improvements. This recipe took all day and a lot of effort, so I don’t know that I’ll be trying it again anytime soon, at least not quite like this.
Passover began last Friday night, and with Passover comes charoset. For those who don’t know, charoset is a sort of spread made of apples, walnuts, red wine, and cinnamon, and it is one of Josh’s favorite snacks. While Josh would be content to eat it on matzo until the whole batch is gone, I am always scheming up new baked creations.
I Wanna Bake! 