Cranberry-Orange Loaf.

I always forget how much I love home-cooked bread. The warmth it brings to my stomach and mood. It's delicateness; crumbling as you nibble into it. Chewing slowly, savoring every single bite.

It's a mood changer for me.

I can always rely on a good piece of home-cooked bread.

Cranberry-Orange Loaf with streusel topping
2 cups whole grain flour
1 cup raw sugar, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tablespoon zest of an orange
2 tablespoons oil
1 egg
2 cups chopped cranberries (you can used dried or fresh)

streusel recipe here!

Preheat oven to 350F. Chop your cranberries and toss them in a bowl of 1/4 cup raw sugar; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, the remaining 3/4 cup sugar, and cinnamon together. Make a well in the center of your dry mixture. Add orange juice, orange zest and egg and oil to the center of the well. Slowly stir the flour mixture into the well until just combined. Fold in cranberries. Pour batter into pre-greased loaf pan. Sprinkle streusel topping over the batter and bake for 40-45 minutes.

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Toffee-glazed Fudge Brownies

A perk of being an adult, choosing my own breakfast; Be it healthy. Happy-face shaped. Or a rich, healthy-sized dessert. Basically, I can do whatever I please. 

Topped with a toffee flavored glaze, and an unsurprising, yet far from overbearing richness with every bite, this brownie is no where near lacking. 

I do believe this qualifies as the best "I am an adult, and I will eat whatever I want" breakfast.

......So, my brain and stomach may say, but not my hips.

It made for a great picnic on this cold, rainy morning.

Toffee-glazed Fudge Brownie

Brownie recipe here

Glaze:

2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

2/3 cup dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon pure maple syrup

In a medium sauce pan, heat butter, brown sugar and whipping cream over medium heat. Stir often until brown sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to high, and allow to come to a boil for 1 minute. Remove from the heat, then stir in maple syrup. Allow to come to room temperature, then pour over batter in baking pan before baking. Then place brownies in the oven and bake.

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Pumpkin Spice Biscotti

Not only can I not get enough of Fall weather, I cannot get enough of this Fall weather with lots of Pumpkin Spice desserts! It just pairs with the season way too perfectly. Am I right? Or, am I right?

I have a strong feeling this season could bring healthy loads of Pumpkin Spice recipes to this blog.

...I say that like it's a bad thing. Bah!

Pumpkin Spice Biscotti

3/4 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)

2 eggs

1 tablespoon pure maple syrup

3 3/4 cup whole grain flour

1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F. Silpat-line your baking sheet and set aside. 

In a large bowl, beat eggs, pumpkin and maple until creamy. Slowly add in your spices, mixing until combined. In a small bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. After you add the spices to the pumpkin mixture, slowly add in this flour mixture until batter is nice and smooth. 

Divide your batter into half; Both of equal size. Knead your dough for several minutes, then roughly shape the dough into two 12-inch long by 2 1/2 inch wide logs on your Silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet. Mix your granulated sugar and cinnamon, then sprinkle top of dough logs with mix. Bake your dough for 25-30 minutes. 

Once the 25-30 minutes is up, remove from oven and drop temperature down to 300F. Allow your biscotti and oven to cool down for 15 minutes. This will give your dough a chance to harden up a bit. Carefully slice your biscotti into 1-inch thick slices with a serrated knife. You should be able to get 12-15 biscotti's out of one slab of dough. Lay your biscotti on it's sides and place back in the oven for about 20 more minutes, flipping sides after 10 minutes. Bake until golden brown; I start checking with 7 minutes on each side. 

Allow to cool before enjoying. :)

 photo credit: J. Ponce

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as of late, I am...

-thoroughly enjoying the brisk Autumn air.

-sipping tea and snacking heavily on my s'more cookies and pumpkin streusel bread (coming soon!).

-giddy with joy after booking our flights home for Christmas; it's coming SO soon!

-impatiently awaiting the arrival of my She & Him Christmas vinyl.

-struggling to prepare a Christmas list; I am not good at making lists of things that "I want". (well, I am good at it if I am the one who is buying it; gosh, my lists can be long. But, when someone else, I can't.)

-wishing season 2 of The Walking Dead would end and show up on my Netflix so I can have an all-day zombie party. dead serious.

-looking forward to a morning boat cruise with mimosas and great friends on Saturday.

and, reminiscing on what a beautiful birthday I had, and how lucky of a girl I am.

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A dark chocolate 'cheers' !

My 24th year will be one that I hold close to my heart. -There was so much learned. So much growth. So many things I am proud of. So much laughter. So much warmth. So much happiness. So many adventures. So many amazing times. Some struggles, all of which I am very thankful for, because hey, that's life. Pleeeeenty baked goods.  And....


SO. much. love.

I am so thankful to be turning 25. To be 25 and just fine.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with a Cream Cheese Frosting

Cupcakes :

1 cup whole grain flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350F and line your muffin pan with cupcakes liners.

In a medium bowl, whisk your flour, baking powder and salt; Set aside. In a double broiler, melt your dark chocolate and butter together until smooth. Allow chocolate mixture to cool to a warm temperature. In a large bowl, beat eggs and brown sugar, until light. Add your maple syrup. Then add in your chocolate mixture. Once well incorporated, mix in your flour mixture until just combined. Divide batter into your muffin tins, filling about 3/4 way full. Bake for 20-24 minutes or until toothpick test comes out with few crumbles.

Allow to cool before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting :

1/2 cup butter

8 ounces cream cheese

2-3 cups confectioners' sugar

1 teaspoon maple syrup

Beat butter and cream cheese until smooth. Mix in your maple syrup. Then, add in your confectioners' sugar, one cup at a time until you reach desired thickness. Then gently mix in your food coloring, if you are feeling festive! Allow to cool in refrigerator for 30 minutes before frosting.

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Molasses Cookies

What says Autumn more than a molasses cookie?

Richly spiced with hints of maple and topped with extra sugar for sweetness. 

I don't think it get's any better than that.

Unless you add a mug of hot apple cider, some sweet holiday records and a dreary, rainy day. Then, you have  the best.

Molasses Cookies

2 1/4 cup whole grain flour

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

1 teaspoon pure maple syrup

white sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375F. In a medium bowl, sift flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Then add in your molasses and egg; mixing until combined. Slowly add your flour mixture to your wet mixture, mixing until just incorporated. 

Roll dough into tablespoon size balls, then into the white sugar for a coating. Lay your cookies on your lined baking sheet, and place baking sheet in freezer for 5-7 minutes. When you remove your cookie sheet from the freezer, lightly flatten out your dough, just slightly. Bake for 8-9 minutes. If you like your cookies chewy, bake for only 7-8.

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Maple-Cornmeal Biscuits.

Today is bliss.

Dark gray skies. Heavy, nonstop rainfall since the wee hours of the morning. Bundling up in a sweater, scarf, gloves and a soft hat. Closing up all of the doors and windows, leaving just one open enough to hear the rain travel through the trees and gently hit the ground. Little Eleanor stomping around in her rain boots. And, a sweet maple-cinnamony smell of a small batch of our lunch treats coming from the oven.

Like I said, bliss.

Maple-Cornmeal Drop Biscuits with Candied Bacon

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 tablespoon cinnamon

6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into cubes

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup maple syrup

5 pieces of candied bacon (recipe here!)

Preheat oven to 425F. 

In a large bowl, mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt and cinnamon. Add your cold, cubed butter to the flour mixture. With your fingertips, work the butter into the flour mixture until it has a pebbly-meal resemblance. In a small bowl, stir milk and maple syrup together. Add this to your dry mixture along with your candied bacon and mix with a fork, stirring it just until combined and is a soft dough. Drop tablespoon size dough balls onto your lined baking sheet, and bake for 12-15 minutes. Feel free to sprinkle the tops of your biscuits with a little brown sugar or cinnamon, if you like sweet!

Serve warm and with a heap of butter. :)

Note: you do not have to add bacon, the biscuits taste wonderful on their own. I just have a little munchkin with me today that LOVES her bacon.

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a cupcake to Us.

"Finding our true self is the true journey of life". 

I read this quote awhile back and it had left me with lingering thoughts. For many months, actually. What does that mean? What does "finding yourself" mean? Are you saying that my journey in life is to "find myself"? But, how do you know when you have found "yourself"? Is "yourself" only one thing? 

Well, if you are me (a total thinker; kind of a nut-case in the head), you went on a total mission to figure this out. I picked at my life all year. Every up. Every down. Every unexpected occurrence. What do they all mean? Are they signs? Wait a second, why is this not working? I was sure I "found myself", so why is it going awry? Oh, this is panning out to be much better than I thought, maybe this is the direction I should be going in life? I am going to be 25 in a couple weeks and I haven't FOUND MYSELF?!... Total nut-case.

Well, my head started to hurt and I started to stress myself out (weird). I felt like I was throwing my own self off my "right path", which is a whole other question in itself; How do you know you are headed down the "right path"? Which one is the "right path"? I won't even get started because I probably won't end.

To say the least, I became exhausted and was ready to throw in the towel. "I will never find myself".

Then, I did. I threw in the damn towel.

Trying to "find myself" became more and more exhausting, and I realized I was missing out on my life stressing on trying to figure myself out. I'd rather be "lost" than miss out on my life. 

Here comes that thinker part of me I mentioned earlier... I tried to put those thoughts away, but I never really fulllly stopped thinking about it. Then, there was a thought that I couldn't let go of. It was probably the smartest thought I have ever thought. (ha!)

And life has been different ever since.

Life isn't about finding yourself. (How the heck do you even know what you are looking for?) A lot of people believe that they have been created with certain attributes that determine who they are as a person, or what they are supposed to be. Some allow other people to define their perception on what they can and cannot do. They allow the things they have accomplished or have not accomplished to pave the way of what they are capable of. Some people feel they have no control over who they become, that they were meant to be something and they needed to find that. I was that person once, but not anymore.

Life to me is about creating myself. I realized that I, myself, have the ability to shape or craft who I am and what I experience. I get to choose how to act on my own desires and interests and how I want to go about them. I can decide what I want to believe in, what I want to do and what I will do. And, how I will absorb those things around me. I have the ability/control/strength to create my very. own. self.  (Sounds a hell of a lot easier than looking for it; I am no good with hide-and-seek.)

Anyway, since I have stopped searching and started creating, life has been at it's best. There is no pressure. I am having fun. I am healthy. I am at ease. I am enjoying the things I like, just to enjoy them; And finding things that I never knew I would like before, I like; Things of every different nature. I am happy.

For someone who is turning 25 very soon, to feel/be happy with myself, I feel pretty damn accomplished so far.

So here, a cheers. A cupcake cheers to me. to you. To whoever we want to be.

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Cinnamon Frosting

Cupcakes

1 1/4 cup 100% whole grain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup unsulfured molasses
1/4 cup almond milk
1 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
2 tablespoons greek yogurt
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350F. Line your cupcake pan with liners.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, cream  coconut oil, molasses, milk, maple syrup, ginger, yogurt and lemon juice until fully combined. SLowly add your dry mix to the wet mixture until fully combined. Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full, and bake for 20 minutes.

Allow to cool before frosting.

Cinnamon frosting

1 cup vegan margarine or shortening , room temperature

4 cups confectioners' sugar

3 tablespoons milk (I used almond for a sweeter taste)

1 teaspoon maple syrup

1 teaspoon cinnamon

In a large bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Add your confectioners' sugar 1/2 cup at a time, until full combined. Add your milk 1 tablespoon at a time until you receive the thickness you would like (I used it all). Then mix in your maple syrup and cinnamon until full combined. Store in refrigerator for about 30 minutes to harden before frosting cupcakes. Frost cupcakes when they are cool.

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