Maple Bacon Cookies

I get that it’s an odd combination but let’s be honest, everything is better with bacon.

These are surprisingly amazing and have that whole sweet and salty thing going on. They taste like breakfast in cookie form. DELISH.

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 1/2 sticks of butter (1 1/4 cups) at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups light brown sugar
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup of bacon, broken into small pieces (save the 1/4 cup for garnish)
• Maple Syrup (for icing)
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar (for icing)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon (for icing)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.
3. In a mixer, cream together butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla.
4. Slowly mix in flour mixture into the mixer.
5. Mix until fully incorporated.
6. Fold in a cup of the bacon pieces.
7. Spoon dough out on baking sheets (I did about 2 tablespoons for each cookie)
8. Bake for 7 minutes
9. Let cook completely
10. For icing: Mix together powered sugar, maple syrup and cinnamon until you get a consistency that you can drizzle on top of cookies
11. Put about a teaspoon on each cookie and then garnish with remaining bacon bits
12. Let the icing set for about 10 minutes
13. DEVOUR.

Greek Yogurt Pumpkin Cake

Greek yogurt is SO in right now.  It’s a great healthy replacement for butter in cake recipes and actually makes the cake very moist.

This recipe is delicious,  low-fat and super easy to make.

Ingredients:

For Cake:

• 1 15 ounce can of pumpkin purée
• 1 cup low-fat greek yogurt
• 4 egg whites
• 1 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

For Icing:

• 6 ounces low-fat cream cheese (at room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans

Directions:

For Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 9 by 11 glass baking dish.
2. Mix together pumpkin, yogurt, egg whites, sugar and vanilla.
3. Add in the baking powder, baking soda, flour salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Mix well at a low speed.
4. Pour batter into the baking dish and bake for 25-30 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean from the center)
5. Let cool completely before icing the cake

For Icing:

1. Cream together the cream cheese and vanilla with a mixer
2. Slowly add in the powdered sugar
3. Spread mixture evenly over the cake
4. Top with the pecans

Apple Crisp

This is a great recipe to have on hand because it can really be used for any type of fruit crisp.  I generally make fruit crisps when I have a lot of one type of fruit left over and need to use them before they start to go bad.  It’s a great dessert in the fall and kinda just warms the soul, ya know?

Ingredients:

• 5 cups sliced, peeled cooking apples (pears, peaches, or apricots also work)
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F
2. Mix together fruit and sugar in a large bowl.  Transfer to a 2 quart square baking dish.
3. In another bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, flour, nutmeg and cinnamon.  Add in the butter in small chunks.  Mix together until it resemble coarse crumbs.  Stir in the pecans.
4. Sprinkle topping over the fruit.
5. Bake for 30 minutes.
6. Let cool for 20 minutes. Top with ice cream and serve 🙂

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Apple Crumb Cake

Who doesn’t love Cinnamon Toast Crunch? Seriously, if you don’t like it please leave my blog immediately and never come back.

This past weekend I went apple picking at Wilkens Farm right outside of NYC (see this post to read more about it) and came home with 10 pounds of apples. I’ve wanted to bake something with Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal for a while and this seemed like a great combination.

This is an adaptation of a recipe on Food Network and it.is.amazing. The cake is really moist and the cereal compliments the apple in the cake perfectly. Enjoy 🙂

Ingredients:

Cake:

• 1 stick plus 1 tablespoon butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups peeled and chopped apples

Crumble Topping:

• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup crushed Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal
• 1/4 cup flour
• 4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

Glaze:

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Grease a 13×9 inch glass baking pan with 1 tablespoon of butter
3. With a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar. Add in each egg slowly. Add in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.  Mix well.
4. Add in the sour cream and vanilla. Mix.  Slowly add in the apples with the mixer at a low-speed.
5. Pour into the baking dish.
6. To make the crumble: Combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon, butter and half of the cereal in a small bowl. Mix until it resembles coarse crumbs.  Spread evenly over the cake batter in the baking dish.  Sprinkle the rest of the cereal over the top.
7. Bake for 35 minutes.
8. For the glaze: Combine sugar, vanilla and warm water in a bowl.  Mix until smooth.  Drizzle over cake.
9. Let cool for at least 40 minutes.
10. ENJOY!

Holiday Spiced Pecans

Okay, I suck.  I know I’ve been so bad about posting lately but I swear I’m back for good now.  I have so many new posts coming up with all the Thanksgiving and Christmas goodies I’ve been whipping up so please let me back into your good graces..I promise you won’t regret it. Okay, this is getting weird so let’s talk Holiday Spiced Pecans.

I had a ton of pecans left over from Thanksgiving (thank you Costco) but they kinda suck plain so I made this spice mixture and baked them to snack on!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups pecan halves
• 4 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 4 teaspoons water
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350F
2. In a medium saucepan, warm the vegetable oil over medium heat
3. Add in the brown sugar, water, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.  Stir until sugar dissolves and it begins to bubble
4. Add in the pecans, stir until they’re fully coated by the sugar mixture
5. Transfer pecans to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and spread evenly
6. Sprinkle with the sea salt
7. Bake for 8 minutes
8. Let cool for 10 minutes