S’mores Cookies

s'mores cookies with marshmallows and chocolate chips

The original concept for these s’mores cookies was something Chef Baby came up with called “vanilla explosion cookies”, which involved lots of vanilla extract plus vanilla chips. But then I told him vanilla chips do not exist (although white chocolate chips are kind of like vanilla chips, but white chocolate chips are terrible in my…

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Kabocha Squash Pie

kabocha squash pie with nut crust

Kabocha squash pie is incredibly better than any other kind of pumpkin pie, because the kabocha pumpkin is naturally denser and sweeter than even a sugar pie pumpkin. And fortunately for everyone, kabocha squash (aka Japanese pumpkin) are getting to be pretty easy to find in these modern days. They can look a little funky…

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Sweet Peach Cornbread Cake

Sweet peach cornbread cake. For lovers of cake and lovers of sweet cornbread, this cornbread cake is a hit

This sweet peach cornbread cake recipe started out as a peach upside down cake recipe but as I was eating that cake, it occurred to me that a sweet cornbread cake was something I had never had and wanted to try very badly. So before my first cake had even cooled, I was on to…

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Salty Cashew-Coconut Cookies

I wanted a cookie that reminded me of a PayDay bar because those are one of the best candy bars ever invented. And in fact you could probably use roasted salted peanuts here in this recipe just fine but I haven’t tried it because I’m a FANCY GIRL NOW and my peanuts are cashews. (Actually,…

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Fresh Cranberry Cookies

Fresh cranberry cookies with oats, pecans, chocolate chips and fresh cranberries kind of remind me of the best muesli cereal, but in a cookie form

I made this recipe up to use some leftover fresh cranberries after baking some cranberry nut bread. A total experiment, I was kind of expecting these to be . . . not very good? For some reason, although fresh cranberries work great in bread, I wasn’t sure they’d work in cookies. But with the combination…

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Cardamom and Persimmon Cobbler

Persimmon cobbler with fresh ground cardamom is a perfect fall dessert. Use Fuyu persimmons in this recipe

Y’all, this is my new favorite dessert. I love cardamom — peppery, citrusy, bergamoty — and Fuyu persimmons — floral and sweet and crisp — and together they have made the most wonderful prize: cardamom persimmon cobbler. I started with my mom’s peach cobbler recipe and made it a little fancy. Upped the fruit content,…

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Witch Finger Cookies

Don’t finger my cookies! J/K you can finger em all you want to. These witch finger cookies are perfect if you like cookies you can manhandle a little bit and not worry about them getting over-mixed. They are also perfect for Halloween, duh. And these witch fingers have a secret surprise inside to make them…

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Healthyish German Chocolate Truffles

Healthy-ish no-cook German Chocolate Truffles are sweetened with only maple syrup and are full of good coconut oil, pecans and cocoa powder

Sweetened with just maple syrup and full of good fats from coconut and pecans, these no-cook German chocolate truffles hit all the spots! And guess what: if you use almonds instead of pecans they become Almond Joy truffles in a cinch. I’m really not sure what else I need to say about these. You’re probably…

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Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

strawberry cupcakes

The best part about making these strawberry cupcakes is how the smell of strawberries fills the kitchen when you’re making the strawberry puree. When I was a kid, we’d visit my great-granny every summer in east Tennessee. Most of the time her trailer smelled like Ivory bath soap, with a soft undercurrent of mildewed plastic.…

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