Cooking for Seven

Sometimes I just want to bake something simple yet flavorful; sometimes I need to bake something that doesn’t require exotic ingredients. Like this bread.

You are almost certain to have everything needed for this recipe in your house right now. And if you don’t have exactly the right ingredients (as I did not) you can safely and easily make a substitution.

This bread tastes like a mixture of a quick bread and cinnamon swirl bread. Because it is impractical to swirl cinnamon in a wet batter, bits of butter are mixed with cinnamon and folded into the batter. This creates little pockets of buttery cinnamon goodness.

Notes:

Going with my usual substitutions, I used half whole wheat flour in place of all purpose. Also, since I didn’t have any “solid” natural sweeteners on hand, I used maple syrup and added an additional 1/4 cup of flour to compensate.

Having no buttermilk in the house, I used 3/4 cup sour cream mixed with 1/4 cup milk instead.

I thought the bread was a little salty. Next time I will probably reduce the salt to 1/2 teaspoon. I also think the bread could benefit from a dose of nuts — say, toasted pecans.

Cinnamon Bread

Adapted from eat make read

Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour (hard white or soft white)
• 1 cup pure maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk (I used 3/4 cup sour cream mixed with 1/4 cup milk)
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) melted butter
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 Tablespoons butter, chilled & cut into small pieces
• 1 Tablespoon cinnamon

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour a 9×5 loaf pan and set aside.

2) In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, and salt. In a separate medium bowl, combine buttermilk, butter, eggs, maple syrup, and vanilla. Beat well. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

3) In yet another small bowl, work butter and cinnamon into pea-sized pieces. Gently fold cinnamon butter into the batter. Pour into prepared loaf pan.

4) Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (I had to bake mine for an additional 10 minutes or so). Let cool in pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Turn bread out onto the rack and allow to cool. Serve with butter and a tall glass of cold milk.

Makes one large loaf

…a very Merry Christmas!

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

1 John 4: 9-11

Here’s what we’re serving this evening:

Molasses Spice Cookies

Homemade Lefse

What are ya’ll fixing/eating this weekend?

Chai Tea meets Gingerbread in these scrumptious, soft, spicy bars. Find the recipe and my step-by-step instructions on the Tasty Kitchen blog.

A few weeks ago Tate’s Bake Shop asked me if I was interested in tasting a few of their cookies. Um, yes. Who in their right mind would refuse cookies?

Overall I was quite impressed with the quality of their products. Let me share with you what I found:

Packaging:

The cookies arrived in this lovely box.

Inside are three beautiful boxes of cookies: Macadamia Nut, Oatmeal Raisin, and Chocolate Chip. I love how festive the packaging is.

Inside each box are two sealed packages of cookies. Which brings me to my only quibble with the packaging: there were at least one broken cookie in each top package. However, the taste completely makes up for this:

Taste/Texture

I must admit that I generally avoid pre-packaged cookies. These are an exception to that rule. There was no strange, chemically taste as there usually is in “store-bought” cookies.

I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed all the flavors of cookies, even though I usually steer clear of oatmeal raisin. The macadamia nut were perhaps a bit sweet for my taste, but they had a lovely flavor. And the chocolate chip faintly reminded me of cookies my grandma makes.

The list of ingredients is also impressive. No weird ingredients that I wouldn’t add to a batch of my homemade cookies.

The texture of all the cookies is crispy. I enjoy both chewy and crisp cookies, so if you’re a chewy fan, keep this in mind.

I also had the privilege of testing out the Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook.

There are some really fun recipes that I’d like to try.

There’s a pretty photo section.

And a section on healthy alternatives!

I have generously been allowed to share a recipe from Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook with ya’ll! I baked these chocolate biscotti as written in the recipe. Another time I would add a pinch of salt and a splash of vanilla. But they were overall very easy and had a good texture. They have a not-too-sweet, grownup flavor. My little brother really enjoyed them.

Chocolate Biscotti

From Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook

Printable Page

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup salted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1/3 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-processes cocoa powder
• 2 large eggs
• 1 3/4cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup chopped milk chocolate
• 3/4 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate (I used all bittersweet)
• 1/2 cup almonds, chopped small, blanched or unblanched

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease two cookie sheets or line them with Silpat.

2) In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars till the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the cocoa powder and beat it in for 2 more minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition

3) Stir in the flour and baking powder until they are just combined. Stir in the chocolates and almonds. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.

4) Divide the dough into two equal parts and roll each piece into a 10-inch log. Place the logs on the prepared cookie sheets and flatten them to 1-inch thick by pressing them gently with your fingertips.

5) Bake them for 25 minutes. Then cool them for one hour on the cookie sheet.

6) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Cut each log into 1/2-inch-wide diagonal slices. Place the slices on an ungreased cookie sheet, cut side up, and bake them for 10  minutes. Turn the cookies over and bake them for another 10 minutes. Cool them on the cookie sheets.

Makes approximately 40 biscotti

And now for the giveaway!

The folks at Tate’s Bake Shop are allowing me to host a giveaway!

You’ll have the chance to win the delicious package of cookies pictured above, plus the Tate’s Bake Shop Cookbook.

Here’s how you can enter to win:

• [Mandatory] Leave a comment on this post, telling me about your favorite kind of cookie.
• For extra entries, become a fan of Tate’s on Facebook. Come back and leave a separate comment saying you became a fan.
• For more entries, tweet, blog, or post on Facebook about this giveaway. Make sure to leave a separate comment for each extra entry.
• For more entries, subscribe to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, or become a fan on Facebook. Make sure to leave a separate comment for each extra entry.

Rules:

Only U.S. residents are allowed to enter.

Giveaway ends Friday, December 17, at 11:00 p.m. Central Time. No comments will be considered after that time.

I will select one (1) winner using random.org.

Good luck!

Even if you are not so fortune as to win this giveaway, you can still purchase some cookies of your own at a 15 % discount by using coupon code cookie valid through December 31st. They would make a lovely Christmas present for a foodie friend, or anyone who enjoys cookies!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. No further comments will be considered.

Every year on Thanksgiving Eve we have a little get-together to eat pie. I know, it seems like overkill to eat pie two nights in a row. But we love pie and can’t seem to get enough of it.

Here are a few of my favorites:

Banana Cream Pie. No recipe, just step-by-step photos. Here’s a recipe that’s similar.

Blueberry Pie. Shared by my sister. I took this photo way back in 2007.

Winter Squash Pie with whole wheat crust.

Some scrumptious pies from other bloggers:

:: Georgie Peach Pie via honey & jam ::

:: Mini Pumpkin Pies via A Food Lover’s Journey ::

:: Lemon Meringue Pie via bron marshall ::

:: Pear, Honey and Ginger Slab Pie via Shoots and Roots ::

Have a blessed Thanksgiving, and make sure to eat plenty of pie!