Honey-Walnut Bread with Dates and Raisins and Giveaway Winner

I love this quick bread - it tastes absolutely perfect for fall with honey, warm spices, walnuts, and dried fruits.  It will make your kitchen smell so good!  The bread is moist and tender - I think using cake flour really helps with this, although it would probably also be great with all-purpose flour if that's all you have.  The one issue I had with the bread was that all the dried fruit sank to the bottom!  Although it still tasted great, it wasn't quite as attractive - next time I'd toss the fruit with a bit of flour before adding it to the batter, which I think would help with this problem.

I'm also excited to announce that the winner of my Eat Your Books giveaway is Sara of noodle of the day.

In other giveaway news, I wanted to give a huge shout-out to Marla of Family Fresh Cooking - I won an Amazon gift certificate on her blog and my two shiny new cookbooks just arrived! I picked out Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day and Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch.  They have both been giving me a ton of new recipe ideas, so you can expect to see them popping up here in the future!  Thanks, Marla!

Honey-Walnut Bread with Dates and Raisins (adapted from The Shiksa Blog, original recipe here)
Makes 1 loaf cake

1/2 cup whole dates (about 4 large dates)
1/2 cup raisins
Boiling water
1 cup cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
Generous pinch freshly grated nutmeg
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with oil.
2. Place the dates and raisins in a bowl and pour the boiling water over.  Set aside while preparing the cake.
3. Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg in a small bowl.  Set aside.
4. Whisk together the oil, brown sugar, honey, eggs and vanilla in a medium bowl until completely combined.
5. Drain the dates and raisins.  Pit and coarsely chop the dates.
6. Add the raisins, chopped dates, and walnuts to the flour mixture and toss.  Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and gently fold together with a rubber spatula until just combined.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, place on a larger baking sheet, and then pop in the oven.  Bake for about 60 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Exchange sponsored by Spice Islands.”

Birthday Earl Grey Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream

This year for my birthday Tim made me delicious birthday cupcakes flavored with Earl Grey tea.  The cakes were really yummy with a fluffy texture and a subtle Earl Grey flavor.  If you are a big tea fan, you could probably get away with adding more tea (maybe one or two extra tea bags), although the cupcakes were excellent as is.  The tea really made the cupcakes pretty as they ended up flecked all throughout - almost looked like poppyseed cakes!  The lemon frosting paired perfectly with the cupcakes, adding a sweet-tart element.  The lemon flavor was definitely stronger than the tea flavor though, so keep that in mind when deciding how much tea to add to the cupcakes.  I love lemon and tea flavors together, and so these cupcakes were perfect for me!  Thank you, Tim!

Don't forget - today is the last day to enter my giveaway for a lifetime membership to Eat Your Books!  You have until midnight Pacific time to get your entries in!

Birthday Earl Grey Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream (adapted from Desert Candy, original recipe here)
Makes 2 dozen cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups self-rising flour
2 bags (2 T) earl grey tea (removed from tea bags)
1 cup milk

For the frosting:
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
4 cups (1 pound) powdered sugar, sifted
Zest of 1 lemon
3 T lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to 350 and fill two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners.
2. Beat the butter until creamy.  Add the sugar and cream with the butter until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each.
3. Beat in half the flour along with the tea leaves.  Beat in the milk, and then the flour, stirring until just combined.
4. Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full.  Bake 20-25 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
5. Cool the cupcakes completely, and then make the frosting. Beat all the frosting ingredients together until smooth.  Frost the cupcakes and top with a candle!

Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls with Almonds and Maple Glaze

When I saw these cinnamon rolls in a recent issue of Vegetarian Times, I knew I had to make them.  They sounded absolutely perfect for fall, full of spices and sweet potato. Although you can make these all in one day if you like, I adapted the recipe to be spread out over two - make the dough and assemble the rolls the night before, and then bake in the morning.  At least for me, I would not want to get up early enough to have these ready in time for breakfast otherwise!  This approach worked out perfectly so that I could just get up a little bit before we wanted to eat.

The cinnamon rolls themselves were fantastic.  The sweet potato gave the dough a lovely orange color and an amazingly tender texture.  The dough itself isn't overly sweet, so it pairs well with the sweet cream cheese glaze.  You can really use any nut you like here (or none at all) - the original recipe called for pecans, but they were $14/pound at the store while almonds were $4/pound!  What gives - is there a pecan shortage or something? I don't recall them being so much more expensive, but maybe I'm just unobservant! In any case, almonds worked well as a pecan substitute to add a little crunch to the cinnamon rolls.  If you don't have a big enough crowd to finish this pan in one sitting, these rolls do actually keep really well - just cover and refrigerate, and reheat for about 30 seconds in the microwave.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a lifetime membership to Eat Your Books!

Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls with Almonds and Maple Glaze (adapted from Vegetarian Times)
Makes 12 cinnamon rolls

For the dough:
2-1/4 tsp active dry yeast
2/3 cup warm water, divided
Pinch granulated sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
2 T brown sugar (packed)
1-1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup mashed cooked sweet potatoes
2 T vegetable oil

For the filling:
1/3 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom
3 T softened butter, divided
1/2 cup slivered almonds

For the glaze:
3 T cream cheese (low-fat is ok)
1 cup powdered sugar
Pinch salt
1 tsp maple syrup
1/4 cup slivered almonds

1. Make the dough.  Stir the yeast into 1/3 cup of the warm water, and sprinkle with a pinch of sugar.  Let stand 10 minutes, until the yeast blooms.
2. Whisk together the flours, sugar, and salt.  Set aside.
3. Stir the remaining 1/3 cup warm water, the sweet potato, and the oil into the yeast mixture.
4. Stir the wet mixture into the flour mixture.  Knead the dough until soft and elastic, adding more flour or water if needed.  Place the dough in an oil bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled (about 1 hour).
5. Make the filling.  Stir together the sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, and 2 T of the butter.  Grease a 9x13 baking dish with the remaining 1 T butter.
6. Punch down the dough and roll it out into an approximately 14x12 rectangle.  Spread with the spiced butter mixture.  Sprinkle with the almonds.
7. Starting at the long edge, roll up the dough.  Slice a bit off each end and discard since these won't be the right size/have the full amount of filling.  Using a serrated knife, gently slice the rest of the log into twelve equal pieces (it's easiest to start cutting in the middle, then cut each piece in half again, and finally cut each quarter into thirds). 
8. Arrange the cinnamon rolls in the greased baking dish, slightly touching.  Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and place in the fridge overnight.
9. In the morning, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Pull the cinnamon rolls out of the fridge and allow to sit until they come to room temperature and are slightly puffy.  Bake 18 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.
10. Make the glaze:  Stir together the cream cheese and the powdered sugar.  Stir in the salt and maple syrup.
11. Drizzle the glaze over the cinnamon rolls while they are still warm and spread to coat.  Sprinkle with the almonds, and serve warm.

Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by Red Star Yeast.  I'm also sending this post off to These Chicks Cooked.

Pineapple-Goat Cheese-Prosciutto Galette

I like this tart because it has many of the same flavors of one of my favorite kinds of pizza - pepperoni and pineapple.  Those flavors are classed up quite a bit here, with fresh pineapple, prosciutto, fresh tomatoes, and goat cheese.  The toppings cover a crunchy polenta crust that's a breeze to pull together by hand - no food processor needed.  I actually found the crust a little too crunchy for my taste, so I would probably use half polenta and half cornmeal next time I make it.  Either way, it's a fantastic base for the salty, creamy, tart, and sweet fillings on top!  If you end up with an extra slice, the tart does keep pretty well in the fridge and is good cold the next morning for breakfast - just like the pizza that inspired it!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a lifetime membership to Eat Your Books!

Pineapple-Goat Cheese-Prosciutto Galette (adapted from Fuss Free Cooking, original recipe here)
Serves 1-2


For the crust:
2.5 ounces white flour
2.5 ounces polenta or cornmeal
Generous pinch of salt
2.5 ounces cold butter
Cold water

For the filling:
Olive oil

2 ounces goat cheese
1/3 cup thinly sliced pineapple
1 small tomato, seeded and sliced
A few thin slices of prosciutto, torn into small pieces
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Make the crust.  Whisk together the flour, polenta or cornmeal, and salt.  Cut in the butter until only small lumps remain.  Drizzle in about 2 T water and stir together with a fork.  Add more water as needed until the dough just holds together.  Wrap in plastic and chill at least 1 hour.
2. When ready to make the galette, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with foil.
3. Roll out the crust on a floured surface until it's as thin as you like (remember the edges will be folded over, so you want it fairly thin).  Transfer to the foil-lined baking sheet.
4. Brush the crust with olive oil.  Dot with the goat cheese, and then arrange the pineapple, tomato, and prosciutto over the cheese.  Fold the edges of the crust over to slightly cover the filling.  Grind black pepper over top.
5. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.  Remove from the oven and let rest for about 5 minutes before serving.

Get Well Soon Chicken Soup

My boyfriend got struck by a stomach bug last weekend, so I decided to cook up some comforting chicken soup.  This recipe is uncomplicated and easy to put together - just chop up some veggies and add in a shredded rotisserie chicken and some chicken broth.  It's way more delicious than canned soup, plus you can turn the chicken carcass into homemade chicken broth along with some vegetable trimmings if you like (just break up the picked-over chicken, add some chopped up veggies/veggie trimmings, and cover with water; simmer for a few hours, and then strain through a double layer of cheesecloth).  You could add some fresh herbs or spices or some rice or pasta to this soup if you like, but I wanted to keep it as basic as possible to be easy on the stomach.  Either way, this soup is the perfect way to warm up and get you feeling better in a hurry. I think it's especially good with a gooey grilled cheese on the side!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a lifetime membership to Eat Your Books!

Get Well Soon Chicken Soup
Makes about 6 servings 

Vegetable oil
1/4 large onion, finely chopped
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 fennel bulb, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and diced
32 ounces chicken broth
1 rotisserie chicken, meat picked off the bones and shredded or chopped
Salt and pepper

1. Heat a few glugs of oil in a large soup pot over medium heat.  Add the onion and stir for a few minutes with a heat-proof rubber spatula.  Add the garlic, fennel, and carrots, and continue to stir over medium heat until the vegetables are slightly softened and translucent but not browned.
2. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil.  Add the chicken meat.  Reduce heat to a simmer, adding more water or broth if needed to make the soup as broth-y as you like.
3. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, so that the veggies get soft and the flavors combine.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Keeps in the fridge for a few days, and also freezes well.

Blogiversary, Eat Your Books Giveaway, and Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today is the fourth anniversary of this blog, and what a great four years it has been! I've loved sharing my favorite recipes and tips with all of you and being part of a fun and supportive online community of food lovers.  To celebrate, Eat Your Books has offered up a fantastic prize for one of my readers: a lifetime membership to their website!  Eat Your Books is a site I discovered just recently, through a recommendation on Baking Bites, and I have been loving it.  Here's the idea: you enter in all your cookbooks, and then you can easily search them by keyword, ingredient, course, occasion, and more - basically a giant search engine for all the recipes in all the cookbooks you own!  This is great for me since I own a ton of cookbooks but often don't make as good use of them as I could because it's too time-consuming to find a particular sort of recipe.  Unless I'm in the mood to browse or know the specific recipe I want, I often abandon my cookbooks in favor of the much-easier-to-search online approach.  While I love finding and preparing recipes I find on blogs and other sites online, I'm also loving this option to more easily find cookbook recipes and give some attention to my often-neglected cookbook collection. 

These orange chocolate chip cookies are a great example of how useful Eat Your Books is.  The recipe comes from a vegetable-focused cookbook, so not somewhere I would usually turn to for dessert recipes.  But they were really delicious and I was so glad to find the recipe! 

A few weeks ago I was in charge of baking treats for a dessert reception at my church, and I wanted to make some version of chocolate chip cookies since that's always a popular choice. But I didn't want to make the same old recipe from the back of the Tollhouse chocolate chip bag - I wanted something a little different.  This recipe is subtly flavored with orange zest, which creates a lovely aroma and a fun twist on the usual chocolate chip cookie.  The cookies are soft and packed full of chocolate chips, making them a definite crowd-pleaser.

Now, on to the giveaway!  Eat Your Books is giving away a lifetime membership to their site - that means you can enter as many cookbooks as you want, and you'll have access to all of their search functions.  (Even if you don't win, I definitely recommend checking out the site - the monthly fee is very reasonable, just $2.50 a month - totally worth it!)  Here's how you can enter:

For the main entry (you must do this), leave a comment telling me about a favorite recipe you've made from a cookbook recently.

For additional optional entries (please leave a separate comment for each entry), you can do any or all of the following:
1. Follow @EatYourBooks on twitter and tweet this giveaway.  Here's a sample tweet:  Win a lifetime membership to Eat Your Books at Cupcake Muffin!  @EatYourBooks http://bit.ly/oMsIGw
2. "Like" Eat Your Books on Facebook.
3. Subscribe to the RSS feed for this site (link at the bottom of the right-hand sidebar).
4. Make any recipe from this site and either post about it on your blog or tell me about it in the comments.
5. Post about this giveaway on your blog.
6. Post about this giveaway on Google+.

Anyone can enter, and you have until November 1 to do it.  Be sure to leave a way to contact you (either an email address or your blog/website address.)  I'll draw a random winner at the end of the day on November 1, and the winner will have two days to respond or a new winner will be chosen.  Best of luck, and now here's the cookie recipe!

Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from Mollie Katzen's Vegetable Heaven)
Makes about 40 cookies

2 sticks butter, softened
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
Finely grated zest from one medium orange
1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Beat together the butter and both sugars until creamy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in the vanilla and orange zest.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.  Add to the butter mixture and stir until just combined.  Stir in the chocolate chips.
3. Cover tightly and chill overnight.
4. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment or foil.
5. Drop the dough by tablespoon-fuls onto the baking sheets.  Bake about 12 minutes, until the bottoms of the cookies are lightly browned, rotating pans halfway through.  Cool on a rack.

Full disclosure: Eat Your Books is providing the lifetime membership for this giveaway, and is also providing me with a lifetime membership for linking to their widget in my sidebar.  However, I discovered this site and signed up for it independently before either of these offers.  I contacted Eat Your Books about offering a prize for my readers and they were generous enough to offer one, but the recommendation of the site is 100% my own and is based on my experiences using it.

I'm sending this post off to the These Chicks Cooked Link Party. 

Spiced Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Cherries and Apricots

I made these cookies for a recent dessert reception at my church, and I totally fell in love with them.  In fact, they may have been my favorite of the three types of cookies I made, even though the other two varieties included chocolate!  These cookies are moist, chewy, and super spicy from cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom.  Dried cherries and dried apricots add fantastic tart bursts of flavor throughout the cookies.  This is also a great recipe to make for a large gathering, since it makes about a zillion cookies.  You could also make larger cookies for a smaller yield, or make a half recipe if you're just cooking for a smaller group.

Spiced Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Cherries and Apricots (adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking)
Makes 5 to 6 dozen small cookies

1-1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
2 sticks softened butter
1-1/4 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2-3/4 cups quick oats (not instant oats)
6 ounces dried cherries
3 ounces dried apricots, diced

1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom and set aside.
2. Beat together the butter and sugars until smooth and creamy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.  Add the vanilla and beat to incorporate.
3. Add the flour mixture and stir in with a rubber spatula until the flour is mixed in enough not to fly out of the mixer.  Then beat until just incorporated.  Add the oats and beat until just combined.  Stir in the cherries and apricots with a rubber spatula.
4. Cover the bowl and chill at least 6 hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line two baking sheets with foil or parchment.
6.  Scoop out about 1 tablespoon of dough per cookie, and gently roll into a ball with your palms.  Bake 10-12 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until the cookies just begin to brown.
7. Cool the cookies on a wire rack.