Pumpkin Spice Pull-Apart Bread

Shortly after I became tragically addicted to Pinterest, I discovered and made what was to become one of my favorite recipes of all time: Lemon pull-apart bread. To. Die. For. Imagine how thrilled I was when fall rolled around and I started seeing a pumpkin version cropping up.

Since I'm training for that 5k I'm trying to be good and cut back on sweets, but as Saturday was my 30th birthday I needed to have something special for my birthday breakfast, right? The basic steps of the recipe are the same as the lemon bread with the major change being the addition of pumpkin to the dough and the use of browned butter in place of plain old butter. The filling is perfect for the season with a little nutmeg mixed in with the cinnamon, sugar, and browned butter. Now, for the topping I decided to change things up from the original recipe, which called for a butter rum glaze. As I'm not a huge fan of rum and I've been craving cinnamon rolls lately I instead went with the maple glaze from The Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls. In keeping with the browned butter theme I went ahead and browned the butter for that as well, which gave the topping a stronger flavor. I think I'll also use that trick from now on whenever I make those cinnamon rolls.


Now it's time for me to confess where I messed this up. In an effort to do as much the night before and have less to do the day of my birthday I sliced the dough, layered it, and put it in the pan overnight. All this to save a measly 30-40 minutes. The dough continued to rise nicely in the fridge but the problem was that the butter and sugar ran to the bottom of the pan and formed a syrup. As a result, my layers didn't stick together as well as they should have and I'm sure the loaf wasn't as ooey gooey as it would have been otherwise. Oh well. It still tasted delicious and the combination of flavors was there, not to mention that there was plenty of added moisture from the glaze. It was a great fix for that pumpkin craving I always get this time of year. Just like the lemon pull-apart bread, this stuff didn't last long in our house.

Pumpkin Spice Pull-Apart Bread
Recipe adapted from Willow Bird Baking

Pumpkin Pull-Apart Bread Ingredients:
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups bread flour

Filling Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Maple Browned Butter Glaze Ingredients:
Recipe adapted from The Pioneer Woman
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup powdered sugar (plus more if necessary)
1/2 teaspoon maple flavor
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 tablespoons brewed coffee

Directions:
Make the pull-apart bread dough: Grease and flour a loaf pan and set aside. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, brown the 2 tablespoons of butter. Let it bubble and foam and when you see it start to brown, stir it so that it browns evenly. When it’s the color of dark honey, remove it from the heat and pour it into a large heat-safe mixer bowl to cool. In the same saucepan over medium-low heat, warm the milk until it bubbles. Remove it from the heat and pour it into the bowl with the butter. Let these cool until they’re about 100-110 degrees F (use a candy thermometer to check).

Stir the sugar and yeast into the milk/butter mixture and let it sit for a few minutes. Stir in pumpkin, salt, and 1 cup flour. If you haven’t already, fit your mixer with a dough hook. Add the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time, stirring between each addition. When the dough is combined, knead on low speed with a dough hook until smooth and elastic (about 4 minutes with a mixer).

Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover it with a damp cloth. Let it rise in a warm place for about an hour until it doubles in size (After it rises, you can put it in the fridge overnight to use it in the morning, but let it sit out for half an hour before rolling if you do.)

Make the filling: While the dough is rising, whisk the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a small bowl. Toward the end of the rising time, melt the 2 tablespoons of butter for the filling in the saucepan over medium-high heat and brown it as directed above. Put it in a small heat-safe bowl to cool for use later.

Shape and bake pull-apart bread: Knead a sprinkling of flour (about 1 tablespoon) into the dough, deflating it, and recover it. Let it sit to relax for 5 minutes. Flour a large work surface and turn your rested dough out onto it. Roll it out to a 20 inch long and 12 inch wide rectangle, lifting corners periodically to make sure it’s not sticking. If it seems to be snapping back, cover it with your damp towel and let it rest for 5 minutes before continuing (I had to do this twice during the process).

Spread the browned butter over the surface of the dough with a pastry brush and then sprinkle the sugar mixture over the top, patting it down to ensure it mostly sticks. Joy the Baker encourages you to use it all even though it seems like a ton, but I admit I got squeamish at the amount and only used most. It was fine despite my nerves. Go ahead and pile it on.

With the long edge of the rectangle toward you, cut it into 6 strips (do this by cutting the rectangle in half, then cutting each half into equal thirds. I used a pizza cutter). Stack these strips on top of one another and cut the resulting stack into 6 even portions (again, cut it in half, and then cut the halves into equal thirds). Place these portions one at a time into your greased loaf pan, pressing them up against each other to fit them all in. Cover the pan with your damp cloth and place it in a warm place for 30-45 minutes to double in size.

While dough rises, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (or 325 if you have a glass loaf dish instead of a metal pan). When it’s risen, place the loaf in the center of the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes until dark golden brown on top (if you take it out at light golden brown, it’s liable to be raw in the middle, so let it get good and dark). Cool for 15-20 minutes on a cooling rack in the loaf pan while you make the glaze.

Make the glaze: Brown the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat as directed above. Mix together all ingredients and stir well until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed. Remove loaf from pan and generously drizzle glaze over the warm loaf.

Browned Butter Caramel Banana Bread

I'm always on the search for finding ways to use up overripe bananas in a more creative way than plain ol' banana bread. Banana and chocolate? Done it. Banana and peanut butter? Always a winning combination. This weekend I brainstormed and came up with a new combination to try: banana and caramel.

I had so many leftover bananas that I knew I'd have to make a loaf of banana bread based on my favorite recipe from a friend. The recipe uses an overabundance of bananas to create a super moist and flavorful loaf. The secret trick is to leave some of the banana chunks intact for surprise bites of banana goodness. Starting with that as my base I brainstormed ways to incorporate caramel flavor. My first plan was to make some caramel syrup and swirl it into the batter, but that alone didn't seem indulgent enough. Raiding the cupboard I found some Heath milk chocolate toffee bits to mix into the batter. OK, that's a step in the right direction but what's next? Then I remembered how the browned butter chocolate chip cookies I made a few months back had a distinct caramelized flavor thanks to that browned butter so I decided to brown the butter called for in this recipe. A genius idea, if I may say so myself.

The banana bread is definitely a step up from the usual. The caramel flavor is subtle, which makes it all the more fun when you hit a toffee bit or a bit of the caramel swirl and get a real burst of flavor. I'm very happy with what I came up with and even happier that I finally got rid of those nasty-looking bananas on my counter.

Caramel Filling
Recipe adapted from Sprinkle Bakes

1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup plus 1 1/2 teaspoons heavy cream, at room temperature

1) Melt the sugar over medium heat in a large pot. With a wooden spoon, stir the sugar as it melts and cook until it becomes a deep amber color.

2) Add the butter and salt and stir it in until melted.

3) Pour in the heavy cream (mixture will foam) and whisk until you get a smooth sauce. You may have some lumps but keep stirring until they have melted. Remove from heat and let cool while you make the banana bread.

Banana Bread

1 cup of sugar
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs whisked
1 1/2 cups self rising flour
4-7 whole bananas (overly ripe and mashed up with a few un-mashed chunks left in)
3/4 to 1 cup chocolate-covered toffee bits (optional)

1) Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a loaf pan with butter or spray and lightly flour.

2) Heat butter in skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat.

3) Combine sugar and melted butter in a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Add vanilla extract and stir.

4) Mix in eggs and stir until thoroughly combined.

5) Add the flour in three additions and the mashed banana in two additions, beginning and ending with flour. Stir until just combined. Fold in optional toffee bits.

6) Pour batter into prepared pan. Drizzle caramel on top and swirl into batter with the tip of a knife. Bake 50-70 minutes. The more bananas you use the longer it will take. Test bread by inserting a butter knife into the center to see if batter sticks. Continue to bake until no batter sticks to knife.

7) Cool completely in pan on rack. Once cool, invert onto rack and serve.

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm not sure if browned butter has officially become a baking fad or if I'm just now becoming aware of it. Either way I'm all too happy to capitalize on the dearth of browned butter recipes out there and incorporate it into as many of my baked goods as possible. I've extolled the virtues of browned butter in the past and all of that praise is equally well-deserved for the extra dimension it brings to what would otherwise be plain old chocolate chip cookies.

Aside from a few minor adjustments in the quantity of the ingredients, all of the basic ingredients are there with the big twist being the strong flavor of the browned butter. It's especially prevalent in the raw batter, not that I would know. ;) In fact, when doing a little taste test of the sugar mixture my first thought was that it tasted like caramel. A delicious sign of things to come!

I made the cookies a little smaller than the recipe calls for. I wound up with about 23 cookies not counting the 2-3 cookies' worth of cookie dough I ate as the first batch baked. They baked up nicely into cake-like morsels with crisp, lightly browned edges. I know there are all sorts of schools of thought as to what constitutes the perfect chocolate chip cookie but I'm not such a picky connoisseur. To me these contain everything I could possibly want in a cookie. You'll get no complaints from me!

Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe adapted from Cooks Illustrated via The Way the Cookie Crumbles

1 3/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons (1 3/4 sticks) unsalted butter
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
3/4 cup (5 1/4 ounces) packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 1/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted (optional)

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper (I used nonstick pans and skipped this step). Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted.

3. Add both sugars, salt and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated. Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds. Let mixture stand for 3 minutes, then whish for 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth and shiny. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if using), giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.

4. Divide dough into 16 portions, each about 3 tablespoons (or use a #24 cookie scoop). Arrange 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets, 8 dough balls per sheet.

5. Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10-14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving.

French Toast Cupcakes With Browned Butter Frosting

If I'm not mistaken, we've finally reached the end of the posts about my holiday baking. I'll admit that I went a little overboard, as I seem to do every year, but I get so excited to have a captive audience when my family visits that I want to spoil them. Now excuse me while I go into a sugar coma and, once recovered from that, spend the rest of my life working off these calories.

When my Spekulatius cupcake recipe made a paltry nine cupcakes I knew I had to scramble and come up with more cupcakes for my family. While a ratio of four people to nine cupcakes might seem fine to you, rest assured that in my family such a dire situation could result in bloodshed. I handed my little brother my trusty copy of 125 Best Cupcake Recipes and told him to pick one. My kitchen's pretty well stocked so when he landed on the French toast cupcakes I knew I already had everything on hand to whip up a batch.

I'd made these before and have always gotten positive reviews, so if you're looking for another universally popular flavor here's a good choice. The maple and cinnamon flavors shine through nicely. Topped with my new favorite, browned butter frosting, these were a hit with my family. My mom nicely decorated them for me using some festive sprinkles. She's enough like me that she went for the minimalist look with a few red balls and one tiny Christmas tree on each. So nice to have some help in the kitchen!

French Toast Cupcakes
Recipe from 125 Best Cupcake Recipes by Julie Hasson

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted then cooled
2 eggs
1 tsp. maple extract
1/2 c. whole milk

1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with 12 baking liners.
2) Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a mixing bowl.
3) In a large bowl, whisk together butter, sugar, and eggs until combined; add maple extract.
4) Alternate between whisking in flour mixture and milk into your liquid mixture. Make 3 additions of flour and 2 of milk. Beat until smooth.
5) Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown and tops spring back when lightly touched. Cool cupcakes for 10 minutes, remove from pan and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Browned Butter Frosting
Recipe adapted from The Sister's Cafe

1/3 cup unsalted butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2+ Tb heavy cream

1) Melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Continue cooking, stirring constantly and watching closely, until butter just starts to turn golden (4 to 6 minutes). Butter will get foamy and bubble and you will see black flecks start to form toward the end. Remove from heat. Cool to room temperature.
2) Beat butter and powdered sugar with an electric mixer until combined. Add vanilla and gradually add cream until frosting reaches the desired consistency. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

German Spekulatius Cupcakes

All mine! My preciousssssssss

Every year my mom and I treat ourselves to an order of fresh lebkuchen imported from Germany. Pricey? Hell yes. But oh so worth it to hang on to a little of our German heritage and celebrate Christmas in style. I always make sure my selection includes a box of my favorites: Spekulatius, a flat, crisp spiced cookie baked with cinnamon, cloves, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, and white pepper. The bottom is lined with slivered almonds for a hint of flavor and some added crunch. Not surprisingly, there are popular Dutch and Belgian versions that go by the names Speculaas and Speculoos. You can even get them here in the States, sometimes advertised as windmill cookies due to their design.


A few months back I won a jar of a product new to the US that incorporates all of the delicious elements of my beloved Spekulatius in a spreadable concoction similar to Nutella. It's called Tamarin Speculoos Spread and features a slightly freaky-looking monkey on the jar. No idea what that has to do with the product itself but I'm almost positive that no monkeys were harmed in the making of it. While I'm not sure how popular this will prove to be on our side of the Atlantic I have hope for it since I remember the dark days of my youth when no one had heard of Nutella and it was difficult to find. And now look at how popular it's become. The Tamarin spread is a nice alternative to peanut butter and I'll admit that I've taken to eating it straight from the jar with a spoon. The best way to describe it is as if they took a spiced cookie, mashed it up, and waved a magic wand to turn it into a paste. I suspect one of the Keebler elves defected and is now working at the Tamarin manufacturing plant.

While brainstorming cupcake ideas for my family this Christmas my mind immediately went to Spekulatius and the gears started churning as to how I could turn that into a cupcake. Inspired by this cupcake I decided to come up with my own spice blend to be baked into the cake, fill each cupcake with some of the Tamarin spread, and top the cupcakes with an almond browned butter frosting for a triple dose of Spekulatius flavor.

My only complaint about the recipe I chose from 125 Best Cupcake Recipes is that it only produced nine cupcakes. I have no idea how that happened since other than omitting the raisins and adding in my spice blend I made no other changes to the recipe that promised to yield 12. Next time I'll probably double the recipe to make a proper amount. The cupcakes are delicious and a nice alternative to the cookie even if they don't taste exactly like the original. The spices are there, the filling is surprising and rich, and the hint of almond in the frosting rounds it out nicely. This is probably one I'll incorporate into our holiday traditions from now on.

Spekulatius Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from 125 Best Cupcake Recipes by Julie Hasson

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp white pepper
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tbsp fancy molasses
1 egg
2 tsp candied orange peel, finely chopped
2/3 cup buttermilk
Tamarin Speculoos Spread for filling

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Line a muffin pan with 9 paper liners.
2) In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, ginger, cardamom, and salt.
3) In a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together sugar and butter until well combined. Add molasses and egg, beating well. Stir in the orange peel. Alternately beat in flour mixture and buttermilk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of buttermilk, beating until smooth.
4) Scoop batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven 20 to 25 minutes or until tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack.
5) Once cool, using the cone method fill each cupcake with a small amount of Tamarin spread, approximately one teaspoon per cupcake.

Browned Butter Frosting
Recipe adapted from The Sister's Cafe

1/3 cup unsalted butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp almond extract
2+ tablespoons heavy cream

1) Melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Continue cooking, stirring constantly and watching closely, until butter just starts to turn golden (4 to 6 minutes). Butter will get foamy and bubble and you will see black flecks start to form toward the end. Remove from heat. Cool to room temperature (this will take a while).
2) Beat butter and powdered sugar with an electric mixer until combined. Add almond and gradually add cream until frosting reaches the desired consistency. Pipe generously onto cooled cupcakes.

Christmas Pudding Cupcakes

See those glorious specks in the browned butter frosting? Perfection!

At the end of my whirlwind trip to London last year I found myself with a few hours to kill in Heathrow Airport. You know how they tell you to get there hours before your flight is scheduled to leave? Yeah, that's good advice if the wait in the security line is longer than five minutes or there's a problem with your ticket. Otherwise you'll be sitting there becoming increasingly hungry and might find yourself tempted by the overpriced food vendors. After I polished off a bacon, tomato, cheese, and ketchup baguette I was still ready for more. Must have been emotional stress eating at the thought of leaving my beloved London. Although it seems silly to visit an American chain while overseas, I gravitated toward the Starbucks kiosk in search of a festive holiday drink to end my dream vacation. I try to avoid desserts from chain stores that don't specialize in baked goods but while I was scrutinizing the menu for differences between the US version and the UK branch, a certain item caught my eye in the bakery case: a Christmas pudding cupcake.


Frankly, it didn't look that impressive and the photo I snapped of it is even more underwhelming but I found myself unable to resist anything with the word "cupcake" in the name. I was intrigued by what their version of Christmas pudding in cupcake form might taste like. Turns out the answer to that was simple and easy to sum up: delicious. I wish I had clearer memories of the flavors involved but I remember that the cake contained just the right amount of raisins to be reminiscent of Christmas pudding without being overly dense. The frosting was of the kind I would happily eat with a spoon straight out of the bowl, delicately flavored and paired nicely with the cake. Aside from confusion over the name I think it's something that would sell nicely here in the US.

I promised myself I'd try to recreate it in my own kitchen once I got home but somehow that plan fell by the wayside as I plunged into the holiday season. So here I am a year later unable to recollect the delicious details. After my suggestion to take a trip to England purely for the purpose of taste testing another was ruthlessly shot down by my husband, I decided to come up with my own interpretation of a Christmas pudding cupcake that may or may not resemble Starbucks' version. No matter as these are delicious concoctions in their own right.

Surprisingly, no one else out there on the internet seems to have tried this concept so I had to start completely from scratch. Of course, to add to my problem there just have to be hundreds of widely varying Christmas pudding recipes out there. I should also say that the one time I had Christmas pudding it wasn't my favorite, so I wasn't eager to completely copy the stuff. Just capture the essence in a more cake-like form. From my research, I came away with the thought that the defining characteristics are dried fruit in the form of raisins, cranberries, dates, etc. and spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. Booze is a popular addition but since I don't own any of the traditional ones like rum or brandy I left that aspect out. I think it would be a welcome change to my recipe if you'd like to try it for yourself. I started with a sticky date cupcake recipe from the indispensable 125 Best Cupcake Recipes and went crazy from there. I substituted raisins and dried cranberries for some of the dates, decreased the overall amount of fruit, threw in some mixed citrus peel, and added the necessary spices to give it that holiday flair. The cake's a little denser than I envisioned so perhaps next time I'll try it with a more traditional vanilla cake recipe as my starter, but the denseness does work with the spices and fruit to emulate a good old fashioned fruitcake. There's just the right amount of fruit in each cupcake and the unexpected citrus burst from the mixed peel is the kicker.

And browned butter frosting? Why did no one ever extol the virtues of browned butter to me before? Damn, is this stuff good. Very, very sweet, but a perfect match for the spiced cake. Quite a winning combo to get me into the holiday spirit!

Christmas Pudding Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from 125 Best Cupcake Recipes by Julie Hasson

1/3 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup chopped dates
1/8 cup mixed peel, chopped
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk

1) Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 12 muffin wells with paper liners.
2) In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine raisins, cranberries, dates, and water. Cook until fruit is soft and water is absorbed. Stir in mixed peel. Set aside and cool.
3) In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg.
4) In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together granulated and brown sugars and butter until well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour mixture, beating until combined. Add milk and fruit mixture, beating until smooth.
5) Scoop batter into prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack.

Browned Butter Frosting
Recipe adapted from The Sister's Cafe

1/3 cup unsalted butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2+ Tb heavy cream

1) Melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Continue cooking, stirring constantly and watching closely, until butter just starts to turn golden (4 to 6 minutes). Butter will get foamy and bubble and you will see black flecks start to form toward the end. Remove from heat. Cool to room temperature.
2) Beat butter and powdered sugar with an electric mixer until combined. Add vanilla and gradually add cream until frosting reaches the desired consistency. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

These are especially delicious served warm, so feel free to pop them in the microwave.