Bready or Not

• In a large bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Add the molasses and egg.
• Gradually mix in the flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Make sure everything is combined. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for anywhere from an hour to a few days.
• Preheat oven at 325 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Use a small cookie scoop or spoon to dole out dough onto pan. Flatten each ball slightly; they won’t spread much.
• Bake for 10-11 minutes, until set with a crackling top. Let cool a couple of minutes, then transfer to a rack to completely cool.
• Once the cookies are cool, combined the icing ingredients. Glaze should be thick but spreadable. Coat the back of a spoon and transfer that to the top of a cookie, spreading to evenly coat. Cover cookies until icing is used up; the amounts should be a close match. Let them set for an hour for the icing to solidify, then pack into a sealed container.

OM NOM NOM!

• Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Line a 9×13 baking pan with aluminum foil and apply nonstick spray or butter.
• Use a spice grinder or a mortar and pestle to grind the Earl Grey leaves down a bit more, but not fully to powder. Move the tea to a medium bowl and stir with the flour and salt.
• In a large bowl, beat the butter until fluffy. Gradually add the confectioners’ sugar, followed by the vanilla. Beat until smooth. Gradually beat in the flour mixture to incorporate.
• Dollop the dough into the prepared pan. Use a piece of wax paper or plastic wrap to spread out the dough, then use something like a heavy glass to evenly compress the dough into the pan.
• Bake until shortbread is firm with golden edges, about 40 to 45 minutes. Cool in pan on rack.
• After the pan comes to room temperature, mix the glaze ingredients. Transfer them to a piping bag or to a freezer bag. Snip the corner to pipe the glaze in stripes over the pan. Let set for an hour, then use foil to lift contents onto a cutting board to slice into bars.
• Store in sealed container at room temperature. Bars will keep for an least 2 days.

OM NOM NOM!

Frangipane

• Frangipane can be made immediately before the batter or prepared a day in advance.
• In a medium bowl, stir butter until creamy. Add almond flour, sugar, all-purpose flour, egg white, salt, and almond extract. Stir until combined. Cover with plastic wrap pressed to the top, and place in fridge until ready to use.

Loaf

• Preheat oven at 375 degrees. Cut parchment paper to fit inside an 8×4 loaf pan like a sling extended up both long sides. Spray inside of pan with nonstick spray, then spray parchment.
• Use kitchen shears to break frozen raspberries into pieces of various size, measuring out 1 1/4 cup total. Stash raspberries back in freezer until ready to use.
• In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time followed by the extracts.
• In another bowl, sift together the 1 3/4 cups flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually mix dry ingredients into the wet, mixing alternatively with the yogurt. Scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is combined.
• Fold the frangipane into the batter.
• Pull out the raspberries. Toss them with the remaining tablespoon of flour. Set aside 1/4 of coated berries for the top; fold the rest of the berries into the batter.
• Spread batter in prepared pan, evening out the top. Sprinkle reserved raspberries on top, followed by the sliced almonds.
• Bake for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Continue to bake until the top is golden and the inside registers an interior temperature over 200 degrees, which will be about another 40 minutes. (Total baking time will be between 55 minutes and 1 hour 5 minutes.) If the loaf is looking brown early on, cover with a small piece of foil.
• Let cool in pan about 20 minutes, then use the parchment sling to lift the loaf onto a rack to completely cool.

Glaze

• Once the loaf is completely cool, mix the glaze. It should be fairly thick; add a touch more confectioners’ sugar if needed. Drizzle over loaf so that the top is covered with glaze dripping down the sides.
• Give the glaze at least 30 minutes to set before cutting into the loaf, or wrap loaf to serve later or the next day. Loaf will keep well, wrapped at room temperature, for up to 4 days.

OM NOM NOM!

• In a large bowl, beat together the butter, oil, and sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Gradually beat the dry ingredients into the wet. This will be a lot of dough; if an electric mixer was being used, it may be necessary to switch to stirring by hand.
• Use a food scale to divide the dough in half. Place one half back in the bowl. Remove a small handful, transferring that to the other portion. Add the mini chocolate chips to the bowl and stir to combine.
• Wrap each portion of dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours, or up to 3 days. Freeze if it needs to be baked beyond that time frame.
• Preheat oven at 375 degrees. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Use a cookie scoop or spoon to portion out the dough. The chocolate chip kind will need to be compressed slightly to make it cohesive.
• Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until cookies are set and tinted golden. Set on a rack to cool, and then place in sealed containers at room temperature.

OM NOM NOM!

Make the crust

• In a food processor, pulse together the flour, espresso powder, sugar, vinegar, and salt. Add the butter and pulse until everything forms pea-sized pieces. Sprinkle in 2 tablespoons water and pulse the dough. If it comes together, great, but if not, add another tablespoon, pulse, then add another tablespoon if necessary. The dough should look crumbly but become cohesive when squeezed.
• Put dough on a strip of plastic wrap and pat into a disc shape. Encase in wrap and chill at least an hour, or a day or two.
• Sprinkle flour on a work surface then roll dough into a 12-inch round. Use the rolling pin to lift it onto a pie plate. Press into place, folding over extra at edges to crimp. Prick the bottom and sides with a fork. Cover with plastic wrap (such as the one just used to chill dough) and freeze for at least an hour, or overnight.
• Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Line the crust with foil. Fill pie with pie weights or dried beans. Bake until edges are golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove the foil and weights–such as lifting them onto a rimmed baking pan to cool–and continue baking crust for 10 to 15 minutes, until it is golden all over. Transfer to a rack to cool.

Make the filling

• Whisk together heavy cream and espresso powder in a large bowl until the powder has dissolved. Add the pumpkin puree, white sugar, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla paste and salt. Scrape the bottom a few times to incorporate everything.
• Pour filling into the cooled crust and smooth out the top. Bake until filling is set at edges but still slightly jiggly in center, 50 to 60 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool for 3 hours.
• Store at room temperature, covered by foil. Slice and top with whipped topping. Pie is best eaten within 3 days.

OM NOM NOM!

• Place cranberries and dates in a medium saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring often, until the berries pop. Remove pan from heat to stir in vanilla. Set aside.
• Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Line a 13×9 pan with foil and apply nonstick spray or butter.
• In a mixing bowl, place flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Pour in butter and stir until it forms a crumbly mixture. Press about half into the prepared pan, compressing to form an even layer.
• Bake for 8 minutes. Pull pan from oven. Dollop cranberry-date mixture over top, gently spreading out to create a layer. Sprinkle the remaining crumb mixture over the top. Put back in oven to bake for 20 to 25 minutes; the top should be golden brown with the crumbs set in the middle.
• Cool to room temperature, speeding the process in the fridge, if desired. Use foil to lift contents from pan onto a cutting board to slice into bars. Store at room temperature in a sealed container.

OM NOM NOM!