Bready or Not Original: Snickerdoodle Quick Fudge
Last year I shared my recipe for Cookies and Milk Quick Fudge. This new version builds on that with a holiday twist: I used Voortman Bakery’s holiday special Snickerdoodles plus caramel chips!
Old-fashioned stovetop fudge is great. It’s also fussy, prone to crystallize or not set. Quick fudges are no-fuss and just as delicious.
Any time of year, make this using crisp cookies like many from Keebler. For this holiday take, I used Voortman’s Snickerdoodles, but you could also use gingersnaps or other classic favorites and switch out the kind of sweet chips.
Prep the cookies by chopping up a cup and a half. Freeze those bits; it won’t take long. From there, it takes just a few minutes to mix up the fudge.
The hardest part is waiting for the fudge to set for the next few hours. This recipe makes a lot of fudge, but it’s easy to portion out. Slice it small, and keep it sealed and stored in the fridge!
Bready or Not Original: Snickerdoodle Quick Fudge
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups store-bought holiday Snickerdoodle cookies chopped and frozen
- 3 cups white chocolate chips
- 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
- 1/3 cup caramel chips
Instructions
- Line an 8×8 or 9×9 pan with foil and apply nonstick spray. Set aside.
- In a large microwave-safe bowl, heat the white chocolate and sweetened condensed milk in 30 second increments, stirring well after each bout, until it is melted and smoothed. Watch it closely!
- Quickly stir in the frozen cookies, and pour into the prepared pan. Sprinkle caramel chips on top and tap them into place.
- Refrigerate at least 2 hours. Use foil to lift fudge onto a cutting board to slice into small squares. Store in a sealed container in the fridge. Keeps for weeks.
*OM NOM NOM!*
Bready or Not Original: Apple Calvados Galette
This Apple Calvados Galette is a perfect dessert for one or two people. Plus, it’s rustic and pretty to behold!
Calvados is an apple brandy made in Normandy. The price point of it can vary quite a bit. Feel free to use another kind of apple brandy in the recipe.
The delicious, original aspect of this treat is that you use the calvados to make a quick stovetop jelly that you then coat the apples with at the end of the bake time.
The alcohol flavor doesn’t linger. What you get is a concentrated sweet flavor of apples, right atop the fresh apples.
The baked galette keeps for days wrapped up in foil in the fridge. A quarter slice is the perfect amount for breakfast or dessert, and it’s not anywhere near as bready and dense as a full piece of pie.
Bready or Not Original: Apple Calvados Galette
Equipment
- baking sheet
- parchment paper
- basting brush
Ingredients
Galette
- 1 single-layer pie dough store-bought or homemade
- 4 medium apples such as Gala, Fuji, and Ambrosia
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/3 cup calvados or other apple brandy
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 3 Tablespoons brown sugar packed
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Glaze
- 1 Tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 1 Tablespoon maple sugar or turbinado sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 400-degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pie crust to about a 10-inch diameter circle. Transfer it to the baking sheet and set in fridge while the other ingredients are prepared.
- Peel, core, and thinly slice the apples, placing them in a large bowl. Pour in the lemon juice, calvados, cornstarch, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Toss the apples to coat them completely.
- Pull out the chilled crust. Begin to arrange apple slices in the middle, fanning them out and stacking them, but leaving a 2-inch border of dough around the outside. DO NOT DISCARD THE LIQUID IN THE BOWL! Once the apples are arranged, fold the dough over to partially cover the apples.
- Start baking the galette for 15 minutes. While that is cooking, pour the leftover liquid into a small pot on medium-high. Stay close to the stove and stir liquid often. As soon as it gels, which is right at right about boiling temperature, remove it from heat. Set aside.
- Reduce oven temperature to 350-degrees. Bake galette for another 20 minutes.
- Pull out the galette. Drizzle the gel over the exposed apples in the middle of the galette then use basting brush to coat every nook and cranny. Measure out maple syrup. Use same brush (no need to wash it) to coat the top crust, then sprinkle maple sugar or coarse sugar over it to add a crystalline crunch.
- Bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, until apples in middle are fork-tender.
- Let cool slightly before cutting–a pizza cutter is ideal. Leftovers can be kept wrapped up in foil in the fridge for days.
*OM NOM NOM!*
Bready or Not Original: Pumpkin Pie Biscotti
The 2020 pumpkin theme ends with a perfect fall treat: Pumpkin Pie Biscotti.
These things are dangerously good, and yes, they really do taste like pumpkin pie–in crisp, crunchy form.
I always keep pumpkin kernels around. I always use them in my Healthy Breakfast Cookies and in other things I make for myself, including salads. Use unsalted ones, if you can, or reduce the salt in the recipe.
Like all biscotti, these are great not simply because they are delicious, but because they should keep quite well if kept in a sealed container.
Enjoy these twice-baked treats with your hot drink of preference and feel appropriately autumnal.
Bready or Not Original: Pumpkin Pie Biscotti
Ingredients
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter half stick, softened
- 2/3 cup white sugar
- 1 1/4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1/2 cup pure pumpkin puree
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsalted pumpkin kernels also called pepitas
- 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, blend the butter, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt, until smooth and creamy. Mix in the egg and pumpkin puree. Gradually mix in the flour followed by the pumpkin kernels.
- Divide dough in half. Place each piece spaced out on parchment. Dough will be very sticky, so shape with plastic spatula or greased or floured hands into 1-inch high flat rectangular logs.
- Bake biscotti for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let set for 5 minutes. Use a long bread knife and slice down--don't saw--into long, even cookies. Space out cookies upright, if possible, or lay on sides.
- Bake for another 25 minutes; if cookies are laying on sides, flip them to other side halfway through. Set out on stove or counter to cool and dry for several hours.
- Melt chocolate in microwave or using a double-boiler on the stove. Drizzle chocolate over the ends of the biscotti and set again on parchment to set.
- Store biscotti in sealed containers at room temperature for days or weeks.
OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not Original: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cupcakes
Pumpkin pairs with cream cheese in this delicious Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cupcakes.
No need for extra sugar or frosting on top. These are delicious all on their own!
It seems that my pumpkin theme most years needs at least one cream cheese and pumpkin pairing. This one fulfills that requirement this year, and in a delicious way.
These cupcakes are light and airy with a bright flavor of pumpkin and spice, with the cream cheese adding wonderful sweetness.
This recipe makes two dozen. It’s certainly faster to bake up if you have two pans, but that is by no means required. One pan will do the job.
One warning about these things: they are so light and airy, it is easy to eat several at once. But because they are pumpkin, that makes them healthy, right? Just, uh, ignore that sugar and oil…
Bready or Not Original: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cupcakes
Equipment
- 1 or 2 cupcake/muffin pans
- paper cupcake liners
Ingredients
Pumpkin batter
- 15 ounces pumpkin puree
- 2 cups white sugar
- 1 cup canola oil
- 4 eggs room temperature
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- nonstick spray
Cream cheese filling
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1 egg room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat oven at 350-degrees.
- In a big bowl, beat together pumpkin puree, sugar, and oil. Beat in eggs one at a time.
- In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Gradually blend into the pumpkin mix.
- In a small microwave-safe bowl, carefully warm the cream cheese a touch, just to make it soft enough to mash. Stir in the white sugar and egg until it is cohesive; it's okay if there are still some small chunks of cream cheese.
- Place paper liners in the muffin pan (or two pans, if available). Apply nonstick spray in each liner. Add pumpkin to fill each liner about 1/3; a teaspoon scoop is useful for this. Add some dollops of cream cheese into each. Add layers of pumpkin batter to cover.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a middle cupcake passes the toothpick test. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then gingerly use two forks to pry out each cupcake to set on a rack to cool more. Place in sealed container in fridge to store.
OM NOM NOM!
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