Chocolate Toffee Cookies with Toasted Pecans

Yeasted Chocolate-Chip Pumpkin Bread

Simplicity 48 Hours in the Making

Gingerbread Pear Cake (And the History of Gingerbread)
Gingerbread is one of those holiday treats that shouldn't be restricted to the months of November and December. Don't you agree? And yet, it does have a special appeal during the cooler months. There's nothing quite like beginning a crisp November morning with a confectioner's sugar dusted piece of gingerbread, perhaps served with a dollop of whipped cream and a hot cup of coffee. Mmm mmm. I sometimes wonder how foods became associated with particular seasons. Gingerbread, for instance, originated in the kitchens of ancient Greeks and Egyptians for ceremonial purposes and was brought back to Europe by 11th-century crusaders returning from the Middle East. How did it go from exotic foreig

Feast-Worthy Buttermilk Biscuits (Plus, 30 Thanksgiving Recipe Ideas)
Quick announcement: My Apple Cobbler recipe (the one the won my husband's heart even though I set his kitchen on fire) is among the many delicious entries in Bon Appetit's Holiday Bake Off contest. Would you vote for it in the Miscellaneous Dessert category? In order to submit your vote simply log into Bon Appetit (or create a free account if you don't have one) then click here to be taken to the voting page. Thank you! :) Thank

Outrageous Chocolate Cookies
Do you dunk your cookies in milk? I don't, but my husband does, and though I've never given much thought to this tiny difference in tastes it was all I could think about last night while we were enjoying the outrageous chocolate cookies shown here. With only 81 days left (!) until our due date I couldn't help wondering whether our baby, once he's old enough, will prefer to dunk cookies like his daddy or eat them separately like me. Then this morning, as I was eating cereal, I thought about how I eat my cereal right after cold milk is added to the bowl, lest I lose an ounce of crunch. My husband, on the other hand, lets his cereal sit for at least 10 minutes so that

Pumpkin-Apple Muffins (Plus Book Giveaway)
I know this doesn't hold true for everyone, but I really can't get enough of pumpkin flavored goodies - especially in the Fall. In fact, I'm so enamored with pumpkin that I made the Pumpkin-Apple Muffins shown above not once, not twice, but three times before the recipe was just right. When it comes to pumpkin my determination knows no bounds and I just had to have a morning like this one, where I could munch on a moist, tender, autumn-spiced pumpkin muffin while sipping on a decaf honey-vanilla latte.

Pumpkin Scones with Autumn Spiced Glaze
I've been a little obsessed with pumpkin lately, making things like pumpkin muffins, pumpkin spice lattes (decaf, of course) and pumpkin spiced pancakes whenever I have a free moment. My husband jokes it's like I did a search in the Baking and Books archive for the keyword "pumpkin" and then just made everything that came up in the results... and he'd be right if I'd made the vegan