We’re eating cinnamon apple pecan crumb bars made with local fuji apples and drizzled with cream cheese cinnamon icing.

Every year apple season (aka fall) brings with it a wave of nostalgia, and I can’t help but reminisce about the autumns of my youth. Growing up in Virginia fall meant the leaves turned from green to lovely shades of vibrant orange, red, yellow and deep purple. Along with the cool air, fall also brought with it loads of glorious apples. The house I grew up in had 2 apple trees, 2 peach trees, 2 cherry trees and 2 seckel pear tree in the front yard, thus we never had a shortage of fresh fruit to feast on throughout the growing season. While my family never made these particular cinnamon apple pecan crumb bars, they certainly have the flavors that I associate with fall. There’s just something so comforting about the combination of cinnamon and apples. Between Tyler, our neighbor and Nicole & Justin these bars were gone almost as soon as they were made! They’re super simple and sure to be a great fall crowd pleaser.

Recipes in this post:

• Cinnamon Apple Pecan Crumb Bars

Related posts:

1. Fudgy Earl Grey Chocolate Cake
2. Spicy Ginger Brown Butter Blondies

On my other website, FoodPornDaily, I often get email requests for the food featured in the daily images. An old one that I still get requests for is the Earl Grey chocolate cake. There is something magical about the way that Earl Grey tea combines with chocolate to make a mildly floral yet roasty fudgy flavor that my tongue just can’t get enough of. And seriously, I’m not a chocolate lover. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not a hater either! It’s just that I can either take or leave chocolate. I never crave it but if it appears in front of me in a delicious dessert, I’m not going to say no to at least a bite. This cake appears to be the exception… I find myself craving it every few weeks…but I’m gonna blame that on my deep-seated love of Earl Grey tea.

In the recipe below I call for lavender extract in the ganache. To be frank – when I made this and put the extract in both the cream cheese frosting and the ganache, I thought the whole thing was a little too floral. I don’t mind hints of floral in my food but if it’s like I’m eating a f*cking wedding bouquet I’d rather not have it in my mouth, ya know? Anyway, for the recipes that follow – I am suggesting that you NOT use the lavender extract in the cream cheese frosting and only use a small amount in the ganache. If you don’t have it on hand then I wouldn’t make a special trip out to find it. Just omit the extract all together and you still won’t be disappointed in the cake. Oh yeah – and don’t worry about dying the cream cheese frosting purple – turns out people will likely make fun of you for making a “Barney” cake.

*This post is dedicated to Samantha Penney and Gwen Miller for continuing to remind me to get this recipe posted! Thanks, ladies, sometimes I need a little kick in the pants.

Recipes in this post:

• Fudgy Earl Grey Chocolate Cake
• Lavender Ganache
• Basic Cream Cheese Frosting

Related posts:

1. Cinnamon Apple Pecan Crumb Bars
2. Spicy Ginger Brown Butter Blondies
3. Banana-Macadamia Nut Upside-Down Cake Spiked with Dark Rum

The one time every year I could count on my mom baking was around the holidays. Pretty much the rest of the year my mom stayed as far away from the kitchen as possible. (Love you mom! but you know it’s true. ) Several weeks before Christmas she would go into hyper cookie baker mode and would bust out dozens upon dozens of different cookies that she would give to our teaches, bus drivers, church going friends, etc. I remember red and white candy cane shaped cookies, mexican wedding cookies, bourbon balls and of course her favorite – spritz cookies, dyed green to really look like Christmas trees. (at least in my child’s mind’s eye they looked a lot like xmas trees!) I don’t remember her ever making gingersnaps or any kind of ginger cookies, and I know she sure as hell wouldn’t have filled them with chevre anything as she doesn’t like goat’s milk, but whenever I make holiday cookies it floods me with tons of memories of being in the kitchen with my mom and all of the excitement of Christmas for a child comes rolling back. Maybe that’s why, even though I am not really big cookie eater, this time of year I love to make and share cookies with my friends and family.

So far I only have feedback on these cookies from two people – Tyler (of course) and our neighbor, Rob, who gets a sample of pretty much every sweet thing I make. Both of them gave these cookies really high ratings so I think all in all they are a success. If you are looking for a slightly out-out-of-the-ordinary holiday cookie to share with your friends and loved ones this holiday season, I suggest giving these chewy ginger cookie sandwiches a try! P.S. – If you try them out we’d love to hear your opinion in the comments below!

Recipes in this post:

• Chewy Ginger Spiced Cookie Sandwiches w/ Honeyed Mascarpone-Chevre Filling

Related posts:

1. Fudgy Earl Grey Chocolate Cake
2. Cinnamon Apple Pecan Crumb Bars
3. Spicy Ginger Brown Butter Blondies

While I’m not a huge dessert person, one of the pies that I always have to have a piece of around the holidays is pecan pie. I don’t know what it is about the gooey, ultra sugary pecan goodness but I simply can’t resist it! That’s particularly weird considering I think –

T: -Umm… dude, who are you talking to?
A: Oh shit! What are you doing here?!? I was just talking to my peeps! You know… the ones who actually read this blog!
T: Ahh yes, the peeps. Huge fan of the peeps. Not to be confused with Peeps.
A: I am NOT a huge fan of Peeps.
T: Alright, enough of this nonsense. Let’s talk about some pie. I think you were saying something about how you like pecan pie even though in general you hate all desserts.
A: actually… I think you interrupted me before I could get that out.
T: OK whatever. So on to my opinion. My mouth was delighted when I took the first bite. I was expecting a good bite for sure, but this was 2x good. Who hoo I know what I’m munching down on later!
A: Had I mentioned to you that there was a Nutella layer in it before you took your first bite?
T: Yes you had. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was surprised that the pie still tasted mostly like a pecan pie- not like a gnutella pie.
A: Gnutella? Did you mean to put that G in there?
T: Gnutella doesn’t have a silent G?
A: heheheheheh UM, no, homefry. No silent G’s.
T: How embarrasing. Oh well. So… ummm,
A: So…. what would you rate this little ditty?
T: I would have to give this a 4.65/5. It was super tasty, and fully satisfied any desire for pecan pie that I had deep within my soul.
A: Nice! A soul pleasing pecan pie. Great to hear. I agree – it satisfied my pecan pie craving and the Nutella aspect gave it a nice lightly chocolately flavor while still maintaining the nuttiness and overall feel of a classic pecan pie. I give it a 4.25/5. Just the fact that it’s a dessert makes me give it a slightly lower score.
T: What the shit. That’s no way to judge desserts, you biased… dessert loser.
A: I made this dessert, biatch! Whatchu talkin’ ’bout, foo?
T: It’s amazing how you can make excellent desserts and not even really like sweets.
A: That’s where you’re wrong! I DO like dessert! I just don’t love ‘em.
T: Ok so you’re a freak and we’re all going to take turns making fun of you in the comments.

Recipes in this post:

• Nutella Bottom Pecan Pie

Related posts:

1. Fudgy Earl Grey Chocolate Cake
2. Cinnamon Apple Pecan Crumb Bars
3. Spicy Ginger Brown Butter Blondies

Every year apple season (aka fall) brings with it a wave of nostalgia, and I can’t help but reminisce about the autumns of my youth. Growing up in Virginia fall meant the leaves turned from green to lovely shades of vibrant orange, red, yellow and deep purple. Along with the cool air, fall also brought with it loads of glorious apples. The house I grew up in had 2 apple trees, 2 peach trees, 2 cherry trees and 2 seckel pear tree in the front yard, thus we never had a shortage of fresh fruit to feast on throughout the growing season. While my family never made these particular cinnamon apple pecan crumb bars, they certainly have the flavors that I associate with fall. There’s just something so comforting about the combination of cinnamon and apples. Between Tyler, our neighbor and Nicole & Justin these bars were gone almost as soon as they were made! They’re super simple and sure to be a great fall crowd pleaser.

Recipes in this post:

• Cinnamon Apple Pecan Crumb Bars

Related posts:

1. Cinnamon Apple Pecan Crumb Bars
2. Fudgy Earl Grey Chocolate Cake
3. Spicy Ginger Brown Butter Blondies

It’s a well-known fact that sweets are not really my cuppa beer. (I don’t really do “joe” either!) That being said, T-dog loves him some sweets so from time to time I give in and make him something decadent. This summer he’s been gobbling up cones of chocolate peanut butter cup ice cream from a local shop after we’ve had a hard day of boogie boarding and generally enjoying ourselves at the beach. It was this particular chocolate-peanut butter kick that inspired today’s pie.

Going into the this dish with the concept in my head, I had no idea how wildly popular it was going to turn out to be! Everyone who ate it fell to my mercy and begged me for the recipe. Nicole even tweeted,”….I just tasted it and almost died”. Thus the addition of “killer” to the title. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as Tyler, Nicole and our neighbors have. I’d love to hear feedback if anyone makes it!

Recipes in this post:

• Killer Peanut Butter Chocolate Pie

Related posts:

1. Fudgy Earl Grey Chocolate Cake
2. Cinnamon Apple Pecan Crumb Bars
3. Spicy Ginger Brown Butter Blondies

Until about a week or two ago there was no possible way for us to make and feature ice creams or sorbets on WWE due to our lack of equipment. Then our wonderful friend Nicole swooped in and saved the day. While browsing through a thrift store, she found the exact model of ice cream maker she uses, but for about 1/6 of the cost. Lucky for me, she didn’t let this amazing find pass her by. Nope, she snatched that thing on up and gave it to little ole me! (Maybe because I’ve been threatening to make gin sorbet using her machine for the past six months & she’s hoping to avoid the hangover from gorging on it!)

In another showing of Nicole’s awesomeness, she took me over to her sister’s house, who happens to have a huge lemon tree, and we were given an insane number of lemons, fresh from the tree! AND we didn’t even have to pick them ourselves. Nicole’s sister, Penny, had already done all the work. Thanks, Penny! You rock! Hell, your whole family rocks!

Equipped with my new ice cream maker and a butt-ton of fresh lemons, there was only 1 conclusion for me to reach: lemon ice cream! I knew that I also wanted it to be a cream cheese based ice cream as they tend to be my favorite and you don’t find them too frequently out here. (In Louisiana, that was a different story.) With this in mind I set out on a google search to show me ingredient ratios to make the perfect ice cream. Recipe after recipe that I looked at was filled with a huge number of eggs and cups of heavy cream! UGH! I was already going to be adding 8oz of cream cheese to my recipe so I really didn’t want all the excess cholesterol and fat included in all the recipes I was finding.

Fortunately I then remembered the King of Ice Cream, The Perfect Scoop Author, the fabulous David Lebovitz. After perusing his site for a while I came across this recipe for pistachio gelato where he uses milk and corn starch to form a pastry cream as the base of his gelato rather than a custard of eggs and heavy cream. Perfect!

It was exactly what I was looking for. With this technique in hand, I set out to make what turned out to be a deliciously refreshing, creamy, tart lemon ice cream… thanks to Nicole, Penny and David!

Recipes in this post:

• Lemon Cheesecake Ice Cream

Related posts:

1. Fudgy Earl Grey Chocolate Cake
2. Cinnamon Apple Pecan Crumb Bars
3. Spicy Ginger Brown Butter Blondies