i’m a little late for thanksgiving, but…pie!

gratuitous “pie that resembles pacman” below. so how was your thanksgiving?

sweet potato pie
from epicurious.com.

crust
1/3 cup walnuts, toasted
1/3 cup hazelnuts, toasted
1/3 cup almonds, toasted
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
5 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

filling
18 oz sweet potatoes
3 eggs
3 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp honey
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup whipping cream

topping (optional)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp honey
1/3 cup whole almonds, toasted
1/3 cup whole hazelnuts, toasted
1/3 cup walnuts, toasted

1. make the crust: coarsely grind all nuts in processor. blend in graham cracker crumbs, sugar and pumpkin pie spice. add butter and blend in using on/off turns until moist crumbs form. press crumbs onto bottom and sides of 9-inch deep-dish pie dish. set aside.

2. make the filling: preheat oven to 350 F. bake sweet potatoes until tender, about 1 hour. cool potatoes; peel and puree in processor. transfer to bowl and whisk in eggs. cook butter in heavy medium skillet over medium heat until melted and brown. add sugar, honey and pumpkin pie spice and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. whisk in cream. add butter mixture to potato puree; blend until smooth.

3. pour filling into crust. bake at 350 F until center moves only slightly when pan is shaken, covering with foil if crust browns too quickly, about 40 minutes.

4. meanwhile, make the topping: stir first 3 ingredients in heavy medium saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves. increase heat and boil 1 minute. mix in nuts, coating completely.

5. take the pie out of the oven, spoon on the hot nut mixture if you’ve made it, and continue baking until topping bubbles, about 5 minutes. transfer to rack and cool completely.

there’s something about a chilly saturday afternoon that just makes you want to stay inside and bake all day. last november i tackled cooking and canning apple butter for the first time and i’m proud to say the butter i made last year actually preserved correctly and is just as delicious this year. but since i’m running low, i decided it was time to make a fresh batch. i’ll run through the steps as we go through the pictures and i’ve included the fully detailed recipe at the end of the post. there’s nothing like warm biscuits and apple butter on a lazy sunday morning.

you’re going to get yourself a whole bunch of good cooking apples. i happened to have a ton left over from apple picking, but otherwise i would go with a good bunch of granny smith (my favorite). the best part of this recipe is that you don’t have to peel or core these apples (unless you don’t have a way to strain them out later). you’re just going to cut them up into quarters and empty them into a wide shallow pan filled with a bit of water and apple cider vinegar.

pile the apples in your pan (i used my dutch oven) and bring the liquid to a boil. cook for another 20 minutes or so, stirring occasionally, and you’ll break down the apples completely.

this is what you end up with. it may look ugly but it smells incredible.

from there, the apples take a trip into your food mill, which is an amazingly simple hand powered strainer. i just got mine for my birthday a few weeks ago (thanks mom!) and i’m already on the lookout for more recipes that use it. give yourself a workout straining out the cores, seeds and peels, add a bit of sugar and cinnamon to the apple puree, and you’ve got…

…applesauce! if all you wanted was applesauce, stop now. eat! if you dare to make apple butter, press on, putting the applesauce back on high heat for a few hours. keep a close eye on the apple butter and stir it constantly so it doesn’t burn on the bottom and develop a crust.

the apple butter goes a little crazy on high heat. like, bubbly, deadly crazy. i burned myself several times and covered the kitchen in hot apple puree. of course, i was cooking without a shirt on (it got REALLY hot in the kitchen) so i only have myself to blame for singed chest hair. your inclination might be to cover the pot, but leaving the pot uncovered actually helps the apple butter thicken more quickly because you can promote evaporation by stirring constantly, and at the same time moisture isn’t building up on the pot lid and dripping right back in.

canning apple butter is not as scary as it sounds, but i didn’t capture any pictures of it because i was concentrating on not burning myself (any more) while sterilizing the jars and then sealing the filled jars in boiling water. there are full directions for canning below.

after the apple butter is all finished, the biscuits are a breeze. the recipe comes from alton brown, who, for whatever reason, was the first person that came to mind when i thought of biscuits. rest assured, it uses plenty of buttermilk.

you can store and reheat the biscuits over the following week if for whatever reason you can’t devour a dozen at a time (you wimp). slather the apple butter on anything and everything. it’s good hot and cold, and a big ‘ole jar makes a really good gift for the holidays.

apple butter (makes about 3 pints)
4 lbs of good cooking apples (granny smith are great!)
1 cup apple cider vinegar
2 cups water
sugar (about 4 cups, see cooking instructions)
pinch salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp allspice
zest and juice of 1 lemon

biscuits (makes about a dozen)
2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp shortening
1 cup buttermilk, chilled

make the apple butter
1. cut the apples into quarters. there’s no need to peel or core them, as we want all the good stuff that’s in there (natural pectin in the cores!). however, if you do not have a food mill or another way to sieve the apples after they are cooked to extract the seeds and peels, you’ll want to peel and core them.

2. put them into a large pot or dutch oven, add the apple cider vinegar and water and heat on medium-high heat until you reach a boil. reduce to a simmer and cook until the apples are soft, stirring so all apples are cooked through. remove the pot from the heat.

3. grab your food mill, place it over another large pot or container, and spoon your cooked apple mixture into it, milling away to extract the seeds and peels. if you don’t have a food mill, you can use a potato masher to break down the apples. once you are all done, measure the puree and pour it back into your original cooking pot. add 1/2 cup of sugar for each cup of apple puree. add the salt, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, lemon zest and juice. since apples are naturally sweet, you can go easy on the sugar and still get a great taste (some people use no sugar at all).

4. at this point, you have applesauce. you can stop cooking and either eat what you have or can your applesauce according to the directions below. if you want apple butter, put your pot full of spiced apple puree back on the stove and heat at medium-high heat. you’ll want to keep a close eye on your apple butter over the next few hours, stirring pretty constantly to make sure you don’t develop a crust on the bottom of the pot. you can turn the heat down lower and stir less constantly, but it will take longer to thicken.

5. caution while heating the apple butter: a shallower and wider plan works best because it makes the surface area larger. however, the apple butter will get extremely hot and often sputter and spit hot apple puree all over the kitchen and you. i burned myself several times, so it may pay to wear long sleeves while stirring (or goggles if you’re really paranoid). also note that you will most likely have hot apple puree stuck to your oven, fridge, counter tops, cabinets and refrigerator that will require hours of scrubbing afterward. but seriously, this recipe is so good it’s worth it.

canning your apple butter
i found ball brand canning jars at target last year and they’ve worked reliably for me. however, if you look around amazon you can find tons of alternatives. you can also purchase a whole canning kit which may include jars, tongs and a funnel, but i’ve been fine without.

1. while the apple butter is still warm, remove the lids on your jars and sterilize them (we want to pour hot apple butter into hot jars). if you have a dishwasher, you can put them through a short cycle. you can also place them in a large pot of water and bring to a boil for about 10 minutes. if you use the pot of water method, make sure the jars are sitting on something inside the pot (like a small steaming rack) so they don’t touch the bottom of the pot. to sterilize the lids, put them in a bowl and fill the bowl with very hot water (not quite boiling - if it’s too hot it will damage the seals).

2. after your jars have sterilized, remove them from the pot of water carefully with a pair of tongs, and spoon in the hot apple butter, leaving about 1/4″ space from the top. you can use a small funnel if you have one. with a damp, clean paper towel, wipe around the rim of the jars to remove any spilled apple butter. remove the lids from the hot water and screw them on finger tight.

3. carefully place your filled and sealed jars of apple butter back into the large pot of hot water you used to sterilize the jars. heat the water to a rolling boil for about 5-10 minutes. since apple butter is a high-acid food, it takes less time to preserve.

4. after you remove the sealed jars from boiling water, wrap them in a towel and set aside. it is possible (but not likely) that your jar could explode as a result of the temperature change, so it’s better to be safe than covered in hot glass and apple butter. it’s important to let the jars sit for 24 hours without touching them. if after 24 hours the “button” on the jar lid has not sucked in (that is, if you press on the middle of the lid and it pops up and down), your seal did not work. if this happens, you can usually put the jar in the fridge and still use it. if the seal did work, you can store the apple butter in a cool, dry, dark place for up to a year.

make the biscuits
1. in a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. mix in the butter and shortening with your fingers or with a pastry cutter quickly, until you get a coarse crumb mixture. make a well in the center and pour in the buttermilk. stir together just until the ingredients are moistened (don’t overmix!).

2. turn the dough onto a floured surface, dust the top with flour and gently fold the dough over itself several times. press into a 1″ thick round and cut biscuits out with a 2″ cutter (i used a 1/2 cup measuring cup) until all dough is used up. place the biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 450 F for 15-20 minutes.

when i eventually buy my own house, an in-house brick oven is at the top of my wish list. i’d also love an outdoor earth oven (susan has been building one over at wild yeast; i’m jealous). while in the meantime (and realistically, forever), i’m not going to have one at my fingertips, there’s no reason i can’t simulate a hearth oven in my own kitchen using baking stones.

what’s the point of baking on a hot stone? stones retain heat much better than metal baking sheets, giving your bread a better crust (like putting a good steak on an extremely hot cast iron pan). waiting for cold sheet pan to heat up can cause the bread to bake unevenly. the stones work best when you heat them up as you preheat the oven. i usually heat the stones up about 100 degrees hotter than the recipe temperature, then turn it down to the appropriate temp just before putting in the bread, making up for some of the heat lost when you open the oven door.

i used to have a pizza stone (an awesome gift!) that worked very well for about a year. however, some kind of oil must have seeped into the stone because it began dripping and smoking profusely whenever i turned on the oven. more than once the apartment filled with smoke and eventually i had to trash it. the problem with pizza stones is that they can be incredibly expensive ($40-$100!) to replace.

i decided to do a little research and found a great alternative in unglazed quarry tiles. you can find them at any hardware/home store (my dad and i hit up home depot). these are 6″ x 6″ and about 1/2″-3/4″ thick, though 1″ thick is probably ideal. the best part? 12 of them cost me less than $5, so it’s definitely not just for die-hard bakers. since i started baking on these tiles, my bread has looked and tasted better than ever - and the crust is incomparable to older loaves. i have them arranged on a middle rack as in the above picture. a few quick tips:

• make sure they are unglazed! glazed tiles can contain harmful chemicals and metals like lead in them. if you aren’t sure, ask someone at the store or contact the manufacturer. liquid should be absorbed by the tiles, not roll off of them.

• cleaning: when you first bring the tiles home, wipe them with a solution of water and baking soda. you can do this if they get pieces of crust stuck on them as well. do not use soap, as it will seep into the stones and then get into any food you put on them.

• transferring bread to the tiles: you might be asking, “if i’m not using a baking sheet, how do i get my dough onto a 500 degree stone without burning off my fingertips?” with smaller loaves, you can pull out the shelf a little bit and literally toss the bread onto the tiles. with anything larger, a cornmeal covered pizza peel is your friend. i recently invested in one (less than $10) and it’s made getting the bread into the oven a cinch.

• care: these tiles require very little care. they may darken from use, but should be fine. you can also leave them in the oven even if you aren’t baking on them. if i need to bake on a sheet, i just move one of the empty shelves above the one with the stones. it won’t hurt them to heat up over and over. if your tiles ever do break from use, you can replace them for mere pennies!

thanksgiving is just over a week away, and i think i’ve found my contribution to the big meal.

these are one of those appetizers that never make it to the guests outside of the kitchen - people will wrestle each other to the ground for a good mini quiche. the only possible rival to the mini quiche is the pig in a blanket (another specialty of mine). why leeks? besides being an amazing fall crop, when the weather gets chillier, i get cravings for the nostalgic flavors of potato and leek soup. why bacon? honestly, i can’t think of a single dish that can’t be improved with bacon (including potato and leek soup).

quiches were actually invented by the germans - the word “quiche” comes from “kuchen,” german for cake. it has since been adapted by the french and has become a blank slate for any kind of meat or veggie you can think of. originally, german chefs used an actual cake as a base, but in it’s modern form, quiches usually have some kind of puff pastry. i’ve provided a very simple butter/flour/cream cheese crust recipe, but store-bought puff pastry certainly works just as well (they happened to be out of it when i went to the store).

at the rate i’ve been eating these quiches,  i’ll need to make a new batch every other day or so. if you’re looking for a quick and easy thanksgiving appetizer, look no farther. you might want to make a secret batch just for yourself so you actually get to have a few.

bacon and leek quiches
makes 12 regular-size or 24 mini-cupcake-size cups

crust
1/2 cup butter
3 oz cream cheese
1 cup flour

quiche filling
3 eggs
1 cup half and half
2 large leeks
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 small onion, diced
3/4 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
salt and pepper to taste

1. make the crust: soften the butter and cream cheese in the microwave. mix in the flour and form into a ball. refrigerate for 1 hour while you make the filling.

2. clean, peel and dice up the leeks. saute in on medium heat with the diced onion with a little splash of olive oil until the leeks soften.

3. whisk the eggs and cream in a large bowl. add the leek mixture, crumbled bacon, cheese and salt and pepper. mix to coat everything in egg.

4. divide the chilled dough into 12 equal pieces (24 if using mini-cupcake tins). butter and flour the cupcake tins and press the dough into them to cover the bottom and sides. pour in the quiche mixture to fill each cup. bake at 400 F for 20-25 minutes.

all i’m going to say about this recipe is that after making it, i decided that i am never going to the grocery store for bread ever again. let’s not ruin this with any more words - just enjoy.

deli-style rye bread
makes 4 1 lb loaves. you’ll think you’ve died and gone to a jewish deli in nyc. from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.

3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 Tbsp yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp salt
1 1/2 Tbsp caraway seeds, plus more for sprinkling
1 cup rye flour
5 1/2 cups all purpose flour
cornmeal for sprinkling
cornstarch for cornstarch wash

1. mix the yeast, salt and carawy seeds with the water in a large bowl. mix in the remaning dry ingredients without kneading. cover with a towel and allow to rest at room temperature for about 2 hours. at this point, you can prepare the dough for baking or store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

2. dust the surface of the dough with flour and cut off 1/4 of the dough. dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball. elongate the ball into an oval-shaped loaf. allow it to rest and rise on a cornmeal covered surface (pizza peel if you’re going to transfer to a baking stone or a baking sheet if you’re baking right on the baking sheet) for 40 minutes.

3. preheat the oven to 450 F with an empty broiler tray on the shelf underneath the one you plan to bake on. heat the baking stone up with the oven if you are using one.

4. make the cornstarch wash by combining 1/2 tsp cornstartch with a small amount of water to form a paste. add 1/2 cup water, whisk and microwave for about 60 seconds. paint the top of the loaf with the cornstarch wash and then sprinkle on caraway seeds. slash with a deep parallel cuts across the loaf using a serrated bread knife.

5. bake the loaf on a baking sheet or slide it onto the hot baking stone. bake for 30 minutes. as you put the bread in the oven to bake, pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray and quickly close the oven door. allow to cool before slicing or eating.

there are just some recipes that will never get old. the tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe is a great example. another is the quaker oats “vanishing oatmeal raisin cookie recipe.” you don’t have to look far for a good oatmeal cookie recipe; just flip over the lid to a can of quaker oats. it’s been there, unchanged for as long an anyone can remember. i tried doing a little research on the history of the recipe, but i couldn’t nail anything down. anyone out there know anything?

the only change i make with the quaker oats recipe is to completely melt the butter instead of just softening it and slightly underbake the cookies so they are simultaneously chewier and crispier. raisins are great and all, but i love using chocolate chips in these cookies. the best part is that since they have oats in them, you feel like you’re eating something healthy.

there’s good reason to call these “vanishing” cookies. i brought a batch to an election results watching party and they disappeared long before obama was officially declared the 44th US president. you might want to make more than one batch. just throwing that out there.

oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
makes about 4 dozen. from the underside of the lid of quaker oats.

1/2 lb (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
3 cups quaker oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. heat oven to 350 F. in large bowl, beat butter and sugars until creamy. add eggs and vanilla; beat well. add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. add oats and chocolate chips; mix well.

2. drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3. bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. cool completely. store tightly covered.

the girl recently surprised me with a copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, a book that aims to simplify the process of making fancy high-quality bread. i definitely recommend it, even if i had trouble believing that the authors could pull off the concept before tasting it myself. the basic idea is that you can make bake great bread that tastes like you spent much more time on it than you really did - no starters or kneading necessary. that’s right, no kneading.

with most of the recipes in the book, an overly wet dough is quickly mixed together and allowed to rise in the bowl straight away. it is then quickly shaped into loaves after a few hours of rising. for those few seconds that the dough was actually in my hands for shaping, i was tempted to start working it on the counter to get a consistency i was more comfortable with, but the whole point is to let the ingredients do their job.

restraint definitely pays off with these recipes. i know mark bittman’s no-knead bread was all the rage, but the rising time for the original recipe is 12-18 hours. this peasant bread rose for 2 hours, and then another 40 minutes after it was shaped and as the oven warmed up. the crust and crumb were delicious, and as the smell of this bread filled the apartment, it made me want to grab a loaf and have a picnic in the park with a block of cheese and a cheap bottle of wine.

since my kitchen is about 40 degrees most mornings, there’s only more incentive this season to fire up the oven and bake a fresh loaf of bread every day or two. join me, won’t you?

european peasant bread
makes 4 loaves (so this recipe can be easily halved). from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 Tbsp instant yeast
1 1/2 Tbsp salt
1/2 cup rye flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
5 1/2 cups flour

1. mix the salt and yeast with the water in a large bowl. mix in the remaining dry ingredients without kneading. the dough will be very wet. cover with a towel and allow to rest at room temperature for about 2 hours.

2. at this point you can use the dough or refrigerate (it will keep for about 2 weeks). if you are going to make the bread right away, it’s still a good idea to refrigerate the dough for an hour or two so it is easier to handle.

3. cut off a section of the dough (1/4 if you make enough for 4 loaves), and dust it with flour. quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. allow to rest and rise on a cornmeal-covered baking sheet. while the dough is rising, heat the oven to 450 F and place an empty broiler tray (i used a small casserole dish) on the lowest rack in the oven. if you are baking on a baking stone, place it in the oven to heat up with the oven.

4. when the oven is ready and the dough has risen, sprinkle the loaf liberally with flour and make a few 1/4 inch deep slashes on the top using a serated bread knife (a cross or tic-tac-toe pattern both work). leave the flour on top of the loaf during baking.

5. place the baking sheet into the oven (or slide the dough onto your baking stone). pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray, quickly close the oven and bake for about 35 minutes. the top should get a good hard crust and will be deeply browned. allow to cool on a cooling rack and brush off excess flour from the top of the loaf before slicing.

i know you’re still in the mood for pumpkin, so let me give you a recipe that will satisfy your cravings but in no way make you feel healthier (take that, healthy pumpkin muffins that are all the rage right now). my recipe uses a deep fryer, so it has to be delicious. it’s a law of science.

did you know that i actually own a deep fryer? it was purchased in a moment of weakness when, in my college days, i set out to make the perfect monte cristo sandwich. the model i have is called the “fry daddy.” the larger version of the same model is called the “granpappy” and smaller model is the “fry daddy junior.” it’s one big unhealthy deep fried carnival food family. like most people, i was terrified of deep frying at first, but the draw of frying experimentation spurred me to try just about everything from apples and bananas to candy bars - and for those wondering, yes, deep fried pies are coming soon.

it’s true: pete usually bakes, but occasionally, pete deep fries. initially i was embarrassed about purchasing a machine whose sole purpose was to make me fat(ter), but i quickly got over it after i realized the joy that comes from homemade tempura and corndogs. i’ve become a proud granpappy of my frydaddy, and the more i tell others about it, the more excitement i get from those people what could possibly be deep fried. let me tell you a secret: anything can be deep fried, and don’t let anyone tell you different.

if you don’t think you can handle all the hot oil, there are recipes for baked donuts out there. to be honest i didn’t try to bake with this particular batter so i couldn’t tell you how well they would come out. additionally, don’t worry about actually using a deep fryer - a pan on the stove works just as well. you just need to monitor the temperature with a deep-fry thermometer, and i’ve included the instructions for doing that below. these donuts taste best right after you make them, so you really have no excuse not to spend all morning filling the house with the wonderful smells of deep fried pumpkin and then all afternoon devouring them with generous dollops of some of the most decadent frosting you’ll ever whip up. what are you waiting for?

pumpkin donuts!
makes 24 donuts (and holes). adapted from epicurious.com.

donuts
3 1/2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
1 egg
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup plus 1 Tbsp buttermilk
1 cup pumpkin puree
canola oil for frying

pumpkin frosting
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 Tbsp orange juice
1 tsp grated orange zest
1/2 tsp vanilla
4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1. make the donuts: whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, nutmeg and cloves. beat sugar and butter in large bowl until blended (mixture will be grainy). beat in egg, then yolks and vanilla. gradually beat in buttermilk; fold in pumpkin in 4 additions. cover with plastic and chill 3 hours.

2. sprinkle a baking sheet lightly with flour. press out part of the dough on floured surface to 1/2 to 2/3 inch thickness. using 2 1/2 inch diameter round cutter, cut out dough rounds until all dough is used. using 1-inch-diameter round cutter, cut out center of each dough round to make doughnuts and doughnut holes. toward the end of making the donuts, i simply formed them into rough patties by hand and poked out the hole with my thumb.

3. place a cooling rack on a baking sheet (for draining the donuts). pour oil into large deep skillet to depth of 1 1/2 inches (or fire up your deep fryer). attach deep-fry thermometer and heat oil to 365 F to 370 F. fry doughnut holes in batches until golden brown, turning occasionally, about 2 minutes. using a slotted spoon, transfer to the cooling rack to drain. fry doughnuts, 2 or 3 at a time, until golden brown, adjusting heat to maintain temperature, about 1 minute per side. Using slotted spoon, transfer doughnuts to cooling rack. give the donuts and holes a pat with a paper towel to remove excess oil.

4. make the frosting: soften the cream cheese in the microwave for about 30 seconds. blend in the pumpkin, butter, orange juice, zest and vanilla in a mixer or by hand. add the sugar and beat until light and creamy. spread on donuts or just dip the donuts and holes right into the frosting as you eat.

i’ve got something to admit: i’m not a big fan of muffins. i think the concept is great, but in execution, i’ve just been let down too many times by ones that are bland, dry and overwhelmingly huge (with the exception of my mom’s blueberry muffins - those are amazing). these particular ones right here, however, have brought me a new kind of joy and encouraged me to accept muffins back into my life without question.

the girl and i have been meaning to go apple picking all fall and we finally made it out to the countryside this past weekend. we ended up at rock hill orchard, a small farm in mount airy, MD. luckily, they still had plenty of apples to go around, as well as a big pumpkin patch.

we picked about 15 lbs of apples and the girl grabbed a pumpkin that we made into soup that night. it’s a great little farm with amazing hot apple cider (free samples!). this was the first time i had ever picked apples from a tree, and it’s incredible to actually see where your food comes from. it makes you want to only grow your own crops and never visit a supermarket again.

it’s a good thing we got so many apples because i plan on making a batch of these every weekend. they are that good. they will keep for a few days (i just kept them on a plate covered with plastic wrap), but will probably disappear sooner. i found myself eating them for breakfast, lunch and dinner (and as snacks) in a psychological game that played out with my taste buds asking my brain after each muffin, “why not have another? they’re so light and moist…and delicious…and yep, here we go, we’re eating another, oh god they are so good, why did we even bother asking you in the first place, brain?” my brain is clearly powerless in this situation.

apple muffins
makes 12 muffins. from King Arthur Flour recipes.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
2 apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped (i used honey crisp, great this time of year)

1. in a small bowl, mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. in a large bowl, cream the butter, the white sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. add the egg and beat until fluffy.

2. mix in the buttermilk gently (don’t overmix or the buttermilk will curdle). stir in the flour mixture gently and fold in the apples.

3. pour the batter into 12 muffin cup liners, sprinkle with 1/4 cup brown sugar and bake at 450 F for 10 minutes. after 10 minutes, turn the oven down to 400 F and bake for another 15-20 minutes. allow the muffins to cool in the muffin tin for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

no doubt about it - it’s time to start breaking out the pumpkin recipes. there’s no wrong time of year for it, but there’s just something about the chill of the fall and the colors of the trees that makes every pumpkin flavored thing more magical. and while pies are going to be dominating everyone’s lives over the next month, i wanted to try something new.

these cookies are like taking tiny pumpkin pies with you wherever you go, and there’s definitely nothing wrong with that. the combination of white chocolate and pumpkin is surprisingly refreshing - i can’t believe i haven’t seen more recipes featuring both.

i based this recipe on the never-fail tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe, with the ingredient amounts slightly tweaked to adjust for the moisture of the pumpkin. there are 2 things that happen as a result: the cookies have to bake for almost twice the amount of time, and the texture becomes much more moist and cakey. they’re irresistible with a giant glass of milk.

i’ll be honest: these cookies are ridiculously amazing. i cannot stop eating them. if you’ve got weak self control in the presence of delicious sweets, you might want to make these and give them to your best friends as halloween or thanksgiving gifts. and if you’re already overloaded on pumpkin recipes, save this one for later and bring back the flavors of the fall all year round.

white chocolate macadamia nut pumpkin cookies
adapted from the from the toll house chocolate chip cookie recipe.

3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
cinnamon to taste
nutmeg to taste
cloves to taste
ground ginger to taste
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups white chocolate chunks or chips
1 cup chopped macadamia nuts

1. in a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

2. in a large bowl, soften the butter in the microwave and cream in the white and brown sugars, pumpkin, vanilla, and eggs. add cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger to taste (or smell). if you don’t have all of those spices, pumpkin pie spice works just as well.

3. gradually mix in the flour and add the white chocolate and  macadamia nuts. spoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 375 for 15-17 minutes. remove to cool on racks and serve immediately with a glass of  milk as you lounge in front of a roaring fire.