Crumble bars are my go-to treat when I need something straight forward, can be eaten out of hand and are easily shared. As you know by now, the base recipe is flour, sugar, melted butter and vanilla and then anything else goes — one fruit, one “add in” (nuts, mini-chocolate chis, even oatmeal). It being autumn and all, I thought that I would go with pears and walnuts this time. Do you think that is fall-esque enough? The pear jam had just a hint of cinnamon too.
This is a quick and delicious recipe that you can actually do with a few types of berries — blueberries of course, but also blackberries or currants or raspberries (although I would par-freeze raspberries before mixing them into the batter as them can be a little mushy. Also, this recipe as written is for a fairly small bundt cake (like smaller than your usual) so you can also double it for a regular sized bundt cake pan. If you like, this size can be made into a 4 x6 loaf pan though. Anyway, it is delicious, works well as a breakfast cake or a cake for tea and it travels well (isn’t too “fall-apart-y”) so would serve nicely at a potluck!
I know that you might be getting sick of me saying this (although I don’t think that I say it all that often), but sometimes I make a recipe that just turns out perfect. This is one of those recipes.
I have this tendency to buy 3-4 bananas when I know that I can’t eat all of them before they get too rip (I am more of a less-on-the-ripe-side banana girl) so by the time two weeks rolls around, I have 2 or even more bananas to “use up”. That means a lot of banana bread. This time, I decided to make something different and made these Banana Blondies. They are delicious. Moist, a little chewy, super-banana-y. I added walnuts to the mix but skip them if you aren’t a fan. Other “mix in” options are toffee bits, chocolate chips or other nuts. Swirling in a but of Nutella might also work!
These Cheddar Parmesan + Hot Red Pepper Linzer “Cookies” are actually great, except that they are pretty fragile and they fall apart easily. You can put them on a charcuterie platter, but can’t put them in a bag or box to mail. Delicious, but a little impractical. Oh well, guess I’ll just have to eat them myself.
I’m not one for making a log of candy really…. sure fudge and truffles around Christmas and the like, but rarely candy, so this “Nuts About You” Sea Salt Peanut Brittle is a bit unique for me. It’s a very American thing. But it turned out well and makes a great Valentine’s Day present. Just watch your teeth — this stuff is hard!