Daring Bakers' Challenge: 12 Days of Cookies

Holiday season is the time for sharing and Peta of Peta Eats is sharing a dozen cookies, some classics and some of her own, from all over the world with us.

Our challenge was to make at least one of the twelve cookie or bar recipes provided.  I chose to make the chocolate hazelnut cookies.  I followed the recipe exactly, except for substituting the egg with one tablespoon of ground flax seeds and three tablespoons of water and the cow's milk with almond milk.  I did cut the recipe in half because 4 dozen cookies is a little much.

Roasted Pumpkin Soup

I bought a beautiful organic pumpkin to carve for Halloween and then it rained most of the day, so I didn't carved it.  I figured we wouldn't get any trick or treaters anyway.  (we only had four).  Mr. RK was happy to eat all the extra chocolate, but what to do with that beautiful pumpkin?

First Hard Frost

We had our first hard frost this week.  The kind of frost that burns the leaves of the summer crops like squashes, cucumbers and beans and puts an end to their harvest.  It came late this year, but we've had all the tell tail signs that it was coming.  

Apricot Pine Nut Cauliflower Pilaf

Recently, I came across several recipes for cauliflower pilaf on Paleo Diet websites, these recipes replaced the traditional rice in a pilaf with finely chopped cauliflower.  I loved the idea because we love this beautiful vegetable I'm always looking for new ways to cook it..  These recipes all called for steaming the cauliflower to make it soft, but I chose to roast it, to give it a richer flavor and a more grain like texture. 

Daring Bakers' Challenge: Mille-Feuille (Napoleons)

Our October 2012 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Suz of Serenely Full.  Suz challenged us to not only tackle buttery and flaky pastry, but then to take it a step further and create a sinfully delicious Mille Feuille dessert with it!

Mille-Feuille is french for a "thousand layers" referring to the layers of puff pastry in this delicate dessert.  The three layers of pastry are alternated with creme patissiere or pastry cream.  The Italians (and most Americans) call this pastry a Napoleon. 

Brownies

I've been working on my vegan brownie recipe for years, striving for that perfect balance of a crunchy top with a fudgy center.  I've tried brownies with tofu and brownies with black beans.  I've tried sweetening them with coconut sugar or agave, all without success.  I believe I finally done it, finally perfected the vegan brownie.  I've made this recipe twice now and they were delicious.  They're made with a lot of sugar, raw sugar, but it's still sugar.  I just can't get that crunchy top with out it.

Apple Cinnamon Cake

We harvested all of our apples in September and now there are just a few misshapen and buggy ones left, rolling around in my refrigerator.  It's time to stop ignoring them and put them to good use.  This was the inspiration behind an apple filled cinnamon cake.  That, and the fact that you can smell fall in the air.