Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Donut Muffins

I haven't posted in quite some time, but that doesn't mean I haven't been cooking! Here's some things to catch you up...during the hurricane life without power was getting pretty dull. Lucky for us we had a generator and were able to crank up about half the house...so I started baking. These muffins I've had pinned for quite some time, and these photos were from the second time I made them. The recipe is from Sweet Pea's Kitchen called Brown Sugar Pecan Pear Muffins

However, I swapped out pears for apples because I had them on hand, and also omitted the pecans. I also glazed these muffins from another one of Christina's recipes found here: Glazed Donut Muffins

These muffins are so easy to make, although I was really surprised at how THICK the batter was. It's REALLY thick, so be forewarned...they'll still cook up fine! I thought at first I had forgotten an ingredient, but nope. all was well.

Once cooled, Dip them in the glaze mixture and let it set...Super delicious muffins!

Cookie Butter Cookies

About a month ago my partner at work had told me that on a visit to NY he had acquired a jar of "Speculoos Pasta". I had never heard of such a thing before and after reading up on it - I was intrigued. You can read the description in the photo below but as far as I could tell it's made up of mashed up cookies and some other goodness - and if you ask my brother-in-law it "tastes like Christmas morning". The consistency is smooth like creamy peanut butter - but the taste is totally different. It also goes by the name of Speculoos, Cookie Butter or Biscoff Spread depending on the brand. 

As I've mentioned, I read a LOT of food blogs. So about a week after learning about Speculoos, I began seeing it pop up in the food blogs everywhere. Now I knew I had to try this. It seemed that Trader Joe's made it's own Cookie Butter as well and since it survived the great peanut butter recall of 2012 it was a no-brainer.  

I decided for my first recipe, I'd try this one (another from Sweet Pea's Kitchen): Biscoff Oatmeal Cookies. These cookies are amazing. You must make them. Seriously incredible. I've made this recipe twice and on both occasions someone has said "these cookies are even better the second day" I'm not sure why this is - but it's definitely good to know. They come out crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. A perfect cookie indeed.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

The other day, despite it being almost 85˚ out, I felt like baking some cinnamon swirl bread. I found this recipe for Homemade Cinnamon Bread from the Pioneer Woman. She has some seriously detailed photos and instructions on her page if you're interested. I did however, follow her instructions and after an entire afternoon of mixing, rising, rolling, rising and baking the bread was finally done.

I didn't begin taking pictures until after I had already added the cinnamon sugar, rolled the bread and let it rise for the second time. So here's what it looked like before going into the oven:

After it came out, I let it cool on a rack for about 30 min.

Finally I sliced into it and the hubby and I split a few slices while it was still warm. It was pretty good. A little dry actually, but pretty damn good.

Then this morning, it was time for cinnamon toast:

                     

It was much more delicious toasted with butter. So delicious in fact, that I think I'm going to make another slice now...