Cranberry Oat Bars

Every year at Thanksgiving I look forward to making these bars with the leftover cranberry sauce. I even buy an extra bag of cranberries just to be sure that I have enough leftovers!

Side note: I’ve been thinking about my resolutions for this year, and I’m really having a hard time setting goals or aspirations, but as I sat down to write this post, the one thought I had was that I want to make more of these bars this year. So there’s that.

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Three Uses for Matcha

Have you gotten a matcha latte at the local coffee shop and loved it? Want to skip the lines and make your own matcha drinks at home? We’ve rounded up two delicious drinks and one dessert option, and as you’ll see, we’re not purists. These are our favorite delicious and simple uses for matcha powder.

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Rice Pudding

Cinnamon is our ingredient of the season. You can find our full archive of cinnamon posts here.

When I think of comforting cinnamon desserts, rice pudding often comes to mind. Granted, cinnamon is not a key ingredient in the recipe, but we always top our rice pudding with a sprinkle of ground cinnamon.

I’m a huge fan of eating the pudding straight from the pot when it’s ready, having some from dessert, and then having it again for breakfast, but you do you.

Rice Pudding

This is the recipe that we grew up eating. It’s a boiled pudding, as opposed to the baked variety. And we like to keep it simple, no raisins please! And while this isn’t the fanciest of desserts, if serving it to guests, it’s always fun to elevate the experience with fancy dishes and spoons.

  • 1/2 cup rice
  • 3 cups water
  • 2 cups milk, separated
  • 1 can evaporated milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 1 Tbsp cornstarch
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • cinnamon
  • nutmeg

Bring the water to a boil. Add the rice and cook for 20 minutes or until the water is gone.

In a large pot combine the 1 cup of milk, evaporated milk, vanilla, and sugar. Beat the egg and cornstarch into the remaining cup of milk and add it to the pot. Add the cooked rice, warm over medium heat, stirring constantly until it boils. Boil for 3 minutes.

Cool and serve with a sprinkling of ground cinnamon and nutmeg.

Cooky Cinnamon Refrigerator Cookies

This recipe comes from Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book. Yes, cooky, not cookie!

I picked up a pristine copy of this book at our favorite local coffee shop, Bamse, in our hometown of Shamokin. They are located in an old church, are dog friendly, sell used books, and have the motto “do only good”. Could there be anything better?

No, nothing could be better. Now do some good by baking these cookies for your neighbor.

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Apple Crisp

Cinnamon is our ingredient of the season. You can see our full archive of cinnamon recipes here and some more apple recipes here. This year we’ve been running a Waste Less Wednesday highlight. This week I’m here to remind you to not waste a good (or bad!) apple when you find one. The apples used for this crisp were buggy, but the bug-free bits were so amazingly delicious. It was definitely worth the time to trip them up and turn them into a delicious dessert.

Forget pumpkin spice season, in our house fall is apple crisp season!

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Cinnamon Tea Cake

Cinnamon is our ingredient of the season. You can find our archive of cinnamon posts here.

With the long weekend coming up, this simple cake makes a delicious breakfast that’s perfect for sharing (and snacking!). Yes, the cake’s combination of basic ingredients + easy prep makes this the perfect cinnamon snacking cake.

Cinnamon Tea Cake

With a list of pantry staples for its ingredients, it’s likely that you’ll have everything that you need to bake this on a whim. It’s definitely the sort of simplicity that I really appreciate when want to bake something first thing in the morning… and then snacking on it all weekend.

This recipe comes from the Sweetest Menu site. I often find myself making minor adjustments to recipes. Reducing sugar content is my m.o., but in this case I didn’t have to make a single change. The recipe was perfect as is! So perfect

  • 1 stick butter
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 3/4 cup whole milk

  • 1 Tbsp melted butter
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 Tbsp sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease and flour an 8-inch round cake pan Instead of flouring, you could grease and line with parchment paper.

Cream together the butter, sugar, and vanilla until well blended and light (about 1-2 minutes). Add the eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping down the sides between each addition.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon. Add half of the flour mixture and half of the milk to the batter, mixing in on a low speed. Add the remaining flour and milk and mix until the batter is smooth, but being careful not to unnecessarily over-mix.

Bake for about 30-35 minutes. Until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. While baking, mix together the remaining 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1 Tbsp sugar.

When the cake comes out of the over, brush with the melted butter and then sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar mixture.