I’m sure the Cran-Apple Crisps are delicious and I know they are  seasonally appropriate. However, I’m currently in a vacation frame of mind. I leave for Fiji/French Polynesia in a week & a half and I can’t wait. When I read Dorie Greenspan’s Playing Around suggestion of using bananas & pineapple instead of the cranberries and apples, I jumped at it.

I made an 1/8th of the recipe and was able to make 5 two-bite crisps. For the fruit I used: pineapple, banana, mango, and dried pineapple. When I made the crisp topping, I used chipotle chile powder instead of the spices.

Thank you to Em of The Repressed Pastry Chef for hosting this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection. If you would like the recipe, please visit her blog or buy the book.

(I heart my new iPhone for lots of different reasons. One reason is the WordPress App that lets me write posts from anywhere. I started this post while in the mountains surrounding Idyllwild waiting for the rest of my hike group to show up.)

I’ve never seen muffins disappear as quickly as these mini Pear Cranberry Muffins with Spice Cookie Crumble. I don’t know if it was the muffin itself or the crumble or people really like muffins with crumble toppings. Either way, these muffins were a big hit at both work and a meeting/party I attended.

I made the full recipe which made 24 minis and 9 full size. I didn’t have a lemon, so I used lime zest. I also chopped the fresh cranberries instead of keeping them whole. I also subbed white whole wheat flour for some of the all-purpose flour. For the crumble topping, instead of gingersnaps I used Dorie Greenspan’s Sugar-Topped Spice Cookies. The cookies are the November 17th pick for Tuesdays with Dorie. I like it when baking groups become symbiotic.

Thank you to Jennifer of Maple N’ Cornbread for selecting Pear Cranberry Muffins with Gingersnap Crumble for this week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays. If you would like the recipe, visit her blog or buy the book.

I heart sweet potatoes and was considering holding a Sweet Potato Week just like my recent Pumpkin Week. I decided against it because I didn’t want to get sick of sweet potatoes like I did with pumpkin. I’m just getting over my pumpkin ennui.

For a change, I’ve been going back to some of my cookbooks that I haven’t cooked or baked from in awhile. I recently made  Sweet Potato Muffins with Crystallized Ginger from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. I also busted out my book that started me off, the original version How to Cook Everything to make some of the sauces for my pizza party.

This week’s Vegan Tuesday recipe~Morrocan Sweet Potato Salad~ comes from The Art of Simple Food. I changed the recipe a bit. I added a red onion, used lime juice instead of lemon, and doubled the cilantro.  The salad is spiced with saffron, paprika, and cumin.

Moroccan Sweet Potato Salad

Adapted from The Art of Simple Food

• 1 pound of sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
• 1 red onion, coarsely chopped
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt
• Pinch of saffron threads
• 1/2 teaspoon of grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• Salt
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1. Toss sweet potatoes and onions with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Place in 375º F oven and roast until sweet potatoes are tender. Remove from oven and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, whisk together saffron, cumin, paprika, salt, and lime juice. Slowly add in olive oil. Pour over sweet potatoes while they are still warm. Stir in cilantro. Let sit for 30 minutes, tossing occasionally. Serve at room temperature.

The salad is good, but not as good as Mark Bittman’s Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Black Beans and Chili Dressing. I made it for a pot luck a few weeks ago, took pictures, and never blogged it. So here it is:

While googling it for the recipe, I found another Mark Bittman sweet potato salad that sounds delicious: Southwestern Sweet Potato and Quinoa Salad. I’m going to make this for another potluck in a couple weeks.

I went to the very edge of CAKE FAIL, but made it out on the other side with HEAVEN ON A PLATE.

Yes, my cake might not look like much. It doesn’t look like the elegant picture in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking…From My Home to Yours. I overcame a lot of obstacles to make it, but it was worth it–so worth it.

• This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie–Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake–calls for jarred chestnuts. Week after week I would walk down the baking aisle at my local gourmet grocery store and see the jarred chestnuts thinking, “one day I will buy you for a recipe”. Of course, because this is the way things happen, this week the store didn’t have them. I also didn’t have the required sweetened vanilla chestnut spread. I did find and buy unsweetend chestnut puree which I figured I could sweeten myself  the next time I make the cake (and there will be a next time).
• Not having enough time to drive all the way to Whole Foods/Los Angeles, I made the cake with toasted hazelnuts, Nutella, and instead of brandy–I used Frangelico.

• I made 1/4 of the cake batter recipe, 1/3 of the ganache, 1/8 of the syrup, and 1/8 of the glaze. In retrospect, I should have  made more glaze.
• I baked the cake in my 4″ round pan. I should have used two pans. I knew I should have used it. I was feeling lazy and didn’t feel like prepping the second pan. The cake rose like crazy and overflowed like one of those constantly erupting volcanoes in Hawaii. Luckily, once I scraped away the overflow parts I was able to salvage two 1/2″ layers.

• I made the ganache a couple days ahead and it was too hard to spread directly on the cake. I had to wait for it soften a bit.
• My glaze wasn’t smooth. I blame this on not making enough and having to play with it a lot to coat the cake.

In the end, all of that doesn’t matter because this cake was good. Thank you to Katya of Second Dinner for hosting this week. If you would like the recipe, visit her blog or buy the book.

Oh, I almost forgot. I had extra ganache, so I made truffles by rolling balls and dusting with cocoa powder.

And brioche! I got it in my head to bake the brioche for this week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays selection, Sweet Almond Bread Pudding with Raspberry Sauce.

I’ve made brioche before, both the one from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking…From My Home to Yours and from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. This time I decided to try the brioche recipe from Elisabeth Prueitt’s Tartine. As Tartine recipes tend to go, it was a fussy recipe requiring a pre-ferment, both freezer & refrigerator time, and washing lots of dishes. And as Tartine recipes tend to go, it was the best recipe I’ve made. The crumb was unbelievable and the bread was gorgeous. I made the full recipe which yielded 2 loaves and 12 petite brioche sans tête (didn’t feel like adding the têtes).

In the introduction to the recipe Elisabeth Prueitt suggests using slices of brioche for tartines, French open-faced sandwiches. I thought that was a swell idea and made one using leftover toppings from my pizza party. It’s a 4-Cheese tartine with sun-dried tomatoes and red onions.  Most of the brioche is residing in my freezer for French toast emergencies.

I only made a 1/4 of the Sweet Melissa recipe because I’m not a fan of bread pudding. I made 1/2 of the raspberry sauce because it will be great on ice cream. Thank you to Candace of Candy Girl for hosting this week. If you would like the recipe, visit her blog or buy the book–Melissa Murphy’s The Sweet Melissa Baking Book.

After a long hiatus, I’ve remembered to submit this to Yeastspotting!

{This is my Vegan Tuesday post, which obviously is late this week. It’s been one of those crazy weeks. Vacation in exactly 3 weeks, can’t wait.}

Both of these recipes came from the very.last.issue. of Gourmet and both are naturally vegan. Both quick (even the prep time for the butternut squash–either I’m getting good or there was magic in the air), I came home from work at 6:30 pm, started the pilaf, then moved on to the beans, and finished both in time for my 8 pm yoga class. You’re supposed to add spinach to the beans, but I didn’t have any.

Click HERE for the Spanish Beans recipe and click HERE for the Squash & Red Pepper Pilaf recipe.

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

It often seems like the things I’m most trepid about making turn out to be easy. It happened with bagels and it happened again with this month’s Daring Bakers challenge. I’m back on track after missing two months and I was so excited when I found out the baking challenge was to make macarons.

I’ve wanted to bake these lovely French cookies for awhile and even took a class on how to make them at Surfas through Gourmandise Desserts. It was a fun class and I learned a few tips. The most important tip I learned was feet-achievement (the ridge at the bottom of each cookie half)  is a direct function of enough rest time after piping and before baking. You have to allow enough time for the exterior to harden before they go into the oven. That’s it. Now that I’ve made them once, I can’t wait to make them again. In fact, I decided I will make them every time I make ice cream. Use the yolks for ice cream and the whites for macarons. Perfect.

I made vanilla macarons using vanilla sugar and filled some with leftover peanut butter frosting, some with Nutella, and some with both peanut butter frosting and Nutella. I also sprinkled some with honey powder. The cookies came out perfect. Crunchy on the outside, with a slight chew. I served the macarons at my pizza party along with a gazillion other desserts and people loved them. It was very cool.

Thanks to Ami for hosting this month’s challenge. For the recipe visit her blog, Baking Without Fear.

If you want a show-stopping dessert this is it. If you want a quick and easy treat this is NOT it. Luckily I had a party this week so I was in need of a fabulous dessert. With lots of dishes and ingredients, this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection, the Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte, certainly fit the bill.

It’s a souped-up brownie with a hint of spice from coarsely-ground black pepper and liquored-up dried tart cherries. I love liquored-up dried fruit recipes because you get to set them on fire. Fun times.

The torte is topped with a vanilla-flavored creamy mascarpone mousse. I decorated the top with sprinkled cocoa powder and chopped and whole chocolate-covered cherries.

The torte was so successful that it disappeared before I could try it. My guests loved it and really dug the surprise of the black pepper.

The pizza party was also a success. All the guests had a fabulous time and can’t wait for my next party in January. Unfortunately, I didn’t take good pictures during the party. I was so busy rolling out dough and watching the oven. It was interesting to see the different ways people topped their pizza. Some were very methodical and took a along time creating their pizza, others were very haphazard.

The Dessert Spread, before party

I made 6 different types of pizza dough (which I divided into 5 oz individual pizza size ) and 4 different sauces. I provided some toppings and guests were told to bring their favorite toppings. We baked most on my pizza stone, but we also made a few pan-style.

The Dessert Spread, after party

Thank you to April of Short + Rose for hosting this week’s selection. In addition to being a fabulous baker, she is also an avid gardener and crafter. I love reading about everything that comes out of her garden. If you would like the recipe for the torte visit her blog or buy the book.

The frosting was unbelievable. These were good. These were hit. Too tired to write more. Had big party; now have to clean.

Thanks to Holly of Phe/Mom/enom for hosting this week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays. If you would like the recipe, visit her blog or buy the book. Man, I’m tired.

Today marks the last day of Pumpkin Week here on Pink Stripes. I’m officially pumpkin’d out. Not so much the eating part, but the making pumpkin recipes part. I’m so happy I’m going to be out of the country for Thanksgiving and won’t be around to make a pumpkin pie. The family always has to have a pumpkin pie; it’s not Thanksgiving without one.

The recipe for Mini Pumpkin-Gingerbread Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting comes from Whole Foods. I made them for my pizza party I’m hosting tonight.

You can find the recipe for the cupcakes HERE.

You can find the recipe for the frosting HERE.