We are bad banana eaters. Very inconsistent. Some weeks we’ll go through a bunch in a couple of days and other weeks they will languish on the counter turning spotted and black as we both try our best to ignore them and hope the other one will deal with them. So, it is in everyone’s best interest to collect recipes that use up the bananas once they have passed the point of no return. read more+++

Yes, the name of this recipe made me laugh too. The taste, however, is not funny. It is buttery and delicious and an excellent way to use the other half of the dough from the kuchen. After the many steps that go into making that masterpiece, this simple preparation will seem easy and breezy, but no less satisfying. read more+++

I don’t know Carole Walter, but I love Carole Walter. She is a woman after my own heart. She is an incredibly accomplished baker, teacher and cookbook author and judging from her author photo, a very sweet lady. But the books are what I want to talk to you about today. Specifically, Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins and More, her encyclopedia-like cookbook dedicated to these pastries. An entire cookbook about coffee cake, people! You know how I feel about coffee cake! Walter’s books are wonderful resources for anyone interested in baking and I encourage you all to seek out her recipes. read more+++

I live closer to St. Louis than most of you, but I had never heard of a St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake until I came across an article in the New York Times a few month ago. I was intrigued. But not intrigued enough to do anything about it until I saw that Deb loved it. That night I made the cake myself and it knocked my socks off. It is one of the best things I have made in quite some time. For the record, Bryan didn’t agree and claimed it tasted like an Entenmann’s Coffee Cake you would get at the grocery store. I see what he means, but those things are good!

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The first time I had a king cake I did not enjoy it. Not because I didn’t like the taste of sweet bricoche-y bread topped with icing and colored sugar, but because I happened to get the slice with the baby in it. For those of you who don’t know the tradition, a small plastic trinket (often of a baby) or a coin is hidden in the baked cake and the person who finds it in their slice gets good luck, or to be king, or to bring the cake the following year, or something. Well, for some reason at the time I had that first slice of king cake with the baby inside of it, I did not want to tell anyone I had found it. I’m not exactly sure why, but it seemed embarrassing. So, I hid the baby and didn’t say anything. By the time we had finished the cake and everyone was complaining about the bakery forgetting to include a baby it seemed too weird to fess up. So my first experience with this cake was awkward. Thankfully, I have recovered from my king cake issues and am now able to enjoy a slice, baby or not.

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I wonder what it means that the first two recipes of 2010 are breakfast treats? I am guessing that getting out of bed on these dark, cold, winter mornings requires something more tempting than my usual bowl of cereal or piece of fruit. These Apple Cider muffins will do the trick and have had me looking forward to breakfast for the past couple of days. And lunch. And whenever else I manage to fit them in. They are simple and lovely and keep well. The texture is best on the day you make them but the flavor is best the next day, which I think is a good thing—they evolve.

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Truth be told, I don’t care so much about pumpkins. I love them when they are hollowed-out and carved into jack-o-lanterns but I don’t need them in my ravioli, bread, or pies. I get excited about the first bite but I am usually bored by the second.  I generally pass up recipes for pumpkin bread, but this recipe was in my new cookbook obsession, The Craft of Baking by Karen DeMasco. Bryan loves pumpkin bread and so I thought I would give it a try. read more+++

Well, this is it. The week I have been both eagerly anticipating and dreading. We are closing on our new place and moving in this weekend. Currently, all of our kitchen is packed in boxes and Bryan resorted to drinking tea out of a measuring cup yesterday morning. Moving really is such a drag. No matter how well you prepare, or how excited you are for your new place—it just kind of blows. BUT! Soon it will be over and Lottie + Doof will return to its regular programming. I have some amazing guest posts that I am very excited to share and a pile of autumn recipes that I am looking forward to tackling. Before I say goodbye from this kitchen, I wanted to share a recipe for Gâteau Breton that is delicious.

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I get such nice emails from you. I am always so happy when someone drops me a line to ask a question or share their enthusiasm for one of the recipes I recommended. I recently got an e-mail from the woman who runs The Countess of Nassau County, a blog based in Long Island. “The Countess” had written a very kind review of Lottie + Doof and wanted to share it with me. In it, she calls me out on my love of baked fruit, “the man loves him some baked fruit; in a pie, in a muffin, in a crumble, in a cake, in your Uncle Al’s shoe, any form will do.” I laughed out loud when I read this, mostly because it is true.

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Don’t recipes that claim to be best the same day annoy you? I know there are perfectly good reasons for why this may be true but I don’t care. I’m often baking for Bryan and I and if we were to eat everything I made in one day we would likely be dead by now. I like things to last a few days. I like to bring them to work for an afternoon snack. I even like to get bored of them by day three and excited to move on to the next treat. I sometimes find myself avoiding the recipes that tell me I have to eat it all that day, but that is silly and these little cakes will demonstrate why. read more+++