I am a big fan of snickerdoodles, the classic American sugar cookies rolled in a cinnamon sugar mixture. Not only to I like the original cookies, but I’ve used the idea to make a few spinoffs, including Snickerdoodle French Toast and Snickerdoodle Scones. So, when I was flipping through my files of recipes clipped from magazines and newspapers and noticed that I had saved one for Snickerdoodle Pie from an old issue of Better Homes & Gardens (not sure what issue, possibly in 2008), I immediately put it on the “must-try” list.

The pie is one that should have a very wide appeal, with the look and flavor of a snickerdoodle in pie form. I think it’s actually better than the cookies themselves, although one could argue that it’s not quite as easy to munch on as a cookie would be. It consists of a vanilla-flavored top layer that is a cross between a cookie and a cake. This layer has a cinnamon overlay that gives the pie the look of an actual snickerdoodle cookie. Underneath the cookie layer, there is a thin caramel layer that adds a lot of moisture and flavor to the cake, with notes of both caramel, cinnamon and browned butter. It really takes the pie from good to great. Of course, there is also a crisp pie crust at the bottom holding the whole thing together.

The pie is easy to make, with a method that is similar to that of a pudding cake. First, the cookie layer is poured into an unbaked pie crust. Then, the pie is topped with a sweet, syrup mixture. It is put into the oven and the layers meld together, then separate into caramel and cookie as the pie bakes. You can use a homemade pie crust for this recipe or a storebought one for this pie.

Serve the pie warm - either warm from the oven or reheated in the microwave - so that the caramel layer is oozing and juicy. The pie is great on its own and also goes well with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
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Gingerbread houses may have some competition this year for edible Christmas decorations. Williams Sonoma has just released a new, limited edition Snowy Village Cakelet Pan for the season. The pan bakes up six small cakes in the shapes of show-covered fairytale homes. The cast-iron pan is made by NordicWare (as are just about all of Williams Sonoma’s special edition pans), so it’s a heavy-weight pan. It also has a nonstick finish to help preserve some of the details of the cakes when you release them onto a cooling rack before baking.

Most cakes are going to look cute on a cake stand, these cakes can actually become part of your decor. You can set them out at the beginning of the evening during a holiday event and leave them out to be admired before serving. They don’t need much decoration, but a dusting of powdered sugar will give them some “snow” and a few dots of colored icing and you’ll have a string of Christmas lights going around the entire village!

I am a big fan of coconut and try to use it in recipes whenever I can. Coconut milk and coconut cream are great, but really I like the taste and texture of shredded coconut and that is generally the type of coconut that I - and probably most of you bakers our there - use most. The most commonly found in grocery stores in my area and in most of the US is sweetened shredded coconut, but unsweetened shredded  coconut is also easily available and I often get asked which is better for baking for use in a certain recipe or if the two can be substituted for one another.The simple answer is that the two are pretty much identical in how they behave in recipes, mixing in easily and adding a nice, chewy texture. You can use these two types of coconut interchangeably in a recipe and get good results. That said, if a specific type is called for in a recipe, I would try to stick with it because the two coconuts taste a bit different and will give you a different result. If no specific type is called for, you can use what you have on hand or whichever type you prefer.

The sweetened coconut has sugar added to it before drying, so it tends to be a bit sweeter and more moist from the outset. The sugar actually helps to bring out the flavor of the coconut, but since most baked goods will have sugar in them anyway, this isn’t necessary to ensure a good finished result and unsweetened will still perform well. There is a small chance that sweetened might be slightly too sweet in a recipe that calls for unsweetened, but the sweetened coconut is not so sweet on its own that it should really throw off a recipe in that way.

Bananas pair surprisingly well with coffee. Even big coffee chains have had banana-flavored coffee drinks over the past couple of years, mixing bananas with espresso, chocolate and/or caramel. I don’t think that these drinks were as popular as some on the menu, but I also bet that not enough people gave them a fair shake. Since I’ve been playing with Starbucks Via lately, I decided to mix the two flavors together in a baked good, a variation on banana bread that incorporates coffee.

I added coffee into the banana bread batter itself. The Via I used incorporated very smoothly and added a ton of coffee flavor, so you can really taste it in the finished bread. Since black coffee isn’t exactly sweet, the coffee ensures that this bread has a mellow, rich taste to it and isn’t too sweet. That said, I did want to add back some sweetness, so I incorporated some milk chocolate chips into the bread. The milk chocolate goes well with the banana and the coffee, and the bread overall had a great mix of flavors and was a nice twist on plainer banana bread. This might not be as popular with the kids as the standard banana bread, but it gets my vote for pairing with a cup of coffee or latte in the morning.

I used disposable, aluminum foil mini loaf pans for these breads so that I could give them out as gifts. The pans measure about 5×3-inches, give or take a little bit. Since they’re not the sturdiest things, I put them on a baking sheet. Bear in mind that, if you use these same little loaf pans, the baking time may be impacted slightly by the type of baking sheet you choose to set them on. An insulated sheet might mean a few extra minutes in the oven. A heavier, darker baking sheet might mean a few minutes less. Test your bread with a toothpick before the timer goes off just to be sure. If you happen to have regular pans of this size, use those and grease them lightly first.
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• The first lemons on my tree are starting to ripen and Jules Food’s Lemon Almond Bundt Cake is a great way to use up just a little bit of lemon. The bundt is has a tight, moist crumb and has a combination of almond and lemon flavor in it. The almond flour, or ground almonds, used to make the cake give it a little bit of denseness, like a pound cake, but do not make it too heavy. I suspect that this is a cake that would keep well for a couple of days in the kitchen.
• A very easy, but extremely festive, recipe for the holiday season is the Salted Gingersnap and Hazelnut Bark at Bitchin’ Camero. I tried some chocolate covered gingersnaps last year that were ok, and this combination of ingredients sounds so much better. Store bought gingersnaps - the crisp kind - are combined with melted chocolate, spread into a thin layer and topped with chopped hazlenuts and sea salt. It’s easy and makes a great gift or holiday snack.
• My Recession Kitchen made some Pear and Chocolate Scones, using a basic scone dough with a filling of fresh pears and chocolate chips. This is a great idea for incorporating fresh fruit into a scone, especially something juicy like a pear, to get a good texture from the dough without introducing too much extra liquid during baking. The post also has some good tips that make the process of rubbing butter into the flour mixture incredibly easy.
• Aside from banana bread, one of my favorite things to do with bananas is to make honey-sweetened Crunchy Banana Pops. A great variation on this is Bell’alimento’s Banana Nutella Pops Dipped in Coconut. For these, bananas are spread with Nutella and rolled in coconut, then they are frozen. The bananas take on an ice cream-like texture when frozen, but the whole pop is more flavorful (and a bit healthier!) than your average ice cream bar. You can use chopped nuts or sprinkles on these pops in place of coconut for a little variety.
• I thought that I had made rice krispy treats a little more fun by using bright-red Franken Berries cereal to make them for Halloween. Smitten Kitchen made the popular cereal treat a little more gourmet with a batch of Salted Brown Butter Crispy Treats. These marshmallow treats aren’t any more difficult to make than regular treats. The secret is taking a few minutes to make browned butter - melted butter that has been cooked to intensify its flavor - to give the bars a rich, buttery, nutty flavor that both kids and adults can enjoy!

Anyone who has been in a Starbucks lately has seen Starbucks Via. The coffee company has been promoting their new instant coffee like crazy, so it’s pretty hard to miss. If you were lucky, you might have even gotten a free sample or two in a promotional taste test. I say “lucky” because Via is actually excellent for an instant coffee (and quite a bit better than some regular coffees). Starbucks came up with a new process to produce it, so it is not the same as the freeze-dried instant coffee that populates store shelves, nor does it taste anything like that watery, bland stuff. Via comes in two flavors - Colombian and Italian roasts - and tastes fresh and strong. It also dissolves easily in both hot and cold water, thanks to that new production process, so it can be used any time.

While I actually have taken a big like to taking a few packets of Via when I travel, I have found that it is an excellent baking ingredient in the home, too. Adding it into a recipe that calls for coffee flavoring is like adding a whole cup of  coffee with just a little bit of powder. It definitely packs in much more flavor than regular instant coffee and incorporates much more seamlessly. This means that there is no need to dissolve it in a bit of hot liquid before adding it to a batter; you can stir it into dry ingredients just as you would with any ground spice, and it will blend perfectly into your finished product. The Colombian is good, but the Italian has a darker and stronger flavor, more like espresso. Via is a little more expensive than a generic instant coffee, but definitely well worth the price for the flavor and the convenience. I think that it is actually easier to use than the instant espresso powder that I usually use, and pretty much ties with Trablit coffee extract for flavor. Definitely worth keeping a box around the pantry if you like to use coffee flavoring in your baked goods or other dishes.