• Croissants, brioche and other french pastries are a good way to start off the morning, but one of my other favorite breakfast pastries is the Pastelito. Pastelitos are Cuban pastries that have a guava and cheese filling. 5 Star Foodie made a batch of Pastelitos at home, starting with a layer of puff pastry and filling it with a mixture of cream cheese and guava jelly. Guava paste is traditionally used in these pastries, but it is more difficult to find in stores than guava jelly. A quick brush of an egg glaze and sugar syrup for extra sweetness, and these pastries come out of the oven looking like something you’d find at a good Cuban bakery.
• Hamantaschen are cookies traditionally made for the Jewish holiday of Purim. As a holiday cookie, they’re one of those treats that people don’t usually make at home, but are much better when made at home rather than being store-bought.Simply Sifted starts these a batch of these cookies off with a simple dough that is flavored with orange zest. Any kind of fruit filling or jam can be used to add a splash of flavor and color to the center of the cookies, which are rolled out and then folded up into triangular hat shapes before baking.
• Natalie’s Killer Cuisine’s Salted Cashew Cookies with Homemade Dulce de Leche are a twist on peanut butter cookies. They start off with whole, roasted cashews, which need to be processed in a food processor (with a little bit of peanut oil) until very smooth and creamy. The nut butter then goes right into a cookie dough, along with brown sugar, butter, vanilla and a few cashew bits for crunch. The cookies are finished with a little sprinkle of sea salt, which makes then a good match for the creamy dulce de leche spread that sandwiches them together.
• Dense, decadent and rich all describe the Vintage Butterscotch Bars from Culinary in the Country. These easy to make bars are a type of blondies, as their chewy and almost fudgy texture does make you think of brownies, even though there is no chocolate in these. The bars get their flavor from a very generous amount of brown sugar. To stop these bars from being too sweet, CitC mixed in some chopped walnuts, but cutting them up into bite-sized pieces will let you savor their flavor without being overwhelmed by butterscotch, too.
• Cookies and Cups has been experimenting with making Homemade Kit Kats. These layered bars aren’t really exactly like the candy bars for a number of reasons, the most obvious of which being that they’re quite large. Still, the flavors are there and with good quality ingredients you’re going to get a treat that will taste better than the “real” thing. The bars start with a lyaer of salted club crackers, which are topped with a graham cracker-containing caramel. Another layer of crackers and caramel comes before the final crisp layer of crackers and finishing layer a rich chocolate peanut butter mixture.

• Usually, one of the best parts about eating waffles is getting to douse them with maple syrup as you eat. My Baking Addiction’s Maple Chip Waffles infuse some maple right into the batter. Maple Chips look like brown sugar-colored chocolate chips and have an intense maple flavor to them, so you get a little bit in every bite of whatever you mix them into. Naturally, you should still go right ahead and serve these waffles with more syrup, but the leftover chips - which you’ll probably need to order online - can be saved to add into cookies and other baked goods.
• Gluten Free Pastel de Arroz reallys conjure up memories of childhood for Cannelle et Vanille. Well, the smell and flavor of eggy custard kissed with cinnamon, vanilla and lemon peel brings back memories of childhood, since the kind served up at the local bakery used buttery puff pastry instead of a gluten free one to form the crust. You can go either way if you try these at home, but having the gluten free option means that these lovely little tarts will be accessible to just about everyone.
• I’ve heard that Momofuku’s Crack Pie is dangerously addictive. Looking at Momofuku for 2’s pictures after baking one up at home, courtesy of a recipe for it from the LA Times, you can start to see why. The pie starts out with an oatmeal cookie crumb crust, made out of freshly baked oatmeal cookies that are crumbled just for this purpose. The filling is a very buttery mixture that includes sugar, heavy cream and egg yolks and falls somewhere between custard and caramel on the flavor spectrum. The recipe makes enough for two, so if you don’t want to risk digging into the second one yourself, take one to a friend’s house to share.
• St Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, and what better dessert to try than a Guinness Bundt Cake from Confections of a (Closet) Master Baker. Many recipes that call for Guinness also call for chocolate, but this cake does no such thing and is more like a gingerbread or spice cake. It uses a whole can of the rich-tasting stout, as well as molasses, lots of spices and a generous handful of candied ginger. It’s spicy, flavorful and a great way to infuse a little of the Irish spirit (or Irish beer, in this case) into your cooking.
• If you’re tired of the same old peanut butter cookies, another peanut buttery recipe worth trying is the one for Chewy Peanut Butter Blondies from Epicurean Escapism. These blondies have plenty of peanut butter in them that contributes a rich, nutty flavor and helps to give the bars their chewiness. A handful of mini chocolate chips breaks up all that peanut butter when you go to bite into a piece. I think that a handful of chopped, toasted peanuts on top would add another layer of tastiness to this easy to make dessert, adding a little extra salt, a little crunch and making the base seem even chewier by contrast.

• From time to time, I’ve spotted miniature bananas in the supermarket. These minis are about 1/4 the size of a regular banana, making them almost too cute to eat. So what do you do with these? You could try making Cook Almost Anything’s Senorita Banana Fritters. These teeny bananas are coated with breadcrumbs and coconut, then deep fried until crispy, tender and sweet. Since you only get a few bites per banana,make sure to pick up a whole bunch before you start!
• Cook eat Love’s Cheesy Potato Pie is a rustic looking pie that is packed with more flavors than you’d think just from looking at the crust! It has, of course, plenty of potatoes, but it also includes sliced apples for sweetness, thinly sliced ham, lots of cheddar cheese and just a bit of thyme. The result could be served as a main dish with a big salad at dinner, or it could be sliced up into smaller portions to serve as an appetizer or snack.
• Taking a bit of Nutella Fudge Crumble is a bit like eating an oatmeal cookie slathered with generous amounts of Nutella, or at least that is how Eat My Cake Now describes it. The recipe starts with an oatmeal crumble mixture that is spread on the bottom of a baking pan, then is topped with a generous amount of the creamy hazelnut spread, followed by more of the oatmeal crumble mixture. It is then baked until crunchy and you just have to wait for it to cool before digging in. Also, I love the picture of the measuring spoon full of Nutella - it definitely puts me in the mood for some myself!
• YumSugar posted a neat twist on Samoas Girl Scout Cookies that turns the cookies into a tart. Samoas Tarts start off with a shortbread-like coconut crust baked in regular muffin cups. These tart shells are filled with melted chocolate and topped off with a scoop of coconut ice cream and a drizzle of dulce de leche. They’re not quite like making the real thing, but definitely an indulgent treat that captures the flavors of the popular cookies.
• You can find even more coconut in the Pineapple and Toasted Coconut Cake from Junglefrog Cooking. This bundt cake comes from the book Cake Keeper Cakes. The cake is loaded with toasted coconut and chunks of pineapple. The cake will be quite moist from all the butter and sour cream in it, so make sure to pat the pineapple dry or drain it very well before mixing it in, so you don’t risk making the cake mushy around the pineapple pieces from having too much moisture. The cake has a good, tropical flavor to it thanks to a drizzle of lime glaze before serving.

• Rhubarb are just coming into season in my area and that means that it’s time to round up a few recipes that use itDaily Unadventures in Cooking’s Apple and Rhubarb Crisp is a great way to start off because the recipe is simple and delicious. The filling for this crisp is a combination of apples and rhubarb, spiked with a little orange juice and cinnamon. The topping is made with oatmeal and brown sugar, as well as flour and butter, so it has a nice nuttiness to it in addition to a crisp buttery flavor. Serve it warm, with a bit of ice cream if you’re feeling indulgent.
• Food Mayhem tried to make a batch of Caramel Macchiato Cupcakes that would taste as close as possible to the drinks with the same name that you can get at Starbucks - and it looks like FM came pretty close! The cupcakes start with a coffee batter. The batter is divided and espresso powder is added to a portion of it - standing in for the flavor of the espresso shot in the drink. A light, foamy meringue icing and a generous drizzle of caramel syrup finishes these off. I’ll have a latte with mine!
• Valentine’s Day may be over for this year, but there is no reason to hold off on trying to make your own batch of Big Red Lolipops, which She Simmers made for V-Day. These lollipops are made from scratch and, as you can imagine, taste a bit better than the type that you got as a reward at the doctor’s office as a kid. You’ll need a candy thermometer, as well as some lollipop molds and sticks to make these, but these supplies (minus the thermometer) can be found cheaply at many craft stores and you can use them again and again as these sweets make great treats at holidays and birthdays.
• Praline’s are a sweet southern favorite, one of those foods that can be over-the-top sugary, but is still so tasty that you can’t stop at just one. Homesick Texan’s Mexican Chocolate Pralines are a variation on the basic recipe. You’ll need a candy thermometer for this recipe, as well, and also a big block of spicy Mexican Chocolate, like Ibarra. The pralines have a good chocolate flavor to them and, more importantly, they have a very nice spiciness to them. This comes from the chocolate, as well as from the cinnamon, cayenne and orange zest added in. They’re a cut above ordinary pralines and a great candy to make if you’re feeling like something a little different.
• I don’t know how a fan of cinnamon rolls could possibly resist a slice of Culinary Concoctions’s Cinnamon Roll Cheesecake with Cream Cheese Frosting. This cheesecake starts off with a crust made of cinnamon roll dough that is filled with some cheesecake batter. A spicy, sweet cinnamon filling is added to the cheesecake and swirled into it, and the whole thing is finished off with some cream cheese frosting. It is over-the-top but every bite is going to be worth it.

Silky is not an adjective that I’ve heard used much when it comes to describing brownies. So I was a little surprised to see it used to name the OtherWorldly Silky Fudgy Brownies from LunaCafe. LunaCafe says that the name comes from the fact that these souffle-like brownies have the texture of a chocolate truffle and are so smooth that they seem to melt in your mouth. They’re also intensely chocolaty, so should be put under consideration by any brownie lovers looking for a new recipe to try.

Lemon is always a good contrast for a spicy gingerbread, and it’s no surprise that a Meyer lemon cream cheese filling turned out to be a good match with the spicy sandwich cookies it was paired with in The Naptime Chef’s Spice Sandwich Cookies with Lemon Cream. The cookies are like spicy whoopie pies, with cookies made with molasses and lots of gingerbread-like spices. The cookies also include black pepper, which makes them extra spicy and gives an adult edge to the flavor.

Molasses also makes an appearance in the old fashioned Molasses Bars from Country Living City Style. These sliced cookies are thick and chewy. They’re baked in big bars, then sliced to serve. This ensures a nice, chewy center for these sweet raisin-studded cookies. The original recipe, handed down as a family favorite from CLCS’s grandmother calls for margerine, but this is a recipe that you could get away with using butter in.

For berry fans, crostadas can be an almost perfect dessert to showcase berries. The free-form, open-top tarts generally have very few ingredients, so the flavor of the berries use for the filling really stands out on its own. Taste Food’s Blueberry Crostada is no exception. Fresh blueberries (you can use frozen) are the star in this tender, buttery crust. It’s an easy recipe to make and one that is a great way to make a start into spring.

If you like peanut butter and jelly, you’ll definitely go for the Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies at Clara Bakes. The cookies remind me of the Pillsbury Bake-Off winning Double Delight Peanut Butter Cookies because these are filled with jelly in almost the same way those were filled with peanut butter. Peanut butter cookie dough is made, then a dollop of jam is put into the center of each ball of cookie dough and the dough is pinched shut around it. The cookies bake up and the jam stays inside, leaving you with a cookie version of a PB&J sandwich!

• I am not someone who usually grinds her own flour, but reading about the Crunch Hippy Fresh Ground Whole Wheat Chocolate Cranberry Cookies at Nikas Culinaria makes the idea seem very appealing. Grinding your own flour gives your recipe a nice nutty, whole wheat flavor and a coarser texture than it is going to get from regular whole wheat flour - and definitely a big change from all purpose. You will need a wheat grinder, but using a coarse stone ground flour that can usually be found at a natural foods market will give you a similar approximation.
• I am a big fan of the rich and slightly tangy flavor of buttermilk pie, but often make them quite plain to get the most buttermilk flavor out of them. The Maple Buttermilk Meringue Pie from Dinner with Julie looks even better than the classic version. The filling uses a lot of maple syrup for sweetness and many egg yolks to enrich the custard. The whites don’t go to waste, however, because six of them are used to make the towering meringue that finished off the pie.
• If you have a couple of oranges in the kitchen, a great use for them is in an Orange Infused Cake with Candied Oranges, like the one that Our Chocolate Shavings made recently. The cake is similar to a pound cake, with egg whites beaten and folded into the batter for lightness. Juice and zest from one orange go into the cake, and juice and zest from another go into the glaze. The finishing touch for this cake really is the candied orange slices that top it. They take the cake from looking plain and simple, to remarkably elegant. They’re not as difficult to make as you might think, taste lovely and are worth the little bit if effort to turn this cake into a star.
• You don’t have to be a vegan to appreciate a good vegan cookie, or eat only gluten free to appreciate a gf recipe that really works. Manifest Vegan has been working on a version of a favorite cookie from before she started eating gluten free. These Almondy Chocolate Chip Cookies are the result. The cookies use a blend of buckwheat and almond flour for a nutty, buttery (using butter-flavored Earth Balance in the recipe) finished product. When making these, you can use “vegan” chocolate chips, but keep in mind that lots of semisweet and dark chocolate is already nondairy, so you can also chop up a favorite (probably much higher quality) bar to use.
• A chocolate muffin is not the same as a chocolate cupcake, as Once Upon A Chef points out with some Chocoholic Muffins. These muffins aren’t too sweet and have a nice open crumb, but are still packed with cocoa flavor and a lot of chocolate chips. They’re a good way to start the day off with a little chocolate fix, especially if you can get your hands on one while the chocolate chips are still just a bit warm and melty.