French Breakfast Puffs

Oh. My. Goodness. This is a recipe from Pioneer Woman and just in case you missed it I had to post it here. These are beyond delicious. Really. I thought they'd be good and then I ate one and about passed out. Food does that to me. Keep in mind that these have 2 cubes of butter and over 2 cups of sugar so how could they be anything short of heavenly?

Here's her words, but for the great pictures and more commentary you should just go to the site (there's a link on the side).

French Breakfast Puffs
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I used cinnamon as I'm not a nutmeg fan)
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup shortening (Crisco)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 sticks butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 12 muffin cups. Stir together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside. Pray. In a different bowl, cream together 1 cup sugar and shortening, then add eggs and mix. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to creamed mixture, beating well after each addition. Fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until golden. In a bowl, melt 2 sticks butter. In a separate bowl combine remaining sugar and cinnamon. Dip baked muffins in butter, coating thoroughly, then coat with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Eat. Faint.

Cranberry Pudding

This is my favorite holiday dessert. I make it at Thanksgiving and usually at Christmas and, in attempts to keep it special, pretty much don't make it the rest of the year. But it is delicious and really can be made anytime and it is really easy.

Cranberry Pudding

1 1/2 Tbsp butter
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. milk
1 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 c. raw cranberries (truthfully I'm not really sure what "raw" means, I just use fresh and/or frozen cranberries)

Cream butter and sugar. Add milk and mix. Add dry ingredients and mix. Add cranberries and mix. Pour into a buttered and floured dish and bake at 375* for 30 minutes.

Vanilla Cream Sauce
1 stick butter
1c. sugar
vanilla
1/2 c. cream

In a double boiler cook all ingredients except cream until sugar dissolves. Add cream and spoon over individual servings.

Melt-in-your-Mouth Caramels

2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups corn syrup
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup margarine/butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt

1. Butter 9 x 13 dish.

2. In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar, corn syrup, 1 cup cream, margarine/butter, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring often. Slowly stir in remaining 1 cup cream while mixture continues to boil. (At this point I turn the heat down to medium low.) Heat to 230 degrees (the recipe says to heat to 242 degrees, but in high altitude, heat to 230 degrees), or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms a firm but pliable ball. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Pour into prepared dish. Refrigerate.

3. When cool, return candies to room temperature then cut into 1-inch squares and wrap in waxed paper.

Apple Toffee Crisp

We love this toffee variation of apple crisp.

5 cups peeled and sliced Granny Smith apples
5 cups peeled and sliced McIntosh apples
1 1/4 c sugar, divided
1 1/4 c flour, divided
3/4 c butter or margarine, divided
1 1/3 c (8-oz. pkg.) Heath Toffee Bits
1 c uncooked rolled oats
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
whipped topping or ice cream (optional)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan.

Toss apple slices, 3/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup flour, coating apples evenly. Spread in bottom of prepared pan. Dot with 1/4 cup butter.

Stir together toffee bits, oats, remaining 1/2 cup sugar, remaining 1 cup flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Melt remaining 1/2 cup butter; add to oat mixture, mixing until crumbs are formed. Sprinkle crumb mixture over apples.

Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until topping is lightly browned and apples are tender. Serve warm with whipped topping or ice cream, if desired. Cover; refrigerate leftovers.