Bake 52: Week 39

Spiced Pumpkin Bread

 I simply cannot express in words how much I LOVE fall!  I love it! The cooler weather, the leaves, the approaching holidays, football season...it is the best!

I made this bread Monday, which turned out to be the perfect fall day!  It began by waking up to "sweater-weather" for the first time this year. Oh how I love wearing sweaters!  Then I enjoyed my house smelling like amazing pumpkin bread baking all afternoon.  After having soup for dinner, we took our kids to a gorgeous park to play.  We ended the night by stopping at Starbucks for a Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate. I. LOVE. FALL.

I love pumpkin bread too and because the pumpkin is so moist, it usually makes for incredible gluten-free bread!  So I had to try it with this recipe.  I decided to make gluten-free pumpkin muffins.  Of course half had to have chocolate chips, because pumpkin+chocolate is like peanut butter+jelly!

Shockingly (seriously, I was shocked!) I found myself enjoying the plain ones even more.  Don't get me wrong, the ones with chocolate were fantastic, BUT there was something simple and delicious about the plain ones.  The results were incredible!  Best gluten-free muffins ever!  I will definitely be making these A LOT!  

I'm sure this bread is great with the nuts and cranberries too, but this was more my family's style.

(I subbed Pamela's Baking Mix for the flour and omitted the baking soda and baking powder.  It was that easy!)

Great Fall pick, Talesha! Check out her blog for the recipe!

Bake 52: Week 38

Make Ahead French Toast Casserole

I'm not a big fan of breakfast - but I love breakfast for dinner.  So yesterday morning I put this together while getting the kids ready for school and it was super easy to have ready and just throw into the oven.  I love recipes like this on Tuesdays...between scouts, football practice, homework, and about a gazillion other things that hit on that night, it is wonderful to not worry about dinner as well!

It smelled delicious cooking! I loved the topping (though I didn't add the nuts because my kids won't eat them).  Overall I actually really liked the flavor, but it was a little too soggy and eggy for me.  What I really loved about this recipe, though, is that surprisingly my kids really did love it! They all ate multiple servings last night, and this morning my son even asked if I could pack it in his lunch today!  Wow!

Was really good with fresh peach syrup!

Check out Valerie's blog for this week's recipe!

Bake 52: Week 37

Deep Dish Pepperoni Pizza....Yummmm

 This week I totally felt like I was back in elementary school (yes, Durrant...) and got a "Book It" award for the personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut.

This deep dish pepperoni pizza was AMAZING! Seriously tasted just. like. pizza. hut.

Crisp bottom (although the sound of boiling olive oil while baking grossed me out, it totally paid off!), soft inside - loved it!  I was surprised that you were able to bake these in 9" cake pans. I did laugh that it made two small pizzas and said it fed 6-8 people.  Apparently these people have never met my children!  It was delicious and I will definitely try it again!
Check out Amanda's blog for the recipe!

Bake 52: Week 36

Tunnel of Fudge Cake

This was an excellent choice this week!  Tunnel. of. fudge. cake.  YUM! I really don't know what else I can say.  Except that I literally ate too much cake and made myself sick. 
Really sick.  My hubby was making fun of me for eating so much cake, but it was too good, I couldn't stop myself.  Easy and lovely, I will make again! (and I will share!)

Check out Janet's Blog for the recipe!