I carry around a list in my brain… a list of things that I’m in love with.  Actively in love with, everyday… just walking around in the world.

I’m in love with fresh ginger tea, jewels big and small, my perfect black cotton dress, girls with long wavy hair that I covet, day planners, mechanical pencils, and the smell of clean laundry.

This is aside from loving the people and pets around me.  This love is separate from family and friends.  This love sometimes steps to the back of my mind and I’m left feeling a little blaaaaaahhh…. until all the love comes rushing back and I remember that I’m totally in love with my life.

I mean… think about it.  Despite its messes and disappointments… and bills, there’s a lot to be in love with… even if it’s just the smell of your new shampoo, because it reminds you of toasted coconut.

I made these pretty pink doughnuts, and shared them with friends.  I decided that this Valentine’s Day… it’s important to be in love with life.

I don’t even care how cheesy that sounds… because it feels good, and tastes bonkers awesome.

These doughnuts are made with two important ingredients.

Bread flour… which makes the doughnuts slightly more dense.  Bread flour has a higher protein content and gives these yeast doughnuts a heavier, slightly more toothsome feel.  Delicious…  really.  If you don’t have bread flour on hand, you’ll want to use a slightly different doughnut recipe.  Try this one!  (You might even want to try Doughnut Muffins! )

and

Vegetable shortening… which acts as our internal fat in the doughnuts.  Vegetable shortening is a different fat than butter.  Butter has water in it, which can make the doughnuts crack a bit during frying.  Vegetable shortening is a fat without water, so the doughnuts will be smoother.  Feel free to use butter, but the doughnuts may have a slightly different appearance.

This doughnut mixture is mixed in an electric stand mixer with a paddle attachment before it’s mixed and kneaded with a dough hook.

Yes… I said mixed a lot of times in the above sentence.  Deal.

After a bit of time in the mixer, the dough will be slightly tacky, but not stick to your fingers or the bowl.  It will feel soft and pliable… but with a bit of weight to it.

Lovely dough before the rise.

Dough gets risen in an off oven with a warm water bath.  It’s like an at-home proofing box.

Woah!

… this dough is about half as big as my cat.  I dunno.  I don’t have much else to compare the dough… or the cat to.

This is a test.

Which set will you make doughnuts out of?

Left… choose the one on the left.

This might be my favorite part of the process….

After this cute part comes the frying.  No photography around hot oil please.  It’s enough for me to not totally burn my hand just cooking the doughnuts.  Let’s not put a camera in the mix.

If this beautiful, golden doughnut isn’t enough to make you love your living… I just don’t know what else to tell you.

Dip it is sugared pink… maybe that will help with the love.

… aaannnddd coconut.

Homemade doughnuts are undeniably perfect.    These doughnuts are a play on the traditional cake doughnut, frosted pink and decorated with snow white coconut.  This version is slightly more neon and toasted, making is rustic cool.

This recipe is from my favorite doughnut shop in Seattle, Top Pot.  They’re cookbook Hand-Forged Doughnuts totally has my mouth watering.  These people are not kidding around when it comes to doughnut land.

I’m 87% sure there’s nothing you can do to ruin these perfect creations.

Winter citrus is sparkling!

If I could wear these citrus segments as earrings… I would.

Let’s roast these beauties!

I know.  Weird.

Weird… but totally incredible.  Warm and salty sweet citrus bites.

Winter citrus feels like such a paradox to me.  Cool winds and brisk mornings somehow combine with the juciest, brightest fruit.

They match but they mismatch… just like red and hot pink.  Matchy not matchy.

Alright… so what are you going to do with all of this warm, roasted citrus?

I love to serve wedges warm with a waffle or eggs benedict brunch.

They’re also really lovely as a side dish with roasted meat.

You might also consider Winter Citrus Pancakes.  Crash! (bang! boom!)

There’s something about a giant stack of waffles topped with butter, powdered sugar, and maple syrup that puts me in an un-fightable, resistance resistant, afternoon coma.  That really… and I mean reeeeaaalllyyy pisses off the workaholic in me.  She hates napping.  The waffle-aholic in me?  Well… obviously she thinks her workaholic counterpart should just chill  the heck out.

I’ve tried to appease both sides of my w-aholics… and it’s not about trading waffles for spelt toast.  No…  that just can’t happen.

Switch up the waffle!  Make it a savory dream!  Top it with salsa and an egg!  This way my waffle-aholic self gets all of her warm waffle goodness. and my workaholic self doesn’t need a resentful nap.  Take note.

Please tell the waffle-aholic within you that this dish is supreme for either breakfast or dinner.

Savory waffles are IT!

Here’s what you’ll need:

A waffle iron.  I know… I know… what a pain.  There’s really no other way to make waffles though.  Perhaps you could turn this dish into savory pancakes… but it’s not quite the same.  Waffle iron.  It’s a splurge!!

Cornmeal gives these waffles a really wonderful crunch.  I used a more coarse cornmeal.  Bite!

Chives and parsley kick up the flavor of these waffles. Subtle onion and herb.  It’s perfect.

Black pepper!  Coarse and generous.

Salsa and eggs!  Cook up and egg and top it off with salsa.

With these few ingredients, I swear you’ll feel like you’re doing everything right.

This batter is beautifully thick and subtly flavored.

Cornmeal and scallions mysteriously take things from ok to uh-mazing.

You might choose, as I did, to enjoy these waffles with a friend, on a front porch, under a gloomy grey sky, on a slightly chilly weekend morning.

Or!  Or or or… you could plop down in from of the television and watch reruns of Law and Order SVU.

OR!  You could eat them standing in your kitchen, trying to get your cat to stop sticking his face in the open waffle iron.

I usually opt for the later option.  That’s just how I choose to live… or something.

Some things I know to be true things for me:

True:  Gin martinis are best, most immediately and with olives.  True:  sometimes painful sacrifices are made for fashion… especially when it comes to wedges.  True:  In my life, Hemingway and Julia Child are devoured in equal amounts.  True:  I will always eat a doughnut.  It always seems like the right, and totally wrong thing to do.

True:  Things in life can be simultaneously exciting and terrifying.  Exciting progress.  Exciting growth.  Exciting opportunities… and at the same time totally bonkers nerve-wracking.  When the road ahead is steep, and full of the promise of adventure…. and you totally want to be on that crazy road… but you also appreciate the smooth and steady road you once knew.  That road was safer.  There were more cookies and less adventure.

Here’s another important truth for me:  Always sign up for adventure.  Always say yes.  Even if it’s terrifying to the core of your soul.  That means you’re doing the right thing.  You’re learning and growing and shoving yourself right out of your comfort zone.    Unless… well, unless there are guns and heists.  In that case… stay in your comfort zone and away from guns.

Also… before you forge forward.  Have breakfast (preferably with chocolate) and pack cookies.

These pancakes fit into a very specific category of breakfast:  breakfast dessert.

They’re what you eat after you share runny eggs and buttered toast with your breakfast mate.

Breakfast dessert is what comes after breakfast breakfast.  It’s a sweetly defined ‘second breakfast’.  Proudly, sweetly, specific.

These pancakes are an absolute treat.  Late morning.  Weekend.  Oops I’m taking a nap at noon.  Treat.

They’re a simple combination of buttermilk, melted butter, chocolate chunks, and fresh raspberries.

Oh!  If fresh raspberries are going to break the bank (I totally get it), thawed frozen berries, drained of some of their juices work wonderfully well.

Treat yourself… that’s what Tracy would say.  Treat yourself to sweet pancakes and an adventurous (although excitingly terrifying) life.

Yes… it’s that time.

Vacation is oooooovvvveeeerrrr.  Our inboxes are filling up.  Official mail (you know, like bills) are overshadowing the friend greetings and holiday cards in our mail boxes, and the gym sure is calling… isn’t it?

Yea.  That carefree week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is long gone.  Major bummer.

Before we totally freak out and put our work helmets on, can we just… have breakfast?

Let’s have a balanced breakfast… like the kind in the cereal commercials.  We’re talking glass of juice, slice of toast, and whole grain cold cereal… that kind of breakfast.

This is our version with hot oatmeal and a super healthful smoothie.

The only thing we’re missing the the cheesey eggs, crispy bacon, and side of doughnuts.  This is not that.  We can still deal.

We’re on the fast track this week.  The fast track back to work and into a busy new year!  There’s no use fighting it.  The best thing to do is bulk up (not literally) on breakfast.  Does a body wonders.

The oatmeal is topped with dried cranberries, big toasted coconut flakes, brown sugar, flax seed meal, and just a few cocoa nibs.  Hearty, warm and delicious.  Please make your own variation according to what you have on hand:  dates, dried apricots, chia seeds, fresh apples… go bonkers!

The smoothie is a healthful combination of banana, frozen blueberries and blackberries, orange juice, flax seed meal, and green!  I really love to add vitamin packed green powders to smoothies.  Secret health, on the double!  Amazing Grass is a favorite of mine (and no one is paying me to say that).  Boom.

So what… I’m a girl obsessed.

This week I’ve treated myself to cranberry colored lipstick.  I am way into my new cranberry sweater.  I have my eye on some cranberry colored pumps (yea… pumps).  Cranberry nail polish, duh.

I have a bag of fresh cranberries in my fridge and I’m slowly teaching myself to gnaw on them raw.  I dunno.  I’m trying to be regular girl with regular holiday spirit… but I think I’ve transferred all of my holiday joy into all things cranberry.

Weird.

Fresh cranberries coarsely chopped paired with sweet and spicy candied ginger.

The zoom in.

Fresh cranberries, coarsely chopped, paired with sweet and spicy candied ginger.

Old trunk, gnarly rug, slip on pink shoes, unseasonably white dress.

The zoom out.

I like raw sugar for these scones, but any sort of sugar will do.

A simple combination of ingredients turns into gorgeous good.

These cranberries will burst and get drippy.  The color!  Gorgeous!

Fresh cranberries and candied ginger might seem like an unlikely combination.  Tart meets spicy?  Yea!  Let it work!

These buttery scones are baked up and studded with tart cranberries that turn slightly sweet, and sweet and spicy ginger.  Surprises in every bite.  All you need is a milky cup of tea.

Happy December!

Mmmm hmmm.

My hair is in rollers.  Like… kickin’ it old school in Velcro rollers.

No one needs to know that besides the 137 of you who read this  blog, my cat, and any random person who comes to this blog after Google searching “the most awesome biscuits ever made, for real”.

Ah.. the rollers.  It’s amazing how un-cute you have to look to eventually look cute-ish.  Boys don’t do this.  They just put on cardigans and look hot.

Now… there’s a lot of good news I need to tell you about these biscuits.  First:  bacon.  Second:  brown sugar.  Third:  butter.  Fourth:  they’re freaking biscuits!!!  And fifth:  they do not have an un-cute phase.  They’re all cute/delicious/freak-out-worthy, from beginning to end.

Do you really need convincing?  No.  Do I really need these rollers?  Um… today?  Yes.

I love when baked goods start with salty bacon and brown sugar.

It’s really a good path.

Cold butter is the key to big, fluffy biscuits.

It gets incorporated into the dough with fast fingers.

Sweet and salty bacon is paired with very coarsely crushed black pepper.

Every day needs a bite of spice!

Just mix biscuits with a fork… no biggie.

Try not to sneak all of the bacon bits out of the dough and into your mouth.

I could just stare at this picture all day.  It’s like being in love.

These biscuits… besides being completely delicious… are smack dab in the middle of sweet and savory.

You could top them with butter and jam, and feel just right.  Or!  You could add a fried egg and tomato jam and have a perfectly tasty morning.

It’s up to you.  Choose your own bacon biscuit adventure!

Brown Sugar Bacon Biscuits

makes about 8 biscuits

For the Bacon:

6 slices of bacon

1 tablespoon brown sugar

coarse ground black pepper

For the Biscuits:

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 to 1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

3/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 large egg

3/4 cup buttermilk

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper and spread bacon across baking sheet in a single layer.  Sprinkle with brown sugar and black pepper.  Bake until crisp and cooked through, about 13 to 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and carefully use tongs to place the hot bacon on a cutting board.  Don’t put the bacon on paper towels or they might stick.  Ick!  Allow to cool until you’re able to handle the slices and chop into medium chunks.  Set aside.

Increase oven temperature to 425 degrees F.  Line another baking sheet with parchment paper or foil, and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and black pepper.  Add cold butter and use your hands to quickly break the butter into the flour until mixture resembles coarse meal.  In another bowl, combine egg and buttermilk and beat lightly with a fork.  Add to flour mixture all at once, stirring to incorporate.  Once batter is nearly incorporated, add bacon and mix in.

You may want to dump the shaggy biscuit mixture onto a lightly floured board to knead together a few times.  Don’t overwork the dough and melt the butter, Just make sure it comes together.

Roll or pat dough into a 1-inch thickness.  Cut into 2-inch rounds using a biscuit cutter or cut into 2×2-inch squares.  Reshape and roll dough to create more biscuits with excess scraps.    Place on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees F for 12-15 minutes.  Serve biscuits warm with jam or a fried egg.

I love these biscuits the day they are made.  They can be kept in the fridge and will last for two days.  The shaped, uncooked biscuit can also be frozen.  Thaw in the fridge overnight and bake up in the morning.

Apparently we’re quickly approaching November.  Wait… what!?  In the blink of an eye we’ll be eating turkey for Thanksgiving, wrapping holiday gifts, and kissing at midnight… that’s how fast this year is going!

What are we going to do about this? Is there some sort of pause button.

The only thing I can think do to do slow things down involves these healthy-ish Pumpkin Millet and Chocolate Muffins, a cup of milky tea, and Food and Wine Magazine.  Did you slow things down this weekend?  Was there pumpkin and chocolate, too?

This is real life.  Warm muffin.  Milk tea.  Food magazine.

I don’t slow down very often… I’m a terrible relaxer.  A short moment that looks like this?  Yea… it’s a nice and necessary recharge.

Ps.  You should totally know that I ate three muffins… not just the one pictured here.  Three.  They’re small.  No biggie.

Oh!  My little bit of downtime has given me all sorts of holiday pie ideas.  Get your pie tins out!  It’s going to get delicious here.

I love the simplicity of these muffins.  I think you will too.

No mixer necessary.  All you need is a few bowls, pureed pumpkin, and crunchy dry millet.

The millet adds a tender, healthful crunch to the muffins.  Like nuts… without being nuts.

The muffins are moist and pumpkin-y.  Perfect for the season.

Perfect perfect perfect with chocolate.

You have to balance out all of that whole wheat flour and millet with chocolate, right?

It’s all about balance.

Ps.  I’m so bad at balance… that has everything to do with the fact that I’m a terrible relaxer.

I must admit that this recipe is very similar to other recipes here at Joy the Baker.

I like pumpkin.  I like chocolate.  I like millet.

If you’ll recall, the Banana Millet Bread was pretty stellar, and these Soft Pumpkin Cookies are bonkers delicious.

Also… you can totally go vegan with this Vegan Pumpkin Walnut Bread.

Just lookin’ out for you!

Now is not the time to be thinking about New Year’s Resolutions.  Ignore the plastic Christmas trees at Costco… we still have time.  We have months.  The year is not over yet.  We can totally take it easy.

I don’t like New Year’s Resolutions.  They’re totally unrealistic, right?  I feel like my best intentions of dieting, cleaning, saving money, and being a better human in the world are all flushed down the toilet when I cut people off in traffic while eating doughnuts and throwing money out the window on January 2nd.  (Was that a run-on sentence?) ((Don’t answer that.))

Ok.  So I don’t throw money out the window.  Come on…

Let me get to the point.

I like to make mini resolutions.  I make a little resolution, in my crazybrain, each season.  Here we are in Autumn… and it’s time to rearrange my goals.  I totally nailed my summer goals of wearing bikini tops as bras and keeping my nails done-did.  Now it’s time to rearrange.

This Autumn is all about loving hard, giving quality time to others, not texting at dinner, and wearing these friendship bracelets until they fall off my wrist.  I keep it simple.  It’s usually the simple intentions that influence the larger movements in my life.  Trust.  I’m not completely superficial.

Do you have some goals you’re going to make this Autumn?  Do they have anything to do with living right and making this awesome, yeasty coffee cake!?  Say yes!  Live right!

As with most good things, this coffee cake starts with a yeasted dough base.

The dough is full of eggs and butter, which make if really easy to work with and knead.  It reminds me of a cake/bread hybrid.

Oh… did I mention that we’re making not one, but TWO coffee cakes!?  True.  It’s we’re going to take the time to work with yeast, let’s just make two cakes and freeze one!  Good thinking.

Does this look like the makings of a cinnamon roll with apples?  You’re not far off!  This coffee cake is like a series of cinnamon rolls that are connected.

Cinnamon apples and streusel fill this cake.

Apple pie meets coffee cake meets cinnamon roll.

Yea.  I love you.

Rolled up like a cinnamon roll.  Snipped into connected pieces.  Shaped like a crooked horseshoe.

Juicy and a little messy.  Whatevs.

Even if just a little messy, this cake bakes up like a dream come true.

This spiced, sweet, breakfast cake is a soft and tender play on traditional coffee cake.  It’s a bit more time consuming, but it’s pretty simple to roll up two cake rolls, place one on a parchment lined baking sheet to bake, and place the other in the freezer for a breakfast emergency.

This cake screams Autumn comfort.  Screams it!  Happy screams.  From the rooftop!

Oh!

Other yeasty items I want you to be obsessed with:

Lemon Raspberry Breakfast Rolls

Cinnamon-Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

Strawberry Balsamic Flatbread

14 of the 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 thoughts going through my brainscape:

-  I’m 30.  I can’t shop at Forever 21.  First of all, I’m a Large…. and the shorts are still waay too tiny.  Secondly, I look much better in Anthropologie clothes.

-  I’m worth it.

-  Yea.  So I just stress-ate a bag of potato chips.  At least I just bought the small bag and not the giant bag… even though the giant bag was on sale.  I’m alright!

-  I wish I had claws so I could scratch my cat back.

-  At least I have scissors to give my cat awkward hair cuts when he’s sleeping.

-  I can’t sing, unless I’m alone and I’m pretending like I’m Adele… and then I still can’t sing.

-  No, sir.  Laundromat flirting is not my thing.  I see you trying to find an ‘in’.  Also… the fact that you’re wearing a bluetooth and that you brought your own wooden hangers to the laundromat makes it clear to me that you’re a serial killer.  I’ve seen CSI.  I’ve seen Dexter.  COME ON!

-  Well, if Hoarders weren’t such a mind-bending show, I wouldn’t have to watch it.  It’s really not my fault.

-  I’ll write that email… but first I’ll eat this cold burrito.

-  I’m looking at you and secretly wondering if you’re an extreme couponer.

-  Can I deep fry cupcakes?  No.

-  Some girls cry when they’re sad.  I cry when I’m bonkers angry.  That must be really creepy to people.  Like… killer creepy.

-  When did girls start wearing fake hair and fake eyelashes!?  Ladies… come on.  Can we all just work on the same playing field?  Geez.  You’re really making my hair look mousy.

-  What kind of scones should I make?  I know… sweet everything bagels…  Everything Scones!  I’m a genius.

Toasted coconut is one of my favorite smells.

I wish my hair could smell like this all the time.

Scones.  Why not just throw in everything!?  By the handful… with buttermilk.

Come on!  This is how we should live everyday.

If you don’t think this looks like a blessing from the heavens… we’re not friends.

If you don’t think this looks like a blessing from the heavens… then you’re not a ninja.  That’s a problem.

Toasty, buttery, and soft.  Studded with almonds, chocolate and coconut.  A mouthful of breakfast goodness!  Add a big dollop of cherry jam and shut.it.up!  The best breakfast everyday.