Tag: cinnamon

Categories
Dessert

There’s no doubt you should cobble together dessert this week

Carrot cake cobbler is like taking a carrot cake and marrying it with a pecan pie, and its warm spices and gooey filling demand a big scoop of vanilla ice cream for serving.
Carrot cake cobbler is like taking a carrot cake and marrying it with a pecan pie, and its warm spices and gooey filling demand a big scoop of vanilla ice cream for serving.

If you didn’t know, we recently celebrated the first-ever “Local News Day” on April 9.

The effort to observe local journalists around the country came from a push in Montana. In Newton, we had a small, but mighty, group of community members who stood outside our office with signs, touting the importance of having a local newspaper. It was really neat.

What the newsroom also really appreciated was the group very kindly dropped a bunch of delicious goodies at the office, as well.

My favorite? Some carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.

I absolutely adore carrot cake.

Ironically, that particular cake is the inspiration for the recipe I’m sharing with you this week for a really easy cobbler. It takes all the flavors of carrot cake and combines them with a pecan pie for an excellent dessert that must absolutely be enjoyed with a big scoop of ice cream.

This comes from the blog “The Salty Cooker.” You can find the original post at https://thesaltycooker.com/carrot-cake-cobbler-with-caramel-pecan-filling/. I added extra spices in my version.

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Carrot Cake Cobbler

Carrot cake cobbler is like taking a carrot cake and marrying it with a pecan pie, and its warm spices and gooey filling demand a big scoop of vanilla ice cream for serving.
Course Dessert
Keyword allspice, brown sugar, buttermilk, carrots, cinnamon, cloves, cobbler, dark corn syrup, Easter, easy dessert, ginger, nutmeg, pecans, shredded carrots, vanilla

Ingredients

Filling Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups dark corn syrup
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon allspice
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups pecans chopped

Cobbler Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 8 tablespoons butter cold
  • 3/4 cup buttermilk I used milk with a touch of vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups carrots shredded

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a seven-by-10-inch baking dish, and set it aside.
  • For the filling, in a large bowl, whisk the eggs, corn syrup, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, allspice and salt until it’s well-combined. Stir in the pecans, and pour the mixture into the baking dish.
  • In another mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and salt and stir to combine.
  • Cut in the butter with a fork or pastry cutter until it’s well incorporated. Stir in the buttermilk, vanilla and carrots, just until it’s combined.
  • Drop scoops of the cobbler mixture evenly over the top of the filling (there will be some gaps).
  • Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the filling bubbles around the edges.
  • Rest for at least 10 minutes before serving.
  • Serve warm or room temperature, along with some vanilla ice cream.

We had this for our family Easter celebration. It was really, really good. The warm spices, along with the texture of the filling and the cobbler topping, just took it over the top.

And it was a lot less work than creating a whole cake or a batch of carrot cake muffins, which were—by the way—a great addition to the newsroom, not only because the reporters all love snacks but also because I didn’t share a single bit of this cobbler with any of them.

This piece first appeared in print April 16, 2026.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert

Vintage crunch recipe gets two ‘plums’ up

This vintage recipe for plum crunch combines the rich flavor of fresh plums with the warm spice of cinnamon and the nuttiness of an oatmeal-based topping.
This vintage recipe for plum crunch combines the rich flavor of fresh plums with the warm spice of cinnamon and the nuttiness of an oatmeal-based topping.

When I look at my bookshelf of cookbooks, I often think of a lady I never got the opportunity to meet in person but whom I feel connected to through a very sweet gift: Merna Snay.

Merna, a former resident of the Mount Hope and Haven area, was a prolific cook—and by all reports, a really good one. She got the opportunity to compete in the Pillsbury bake-off on several occasions. When she downsized, many years ago, she gifted me with some amazing vintage cookbooks, and when I decide I need a challenge, I will flip through them to see if I can decipher the directions. There was a generation of authors who often wrote recipes with the assumption that anyone reading them could fill in the blanks for the parts they weren’t including.

Recently, I purchased a big bag of plums from our local grocery store, and with a gathering at our office on the horizon, I decided it was time for one of Merna’s books to come off the shelf.

The recipe I landed on is from the booklet “Rare Recipes and Budget Savers, Volume 2,” published by the Wichita Eagle in 1963.

It was originally submitted for the Home Town News column on June 26, 1962, by Mrs. T.P. Mueller. She included the following note with it: “For that little lady who is in the doghouse for the loss of her plum crunch recipe, here is one, very good, and can be used either with plums or dried prunes.”

I never lost a plum crunch recipe, but I was glad for Mrs. Mueller’s guidance, nonetheless. I did add extra cinnamon in my version.

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Plum Crunch

This vintage recipe for plum crunch combines the rich flavor of fresh plums with the warm spice of cinnamon and the nuttiness of an oatmeal-based topping.
Course Dessert
Keyword brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, cobbler, crumble, fresh plums, plum, quick oats, rolled oats

Ingredients

Filling Ingredients

  • 3 1/2 cups fresh plums pitted and chopped
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon butter melted
  • 1 tablespoon flour

Crunch Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cups quick or rolled oats
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup butter

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease an eight-by-eight-inch baking dish with butter, and set it aside.
  • Add the plums sugar, cinnamon, butter and flour in a bowl and stir to combine well.
  • In another bowl, add the quick oats, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon, and mix to combine. Cut in the butter with a fork or pastry cutter until it is mixed throughout the crunch mixture.
  • Press half the crunch mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan, and then spread the filling mixture over top. Sprinkle the rest of the crunch mixture evenly over the top.
  • Bake for 30 minutes or until the filling is bubbling around the edges and the top is browned nicely.
  • Serve warm or room temperature. Store leftovers in an airtight container.

I doubled this recipe and baked it in a nine-by-13-inch pan. It received excellent reviews from our guests. It was sweet and cinnamon-y and home-y.

We had a bit of the crunch left over, so we ended up swirling it into a quart of ice cream, using my stand mixer, so we can enjoy it later on.

And as I crumbled the oats and spread the sugary plums, I had to think of a beautiful connection made between two women from Haven, born decades apart but sharing a love of anything homemade.

Some gifts are priceless.

This piece first appeared in print April 9, 2026.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert

Try as you ‘maple,’ you can’t avoid these delicious bars forever

Maple apple pie bars combine the sweetness of apples with maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon to create a delicious dessert, worthy of enjoying alongside a hot cup of coffee.
Maple apple pie bars combine the sweetness of apples with maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon to create a delicious dessert, worthy of enjoying alongside a hot cup of coffee.

I generally make the exact same New Year’s resolution each year.

Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure my resolution messes up some of your resolutions, so I’ll apologize in advance for the calorie-laden recipes that will continue to grace my column in the coming months.

It’s necessary, though, in order for me to meet my ultimate goal: cleaning out my fridge, pantry and freezer.

Throughout the year, I tend to collect all kinds of random ingredients, from those that are leftover from experiments to things I find on the sale shelf and can’t leave there—just in case the perfect recipe comes along

The first item to exit my freezer in the spirit of a new year? A plastic bag of peeled and diced Granny Smith apples.

I bought a huge bag of apples months ago, because it was being clearanced out, and I couldn’t pass them up. So here they are, now in all their unhealthy glory.

This comes from the blog “A Latte Food.” You can find the original post at https://www.alattefood.com/maple-glazed-apple-blondies/. I added extra vanilla and cinnamon in my version.

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Maple Apple Pie Bars

Maple apple pie bars combine the sweetness of apples with maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon to create a delicious dessert, worthy of enjoying alongside a hot cup of coffee.
Course Dessert
Keyword apples, bar cookies, brown sugar, cinnamon, fall dessert, glaze, Granny Smith apples, maple syrup, powdered sugar, vanilla

Ingredients

Filling Ingredients

  • 2 large apples diced (I used Granny Smiths)
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon

Bar Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon

Glaze Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Prepare an 11-by-seven-inch baking pan (I actually used an eight-by-eight) by spraying it with cooking spray, and set it aside.
  • For the filling, combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan, and heat over medium-low, stirring regularly. Once it comes up to temp and the butter and sugar are melted together, cook for another three or four minutes, and then set it aside to cool.
  • For the bar layer, cream the butter, brown sugar and regular sugar together. Beat until everything is combined and the mixture is light and fluffy.
  • Beat in each egg, one at a time, and then beat in the salt and vanilla.
  • Finally, beat in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon until the dough is well combined.
  • Spread half of the dough evenly into your prepared pan.
  • Spread the apple filling evenly over the dough layer.
  • Spread the other half of the dough on top of that. (This is easier said than done. I ended up doing rough dollops all over the top and lightly spreading them out with a scraper. Don’t worry about not getting 100-percent coverage.)
  • Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  • Let the bars cool while you make your glaze.
  • Add the butter, syrup, vanilla and cinnamon to a saucepan and heat it over low heat, stirring regularly. Once everything is melted and well-combined, remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the powdered sugar until all of the lumps are gone. (You can speed that process up by sifting the sugar into the pan.)
  • Allow the glaze to cool for about 10 minutes so that it thickens, and then pour it over the bars. Once the glaze and the bars are fully cooled, slice them and serve.
  • Store leftovers in an airtight container.

These were delicious. They were soft and flavorful. I love the combination of maple, cinnamon and apples, and these bars were a great dessert to share with friends.

I’m sorry if these sugar-filled, delicious bars mess with any of your resolutions going into 2026. But if it’s any consolation, there is a really nice empty space in my freezer.

This piece first appeared in print Jan. 8, 2026.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert

Get ready to strut your fluff with a light, easy cake

Russian apple pie cake is made with only five ingredients. It results in a light and fluffy sponge cake with a crisp base and warm, spiced apples on top.
Russian apple pie cake is made with only five ingredients. It results in a light and fluffy sponge cake with a crisp base and warm, spiced apples on top.

I believe that it’s a universal truth that everyone who loves to make family recipes has a moment where they just can’t figure out why, despite following the instructions to the letter, the end product just doesn’t taste as good as when the person who gave up the recipe in the first place made it.

In our family, that is famously my mom’s pumpkin bread.

I have struggled with my grandma’s cinnamon rolls.

And I can’t quite conquer the pecan sandies Joey’s mom makes every Christmas.

That’s why I loved the story that Jeremy Matlock of Hillsboro included with a recipe he submitted for our holiday recipe guide.

“While missionaries in Russia, we learned this recipe from a dear babushka,” Jeremy wrote. “However, we used an electric mixer, whereas the Russians mixed it by hand. So the people there were always amazed at how light and fluffy our cake was and wanted to know our secret.”

I have repeated that story to everyone who tried my rendition of his recipe this week, laughing every time. I absolutely love it. Oh, and the cake was great, too.

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Russian Apple Pie Cake

Russian apple pie cake is made with only five ingredients. It results in a light and fluffy sponge cake with a crisp base and warm, spiced apples on top.
Course Dessert
Keyword apples, cinnamon, easy dessert, light lunch, Russian, sharlotka, sponge cake, sugar

Ingredients

  • 3 apples peeled and diced
  • Cinnamon to taste
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup flour

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Grease an eight- or nine-inch round baking pan with butter.
  • Cut up apples into small cubes, and layer the pan with the apples so they cover the bottom.
  • Dust the apples with cinnamon, to taste.
  • Separate the egg whites and yolks into two mixing bowls.
  • Beat the eggs (preferably with an electric mixer) thoroughly.
  • Add about half of the cup of sugar to each bowl (doesn’t need to be exact). Beat again until the whites are foamy and each is thoroughly mixed.
  • Combine the egg mixtures into one bowl, add the flour and fold together until everything is just combined.
  • Pour the mixture over the apples.
  • Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

I debated for quite awhile about whether I should invert the cake or serve it right-side-up. I landed on inverting it, because as it bakes, the cake develops this lovely, crispy top, which is perfect as a kind of crust, with the soft apples and sponge cake on top.

I ended up using Granny Smiths in my version, because I already had some diced in my freezer, but you could use any variety.

This was a fun recipe to watch come together. I was amazed that only five ingredients could pack that much flavor. I also always appreciate someone just giving me carte blanche with cinnamon, and I love a good cinnamon-apple dessert.

And Jeremy was right, my electric mixer got tons of air into the eggs, and it resulted in a very fluffy texture. I can’t imagine having the patience to whip all of that by hand.

But it does prove that sometimes going on your own path away from your grandma’s—or babushka’s—instructions can actually lead to surprising results.

This piece first appeared in print Dec. 18, 2025.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Cookies Dessert Snack

Bake a ‘cinn’sational treat to celebrate autumn weather

Cinnamon chip oatmeal blondies have a crisp bottom, with chewy middles and highlight the warmth of cinnamon and earthiness of grains. They would make for a great addition to any fall snack table.
Cinnamon chip oatmeal blondies have a crisp bottom, with chewy middles and highlight the warmth of cinnamon and earthiness of grains. They would make for a great addition to any fall snack table.

In 2024, the Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication in the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University released a study about the ongoing popularity of pumpkin spice lattes.

Apparently, according to their study, apple spice was starting to edge out pumpkin on the popularity scale last year, but companies were still churning out all kinds of pumpkin-spice-themed products for the season.

I don’t know if Montclair reprised the study for 2025, but what I know I can get behind is the common denominator between both pumpkin and apple spice anything: cinnamon.

As a general rule, I view cinnamon as a year-round addition in my baking, but now that we’re having some crisper days, it’s on my radar even more.

Plus, I had a bag of cinnamon baking chips taking up space in my freezer, and with a gathering at the office on the calendar, it seemed like the perfect time to use them up.

The recipe I’m sharing with you comes from the blog “Keep it Sweet Desserts” by Lauren Lilling. You can find her original post at https://www.keepitsweetdesserts.com/cinnamon-chip-oatmeal-blondies/. I loved her amount of vanilla, but I did decide to add some cinnamon in my version and only used one bag of cinnamon chips.

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Cinnamon Chip Oatmeal Blondies

Cinnamon chip oatmeal blondies have a crisp bottom, with chewy middles and highlight the warmth of cinnamon and earthiness of grains. They would make for a great addition to any fall snack table.
Course Dessert, Snacks
Keyword blondies, brown sugar, cinnamon, cinnamon baking chips, cinnamon chips, fall dessert, oatmeal, old-fashioned oats, quick oats, vanilla

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter
  • 3 cups brown sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 cup old-fashioned or quick oats
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 10 ounces cinnamon baking chips

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a nine-by-13-inch baking dish by lining it with parchment paper, and set it aside.
  • Add the butter and brown sugar to a saucepan and heat over medium, stirring constantly until the mixture is melted and smooth. Remove it from the heat, and set it aside.
  • In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and vanilla, and then beat in the butter/sugar mixture until smooth. Stir in the flour, oats, salt, cinnamon and baking powder until it is just combined, and then fold in the cinnamon chips.
  • Transfer the batter to your prepared pan, and bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
  • Let the bars cool before slicing, and store them in an airtight container.

These got rave reviews at our office party. I didn’t pack up a single one at the end of the night.

The bottoms were crisp, and the rest of the bars were soft, creating a great texture combo. And I was especially happy with the addition of the cinnamon in addition to the baking chips. I think it gave the whole blondie a little more warmth. And the oatmeal was a nice flavor addition, too.

I’ll have to put these on rotation for holiday snack tables this year.

Because although the pumpkin spice study claimed that people are experiencing a bit of fatigue with the flavor, since it’s been popping up all over the place, hopefully we can all agree that cinnamon is timeless. We don’t need a study to tell us that one.

This piece first appeared in print Oct. 9, 2025.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert

Can’t tell the varieties apart? You just have to ‘apple’y yourself.

Apple strudels are easy to make with a sheet of puff pastry, some honeycrisp apples and warm spices and brown sugar to go with them. They pair nicely with a cup of tea or coffee.
Apple strudels are easy to make with a sheet of puff pastry, some honeycrisp apples and warm spices and brown sugar to go with them. They pair nicely with a cup of tea or coffee.

“Those apples were kind of pricey, weren’t they?” Joey asked me as we exited the grocery store recently.

“They’re honeycrisps,” I told him.

“So, they’re high-end apples?”

“I mean, kind of.”

It’s amazing that after 15 years of marriage, I can still discover new things about my husband. Case in point: he has no knowledge of apple varieties. At all.

I’m not saying I’m an expert, but I don’t think he could tell a Granny Smith from a red delicious.

OK, so it’s probably not that bad, but you get my point.

Regardless of his lack of apple knowledge, after I had my honeycrisps sliced up and baked with plenty of warm spices, Joey agreed that they were absolutely delicious, despite being a more expensive variety.

The recipe I tried comes from the Instagram account @tisrarewegetout. I switched up the seasoning a bit for my version.

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Apple Strudels

Apple strudels are easy to make with a sheet of puff pastry, some honeycrisp apples and warm spices and brown sugar to go with them. They pair nicely with a cup of tea or coffee.
Course Dessert
Keyword apple, brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, easy dessert, fall dessert, ginger, honeycrisp apples, nutmeg, puff pastry, tea time

Ingredients

  • 13.2 ounce sheet puff pastry thawed
  • 2 large honeycrisp apples
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon cloves
  • 1 egg

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  • Prepare a baking sheet (or two) with parchment paper.
  • Roll out the puff pastry and cut it into about four-inch squares. Place the squares about one inch apart on the prepared sheet(s).
  • Slice the apples into about 1/4-inch slices, and cut a hole out of the middle to remove the core. (There’s no need to peel them.)
  • Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine the brown sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves, and dip the apples in the mixture, coating them on all sides.
  • Place one coated apple slice in the middle of each puff pastry square, and fold the corners of the pastry up to the middle of the apple slice (you can cut some slits in the pastry to make it fancier, if you so desire).
  • Beat the egg in a small bowl, and brush each pastry with a liberal coating of egg. If you still have any liquid in the bowl from the sugar mixture, pour it evenly over the top of the prepared pastries.
  • Bake for 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and the apples are softened.
  • Serve warm with some ice cream or a good cup of tea or coffee.

These were amazing right out of the oven. They were still awesome a day later, but the puff pastry wasn’t nearly as crisp after it sat in a container over night.

The warmth of the spices with the sweetness of the apples and crunch of the pastry was a fabulous combination.

This was easy to make, too, and would be nice for a breakfast or brunch or if you’re hosting an afternoon tea or coffee.

And I would argue this was worth the “high-end” apples—even if Joey is still not sure I actually know the difference.

This piece first appeared in print Aug. 28, 2025.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Cookies Dessert

‘Wash’ out for these easy-to-make sugar-coated cookies

Washboard cookies are like a lightly spiced sugar cookie. They get their name from the use of a fork to create light hashmarks on their surface before baking them.
Washboard cookies are like a lightly spiced sugar cookie. They get their name from the use of a fork to create light hashmarks on their surface before baking them.

I have been spending some time reading through the Harvey County Fair’s entry guidelines book, looking at all the food categories.

The one that intrigues me, which I need to pay more attention to when I go look at the exhibits this year, is for cookie jars.

For the entry, the cookies have to be placed in a wide-mouth jar, and it has to consist of six to nine different cookies, each individually wrapped, with at least 18 cookies in the jar.

I am absolutely baffled about how someone can get 18 cookies into a wide-mouth jar. I have to see this for myself.

Of course, I’m guessing the answer is I have a tendency to make my cookies too large. These exhibitors must have a lot more patience and restraint than I generally do. Normally, my cookies get larger and larger with every batch, since I’m normally ready to be done after about three.

Despite that, I did manage to keep my cookies for this week’s recipe at a consistent, smaller size, and they turned out really well—in flavor and presentation.

This comes from the blog Cooktop Cove from a post by Georgia Lynn. You can find the original post at https://cooktopcove.com/2025/02/10/cant-stop-baking-these-cookies—third-night-in-a-row/. I added extra vanilla, along with cinnamon, to my version below. I also inadvertently left out the milk it called for, and since it had absolutely no effect on the end result, I just left it out in my version, too.

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Washboard Cookies

Washboard cookies are like a lightly spiced sugar cookie. They get their name from the use of a fork to create light hashmarks on their surface before baking them.
Course Dessert
Keyword cinnamon, cookie exchange, easy cookies, sugar cookies, vanilla

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter softened
  • 1 cup sugar plus more for rolling cookies
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a couple baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper, and set them aside.
  • In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar for a couple of minutes until the mixture is light yellow and airy.
  • Beat in the vanilla.
  • Next, beat in the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon until everything is well combined.
  • Using your hands, roll the dough into one-inch balls. Put some sugar in a small bowl, and roll the balls in the sugar. Place them about two inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
  • Use a fork and make a crosshatch pattern on each ball, pressing down gently.
  • Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Let them cool for about five minutes, and then transfer the cookies into an airtight container.

These were like lightly spiced sugar cookies. They were crispy out of the oven, but then they softened up in the container. So if you’re into crunchy cookies, let them cool completely before you put them in the container.

And if you follow the directions and roll these into one-inch balls, you could easily fit quite a few of them into a wide-mouth jar. After all, I was able to fit a good number into my wide mouth, too.

This piece first appeared in print July 17, 2025.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Breakfast Dessert

Every night is date night with this great coffee cake

Walnut date coffee cake has a great combination of flavors, from the hints of stone fruit with the dates to the nuttiness of the walnuts and the sweet bitterness of the coffee.
Walnut date coffee cake has a great combination of flavors, from the hints of stone fruit with the dates to the nuttiness of the walnuts and the sweet bitterness of the coffee.

I’ve struggled over the years with the definition of coffeecake.

Generally speaking, it’s cake that is meant to be enjoyed with coffee and doesn’t actually contain any.

But then I run into a recipe like I made for this week, which is a coffee cake—a cake that includes coffee.

We hosted an event at the office, where I shared it, and I was constantly saying, “It’s a coffee cake. Like, I mean, it has coffee in it, not like a coffeecake.”

I am also often baffled by when something is a cake or a quick bread. The banana breads and pumpkin breads I grew up with are moist and cake-y. I always thought they were called a quick bread because you made them in a loaf pan.

But then here comes this week’s recipe again, where it’s in a loaf pan, but it’s still a cake.

Regardless of the semantics, this week’s recipe is a must-try and turned out to be a real crowd-pleaser at our get-together.

This comes from the blog “Creative Culinary.” You can find the original post at https://creative-culinary.com/date-coffee-cake-walnuts-espresso/. I added extra spices, vanilla and coffee powder in my version.

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Walnut and Date Coffee Cake

Walnut date coffee cake has a great combination of flavors, from the hints of stone fruit with the dates to the nuttiness of the walnuts and the sweet bitterness of the coffee.
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Keyword butter, cinnamon, coffee, dates, espresso, nutmeg, vanilla, walnuts

Ingredients

Cake Ingredients

  • 12 ounces dates pitted and diced
  • 1 1/2 cups strong hot coffee or espresso
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 1 3/4 cup flour
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup walnuts toasted and chopped

Glaze Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons hot water
  • 1/2 to 1 teaspoon instant espresso or coffee powder
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 3 tablespoons butter melted
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1/2 cup walnuts toasted and chopped

Instructions

Cake Directions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Prepare a nine-by-five inch loaf pan by greasing it and lining it on the bottom and sides with parchment paper. Set it aside.
  • In a bowl, combine the chopped dates, hot coffee and baking soda, and stir to combine. Set it aside.
  • In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugars for a couple minutes until they are smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
  • Strain the dates, reserving them and the liquid, too.
  • Alternate between beating in part of the liquid and the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt until everything is smooth and combined.
  • Fold in the dates and walnuts.
  • Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and spread evenly.
  • Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  • Let the cake cool in the pan until it is comfortable to handle, remove it from the pan, and let it cool completely before adding the glaze.

Glaze Directions

  • In a small bowl, combine the hot water and espresso powder, stirring until the powder is dissolved.
  • Add the powdered sugar, melted butter and vanilla, and whisk to get a glaze consistency you’re happy with. If it’s too thick, add just a touch more water until it’s to your liking. If it’s too loose, add just a touch more powdered sugar.
  • Drizzle the glaze evenly over the top of the cake (it will run down the sides, too). Sprinkle the walnuts evenly on top, and let the glaze set up before cutting the cake into slices.
  • Store in an airtight container.

This had great depth of flavor, and if you like coffee, you’ll definitely like this cake. I served mine in slices, but you could also cube it to serve like more traditional cake. And if you’d rather cut down on the sugar, this would be delicious without the glaze, too.

Just be ready to try to explain to anyone enjoying it with you that it’s a coffee cake, not a coffeecake.

That should be easy enough.

This piece first appeared in print April 3, 2025.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert

Combo recipe is piece of cake and easy as pie

A pumpkin pie cake can be made completely with pre-packaged ingredients but tastes homemade, making it a great dessert for anyone who isn’t a big fan of baking.
A pumpkin pie cake can be made completely with pre-packaged ingredients but tastes homemade, making it a great dessert for anyone who isn’t a big fan of baking.

One of my unofficial New Year’s resolutions each year is to try to use up the random ingredients hiding in my pantry.

In this case, one of the culprits was a large can of pumpkin pie filling that I bought by mistake, thinking I found a great deal on plain canned pumpkin.

It’s been staring at me, mocking me, for months, but I’m happy to report that the can is officially off the shelf and into this week’s recipe, which was a tasty and super easy dessert to make. If you don’t consider yourself much of a baker, stow this one away for the future, because this one take absolutely zero skill to create.

This comes from the blog “The Country Cook” by Brandie Skibinski. You can find the original post at https://www.thecountrycook.net/pumpkin-pie-cake/. I added cinnamon and swapped out salted butter in my version.

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Pumpkin Pie Cake

A pumpkin pie cake can be made completely with pre-packaged ingredients but tastes homemade, making it a great dessert for anyone who isn’t a big fan of baking.
Course Dessert
Keyword cake mix recipe, cinnamon, cream cheese icing, dump cake, easy baking, easy dessert, frosting, pumpkin pie, pumpkin pie filling, spice cake, spice cake mix

Ingredients

  • 30 ounces pumpkin pie filling
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 box spice cake mix
  • 1 cup butter melted
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 container frosting I used cream cheese
  • cinnamon for sprinkling

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a nine-by-13-inch baking pan by spraying it with cooking spray, and set it aside.
  • Beat the pie filling and eggs until the mixture is smooth. Add in the cake mix, butter and salt, and beat until everything is well combined.
  • Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly.
  • Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until the center is completely set.
  • Let it cool completely before icing it, and then sprinkling it lightly with cinnamon. Store in an airtight container.

As you can see, this really is a super easy recipe, mostly because it’s made with all pre-made ingredients. But the combination really elevates all of it. The pumpkin pie filling gives the cake just a little bit of a pie texture, which was really nice.

And I received the added benefit of getting that huge can of pumpkin pie filling out of my pantry, along with a long-forgotten cake mix and the container of frosting. Win-win-win.

Hopefully, as I continue to dig through my shelves over the next couple of months, I will be able to find more treasures that work out just as well. And hopefully I’ll read labels a little better in 2025 so I don’t find myself in this same mess next January.

This piece first appeared in print Jan. 23, 2025.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert

Oh, my ‘ganache.’ This pie is absolutely incredible!

For a decadent, delicious twist on the classic, this pumpkin caramel pie is a must-try. It takes a lot of extra time and steps, but the flavor combination is worth all the effort.
For a decadent, delicious twist on the classic, this pumpkin caramel pie is a must-try. It takes a lot of extra time and steps, but the flavor combination is worth all the effort.

It’s Friendsgiving season for Joey and me, so that means I’m playing around with some new pie recipes. Our poor friends never know what to expect when I show up, but being the troopers they are, I haven’t heard too many complaints, either.

This comes from the Milk Bar website. You can find the original at https://milkbarstore.com/blogs/recipes/hillys-pumpkin-caramel-pie. I added extra spices in my version below.

Print

Pumpkin Caramel Pie

For a decadent, delicious twist on the classic, this pumpkin caramel pie is a must-try. It takes a lot of extra time and steps, but the flavor combination is worth all the effort.
Course Dessert
Keyword allspice, brown sugar, caramel, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, decadent dessert, ginger, heavy cream, Milk Bar, pumpkin, quick oats, roasted pumpkin, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving dessert, vanilla, white chocolate, white chocolate chips

Ingredients

Ingredients

  • 1 deep dish pie crust pre-baked and cooled completely
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Pumpkin Ganache Ingredients

  • 2 15- ounce cans pumpkin puree
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • 1/3 cup light corn syrup
  • 5 tablespoons butter
  • 16 ounces white chocolate chips
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon cardamom
  • 1/2 teaspoon allspice
  • 1/2 teaspoon ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon clove
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Caramel Ingredients

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
  • 6 tablespoons butter
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla

Streusel Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup rolled or quick oats
  • 6 tablespoons butter room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon cardamom
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Overall Directions

  • There will be a lot of waiting between steps on this pie, but you can easily make all the components ahead of time and keep them in the refrigerator over the course of a couple days before assembling it at the end. You will want to use a deep pie dish for this recipe.

Pumpkin Ganache Directions

  • Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
  • Spread all of the pumpkin out on the paper and roast for 20 to 30 minutes or until it is a deep orange color and is reduced down to about two cups.
  • Remove it from the oven and set it aside to cool.
  • Place the chocolate chips in a large, heat-safe bowl and set aside.
  • In a small pot, bring the cream, corn syrup and butter to a boil, stirring regularly.
  • As soon as it’s at a boil, remove it from the heat and pour the mixture evenly over the chocolate chips. You don’t need to stir. Just set it aside for one minute.
  • Add the pumpkin and seasonings, and stir. Using an immersion blender (or a normal one), blend until everything is completely smooth. Place the ganache in the refrigerator to completely cool.

Caramel Directions

  • Have the heavy cream, butter (cut into tablespoons), vanilla and salt measured out and ready. Set them aside.
  • In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, add the sugar, water and corn syrup. Heat it over medium heat, stirring to make sure the ingredients are totally incorporated. Keep stirring until the sugar dissolves. Once the mixture is clear and bubbling, do not stir any more. Just swirl the pot every few minutes, watching it closely. You’ll cook it until it reaches a golden brown color. You’ll know it’s ready when it’s a deep brown and there are just small bits of smoke coming up from the mixture. This could take as long as 10 minutes.
  • As soon as it’s to the point, remove it from the heat immediately and instantly toss in a tablespoon of butter, whisking vigorously. As soon as that pad is almost melted, follow suit with another, continuing until all of the butter is incorporated.
  • Now, drizzle in the cream, continuing to whisk.
  • Whisk in the vanilla and salt, and then pour the caramel into a heat-safe container. Let the caramel cool on the counter before placing the container in the refrigerator to cool completely.

Streusel Directions

  • Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Prepare a rimmed baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper, and set it aside.
  • Add all of the ingredients to a mixing bowl and cut together with a fork or pastry cutter until everything is well incorporated and resembles large crumbs.
  • Dump the mixture into an even layer on the baking sheet and bake for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring every five, until the mixture is browned.
  • Remove from the oven, and let the mixture cool completely.

Assembly Directions

  • In a mixing bowl, beat the whipped cream, powdered sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form. If the whipped cream isn’t sweet enough, add a bit more powdered sugar until it’s to your liking. Set it aside.
  • Spread the caramel evenly into the bottom of the pie crust.
  • Next, carefully spread the ganache over the caramel layer. Top that with the prepared whipped cream, and sprinkle the streusel on top just before serving. Store the finished pie or any leftovers in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

This was fabulous. It was an elevated version of the old classic—plenty of pumpkin-y goodness with lots of extra flavors and textures included.

It was also a big hit at Friendsgiving. Unfortunately, they’ll all have to make this themselves if they want it again, though. I’m afraid they’re stuck being guinea pigs for the foreseeable future.

This piece first appeared in print Nov. 28, 2024.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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