I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We hosted Thanksgiving here at the B&B.  I had planned for 16 of my family members to join us, but only 13 could make it. I had plenty of leftovers then to send home with everyone. I had planned for a pretty Thanksgiving feast picture, but by the time everything came out of the oven, on the table, in tummies and in the sink, the picture didn’t look so impressive. All day to bake and seconds to devour. No time in there for one click of the camera. I did however, make some blueberry bread on Wednesday, so those that stayed over could enjoy something light in the morning. My brother in law just got home from Iraq a couple of weeks ago and Blueberry is one of his favorites. I hope you enjoy this recipe as well.

Blueberry Bread – Makes 2 large loaf pans OR 1 large loaf and 2 small loaves. 

1/2 C butter, 1 1/2 C sugar, 3 eggs, 3 C flour, 4 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. salt, 2 C fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix butter and sugar. Add sour cream and eggs. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix until it just comes together. Gently fold in blueberries. Pour into a greased loaf pans and sprinkle with sugar. Bake 1 hour.

This is another easy recipe to throw together. If you don’t like peaches, apples or cherries work great, but the amaretto sauce really brings out the flavors of the peaches the cinnamon bread. I served this with some bacon and home made applesauce

Peachy Bread Pudding w/ Amaretto Sauce – Serves 10-12 but can be made individually 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

8 C cubed cinnamon bread, 8 eggs, 3 C milk, ¾ C sugar, 1 tsp. almond extract, 1 26 oz. can sliced or diced peaches in heavy syrup, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 3 TB brown sugar, 3 TB almonds (optional)

Amaretto Sauce

1 C sugar, 1 TB flour, 1 stick butter, ½ C half and half, 4 tsp. amaretto.

Spray a 9×13 pan with non stick spray and put in bread cubes. Whisk eggs, milk, sugar and almond extract. Stir in peaches and pour over bread and press in with a spoon.

Mix cinnamon and brown sugar together and sprinkle over the top of peach mixture.

Add almonds (optional)

Bake 50-55 minutes until puffed. Meanwhile, while baking start on the amaretto sauce. In a saucepan mix together the sugar, butter, flour and half and half. When melted and slightly boiling, pull off the heat and add the amaretto. Pour over finished bread pudding.

I love this recipe. There is not much more I can say about it.  It looks pretty and tastes amazing. I hope you enjoy it!

Cinnamon Chip Coffee Cake – Serves 10-20 (depending on pan size and how  big you cut your servings) Use either a 9″ round high cake pan or 8×13 can pan

Topping – 2TB sugar and 1 C chopped pecans

Glaze -1/2 semi sweet chocolate chips and 1/4 C butter

Cake – 1 C butter, softened, 2 C sugar, 2 eggs, 2 C flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1 C sour cream and 1 tsp. vanilla

1 bag of cinnamon chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together your topping ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.

Melt your glaze ingredients  in a small saucepan over low heat. Set aside.

For your cake batter, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs beating until smooth. Gradually add flour, salt and baking powder to the batter, blending well. Fold in sour cream and vanilla.

Pour half of your cake batter in a well sprayed pan.Drizzle half of the chocolate glaze over the cake batter. Sprinkle of half of the bag of cinnamon chips over chocolate glaze. Sprinkle half of your topping mixture over the cinnamon chips. Spoon the remaining cake batter into the pan. Smooth and sprinkle with remaining topping mixture.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes until done. When done, immediately sprinkle with remaining cinnamon chips. Let cool completely in pan. When cool reheat remaining glaze and drizzle over cake.

This year my Mom gave me three sugar pumpkins. These are the kind of pumpkins that you can make “real” pumpkin pie out of. I have heard of people doing this, but have never tried it  myself. This was my perfect opportunity to experiment. If you have never seen a sugar pumpkin that are small, about half the size of a basketball. I have made several items with these pumpkins, such as pies, bars, cakes, parfaits but this one of my favorites. It freezes well too!

Pumpkin Cheese Bread- makes 2 large loaves

1 Sugar pumpkin or 1 C pumpkin puree, 1/2 c Vegetable oil, 1 2/3 C flour, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1/2 tsp each of salt, cinnamon, cloves and pumpkin pie spice, 2 C sugar, 8oz. cream cheese, 3 eggs, 1 TB orange zest, and 1 Tb flour

If using a sugar pumpkin, cut  out the stem, then cut your pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds. Place each half of the pumpkin face down on a foil lined, rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees and until you can stick a fork in the skin and it is tender. Let cool completely. Once cool, scoop out the inside and place in a food processor. Process until smooth.  You now how your pumpkin puree which you can use in any recipe. You can usually get about 2 C out of a pumpkin.

Combine cream cheese, 1/2 C sugar, 1 TB flour, 1 egg and orange zest until smooth. Set aside.

Beat together 1 2/3 C flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.

Combine pumpkin puree, oil, 2 eggs, and 1 1/2 C sugar. Beat pumpkin mixture with the flour mixture.

Pour 1/2 of the batter into your loaf pans. Add cream cheese mixture on top and then pour the remaining batter over the cream cheese mixture. Bake 60-70 min at 325 degrees.