graham crackers -

by bakersroyale

S’more Than You Can Handle

Sometimes life gets too busy for dessert. You’re playing defense, offense, triangulating with co-workers and family members to keep the things moving with forward momentum and with as little conflict as possible, right? By the time you finish up all this life-playing, you’ll probably have enough time to catch a syndicated Seinfeld episode before falling asleep.

Wrong. You still have time for this s’mores bar recipe, which is super easy and pretty much fail-proof. The only difficulty comes with the wait period in which the chocolate needs to set.

Oh, and Cocoa Pebbles is my secret ingredient to keep the chocolate portion from being too rich and give it a textural contrast.

S’mores Bars

How to Make French Toast for a Crowd

You really shouldn’t be surprised that I have another breakfast dessert. After all breakfast is the meal of champions right? Following that logic I’ve whipped up a sweet hand-to-mouth breakfast exercise that will build your biceps and get your day started right with some sweet goodness.

But let’s clear something up first — that’s no muffin. That, my culinary enthusiast, is an Apple Walnut French Toast served in a cupcake liner with a walnut and graham cracker streusel.

My idea was to make French toast for a large group without running two or three pans and trying to time it so everyone is served in unison. Now of course you can opt for a large French toast casserole, but the problem I have with those is the center is always soggy — and well, that’s no good. So I decided to scale things down for more even baking.

Result: Loveliness between the pleats. (I know — it’s a recurring theme for me). No soggy mess and pretty much no leftovers.

Small note – Almost any bread will do for this recipe. You can use a plain loaf like an Italian or French bread type or a flavored one like I did. For this recipe I used an Apple Walnut bread from one of my favorite local bakeries. Alternatively, if you use plain bread, a quick flavor adjustment can be made by using a flavored dairy creamer instead of regular milk or cream.

Apple Walnut French Toast

Is That a Banana in Your Cupcake?

After all the chocolate and beer desserts of last few posts, I thought I would lighten it up some and make something non-chocolate. You know, get back to basics like pie or cupcakes — better yet let’s just fuse the two for some banana cream pie cupcakes.

Let me say, it’s like finding nirvana between the pleats! On your way, you’ll find a vanilla cupcake stuffed with some banana cream filing and topped with some good ol’ fashion whip cream. To round it all out I rimmed the whip cream with some crumbled coconut and pecan graham cracker crust and then drizzled it with some caramel sauce — and done! Enjoy.

Banana Cream Pie Cupcakes