This is one of my all-time favorite recipes to serve for brunch or a Sunday morning breakfast.  The Jam and Cream Cheese Braid is also beautiful for Holidays!  My grandma used to make this on Christmas and it quickly became a family favorite.  I tend to make it quite often because it’s SO easy and looks like you spent hours in the kitchen.

The recipe involves yeast, but DON’T be afraid!  I know working with yeast can be intimidating, but all you need to remember is that yeast likes the same temperature that we do.  When you are dissolving it in water, you want to use water that is the temperature of bath water.  If it’s too cool the yeast won’t activate and rise.  If the water is too hot, it will kill the yeast.  Test your water with your finger.  If you wouldn’t set foot in a tub of water that temperature, adjust it until it feels just right.

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I decided that my Snickerdoodle cookie recipe needed some updated pictures today.  My brain has been playing tricks with me lately and movement is not my friend.  I was trying to think of things to do that didn’t involve reading, scrolling, watching tv, videos, excessive movement, or too much thinking. (#strokebrain)  Photography seems pretty harmless and I can type with my eyes closed, for the most part.  Plus, I just found out that my son’s girlfriend and family haven’t tried Snickerdoodle cookies.  Crazy!

Happy baking, friends!

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Every time I make these muffins (which is quite frequently) I have to look up the recipe, so I decided that it was time to put it on my blog.  Blogging kind of took a back seat when I had a stroke, so maybe this will jumpstart my writing and photography again.

I first made applesauce muffins when I was in junior high.  We made them in my Home Economics class and I loved them so much that I saved the recipe.  I think I kept that recipe for about 15 years and made them many times before losing it.  Over the years, I found a couple other recipes that did the trick.  Then, Pinterest came along and Rebecca, from Simple As That posted her recipe.  The recipe I use is basically the same as Rebecca’s, but I did make a few minor tweaks.

The biggest tweaks I made to Rebecca’s recipe are in the applesauce and the cinnamon sugar.  My mom makes our applesauce every Fall.  She adds cinnamon and sugar into the applesauce as she’s cooking it, so our applesauce has more sugar and more cinnamon than All Natural Mott’s Applesauce.  My family also likes a little more cinnamon in the topping, so I increased that.  There is also a pinch more salt than Rebecca’s recipe.  I guess it’s just personal preference.

My daughter has requested that I always make 24 muffins, instead of just 12.  Twelve muffins only last about a day in our house.

We are lucky enough to have a friend share their farm fresh eggs with us.  This recipe calls for 4 eggs, so I’m happy to have plenty!

The fact that I get to bake these in my grandma’s muffin tin makes my heart happy.  I remember baking cupcakes and muffins with her and thinking that this pan was so “old” and she should really get a new one.  Now, I’m so happy to have this antique pan. I’m glad she never replaced it.

Happy baking!

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They certainly don’t have to be in the shape of gingerbread men.  When I get the urge to make this recipe in the middle of summer, round cookies with plain icing is a good way to go too.

Happy baking!

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We live in the same area as my sister and sister-in-law, so the kids all go to the same schools.  Once in high school, they are the Glacier Peak Grizzlies. We have a niece who graduated in 2016, a nephew in 2017, another niece in 2018, my son in 2019, and another niece in 2020 all from Glacier Peak.  Then, we get a little break until my daughter moves up to high school.

I might be borrowing my sister-in-law’s graduation cap cookie cutter quite a bit.

I think they turned out pretty cute!  Jenny, over at Jenny Cookies, uses buttercream for her frosting.  I’ve always used powdered sugar and milk and just mixed those two ingredients together to get the consistency I wanted.  I think I may shift over to buttercream.  I didn’t realize there were so many different buttercream frosting recipes.  Whenever I’ve used buttercream, I’ve just used the Wilton recipe.  Whichever frosting recipe you choose, I’m sure Google will help you discover lots of options.

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The invention of the gingerbread cookie is right up there with the invention chocolate chips, in my book. This is one of those recipes that has been part of the Holidays for as long as I can remember. My mom says the recipe came from a newspaper many, many years ago.  The original recipe calls these cookies Molasses Cookie Cutouts.

My mom had awesome cookie cutters when I was little.  I loved her Halloween cookie cutters.  They were orange plastic owl, witch, cat, and pumpkins.  The gingerbread man was my favorite.

I found these pictures of cookie cutters for sale on Ebay.  I think they are just like my mom’s.

A couple of years ago my sister-in-law and I decided to find them on Ebay.  We were able to replace her broken gingerbread man and I bought one for myself too.  These must have been really popular, back in the day, because they weren’t too hard to find.

I’m always asked what my recipe is for the frosting I use on my cookies.  I just use powdered sugar and milk.  I put powdered sugar in a bowl and add a tiny bit of milk.  I stir that until I get the consistency that I want.  The kids love to frost their own cookies and they are finally getting pretty good at it. They always ask me how my cookies look so neatly frosted and I remind them that I have had about 35 years of practice.  I have been frosting cookies with my mom since the time I needed a stool to reach the counters.

Enjoy! Happy baking and Happy Thanksgiving!

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