Spiced Apple Cider Bundt Cake (with Apple Cider Glaze)

Your perfect fall bake is here: made with sweet apple cider infused with warm autumn spices and studded with fresh apple chunks, this sour cream-enriched apple cider bundt cake is simply packed with apple flavor. Cozy and comforting, it’s like the cake equivalent of sweater weather.

Fall is cider season, and this year has been more fruitful than most! I wanted to pack in as much apple flavor as I could into one cozy cake, with sweet apple cider (reduced for extra flavor), fresh chunks of apple (tossed with cinnamon and sugar), plus a cider-infused glaze that’s (literally) the icing on the cake.

It’s an apple cider autumn, apparently. Pumpkin, who’s she? I’m still in full on apple mode.

This cake you see here? Version 7. Up until this point I’d been making it in an 8×8 square pan, as a somewhat adapted version of my sour cream coffee cake, but skewed more to the dessert cake than breakfast cake. I knew I wanted a noticeable apple cider flavor, with fresh apple chunks mixed in as well.

The problem was it kept sinking on me in the middle. It tasted delicious, but I just couldn’t figure out how to get the center to stay risen.

Like my grandpa always said, if you can’t solve the problem, change the problem. And you know what has no center? A bundt cake. I simply scaled up the proportions from my last 8×8 bake by 150%, and voila! Perfect bundt cake, with no center and thus no sinkage. Brilliant!

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Spiced Apple Cider Jelly

Say hello to autumn in a jar: this gem-like jelly is made from fresh pressed sweet apple cider, fragranced with fall spices, and water-bath canned so you can enjoy a taste of fall all-year round (but you can also make this small-batch recipe and refrigerate it instead!)

Fresh apple cider is my new favorite fall indulgence, and this jelly uses that pure liquid gold to make a lightly-spiced and pectin-set apple jelly, a perfect pairing with cheese on your next charcuterie board, as a flavorful glaze for meat or poultry, dolloped on crispy potato latkes, or even swirled onto yogurt or vanilla ice cream like a reverse a-la-mode.

This low-sugar recipe is made with Pomona’s pectin, which uses calcium to set rather than sugar. For that reason we’re able to use a mere 1/4-1/2 cup of sugar, and that’s more for flavor than anything (a little bit of sugar greatly enhances the natural apple flavor of the cider).

(Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of the post to download the cozy, autumn-inspired printable labels!)

I’ll admit I’ve never been a fan of apple juice, even as a kid. Apples? Sure. But for some reason the juice never did it for me.

But apple cider is far and above better than apple juice. It’s what apple juice wishes it was. And seeing that the good stuff is usually only available for a few short weeks each fall, I’m making the most of apple cider season this year (would you believe we’ve already gone through almost 2 gallons of it between recipe testing for this and another recipe, and just drinking it by the glass).

This recipe uses fresh pressed apple cider, sometimes called sweet cider or soft cider, not to be confused with alcoholic hard cider. I’m talking about the refrigerated kind you get from your local apple orchard or farmer’s market during apple season and only during apple season. This kind of cider is unfiltered and more intensely apple-y than regular apple juice, and is usually unpasteurized so it needs to be refrigerated.

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Raspberry Red Pepper Jelly

Sweet and spicy and fruity: that’s what this jelly is made of! With just the right amount of spice, balanced with sweetness and fruitiness from the raspberry, it’s a perfect alternative version of an already perfect preserve (honestly pepper jelly is really the only way I enjoy eating peppers these days).

This recipe is made with Pomona’s pectin, which allows us to use about half as much sugar as most traditional pepper jelly recipes. That said, it still uses a good amount of sugar, because otherwise all you’re really tasting is peppers and vinegar. It’s the sugar that brings it all together and mellows out the vinegar too.

(Don’t miss the free printable labels available at the bottom of this post!)

Let’s be clear: this is not a spicy raspberry jam recipe. This is a true pepper jelly first and foremost, with a hint of raspberry second.

I did a similar twist on pepper jelly a few years back with my Cranberry Pepper Jelly (add it to your Thanksgiving menu and thank me later). The fruit adds such wonderful nuance to the pepper jelly, especially since peppers on their own are mostly spice with not a ton of underlying flavor.

I actually think this same process would work for blackberries, blueberries, or even strawberries too!

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Brown Butter Banana Bread (Mix-in Ready!)

Banana bread often veers into two extremes: overly dry, or so moist you worry it’s underbaked. But this loaf just might be the goldilocks of banana bread, with the perfect balance of moisture and tender crumb and a nutty brown butter flavor that serves to enhance the caramel notes of the banana. A tiny bit of sour cream adds moisture and body and prevents the bread from being too dry or cakey. In other words, it’s just right.

Every baker should have a go-to classic banana bread recipe, even if it is only used as a foundation for countless mix-ins and variations. This recipe is exactly that: with a moist crumb and robust flavor it is more than satisfying on its own, but oh so easy to add mix-ins like chocolate chips or nuts to make your own perfect loaf (which is undoubtedly different than my perfect loaf or your aunt’s perfect loaf or… well, you get the idea).

My recipe archives have been missing a basic banana bread recipe for some time now (or as Taylor would say, plain a$$ banana bread). This brown butter banana bread is about as close to basic as you’re going to get (you’re welcome).

The key to this banana bread’s simple perfection is (obviously) the brown butter, which adds a rich and nutty and almost caramelized flavor that compliments the banana beautifully. It’s also well balanced, with enough sugar to keep it moist and tender (too little sugar = dry dry dry), and also a dollop of full fat sour cream that adds moisture and body (too little fat = even drier).

The sour cream is an addition inspired by my sour cream coffee cake and also sour cream chocolate cake; I figured, if it works that well for ultra-moist coffee cake and chocolate cake, it should work equally well for banana bread too! I first tested this theory in miniature in my banana bread muffins, and now it’s incorporated into my full size banana bread recipe as well.

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Passionfruit Jellies (Pâte de Fruit)

Intensely flavorful with a delightful jammy texture that almost melts in your mouth, these passionfruit jellies are what’s known as pâte de fruit: a traditional French confection made by cooking fruit puree, pectin, and sugar until it sets into a firm gel that is then molded or cut into squares and dusted with granulated sugar.

Passionfruit is one of the most intensely flavored fruits, with a tart acidity that rivals that of any artificially flavored ‘sour’ candy (love Sour Patch Kids? Then you’ll adore these!) Made with just a few simple ingredients including passionfruit pulp, sugar, and pectin, these passionfruit jellies have a natural passionfruit flavor that is bold and bright and will send your tastebuds flying.

Pâte de fruit is a sugar-based confection that relies on pectin for its setting power rather than gelatin, which gives these candies a unique, jammy texture that practically melts in your mouth (unlike the “bouncy” chewiness of a gummy bear, for example). That also means that, unlike gelatin-based gummies, pate de fruit is entirely vegetarian (and, if you buy organic or vegan sugar, also vegan!)

Pectin-set candies are a bit more involved than gelatin-based ones, as you do need to cook the sugar and fruit mixture to a very specific temperature to achieve the ideal texture. That means pull out your most accurate digital thermometer (psst, have you calibrated it recently?)

You’ll also need to carefully manage the pH (acidity) of your fruit mixture, as we want the pectin to set, yes, but only at the end when it’s reached the appropriate temperature (otherwise you’ll just end up with a pot full of molten gloop). This is achieved by buffering the pH with baking soda, cooking the mixture up to temperature, then adding citric acid to bring down the pH back to where we want it for the pectin to set and for the passionfruit flavor to pop.

But the final result, when you bite into that first sugar-dusted square, is a bright pop of tropical flavor that will tickle your tastebuds in all the right ways. It’s intensely tart and perfectly sweet, with a satisfying texture that’s delicate and jammy and effortlessly melts onto your tongue.

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Black Sesame Amaretti Cookies

Amaretti are some of my favorite cookies for a reason: they are ridiculously simple to make, with only 3 main ingredients—plus the black sesame in this case—and always a crowd pleaser. Even better, they’re naturally gluten-free AND dairy-free (but you won’t miss a thing, I promise!)

These eye-catching black sesame amaretti cookies might look colorless, but they are certainly not flavorless! With an intense roasted black sesame flavor that’s supported by the nutty almond, this Asian-inspired twist on a classic Italian cookie is both surprising and satisfying, not to mention visually stunning with dark gray crackles peeking through a snow white powdered sugar coating.

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve published a new amaretti flavor, and dare I say this one might be my favorite yet?

I’ll be honest I didn’t expect them to be quite so good the first time I made them. Usually my first go at any recipe is like throwing spaghetti at the wall, just to see what happens. It started with a spark of an idea that came to me while looking at the various nuts, seeds, and powders stashed in my pantry that made me think, “what if I swapped out some of the almond flour with finely ground black sesame seeds?” In this case that hunch that turned into a munch (we devoured the first batch in no time!)

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Brown Butter Banana Bread Chocolate Chip Cookies

Luscious, gooey-in-the-middle brown butter chocolate chip cookies with a banana twist, making them taste like a combination of your favorite chocolate chip cookie and a slice of freshly baked, still-warm banana bread. It’s the perfect recipe to use up that sad single banana languishing on the countertop (you only need a single egg yolk too!)

With a deep and nutty flavor from the brown butter, a hearty kick of banana flavor, and studded with a mix of semisweet and dark chocolate pieces that melt into luscious puddles of molten chocolate in the oven, these lengthily-named cookies will become a fast favorite.

So we’ve done BBCCCs (brown butter chocolate chip cookies), but what about BBBBCCCs (brown butter BANANA BREAD chocolate chip cookies)? Indeed, adding a banana to my favorite cookie recipe makes for a cookie that tastes like a perfect mashup between chocolate chip cookies and banana bread.

The idea for this recipe came about when Taylor — who has a banana every morning for breakfast — somehow wound up with an extra banana that quickly turned (let’s just say he likes his bananas medium rare, even a speck of brown and he won’t touch it). I couldn’t very well let that sad, lonely banana go to waste, but given that it was just a single banana, it wasn’t quite enough to make a loaf of banana bread or even my banana bread muffins, at least without more math than my morning brain was willing to do.

But I figured banana cookies sounded pretty good, so why not?

Turns out you can’t just go adding banana to cookie recipes willy-nilly though. Since bananas have a high water content, simply adding banana will lead to puffy, cakey cookies. And I, for one, am not a fan of cakey cookies (whoopie pies being the one and only exception).

To make up for the extra water content, I removed the whole egg, leaving just egg yolk, and removed the splash of milk as well (the banana more than makes up for the water lost while browning the butter, which is why the milk is there to begin with). A single egg yolk combined with the equivalent of one small banana is enough to give these cookies a fudgy, toothsome, and borderline-gooey texture that is anything but cakey.

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10 Pantry Ingredients to Level-Up Your Baking

I’ve been baking all my life, and developing my own recipes for the last 15 years, and during that time have learned and developed a few tricks and secret ingredients to level-up homemade treats, taking them from good to downright extraordinary.

I’m not one for keeping secrets, so I’m here to spill the beans on these 10 (no longer) secret ingredients that will make your bakes look and taste more like professional, bakery-made treats. Plus, they can all be stored in the pantry for months and even years.

You may have noticed one or more of these ingredients listed as optional in many of my recipes. While their omission won’t necessarily cause the recipe to fail, they are included in the recipe for a reason, usually to level-up the recipe by enhancing the flavor, texture, and/or appearance.

Sometimes I’ll utilize a few of these secret ingredients together at once (like my next-level brown butter chocolate chip cookies which feature dry milk powder, instant espresso powder, flaky sea salt, AND good chocolate). While one of these things on its own might not be super apparent in the final product, together they make for some of the best cookies I’ve ever made (and I don’t say that lightly!)

Just a heads up that some of these ingredients won’t be available in your local supermarket, so it does take a bit of foresight and planning to acquire them online or from a specialty baking supply store (and I’ve included links to the products I use where appropriate). But they are all long lasting and shelf stable in your pantry, so they’ll keep beautifully for a year or more, giving you plenty of opportunity to put them to good use!

(Note this post contains affiliate links.)

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Chewy Crinkle-Top Brownie Cookies

Everything you love about a chewy, fudgy brownie in cookie form! With a double dose of chocolate in the form of melted semisweet chocolate and Dutch-process cocoa powder, and a hint of espresso powder to deepen the chocolate flavor even more, these (no chill!) chewy chocolate brownie cookies come out of the oven with paper-thin, shiny, crinkly tops. A sprinkle of flaky sea salt is the perfect finish.

While you can opt to make larger cookies if you prefer, I like a smaller size (about 2.5-inches diameter). That paired with the soft texture makes them perfect sandwich cookies (might I suggest some mint chip ice cream?) though they are plenty satisfying on their own as well.

The recipe is similar to my chocolate raspberry sandwich cookies, with slightly tweaked proportions and ingredients to produce that shiny, crackly top that’s one of the signature features of perfect brownies.

The smaller size and flat shape, not to mention the soft and chewy texture, make them an excellent base for cookie sandwiches. Might I suggest a rich chocolate ganache and jam filling, or maybe this pistachio white chocolate ganache (yes please!)

Or, better yet smash a scoop of homemade mint chip ice cream between two of these cookies and thank me later. The softness of these cookies makes them particularly suitable for ice cream sandwiches since the soft cookie won’t cause the ice cream to squish out when you bite it.

These cookies are rich and fudgy like a brownie, but thin and chewy like a cookie, with that iconic shiny, crackly crust that you expect from the perfect brownie. Not too sweet either, with a balanced sweetness that contrasts beautifully with the deep chocolate flavor and the flake salt on top.

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White Chocolate Focaccia Bread

This sweet and salty twist on a classic Italian focaccia features hidden pockets of white chocolate infused into the tender crumb and a bubbly, golden brown crust topped with flaky sea salt and crunchy turbinado sugar. It’s made over the course of 3 days/48 hours for a full flavor and extra bubbly crust, but with only 45 minutes of hands-on time required.

This unique focaccia can be made with instant yeast or sourdough (the method is nearly identical), and bakes into a crisp, bubbly, and golden brown focaccia with a sweet surprise hidden inside: pockets of molten white chocolate that almost caramelize in the high heat of the oven, melding with the tender crumb of the bread. It’s a sweet, salty, and sensational twist on focaccia that you won’t soon forget!

My sister and I have long been obsessed with this magical white chocolate bread we had at ClubMed in the 90s. You know how some flavor memories are seared into your brain? That bread is one of those things.

I made a regular loaf version of it based on the official ClubMed recipe a few years back, and haven’t thought much about it since. Until my sister fell head first into her own sourdough obsession (you’re only 6 years late, Robs) and set about making a sourdough loaf studded with white chocolate chips (in short: yum).

I’ve been leaning hard into focaccia lately, maybe because it feels like lazy-girl’s sourdough since you don’t have to deal with shaping or scoring or be overly concerned with proofing times. Despite making over a dozen loaves in the last few months, I’ve mainly stuck to basic flavors so far (dried fennel seed is my favorite focaccia flavoring, another throwback to our favorite date night restaurant in college). But I digress.

Despite baking so many loaves, I don’t have a solid go-to focaccia recipe just yet; it’s something I tweak and change pretty much every time I make it, and likely will continue to do so for some time. While I’ve shared same-day focaccia recipes in the past (this peach and thyme focaccia is a particular favorite), I’ve decided that I prefer the more complex flavors, exaggerated bubbles, and crusty exterior I get from an extended timeline.

So taking into account my focaccia fixation and my sister’s forays into white chocolate sourdough, you can see how the idea of white chocolate focaccia came to be. And it turned out fabulous if I do say so myself (not that I’d be sharing it if it didn’t, but still).

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Strawberry Elderflower Jelly (with Strawberry Rose variation)

Strawberries, particularly perfectly ripe, just picked berries, often have subtle floral undertones. By adding flower-infused syrup to the strawberry juice base, we play up that floral characteristic, giving this flower-infused jelly a unique and complex flavor that tastes just like spring feels.

Made with fresh elderflowers, ripe strawberries and classic pectin for a ruby red, crystalline jelly with a subtle undertone of floral elderflower flavor. This small-batch recipe can be water-bath canned for shelf-stable storage, or refrigerated or frozen instead if you prefer.

Also included in this recipe is a variation for strawberry rose petal jelly using dried rose petals (or any other edible flower, really).

Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of this post to download the free printable labels (both elderflower and rose variations included!)

I have so many strawberry jam recipes. I mean, how many is too many? Asking for a friend…

Without fail, every year I end up picking at least two baskets worth at the pick-your-own farm near us. I just can’t resist the lure of these springtime gems.

In lieu of yet another strawberry jam recipe, I thought I’d mix it up a little bit. Hence: strawberry jelly! The main difference between jelly and jam is strained fruit juice versus whole fruit (more on that below). If a smooth, even texture is your jam—excuse me, your jelly—then this recipe is for you.

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Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (Extra Large, Bakery Style)

These cookies are just… extra. Extra large, extra gooey-in-the-middle, with an extra toasty, extra brown buttery flavor and a texture I can only describe as lush. Tollhouse could never.

This small batch recipe makes 6 obscenely large cookies (equivalent to 12 normal sized ones), but feel free to double or triple the recipe (they freeze beautifully before or after baking). Even better… because it uses melted brown butter, there’s no electric mixer required—the entire recipe can be mixed by hand.

There are a million and one brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipes out there on the internet, but I wanted something impeccable, that was just a little bit different than all the others.

Which is… harder than it sounds.

Needless to say, these cookies have been a long time coming.

And by a long time I mean I’ve tested least 7 test batches baked over the course of the last few months (a sacrifice I’m happy to make). Each time tweaking one tiny little thing to improve the texture, flavor, and/or appearance (or all three). I think there is a reason I haven’t done a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe before now (the closest I’ve come is probably these ganache-stuffed beauties) and that’s because all my years of baking knowledge and know-how was needed to tweak these cookies to perfection.

Normally I go for cookies that spread thinly and evenly for an overall chewy experience, like these pistachio chocolate chip cookies. But this time I wanted a cookie with more substance, a cookie with some meat on its bones, thick and plush and even borderline fudgy, gooey in the middle but still crisp and chewy on the edges, with the perfect balance of buttery cookie to pockets and puddles of rich, dark chocolate.

That’s… a lot to ask of a cookie. (Now you see why it took me so long?)

I ultimately achieved this cookie convergence by precise proportions of flour, sugar, and fat, baking soda (and definitely no powder, which caused the cookie to be overly cakey for my tastes), and by shaping the dough into, of all things, snowmen. Plus a thorough chill and a nice hot oven temperature.

The resulting cookies are oversized and flavor packed, with a robust, toasty brown butter flavor that’s complimented and enhanced by a combination of not-so-secret ingredients: dry milk powder, dark brown sugar, and instant espresso powder, plus cornstarch and an extra egg yolk for the most tender and fudgy cookies of your dreams.

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Pistachio Ganache (with White Chocolate and Pistachio Butter)

This ultra creamy, vibrant green pistachio ganache is made with white chocolate and naturally flavored with real pistachio butter for a sweet, nutty, and earthy pistachio flavor that’s perfect for a wide variety of fillings and frostings for cakes, cookies, and pastries.

With only three main ingredients and a mere 20 minutes of active time (plan on an hour or two for it to set, but it can also be made further ahead of time), this homemade pistachio ganache is a true showstopper, and easily adaptable depending on the exact consistency and flavor you desire.

My pistachio obsession is showing no signs of abating any time soon.

After making a truly otherworldly whipped pistachio ganache to top my exquisite raspberry pistachio frangipane tart, I decided that a standalone pistachio ganache recipe was probably a good idea, as it makes such an incredibly versatile frosting or filling.

This recipe is for a standard soft-set pistachio ganache (perfect for truffle filling or macarons), but it’s easy enough to turn it into a whipped ganache by just adding additional cream and then whipping it to silky smooth, airy perfection the next day.

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Jammy Sour Cream Crumb Cake

With a golden, buttery crumb cake—made extra rich and tender with sour cream—topped with a swirl of bright fruit jam and a crisp, shortbread cookie-like crumb for crunchy contrast, this is a cake that’s as suitable for breakfast as it is for dessert (or even afternoon tea).

Sometimes simple cakes hit just as hard as any multi-tiered masterpiece. As is the case with this deceivingly simple crumb cake, with three layers of textural perfection: tender and buttery cake, sweet and sticky jam, and crunchy crumb topping. And did I mention it’s ready in under an hour from start to finish?

I always seem to have a few jars of homemade jam open and floating in the fridge at any given time. Such is the plight of the jam maker (as I’m sure anyone who makes homemade jam in any quantity likely has the same problem).

It’s why I have an entire category of recipes dedicated to Jams in Action: recipes that use jam as a component in one way or another.

That’s also why this cake—complete with its sticky swirl of sweet and fruity jam—is my ideal cake. One that’s buttery and rich but not overly sweet, with multiple textures to please the palette, and that also uses up some of those sad little orphan jams hidden away in the back corner of the fridge.

The recipe itself is quite similar to my grandma’s sour cream coffee cake (this version with apples being the first version I ever posted), with slightly tweaked proportions and an added shortbread-like crumb topping, plus a layer of fruit jam in between. I like to think of it as a choose-your-own-adventure cake, where the type of jam you use will make it taste completely different every time!

I’ve personally made it with plain raspberry jam, old-fashioned strawberry jam, as well as a blend of raspberry and guava jam from random leftover jars that I mixed together (this one was my favorite, the guava is so punchy I just love it). While I don’t have a recipe for raspberry guava jam, I do have a strawberry guava jam that I think would be absolutely lovely here!

While I’m not calling it coffee cake this time, it really is quite wonderful as a breakfast cake, especially when you take into account the fruity jam. But it’s also perfectly sweet and satisfying for an afternoon tea and even fancy enough to count as dessert (maybe dusted with powdered sugar and served with a scoop of ice cream, perhaps?)

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Raspberry & Pistachio Frangipane Tart with Whipped Pistachio Ganache

Talk about a showstopper: this stunning tart features layers of fragrant pistachio frangipane and raspberry jam in a crisp pistachio shortcrust, studded with fresh raspberries and topped with swirls of luscious whipped pistachio and white chocolate ganache.

This colorful and impressive dessert might look fancy and complicated, but it’s actually easier to make than it looks! The whipped ganache is made the day ahead of time then whipped to fluffy, puffy perfection, and the crust and frangipane filling come together surprisingly quickly too with the help of a food processor and electric mixer (but you could also make the frangipane in the food processor as well).

The first time I made this (for a Hanukkah dinner with our friends, ironic considering the colors make it look like it’s straight from the Grinch’s kitchen), I just made a simple tart crust and the filling of pistachio frangipane and fresh raspberries. No jam layer, and definitely no whipped ganache (sad, I know).

And it looked cute enough and tasted more than fine, but certainly nothing to write home about.

And if there’s anything I want more than anything, it’s to share recipes that are worth writing home about! Writing anyone in fact, I do so love it when my recipes are shared.

So when it came time to make it again, I added a layer of raspberry jam under the frangipane, and topped it with swirls of fluffy pistachio whipped ganache. With those two additions, it became clear, quite quickly, that this is one of my favorite things I’ve ever made. All the flavors and textures come together so beautifully in the end, making each and every bite a truly transcendent experience.

Together, pistachio and raspberry make for a vibrant, eye-catching (and mouth-watering) pairing that balances the rich earthiness of the pistachio with the bright fruitiness of the raspberry.

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Introducing: Life is Butter Dream

Extra, extra, bread all about it! Our brand new Fresh Baked Puns design has landed and is now available for pre-order for a limited time.

This brand new buttery design features an original, hand-cut block print illustration (yes, I carved that thing by hand including all that teeny tiny text. Phew. If there’s enough interest I could be convinced to put a few art prints up for sale as well!) All the gear is locally screen printed on soft cotton tees, tea towels, tote bags, and super cute denim aprons. Oh, and stickers too!

Spread the word: the limited-time pre-order price won’t stick around forever, and once it’s gone, it’s toast.

We’re offering a few more goodies this time than with our previous designs (though if you missed the Live Laugh Loaf totes and aprons check them out immediately as they are fresking adorable.) We also sourced a new unisex shirt style for this design, I know so many of you love Comfort Colors shirts, so we replaced the B+C unisex shirts with these heavyweight cotton tees instead. But don’t worry, the women’s shirts are still the same super soft Bella + Canvas shirts you loved before. :)

Here’s what’s on offer:

🧈 Women’s tees: Ultra-soft Bella + Canvas (a fan favorite for a reason) in stunning Carolina Blue.
🧈 Unisex tees: Heavyweight cotton tees by Comfort Colors (a new heavyweight cotton addition we’re very excited about). Not to mention that butter yellow color? Chef’s kiss. No notes.
🧈 Tea Towels: high quality, 100% cotton flour sack towels. I could have 100 of these things and it wouldn’t be enough.
🧈 Tote Bags: cute and versatile canvas totes with contrast color handles.
🧈 Aprons: these on-trend denim aprons are downright adorable.
🧈 Stickers: because butter belongs everywhere (for real).

Or, butter yet, snag a bundle!

Order yours now at the exclusive pre-order price, and guarantee you get the size, style, and color you want. Butter get on it and snag yours today before this deal melts away!

The discounted pre-order price is valid for one week only through February 15th; all pre-orders will ship the first week of March.

Pre-Order NOW for an exclusive price »

*Please note that for orders containing in-stock and pre-order products, the entire order will ship when the preorder product becomes available. If you need the in-stock item sooner, please place a separate order.

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Overnight Sourdough Discard Waffles

Your new favorite weekend brunch is here: made with sourdough discard for a unique yeasty flavor and buttermilk for tang. Slathered with salted butter, you almost don’t need any syrup (though I’ll admit that the combination of sweet syrup and salty butter on a crisp, yeasty waffle is nothing short of perfection).

The overnight method allows you to mix up the bulk of the batter the night before, letting the sourdough work its magic while you sleep. Then, when you wake up in the morning, just mix in the eggs and start baking and you’ll be enjoying waffles by the time the coffee finishes brewing!

I really do love waffles (you could say, I love them a waffle lot).

I love waffles more than pancakes. And even French toast. Although German pancakes still reign as supreme brunch food in my opinion, but waffles aren’t far behind.

Within the hierarchy of waffles themselves, yeasted waffles always taste just a little bit… more. More flavorful, more fluffy, more crispy around the edges. Just, more.

Seeing as how sourdough is the queen of all yeasts, well, you can see where this is going. To be honest I’m a bit disappointed in myself that it’s taken me this long to actually make sourdough waffles (unlike sourdough pancakes which I tackled years ago).

Once you taste these overnight sourdough waffles, with their golden brown, crunchy exterior and yeasty, toothsome centers, I think you’ll agree that they have been well worth the wait.

If you like your waffles with a bit more substance and depth of flavor—no dry, flavorless styrofoam here—these sourdough waffles might just be exactly the recipe you’ve been looking for. With a perfectly golden brown, crispy exterior and a toothsome, fluffy-yet-substantial interior with a robust yeasty flavor, they truly are the pinnacle of brunch for sourdough lovers. They’re so good that you might find yourself intentionally feeding your sourdough starter a little bit extra, just so you have an excuse to make these waffles.

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The Best of 2025

See ya, 2025. Don’t let the screen door hit you on the way out! (Seriously though, what a year!)

The biggest milestone of 2025—for us at least—was the launch of Fresh Baked Puns, finally putting some of my favorite food puns on tshirts, tea towels, stickers and more (psst! If you missed it, I just added Live Laugh Loaf totes and aprons to the shop! The aprons in particular are extremely limited in quantity, so if you want one, I wouldn’t wait too long.)

I’m currently in the sketching phase for the next two designs coming very soon… let’s just say you butter be on the mailing list if you want first dibs.

Puns aside, we published only 26 recipes this year. The lowest count yet, continuing with the trend of focusing more on quality over quantity. But you know what? I’m darn proud of those 26 recipes and the work that went into them! I think I tested the pecan bars 6 times? 7 times? I honestly can’t even remember any more, I just know I went through a lot of pecans.

Anyway. I’ve done a best of post every year for the past 16 years (!!) and I’m not about to stop such a long-standing tradition despite the fact my brain is half mush—I mean, cookie dough—at this point in the year.

As for what’s in store for 2026… I already have a few recipes in the works that I know you’re going to love. I just need to hunker down and photograph the darn things. Then edit the photos. Then write the recipe and the post. Then promote it… (seriously though, every post takes hours and hours to pull together these days, no wonder I’m not publishing as frequently as I used to).

And while I’ve never been the resolutions type, I’ve got a few big goals in addition to trying to develop some better habits this coming year, including:

• Draw everyday.
• Bake more homemade bread.
• Make more homemade pasta.
• Learn to shoot with artificial light (I’m so sick of fighting the sun).
• Release at least 4 new pun designs (one every quarter).
• Figure out ways to better market myself and Fresh Baked Puns (marketing expert I am not).
• Get more recipes converted, including metric measurements (I’ve made it back to 2019… still 12 more years—and 818 more recipes—to go!)
• Eat less sugar ehhhh who are we kidding. That sweet tooth isn’t going anywhere!

What about you? What are you most excited for in the new year?

(Click through to see which recipe came out on top!)

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Homemade Peppermint Bark (Small Batch)

Peppermint bark is a satisfyingly simple holiday treat, with two gorgeous layers of dark and white chocolates and a flurry of candy cane pieces on top. Making your own from scratch is extra satisfying, with just a few ingredients and less than an hour of your time. This is a small batch recipe, requiring less than 12 ounces of chocolate in total to make an 8-inch square piece of bark, but it can easily be scaled up as needed.

There’s a reason peppermint bark is a holiday staple: it’s oh so festive, almost universally popular, and a perfect long-keeping treat for gifting or cookie exchanges (it totally counts as a cookie, in my opinion). Tied with festive twine and gorgeous gift tags (scroll to the bottom to download the free printable!) it makes an amazing gift for friends, teachers, and anyone who could use a little extra holiday sweetness.

I’ll admit, I didn’t set out to share a basic peppermint bark recipe (or as Taylor would say, a plain a$$ peppermint bark). There are easily a million and one recipes already out there on the Internet, does the world really need another one?

But as I was testing my Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookie recipe, I couldn’t find a store bought bark that wasn’t A: wildly expensive, or B: overly thick.

So I decided to make my own.

And since I was making my own peppermint bark from scratch anyway, I figured, why not kill two birds with one candy cane, and get a second post out of it? You could say it was peppermint to be! Granted, I didn’t plan on that second post turning into such a behemoth, a dissertation on peppermint bark if you will, but, alas, here we are.

(Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of this (admittedly very long) post to download the free printable gift tags!)

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Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies

When you can’t decide if you want Christmas cookies or classic peppermint bark, these dark chocolate cookies let you enjoy both at once: studded with peppermint bark pieces and topped with squares of peppermint bark for a truly festive, truly glorious cookie that’ll easily become a new holiday favorite.

These cookies are a true holiday showstopper: deeply chocolate with bits of chopped peppermint bark instead of the usual chips, plus an extra square of peppermint bark nestled on top so you know exactly what you’re biting into. And because it is a melted butter-based cookie, you can mix it by hand, no electric mixer required (and no worrying about softening butter ahead of time, either!)

I love peppermint bark… but not necessarily on its own. But making peppermint bark-ified versions of other kinds desserts, well, that I’m totally on board for (see: peppermint bark shortbread and peppermint bark brownies). Peppermint and chocolate should always go together, in my opinion!

These deeply chocolate, peppermint-infused, rich and gooey cookies are the result of years of testing. And I deeply apologize for the extended wait, because you’ll soon find this is one cookie recipe you can’t live without.

What took me so long? Well, whenever peppermint season came around I’d make a batch or two, tweaking the recipe and making it better each time, but it still wasn’t quite right. And I didn’t much feel like testing peppermint cookies come January (I’m sure you understand!) So yes, I’ve actually spent 4 years perfecting this recipe, though I’ve only made it about 5 or 6 times over that period of time.

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