Bake or Break

Cowboy Cookies

Some people like cookies that are sweet and delicate. These, my friends, are not those cookies. No, these are big, hearty cookies brimming with all kinds of good stuff - oats, chocolate, toasted pecans, and coconut. Suitable for a cowboy, I suppose. The recipe is adapted from Tate's Bake Shop's newest cookbook, Baking for Friends. The book has lots of good looking cobblers and tarts and such, but I kept coming back to these cookies. Click through for a chance to win a Cookie and Bar Tower from Tate's Bake Shop!

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Pecan Cheesecake Pie

If you've been following the BoB happenings for a while, you may remember that I made a Pecan Pie Cheesecake a few years ago. It was, in a word, glorious. I love everything about it. If that dessert was cheesecake with a bit of pecan pie, then this one is pecan pie with a bit of cheesecake. That little layer of cheesecake adds a bit of unexpected creamy sweetness to traditional pecan pie.

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Dulces

Earlier this month, one of my favorite food bloggers, Anna from Cookie Madness, had her first cookbook published. It's called The Daily Cookie and has a recipe for every day of the year. There's a holiday or recognition day or an anniversary of some big thing every single day. Some have more than one. Anna took a fun approach in her book by finding appropriate cookies for days like National Cookie Day (December 4th) and the anniversary of the founding of ASPCA (April 10th).

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German Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars

German chocolate cake is one of my childhood loves. My mother used to make it from a cake mix with store-bought frosting. And that was just fine with me. Having an anti-coconut husband has limited my baking with coconuts over the last several years. In the spirit of "absence makes the heart grow fonder," I think I enjoy all that German chocolate-y goodness even more because I don't have it very often.

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Sour Cream Pear Cake with Pecan Streusel

While some people call this apple season, I like to think of it as pear season. They are, by far, my favorite fruit to bake with this time of year.

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Pear and Pecan Muffins

When everyone is clamoring about apple season, I'm the one ogling the pears. As much as I like baking with apples, I prefer the subtlety of pears. Once I get my first ones and start baking, I know fall has officially arrived. If you could somehow take all the awesome parts of fall and condense them into a muffin, you'd have yourself one of these gems. Pears and pecans and cinnamon make for a pretty perfect combination. These muffins are simple yet tasty, soft yet sturdy.

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