"...the answer invariably comes back: cinnamon."

"Cinnamon takes a back seat to no babka. People love cinnamon. It should be on tables at restaurants along with salt and pepper. Anytime anyone says, "Oh this is so good, what's in it?" The answer invariably comes back, 'Cinnamon.' 'Cinnamon.' Again and again. Lesser babka?? I think not."


Amen, Jerry. And amen.

Two Seinfeld references in a row? What's wrong with me? Nothing a little cinnamon can't cure. It's time for the Cinnamon Celebration round-up. I received 37 entries appropriate for any and every type of cinnamon craving you might have. We'll start with the desserts first:

Sophie from Flour Arrangements made a glorious treat that would be suitable for just about anyone--Gluten- and Lactose-Free Cinnamon Dulce de Leche Cake:


I got a gorgeous Maple-Glazed Apple Cake from Lindsey of Noodle Nights and Muffin Mornings:


Butterball, the gal responsible for the fabulously-titled blog A Butter World, made Sugar & Spice & Everything Naughty Pastry Hearts:


I think chocolate and cinnamon is a wonderful combination, and Nuria from Spanish Recipes agrees. Here's her Bizcocho con Chocolate (Chocolate Cake):


The Peanut Butter Boy, also known as Nick, brought back his Pumpkin Pie Peanut Butter Pudding, and I, for one, am very happy about it:


How does a Fig and Chile Chocolate Cake with Cinnamon Ice Cream sound? Vera of Baking Obsession has concocted a wonderful recipe and the presentation is nothing short of extraordinary:


Judith from Shortcut to Mushrooms was inspired by a book to make her Dim and the Dark Cookies:


Karen, the DomesticMuse, raises a good point--why aren't there Apple Brown Bettys all over the place? They're wonderful:


Ivy of Kopiaste contributed a unique and undeniably appetizing treat--Glyko Milo:


Although these Chewy Ginger Wedges from Peggy of The House of Kent are ginger-centric, they still honor cinnamon:


Kat from A Good Appetite also knows a thing or two about the pairing of chocolate and cinnamon. Take a gander at her Dark Chocolate Azteca Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream:


There's no denying that apples and cinnamon belong together, and Gayle from Pastry Studio provides wonderful proof of that with her whimsically-named Apple of My Eye:


Here's another apple delight from MaryBeth of Dunkin Cooking the Semi-Homemade Way--Apple Footballs:


Donna of My Tasty Treasures sent in something I've never made myself, but would love to try--Baked Churro Munchies with Warm Chocolate Dipping Sauce:


Cinnamon makes a perfect compliment to the fruits in Abby's Orange & Cranberry Torte. Check out her blog Eat the Right Stuff for the wonderful recipe:


Jeanne, brilliant author of CookSister, contributed a glorious Spiced Pear Apple Pistachio Crisp, perfect for any day:


Here are two sensational creations sent in by Navita of Zaayeka. First, we have Sesame Sepculaas, which are completely new to me but look irresistible:


Her other treat is Vegan Banana Chocolate Bread, which can and should be enjoyed by all:


Marjie from Modern Day Ozzie and Harriet put a twist on a classic cake with her Meringue-Topped Spice Cake:


The last dessert-type dish was sent in by Sweatha of TastyCurryLeaf, and what do ya know--it's my favorite cookie. Here are her Snickerdoodles:



How about a couple of entrees? After all, meat likes cinnamon too.

First, Julia of Grow. Cook. Eat. made an interesting beef dish called Adina Kebabi, and it looks great:


Sylvie from Rappahannock Cook & Kitchen Gardener also paired cinnamon with beef. Here's her savory Red Cooked Beef with Sweet Potatoes:



I call these the breakfast beauties:

Lisa of The Cutting Edge of Ordinary has a marvelous recipe for Cinnamon Biscuit Rolls, the ultimate breakfast treat:


Here's that lovely apple again--OhioMom from Cooking in Cleveland made some beautiful Apple Cinnamon Twists:


Katie from Salt and Chocolate sent in her Baked Oatmeal, a delicious, convenient, and completely wonderful dish:


If you want a good laugh and also appreciate the wonder that is cinnamon toast, check out The Blonde Duck's ode on her blog A Duck in Her Pond:


You absolutely can't go wrong with a batch of Apple Cinnamon Muffins from Lori of Lori's Lipsmacking Goodness:


More muffins? Giz of the ever-delightful Equal Opportunity Kitchen made an all-time favorite--Donut Muffins:


Krysta, the evil chef mom and goddess who helped introduce me to Vietnamese cinnamon, began her bread-baking endeavors with this stellar Cinnamon Crumb Surprise:


Julia's back again with a different take on Cinnamon Rolls. I personally can never get enough:


It's time for a little chocolate--here are Elle's Mexican Hot Chocolate Muffins as seen on her most enjoyable blog, Elle's New England Kitchen:


Laura from The Spiced Life made cookies for breakfast, which is a-okay by me. Look at her Cinnamon Pumpkin Oatmeal (Breakfast) Cookies:


One final batch of my favorite breakfast--these Vanilla Pudding Cinnamon Rolls were created and enjoyed by Psychgrad of Equal Opportunity Kitchen:



Miscellaneous magic:

Ashley, the Culinarywannabe, made a lovely Breakfast Granola full of fruits and nuts:


Deeba of Passionate About Baking took her granola one step further and made Blueberry Oat Walnut Granola Bars:


Here's a recipe for an Apple Compote with Cinnamon, Vanilla, and Ginger Infusion from Olga of Olga's Recipes. Sounds marvelous, right?


Last but certainly not least, we have one more batch of granola a la Cathy of Where's My Damn Answer--here's her Cranberry & Mixed Nut Granola:



That's a lot of cinnamon goodness in one place. I can barely handle it all.

So, I guess you're wondering who won the shtick of Vietnamese cinnamon, am I right? Drumroll, please...

Laura! Congratulations! Not only do we share a love for "Friday Night Lights" and all things Whedonesque, but we also both appreciate the special spice known as cinnamon. Send me your info, and I'll send you some of the best stuff on Earth.

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eyes on the prize

One of my favorite podcasts featured an interview of the author of Fragrant: The Secret Life of Scent, a book about some of our world's most important aromatics. Guess what made the top five?!

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my perfect pairing

If you were to scroll through my posts featuring recipes using apples, you'd find that an ever-present ingredient is cinnamon.


Indeed, I find the combination of apples and cinnamon to be a powerful temptation in all forms--cookies, cakes, pies, breads, donuts, sauces, and on it goes. If apples are involved, then by golly, there had better be cinnamon!

Now that I've professed my love for all things apple-cinnamon, let's talk about this coffee cake. There aren't many recipes out there that specifically call for cinnamon chips, but this is one. (That's not to say that one couldn't replace any type of baking chips with cinnamon chips in any recipe, of course. One could. And should.) It's a triple threat--apple butter (my batch obviously contained cinnamon), straight cinnamon, and cinnamon chips are all involved and, in my opinion, essential.


This corner exhibits what I find to be the perfect bite--lots of chippage,
a little glaze, and some nuts to boot.

There's not a thing wrong with this cake. It's moist and dense and properly sweet, thanks in part to a little powdered sugar glaze. There's a subtle hint of maple, and the cinnamon chips and walnuts are nicely scattered throughout, making each forkful a pleasant experience.

Cinnamon-Lover's Coffee Cake
(three cheers for Hershey's Kitchens! my cake is based on their recipe)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon maple extract
1 cup apple butter
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cups (10-oz package) cinnamon chips
1 cup walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease 13x9-inch baking pan or a 12-cup fluted tube pan.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and granulated sugar together with a mixer until well blended. Beat in the eggs, extracts, and apple butter. In a smaller bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in the cinnamon chips and walnuts and spread into the prepared pan.
Bake 30-35 minutes for a 13x9-inch pan or 45-50 minutes for a tube pan or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Drizzle with a glaze (made from combining 1 cup of powdered sugar with 1-2 tablespoons of milk) or sprinkle with powdered sugar.

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abracadabra? pshaw.

Presto-change-o? Nah.

Streusel is my magic word.

If you've been a reader of this blog for long, you know that I was never the biggest fan of cheesecake. Somewhere along the line, things started to change, and now I'm excited to bring you the most impressive, most tasty, most complex cheesecake I've ever encountered.

Folks, we're talking layers involving oatmeal cookie streusel, creamy cheesecake, cinnamon chips, and caramel--it doesn't get much better than that. I can definitely appreciate so many flavors and textures going on in one bite. My only complaint would be that because of that crumble, the entire cake held together poorly, but let's be honest--it's all going to the same place anyway. Structure is the least of my concerns when streusel is involved.

Hocus pocus. Alakazam. Voila.

Cinnamon Streusel Cheesecake
(based on a recipe by Marcy Goldman)
Crust:
1 1/2 cups finely ground cinnamon-raisin cookies
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Filling:
1 1/2 pounds cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream or whipping cream
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup finely ground cinnamon-raisin cookies
1/3 cup cinnamon chips, optional (but not really)
1/4 cup butterscotch or caramel sundae topping (or a sauce of your own making)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon mixed with 1/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
To make the crust, toss cookie crumbs, butter, and brown sugar together in bottom of one 10-inch springform pan (or two 8-inchers). Press the crust into bottom of the pan(s) and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Wrap the pan(s) with three layers of foil to keep out the water from the water bath.
To make the filling, in a mixer bowl, blend the cream cheese, sugar, and sour cream until smooth, scraping bottom and sides of bowl to incorporate everything, about 3 to 4 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla and flour and blend well, 2 to 3 minutes.
Spoon one-third of the filling into the prepared pan and top with half each of the ground cookies and cinnamon chips. Drizzle on some butterscotch topping and dust on some cinnamon sugar. Cover with another third of the cream cheese filling and then dust on more cookies, more cinnamon chips, and more cinnamon sugar.
Add the last bit of filling and finish the top of the cake with cookie crumbs, cinnamon chips, and a nice dusting of cinnamon sugar. You want to end up with a streusel-ized topping.
Place the pan in a water bath such that the water comes about halfway up the sides of the pan(s) and bake 65 to 75 minutes (for a 10-inch pan; 55-65 minutes for 8-inchers). Turn off the oven and let the cake cool in the oven for 1 hour before removing to fridge. Chill cheesecake at least 6 hours or overnight before serving.

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i put it off as long as i could

I resisted making the snickerdoodle blondies that've been spreading like wildfire in the Land of Food Blogs for quite some time because I knew they'd be addictive and I knew I'd never look at normal blondies the same way again.


I was right. Regular blondies are worthless to me now.

Where do I begin? Let's start with what these bars are like before they're even baked. I'm not gonna deny that chocolate chip cookie dough isn't good, but it truly pales in comparison to this raw batter. It's seriously tasty.

Secondly, I need to tell you about the aroma. As you know if you've ever stopped by this blog even once before, I'm addicted to cinnamon. I defy any among you to tell me that you don't enjoy the smell that wafts out of the oven as anything involving cinnamon bakes. It's undeniably swoon-worthy, and these bars are no exception. Even as I was cutting them, the scent worked its way into my nose and I more than once felt the urge to pause and have a bite.


Finally, the ultimate test--the flavor. As far as I'm concerned, the taste of these bars is supreme. The texture is right, the cinnamon dosage is perfect, the cinnamon chips are a welcome addition, and the cinnamon sugar is the icing on the cake (or the dusting on the bars, as the case may be).

The moral of this story--as long as I'm baking just for myself, another blondie recipe will never again be necessary. This one wins.

Cinnamon Lover's Snickerdoodle Blondies
(the recipe is everywhere, but I worked from Maria's)

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup brown sugar, tightly packed
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup cinnamon chips
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray down an 8x8-inch pan. Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon; set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar; beat in the egg and vanilla until smooth.
Combine the flour mixture and the wet mixture and mix until well-blended. Stir in the cinnamon chips. Spread the thick batter evenly in the prepared pan (and do it quickly so you're not tempted to eat it all before it's baked). Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a little bowl and evenly sprinkle the mixture over the top of the batter.
Bake 25 minutes or until surface springs back when gently pressed. Cool slightly. While still warm, cut into bars with a sharp knife. I recommend doing this with a clothes-pin on your nose.

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have your cake...

...and cinnamon roll too.


Cinnamon. Roll. Cake. Can you believe I only made this for the first time a few weeks ago? There's no excuse for my behavior--it's completely unacceptable. To ignore such a magnificent and effortless creation is a travesty, plain and simple. As punishment, I should be force-fed more cake. That'll teach me.

All right, so it doesn't really taste like a cinnamon roll--there's no bready, yeasty characteristic of which to speak. In fact, upon my first bite, I immediately likened it to the warm cinnamon roll shooters from Chili's. Have you tried them? As far as I can tell, those little cups of heaven consist of layers of streuseled coffee cake and cinnamon-powdered sugar glaze. (Not a bad idea, right? Kudos, Chili's!)


Even though this cake is clearly different from your standard cinnamon roll in texture and flavor, it's similar in that cinnamon is the star (as it should be). When you hit a pocket of that sugary cinnamon streusel while also getting a taste of the cake and glaze, the result is a perfect sweet and spicy bite.

Did I like this? I think it's fairly obvious that the answer is a resounding YES.

Cinnamon Roll Shooters in Cake Form
Cake:
1 box of yellow cake mix
4 eggs
¾ cup oil
1 cup sour cream (I used 1 cup of yogurt + 1 teaspoon of baking soda)
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Icing:
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
3-4 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 325F and grease a 13x9-inch baking pan.
Mix the first four ingredients by hand and pour into the prepared pan.
In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle it over the cake batter. Swirl decoratively with a knife.
Bake for 40-50 minutes and let it cool briefly before adding the icing.
To make the icing, stir together the sugar and milk until smooth, adding more milk as needed. Pour over the warm cake.

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an unanswered question

I foolishly thought you could find the answer (perhaps an answer would be more appropriate) to any question on the internet. Not so, people. I have absolutely scoured the web for the reasoning behind calling certain sourdough starters Herman and I can find nothing.


If you know the origins of the name, please do tell. However, even if there turns out to be a legitimate reason, I refuse to rename Eb. He's an Ebenezer, through and through.

Eb's latest accomplishment is a coffee cake. Since I was in a questioning mood, I wondered to myself just what defined a coffee cake. My go-to source for such inquiries says that a coffee cake is "a cake served with coffee or eaten at breakfast...typically flavored with cinnamon, nuts, and fruits" and that "sometimes has a crumbly or crumb topping called streusel." Ah, streusel. Even reading the word makes me swoon.


I should really remove all paraphernalia from my table before the photo session begins. Yes, that's a banana in the background. It's ripening nicely.

So according to that definition, this is definitely a coffee cake. It was a)eaten for breakfast, b)eaten with coffee, c)flavored (abundantly) with cinnamon, and d)streuseled. (I'll bet you didn't know streusel could be used as a verb. Now you know.)

I chose this particular recipe because it calls for two whole cups of starter, and I needed to use quite a bit since Eb was outgrowing his jar. Plus, even though I just made that phenomenal (all modesty aside, of course) cinnamon cake, I figured a little more cinnamon aroma in the apartment couldn't hurt. Also, unlike the cinnamon cake [that one was mine, all mine! (insert evil laugh here)], I'd be sharing this one.


Look at that crater. You could fit an entire Riesen chocolate chew in there. Awesome.

I only made one change to the typical coffee cake. Instead of having the streusel on top, I put it in the middle in hopes of creating a lovely, aesthetically-pleasing ribbon of buttery, cinnamon-happy goo. I also increased the streusel component since I figured that two cups of starter might be a bit overwhelming (and because it's butter, flour, sugar, and cinnamon--come on!). Ultimately, I think the sourdough flavor was still a bit strong, but it was undoubtedly a delicious cake.


Sweet and Sour Coffee Cake
(based on this recipe)

Cake:
2 cups Eb, activated
2/3 cup oil
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar

Streusel:
1 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, softened

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a mini loaf pan (or your more traditional 9x13" pan) with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together Eb, oil, and eggs. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and stir until combined.
For the streusel, stir together the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Cut in the softened butter until the mixture resembles very coarse crumbs. Try to refrain from digging in with a spoon.
Divide the cake batter evenly into the loaf forms, filling them about 1/3 full. Sprinkle each with the streusel and top with the remaining batter.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the toothpick test is passed. (No, Floyd County footballers--not that toothpick test.) Cool on a wire rack.

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