Stollen. (Say “schtollen,” the word spoken with that guttural German flair which, after all, is its birthright).

Dresden, Germany has been known for its stollen since at least 1474, when this classic Christmas sweet bread was first mentioned in print.

And the stollen you purchase at your local supermarket sometimes seems like it might have been around since 1474, doesn’t it?

Dry. Crumbly. Filled with hard bits of… what is that? Fruit? The dreaded “peel”?

As Americans we like to change things up. And stollen is no exception.

Case in point: this golden stollen, its color, flavor, texture, AND nutrition all enriched with a healthy dose of…

read the rest of this entry »

You all know how the old rhyme goes…

“Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, had a wife and couldn’t keep her. He put her in a pumpkin shell and there he kept her very well.”

Curious minds want to know though, what did Mrs. Peter do in there, anyway? Well…

read the rest of this entry »

Picture yourself in front of an old-fashioned 1950s style console television.

You twist and turn the dial past the static and squeals until you hear the opening  words of your favorite show…

read the rest of this entry »

Looking for a colorful addition to your autumn bread basket?

You won’t do better than these pumpkin muffins.

read the rest of this entry »

Move over Eve, Marilyn, Cleopatra and Mae West, and let me show you how this temptation thing is really done.  Plan ahead, you’ll want plenty of time to be ready for this.

First you warm things up. Then you…

read the rest of this entry »

You know, there’s a reason they call certain breads “quick breads.”

Because they bake quickly?

No, not particularly.

Because they’re easy to put together and, once out of the oven, disappear quickly?

Yes, and yes.

This moist, golden pumpkin bread, a member of our 5-Star Recipes Hall of Fame (a.k.a. top-rated recipes), meets the criteria in spades.

read the rest of this entry »

Remember The Great Pumpkin Shortage of 2009?

Just as fall baking season kicked into gear, shoppers found supermarket shelves devoid of canned pumpkin. A disastrous crop year in the Midwest, the country’s prime pumpkin-growing region, spelled doom for many a Thanksgiving pie-baker that year.

And this year, you may think we’re in for more of the same.

read the rest of this entry »

From “USA Today,” Sept. 27, 2010:

“PORTLAND, Ore. – Pumpkin lovers can relax: A nearly year-long shortage of the canned stuff is over. That means an end to the hoarding, rationing and even pumpkin profiteering that have been going on since heavy rain ruined last year’s harvest and caused a shortfall…”

WHEW! I’d been having serious worries about the absence of canned pumpkin in the baking aisle of my local grocery store.

I mean, for weeks I’d been heaving disappointed sighs every time I looked at the hugely expensive cans of organic butternut squash crowding the shelf where my favorite One-Pie canned pumpkin ought to be. read the rest of this entry »

Looking for a fun new way to serve your mini cookies? Our special three step blog will show you how.

read the rest of this entry »

“The frost is on the pumpkin.”

Sure, we’ve all heard that expression (haven’t we, class?) It comes from the title of a famous poem (well famous to us American lit. majors) by James Whitcomb Riley, a short bit of doggerel that begins like this:

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock…

I don’t know about the fodder being in the shock, but I sure am. I finally took my summer vacation last week, down on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Where the temperature was 20° below normal, the state was recording its earliest ever snowfall, and the frost was definitely on the punkin. read the rest of this entry »