Welcome to Happylifeblogspot! A food blog with drool worthy recipes
A few Thanksgiving’s back, my nephew Nathan started to get brave. Our little picky eater who had been known to enjoy a peanut butter sandwich while everyone else shoveled back mounds of delicious food, decided that he wanted to see what all this Thanksgiving fuss […]
Call it stuffing or call it dressing, it really doesn’t matter as long as you call it delicious!!! Stuffing is one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving. Our take on this Traditional Thanksgiving Stuffing is a classic, no frills, anything but basic holiday stuffing recipe. […]
Ok so I know that every single store has flipped the switch from Halloween to Christmas, but you guys, I’m not done with pumpkin everything season yet! You can take away my pumpkin spice lattes but I’m still gonna celebrate. So this next recipe not only celebrates my favorite time of the year, but it’s literally shouting from the rooftops loud and proud just how AHH-mazing this Fall flavor can be. I’m just gonna say it. Pumpkin Spice Bagels are the BEST BAGELS EVER!!! Seriously. This tasty, chewy, pumpkin flavored bagel has the perfect texture and obviously plenty of flavor. Eat ’em hot out of the oven, toasted, buttered, use them as sandwich bread, slather on some honey pecan cream cheese, Nutella, you name it. Pumpkin Spice Bagels can handle just about anything!
Here’s all you need: canned pumpkin, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, flour, yeast, an egg white, and cornmeal.
Ok so I know what you’re thinking….I could never make my own bagels. That’s way too hard! Umm….but it’s totally not. Especially if you have a handy dandy bread machine or Kitchen Aid mixer to mix the dough for you. So first the easy peasy bread machine instructions. Place 2/3 cup of warm water, pumpkin, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, flour and yeast in the bread maker pan. Select the dough cycle let the bread machine do all the work.
But if you don’t have a bread maker handy, first off let’s put that at the top of your Christmas wish list, then follow these directions. Dissolve the yeast in 2/3 cup warm water (let it sit for about 5-10 minutes until it’s nice and frothy). Blend in the pumpkin and brown sugar. In a separate bowl, combine the salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and flour and whisk to blend it all together. Using a hand mixer at a low speed, add the flour mixture to the wet mixture a little at a time. Once you get to the point where it’s too hard to mix in the rest of the flour with the hand mixer, break out the elbow grease and knead in the rest by hand. Knead until the dough is soft and smooth. Then cover and let rise in a warm place for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
Alrighty! Once the cycle is complete (or your dough has finished rising) split it up into 9, as equal as you can make them pieces. Then on a lightly floured surface, shape them into 9 balls. First you roll it and pat it and mark it P. Put ’em in the oven for pumpkin and me. Sorry I couldn’t resist!
Next we’re going to shape the dough into bagels. This part was literally mind blowing for me! To form a bagel, stick your thumb directly through the center of the dough and stretch it to form a hole in the middle. That’s it. It’s literally that simple. I don’t know why but I always pictured a special bagel pan or a bagel cutter (like a cookie cutter) for this part. Nope! Your thumb is the only tool you need. Super helpful hint: Make the holes way bigger than you think they should be. The bread will continue to rise in the oven which makes those holes shrink quite a bit. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
While the dough’s resting, fill a Dutch oven (or big pot) 2/3 of the way full with water and bring to a boil. Drop the bagels a few at a time into the boiling water. Boil for 45 seconds on one side, then flip them over and boil for 45 seconds on the other side. If the yeast proofed correctly your bagels should float. If they don’t float, don’t fret. Check the date on the yeast label, it could be a bad batch, but bake them anyways!! The flavor will still be delicious! (I’ve eaten a batch of Pumpkin Spice Bagels that floated and a batch that didn’t). Remove the bagels with a slotted spoon and drain.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (aka my bestie!) and sprinkle with cornmeal. You can spray the baking sheet with cookie spray if you don’t have parchment on hand (but we need to have a serious talk about why you don’t have parchment paper on hand….because I’m obsessed with it!!!). Whisk the egg white with two tablespoons of water til it’s nice and foamy then brush onto the tops of the bagels.
Bake in a 400 degrees preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until nice and golden brown. My bagels were perfect at about the 17-18 minute mark for reference. Remove from the baking sheet and cool on a wire baking rack. Seriously though, how fabulous do these homemade Pumpkin Spice Bagels look??? It really doesn’t get any better than this!!
Slice down the middle once they’re cool enough to handle and gobble these bad boys up!!! My family sure did!! Pumpkin Spice Bagels will keep best in the fridge for about a week. Or store in the freezer for up to three months so you can enjoy them every day of the year!! If you’re all about letting your pumpkin freak flag fly then you better get after our Pumpkin Waffles with Maple Whipped Cream or our Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread ASAP!!!!
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So if October is for pumpkin, then November is for squash. At least in my mind it is anyways. In fact, my family doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving with a pumpkin pie. We celebrate it with a squash pie. It’s really a thing if you haven’t heard […]
T-minus one week until Halloween!!! You know what the two best parts of Halloween are???…….the chocolate and the pumpkins!!! Obvi. So why not combine the two?!? This next recipe does just that. Now typically I love ANY and EVERY pumpkin recipe, but the addition of […]
I am SO ready to get my Fall on! Cool weather, pumpkin spice everything, and apple cider……sign me up!! Only the first day of Fall has come and gone and we are still waiting on that chilly weather here in Buffalo. Now normally us Buffalonians wouldn’t dare complain about nice weather because we all know that blizzard season is right around the corner, but I’m talking about 90…degree….days….in…September!!! Now that’s just not right! C’mon summer just end already and make room for Fall. I totally wanted to go apple picking this year, but like in Fall weather, not in a heatwave! So I wimped out and just bought some instead….BUT….they were from a legit farm so I’m counting it (somebody picked them just not me!)
Everyone knows that if you want THE best apple cider in Western NY, you’ll need to head to Cherry Bank Farms in Sanborn! So of course they were the obvious choice for apples as well. They have the cutest little country store where you can purchase all sorts of baked goods, freshly picked apples, local honey, maple syrup and all sorts of other goodies. It’s cash only so make sure you stop at the ATM.
My top picks are the cookies….all of them! These are homemade chocolate chips and were filled with huge chocolate chunks inside!! SO yummy!! And of course you HAVE to take home some cider. Now that’s just a given. If you are ever lucky enough to be there on a day when they have grape juice just buy it all! No for real.
The farm fresh goodies are fabulous enough on their own, but we decided to take them up a notch and bake them into this spectacular apple pie cheesecake! Mission accomplished!
Here’s all that you’ll need; apples, cream cheese, pecans, sugar, eggs, butter, lemon juice, graham crackers, cinnamon, vanilla, whipped cream and caramel ice cream topping.
Add the graham crackers to a food processor and process until you have fine crumbs. I used about 9-10 whole graham crackers to get one cup of crumbs. Set aside.
Now do the same thing with the pecans. Chop them up into nice little pieces.
In a large bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs, chopped pecans, 3 tablespoons of white sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. Stir it all together until well combined.
Next pour in the butter. Mmmm!!! Butter!
Stir until all of the butter is combined evenly into the crumb mixture.
Press crumb mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 9 inch springform pan. Springforms work best for cheesecake because when it’s done baking, you can just remove the sides. Best invention ever! Bake for 10 minutes in a 350 degrees preheated oven. Remove pan from oven and cool until we’re finished with the filling.
Add cream cheese and 3/4 cup sugar to a large bowl. Mix with a hand blender until smooth.
Add eggs, one at a time, and beat on a low speed until incorporated. This will make our apple pie cheesecake so creamy! Mix in the vanilla extract.
Here’s what your graham cracker crust will look like when it’s done baking. This crust is EVERYTHING!! It really is the perfect cheesecake crust.
Pour cream cheese mixture over top of the crust.
In a medium bowl, combine apples, lemon juice, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon.
Toss the apple mixture to combine. Go ahead and try one of those cinnamon sugary apples! Someone’s gotta be in charge of quality control!
Carefully spoon the apples over the cheesecake filling. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 55-60 minutes or until the middle is almost set. I tend to go on the longer side for cheesecakes just to make sure they’re nice and firm all the way through. Once the timer goes off, I turn off the oven, leave the cheesecake inside and just crack open the oven door slightly. If you allow the cheesecake to cool slowly like this, it helps to prevent cracks down the middle. Over The Top Apple Pie Cheesecake is a very forgiving recipe though, since the top is smothered in apples!
Run a knife around the edges and remove from springform pan. Allow it to cool completely before you try cutting into it. I know, it’s hard, but you gotta try! Those perfectly cut cheesecake slices will thank you later.
It looks SO good already but wait, there’s more! Add some caramel drizzle, a few crushed pecans, and a dollop of whipped cream and I promise you won’t regret it!!! I can’t think of a better way to use up some of those Fall apples!!! It’s definitely a favorite in our family! Got lots of freshly picked apples to use? Try our your hand at our Apple Hand Pies!
We’d love to hear from you! Leave us your comments and love down below!
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Hi There! I’m Lisa. I’m a lover of all things crafty, creative, DIY, and delicious!!! Oh yeah and puppies too! I love cooking and baking for my friends and family but especially WITH my friends and family. I show my greatest affection through food. If I cook or bake for you, it means I really like you!
