Everyone needs a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. This is mine. This Oat Chocolate Chip Cookie combines the luscious butteriness of the classic grandma-style cookie with the chewy texture and nutty flavor of oats and the rich warmth of extra vanilla. While Rebecca (and the health department) may not approve, I'll also share that this dough is almost as good raw, as it is baked!  Our recipe is relatively light on chocolate chips, but feel free to amp up the chocolate if you prefer. Treat yourself!

For me, fall is the season for rustic fruit desserts.  Crisps, cobblers, grunts, crumbles, slumps, pandowdys and brown bettys; all homey variations on the classic fruit-sugar-butter combination.  Raspberries come into their prime in early fall, so this past weekend, my sister and I did some fall raspberry picking. After gorging ourselves on as many of the berries as we could eat raw, I was ready to bake. I wanted to make an unembellished dessert that would highlight the raspberries, while gently blanketing them in a snug bed of crisped almonds, butter and sugar.  Crisps have a lot going for them, they are reliable, take well to innovation and substitutions and can be easily whipped up with whatever ingredients you have on hand. This Raspberry Almond Crisp smells amazing, and makes a perfect early autumn treat. 

With 89 votes, the good readers of The Hungry Hounds clearly had a hankering for a Hoosier (or Indiana) style dessert. Having spent a combined 14 years in the Hoosier heartland, this mandate warmed our mid-western bellies!  One of Indiana's finest culinary traditions is Hoosier Milk Pie (alternatively known as Indiana Sugar or Cream Pie). Hoosier Milk Pie came to Indiana in the mid 1800's with Quaker and Amish homesteaders. It is a homey, dairy-rich custard-style pie with a stove-top filling. Hoosier Milk Pie is egg-less, which is great for those with allergies, makes it easy to cook (no curdling), and allows the clean milk flavor to take the limelight. A crisp flaky crust (whole wheat in this case) paired with the milk custard partners beautifully with fresh ripe berries.  To make this pie your own, substitute any fruit you'd like, eat it unadorned, or add whipped cream as is traditional in some parts of Indiana. Either way, you are going to love this easy and versatile pie. 

Before I discovered overnight sourdough yeast waffles, I was a frustrated maker of second-rate waffles, with little hope for my waffle making prospects.    I had whipped whites, creamed yokes, experimented with pearl sugar, brown sugar, sourdough, bananas, bacon and buttermilk.   I had made waffles laced with rosemary, chocolate, cornmeal and cookie dough, all with fairly humdrum results.   Finally, after mediocre experiments with funky flavor profiles and new techniques, waffle greatness came to our household by way of Fannie Farmer.   It was a winter evening when I first came across this odd sounding waffle process in the highly-regarded retro classic, “The Fannie Farmer Cookbook.”   I was intrigued by the unusual, and rather unseemly instructions for the cook to leave, a batter of milk and butter, out overnight.  Suspending my disbelief,  I whisked up the batter, and the next day will forever be remembered as the day we achieved waffle supremacy! 

When getting ready for guests, we often whip up a batch of our favorite granola. Its a crowd favorite, easy to make in large batches, and it smells great baking (while you rush around cleaning up the house)! As side benefits, it stores well in the freezer for several months, makes an excellent last minute host gift, and serves as a handy snack.