This is basically a cinnamon roll gone wrong in all the right ways! I dare you to sit this down in front of your friends and family and see what happens…It’s pure sticky cinnamon pull-apart madness!

Begin by adding 1/4 cup of warm almond milk…

…1/4 cup of warm water…

…2 tbsp of honey…

…and 1 tbsp of dry active yeast, to a large bowl or electric mixer. Give this a stir and let sit for 15 minutes, or until is becomes frothy on top.

After the yeast has activated, add in 1/3 cup of unsalted butter (melted)…

…2 large eggs…

…and fresh vanilla. Mix on low to medium speed.

While the mixer is running, add in 3 cups all-purpose flour, a little at a time until it is completely incorporated. 

Once the dough is elastic and spongy, transfer it to a lightly floured service.  

Kneed by hand for 5 minutes.

Transfer it to a bowl coated in melted butter and give it a good toss.

 Cover in plastic and let rest for 1-2 hours, or until it has doubled in size.

With the dough proofed, transfer it to a lightly floured surface and dust in flour.

Begin rolling it out until it is the thickness of two of your fingers, side-by-side.

You may need to cut the dough in half depending on your work surface.

When you reach the desired thickness, make a linked chain of dough by making indents several inches apart…

…and then giving each section a couple of the twists, all the way down the line of dough.

Transfer the chain of dough to a baking tray lined with parchment paper.  

Give the dough a good brushing of butter…

…and coat with a generous amount of cinnamon sugar (recipe below).

Continue to fill the tray.

Repeating the process. 

Cover with a damp paper towel and allow to rise for another 30 minutes.

Then transfer to the oven and bake for 30 minutes at 350°F, or until golden brown. Enjoy!

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:78]

| Top Left: KitchenAid Mixer | Top Middle: Mini Carafe | Top Right: Boos Cutting Board |

| Bottom Left: Mixing Bowls | Bottom Middle: Glass Bowl Set | Bottom Right: All-Clad Pan |

This dessert is inspired by all the countless times I spent 25 cents of my lunch money on one of those ridiculously addicting caramel apple suckers in junior high…This is my attempt at making it into a real dessert and putting my own spin on it. This recipe is insanely simple, so please give a try and share, share, share!

Start by bringing a sauce pan to medium heat. Add 1/2 cup of sugar…

…and 3-4 tbsp of water.

Cook for 10 minutes, or until the water turns a deep gold.

Once the sugar has caramelized, slowly begin to whisk in 2 cups of cream and 1/2 cup milk—being very cautious of the hot steam that comes off.

Add a pinch of salt and mix until fully incorporated.

Transfer to a bowl and let cool in the freezer until it reaches 40ºF. 

Once cooled, add the mixture to an ice cream machine.

Whip until it becomes rich and creamy, or has grown about 25-35% in volume.

Then transfer to freezer until ready to use.

Begin whipping up the apple fritters by adding 1/3 cup of milk…

…1 egg…

…2 tsp of cinnamon…

…and 2-3 tbsp of dark rum (optional) to a mixing bowl.

Give this a good whisk.

Next sift in 1 tbsp of granulated sugar…

…3/4 cup of all purpose flour… 

…1 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp of salt.

Whisk for 3-4 minutes, or until the batter is very smooth.

Add 2 cups shredded apples. I used my mandolin to shred  a couple of galas, but you could use any apple of your choice.

Give the batter a good mix.

Once the fritter batter is done, bring 1/2 quart vegetable oil to 350ºF for frying. Carefully drop a spoonful of fritter batter into the hot oil and fry on both sides until golden brown. 

Transfer the fried apple fritters to a paper towel to drain any excess oil.

Sprinkle with a little sea salt.

Lastly, pile the fritters onto a bowl or plate.

Top with a generous scoop of the home made caramel ice cream and ENJOY! 

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:77]

| Top Left: KitchenAid Mixer | Top Middle: Mini Carafe | Top Right: Ice Cream Maker Attachment |

| Bottom Left: All-Clad Sauce Pan | Bottom Middle: Glass Bowl Set | Bottom Right: Mandoline |

Anytime it comes to ingenious culinary creations—i.e. pizzas, cronuts, etc.—I have to know how it happened! The who, what, when, where, why’s of how these decadently “simple” (of course there are much more involved versions than others) recipes came to be! And today we are talking CHEESECAKE! A simple combination of cheese, eggs, and sugar—that have been around, in one form of another, since 2000 B.C.

First concocted in Ancient Greece, it was actually considered to be a good source of energy for athletes. It was even served at the very first Olympic games back in 776 B.C.  Prior to the matches the athletes would eat cake to fuel up! A novel concept indeed—I’d know I’d hit the weights harder if cheesecake was involved—but undoubtedly an obsolete tradition.

Photo Credit: bonappetit.com

Of course their recipe wasn’t quite what we know it as today. The Greeks used cheese, honey, and wheat flour. When the Romans conquered Greece, the cheesecake recipe was re-adapted to include eggs! As the Romans expanded their empire, the tradition and execution of making cheesecake would change hands many times. Great Britain and Eastern Europe would eventually begin making their rendition with added, along with an extra step of soaking the cheese in milk prior to incorporating the other ingredients. When Europeans immigrated to America, the tradition of making cheesecake followed and in 1872 a New York dairy farmer who was attempting to replicate the French cheese Neufchatel, accidentally made another ingenious culinary development…He invented CREAM CHEESE! Fast forward a few years and you have the Philadelphia Cream Cheese Company. 

Leave it to another culinary explorer, Arnold Reuben a German immigrant and owner of the legendary Turf Restaurant at 49th and Broadway in New York City, to accidentally develop the first cream-cheese based cheesecake recipe! He allegedly came upon his take on the dessert when he fell in love with a friend’s cheesecake and decided to duplicate the recipe using the ingredients he had on hand—lucky for us, that included cream cheese! It wasn’t long after he perfected the recipe and began serving it in his restaurant that other restaurants took notice and the re-known New York-Style Cheesecake was born! A simple combination of cream cheese, cream, sugar, and eggs (extra egg yolks contributing to the signature flavor); served with just the cake—no fruit, chocolate or any other additions.

Photo Credit: chefjar.com

Of course New York isn’t the only place to have its signature cheesecake. In Chicago sour cream is added for an extra creamy bite! Over in Philadelphia, cheesecake is even creamier, but surprisingly lighter that it’s comrades. It can also be served with fruit, chocolate, or other sweet toppings. Across the pond you’ll find Italians use ricotta cheese, Greeks use mizithra or feta, Germans prefer cottage cheese, and in Japan they use a combo of cornstarch and egg whites. Even Haagen-Dazs jumped on the cheesecake bandwagon with a cheesecake-flavored ice cream and—get this—cheesecake flavored postage stamps! What do you think about that?!

For now, I’ll stick with the good old fashion cake version!

Chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla have never looked so good! I made about 15 or 16 of these and they didn’t last an hour in my home. I guess I’ll have to make more? This is the best way I can think of to kick off the #MacaronWeek! Let’s dive in.

In a medium size mixing bowl add 1 egg white…

…and 1 tbsp of granulated sugar.

Whisk for 1 minute…

…and add an additional tbsp of granulated sugar.

Continue to whisk until you have a meringue with soft peaks.

Once the meringue is ready, sift in 1/4 cup of almond flour and 1/3 cup of powdered sugar.

Gently fold in the ingredients until it is roughly combined.  

Add the additional 1/4 cup of almond flour and 1/3 cup of powdered sugar to the mix.  

Gently fold in the ingredients and be sure not to under or over mix (see technique in video).

Transfer the batter to a pipping bag…

…and pipe out several evenly portioned circles onto as silpat lined baking sheet.

Give the baking sheet a few taps on the counter…

…and gently pop any remain air bubbles with the tip of a sharp knife. Let the macarons dry for 10 minutes.

For decoration, I like to flick red food coloring over the tops of the macarons.  I used a 2 tsp water to 1 drop of gel food coloring ratio.

After they’ve dried for 10 minutes, put them in the oven and bake at 280°F for 15 minutes.

When the macarons have finished baking, carefully remove them from the tray and let them cool.

Repeat this process for the chocolate macarons, adding an additional 2 tbsp of cocoa powder to the original recipe above.

When both cookies have baked, put them in the freezer to cool.  

Once cooled, pipe strawberry ice cream onto one flavor of the macarons and gently sandwich it between that and the opposite flavor.

Let these ice cream sandwiches set up in the freezer for about 2 hours and ENJOY!

 [amd-zlrecipe-recipe:75]

| Top Left: Boos Cutting Board | Top Middle: Glass Bowl Set | Top Right: All-Clad Strainers |

| Bottom Left: Baking Sheets | Bottom Middle: Pastry Bags | Bottom Right: Silpat |