I’ve never made dessert in a slow cooker before, but I kind of couldn’t resist. I mean…sugar, apples, cranberries and oats getting all snuggly warm for a few hours can do no wrong.

I’ve eaten way more of this than I care to talk about. It’s great over cereal, in case you’re wondering. I bought approximately 12 zillion local apples a few days ago and I’m pretty sure there’s going to be a crockpot crumble after-party.

Is there anything prettier than cranberries and apples? Let’s do this!

Slow Cooker Caramel Apple Cranberry Crumble
Adapted from How Sweet It Is

Serves 4 to 6

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 large apples, cut into chunks
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Topping:
2/3 cup oats
2/3 cup loosely packed brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons softened butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Toss apple chunks and cranberries with salt and cinnamon.

In the bottom of your slow-cooker, mix brown and granulated sugars, then spread evenly to cover. Layer apples and cranberries on top, keeping them in a single layer as much as possible, then adding the rest on top.

Mix the crumble topping together in a bowl, using your fingers to distribute the butter evenly and thoroughly and clump it together. Sprinkle it over top of the apples. Cook apples on low for 4 hours, or high for 2 hours. Turn off heat, unplug, and let sit, covered, for one hour. During this time the caramel will thicken a bit more. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

I eat them out of hand, chopped up on top of my cereal, cooked into instant oatmeal, and sliced with a little peanut butter. And you’d better believe I’m baking with them! This weekend I made baked apple pie donuts and they totally tasted like apple pie. I wouldn’t kid about a thing like this.

We really love donuts, but we don’t love the greasy, slightly sick feeling we end up with after eating them. That doesn’t happen with baked donuts! I think I also enjoy them more knowing that I didn’t just eat an entire day’s worth of calories. And Ryan loves cake donuts, so baked donuts are just working for us right now. And I’m definitely putting apples in them.

Baked Apple Pie Donuts
Barely adapted from MomAdvice

Makes about 8 donuts

1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 1/2 cups chopped apple (peeled), about 2 regular apples
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/3 cup cold butter or margarine, cut into small pieces
1 egg
1/4 cup milk

For sugar & cinnamon topping:
1/4 cup apple cider
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Whisk the flour, baking powder, sugars salt and and nutmeg in a bowl. Add the cold chopped butter, cut into tablespoons. Cut the butter with the flour mixture until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs with a pastry blender or fork.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg. Mix in the milk and fold in the chopped apples. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture. Stir using a spatula or spoon making sure not to overmix. Place two spoonfuls of batter into a greased donut mold pan.

Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the donuts are just golden. Allow to cool for five minutes. Pour apple cider into a small bowl; mix cinnamon and sugar into another small bowl. Unmold each donut gently; carefully dip each into cider and then cinnamon-sugar. Shake off excess sugar and serve immediately.

These cupcakes are pushing for those last few days of bare feet and freckled shoulders! They’re totally wearing white after Labor Day and they’re looking good doing it. No big deal.

Strawberry coconut love starts with a cake mix and gets all dressed up for dinner. Take these little beauties to your friends and look like you know what you’re doing! But don’t over-mix them, or you’ll end up scraping burned cake off the bottom of your oven at 11 am on a Tuesday. Trust me. I know.

Strawberry Coconut Cupcakes
Inspired by Joy the Baker and adapted from Duncan Hines

These cupcakes are really tender and can be difficult to remove from the pan. One of my favorite bakery tricks is this: after the cupcakes have cooled in the pan, place the entire pan in your freezer for 30 minutes to an hour. If you have enough space in your freezer, do both pans at once! As soon as the cupcakes are a bit frozen (they don’t have to be rock solid, but it’s easier if they are), they’ll be much easier to remove from the pans. As soon as they thaw, you’ll never know the difference.

Makes 24 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:
1 box white cake mix (without pudding!)
1 (3 ounce) box strawberry gelatin
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup diced strawberries
1 tablespoon coconut extract
2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line two muffin tins with cupcake papers and spray lightly with cooking spray.

In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), combine cake mix, gelatin, flour, and baking soda and mix well. Add strawberries, extract, oil, eggs, and water, and mix on low speed until just moistened, about 30 seconds. Mix on medium for 2 minutes.

Spoon batter into pans, filling each cup 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Transfer pans to wire racks and cool completely.

For the frosting:
1 (8 ounce) brick cream cheese, softened
2 sticks butter or margarine, softened
1 (32 ounce) bag powdered sugar
pinch of salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

sweetened flaked coconut and sliced strawberries for topping

With an electric or stand mixer, beat together cream cheese and butter until completely smooth and blended. Add about half the sugar and beat until smooth. Add the rest of the sugar, salt, and vanilla, and beat until smooth. At this point it’s up to you — if you’d like a stiffer frosting, add a bit more sugar.

Frost cupcakes with your weapon of choice — I like to pipe frosting because it’s just easier for me, but you can definitely spread it with a butter knife on this one, because it’ll be covered in coconut. Pour coconut into a shallow bowl and, one at a time, turn each cupcake upside down and gently turn the top into the coconut. Top with a strawberry slice. Do this assembly-line style (frosting, coconut, strawberry) on each cupcake so that the coconut and strawberries will stick.

To be fair, I really don’t like oatmeal. I’m not a fan of the mushiness. But Ryan loves it and I figured this recipe had enough fruit and walnuts and cinnamon involved to be palatable for myself, the oatmeal snob. I still hedged my bets and made a half-batch.

I’ll be honest — this is the best breakfast I’ve had in a long time! I am in love with this oatmeal. It’s wonderfully rich and perfectly spiced. And it’s not mushy! Baking gives the oatmeal a wonderful, chewy texture, more akin to bread pudding than normal oatmeal: soft, but not slimy. Amen to that.

Berry Baked Oatmeal
Adapted from Super Natural Every Day via Shutterbean

I’m definitely making this again as soon as possible, and making a full batch this time! If you want to be a chicken like me and make a half batch, use an 8″ square baking dish.

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
1/3 cup cane sugar or maple syrup (plus more for serving)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 cups whole milk, plus more for serving*
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons salted butter, melted & cooled slightly**
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 ripe bananas, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 1/2 cups mixed berries (frozen is fine!)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Generously butter the inside of an 9″ x 13″ baking dish.

In a bowl, mix together the oats, half of the walnuts, the sugar, baking powder & cinnamon.

In another bowl mix the milk, eggs, half of the butter and vanilla. Whisk until well combined.

Arrange the bananas in a single layer at the bottom of your baking dish. Sprinkle 2/3 of the berry mixture on top. Pour the oat mixture on top and then slowly drizzle the milk mixture on top of that. Give the baking dish a few thwacks (love that word!) on the kitchen counter to make sure the milk moves all around the oats. Scatter the remaining berries and walnuts on top.

Bake in the oven for 35 to 45 minutes, until the top is nicely golden and the oat mixture has set. Remove from the oven and let cool. Drizzle the remaining butter on top and serve. Drizzle maple syrup on top and top with a little bit of milk. Enjoy!

*I used light soy milk here because I have lactose issues, but I’d recommend it for anyone in this case — it adds much more richness than dairy milk for about the same amount of fat as skim milk.

**If you use unsalted butter or margarine as I did, add a pinch of salt to the oat mixture.

To be fair, these are more lemon than blueberry, which is completely fine with me. They made the house feel all buttery and cozy this morning, and made me want to put on my favorite Lululemon tank and some sweatpants and go back to sleep. I resisted, but the impulse is still there. Just saying.

Anyway — these scones are seriously good. And don’t even get me started on the glaze. I have some leftover and feel like it’s destined for blueberry donuts. I’ll keep you posted. My sweatpants are calling.

Blueberry Lemon Scones
Barely adapted from Take a Megabite

Makes 8-10 scones

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
pinch of ground ginger
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter or margarine*
3/4 cup lemon juice
3-5 tablespoons milk, as needed
zest from 2 lemons, about 2 teaspoons
1/2 cup blueberries, preferably frozen

*Frozen for 30 minutes and grated on the largest side of a box grater

Preheat your oven to 400°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ginger. Rub the zest into the sugar until fragrant. Whisk into the dry ingredients. Add butter and toss to coat, breaking up the larger pieces of butter with your fingertips. Add about 1/2 cup of lemon juice and stir, add more/all of the lemon juice as needed. If the dough is still a bit dry add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until a dough forms. Pour onto a floured surface and knead until pliable.

Pat into a rectangle about an half an inch high. Press blueberries into the dough and cut into squares. Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until tops are lightly golden. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Lemon Glaze

1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest + more for sprinkling
1/2 cup lemon juice

Combine melted butter and 3/4 cup powdered sugar and mix with an electric mixer until combined. Add zest and juice and mix until no longer lumpy. Add remaining powdered sugar 1/4 cup at a time, mixing between additions.

Drizzle over the scones and sprinkle with zest.

Last weekend after I finished making these pancakes, I decided to get on it and bake up this tasty bread before the heat set in. I love mangoes more than most things in life and it’s a miracle this extra-sweet, extra-juicy one made it into bread at all. It’s okay, I’ve eaten almost the entire loaf to make up for it. And no, I don’t feel guilty about that, thank you very much. Now someone could lend me a pool to lay by, I’d appreciate it.

Vegan Banana Mango Bread
Joy the Baker

Makes one loaf

My bread isn’t as pretty as Joy’s. I’m okay with it (real life). But I’m in love with this bread – it’s healthy and wholesome and just plain delicious. I’ve got to get myself some more mangoes.

3 medium or 2 large ripe bananas
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour*
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 ripe mango, sliced into chunks
granulated (or turbinado) sugar for topping

I’d never had cornmeal pancakes before, but they sell them at Ryan’s favorite breakfast spot and I’ve been curious about them. And I honestly don’t know why I was so excited about making these with cherries, but shoot, I can’t stop eating the dang little things. And these were seriously good pancakes – maybe the best I’ve made.

The texture of these bad boys can’t be beat. Using the muffin mix made the pancakes come together so quickly and simply. I’ll definitely be making them this way again! They’re light but still hearty, flavorful but not overly sweet like so many pancakes – which leaves plenty of room for seriously sweet blueberry sauce. Oh yes, I went there. On Saturday morning. But let’s be real — I made the blueberry sauce sometimes around Thursday night. Saturdays are for sleeping in, right?

As for this blueberry sauce, it’s phenomenal. I bought several pounds of blueberries on super sale last week, and although we ate most of them on our cereal or out of hand, when I read the recipe for this sauce I stopped eating the blueberries and got in the kitchen with the rest of them. I zested a lemon and went to town. It was a pretty good Thursday night. And I’ve been eating the sauce ever since, on pretty much everything I could think of, but using it to top these pancakes was a high point. Seriously delicious – let’s do this!

Cherry Cornmeal Pancakes
Adapted from Shirley J

Makes 8-10 pancakes

2 cups (add water only) corn muffin mix
1 1/2 cups milk (of your choosing)
1 cup pitted, halved cherries

Preheat oven to 250°F, and place a small cookie sheet in the oven. In a large bowl, stir together muffin mix and milk thoroughly.  A few lumps are okay, but you don’t want dry clumps of cornmeal in your pancakes!

In a large skillet or griddle, heat a little oil on medium-high. Working in batches, spoon about 1/4 cup batter onto the skillet for each pancake. Place 2-3 cherries on the surface of each pancake, pressing each cherry down gently with one finger. Cook pancakes until bubbles form on the surface (about 2-3 minutes), and then flip gently and gently press down on the pancake with the back of the spatula for a few seconds. Cook for another 2-3 minutes. When each batch of pancakes is finished cooking, transfer pancakes to cookie sheet and return sheet to oven to keep pancakes warm. Repeat until you’re done cooking! And then eat some dang pancakes (with homemade blueberry sauce, if you’d like).

Homemade Blueberry Sauce
My Baking Addiction

Makes about 2 cups*

2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar**
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons cornstarch, mixed with 2 tablespoons cold water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Zest of 1 lemon (about 1 tablespoon)

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the blueberries, 1/2 cup of water, sugar and lemon juice. Stir frequently, and bring to a low boil.

In a small bowl, mix the cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of cold water.

Slowly stir the corn starch into the blueberries, taking care not to crush the blueberries. Simmer until the homemade blueberry sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon, about 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and gently stir in vanilla and lemon zest.

*This can be made several days ahead! Do it. You’ll be all set come Saturday morning.

**Next time I think I’ll reduce the sugar – maybe to 1/3 cup? If you like your sauce super sweet, stick with 1/2 cup.

This is a sponsored post. Shirley J provided corn bread/muffin mix for my use, but my opinions (and the resulting calories) are definitely my own.

It’s Monday afternoon, my brain is basically fried, and I’m listening to Katy Perry (guilty pleasure) on repeat. Can you relate? Go make yourself some muffins!

These muffins taste like cherry pie in the best way. They’re sweet and flavorful while still being light and fluffy. And yes, I’m leaning towards the healthy these days (so that I can justify things like Chinese takeout on the weekends) — but you’d never know it on this one.

Cherry Coffeecake Muffins
Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

Makes about 16 muffins

scant 2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 low-fat or fat-free vanilla yogurt
2 cups pitted, coarsely chopped cherries

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease or line muffin tins and set aside.

Whisk together 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup brown sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Transfer 1/4 cup of the flour mixture to a small bowl and mix in the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar and cinnamon. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter, and add to the cinnamon mixture. Toss gently with a fork until the butter is evenly distributed (mixture will look like large pea-shaped crumbs) and set aside.

In a medium bowl, beat remaining 3 tablespoons softened butter and granulated sugar together with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, until combined, about 30 seconds.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in one-third of the flour mixture followed by half of the yogurt. Repeat with half of the remaining flour mixture and the remaining yogurt. Beat in the remaining flour mixture until just incorporated.

In a small  bowl, (the last one, I promise!) combine cherries and the remaining 2 tablespoons flour. Fold floured cherries into batter gently.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins, filling about 2/3 full. Sprinkle the crumb mixture evenly over the batter. Bake about 20-25 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking, or until the crumb topping is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few crumbs attached. Cool for a few minutes in the pan before transferring muffins to a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy!

Never fear! I have no problem having 19 pounds of strawberries around the house. I froze a bunch of them, we probably ate a pound or two each, and then I made jam (and ice cream, but we’ll get to that later). Have you ever made freezer jam? It’s so easy that’ll you’ll probably wonder why you haven’t tried it sooner. And then you’ll have to go pick a mess of strawberries and make some biscuits (and take some classy iPhone pictures).

Strawberry Freezer Jam

Makes 5 8-oz jars (biscuits not included)

6-8 cups strawberries, hulled and halved
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 packet freezer pectin

Using a food processor, blender, or even a potato masher, pulverize strawberries until they’re almost completely liquid. If you’re using a potato masher, this will take awhile. Otherwise, it goes pretty quickly. You should have about 4 cups of pulverized fruit. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine sugar and pectin and stir together. Pour sugar mixture into strawberries and stir for 3 minutes.

Pour strawberry mixture into clean jam jars, leaving about 1/2″ space at the top of the jars. Cap jars and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Store jam in the refrigerator for up to a month or frozen for up to a year. Enjoy!

I can very easily eat myself sick on fresh cherries alone, but I love the magic they create in the oven just as much. Desserts baked from fresh cherries are worlds apart from anything made with cherry pie filling from a can (although that’s tasty, as well). They make everything velvety rich and delicious, and need so little embellishment!

This galette is the perfect showcase for summer fruit at its finest – a rich, buttery crust holding up piles of barely-sweetened berries. Use any fruit you like, but I’d highly recommend cherries! Blackberries would be great, as well.

Cherry-Blueberry Galette
Adapted from Martha Stewart via Shutterbean

Serves 6

all-purpose flour, for sprinkling
1 recipe Pate Brisee, below*
3/4 cup pitted and quartered cherries
1/2 cup blueberries
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
pinch of salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon turbinado (or granulated) sugar

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out dough to an 8 inch round, about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer dough to a parchment lined baking sheet & refrigerate until ready to use- up to one hour. Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Toss the fruit in a bowl with the sugar, flour and lemon juice. Stir thoroughly and set aside.

Pile the fruit mixture on top of the chilled dough, leaving a 2 inch border for the crust. Fold the sides up, creating the crust and pinch folds together to secure. Brush egg on top and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake pie in the oven for about 30 minutes until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling. Let cool on the counter and serve.

Pate Brisee

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/4 cup ice water

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, salt, and sugar. Add butter, and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, 8 to 10 seconds.

With machine running, add ice water in a slow, steady stream through feed tube. Pulse until dough holds together without being wet or sticky; be careful not to process more than 30 seconds. To test, squeeze a small amount together: If it is crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time.

Form the dough into a disc on a floured surface  wrap in plastic. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill at least 1 hour.

*As far as I’m concerned, this is the only pie crust recipe you’ll ever need. For this dessert I used a half-recipe, which makes enough for one standard pie crust. I make it frequently and it never fails to emerge flaky and delicious. It’s also perfect for savory pies like quiches — just omit the sugar and proceed.