I’m snowed in today. I’ve always loved snow days. The world slows down a bit, gets quiet.  Snow days always mean baking for me.

A few days ago, I mentioned on twitter I wasn’t sure what to bake next. If you’re ever out of ideas, turn to twitter, seriously, crowd-sourcing is the way to go. I got lots of suggestions, but sweet potato biscuits grabbed my attention (thanks, tim!).



I love sweet potatoes - probably more than your average person. I have them several times a week, in every different form, baked, roasted, as fries, I should have probably turned orange by now, but I’d never tried sweet potato biscuits before.



The biscuits are very mellow in flavor, and just a touch sweet. They go really well with the savory & flavorful caramelized shallot and sage butter I threw together.

What also would go great with these biscuits are the goodies in Eat Boutique's breakfast box. A couple of months ago, Maggie, the owner, asked me if I’d like to host a giveaway and I jumped at the opportunity to share this business with you. I’ve been a huge fan of Eat Boutique since it’s creation and I’ve loved watching it grow.

Eat Boutique is an online marketplace for handmade, artisanal foods. They create well thought-out seasonal gift boxes, full of handpicked goods. The one you can win today is the breakfast box, which will contain coffee, maple syrup (so good on biscuits!), and lots of other delicious things. (Yours may vary just a little from the one listed on the site.)


How to enter:

It’s simple. Just leave a comment here saying you'd like to be entered (I'll only count the ones that mention they'd like to be entered, since this is a US only giveaway. If you're not from the US but you'd like to comment anyway, feel free. ;).

Enter a second time by becoming a fan of Eat Boutique on Facebook, come back here and leave another comment saying you’ve done so.


Enter a third time by tweeting about this giveaway (be sure to include @honeyandjam and @eatboutique) and leave another comment saying you’ve done so.

No entries after 11 pm EST this Sunday, January 8th. US residents only. Winner will be picked at random and announced the 9th.



Sweet Potato Biscuits
From Martha Stewart
Makes 8

Ingredients
    1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading and shaping
    2 tablespoons light-brown sugar
    2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
    1 teaspoon salt
    1/2 teaspoon baking soda
    6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus 1/2 tablespoon melted butter and more for pan
    3/4 cup Sweet-Potato Puree, chilled
    1/3 cup buttermilk

Directions
Make the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal, with some pea-sized lumps of butter remaining. In a small bowl, whisk together sweet potato puree and buttermilk; stir quickly into flour mixture until combined (do not overmix).

Shape the biscuits: Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and knead very gently until dough comes together but is still slightly lumpy, five or six times. (If dough is too sticky, work in up to 1/4 cup additional flour.) Shape into a disk, and pat to an even 1-inch thickness. With a floured 2-inch biscuit cutter, cut out biscuits as close together as possible. Gather together scraps, and repeat to cut out more biscuits (do not reuse scraps more than once).

     Bake the biscuits: Preheat oven to 425 degrees, with rack on lower shelf. Butter an 8-inch cake pan. Arrange biscuits snugly in pan (to help them stay upright). Brush with melted butter. Bake until golden, rotating once, 20 to 24 minutes.

Caramelized Shallot & Sage Butter

1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, room tempature
1 shallot, finely minced
2 tablespoons sage, finely chopped
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a small saucepan, over low heat. Add the shallot and cook until brown & soft. Let it cool completely.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, or by hand, beat the butter, shallot, sage and salt until combined.

You can place this mixture in a bowl, or scrape the butter onto a piece of plastic wrap, mold into a log shape and refrigerate.

The giveaway is now closed. Jacqui has won! Congrats Jacqui, your package is on its way!

You’re probably sick and tired of sugar, aren’t you? The last thing you want to think about is something sweet. All those christmas cookies, puddings, pumpkin pies. But I’m going to ask you to give these little tarts a try.



Earlier this month, I received a couple of products from Gilt Taste. One was a most likely  delicious pork shoulder - that I accidentally left on the counter overnight instead of in the fridge. But we’re not going to talk about that, okay? (Yes, I am a total dunce some days.)



The other product they sent over was BLiS maple syrup. I’d been wanting to combine buttermilk & maple syrup for a while now, so this seemed the perfect time. (Although I could have eaten the maple syrup by the spoonful - it's that good.)



We’ve got very simple flavors here. Hazelnut, buttermilk, and maple. That’s it. It's not hard to make, you can pull together the crust up to a week ahead of time if you put it in the freezer, and the rest just requires a bit of whisking. The custard filling is creamy & comforting, and the maple syrup flavor is enough of a change from the sugaryness of the season to make it perfect for January.



Maple Buttermilk Tarts with Hazelnut Crust

Makes 1 large tart or 4 small ones

For the crust:
1 1/2 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup toasted hazelnuts
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the filling:
3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 cup maple syrup
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the whipped cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream, optional
1 tablespoon powdered sugar, optional
1 teaspoons vanilla extract, optional


Preheat oven to 350.

Place 3/4 cup of hazelnuts and powdered sugar in food processor. Pulse until nuts are finely ground, about 30 seconds. Add flour and salt, pulse to combined. Add butter; pulse until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal with a few pea-sized chunks of butter.

With the machine running, add the yolk. Pulse just until the mixture begins to clump together. If the dough is dry, add cold water, 1 teaspoon at a time, and pulse until moistened.) Press dough evenly into bottom and up sides of prepared pan. Prick dough all over with a fork, freeze for 20 minutes.

Bake crust for 10 minutes. Remove and press down bottom and sides. Bake for 10 minutes more.  Let cool for 15 minutes.


In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, melted butter, flour and salt. Add in the eggs, maple syrup, buttermilk and vanilla extract, stir to combine.

Pour mixture into pre-baked tart crust and bake for 45-55  minutes, (25-30 minutes for smaller tarts) or until outer edges are set, the middle will still bit a bit wobbly.

If using, whisk the heavy cream until lightly whipped, add the powdered sugar and vanilla, stir to combine.

Top with remaining 1/4 cup of toasted hazelnuts and lightly whipped cream.

Back in October, I took a trip to a pumpkin patch. It was such a beautiful day, the leaves were still gorgeously vibrant, some of them even still green. I wanted to tell you all about it right away, and I wanted to bake something delicious with all the pumpkins I had picked out. The green ones, the orange ones, the white ones. I had recipe ideas, namely a hazelnut-pumpkin-ginger tart that I could practically taste in my mind.



But then life got busy. One week turned into 2 and then somehow it was over a month after the fact, and not only had I not made anything with those pumpkins, I felt like I had forgotten how to blog. I wondered if I even wanted to anymore. My 3 year blog anniversary passed (happy belated birthday, h&j!) and I did nothing to commemorate it. I was feeling a bit disconnected from this process - even though I love it dearly.



Today though, I received an email from a friend, a friend I met through this blog. Reading her words, I was reminded why I love doing this. I love sharing my recipes & images, I love connecting with you all, (nothing makes me smile like getting an email from someone who has made a recipe & loved it) I love the creative process. I was reminded that this place is a piece of me. A piece I’m not ready to part with.



The leaves are gone, the pumpkins are in the compost bin, and I’m ready for a new season. I’ll be here soon with recipes. Good, creative ones, I hope. I’ve been creating more and more of my own, and I’m excited to share them with you.

See you soon. xo.

I’ve found myself in the middle of my favorite season, with very little baking to show for it. Instead of spending time in the kitchen, I’ve been out, living this fall to it’s fullest and spending lots of time with family.

You see, this time last year, my mom had just returned from a week long stay in the hospital, and had been sick for a couple of weeks before that. We thought she had a really bad case of bronchitis, but it turns out she had a massive, life threatening pulmonary embolism, and we weren’t sure she was going to make it. She & I watched the leaves turn bright golden yellow from a hospital window (she managed to snag an awesome corner room, with huge windows, which she insists helped the healing process. I’m inclined to agree. Natural light is where it’s at.).

For most of October, she was recovering from the embolism, so we spent a lot of time indoors, getting her healthy. This year? She’s healthier than ever. So our weekends are filled with all the things we missed last year - fall festivals, pumpkin patches, driving through the country, looking at the gorgeous leaves. We, as a family, are more thankful and appreciative of this season of harvest & joy than we’ve ever been.



Today though, was spent in the kitchen. I’ve had a serious hankering for pancakes lately, and yesterday I realized I hadn’t had anything pumpkin-y yet. This is a recipe adapted from one by Heidi. Hers is a perfect starting place, a wonderful, basic whole wheat pancake. I added pumpkin & spices, and a warm apple-maple compote. The compote is what makes this - it’s sweet, cinnamony and buttery. Plain ol' maple syrup just doesn’t compare.



Whole Grain Pumpkin Pancakes

Adapted from 101 cookbooks

2 cups white whole wheat flour (or unbleached all-purpose flour)


1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder


1/2 teaspoon baking soda


1/3 cup natural granulated sugar (evaporated cane sugar)


1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice*


1 1/4 cups organic buttermilk
1 cup pumpkin puree**


2 large organic eggs, lightly beaten


2 tablespoons butter, melted (melt in the pan skillet you are going to use)
butter, to serve (and for pan)

To make the pancakes combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar, spice and salt in a large bowl. Add the buttermilk, pumpkin, eggs, and melted butter. Stir all the ingredients until they are just combined. Don't worry if the batter is a bit lumpy, you don't want to over mix.

Heat your skillet, pan, or griddle to medium-hot and brush it with a bit of butter. Test for the right temperature. If a drop of water dropped onto the pan starts to dance, you are in the ballpark. Pour about 1/3 of a cup of batter into the skillet. Wait until the pancake bottom is deep golden in color, then flip with a spatula and cook the other side until golden and cooked through. Repeat with the remaining batter. Serve with Apple Maple Compote

.

Makes about 12 large pancakes.

*don’t have an pumpkin pie spice? Its easy to make your own! Here’s a recipe.
**pumpkin pie puree is different from pumpkin pie filling. Both are in the same section of the grocery store, so be sure to get the plain pumpkin!


Apple Maple Compote

This is just about the most simple thing ever, hardly a recipe at all.

Apples
Butter
Cinnamon
Maple Syrup

Firstly, I’d plan on using about 1/2 an apple per person. Cut the apple into slices.

Next, add a pat of butter to a medium sized pan, enough to coat the entire thing. Next, add the apples to the pan and sprinkle the cinnamon over. Let the apples get soft, turning them over once, and sprinkling the other side with cinnamon. Add enough maple syrup to cover the apples. Let it bubble away for a minute or so. Pour over warm pancakes.