Excuse me While I shove these Fall Baking Favorites at my Face

I just hiked up a mountain! In a snowstorm! With my favorite vacation dog! In her favorite sweater! Don’t you just love fall weather? I sure know I do! Now I’m ready to eat a bunch of baked goods! As the scenic resort town of Big Bear Lake, California‘s reining pop-up picnic queen I spend a lot of time enjoying fall baking. And now that it’s fall and it’s not downright miserable to turn my oven on, it’s time to get to some fall baking accomplished! First, on my list, this autumn were these downright adorable Fall Leaf Cutout Cookies. These are so darn cute, and yes I try to ignore food coloring at all costs, but these make the cutest presentation for all the little kids in our household for our Thanksgiving shenanigans. Warning! Rolling out this dough to perfection, not letting the colors bleed was a total arm workout! Which I happily needed before I shoved nutmeg-spiced sugar cookies at my face.

We have a plethora of apples on our hybrid apple tree; golden delicious, fuji, and giant Honeycrisp, we have them all! So what the hell should I do with all these apples? A custardy Apple Fritter Cake was the way to go. If I’m going to pig out with some carbs this autumn as the breeze blows through the golden aspen leaves then Apple Fritter Cake is one of the top choices.

I am so not a fan of pumpkin pie but my family is obsessed with it. So this Thanksgiving, yup my fall baking will include me whipping up a homemade pumpkin pie. Now how do I make it somewhat interesting and unique? First of all, we have so many homegrown pumpkins each year. I will be creating my pumpkin pie with freshly baked pumpkin puree, yes, please. I also use a Cinnamon Roll Pie Crust. If my family just has to have their traditional pumpkin pie then at least I can make it a little creative. I also include in the pie filling my Housemade Pumpkin Pie Spice.  My third hint for making a unique pumpkin pie is to use sweetened condensed milk or coconut milk in your recipe. It’s Thanksgiving; Embrace those carbs and calories! This tastes delicious in a homemade pumpkin spice latte as well. You’ll never set foot in corporate Starbucks again!

I’m kind of obsessed with autumn, I have to admit. As much as I don’t ever want to let warm summer days relaxing on the boat in our rural alpine town fade into the summer sunset, I just really heart fall. In my eyes fall equals everything fun, like Oktoberfest! And not sweating so much every damn day. An Indian summer afternoon inhaling a few brats, cheering ompha and Proust and destroying some German-Style Potato Salad (And maybe a Warsteiner or two) and did I mention those fall colors? I do kind of live to go hiking in the fall colors. Besides drinking a cold German ale, skipping through the rainbow of fall has to be one of my favorite parts of the autumn. And all that fall baking of course. When I’m not creating these Pecan Pie Brownies I’m usually scaling a mountain peak while not sweating like a whore in church and enjoying the fact I can go for a hike and not be miserably hot.

One of my favorite things about the autumn is all the hiking and the weather is oh-so-perfect. Our family tries to escape to Mammoth Lakes for some fall colors hikes. I usually cook a few of our homemade pumpkins ahead of time. Before we leave home for ten days of the camping RVing lifestyle, I bake up some Pumpkin and Chicken Dog Snacks because my pup also loves all the rewards of fall baking.

As the chilly days of November are just around the corner here in our mountain town, fall always means I need to do something with all those leaves on our sage bush. This Pumpkin Flatbread Pizza with lots of cheese and fried sage leaves is a great idea. I obviously also add goat cheese. I mean why wouldn’t you?

Do you love these chilly autumn days just as much as I do? 

Are you ready for some fall baking also?

Check out this plethora of all tried and true autumn favorites before all the leaves fall.