I love granola, and this grain-free granola is no exception. Most granola recipes are oat-based, but this one is oat-free. Regardless, it offers a sweet, nutty crunch that’s reminiscent of my most popular granola recipe. Like any good granola, it’s irresistible.

When I first heard of grain-free granola, I was perplexed by the concept. I’m a big fan of oats and whole grains, of course, and I still am. Unfortunately, I was forced to become more carb-conscious while I was pregnant to manage my blood sugar (gestational diabetes is zero fun).

This grain-free granola livened up my breakfasts and snacks during that time. It’s a kitchen staple for me to this day, and I’m always sad to run out of my most recent batch. I found the original recipe in a book by dietitian Lily Nichols called Real Food for Pregnancy. I couldn’t help but play around with it, so I’m sharing my version and some fun options with you today.

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These energy balls are lifesavers! When you’re hungry in between meals, running out the door without breakfast, or craving a wholesome little treat, these energy balls will come to the rescue. They’re the perfect healthy grab-and-go snack.

This recipe is made with oats, honey, nut butter, and toasted nuts and seeds, though it’s endlessly adaptable to suit your preferences. I designed it to offer sustained energy from the whole grains and nuts. One ball is just sweet enough to taste like a treat, and offers a healthy dose of protein and fiber.

This recipe was inspired by my husband’s mom’s interpretation of my no-bake granola bars. She always has a batch in the fridge for her grandkids, and they’ve become a staple in our house, too. I crumbled one over my yogurt just this morning, and they’ve kept my energy level up through this postpartum phase. They’re a perfect homemade gift for anyone who’s in a busy season of life, that’s for sure.

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Now introducing… the wintery side dish or vegetarian main dish that you didn’t know you needed! You’ll love how it comes together with one pot on the stove and one pan in the oven.

This festive green and red dish features roasted Brussels sprouts cooked to crisp-tender perfection with fresh cranberries, which become so lovely as they bake on the same pan alongside the sprouts. Add chopped pecans to the pan toward the end of baking to toast them.

Once your components are done cooking, combine them in a bowl over cooked wild rice blend. Finish it off with crumbled goat cheese, plus a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and maple syrup. The flavors remind me of my popular Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries & Pecans, but you can eat this one as a standalone meal. It’s a winner.

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Chocolate, banana, and pecans…this flavor combination is meant to be. And in a muffin? Truly magical! These FLUFFY banana nut muffins are vegan, gluten-free, and generously studded with pecans and chocolate chips. Hubba hubba!

Bonus? They’re easy to make with just 1 BOWL and a handful of simple, wholesome ingredients. It’s muffin time, friends!

These vegan + gluten-free chocolate chip muffins begin with the egg-free binders: mashed banana and flax eggs.

1-Bowl Banana Chocolate Pecan Muffins (Vegan + GF) from Minimalist Baker →

Say hello to crispy, buttery shortbread cookies studded with pecans and dark chocolate (swoon!). These cookies are our vegan and gluten-free twist on Alison Roman’s legendary Salted Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies and (just like Alison’s), they’re too good to eat just one!

Just 7 ingredients and simple methods stand in your way. Grab your mixing bowl and let’s bake, friends!

Chocolate Pecan Shortbread Cookies (Vegan + GF) from Minimalist Baker →

It’s that time of year again. And that only means one thing: time to start thinking about the holiday baking. In Paris, bakery windows fill up with Bûches de Noël (Yule log cakes) and bourriches (wooden crates) of oysters are piled up at the markets. The chocolate shops are crammed with people, buying multiple boxes as gifts, and people splurge on caviar and Champagne, one of the few things that go on sale in France during the holidays.

One thing you don’t see is the use of pumpkin in desserts. A tart or pie (or ice cream) made of squash might sound funny, especially to non-Americans, but helps to remember that pumpkins, and other squash, are technically fruit. One could also point out the classic Swiss Chard Tart from Provence (which is in a whole other category), and Melanzane al cioccolato, eggplant with chocolate sauce, which I like. (Which one could argue is good because it’s smothered in dark chocolate.) But I don’t think everything goes with chocolate: A friend tried the hot chocolate with oysters at a famed chocolate shop in Paris, and after her description, I wasn’t rushing over there to try a cup.

To get that last image out of your mind, I present pumpkin cheesecake with a pecan praline sauce, that has nothing not to like about it. Cream cheese and sour cream, a buttery cookie crust, and a brown sugar and bourbon-tinged sauce loaded with crunchy pecans. I’m in.

DIYers may raise an eyebrow at using canned pumpkin. I’ve got a few reasons for using it. (And as many of you perhaps know, it’s not made from pumpkin, but a variety of squash similar to butternut squash.) One, is that when writing a recipe, it’s easy to get consistent, similar results when we’re all using the same ingredient. And two, it’s a heckuva lot easier, which is appreciated around the holidays when all of us have enough on our plates, and in our ovens, and it’s  fewer dishes to wash to boot.

If you want to go the other route, you can also make your own cream cheese and Graham crackers, grow your own pecans, churn up your own butter, and make your own cake pan. If you do go that route, let me know when your cheesecake is done ; )

In the meantime, I’m standing over my stove, stirring warm, just-toasted pecans into my praline sauce before lacing it with a dash of bourbon.

The praline sauce is decidedly on the sweet side. But that didn’t stop me (like, at all…) from dipping my spoon into it over and over and over again. Be sure to toast the pecans before using them. My pet-peeve in restaurants is when they don’t toast nuts. Toasting any nut usually improves it by at least 99%, if not more, so if you’re not consistently toasting your nuts before using them on salads, sauces, and in ice creams, start doing it now. It’s not too late.

But I can’t imagine this cheesecake being served without it. Although I could imagine eating the sauce without the cheesecake. And if you’re anything like me, you might find yourself spooning it over ice cream, ladling it over pumpkin pie (without the marshmallow topping), or even spooning it right into your mouth, like I do.

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Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan Praline Sauce

If using canned pumpkin, make sure that you don't use canned pumpkin pie 'filling' (which is sweetened and spiced); use canned pumpkin that is 100% pumpkin puree. If you want to make sugar pumpkin puree yourself, you can split a sugar pumpkin (or butternut squash) in half and scrape out the seeds. Butter the cut side of the pumpkin and bake cut side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet in a 375ºF/190ºC oven until very tender, about 35 to 45 minutes. When cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh and puree in a blender or food processor, or pass it through a food mill. If you want to balance the sweetness of the sauce, you could add a scant teaspoon of apple cider vinegar or lemon juice to it, or to taste. Conversely, adding more liquor will take the edge off as well. Outside of the U.S., I often use speculoos cookies in place of the Graham crackers for the crust. If you go that route, you might want to reduce the butter in the crust by about 20% since speculoos cookies tend to be more buttery than Graham crackers. I use a glass-bottom springform pan for cheesecakes, which makes serving them much easier.

Servings 12 servings

Ingredients

For the crust

• 1 1/2 cups (180g) Graham cracker crumbs
• 4 tablespoons (60g) melted butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the pumpkin cheesecake filling

• Three 8-ounce (680g) packages cream cheese at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups (250g) sugar
• grated zest one lemon preferably unsprayed
• 4 large eggs at room temperature
• One 15-ounce (425g) canned pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup (125g) sour cream or whole-milk plain yogurt
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch or 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon dried ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• pinch of salt

Pecan praline sauce

• 3/4 cup (105g) packed light or dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (125ml) heavy cream
• 6 tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup (60ml) maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
• 1/4 cup (60ml) bourbon
• 1 1/2 cups (160g) pecans toasted and coarsely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

• To make the crust, in a medium bowl, mix the Graham cracker crumbs together with the melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon until the crumbs are thoroughly moistened. Butter a 9-inch (23cm) springform pan then press the crumbs evenly across the bottom of the pan. Refrigerate until ready to bake.
• Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Bake the crust until it feels set in the center, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Turn the oven down to 325ºF (165ºC).
• To make the filling, in the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or by hand, in a large bowl), beat together the cream cheese, sugar, and lemon zest, until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, stopping the mixer between each addition to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl, then add the pumpkin puree, sour cream, cornstarch or flour, and vanilla extract, along with the spices and salt.
• Line the outside bottom of the springform pan with foil so it reaches all the way up to the top of the outside of the pan. If you have to use several pieces, I recommend triple-wrapping it to prevent leaking or water getting in the cake pan. (Better yet, use extra-wide foil, so you only need one sheet.) Scrape the mixture into the prepared springform pan and smooth the top. Place the cheesecake in a larger pan, such as a roasting pan, then add very warm water to the larger pan until it reaches halfway up the outside of the cake pan.
• Bake the cheesecake in the oven until the center looks just slightly set, but not wet and sloshy in the center when you jiggle the pan. I start checking the cheesecake at the 50 minute mark, as it usually takes about 50 minutes to 1 hour, but may take up to 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven, then remove the cake from the water bath and let cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.
• Make the pecan praline sauce by heating the brown sugar, cream, butter, maple syrup and salt in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, until it comes to a boil, stirring frequently. Let boil for 1 minute without stirring. Remove from heat and add the bourbon, pecans, and vanilla.

Notes

Serving: Run a sharp knife around the outside of the cheesecake to release it from the springform pan, then remove the sides of the pan. Dip the knife in warm water, wipe it dry, and use it to cut clean slices from the cheesecake. Serve with a ladleful of warm sauce poured over it. If the sauce gets too thick upon standing, you can thin it with milk or water.

Storage: The baked or unbaked crust can be made up to three days ahead and stored at room temperature (if baked), or refrigerated (unbaked). It can also be frozen either baked or unbaked for 2-3 months. The baked cheesecake will keep for up to 4 days in the refrigerator.

Related Recipes and Links

Dulce de leche cheesecake

Ingredients for American Baking in Paris

Pumpkin Ice Cream

Cheesecake

Maple Pumpkin Flan

Homemade Graham Crackers (Smitten Kitchen)

Homemade bourbon (Bourbon of the Day)

Homemade salt (Ruhlman)

Looking for a cookie filled with fall flavor? This is it! Fluffy, cinnamon-spiced, pecan-studded pumpkin oat cookies made in 1 bowl in 30 minutes! 

These vegan + gluten-free treats are easy, delicious, and extra irresistible when topped with pumpkin spice frosting. Preheat your oven…it’s cookie time!

These 1-BOWL fluffy fall dreams start with melted (vegan) butter, brown sugar, pumpkin purée, and vanilla extract.

Fluffy Pumpkin Oat Cookies (1 Bowl!) from Minimalist Baker →

I wasn’t planning on beginning this post for a pie recipe with anything other than a story about how much I liked it, encouraging you to make it. (Which I’ll get to later.) But after I had started writing it, several neighborhoods in Paris came under attack, including mine, and I put everything on hold.

Cafés and restaurants that I knew, and areas that I frequent, were targets, as was the area around the theatre where my outdoor market is, which suffered the worst of it. Everyone I know is okay, but others were not so fortunate. It’s a crazy world we are living in and often we just see it on television and switch the channels to something more entertaining, so we don’t have to think about it. But when it happens right outside your door, or in a city that you love so much (whether you live there or are just an occasional visitor), you can’t avoid the shock and the grief. In addition to some introspection, my hope is that this will bring a conversation and dialogue that will somehow address why – and how – this happened, and where to go from here.

I couldn’t think of a very good transition from the heartbreaking tragedy, to pie, and I’m not used to being short on words, so I’ll just say that I was happy to have this pie sitting on the counter after all that happened this weekend. It made us feel a little better.

Some say baking heals and while I’m not much for catch-phrases and slogans, it did feel nice to be rolling out some dough to have a pie around. And a new one to me, at that. A few years ago I gave pecan pie a makeover using dark chocolate chunks, which came out so well that it became my go-to pecan pie.

But with the upcoming holidays arriving, I was perusing First Prize Pies from Allison Kave of Butter & Scotch, looking for another pie to make for the fêtes, and landed on her Bourbon ginger-pecan pie.

As luck would have it, in addition to a bag of beautiful pecans, I also had a bottle of Knob Creek smoked maple bourbon that was so good that it was freaking me out. It was a gift from my bourbon-loving friend Elizabeth Karmel and I was looking for an opportunity to crack it open. Recent events make me realize that you don’t necessarily need to squirrel everything away until another time or save it until later. Maybe now it that time.

This dialed-up pecan pie won first prize at the Brooklyn Pie Bake-Off, and if you’ve visited Brooklyn in the last few years, you’ll know that there’s some heavy competition out there in the cooking and baking categories. So that’s saying something. Allison noted that a heavy hand with the bourbon is always appreciated. (And I agree.) But it’s also special because of the triple-whammy of ginger, courtesy of a handful of candied ginger, a spoonful of dried ginger, and a dose of freshly grated ginger in the nutty filling.

It was hard to interrupt him while he was eating the pie so ravenously. But when he came up for air, Romain said it was the best thing he’d ever eaten. And that’s coming from someone who’s often looked at me quizzically when served some of the foods associated with Thanksgiving that perplex the French: Gravy? Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix? A one-week obsession with cranberries? Marshmallows? Sweet potatoes? Marshmallows and sweet potatoes together?

It helps that he, like any sane person, loves maple syrup, as well as fresh and candied ginger, which the French call gingembre confit. I gotta say, I loved this pie as much as he did. The zing of ginger really took it up beaucoup de notches, not just one notch, and the shots of bourbon helped temper what is traditionally a rather sweet dessert, which this pie isn’t. Or wasn’t, I should say. Because it’s now long-gone.

Whipped cream is always the classic to serve with pecan pie. If you’re looking for an ice cream to pair with it, I recommend white chocolate-fresh ginger ice cream, or it might also be nice with milk chocolate ice cream instead, if you’re someone – like me – that has a hard time imagining dessert without chocolate. And if that’s the case, bourbon always plays a good second fiddle to chocolate. The pecans and maple syrup-rich filling are an added bonus.

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Pecan Pie with Bourbon and Ginger

Adapted from First Prize Pies by Allison Kave I loved the idea of adding three kinds of ginger to pecan pie and using maple syrup as a sweetener. If you don’t have maple syrup, you can go with golden syrup, which is available in well-stocked supermarkets (depending on where you live), or online. I’ve not used it, but some recommend sorghum syrup as another substitute. Because I’m like that, I veered from the original proportions a bit. One was that I added a few more pecans, and toasted them first, adding an additional handful to the baking sheet to make up for the ones that I nibbled on. ; ) I also added some melted butter to the filling to give it a little extra silky richness. If you don’t want to use bourbon, dark rum would be a nice substitution, as would Cognac or rye whiskey. If you want to leave out the liquor, just add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and a few drops of lemon juice to counterbalance the brown sugar and maple syrup. Although I didn’t do it, you could brush the rim with an egg wash – one egg yolks mixed with 1-2 teaspoons of milk, and brush it over the rim before baking the pie. If glazing the rim, it may need to be covered during baking if it gets too dark before the filling is done. You can fashion strips of aluminum foil to cover the rim of the pie if that happens.

Ingredients

For the dough

• 1 1/4 cups (175g) flour
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 ounces (115g) chilled unsalted butter cubed
• 3-4 tablespoons ice water

For the pecan pie filling

• 1 cup (215g) packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (125ml) dark amber maple syrup
• 3 large eggs at room temperature
• 4 tablespoons melted butter salted or unsalted
• 3 tablespoons bourbon
• 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground (dried) ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups (225g) pecans lightly toasted, very coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup (50g) candied ginger finely chopped

Instructions

• To make the dough, mix the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor, or in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. (The dough can also be made by hand, in a bowl with a pastry blender, or using your hands.) Add the chilled butter and mix or pulse the dough until the butter is broken up into small pieces about the size of peas.
• Add 3 tablespoons of ice water and mix until the dough begins to come together. If necessary, add 1 more tablespoon of water if the dough needs it to come together. Turn the dough out on a work surface and give it a few turns with your hands. Shape the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface, or between two pieces of parchment paper until it’s about 13-inches (33cm) in diameter. Brush off any excess flour and transfer it to a 9-inch (23cm) pie plate or pan. Tuck the overhanging edges under, between the rim of the pie plate and the dough, and crimp the edge of the dough. Chill the dough in the refrigerator until firm.
• To bake the pie dough, preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Prick the pie dough a few times with a fork. Line the pie dough with aluminum foil and fill halfway with beans, rice, or pie weights. Bake until the dough is set and starting to get lightly golden brown, about 15 to 20 minutes. Lift out the foil with the weights and bake until the dough is well-browned, about 5 to 8 minutes more. Turn the oven down to 350ºF (180ºC).
• To make the filling, in a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, maple syrup, eggs, melted butter, bourbon, fresh ginger, ground ginger, vanilla, and salt. Stir in the pecans and candied ginger.
• Pour the filling into the prebaked tart shell and bake until the center of the pie is seems just about set. It should still jiggle a little. Begin checking it at the 40 minute mark, but it may take 45 to 50 minutes to reach that point of doneness. Remove it from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.

Notes

Serving and storage: Pecan pie is best served at room temperature and it’s easier to cut when it’s cooled completely. Although it’s no slouch if slightly warm, as long as you don’t mind the pieces looking a little sloppy. Ice cream or whipped cream are fine accompaniments.

The dough can be made up to two days in advance and refrigerated, or frozen for up to two months, either unrolled, or rolled out and fitted into the pan.

The baked pie can be kept at room temperature for up to four days. I’ve not frozen pecan pie but it can probably be done, if well wrapped.

Related Recipes

Cranberry Raisin Pie

How to make candied ginger

Chocolate Pecan Pie

Apple Harvest Tart

French Apple Cake