Tender buttery Peach Coffee Cake is filled with sweet bites of peach and topped with an irresistible brown sugar crumb topping – what is not to love??

Peach Coffee Cake

I am at a loss to describe just how awesome this coffee cake actually is. I’ve made it three times now and each time it has disappeared lightning fast both with friends and with family.

I simply can’t get enough of the fresh sweet peaches when they’re at their best in the summertime. I look forward to making homemade peach jam and friends look forward to receiving it too.

For something a little unexpected, this Peach Habanero Jam is the ultimate balance of sweet and spicy and it’s an awesome addition to your next cheeseboard.

This peach-filled coffee cake recipe is inspired by and adapted from my often made and very much beloved Blueberry Coffee Cake.

The peaches add a good bit of moisture to this recipe, so err on the side of extra time while baking this coffee cake. Be sure to test with a toothpick for doneness, it should come out clean or with moist crumbs 

Peach Coffee Cake Recipe

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease an 8″ square pan with butter. Beat the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy, about 6-7 minutes. Add the eggs and the vanilla, mixing just until combined.
2. Combine the flour and baking powder in a bowl. Place the peaches in a small bowl and sprinkle with a couple of tablespoons of the dry ingredients, plus the cinnamon. Stir gently to coat the peaches.
3. Add half of the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and stir to combine. Add the sour cream, mix again, and then add the remaining dry ingredients. Mix just u

The Chocolate Quinoa Cake has the texture of a traditional cake, yet no special flours are required. This is pure, sweet Chocolate Cake.

This cake has blown my mind. Just writing about it here makes me grin as I think about how perfectly moist, rich, and chocolatey it is.

Quinoa Chocolate Cake

When I first saw this recipe, I did a double-take because I had never before run across anything quite like it. A flourless chocolate cake made with quinoa?

I first heard about a Quinoa Chocolate Cake over at Mel’s Kitchen Cafe almost 10 years ago. The recipe is originally from Quinoa 365 and even if you think you hate quinoa, my friends, this cake is going to change your mind. I say that without any doubt at all.

I make a Flourless Chocolate Cake at least a couple of times a year and it is one of my favorite recipes. The Chocolate Quinoa Cake, on the other hand, has the texture of a traditional cake, yet with no special flours required.

All you need is a couple of scoops of cooked quinoa. While I was initially very skeptical, I assure you that you absolutely positively can NOT taste the quinoa in this recipe.

Chocolate Quinoa Cake

This cake wowed both my family and our dinner guests who are accustomed to eating traditional sweets. Even knowing that the cake was made from quinoa, I couldn’t detect an odd taste or texture.

(And you know just how fussy I am about GF desserts and any odds textures or smells – some of those gluten-free flours are pretty bad!)

You don’t have to take my word for it either. There are dozens of 5 star reviews of this recipe at the bottom of this post.

This Quinoa Chocolate Cake has become a go-to dessert for many people who don’t normally cook or bake gluten-free, but enjoy being able to surprise friends with a gluten-free option without having to keep specialty flours and starches on hand.

This, my friends, is pure, sweet, and tender chocolate cake. After eating a slice the next day for breakfast, I sent the rest of it to the office with my husband. This is a very dangerous cake.

Read more

Chewy, thick, Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies with chocolate chips are a treat that we’ve enjoyed for a lot of years now.

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

It is no secret that I keep a full cookie jar. I have a house full of boys constantly on the prowl for a snack. I also stash lots of cookies and cookie dough ready to be baked in the freezer to avoid running out.

Oatmeal cookies are such a versatile classic. The nuttiness of the oatmeal and sweet chocolate hit the spot when the mid-afternoon munchies come on. These cookies help fill the gap when dinnertime gets stretched later during the summer.

If you find yourself out of quick oats when making these cookies you can use regular rolled oats. They are fairly interchangeable when baking. The rolled oats will result in a slightly heartier cookie and may take longer to bake.

I like to consider oatmeal cookies breakfast. I mean it is basically a bowl of oatmeal and when peanut butter is added there is your protein. Breakfast, who would argue with that logic?

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

This recipe multiplies beautifully. I frequently triple it in order to have plenty of cookies to stash in the freezer or to make more Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches.

When multiplying the recipe, take care not to allow the dough to warm too much. I find it’s helpful to tuck the cookie dough in the fridge between batches. This results in thicker, prettier cookies every time. 

Read more

Chocolate and peanut butter are mixed with crunchy cereal to make these super easy No Bake Chocolate Crunch Bars. 

When I was very young, I went camping with the Girl Scouts and our counselor taught us to make what she called “Babe Ruth Bars.” (More on that name in a minute.)

These are so easy to make. Our counselor helped me make these bars by stirring the ingredients together over the campfire, rolling them into a log, chilling and slicing them.

I wasn’t a girl scout for very long so I couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8 years old. We ate these gathered around the fire and I absolutely loved them.

My counselor wrote out the recipe for me and I took it home.

Chocolate Cereal Bars

My grandmother was sweet enough to save that recipe for me and over the following years, we would make those bars on special occasions. I remembered the recipe a while back and I dug it out of my old cookbook.

I read it several times and then made a trip to the store, just to look at the ingredients in an actual Babe Ruth bar. Uhm, there is no similarity at all.

I have no idea why these were called Babe Ruth Bars and the name now makes me laugh.

I’ve since swapped out half the ingredients, so they are likely to be even farther from the original. Corn flakes, chocolate chips, honey, and peanut butter get melted together and then chilled to create a perfect no-bake dessert bar.

Whatever you decide to call them–I typically go with Chocolate Cereal Bars or Chocolate Crunch Bars–these treats are sure to be loved!

Chocolate Crunch Bars

I

Fresh apricots are tossed with cinnamon sugar and then layered between a brown sugar and oat crust to make these Apricot Crisp Bars.

Served on their own or topped with Vanilla Ice Cream this is a dessert that everyone loves.

Apricot Crisp

Almost firm enough to cut into bars and still fruity enough to resemble a crisp, this is simply a fruit crisp with both a top and bottom crust layer.

There’s no need to cut in cold butter or stress the streusel topping, just pour melted butter into the oat mixture and it will form the perfect crumb crust and topping. This might be one of the easiest fruit desserts you’ll ever make!

I can not sing the praises of parchment paper enough when it comes to recipes like this one. Let the bars cool completely and then simply lift them out of the pan to easily slice them.

Apricot Bars

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Place the fruit in a mixing bowl. Add the sugar, cinnamon, salt, cornstarch, and almond extract. Stir to combine and then let the fruit rest on the counter while preparing the crust.
2. In a separate mixing bowl, stir together the flour, oats, and brown sugar. Add the melted butter and stir to combine.
3. Press half of this mixture into a well-buttered or parchment-lined 9×13 pan. Pour the fruit over the bottom crust and then sprinkle the rest of the dry mixture on top.
4. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the crust turns golden brown. Serve warm from the oven or let cool completely and slice into servings. 

These Apricot Bars are dangerously tasty. They aren’t overly sweet and they are filled with juicy pieces of apricot and crunchy bites of streusel crust and topping.

They were so tempting that I actually had a friend come and take the rest of them off my hands because I feared how many I might eat before my husband could take them to the office the next day!

For more great fruit desserts, check out these Pineapple Coconut Bars and this Strawberry Rhubarb Crunch.

These Quinoa Fruit & Nut Bars and these Strawberry Oatmeal Bars are on my list now too. Don’t miss the rest of t