fall – zezoo cooks

Cupcakes and Gratitude

american, baking, birthday, cake, cake art, california, celebration, chocolate, christmas, cupcakes and muffins, dessert, european, fall, farm to table, freezer friendly, frosting, general announcements, german, holidays, make ahead, recipe card, snack, southern, spring, summer, sweet, thanksgiving, whole grain, winter

Final Update: August 25, 2021!

When I was pregnant last year, there were so many reasons it felt like a cloud was hanging over us, the pandemic being just one of them. Most of the time we powered through, busy with work, getting the house ready for the baby, and like everyone else in the world, tracking down toilet paper and disinfecting our groceries took up 80% of whatever time was left over! The upcoming early months with the baby seemed very daunting at the time, especially since we were not going to have anyone to help out at home, so to make it fun and to have something to mark the milestones and celebrate the fact that we were “surviving” early parenthood, I planned this very special little side project: I decided that for each of our baby’s monthly birthdays (the 25th of each month), I would make a seasonal cupcake recipe, and take his picture with the cupcakes!

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Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

american, baking, cake, california, celebration, cupcakes and muffins, dessert, fall, freezer friendly, general announcements, recipe card, seasonal, snack, southern, sweet, thanksgiving, whole grain, winter

A nice little Fall treat to accompany your afternoon coffees and breakfast alike – comes together in no time, no special equipment needed!

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Chai-spiced Applesauce cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

american, baking, birthday, cake, california, celebration, cupcakes and muffins, dessert, fall, freezer friendly, frosting, general announcements, indian, recipe card, seasonal, snack, southern, sweet, whole grain, winter

A perfect recipe for the Fall when you have way too many apples and way too much applesauce! Can also be made with pears/pear sauce for a twist. The chai spice (recipe below) is a nice change of pace from the typical pie spice that’s floating in the air – try it in place of pie spice or pumpkin pie spice in Fall/Winter baking for variety, or add it to your latte!

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Pear Walnut Muffins

american, baking, birthday, breakfast, cake, cupcakes and muffins, dessert, fall, recipe card, seasonal, snack, sweet, themed, weeknight, whole grain, winter

A quick, easy and wholesome breakfast muffin, that can be easily adaptable for more wholesomeness (sub 1/2 cup of the flour mixture with whole wheat flour) or decadence (add 1/2 cup of chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate along with the walnuts), depending on the kind of week you are having!

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Cream Cheese Cookies

american, baking, black tea, california, cookies, cuisine, dessert, fall, freezer friendly, make ahead, sweet, tea pairing

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Disclaimer: This page contains affiliate links to Simple Loose Leaf products. ZezooCooks may receive a commission if purchases are made via these links (at no additional cost to you)!

You can use my discount code AMRUTA10 to get 10% off a one-time purchase on @simplelooseleaf teas via links in my post!

To get this delicious tea, and to browse many other Fall and Winter teas, check out the Simple Loose Leaf website!

Apple Cinnamon is so quintessential “October”, I don’t think anything else can even come to mind if you tried. Especially in the US, where it is synonymous with Fall, and all things cozy, warm and annoyingly, tooth achingly sweet.

Which is why, when tasked with pairing this bold, rich and fragrant “Apple Cinnamon Black Tea” by Simple Loose Leaf, I turned to one of my favorite fall-themed cakes for inspiration: apple cinnamon cake with brown sugar cream cheese frosting. The tea brings the Apple and Cinnamon to the table, and the Cream Cheese Cookies you see on the top, bedazzled with turbinado sugar, do the rest!

These are actually simple sugar cookies, transformed by King Arthur flour into something much more complex (yet retaining all of the ease) with the addition of cream cheese and almond extract, adapted again, for simplicity, by Smitten Kitchen.

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Mushroom and Potato Pelmeni (Russian Dumplings)

dairy free, dinner, european, fall, freezer friendly, lunch, main, make ahead, meal prep, russian, savory, spring, vegetarian, winter

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My obsession for dumplings is well-documented. Whether it’s chicken and dumplings, or potstickers, or Indian Chakolya (called Dal Dhokli or Varan Phal; these are mildly spiced whole wheat and gram flour dumplings cooked in a spicy lentil stew) or wontons, or Dhokle Papdi (bite-sized gram flour patties stewed in flat beans and spices) my love for all things doughy knows no bounds. It’s what I crave on Sunday nights, cold evenings, or after a long tiring day.

I first made pelmeni and pierogis couple years ago, after my husband visited Russia and simply could not shut up about them. He brought me back some cookbooks from Moscow and I got right to it, I was blown away by how simple and scrumptious they were! Pelmeni are a type of Russian/Ukrainian rustic, savory dumpling filled with meat or mushrooms or potatoes or cheese. I made the pelmeni with a potato and mushroom filling similar to what I’ve shown here, and a handful of pierogis with diced apples. As someone living in the United States for so many years, I felt like I needed to alert the authorities – the apples were NOT tossed in cinnamon, nor were they dusted with it. The serving recommendation was to just serve them piping hot with some butter. I resisted the urge to add cinnamon and was rewarded. Something happens to the apples inside the pierogis that we cannot explain.

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