Apple Pie Cupcakes

Apple Pie Cupcakes

Yields: 18 cupcakes

I gathered these quality ingredients:

(for the cupcakes)

3 cups sifted cake flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup milk

(for the apple filling)

4 tbsp. salted butter

2 tsp. cinnamon

2-3 tbsp. sugar

4 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced

Spray-on vanilla icing 

To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350°. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, I sifted together the cake flour, baking powder and salt:


Today’s baking was brought to you by the number eleven, portrayed here by the butter and sugar:

After their sponsorship photoshoot, I creamed them together on medium-high speed in my Kitchen-Aid until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes: 

This recipe suits step-by-step photography well as the next instruction is to add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well and scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. So here is a photo before each egg was beat in.

Egg #1:

Egg #2:

Egg #3:

Egg #4:

I added the vanilla extract and began alternating between adding the milk and the dry ingredients:

Soon I had a rich batter:

I overfilled the cupcakes tins. I always do. Some of the cupcakes were still not as full and fluffy as I like them. This beauty shows that some did come out quite nice though:

Next, to make the apple filling, I melted the butter in my big frying pan over medium heat:

Once it was melted, I added the cinnamon and sugar (have to admit here I was afraid for my pan, but it’s T-Fal and it came out ok):

The recipe I built this off of used only 2 tbsp. of butter and the cinnamon mix was really thick for this heart photo:

I ended up throwing in another 2 tbsp. of butter before I added these apples:

They mixed up quite nicely: 

I cooked them for about 10 minutes, they were tender and delicious. I set them aside to cool:


While they cooled I cored the cupcakes:

They were so adorable: (and the middles tasted goooood too!)

Once the apple mix was cooled, I spooned it into the cupcakes: 

These babies were sooo good, I don’t feel inclined to share them with anyone!:

Cinnamon Buns

So I used to work in the mall. And I would shop at the Cinnabon location...three, maybe four times a week. I know that's excessive, but know you're own body and I'm thin and healthy and that's the past, so so-be-it. Anyway, one day about 6 months ago, I showed up to buy my bun and the place was gone! All this time later and there's still nothing there in its' place and here I am bun-less and sad.

I have made Cinnabon brand copycat recipes (and bought the Pillsbury Cinnabon products) before but nothing is the same. I haven't really experimented with any recipes that didn't claim to be copycat-ing the national chain before now, but as the last post mentioned my yeast stockpile, I came across this recipe and gave it a whirl. 

In the end it was a lot of work and was....semi worth the effort. With repetition this recipe could be perfected to yield some tasty tasty treats.

4 Cinnamon Buns

Ingredients:

(for the dough)

1/2 C warmed milk (microwave approx. 4 min.)

1 egg

2 tablespoons melted butter

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

2 1/4 c flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 c white sugar

1 1/4 teaspoon yeast

(for smearing on the dough)
1/4 c brown sugar
2 tablespoons soft butter
half a container of cinnamon 

(for the icing)

4 tablespoons butter

2 cups sifted powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 to 6 tablespoons hot water

Instructions:

Put all dough ingredients into mixing bowl. Using dough hook, mix on medium speed until dough clings to hook and cleans sides of bowl. Use well-floured hands to pat into a ball. Return to mixing bowl to rest for fifteen minutes.

After resting, roll dough out onto a floured surface into a rectangle. Rub the softened butter on it evenly. Mix brown sugar and cinnamon, spread liberally across the dough.

Roll into a log, slice into four and transfer buns to a plate. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The next morning, bake the buns for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

While they’re baking prepare the icing by putting butter and flour into mixing bowl, sifting powdered sugar in and using whisk attachment at high speed slowly add hot water one tablespoon at a time until icing forms.

Spread icing over hot rolls and enjoy. 

So, I started with these quality ingredients:

I melted the two tablespoons of butter for the dough mixture:

A shot of all the dough ingredients just before mixing:

My dough ball, while resting:

I rolled the dough out:

I spread the soft (but not melted) butter on it:

I spread the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture over that:

I rolled it up into a log:

And I had fun taking a few photos before I put them on the plate to refrigerate overnight:

In the morning I whipped up the icing.

Check out this killer action shot as I sifted the powdered sugar:

And once the icing was spread atop the warm buns, they were irresistible and cried out to be eaten, so, naturally, I obliged.

The end. Yum-a-roo!

More Garlic Twisty Bread

So my regular grocery store doesn't sell the yeast I like. So when I went to a different one that did I went a tad overboard and bought six strips of three packs each of yeast. So I guess I plan on making a lot of bread. So here's some better photography of something you've seen me make before. As the link reveals, this recipe is in my beloved KitchenAid cookbook. I started cooking today with these quality ingredients:
 I put the dry ingredients into the mixer:
 I started putting the wet ones into a small saucepan, and I swear(*) they just fell this way ;-) :
 When I added the milk you couldn't see the cutsey-face as much:
 I used one of my favourite kitchen gadgets, the timer/thermometer to monitor the liquids' temperature:
 When I added them together it made sticky dough:
 
Look at these beautiful shots, I love my camera!
 You know its' right when its' done mixing and looks like this:
 The dough goes into a well greased bowl to wait for the first rising:
 Look how different after only an hour:
 I rolled it out:
 
 And spread on the melted butter/garlic salt mixture:
 I cut it into way more pieces than it says to:
 And put it into the bread pan to wait for the second rising:
 And look how much puffier those twists are after an hour:
 Ready to go into the oven:
 
 About halfway through the cook-time, when it looks like this, I tent some foil over top to ensure the tops don't get too darkly cooked:
 
 Right out of the oven:
 
 And into my mouth!!