Mini apple pies

My rommmate and I attempted mini apple pies! We used a muffin tin to bake the mini pies in.

 

We cheated and used the 99 cent Jiffy pie crust (just add water!), and we were actually really impressed with the results.

 

The filling was an in-exact mixture of chopped apples (skin removed), cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, lemon, and butter. Luckily,we had extra filling to snack on, it was like candy!

We even added little lattice crusts to the top, brushed them with raw egg, and topped them with a little pad of butter.

We baked them at 300 degrees for about 50 minutes (we kept the temperature low because we weren't sure how they would cook). 

They came out pretty cute, if I do say so myself, and they were really delicious!

Yummy Sunday

I love it when my roommate announces she needs to make four batches of cupcakes. Absolutely has to. So we go to the store and get strawberry and Funfetti mixes and much frosting. Can you tell that I have such a hard life?

We made many cupcakes, and I got to use my new cake decorating tips (though some of these were decorated by a roommate).

I even learned how to make a frosting rose, a skill I have always coveted. Pretty proud of my first try :)

Spiced tea cakes

Got this new bundt and candy pan for Christmas and have been dying to try it out!

How cute are these little shapes?

Anyways, searched for spiced tea cake recipes online and ended up working off of this one and adding some extra spices. Here's how I made them:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cream together the butter and sugar.

Beat in the eggs and the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add this to the butter mixture.

Add the cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

I put the batter into my pan, but if you don't have one like this you can just drop teaspoon-sized amounts on a greased baking pan. Bake for about 8 minutes.

Mine overflowed a bit while baking, so I scraped off the top layer when it had cooled and ended up with some extra cookie-like creations that aren't quite as pretty to look at but are still super delicious, especially with powdered sugar sprinkled on top.

Here are the final spiced tea cakes, with a mixture of granulated sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on top. They turned out better than I could have anticipated, and they taste just as good as they look!

Oatmeal raisin cookies

Mmmmm gooey chewy oatmeal raisin cookies. That is all I have to say. What follows is from this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. 

1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, softened

2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cup rolled oats

3/4 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cream the butter, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla until smooth.

Separately, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.

Combine the mixtures and add oats and raisins (if desired).

Either chill the dough for a few hours or bake the cookies immediately (if you are impatient like I am), for 10-12 minutes or until they are slightly browned on the sides.

Merry Christmas!

Had a wonderful Christmas! We ate fantastic food with fun family, and all of my baking came together perfectly:

Every year it is a tradition that we have a round of White Elephant, which always involves much laughter. This year I got a pretty cool gift, a wine bottle filled with Christmas lights, like this one:

Tutorial here.

Happy Thanksgiving

Here is one of my mother's and my contributions to the family meal today:

I have been dying to try the apple braid since it hit Pinterest a bit ago, and this was my chance! I found the recipe here but I will walk through it with you below, since I changed it a tiny bit. 

Ingredients:

Apple Filling

4 small Granny Smith apples

3 tbps granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

Bread

2 1/2 c flour

1/4 c granulated sugar

1 tsp instant yeast

3/4 tsp salt

1 c warm water

2 1/4 tsp vegetable oil

Glaze

1/3 cup powdered sugar

5 tsp whipping cream

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

First, we preheated the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and peeled and sliced three apples (we added the fourth later).

We added the sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice.

We baked the apples in an 8-inch square pan for about 15 minutes. While this was happening, we made the bread dough by mixing together all the ingredients and kneading it by hand. We rolled it out into a roughly rectangular shape.

We cut small slits roughly a third of the way into the dough, about an inch apart.

Once the apples were ready (they smelled AMAZING), we added them to the center of the dough.

Braiding was easier than I expected. It was basically just pulling strips from the side across the center in a downward motion, alternating sides, and tucking in the ends.

Although we didn't braid it on the pan, we definitely recommend it! It was hard to transport it from the board to the pan when it was full. Once we managed to place it on the pan roughly intact, we put it in the oven for about half an hour, or until it looked like the photo below.

While it was in the oven, we mixed the glaze by combining all the ingredients and whisking them together. 

We spread the glaze over the braid once it came out of the oven, and transferred it to a new pan on a rack to suspend it above the liquid that pools below. 

Seeing it just sitting there waiting to be eaten was the hardest part. I couldn't wait to cut into it! 

When I did it was very worth it, especially with a little vanilla ice cream on the side.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sweet potato cupcakes

I have a new favorite recipe for fall/winter sweets! Actually, this is pretty much tied with my recipe for apple pie cookies, but it definitely wins for cupcakes.

I roughly followed the recipe found here, but this is what actually went into these cupcakes:

1 cup brown sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
½ cup pureed sweet potato
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon

I combined all the ingredients (not in any particular order) then baked them for 15 minutes at 375 degrees. I topped them with my roommate's cream cheese frosting recipe:

8 oz plain cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

These ingredients were blended until evenly combined, and spread on the cupcakes. I sprinkled a little more cinnamon on top and then, finally, enjoyed my cupcakes!