Apple Cinnamon Muffins

I know, I know, muffins again. And another apple recipe. Maybe you're like, "Rebecca, stahp with all the apples". I'd like to hold onto fall as long as I can, okay? Last week I was talking about how much I was enjoying the crisp autumn weather and this week it snowed. Gah. Thanks, Minnesota. Point is, the apples will stay as long as I am provided with them. Then I will give in to winter.

I let the batter sit around while I cleaned up and put away laundry and got distracted. So the finished muffins were kind of tall and huge. This has happened to me before and it's weird, but research was inconclusive. Lemme know if you have a clear answer, as I am curious. I wonder if non yeasted baked goods can go through a kind of proofing process also? 

Anyway, the verdict on these muffins...well, I gave one to a stranger I bumped into in the hallway and she called me a saint, haha. People walking by stared longingly at the oven as they baked, and I heard one guy say it smelled like Cinnabon. Oh, but word of warning. If you're wearing chapstick or anything like that, the cinnamon sugar will get friendly with your face. It might be the one and only time I deem it appropriate to call someone sugarlips. Eh...it's still weird. 

Apple Cinnamon Muffins
from Add a Pinch

2 cups all-purpose flour (+ 2 teaspoons for coating apples)
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (+ ½ teaspoon for coating apples)
2 cups diced apples
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
½ cup milk
For the Topping:
½ cup butter, melted
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375º F. Spray muffin tins with bakers spray or coat well with shortening or butter and flour, making sure to discard any excess flour from the tins after coating.
Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Toss together diced apples and 2 teaspoons of flour to coat apples in a separate bowl. Set aside.
Cream together butter and sugar until lightened in color, about 3 minutes. Add an egg, one at a time, taking care to fully incorporate before adding the other. Mix in vanilla.
Gently fold in flour mixture, alternating with milk. Stir until just combined. Fold in diced apples and scoop mixture into prepared muffin tins, filling about ⅔ to ¾ full. Bake until a toothpick or skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, about 30 minutes.
Prepare topping for muffins while the muffins are baking by melting the butter and allowing to cool slightly. Pour butter into a separate bowl sized easy for dipping tops of muffins. Mix together granulated sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl and set aside.
Once muffins have baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly in the muffin tin. Then, remove each muffin and dip first into the melted butter and then into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place onto a plate to finish cooling.

Cinnamon Chip Apple Cake

Fall is in full swing over here and I'm loving it. Have I ever mentioned that it's my favorite season? For a multitude of reasons. I consider myself to be a very sensory person. When I go on walks, my fingers drift over leaves, flower petals, tree trunks. Autumn overwhelms my senses, but in a marvelous way. The sound of leaves crunching underfoot, the smell of woodsmoke mingling with the crisp fall air, the taste of cinnamon lingering on my tongue...I love it all so much. 

You can tell I was baking at night when I use crappy instagram photos on my posts, haha

And fall has the most wonderful traditions associated with it. Trick or treating, pumpkin carving, apple picking...but it's all so fleeting. Before I know it, all the leaves have blown away, and it's always sooner than I'd like. So ephemeral. I'm trying to enjoy as many activities as I can, especially since this is my senior year and I have no idea where I'll be this time 12 months from now. Scary! Breathe. Focus on the now. 

I've been stockpiling as many local apples as I can, since I know they'll be gone soon and I'd rather eat a sponge than the red delicious apples they have in the dining hall the rest of the year. I decided to use a few to make this very simple cake, studded with apple chunks and cinnamon chips. Like the season, this cake disappeared far too quickly, and I'm already thinking about its inevitable return. 

Cinnamon Chip Apple Cake 
adapted from Sugar Plum Blog 

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups diced peeled apple
1 cup cinnamon chips

Heat oven to 350. Line an 8x8 pan with foil (enough to hang over the sides) and then grease the foil.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.. In a large mixing bowl,  beat together oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla until well combined, pale, and kind of fluffy. I did it by hand. Beat in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in apple and cinnamon chips until combined.
Spread cake batter into prepared baking dish.  Bake 30ish minutes or until well risen, golden brown, and a toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs clinging to it.

Applesauce

I recall sampling slices of Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, and Red Delicious apples and noting their different qualities as a class activity about the five senses in kindergarten. Was the apple sweet, red, crunchy? Since then, I have expanded my apple palate, but it’s hard to know what you’re missing when you’ve never had anything better. I used to be satisfied with Red Delicious apples. Apples are apples, right? Wrong. To the present version of myself, Red Delicious apples taste like old sponges with tough, inedible skin. 

I am incredibly lucky to have an apple orchard so close to my school. And I like having to work for my food...so I make an effort to go apple picking each fall. There’s just something special about pulling fruit right from a tree and eating it in the same place where it was grown. 

Apples are one of my favorite fruits to cook and bake with because they’re so versatile and there are so many different varieties with different flavor profiles.  The school cafeteria brings in apples from the local orchard, so if I can keep myself from eating them instantly, I can stockpile enough to whip up some applesauce.

Making your own applesauce is a breeze, and it tastes far better than anything purchased in the store. Even if you have never touched a stove, I am confident that you cannot ruin this recipe. 

Chunky Homemade Applesauce

Peel and slice 4-5 apples. Feel free to eat some of your slices, I always do. If you have a food processor or blender, peeling is optional. It'll give your sauce more fiber and turn it a pretty pink color. But I prefer chunky applesauce more than smooth. Throw the apple slices into a pot, put a lid on it, and cook over medium heat. If you want to add a little water, that’s fine, but it’s usually not necessary. The apples will release their juices and soften pretty quickly. When you can mash the apples up with a fork, your sauce is done! Add as much cinnamon and sugar as you want, and serve hot or cold.

Apple Em-pie-nada!

Patri of the blog, Asi Son Los Cosas, was our September 2012 Daring Bakers’ hostess and she decided to tempt us with one of her family’s favorite recipes for Empanadas! We were given two dough recipes to choose from and encouraged to fill our Empanadas as creatively as we wished!

 Guys, I am so excited! I've been eyeing it up for a while, but I finally decided to join Daring Bakers. I love a good challenge, and baking in a dorm + Daring Bakers = extra challenge. Fun fact - besides the actual baking, I made this whole recipe on the floor of my room. Just put down some newspaper and it was all good.

So let's get to the recipe itself: empanada gallega! I vaguely knew what an empanada was before the challenge. Very vaguely. Sort of like a calzone? Or a hand pie? It's kind of both, actually. The word empanada basically means stuffed bread. The gallega refers to Galicia, its region of origin. Additionally, an empanada gallega is HUGE. Typically not a cute lil' pocket or one of those Taco Bell disgraces.

I knew immediately that I wanted mine to be filled with a fresh apple-y filling. I even took a trip to the orchard to buy some local fruit! But then...they had Honeycrisps...and I ate them all. So I just had to buy more. No worries! The contrast of soft bread and crisp apples was lovely and quite unlike anything I've ever had. Try it out if you're hungry for a unique fall snack! 

 Apple Empanada
by Asi Son Los Cosas and me!

5-1/3 cups (1280 ml) (750 gm) bread flour
2 cups (480 ml) of lukewarm water (about 85°F/30ºC), approximately
1 satchel (1 tablespoon) (15 gm) dry yeast or (1 oz) (30 gm) fresh yeast
1/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons (60 ml) oil

Sift the flour into a big bowl and make a well in the middle. Rub the yeast in with your fingers.
In a small bowl, mix the water and the salt.
Now, using your fingers or a wooden spoon, start adding the water and mixing it with the flour-yeast mixture. Keep on working with your fingers or spoon until you have added enough water and all the flour has been incorporated and you have a messy ball of dough.
On a clean counter top, knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes
You could do all the above using a stand mixer, in that case mix the ingredients with the paddle attachment until mixed and then switch to a dough hook and knead on low for about 6 minutes.
Clean and oil the big bowl you used for mixing and place the kneaded dough in it. Cover it with a napkin or piece of linen and keep it in a warm, draft-free place for approximately 40 to 50 minutes.
In the meantime, make the filling!

4-5 large apples, peeled and chopped
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
3 Tbsp butter, chopped into chunks
a few tablespoons water

In a medium bowl....mix everything together. Yep.  Back to the dough.

 Preheat oven to 350F


Once risen, turn the dough back into a floured counter and cut it in half. Cover one half with the napkin to prevent drying. Spread the other half of the dough using a rolling pin. You can use a piece of wax paper over the counter, it will make it easier to move the dough around. Depending on the shape of your oven pan or cookie sheet, you will make a rectangle or a round. I made mine in a 9x13 rectangle. Now, the thinness of the dough will depend on your choice of filling and how much bread you like in every bite. For your first time, make it about 3mm thin (about 1/10th of an inch) and then adjust from that in the next ones you make. If you haven’t used wax paper, either lightly flour or line with wax paper your pan or tray.
Cover the base and sides with the dough. Using the rolling pin or a knife, cut the extra dough off.
Place your filling on top of this layer of dough.

Take the other half of the dough and spread it out to the same or less thinness of the base. You can use a piece of wax paper for this too. Take into account that this “top” dough needs to be smaller around than the bottom, as it only needs to cover the filling. If not using wax paper, move carefully the top to cover the filling. If using wax paper, transfer the dough, turn upside down, cover the filling and gently peel off the wax paper. Using your fingers, join bottom and top dough (you can crimp it and make it all nice if you want). When you are finished, make a 1 inch hole in the middle of the top layer. This will help hot air exit the empanada while it’s baking without breaking the cover. You can use left-over dough to decorate the empanada, using rounds, bows, lines… let your imagination flow and make it pretty!

Using a fork, prick the top layer or, using scissors, make snips that go all the way through the top layer. In a small bowl, beat an egg and add a tbsp of cold water. With the pastry brush, paint the top of the empanada with the egg wash. Place the empanada in the oven and bake for about 45 minutes (or more like 30, if you have a crazy oven like me), until golden brown. Make sure the bottom is cooked!

 

Apple Crisp

It's been a while since I've been to an apple orchard. I'd forgotten the lovely symmetry of the rows and rows of trees, the pleasing snap of pulling an apple off a branch. We picked Haralsons, a variety I'd never tried before. Crisp and tart, with funny little bumps on the skin, I loved them immediately. And knew they'd be perfect for baking. 

It's rare that you see this kind of beauty in an orchard. 

I had the hardest time finding a knife to peel and cut apples (again with the taking things for granted!) but I tracked one down eventually. I prefer crisps to pies because I find that pie crust is so often bad and just seems...superfluous. The again, I've never made my own pie crust, so I'll have to get back to you guys on my pie feelings when that happens. 

Mmmm...crisp. You just can't mess it up. The components meld together to create some tasty and unified in a way I don't feel like pie achieves. Feel free to disagree with me. But this baby was gone in like, an hour, and I think that speaks for itself :) 

Apple Crisp 

makes one 8x8 pan

Ingredients

5 apples, peeled and sliced

1/2 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup oats

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup melted butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degree C).
2. Place the sliced apples in pan. Mix the white sugar, 2 tsp flour and ground cinnamon together, and sprinkle over apples. Pour water evenly over all.
3. Combine the oats, 1/2 cup flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and melted butter together. Crumble evenly over the apple mixture.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for about 45 minutes.