Apple Banana Crumble Pie

This pie was really delicious. It was super easy to make as well.

I brought this with me when I went to a Life Beyond Ramen. This time around we made Japanese curry. It was really delicious as well.

Recipe:

Ingredients:
3 md Apples; cut in chunks
2 md Bananas; cut into chunks
2 tb Lemon juice
1 c All purpose flour
1/2 c Sugar
1/2 c Brown sugar; packed
1/2 ts Cinnamon
1/2 ts Nutmeg
1/2 c Butter or margarine; soften
1 9" pastry shell; unbaked

Directions:

Combine fruits and lemon juice; let stand 10 minutes. Combine flour, sugar and spices; cut in butter till crumbly. Arrange fruit in pastry shell. Sprinkle with crumb mixture. Bake at 400F for 35-40 minutes. Cover top lossely with foil if crumb mixture browns too quickly. Cut in wedges to serve.

Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes

As I start to clean my new apartment, I realize that I have loads of food that I brought up when I started summer school. Mostly my mom made me bring apples up. I also bought a whole bunch of fruit recently, too. I'm also trying to make room for my roommate who is going to be moving in soon. With all that, the next couple of non-group posts should be able random fruit that I have in the fridge.

Like I said before, I had loads of apples, I thought that I could make some apple related items. Last year, I made some mini apple pies and this apple dapple cake that were both well received. This time I decided to make some cupcakes with it.

I found this recipe off of Tracey's blog. She's a great blogger and I just love all of her wonderful recipes. She had made this in the fall which makes sense since it does have some wonderful fall flavors, but the weather in Northern California has been fall-like so it just made sense.

Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes
[adapted from Everyday Food]

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup [half a stick] butter, melted
1/4 cup natural (unsweetened) applesauce
3/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup of cubed apple [I'm not sure what type of apple I used, but it was pretty good]

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a cupcake pan with 12 paper liners (or butter the pan).

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.

In a large bowl, combine butter, applesauce, brown sugar, and eggs. Whisk until smooth.

Gradually whisk in dry ingredients just until combined (do not overmix). Using a rubber spatula, fold in cubed apple.

Spoon approximately 3 tablespoons in each cupcake. Bake until a tester inserted in cake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pan on rack 15 minutes; remove cupcakes from pan. Enjoy!

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

When I normally have this urge to bake, I just find something and bake it. Typically it'll be something easy since I don't have everything onhand. When I bake for a purpose, I get all the materials and I'll have everything ready for myself. This time, I decided to bake with apples. There were a whole bunch of great apple recipes, but just didn't feel right. Then I decided to just look for a super easy one that also had good reviews. I found one!

This one was super easy to just throw together. The batter was a bit thick, so I added some vanilla extract to give it another dimension to it. Super easy, and super yummy!

I've frozen a whole bunch of them for a quick breakfast for the next couple of weeks. Should be fun!

recipe found here

Apple Orchard Pecan Crumble [sms]

This week's SMS, Apple Orchard Pecan Crumble, was chosen by Cristine of Cristine Cooks.

This week has been kinda killer. Midterms have started so very little sleep and no one to feed meant that I have no idea what to do.

I decided to make this crumble into a mini version. Also, I had double the crumble. SO YUMMY! Cupcake liners FTW!

Sorry for very little writing and the kinda bad pictures. It's been a long week.

Recipe for the crumble here! Make sure to check out the rest of the SMS bakers on the blogroll.


ps. I baked for Baking GALS this weekend. The smaller box is for the group that Joy is heading.

Caramel Apple Turnover [sms rewind]

I made these recently because I had many more apples than I know what to do with. You will see many more apple recipes soon.

Anyways, this SMS recipe was from ages ago - before I had join the group.

These turnovers were one of the things I had been eyeing since I do enjoy a good turnover. What happened to these turnovers, I have no idea.

First - as I was making the caramel apples - it just didnt turn out caramel-y. It had been okay and I went to do something else, and when I came back like a minute later, they were too far gone. I was lazy, and I just kept them be. They were really sugarly, but it was still good.

Second, for some reason, the puff pastry hates me too. I had left it out to defrost a little since it was too hard to undo without it defrosting a little. I had fallen asleep and so when I got back up, it was too doughy for me to work me. Then back into the freezer it went, but it still wouldnt separate. *sigh* It was just not my recipe I suppose.

Regardless. I had made the turnovers as best I could. The triangles didn't all work out, so I made them into eggroll shaped and some of them opened up and looked like hotdogs.

With the extra ricotta cheese and eggs, I decided to do something different. I had made a sweet omelette. It was quite interesting. I think the sugar and the eggs worked out pretty well together. It's something that I would definitely try again when I have extra sugar and eggs.

Recipe found here!

Mom's Banana Apple Bread and Muffins [sms]

This week's SMS, Mom's Banana Apple Bread, was chosen by Joy of Hot Oven, Warm Heart. This fruit-filled bread was really easy to make and I really enjoyed making it. I had made a dozen muffins and used the rest of the batter for the bread since I ran out of cupcake liners.

I actually made this last week because I was still up in Berkeley and it's just so much easier to bake up there. Back at home in Brea, I have make things that are less sweet and things that are easy to make since I do not have too many supplies at hand.

I had actually made lots of substitutes in this recipe. With the apples, I had used golden brown sugar instead. I also only have fugi apples so I just cut one up since they are so big. I also added more cinnamon and vanilla extract. I just like the smell and taste of cinnamon and vanilla.

For the bread/muffins itself, I subbed 1/8 c of the sugar with cinnamon sugar. I also added more cinnamon and vanilla extract. See a pattern here? I took out the ground cloves since I didnt have any hand, but I added 1/4 teaspoon more of nutmeg. I also added some hazelnuts left over from the hazelnut truffles, 1/2 c of milk chocolate chips, and 1/2 c of semi sweet chocolate chips.

These tasted actually very good. I had a muffin before I left, and I froze the rest for a nice and healthy breakfast for those crazy days that are about to start when school starts. I brought the bread home and everyone really enjoyed it. It was nice and healthy, and not too sweet - unlike most things I bake.

Recipe for the bread here! Make sure to check out the rest of the SMS bakers on the blogroll!

Apple Crisp [mbs]

MSB - Midnight Birthday Surprise. I know too many acronyms, but that's how I live my life.
So at Berkeley, normally we go at midnight and surprise the birthday person. Sometimes we make the birthday person wait for a couple of minutes before we go and surprise them with song and something made by me. This time it was Mimi's turn.
This is Mimi.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

The crisp was nice and crispy but the apples at the bottom were nice and tender. YUM!\

recipe for the apple crisp
(inspired by the one found here)
Ingredients
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon [I used 1 teaspoon]
1/3 cup softened butter
1 1/2 cups KELLOGG'S* RICE KRISPIES* cereal
6 cups sliced, peeled cooking apples
Directions:
In large bowl mix together sugar, flour and cinnamon. Using pastry blender, cut in margarine until resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in cereal.
Spread apple slices evenly in 23 cm (9-inch) square baking pan. Sprinkle cereal topping over apples. [I used a 9in circle baking pan and added more cereal on top of the topping already made.]
Bake at 180 degrees C (350 degrees F) about 30 minutes or until apples are tender. Serve with frozen yogurt or whipped topping, if desired.

*I would have more pictures, but I only had my phone on me when they cut open the crisp, so no good pictures*

Mini Apple Pies

So my goal for this summer was to create 10 out of the 100 or so things on my want to make list. This sounds like a daunting task, but I have technically already created 5 things off the list since the beginning of summer. This is the 6th one. Only 4 more to go.

These mini apple pies are actually called by the creater as Apple Tarts. I think that these are more like mini apple pies because they look that way. I decided to make that crisscross shape on the top of the pies because they would look nice.

These were really simple to make and oh so yummy! They really went well with some vanilla ice cream and some caramel.

recipe here.

Apple Dapple Cake

Finally making something that is not for db or sms. This Apple Dapple Cake is from Lovin' From the Oven. I actually really enjoy reading her blog. She seems like a really nice person and loves to bake!

I noticed that I've been baking a lot. Summer service meetings, going away parties, now today's cake was for Campbell's Relay for Life. Being a part of Circle K does not mean that I just volunteer for just the Berkeley area, but as an organization, there are clubs worldwide. This event was put on by one of our fellow clubs, Mission College.

I decided to go for two reasons. One, I havent been to a service project since May and therefore have very little hours and feel like that I should be doing service and not just going to the fun stuff. Two, I'm on district board. I'm supposed to be at events that other clubs put on to show unity in the district.

I knew that I wanted to make something special and something that I havent made before since my goal was to dash off 10 things on my want to bake list on my computer and why not start now.

The only difference in the cake that I had made a bit more diced apples and I also added a bit more cinnamon. I don't think it took anything away from the cake. I actually liked the very pronounced cinnamon taste.

I baked the cake yesterday since I was going to Relay for Life through the night until about 10am. Relay for life was pretty awe inspiring and amazing. I stayed up the whole night and just hung out with some of my friends. It was just really nice to talk with people and sit by the heater.

Some pictures were taken at 4am when we decided to finally start eating the cake, so the quality of the pictures may be a bit off.

Happy Pi(e) Day!

Yes, I know it is just Pi day, but I felt like I needed to bake some so I made Apple Pie Cupcakes!
So I had found this WONDERFUL recipe online, but I absolutely have no knife skills. I am horrible at slicing and dicing and all that good stuff so I decided to do it my own way. Well, yeah. I thought they came out decent, but not the best I could have done...

Apple Pie Cupcakes
Apple Filling/Topping first!
Ingredients:
6 tbsp unsalted butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and diced
(I do end up with a little sauce and apples left, so I used them to decorate the tops and dipped the sauce in the cupcake)
Directions:
Place butter and sugar in a large fry pan over low-medium heat.
Stir to dissolve sugar.
Add the diced apple and cuntil apples are caramelized/taste kinda sweet and soft.
Remove apples from pan and let cool completely.
Then the cupcakes!
Ingredients:
2 1/4 all purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
9 ounces (2 sticks plus 2 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened at room temp
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup (8 fluid ounces) whole milk (I used soymilk)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325F.
Sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
Set aside dry ingredients.
In a bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides if the bowl occasionally. Beat in the vanilla.
On low speed, add the flour mixture and mix until flour is barely incorporated. Add the milk and mix until just smooth.
Divide the batter among lined muffin wells, filling each well about 1/2 full (2 tablespoons full). Top with the apples.
Bake at 325F until a cake tested comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from pan and cool cupcakes on cooling racks. Make sure cupcakes are completely cooled before frosting.

Then last but not least! The frosting!
Ingredients:
12 ounces (3 sticks / 340g) unsalted butter, softened at room temp
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Directions:
In the bowl, beat the butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add the confectioner's sugar and cinnamon and beat for another 5 minutes until light and fluffy.
Frost the cupcakes with an icing spatula or piping bag.
First some pi cupcakes!

Onto regularly decorated ones...

ALL were enjoyed by Circle K members at Andrea's Scrapbook Work Party!

Well, thats going to be the last of my baking...until maybe Tuesday. St. Patrick's day always needs something special. ;)

<3

recipe found here