Apple Spice Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream frosting

A couple of posts ago, you might remember I went apple picking and came back with ahhhhh-lot of apples. I decided some of the apples should go into cupcake form. And combined with salted caramel. I mean how could you go wrong? Yup, I'm right. You can't.

This was a easy cupcake recipe chock full of apples and fall spices. I made them miniature form to serve at a faculty meeting. I find that people cannot resist a cupcake in miniature form. And following Halloween and eating way too much candy, there is a less guilt that follows. The recipe made for me about 3 dozen mini cupcakes. If I had to guess, it would make about a dozen cupcakes, give or take a few. But that is only a guess, folks! If you make them in regular form let me know!

Apple Spice Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream Frosting
Print this recipe!

Cupcake ingredients: (makes 10-12 regular-sized cupcakes, 36 mini cupcakes)

 4 Tbsp brown sugar

 1/2 C granulated sugar

 1/2 C applesauce

 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

 1/2 tsp vanilla

 2 egg

 1 C all purpose flour

 1 tsp baking soda

 1/2 tsp baking powder

 1/8 tsp salt

 1 tsp cinnamon

 1/4 tsp nutmeg

 Pinch of ground cloves

2 apples, chopped 

Buttercream frosting:

2 1/2 sticks butter, softened

 2 1/2 C powdered sugar

 1 tsp vanilla

 4 tablespoons caramel sauce

 2 Tbsp heavy cream 

pinch of salt

 Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cupcake pans with liners.
2. In a large bowl or stand mixer, mix together sugars, applesauce and vegetable oil. Mix in eggs and vanilla, followed by remaining ingredients. 
3. Mix just into all ingredients are combined. Use a spoon or cookie scoop to divide mixture among prepared liners. 
4.  Bake for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted only has a few moist crumbs. Cool on a wire rack.
5.  Prepare buttercream in a medium bowl or stand mixer. Cream butter and powdered sugar together. Mixture may become slightly crumbly, that's okay. Add vanilla, caramel syrup and heavy cream. Beat until smooth and spreadable consistency. Add additional heavy cream if needed.

6. When cupcakes have cooled completely. Use a knife or cupcake corer to remove the center of the cupcake. Fill with apple pie filling, leaving a 1/2-inch space at the top. Slice off the dome of the cored piece of cupcake, place over the apple pie filling.

7. Pipe or frost cupcakes as desired. Drizzle with additional caramel syrup. Serve immediately or store in a covered container.

Salted Caramel Apple Crumb Bars

Ok so it's been awhile since I've posted. I can hear you scoffing over there. Ok it's be a loooooong time- oh about six months give or take a day.  I decided to give this blogging thing a go one more time. I have to admit I got a little discouraged, blogging ain't easy! I decided if I was going to get back into though I was going to need to invest in a new camera.  My point and shoot just wasn't going to cut it. So with my new (ok used off of Amazon- I am a teacher folks and those fancy cameras aren't cheap!) camera in hand I'm giving this blogging thing a go one more time. So what did I make to celebrate my return? These delicious no wait... insanely delicious ok...so good that I hate to admit how many I ate- Salted Caramel Apple Crumb Bars.  I had a bushel? a lot of apples staring at me on the counter that I had to find something to do with. My friends and I had gone apple picking the weekend before and not being an apple picking expert I bought the BIG bag to fill. Well, folks, in case you are planning on going apple picking that BIG bag is way more apples than you know what to do with.  Consider yourself warned. 

These bars were a perfect little package of Autumn. And salted caramel anything? Count me in.  So apples, cinnamon, salted caramel. You can't go wrong. To me, they were like eating apple pie. Only you know easier to make and I didn't feel as guilty. Desserts in small form do that to me. Ok, so yea I ate probably way more than equivalent to a slice of pie so that logic totally doesn't count.  But if the crisp Fall air has you yearning for pie and simpler times these bars can deliver that. Well maybe not simpler times, but hey these bars should put a smile on your face.  What will I do with the rest of the apples adorning my countertop? Guess you will just have to wait and see... 



Salted Caramel Apple Crumb Bars
original source: Two Peas and Their Pod
Please note:  I cheated a little and used good jarred caramel sauce.  Feel free to do the same or go ahead and make your own.  Two Peas and Their Pod's original recipe includes a recipe for caramel sauce.  Either way, don't forget the caramel sauce at the end. Drizzle that stuff all over these little babies. Seriously, the caramel sauce at the end puts the bars over the top. (I apologize my picture does not include the final drizzle of caramel sauce!)

Print this recipe!

ingredients:

For salted caramel sauce

1 cup of your favorite jarred caramel

1 teaspoon fleur de sel, plus extra for sprinkling

For the Apple Filling:

5 cups peeled and diced apples
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
½ cup all-purpose Gold Medal flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground all-spice

For the crust:

3 cups all-purpose Gold Medal flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 9×13-inch baking pan with cooking spray and set aside.

2. For the apple filling- place the diced apples in a large bowl and sprinkle with lemon juice. Mix gently. In a separate bowl whisk together flour, cornstarch, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ground all-spice. Pour over the apples and carefully combine. Set aside.

3. For the dough-in a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or by using your hands, until butter is mixed in, but you still have small chunks of butter. Mix the egg and vanilla together. Add into the flour and butter mixture and combine. The dough will be crumbly. Pat half of the dough into the prepared pan.

4. Spread the apple mixture evenly over the bottom crust. Drizzle about salted caramel sauce over the apple filling, about 3/4 cup. Crumble the remaining dough over the apple caramel layer and pat gently.

5. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Cool completely on a wire rack. Cut into squares. Drizzle  the extra caramel sauce (feel free to drizzle as much as you like- 1/4 cup is just my suggestion, but who am I to tell you when to stop?) and an extra sprinkling of fleur de sel over the squares and serve.

Almond Puff Loaf

I love when I am given an actual reason to bake as opposed to my own simple desire to try a recipe. My boyfriend asked me to make a breakfast treat for his boss' birthday. This is how the conversation went.
 "Will you make some breakfast pastries?

"What kind do you want?"

"Whatever I don't care."

"Ok how about  muffins"?

"No I don't like muffins"

"Ok then..."  So much for not having an opinion.  After a loooong Friday night looking up the perfect recipe to make (ok who am I kidding I had fun while doing this)  I stumbled upon this almond puff loaf. This danish- like pastry looks fancy and people will think you spent hours doing this, but it is truly is a simple pastry to throw together. So simple  I made two batches. Yea- I'm that crazy. This recipe is definitely going into my baking arsenal and will be made it again without a doubt. It has a perfect buttery flaky crust, with just enough sweetness and one of my all-time flavors (it says so right in the name) almond.

Each batch makes 2 almond loaves. I made one with a blueberry jam and the other with strawberry. I originally  was going to make raspberry (but someone- names will be left out) got strawberry at the store. Oh well both turned out fantastic.

If you are a little hesitant at first, take a look at the original blog for this recipe because its gives you fabulous step-by-step instructions.

But if you are in need of an upcoming breakfast treat for this Easter weekend. Look no further. This is it. It's so quick and easy I promise it will leave you time to for that Easter egg hunt or whatever Easter traditions you and your family have.

Almond Puff Loaf
from King Arthur Flour

FIRST LAYER

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter*, cut into pats or 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup water
• *If you're using unsalted butter, add 1/4 teaspoon salt.

SECOND LAYER

• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter*
• 1 cup flour
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature; warm them, in the shell, in hot tap water for 10 minutes if they're cold from the fridge
• 1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• *If you're using unsalted butter, add 1/4 teaspoon salt.

TOPPING

• 2/3 cup jam or preserves
• 1/2 to 2/3 cup slivered or sliced almonds, toasted in a 350°F oven for about 7 to 10 minutes, or until they're a light, golden brown

ICING

• 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 teaspoons milk or water (approximately)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) a large cookie sheet.

1) First layer: In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the butter, flour, and salt (if you're using it), working the butter into the flour with a pastry blender or fork, your fingers, or a mixer. Mix until everything is crumbly, then stir in the water. The dough will become cohesive, though not smooth.

2) Divide the dough in half; if you're using a scale, each half will weigh about 4 5/8 ounces. Wet your hands, and shape each piece of this wet dough into a rough log. Pat the logs into 10" x 3" rectangles on the sheet, leaving at least 4" (but preferably 6") between them, and 2" on each side. These puff up in the oven (hence the name), and you need to leave them room for expansion.

3) Second layer: In a medium-sized saucepan, bring the water and butter to a boil. Stir until the butter melts, then add the flour (and salt, if you're using it) all at once. Stir the mixture with a spoon till it thickens, begins to steam, and leaves the sides of the pan; this will happen very quickly.

4) Transfer the dough to a mixing bowl, or the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat it at medium speed for 30 seconds to 1 minute, just to cool it down a bit.

5) Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; beat until the dough loses its "slimy" look, and each egg is totally absorbed.

6) Mix in the almond extract.

7) Divide the batter in half. Spread half the batter over one of the dough strips on the pan, covering it completely. Repeat with the remaining batter and dough.

8) With a spatula (or your wet fingers) spread the batter until it completely covers the entire bottom layer of dough. Smooth it out as best you can.

9) Bake the pastry for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until it's a deep golden brown. Remove it from the oven, and transfer each pastry to a wire rack.

10) Topping: Spread each warm pastry with about 1/3 cup of jam or preserves. (Any flavor is fine, but our favorites are raspberry and apricot.)

11) Sprinkle the toasted almonds atop the jam. By this time, your beautifully puffed pastries are probably starting to sink; don't worry, this is all part of the plan.

12) Icing: Stir together the sugar, vanilla, and enough milk or water to form a thick but "drizzlable" icing.

13) Drizzle the icing atop the pastries.

14) Cut into squares or strips to serve.

Sour Cream Citrus Pound Cake with Lemon Glaze

Now I apologize profusely right away by saying I do NOT have a photograph of this poundcake. You will have to use your imagination to envision one of the best quick breads, desserts, and poundcakes you will have ever had the privilege of tasting. I cannot rave enough about this recipe.  Trust me, if you make anything next- make this dessert.

I had the privilege of getting a hold of this dessert when I took a Baking Class at the Cambridge Culinary School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  This school is great because it offers a TON of recreational courses that usually professional students enrolled in culinary school to take.  The Introduction to Baking course was a 4-week course that I took over a year ago.  Let's just say I did not stop there. I have since taken more courses and if I could would enroll as a full-time student.  I love being in a real commercial-style kitchen and getting to learn hands-on with professional chef instructors.  The first time I took this course I walked out beaming pastry in hand.

Part of the 4-week course involved a Cake class.  I had taken a cake decorating class, so I was familiar with some of the basic concepts, but still enjoyed learning some different techniques from the instructors.  The class is designed like your typical science class- lecture than lab. Once you learn the basic techniques, you get to choose and make a cake from the list of recipes they give you.  I had chosen a carrot cake with cream cheese icing.  The people next to me chose to make this sour cream poundcake.  They let me try a piece at the end and one bite made me wish I had chosen that recipe!  Let's just say it didn't take a week for me to make it at home.

It also make great mini-loaves and I gave these away at Christmas presents to co-workers this year.  It's a delicous cheap Christmas present that everyone was  happy to get. 

Sour Cream Citrus Pound Cake with Lemon Glaze
From Cambridge School of Culinary Arts

1 cup unsalted butter
2 1/4  cups sugar
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
Grated zest of 1 orange, 1 lemon, 1 lime

1. Sift dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
2.  In another bowl, combine grated orange, lemon, and lime zests, vanilla extract and sour cream.
3. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.   Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the mixing bowl well after each addition and mix until blended.  Add dry and wet ingredients alternately to butter-sugar-egg mixture until uniformly incorporated- do not overmix.
4. Grease and flour one bundt cake pan (or 2 large loaf pans- or 6-7 mini loaf pans).  Pour batter into pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees oven for approximately 50 minutes (be sure to lower the baking time if you are making things smaller).  The cake is done when a toothpick or skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool before glazing.

Lemon Glaze

1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. lemon zest

Mix all ingredients until smooth.  Pour over top of cake and serve.  For a thicker glaze use less lemon juice.

Operation: Baking Gals

As part of starting this blog, I wanted to get more involved in things.  So when I saw that one of my favorite blogs, Beantown Baker, was asking for volunteers to send care packages full of delicious baked goodies to her friend Nate who is stationed in Afghanistan I immediately knew this was something I wanted to do.  I loved the idea and immediately joined her team, Team Beantown Baker, on the Operation Baking Gals Site.

So this post is all about what I sent to her friend Nate. I spent A LOT of time trying to decide what to send to her friend Nate. I knew right away I wanted to send these Rasberry Streusel Bars I saw in a Cook's Illustrated magazine recently.  I have been wanting to make these bars for awhile now, and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity.  I also thought that they would ship very well. 

I admit after making them and tasting them it was extremely hard to package them up and ship them off! I trimmed the edges of the bars before cutting them, and none of the crispy edges went to waste.  I will admit I did steal one bar (chef's right to taste test) and had a hard time stopping there. I will definitely be making them again.

 I knew I also wanted to make another delicious treat to ship off.  I finally settled on a recipe from Curtis Stone, Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I had all the ingredients except the chocolate chips (I know what you're thinking..out of chocolate chips?) I had cinnamon, milk chocolate, some white chocolate, but no semi-sweet! I had used them up recently making a chocolate ganache recipe, so with only one ingredient missing I figured this would be easy enough and would make a great cookie to ship with the raspberry streusel bars.


These cookies were very peanut buttery.  Not for the faint of peanut butter hearts. I did like how well they baked up.  I just hope that the soldiers enjoyed them.  Of course I guess I'll never know.

After reading through Jen (from Beantown Baker's) previous blogs on Operation Baking Gals I decided I would follow her advice and freeze the goodies for at least 48 hours to ensure freshness when the package arrived. I packaged each goodie in its own plastic container.  But the two containers still left some room for something else.  I really wanted to balance the sweet tooth with something salty.  Not wanting to bake for the third time that day (and do another round of dishes!-my least favorite) I remembered back to when my cousin David was deployed.  All he asked for was- PICKLES! The Mt. Olive pickle company makes these great little portable containers of pickles in plastic containers perfect for shipping overseas! Two packages of these little gherkins fit perfectly in the large flat rate box from the post office.  My Operation Baking Gals package was complete.  I hope Nate and his friends enjoy my baked treats.



 Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies (from Curtis Stone)

Makes about 20 cookies (as usual, I only got 13- I always end up making mine too big- oh well)

Ingredients

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup natural chunky peanut butter (about 9 ounces / 280 grams)
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated / caster sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick / 125 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ½ tablespoons honey
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 ounces / 155 grams semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used chocolate chips to save a little money!)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C.
2. Line 3 heavy large baking sheets with parchment paper.
3. Mix the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
4. Using an electric mixer, beat the peanut butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, honey, egg, and vanilla in a large bowl until well blended.
5. Stir the dry ingredients into the peanut butter mixture in 2 additions.
6. Stir in the chopped chocolate
7. Scoop about 3 tablespoonfuls of dough for each cookie onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 2 1/2 inches apart.
8. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until the cookies puff and begin to brown on top but are still very soft to the touch.
9. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes.
10. Using a metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a rack and eat warm or cool completely.

Raspberry Streusel Bars (A Cook's Illustrated Recipe)
Note from Cook's Illustrated: This recipe can be done in a food processor or stand mixer. (I made mine in a food processor.)  Frozen raspberries can be substituted for fresh (I had some fresh leftover in my fridges so I used those). If you use frozen be sure to defrost those first befor adding them to your raspberry jam.  If your raspberries are a little tart, add only 1 or 2 teaspoons of lemon juice to the filling. The bars are best eaten the day they are baked but can be kept in an airtight container for up to 3 days (the crust will soften slightly with storage).

Ingredients:
21/2 cups (121/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
2/3 cup (about 4 3/4 ounces) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon table salt
16 Tablespoons  (2 sticks) plus 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and softened to cool room temperature
1/4 cup packed (1 3/4 ounces) light or dark brown sugar (I used dark brown sugar because that is what I had on hand)
1/2 cup (1 1/2 ounces) old-fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup (2 ounces) pecans, chopped fine
3/4 cup (8 1/2 ounces) raspberry perserves
3/4 cup (3 1/2 ounces) fresh raspberries
1 Tablespoon juice from 1 lemon

Directions:
1. Adjust to oven rack to middle position, heat oven to 375 degrees.  Cut 18-inch length foil and fold lengthwise to 8-inch width.  Fit foil into length of 13 by 9-inch baking dish, pushing into corners and up sides of pan allow excess to overhang pan edges.  Cut 14-inch length foil and fit into width of baking pan in same manner, perpendicular to first sheet.  Spray foil-lined pan with cooking spray.
2.  In bowl of stand mixer fitter with paddle attachment, mix flour granulated sugar, and salt at low speed until combined, about 5 seconds.  With machine on low, add 16 Tablespoons butter 1 piece at a time, then continue mixing on low until mixture resembles damp sand, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes.  (If using, food processor, process flour, granulated sugar, and salt until combined, about 5 seconds.  Scatter 16 tablespoon butter pieces over flour mixture and pulse until mixture resembles damp sand, about twenty 1-second pulses.
3. Measure 1 1/4 cups flour mixture medium bowl and set aside; distribute remaining flour mixture evenly in bottom of prepared baking pan.   Following illustration 1 above, use hands or flat-bottomed measuring cup to firmly press mixture into even layer to form bottom crust.  Bake until edges begin to brown, 14 to 18 minutes
4.  While crust is baking, add brown sugar oats, and pecans to reserved flour mixture; toss to combine.  Work in remaining 2 tablespoons butter by rubbing mixture between fingers until butter is fully incorporated.  Pinch mixture with fingers to create hazelnut-size clumps; set streusel aside.
5. Combine preserves, raspberries and lemon juice in small bowl; mash with fork until combined but some berry pieces remain.
6. Following illustrations 2 and 3, spread filling evenly over hot crust; sprinkle streusel topping evenly over filling (do not press streusel into filling). Return pan to oven and bake until topping is deep golden brown and filling is bubbling, 22 to 25 minutes.  Cool to room temperature on wire rack, 1 to 2 minutes; remove from baking pan by lifting foil extensions. Using chef's knife cut into squares and serve.