I preface them as “mostly apple” because the only thing holding these chunky pieces of apples is muffin batter.  I’ve posted about these before but I made a couple of changes myself this time around. It was also my third time making them so hopefully the third time is clearly a charm. They’re just that good!  I followed Christy’s recipe on The Girl Who Ate Everything blog.

Here is her recipe below:

Yields 18 muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups sugar (I cut back to 1 cup)
• 2 eggs (leave at room temperature)
• 1 cup of oil
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla
• 3 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 2-3 cups of peeled, cored, and diced apples (2 large or 3 medium sized apples should be enough)
• Brown sugar for topping

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin tin with paper liners
2. Cream sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla; mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Sift if desired.
4. Add whole portion of dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Mix until just combined. Do not overmix!
5. Fold diced apples into batter with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon.
6. Using an ice cream scoop or large spoons, fill paper liners 3/4 full.  I was pretty generous with the scoops and the muffins came out beautifully.
7. Sprinkle with brown sugar.
8. Bake for 20-22 minutes. Do not check muffins halfway to turn the pans around or to check how much they’ve risen! They will definitely sink.  Be patient and let it bake for at least 20 minutes, then add on another minute or two if you want them to be more golden brown.

So for my changes in Christy’s recipe…

Treat the batter delicately! Over mixing the batter will yield a tougher muffin.  Too much air is not a good thing.  Keeping the apple chunks slightly larger might prevent the muffin from being soggy.  It might depend on the apple too.  I used Red Delicious and Gala apples.  Other food bloggers might suggest Granny Smiths for a more tart muffin.

And of course, use less sugar!  This recipe called for a whopping 2 cups of sugar and more to sprinkle on.  Apples are naturally sweet if you’ve picked ripe ones.  I cut the sugar by half in the batter and barely added any on top of the muffins and they came out fine.

I think if I were to make these again, I’d substitute for half wheat and half all purpose flour or incorporate some rolled oats for a healthier muffin.  All in all, these muffins came out great!  Not too sweet and great with a cup of coffee or tea in the morning.  Or a mid-afternoon snack. Your call!  

DOUGH Donuts: A Far Cry From The Old Fashioned

I may have gone overboard and looked for other donut shops.

(Source: vimeo.com)

Jacque Torres’ Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are probably the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made.  I’ve never quite perfected cookies but I’m learning!  Bakerella had featured these jewels on her site and linked me to Jacque Torres’ recipe. They came out pretty well! You need the patience of a saint to wait 24-72 hrs for this cookie dough to set in the fridge.  Luckily I had a different batch of cookies to attend to so the wait didn’t matter much.  

The star of the recipe was the chocolate! David Lebovitz did say that if you’re going to indulge yourself, do it right.  Good bye Nestle and Ghirardelli! Hello Guittard! These are discs of rich chocolate with hints of raisin and dark cherry. I used the semisweet chocolate but will definitely try the bittersweet chocolate next time.

I feel like Cookie Monster.

My intention was to buy Lewis a birthday cake today— baking a cake at home was out of the question because the fan is still broken.  He’s also coming back from a week long trip to Spain so I figured mini apple pies would be a great idea to tie in as a welcome home surprise.  I said baking cakes were out of the question…not pies.  Pies don’t require that much attention for rising, cakes do.

Pre-made dough is so helpful in preparing quick treats! I was able to stamp out 4 hearts per 9 in pie crust.  Roll the dough back out and you can squeeze in a couple more.  I got this adorable pie press at Target during their Valentine’s Day sale.

Very easy to use, all you need is pre-made pie crust dough, egg wash, and your favorite filling.  I used apples!

Look how they turned out so far!  I made a little over a dozen mini apple pies that day.

I couldn’t keep my hands off these!  Had to let them cool of course.

Quick and easy to make, equally delicious.  I’m making blueberry pies the next time I get a chance— although Lewis has been requesting that I start making more savory stuff.