Cinnamon Doughnut Muffins

Sorry I haven't been able to post much, I have just been soooo busy! Between school and my baking sales.... I wonder how I find time to do other things! At school the baking sales are a little low, but that it because it's the beginning of the year, and word hasn't spread yet. Soon though, I will be selling out and baking like crazy!!
   Once again I settled with a simple recipe for the week. Cinnamon Doughnut Muffins, a Pinterest recipe you can also find here. Oh yeah, and I have a whole board full of cupcakes, cakes, and other desserts if you wanted to check that out! Now remember, those aren't my recipes, just all the recipes I liked or wanted to try on Pinterest!

First you will want to mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Pretty simple, right? I sure hope so!

Next, in another bowl, you will want to mix the sugar, oil, milk, and egg together until it is one big happy mixture! It might take a bit of mixing, the oil never wants to cooperate, and apparently the egg didn't want to either. Huh, I have some frisky ingredients!

Add your frisky mix in with the dry ingredients, and stir stir stir to get everything well incorporated  Like one happy mixture, I suppose. Just don't over-mix it, then your muffins will never rise! I leave lots of little bumpy things in my batter, that way my cupcakes are fluffy and have rounded tops!

Now Bake them!! It shouldn't take long, and they always make the house smell good. Come to think of it, baking in general makes a house smell good!Anyways, when they are done baking melt some butter in a little cup and dip the muffins in the melted butter. Now, I sell these so I have wrappers around my muffins, but if you don't, feel free to cover those muffins! Then dip (or roll) the muffins in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Enjoy!

Recipe:

1 3/4 cups Flour

1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1/4 teaspoon Nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon Cinnamon

1/4 cup Vegetable Oil

2/3 cup Granulated Sugar

1 Egg

1 cup Milk

For the cinnamon sugar topping:

1/4 cup Butter, Melted

1/3 cup Granulated Sugar

1 tablespoon Cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350º and grease or line your muffin tins. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Set aside for now.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, sugar, and oil until well combined. Then, take the egg mixture and combine with the flour mixture; stir until combined.

3. Bake 15-18 minutes (10-12 for mini cupcakes), or until a toothpick comes out clean.

4. Melt the butter, and then coat the muffins while hot. Combine the cinnamon and sugar in a different bowl; dip the muffins in mixture. 

5. Let cool so the butter and sugar can harden a bit before serving. Refridgerate any leftovers in an airtight container.

Note: these are best served fresh out of the oven, but they can last for up to 3 days

Try this recipe? Tell me how it went down below in the comments!

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

   Well, the start of the school year also signifies the start of me selling again! Some kids sell drugs or test answers, but I sell all the things I bake! At the beginning of the year I am usually just baking on Sundays, then selling throughout the week. But, when business picks up, I can be baking anywhere from 1-3 times a week. Sounds exhausting to some, but I love doing it! And after High School I am hoping to pursue a career in baking and pastries, maybe even catering!

   Oh yeah, more exciting news! I was offered by the owner of Never Enough Ballroom to cater for on the weekends! On Saturdays they offer free dance classes, which you can read more about on their website here. It is truly a fun thing to do, and is fun for the whole family as well! I am definitely thinking about taking that offer, good for experience!

Anyways, for this week in school I decided to start with something simple, something that will get business booming the way it was last year. Chocolate chip cookies! I mean, who doesn't love them? And they are also really super quick and easy as well, so I won't be spending too much time on something if people end up not liking them. If they don't, more for my family! This recipe I found here on the allrecipes.com website!

Note: I ran out of chocolate chips, so I cut up some bakers chocolate, which is why my cookies are so speckled.

First things first, get all your ingredients! I will have a list below of all the things you need, but you may already have them in the kitchen! Then you will want to combine the butter with both sugars. Beat in the eggs one at a time, and well incorporate them. Don't forget the vanilla! And the baking soda too, as well as the salt. Can't make good cookies if you are missing the ingredients!

The flour and chocolate chips might be important to. Well, might be! Actually, no, they are very important and you can't make good chocolate chip cookies without the flour and chocolate chips! Mix mix mix, get it all blended together nicely. I might be crazy, but mixing everything together is my favorite part! The flour might be a little tricky, so I usually mix in the flour 1 cup at a time. Just a helpful tip!

Then just drop them on that cookie sheet! The website says you don't need to grease the pan, but you definitely need to! Oh, and my pan isn't dirty, Macy just burned it trying to make garlic bread. But that is for another day! I spray my hands with Pam and roll the dough into little balls too, people won't buy if your food doesn't look good! I mean, you don't have to do that, it is all based on your preference. 

Then stick that pan in the oven and you are a free agent for all of 10 minutes! Woohoo!! Better than no time I guess! This is the time I use to clean up, then just sit down and relax as the cookie smell makes itself known around the house. Mmm the smell reminds me of holiday baking. So many good memories there! I absolutely love baking, but the holidays are the best, that is when you get to make all the tasty treats with peppermint. Pumpkin too! I actually have a pumpkin bread mix, I would say watch out for that one since it is coming soon! Ding Ding that is the timer, better get them out before those burn too!

Don't they look beautiful?

Recipe:                                  *Makes about 4 dozen*

1 cup Butter, soft

1 cup White sugar

1 cup Brown sugar, packed

2 Eggs

2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

3 cups All-Purpose Flour

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

2 teaspoons Hot Water

1/2 teaspoon Salt

2 cups Chocolate Chips (and kind is fine)

1 cup Chopped Walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350˚ and grease a cookie sheet.

2. Combine butter and both sugars. Beat in each egg, one at a time, until well incorporated. Stir in vanilla.

3. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water, then add to the batter along with the salt. Stir in the flour, chocolate chips, and walnuts (optional).

4. Drop dough by the spoonful onto your cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are nicely browned. Cool and enjoy!

Try this recipe? Tell me how it went down below in the comments!

Apple Crisp

Alright, peach season is over...time to bring on the apples! Every year my family and I go up to apple hill to get apples to can them! And boy is homemade applesauce yummy! The whole process is fun too!!
   But this isn't what I made this fine summer night! We actually had some store-bought apples that nobody ate, so Laurie cooked them. Then she asked me to pull out our old Betty Crocker Cookbook (picture edition, 1956) to see if there was a crunchy recipe we could put the apples under/over. Well, just my luck, I found this wonderful apple crisp recipe!

And let me tell you, it is absolutely amazing! Very easy too!! Now, Laurie had already cooked the apples with some cinnamon, sugar, and nutmeg, but if you would rather not cook them you can just place them in the baking dish. That is what you should do in the original recipe, which I will place down below. But, if you wanted to flavor your apples, just cook them in a pot with some sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg!

Here are the apples, all nicely cooked! But, if you don't have a lot time or would rather un-flavor the apples, just cut them up and put them in the baking dish. Make sure you peel and core the apples, as well as cut them up. Both slices and cubed apples work fine, it is purely based on preference.

Then, you will make the topping! Just mix the brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter into a medium sized bowl until crumbly. This is where the crispy top comes from! It is very simple, and almost a fail-proof recipe. I mean, someone out there might find a way to mess it up, and I would congratulate them. Just kidding, I'm not that mean!

Then you will want to crumble the mixture onto the top of your apples. It doesn't have to be perfect! And, seriously, before and after you bake it the topping will look the same!! The only way you can tell that it is done is if the topping is more of a golden brown color, and is crispy and hard-ish. I mean, if it was completely hard it might just be burnt and burnt doesn't taste so good!

But, stick this in the oven and let it cook for a while. And when I mean a while, I mean you can watch your favorite tv show, clean the kitchen, or even make a dinner! It will take a while for this to bake to perfection! And oh my goodness does this make the house smell amazing! This is definitely one of those desserts you wouldn't mind smelling forever!

Then, viola, it is done! This dessert is best served warm, and a little side of ice cream won't hurt either! If it isn't eaten right away, you can put some saran wrap over it and store it on the counter, it doesn't need to be refrigerated  But, if storing, don't do it for more than a couple of days, because then the topping will get soggy and a little gross. EW!

Recipe:

4 Apples; peeled, cored, and sliced

2/3-3/4 c Brown Sugar

1/2 c All Purpose Flour

1/2 c Rolled Oats (Quaker Oats are fine)

3/4 tsp Cinnamon

3/4 tsp Nutmeg

1/3 c Butter, softened

1. Preheat oven to 350˚ and grease an 8" pan (either square or round works).

2. Place the sliced apples in the baking dish, set aside for now.

3. In a medium sized bowl, mix together the rest of the ingredients until it has a nice crumbly texture to it. Crumble over the apples.

4. Place dish in oven and bake 30-35 minutes, or until the topping is golden brown with a crispy texture. Serve warm for best results.

Try this recipe? Tell me how it went down below in the comments!

Fresh Peach Crisp

   And peach season continues! My family finally wanted something different from the Peach Cobbler I keep making, so I decided to try another recipe. Dessert, of course! This recipe has a crispier top, and can be made with no oats of any kind. It's amazing how flour and sugar can make a crispy topping! Now, this is also the part where I tell you where I got the recipe from, but I have had it for so long that I lost the original source. Bummer! You know, it actually might have come out of one of my old Betty Crocker cook books, man those are reliable! Anyways, I used up the remaining peaches (finally!) to make this recipe, and my family is definitely happy for the change! Well, it is the same taste, but a little variations are all they need to keep happy!

Well, I only had 3 1/2 peaches left, and I put them to good use! You are going to want to skin them and slice them into thin pieces (like shown). Then you will place them in a 9.5in round pan, and make sure they evenly coat the bottom. Mix in the water and lemon juice to coat the peaches. That mixture will help the peaches from tasting too sweet, and to help retain from changing colors as well.
   Then you will want to mix together the flour, sugar, and butter until you have a nice crumbly mixture. You will then crumble this mixture over your peaches. The crumblier the dough is, the crisp-er your Crisp will be!

See, cover those peaches up! I didn't use any more flour than in the given recipe, so my mixture isn't all that crumbly. And it does not appear to coat the peaches very well, but it will spread when baking.
   So, pop that sucker in the oven, an let it sit for a long time! During this time you can go watch TV or paint your nails or something, this will need the time to form itself into the lovely dessert it is.

   BAM! Amazing! You can smell those sweet peaches throughout the entire house! And oh how good it tastes!! Make sure that your crisp has a nice, golden-brown topping that can definitely be distinguishable from a cobbler topping. If not, pop it back in the oven for another 5 minutes!
   Then go ahead and eat your crisp! It tastes best warm, and you can even serve it with some vanilla ice cream. Mmmmm ice cream! Enjoy your Crisp!!

Recipe:

4-5 Peaches, peeled
1/4 cup Water
1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
1/2 cup White Sugar
1/2 cup Butter, softened
3/4 cup Flour

1. Preheat oven to 350˚. Slice your peaches thinly, or dice them if you prefer them that way. Place them in an un-greased 9.5 inch round cake pan. Add in the water and lemon juice, and mix it until the peaches are coated evenly.
2. In a medium sized bowl, mix the flour, sugar, and butter until crumbly mixture is formed. Crumble over peaches.
3. Bake 30-40 minutes, or until the crumble is crisp and has a golden-brown color to it. Serve warm for best results.


Peach season is almost over, get ready for apple season coming up soon!


Try this recipe? Tell me how it went below in the comments!

Easy Caramel Apples

   So, every once in a while Laurie will find a recipe on the internet that she wouldd like me to make. And, knowing that I love to try new things, I do it! laurie tends to see recipes that are trending on the internet, recipes I  see but give no thought to. I mean, Pinterest has a whole page dedicated to  this recipe, yet it is hard to actually find written directions on how to make caramel apple slices! And if you have yet to see this recipe, this is basically what it is, no directions or links at all:

   Yeah, annoying right? Almost as annoying as this keyboard(which lags, then makes my words run together. Which means I have to spend extra time going back and making sure everything looks okay). Anyways, the picture above shows that you hollow out your apples, melt down some caramel sauce, and pour it in your apples. What it doesn't say is: how long to melt the caramel, when to put it in the apples, and the fact that you have to refrigerate them first to set the melted caramel. I mean, how could you get all that from one picture? You can't.
 So, once again I created my own little recipe, one that does make sense! And it is only two steps! Too easy, right? They literally take 10 minutes to take(mostly coring the apples) and 20 minutes to set. And they taste sooooo good! I mean, if my dad is eating them they must be good(he never eats what I bake, so it makes me excited when he does)! And I only used two apples since there are three of us, but it is definitely enough!

First, carve your apples! You can use any type of apple you want, but I just used these green ones since that is what traditional caramel apples are made with! But, any kind will do. You can carve out as much or as little as you would like, it all depends on how you like your apple to caramel ratio.
   You can either eat the apples "innards" or get rid of them. At my house, the chickens get them! They eat a lot of apples in the fall too, when canning season comes along! Heck, even my dogs love apples and apple skins!!

   Next, you are going to want to fill your apples with caramel. I just used this caramel that I had leftover from a catering gig I had at the beginning of summer. I only had 1/2 the jar left, which barely filled my two apples. I would say that a full jar would probably give you 3-4 apples.
   Then you would just refrigerate the apples for 20 minutes. cut them into individual slices, and enjoy!

Recipe:

2 apples, cored but not peeled

8 oz Caramel sauce, any

1. Cut your apples in half and scoop out the middle. This can be done with a spoon.

2. Pour caramel into apple halves. Refrigerate for 20min-1hr or until caramel has set.

3. Slice and enjoy!

Try this recipe? tell me how it went below in the comments!