Cinnamon Apple Coffee Cake

I know two things: one, I hate peeling apples; two, I bought too many apples when I went apple picking. Seriously, my body is in shock from all of the unexpected apple-nutrients I’ve been consuming. So while I’m on this “health kick” (aka, streudel), why not extend it? This means that I’ve finished the strudel and didn’t have enough homework to keep me from baking. The result: Apple Cinnamon Coffee Cake!

So now my house smells amazing and I’ve used up a grand total of two apples. I used this recipe from Allrecipes.com and I am impressed. I made a couple changes, and am really happy with the results. I chose this recipe because I wanted something that had chunks of apple and that wasn’t a light cake. It came out very moist and it was exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.

Here are the changes I made:

1 tsp of cinnamon in the batter instead of 1/2 tsp. Ok so how much of a difference did this actually make? I’m not sure but I don’t think you can have too much cinnamon unless you’re taking a cinnamon challenge.

Walnuts! I added walnuts, because I couldn’t picture a coffee cake with chunks of apple and no crunch. I don’t know how much I added, maybe 1-2 cups chopped walnuts? You could use pecans too; I sprinkled some on top after I added the crumb topping too.

The crumb topping in this recipe was a little weird and not what I wanted. I didn’t even fix it, but I would just recommend to make the crumbs from my Coffee Cake Recipe (use a half a batch for this though).

The recipe originally called for an 8″ pan, but I was really feeling the bundt shape for this. You can really use whatever you want, just be careful not to go too big, or you’ll have to change the bake time or temperature.

*Tip* If you’re going with a deeper pan, set the oven about 50 degrees higher and cook longer. If you’re going shallow, just shorten the cook time. Either way, keep an eye on it because disaster can always strike!

This recipe came out great and I’d definitely make it again with different crumbs. And if you don’t end up liking it, your house will still smell amazing!

Apple Picking and Nana’s Strudel Trick

I know I’ve expressed some distaste for fall, but that’s only because I hate the cold. Really, I love the changing colors, the pumpkins, and the food! Apple picking is one of the highlights of the fall, I mean look at these views! On a gorgeous fall day, it’s a great way to get outside, eat some fruit, and enjoy the season. The problem is, I like apple picking too much. I went with my sister this weekend, the orchard we went to had us buy a net bag from them first and then they sent us off picking. Well let me tell you how smart that was, we filled up that bag pretty freaking fast, and wanted to stay out picking apples. $46 worth of apples later, I realized I needed to find something to do with apples. I’ve already planned to make applesauce and  apple coffee cake, but my Nana thought it would be a good idea to make strudel.

Not to be confused with the crumbly topping streusel, strudel is a rolled up pastry that can be made with different fillings. Nana knows a thing or two about cooking and baking, and she was gracious enough to give a strudel crash-course. I was pleased to find out that it’s a fun thing to make, and beating the dough is a great way to get out any aggression or a great workout for your arms. Because her recipe was in an ancient book, I suggest you try this one; it only says to “knead the dough,” but Nana wants to let you know that you need to vigorously slap it around on the counter for it to be good.

Now the trick that can be found in this recipe and was shown to me by Nana, is to roll out the dough on a floured tablecloth. It seems kind of strange at first, but its an old and magical trick that can be used for all kinds of pastry projects. Instead of picking up the dough, simply pick up the end of the table cloth and lift it to roll the dough together. It’s mesmerizing, easy, and leaves little mess! Thank you Nana! Strudel is a delicious fall treat and it made me feel better about buying so many apples.

How to Eat Dessert for Breakfast

For some ungodly reason, someone once said that we cannot have dessert after breakfast. Every other meal is okay, but poor breakfast misses out (unless of course you count those milkshakes called “frappucchinos” at a certain coffee chain). But there are ways around this wrongdoing; you can eat pancakes covered in stuff, waffles covered in stuff, or fill your coffee with some nice dessert flavored sugar milk. All good plays, but I like to take it a step further.

The French do not have pancakes, if you go to France and ask for pancakes you will be met with crepes. Which is wonderful! But there are a few ways to eat these bad boys: 1) with nutella or jam and folded up so you can eat it on the go, 2)filled with some lunch-type stuff like ham and cheese (this is actually called galette), or 3) filled with fruit and chocolate and topped with whipped cream. While these choices are all delicious, only one fits the criteria for a dessert disguised as breakfast: option number 3!

So here we go, here’s a crepe recipe courtesy of Mr. Alton Brown (he’s a really reliable source for all kinds of recipes). The way to identify a good crepe recipe is that it should have as few and simple ingredients as possible, just some sugar, flour, butter, and egg. Anything out of that realm is gonna be some weird gimmicky one that’s not authentic. So prepare crepes as described in the recipe, you’ll need a good pan of whatever size crepes you want to be making.

Heat the pan for a bit, and then grease with butter. I usually use about a 10 inch pan, and I put in 1/4 cup of batter in there. Pick up the pan and swirl the batter around until it covers the whole bottom evenly. You should be cooking on medium-high heat, they cook really fast. If you want to be fancy, you can flip the crepe when it’s ready (when you check underneath and it’s starting to be golden brown), or you can use a spatula. The first crepe usually doesn’t come out good because of the butter in the pan, so don’t worry if it doesn’t look right. Your second one will be better I promise.

After you have a nice stack of them, you can begin eating! I’ve seen a lot of things put in crepes, but for a dessert them I’m going to recommend some nutella, strawberries, bananas, walnuts, and whipped cream. Dust some powdered sugar on the plate if you’re still trying to be fancy. Really you can put anything you want in a crepe, but I think for it to qualify as a breakfast-dessert you need to have at least one fruit or nut in there. But be creative! Crepes are delicious almost any way; now you can enjoy some nice dessert to start your day.

Embrace Fall with Autumn Cupcakes

I am in denial. Every morning when I wake up cold, I think to myself: maybe I set the air conditioning too high last night? But it’s all just a lie, because I know that it’s cold because fall is officially here. Don’t get me wrong, I love fall. Gingerbread, hot cider, Charlie Brown Halloween TV specials? Sign me up! I just need to embrace it and don a sweater, that usually works. And I’m thinking, some fall cupcakes couldn’t hurt either, right? So here we go, autumn cupcakes to embrace this new season.

Classic Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Buttercream

Well aren’t you just blown away by my creativity? I guess this isn’t very original, but pumpkin cupcakes cannot be passed up! They’re too fantastic. Now, I don’t make up recipes, but I am like your resident-on-the-internet recipe tester. I have tried several pumpkin cake/cupcake recipes, and I have found a winner for you. Really, it was for you. I wasn’t craving cupcakes like, at all.

So, I hereby recommend this Pumpkin Cupcake Recipe from the Novice Chef Blog (check her out she’s great). I tried this recipe a while back and it’s definitely a repeat because there is a good amount of pumpkin flavor without being too heavy or seeming like pumpkin bread. She also has a cream cheese buttercream recipe here, which I recommend as well. I usually use a little more cream cheese, but you’ll do fine with this one. She adds maple here and I mean, how would I have passed that up? So here we have it, pumpkin cupcakes with maple frosting: a classic, delicious, party-pleaser, fall treat.

Carrot-Cake Cupcakes will never let you down

Am I on a vegetable theme here? I guess a pumpkin isn’t a vegetable, but I feel like carrot cake and pumpkin cupcakes are similar. Oh well, they’re both wonderful and I wasn’t leaving either out of this list. Here, the recipe is very important for a good carrot cake. My mom likes one that has pineapple in it; but really I think that’s gross, pineapple gets all chewy. I use the recipe from the Mickey Cookbook from 1986, because Disney people do not joke around when it comes to food (any Mickey cookbook is great really, we’ve had them in my house forever and you can’t go wrong). I usually like to top mine with a smooth cream cheese buttercream and a couple of walnuts. Simple, delicious, and just the right amount of cinnamon for fall.

Apple-topped Cupcakes, do they count as eating fruit?

Probably not, but I’ll still feel good while eating this cute little things. Honestly I don’t even remember what kind of cupcakes these are, so that’s all you! It might have been some kind of apple cupcake, but really anything works here. So, make your favorite or most appropriate kind of cupcake, check. Then make your favorite or most appropriate kind of butter cream tinted red, check. Warning! Red is extremely hard to achieve and takes a good ton of red food coloring, green apples may be easier. Then you can take some pretzel logs or some sugar cookie Pringles Stix for the stem, and your gooey fruity strip snack of choice. I prefer fruit by the foot, but I think fruit roll-ups are easier here because of higher concentration of green, your call though. These are great because it’s relatively lazy decorating that looks like you spent a lot of time doing, win!