Mostly apple muffins

This batter turned out to be 75% apples and 25% actual batter..... oh well the muffins turned out delish anyway.

Apple Cinnamon Almond Muffins
Recipe adapted from Culinary Chat

Ingredients:

• 1 cup white flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tbls cinnamon
• 1/2 cup canola oil or butter (your preference)
• 2 eggs or 4 egg yolks
• 2/3 cup milk or soymilk
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 4 small gala apples- cored and cubed
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup raw almonds for tops

Method:

Preheat oven to 430.  Paper a 12-cup muffin tin.  Chop up your apples and set aside.  In a small bowl mix flours, b powder, salt, cinnamon, set aside.  In a larger bowl mix sugar, eggs, oil, eggs, milk, extract, and raisins.  Add the dry to the wet and mix, then add the apples and mix.  Pour into muffin cups and drop a few almonds on top of each muffin.  Bake for 10 mins then lower temp to 400 and turn the tray in the oven, bake for another 10-12 mins.  Take out the muffins when they bounce back and are crusty on top.  They may remain moist because of the fruit.  

Almond extract is amazing

I picked up some almond extract at BJ's the other day and used it in these cookies instead of vanilla.  WOW.  The smell alone is enough to convert you.  Then pair that with cinnamon and whole almonds and you are in heaven.  I need to start branching out on my extracts.  Coconut perhaps?

Almond Coconut Cinnamon Cookies
Adapted from Chocolate Moosey

Ingredients:

• 1  cup white flour
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg or 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• handful of raw almonds for decoration

Method:

In a small bowl mix flours, b soda, salt, and cinnamon, set aside.  In the bowl of your stand mixer beat the butter and the sugar til fluffy.  Add eggs and extract and beat.  Add flour and coconut and beat to combine.  Fridge batter for 30 mins.  Preheat oven to 350 and line 2 baking sheets with foil.  Make walnut-sized balls of dough and place them a couple inches apart on the sheet.  Press one raw almond into each cookie and bake for about 16 minutes til golden brown at edges.  

Apple cinnamon muffins

Saturday morning and the guys are here refinishing the floors.  To combat the smell of polyurethane I decided to bake some cinnamon muffins.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins with Oats and Almonds
Recipe adapted from My Recession Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 cups ap flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon 
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup soy milk 
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 3 apples worth of peeled and cored apple chunks
• 1 cup rolled oats
• almonds for topping

Method: 

Preheat oven to 430.  Paper a 12-cup muffin tin.  Mix flours, cinnamon, b soda, b powder, salt in one bowl.  Mix sugar, milk, apple sauce, oil, vinegar, vanilla, and molasses in another bowl.  Mix dry into wet and then mix in oats and apple chunks.  Divide into muffin tins and top with 3 almonds each and sprinkle of cinnamon.  Put into oven and turn temp down to 400.  Bake for about 25 mins.  

Maida Heatter's bran muffins yet again

When you don't have walnuts and raisins for your bran muffins, almonds and apples will have to do...  This time I bumped back the sugar and bumped up the molasses and the salt.  

Almond Apple Bran Muffins

Recipe adapted from Maida Heatter

Ingredients:

• 2 ounces ( 1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/3 cup dark or light molasses or honey
• 4 egg yolks 
• 1 cup skim milk
• 1 1/2 cups bran flakes
• 1 chopped apple
• 1 cup almonds chopped into large pieces
• 1 cup unsifted all purpose white flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Method: 

Preheat the oven to 450 and paper a 12-cup muffin tin.  Melt the butter in a pan, remove it from the heat and add the sugar and molasses to it.  Stir to combine.  Separately, combine the egg and the milk.  Then add that to the butter mixture and combine.  Add the bran flakes and stir them in so they absorb the liquid.  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, and b soda.  Add the wet to the dry and stir til almost combined.  Add the apple and nuts and mix the rest of the way.  Divvy into muffin tins and pop in the oven.  Once the pan is in turn the oven down to 400 and bake for 17 minutes or until the muffins are set.  

Twisted sister pastries take two

I made these dinishy pastry things once before, it's one of the best doughs I've ever worked with.  This time I decided to change the filling because the plain cinnamon vanilla butter filling that I did the first time was a little boring.  I had to drown them in danish glaze to make them interesting.  I also subbed some whole wheat flour this time because I ran out of white.  I thought that was going to be the kiss of death and the dough would come out weird, but I think this second try was a winner.

For the fillings I did a raspberry jam one and a chocolate one, both had brown sugar, butter, and almonds too.  And then I made a very thin danish glaze with skim milk and powdered sugar and drizzled it over the top.  Rather than hardening on top like a drizzle it acted more like a glaze that soaked in and made the pastry moist and sweet.

Twisted Sister Pastry with Chocolate and Raspberry Fillings
Adapted from Ask Chef Dennis

Ingredients:

(dough)

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• 1/4 cup honey
• 3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons lukewarm water
• 3/4 Tbsp. granulated yeast
• 3/4 Tbsp. kosher salt
• 1 cup ap flour
• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

(raspberry filling)

• 3 Tbsp. raspberry jam
• 1/2 stick melted butter
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• handful of pulverized raw almonds

(chocolate filling)

• 1/2 stick melted butter

• 2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup pulverized semisweet chocolate chips
• 4 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon

Method:

(dough)

Melt the butter and set aside to cool slightly.
Lightly beat the eggs in a small bowl.
Add honey and melted butter to beaten eggs. Gently and briefly mix together then set aside.
Combine lukewarm water, yeast and salt together in your stand mixer and mix a little. Add eggs, butter, honey mixture. Mix together briefly.
Add ap flour and mix to combine. Add whole wheat flour and mix until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. The dough will be damp and sticky. This is a no knead dough so just get all the flour mixed in and you’re done.
Place dough in a warm spot, covered but not closed (you want air flow) for three hours. The dough will rise and be full of air pockets. Perfect!

**Once the dough has risen you can assemble your twisted sisters, I suggest looking at the original recipe for pictures on how to twist the dough etc.  It's not hard but you really need to look at the pictures to get the idea.  

(raspberry filling)

Melt the butter, pulverize some almonds in the cuisinart, and mix with the brown sugar and raspberry jam.  

Spread a fre tablespoons of the filling on the dough before you roll them up to make the pastry.  

(chocolate filling)

Melt the butter and set aside.  

Pulverize the almonds and chocolate chips in the cuisinart, then mix in the other ingredients.  

For this filling, leave the butter separate and brush it directly onto the dough, then sprinkle the nut and chocolate mixture over top before you roll up the pastry.  

After you have assembled your pastries bake them in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until they get a little brown on top and are hard on the outside.  With the pastries still warm I spooned a mixture of powdered sugar and skim milk on top.  I used about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and added skim milk a little at a time until the glaze was as thin as I wanted.

Tahini almond cookies

I found this recipe on foodgawker.  I've never baked with tahini before so I thought I would give this a try.  My mom wanted me to incorporate some chocolate in there somewhere so I dipped them half in melted chocolate.  Some of the cookies I broke in half and rolled them in powdered sugar.  Both of those ideas came from a cookie that my grandma used to make at Xmas.  She made an almond crescent dough, formed them in the crescent shape and rolled them in powdered sugar, and some of them she made into longer shapes and dipped half in melted chocolate.  This cookie had a similar light shortbread-like consistency that took both of those decorating options well.  I was also thinking that they would be nice if you made them into little round cookies with an almond pressed into the center of each cookie.

Tahini and Almond Cookies
Adapted from David Liebovitz

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (140 g) all-purpose flour
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (140 g) whole wheat flour
• 2 1/2 ounces (70 g) ground almonds (see note)
• 5 1/2 ounces (150 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 3/4 cup (150 g) sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons water
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (200 g) raw tahini paste

Method:

Preheat oven to 350ºF (175ºC) degrees. Line two baking sheets with tin foil.

In a large bowl, mix together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, ground almonds, sugar, and salt.

Using a pastry cutter, cut in the cold butter until the butter is incorporated into the flour mixture and looks like pea-sized balls.

Add water, vanilla, and tahini and fold with a spatula until a smooth dough begins to form.  You may have to switch to using your hands if the dough needs a little extra kneading to fully come together.  (If the dough feels very dry, dampen your hands and knead the dough slightly.)

Pull off a piece of dough the size of a large walnut and either roll them in balls and flatten on your baking sheet to make a circular cookie, or roll and squeeze into a longer cookie if you want to dip them in chocolate later.  (You can do half and half).  Or you can press an almond into the center of them if you want to forgo the decorating later.  

Bake for about 12-14 minutes, or until golden brown.

Once cool you can roll them in powdered sugar, or melt chocolate chips in a double boiler and dip one end in chocolate, then leave them on the baking sheet to set the chocolate up.

**Notes:

For the almond flour I ground up 3/4 cup whole raw almonds in my 4-cup cuisinart.

Nan Khatai (Indian Semolina Cookies)

I wanted to make something using semolina flour so I did a search on taste spotting and found this recipe on Spice Foodie. It's really basic and easy to do. The cardamom smells really nice and the semolina flour is fun to experiment with. I think I made about 10 cookies with this recipe- it has a small yield so if you want more cookies double it. I also used vanilla extract but the original recipe calls for almond extract.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup fine semolina
1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
1/8 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
crushed almonds

1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 tbsp. whole milk (you can also try soy or almond milk)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Method:

1. Melt the butter and set aside to cool. Chop the almonds for the dough into coarse chunks, set aside. In a large bowl sift together the a.p. flour, semolina, cardamom, baking soda, and sugar. Add the coarse almond pieces and stir until well combined.

2. Pour the milk and almond extract into the cool melted butter, stir until well combined. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients, stir until well combined and a firm dough is achieved. If you find the mixture is not sticking together add a couple more drops of milk- but only a little bit at a time. Form a ball with the dough, cover and allow to sit 10 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 350F/180C and prepare a cookie sheet. Divide the dough into even sized balls. Evenly space the balls on the cookie sheet, use the palm of your hand to flatten the cookies. Place on whole almond in the center of each cookie. Bake in center of oven for 10-15 minutes or until lightly golden brown.

Muffin Thursday: Pear Almond Chocolate Spice Muffins

Christmas has come early!! Muffin Thursday has arrived a whole day early this week. Instead of studying for a huge test that I have tomorrow- I can't look at my notes anymore I'm going insane- I decided to make cookies and these delish muffins. From Pastry Affair, these muffins have the perfect balance of spice and cocoa powder.

Unfortunately I was halfway done the recipe when I realized my mom didn't have any cardamom, so I changed the recipe to ginger and nutmeg. And I threw in some allspice and extra cinnamon. I'll try to remember all of the changes I made. I also halved the sugar. Remember- muffin not cupcake. I think this same basic recipe would be really good with cranberries and walnuts or chocolate chips and hazelnuts instead of the pear and nuts. The basic batter recipe is really easy and lends itself to a lot of different flavor possibilities. It's easy to take cake recipes and make them into muffins by backing off on the sugar and changing the bake temp from 350 to 400 and the bake time from an hour to around 25 mins.

Ingredients:

1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2-3 pears, diced (I used Red Pears)
1/2 cup chopped almonds

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put muffin papers in a 12 cup muffin pan.

In a small bowl, whisk together boiling water and cocoa powder until cocoa is dissolved.

In another small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, mix brown sugar, granulated sugar, and oil together. Add the eggs one at a time and continue mixing until smooth. Mix in vanilla extract. Alternatively add the flour and cocoa mixtures, mixing gently between additions. Don't mix too much. Using a spatula, fold in the diced pears and chopped almonds.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 20-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow muffins to cool in pan for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.

And now back to pretending to study.

Natalie's Killer Kitchen- Grammy's Yum Yums

Big props to Natalie of Natalie's Killer Kitchen (I love your blog) for these bars. I made the mistake of cutting these while they were still warm so they gooed all over the counter, but eventually they set up nicely. You can sub any other kind of nut you want- I think I used slivered almonds.

yield: 12 bars

1 1/4 cup AP Flour
4 TBS Brown Sugar
1 stick (1/2 cup) Butter, melted
2 Eggs
1 1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Pecans

prepare a 10 x 10 baking pan
preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Mix first three ingredients in a bowl with your hands. Press evenly into prepared pan and reserve 1/2 cup of the dough for topping.
2. Whisk eggs, brown sugar and vanilla in a bowl until smooth and frothy. Should be light in color. Add pecans and stir to mix.
3. Pour mixture over unbaked crust. Sprinkle with remaining crust.
4. Bake for 25-30 minutes (30 only if your oven is known to be a slow baker). Cool all the way before cutting into squares.

Photo Credit: Natalie's Killer Kitchen

Orange Hazelnut Olive Oil Cookies

I made these cookies for my friend Maya who is gluten free, using the bulk gluten-free flour at my local cooperative market. She loved them so much she told me I should start selling them on Etsy, which I tried to do for about a week and then gave up.

Anyway, I made this recipe with ground almonds, once with walnuts, and with carob chips- she is also allergic to milk. Basically it's a really versatile recipe and heart healthy because of the olive oil. I found the recipe on Fine Cooking's website.

Yields about 6 dozen cookies.

2 cups toasted and skinned hazelnuts
10 oz. (2-1/4 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. table salt
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbs. granulated sugar
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 large eggs
Finely grated zest of 2 medium oranges (about 1-1/2 packed Tbs.)
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Tip:
For the best results, measure your flour by weight instead of volume. (1 cup of all-purpose flour equals 4-1/2 oz.) If you don’t have a scale, use a measuring cup meant for dry ingredients, not liquids, and don’t scoop the cup into the flour. Instead, stir the flour to aerate it, spoon it lightly into the cup without packing, and sweep the cup level with a straight edge. Learn why it matters.

Finely grind the hazelnuts in a food processor. In a medium bowl, whisk the hazelnuts, flour, baking powder, and salt to blend. With a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the sugar, oil, eggs, zest, and vanilla on low speed until the sugar is moistened, about 15 seconds. Increase the speed to high and mix until well combined, about 15 seconds more (the sugar will not be dissolved at this point). Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until the dough has just pulled together, 30 to 60 seconds.

Divide the dough in half. Pile one half of the dough onto a piece of parchment. Using the parchment to help shape the dough, form it into a log 11 inches long and 2 inches in diameter. Wrap the parchment around the log and twist the ends to secure. Repeat with the remaining dough. Chill in the freezer until firm, about 1 hour.

Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and heat the oven to 350°F. Line four cookie sheets with parchment or nonstick baking liners.

Unwrap one log of dough at a time and cut the dough into 1/4-inch slices; set them 1 inch apart on the prepared sheets. Bake two sheets at a time until light golden on the bottoms and around the edges, about 10 minutes, rotating and swapping the sheets halfway through for even baking. Let cool completely on racks. The cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Photo Credit: Fine Cooking