Apples Apples Apples! (Tartlets & Muffin)

I have had 2 huge green apples sitting around for a while now and haven't been in the mood to eat them so I decided to bake something with them.
The tart crust is made from cream cheese, butter, and flour. Sat in the fridge over night. Roll out and pressed into the tart shells. The filling is a apple filling I created cause I love experimenting with different things. It is apples cooked in brown sugar, lemon juice, vanilla extract and cinnamon. Used corn starch for thickening. For those who don't know, if you ever want to bake with apples make them green apples. They turn out the best and never get too soggy as red apples tend to get.


The muffins came out really great. I decided to add cinnamon to the batter and topping along with nutmeg in the topping for more flavor. You could really taste both spices when eating it and they always go well with lemon. I didnt have enough brown sugar for the batter so i added half brown sugar and half granulated sugar. I also ran out of buttermilk so I used milk and it came out great

For the first time I am going to add the recipe because I didnt really adapt this recipe like I have other recipes because it wasnt necessary:

Apple Pie Muffins

2 1/4 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 c. buttermilk (I used milk for half)
1/2 c. butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 c brown sugar (i used 3/4 c brown sugar & 3/4 granulated sugar)
2 c diced apples (no skin, green apple)
**1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 c. brown sugar
1/3 c all-purpose flour
**1/2 tsp cinnamon
**1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 TBSP butter, melted

**I added to the recipe for more flavor

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine 2 1/4 c. flour, baking soda, salt, and 1 tsp. cinnamon in a small bowl
3. Cream egg, buttermilk, butter, vanilla, and 1 1/2 c sugar together with a mixer
4. Add flour mixture to the wet ingredients until combined. Make sure you don't over mix because muffins will come out dry.
5. Stir in diced apples until just combined. Do NOT over mix
6. Using a ice cream scooper scoop into greased muffin tins
7. Mix the dry ingredients of the toppings in a small bowl (1/2 c brown sugar, 1/3 c flour, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg)
8. Slowly pour in melted butter while mixing.
9. Using a tsp pour over batter in muffin tins
10. Bake for 25 minutes or until cooked (using a plastic knife place in the middle of a muffin to see if it comes out clean).

I think everyone should try these, they are pretty easy and fun to make and make for a great breakfast.

Good Mornin' (Muffins & Sourdough Baguettes)

Sometime I enjoy waking up before anyone in the house to make hot fresh treats for my family to wake up to. We always eat bread for breakfast with cream cheese or something. So I made sour dough baguettes with the same sour dough starter I used for the rounder I made the other day.
I finally figured out how to form the dough in a baguette size without it having cracks on the top and bottom. Practice makes perfect.


Then comes the pumpkin muffins I made. At the bakery I worked at we would have pumpkin muffins and I would eat one every day. I missed them and so I decided to make them. I made them fat free with apple sauce instead of oil/butter. Made them have a new texture I enjoy. They came out a lot sweeter then I wanted but I think my applesauce had sugar in it. I add oatmeal for texture and taste. I also added semi-sweet chocolate chips to half the batch. I love the color of them and they tasted basically the same as the bakery.

Super Lemon Pound Cake with Lemon Curd Filling

Where do I start. This cake took so long to make, maybe I am just not that fast yet but this cake took a lot of components. The recipe was made for a bundt cake but I always picture a pound cake in a bread pan. This recipe also called for lemon extract which I didnt have and dont really like to use because extracts cost a lot of money that I don't think its worth spending. This was the first recipe I really really really adapted and totally made my own.
First you make the batter for the cake and I wanted to use fresh lemon juice instead of pre-bottled. Then you make a syrup to pour over the cake once baked fully.
Then I thought it would be great to make a lemon curd filling which really didnt turn out the way I wanted to. It turned out a lot more thin and liquid like then I imagined. I think it might have happened when I split the recipe. The recipe a friend gave me called for 5 egg yolks and to split it I used 3, maybe 2 would have been better.
Overall, everyone really really liked the cake. However, I do not like the flavor of lemons so this cake wasnt for me. If you are a fan of lemons then this cake is for you.
So far I have only plated one of the cakes and I think for the other one I won't cut it in half put the "lemon curd" on there and just pour it over the cake.

This was the lemon curd, sad it didnt turn out the way I wanted to but next time I am sure it will:




I noticed that I named this blog and it makes it seem that I just bake cupcakes but I have been making anything but that lately. Hopefully that will change soon. I am thinking of changing the name of this blog. If you have creative names for a way to show that I am a baker please share!

Sourdough Bread

As many know you have to make a sourdough starter before you make the sponge and dough. So 4 days ago I made a sourdough starter that consists of milk and flour. Smells so awful after a few days. Anyways 4 days went by and I finally made the sponge and dough. The 3 weeks I worked at the bread bakery paid off cause the recipe called for adding more water to the dough and I thought that would ruin it and we never did at the bakery.

The bread over cooked either because I sprinkled too much water on it or I put it in for too long. Mistakes only make you learn and not everything always goes perfect.

Baguettes

I made the sponge for this yesterday and let it sit at room temp over night. I wanted to make it in the morning cause baguettes are a perfect breakfast food. 

They came out great, but my only problem with them was they had a unusual smell. The recipe I adapted from said they made 3 and i was going to make 3 as you will see but then I decided to make 2. The recipe also said to slightly grease the bowl you transfer the dough to. Maybe I greased too much or maybe greasing was a bad idea but I think thats the reason it made it harder to roll out and form into a perfect baguette shape. Next time I wont grease. 

But I still wonder what gave it such a unusual smell, maybe the flour. Anyways, here are the pictures:

I made a sour dough sponge, so that is coming up and I think I will make some biscuits tonight. 

Music Listened to when making this: Panic @ the disco - Pretty Odd

Double Chocolate Cookies (Chocolate Crinkle)

I felt like making something simple today, so I thought I would make cookies. I was wrong, these cookies take a lot of work. You have to chop 4 oz of chocolate and anyone that knows me knows that I make a huge mess when it comes to baking with chocolate. I made a mess, however in the end it is always worth it.

In the recipe I adapted from they are called "Chocolate Crinkle Cookies" but to be they are double chocolate cookies. Not only is the whole cookie made of unsweetened chocolate I mixed in some chocolate chips and cocoa powder.

Fudge!!!

Topped with confectioner sugar:

Hot, Fresh out of the oven:


Thanks to Steel Train for giving me the inspiration to get up and bake something after a lousy couple of days.

I made a baguette sponge that is now sitting and rising for tomorrow morning. See you tomorrow with baguettes.

Raspberry & Blueberry Cream Cheese Stuffed Bread

First of all, I want to say sorry I haven't updated for like 2 weeks or something. Since I've been working I have been busy trying to focus on that.

Since I have gotten the idea of how to make bread I will be making a lot at home. This is my first one and I made 2 different sweet breads, both with cream cheese filling. One with raspberry filling and one with blueberry filling.

Blueberry:



Raspberry:




after proofed for 45 minutes and egg washed:

Out of the oven (right blueberry, left raspberry) :