Apple Crumb Muffins

Every September I end up with buckets of apples at my house. My mother-in-law has an apple tree that luckily produces TONS of apples and she's great at sharing! At some point in my life I acquired one of those peeler-corer thingies. Thank the Lord. It still takes forever but I know it saves me so much time. Over the last two weeks I've spent no less than 2 hours peeling and coring apples, no joke. I currently have 2 apple crisps, 2 apple pies, several pints of applesauce and a few bags of apple pie filling in my freezer!

So when I had another milk crate of apples delivered the other day I knew apple pie, sauce and crisp was out of the question. This week we've switched to apple muffins and an AWESOME caramel apple cake. Today isn't my turn to post, but I had to share this apple muffin recipe. These are so moist and yummy! And considering the possibility that some of you may have a boat-load of apples at your house too... it seemed like great timing. They were a big hit in my family.

Stay tuned. Next week I'll give you the Caramel Apple Cake recipe. Its one of those poke-holes-in-the-cake recipes and pour caramel into them. Delicious.

~Wendy

Apple Crumb Muffins

Recipe Type: Breakfast

Author: Wendy

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 18 mins

Total time: 28 mins

Serves: 12

Ingredients

• 2 c. flour


• ½ tsp baking soda


• 1 tsp baking powder


• 1 tsp salt


• ½ c. butter (at room temperature)


• 1 c. sugar


• 2 eggs


• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla


• 1 ½ cup chopped apples


• Crumble Topping


• 1/3 c. brown sugar


• 1 Tbsp. flour


• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon


• 1 Tbsp butter


• Frosting


• 1/4 c. powdered sugar


• 2-3 Tbsp milk

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375


2. Line a muffin tray with 12 muffin papers, and fill each one with a spoonful of brown sugar to hold it down and to create a bit of crust by patting down with your finger.


3. In a medium sized bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.


4. In a larger bowl cream together the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla, stir in apples. Once they are mixed in, slowly mix in flour, small portions at a time.


5. In a separate small bowl, mix the 1/3 cup of brown sugar, 1 Tlb of flour, ¼ tsp of cinnamon, and 1 Tlb of butter. Mix together until it starts to create small balls of sand like crumbs. Set crumb topping aside.


6. Fill each muffin cup about ¾ of the way with muffin batter, and then sprinkle each with 1 tsp of crumble mix


7. Once all are loaded, place in oven, and set for 18 minutes (at the half way point turn the muffins around in the oven).


8. While the muffins are cooking, make the icing by pouring a little bit of milk at a time into your powdered sugar, until you reach the consistency that you desire.


9. When muffins are done, remove from the oven, let cool for 10 minutes, and then drizzle icing on, serve.

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90-Minute Cinnamon Rolls

I just hit the one year anniversary of the day I left "Corporate America" to stay home with my little munchkins. What a year it has been! Trading in meetings, hotel stays and business dinners for potty training, play dates, and peanut butter & jelly three times a day has been an adjustment. I've been so grateful for the time I've gotten to spend with my kids, but it has not always been easy. This stay-at-home-mom business is tough!! One of the biggest lessons learned is that other stay-at-home-moms really do help you keep your sanity!

I've been blessed to meet some GREAT moms in my new community. Our daily/weekly play dates not only give me a chance to talk about something other than Team Umizoomi, they also remind me that I'm not the only one who struggles with kids who won't listen, who always seem to do the EXACT opposite of what you say, who melt down no matter how many warnings they get that its almost time to leave the park. They make me feel almost normal! And I love, love, love them for that. Last year when we moved to a new town, I decided to join an online moms group. One of the first moms I met had newly moved to Illinois from Canada with her family. Over the past year we've had a lot of play dates and every time she brings a dish to share I recipe stalk her. I swear, everything Bridget makes is AWESOME. She brought these cinnamon rolls to several of the groups get-togethers before I asked for the recipe. Not because they weren't awesome, only because I can't drool over every recipe- it would get a little weird. Sorry Bridget! :)



 

These are DELICIOUS and relatively FAST and have CREAM CHEESE FROSTING! That's really all I should have written. What else do you need to know? They're great for a group get together or for your family. You could easily freeze half of them for serving later. Or eat them all at once...like I would do! Thank you Bridget for the recipe! Wait til you guys get her chocolate chip cookie recipe...SO good....

~Wendy

Cinnamon Rolls

Recipe Type: Breakfast

Author: Wendy

Prep time: 60 mins

Cook time: 25 mins

Total time: 1 hour 25 mins

Serves: 12

Ingredients

• 3/4 c milk


• 1/4 c margarine, softened


• 3 1/4 c all-purpose flour


• 1 pckg instant yeast


• 1/4 c white sugar


• 1/2 tsp salt


• 1/4 c water


• 1 egg


• 1 c brown sugar, packed


• 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon


• 1/2 c margarine, softened


• Cream Cheese Frosting


• 4 ounces unsalted butter, softened


• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened


• 2 cups powdered sugar


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).


2. Heat the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Mix in margarine; stir until melted. Let cool until lukewarm.


3. In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 1/4 cup flour, yeast, sugar and salt; mix well. Add water, egg and the milk mixture; beat well. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition.


4. When the dough has just pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes.


5. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.


6. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, cinnamon, softened margarine.


7. Roll out dough into a 12x9 inch rectangle. Spread dough with margarine/sugar mixture.


8. Roll up dough and pinch seam to seal. Cut into 12 equal size rolls and place cut side up in 9x13 greased pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.


9. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and cooked through the center.

For the frosting-

1. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer. With the mixer on low speed, add the powdered sugar a cup at a time until smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract. Spread on the cinnamon rolls once cooled to slightly-warm.

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Pull-Apart Apple Bread

If there was a way to make Thanksgiving anymore unhealthy, leave it to me to find it. :)

My husband and I used to have a tradition on Thanksgiving morning of getting up and heading to our local Dominick's grocery store to buy freshly made pecan cinnamon rolls from their bakery. Jason would bring them home and we would sit down with our coffee and cinnamon rolls to watch the Macy's parade.

Unfortunately Dominick's stopped making those pecan cinnamon rolls and we couldn't find a suitable alternative. So for the past few years I've tried out a bunch of different breakfast pastry recipes to make at home instead. Sure there are lots of normal cinnamon roll recipes out there but that's boring. So when I ran across this Pull-Apart Apple Bread on Pinterest I decided to give it a try. I want to of course give credit where credit is due on this one. The picture on Pinterest was linked back to another food blog called "Cooking with Chopin, Living with Elmo". Cute name. :)

I followed the recipe exactly and it came out very tasty and very pretty! Everyone in my family liked it, even my picky 2 yr old. Its definitely full of apples, you get some in every bite. If you're looking for more of a cinnamon roll taste I would alternate pieces of the rolled up biscuits by putting apple in some and leaving others plain. The frosting as written calls for almond extract. I had no problem with that because I LOVE almond extract. You could easily substitute vanilla or 1-2 tsps of cinnamon instead for a different flavor.

~Wendy

Pull-Apart Apple Bread

Recipe Type: Breakfast

Author: Cooking with Chopin, Living with Elmo

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 1 hour 5 mins

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• Bread


• 16 Rhodes™ Dinner Rolls, thawed (or use your own dough recipe)


• 3 medium size Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped


• 1/3 cup brown sugar


• 1/2 cup chopped pecans


• 1 teaspoon cinnamon


• Zest and juice from half a lemon (about 2 teaspoons of juice)


• Icing


• 1 cup powdered sugar


• 3-4 teaspoons water


• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla


• 1/2 teaspoon almond flavoring

Instructions

1. Cut thawed rolls in half.


2. Combine apples, sugar, nuts, cinnamon, and lemon juice and zest.


3. Flatten each roll half into a 2-3-inch circle. Place 1 teaspoon apple mixture in center of each dough circle. Pinch edges together to seal, forming a ball.


4. Place filled balls in a sprayed 9x5-inch loaf pan.


5. Spoon remaining apple mixture evenly over the top. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise until double.


6. Remove wrap and bake at 350°F 40-45 minutes. Cover with foil last 10 minutes of baking to prevent over browning.


7. Cool for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and place on wire rack to cool.


8. Combine icing ingredients and drizzle over loaf.

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