Cinnamon Walnut Blondies

This is my take on the Applebee's Famous Maple Butter Blondies:

Ingredients:
1 cup walnuts, divided
2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
10 tbsp butter
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x13 in baking pan with foil and butter or grease the foil. Set aside.
2.  In a food processor, blend 1/2 cup of walnuts.  Do not make into a fine powder, but rather pulse only until you get small pieces of walnut.  Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Pulse until well mixed.
3.  Meanwhile, beat the butter and brown sugar until it is light and fluffy.  Add the eggs, 1 at a time, until they are completely incorporated.  Add in the vanilla.
4.  Add the flour/walnut mixture to the butter/sugar mixture and mix until combined.  Add the remaining walnuts.
5.  Using a spatula, also buttered/greased, spread the batter evenly in the pan.  It will be sticky, so be patient! Bake for 30 minutes in preheated oven or until the blondies spring back evenly.

These blondies are great with coffee, hot chocolate or just by themselves!

Apple muffins, and then some

This week, I've begun packing up my first apartment with my fiancee.  A month ago, our building sold and since then we've been catapulted into the process of purging, packing, and using up all of our food. 

In the spirit of using up all of our food, I've decided to try and use up all of my baking ingredients.  This is no small feat- believe me when I say I have a lot of crap.  That's what inspired my coconut macaroons.  It's what inspired these apple muffins I'm sharing with you. 

The ability to make up a recipe using what you have left in your house is something that must be developed over time.  You have to find the fine line between creating an oyster cream of celery casserole with a cereal crust (see, FRIENDS, season 10, Rachel's going away party) and dishing up a legitimate dish that someone wants to eat.

So as I was saying, I'm trying to use up ingredients so I don't have to move them.  I decided to create these apple muffins based merely on the fact that I had apple preserves and apples in the house and every Tuesday night, my fiancee John bowls in a league and I send Sugar Lovin treats along. 

Strangely enough, John told me later that they pair well with beer. 

P.S. Note the amount of ingredients I incorporate with the goal of exhausting some lingering items, like flaxseed meal.

Cinnamon Apple Whole Wheat Muffins with Apple Streusel Topping

Ingredients:

1 cup AP flour
1 cup Whole wheat flour
1/3 cup Flax seed meal
2 tsp Cinnamon, divided
1 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking soda
1/2 cup Butter + 2 Tbsp, divided
3/4 cup Brown sugar + 2 Tbsp, divided
2 Large eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
3/4 cup Milk
1/2 cup Smuckers (R) Cinnamon Apple preserves or good quality apple butter
1/2 Small apple, peeled and diced
1/2 cup Rolled oats 


Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 tin muffin pan with cupcake/muffin liners, set aside.  In a large bowl, sift flours, meal, 1 tsp cinnamon, baking powder, salt and baking soda.  Set aside.

2. In bowl of mixer, beat 1/2 cup butter and 3/4 cup brown sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time and beat until thoroughly mixed.  Add vanilla and remaining tsp of cinnamon.  Mix well.

3.  Add half of flour mixture to butter/sugar mixture and mix well.  Add half of milk and half of preserves, mix well and scrape down bowl with spatula.  Now add half of the remaining flour mixture and mix well.  Add remaining milk and preserves, mix well.  Add the remaining flour mixture and mix until fully combined.

4.  In a small bowl, combine remaining butter & sugar with the apple and rolled oats.  Using your fingers, rub the butter into mixture until it is crumbly and moist.  Using an ice cream scoop, fill lined muffin tins with 1 level scoop of batter and sprinkle with streusel topping.  Place in preheated oven for 15 to 17 minutes, or until muffins spring back when touched.   Allow muffins to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and place on wire rack to cool completely. 

Makes 12 muffins.

Cinnamon-y treats

There is something about cinnamon that just screams fall. Right or wrong, I will almost immediately catalogue any dessert with a hint of cinnamon as a fall dessert. Maybe it's the close connection it has with pumpkin pie or apple pie, maybe it has to do with the cinnamon spiced ciders only available after October at most coffee shops. Either way, I think cinnamon, I think fall. I also think about cinnamon coffee cake. And cinnamon rolls. And Jean Marc Chatellier's cinnamon croissants.

In the meantime, I've mentally gained 5 pounds as I salivate over these Cinnamon Sugar Lovin Sweets.

We'll start with cinnamon coffee cake, or crumb cake as you may know it. This is the cake you'll recognize by the delicious cinnamon-brown sugar streusel topping, usually covered in powdered sugar. To a New Yorker, a crumb cake is a yeast raised cake with a crumb topping. This particular kind is native to the German-Jewish bakeries in particular. Outside of New York City, most bakeries are making a yellow or white cake of some kind and finishing it with a streusel topping. This method for making crumb cake is far less time-consuming than a yeast raised cake and has a more mainstream flavor. Yeast in cake just isn't something we are used to these days.

One of the better places for crumb cake (other than my Grandma's kitchen, of course)? Starbucks. It seems lame, but they have a very good coffee/crumb cake. Just ignore the calories in it and you'll be fine.  Coffee shops in general have a very good crumb cakes- they kind of need to since it goes oh so well with a hot cup of java.

In Pittsburgh, your best bet for amazing coffee cake is at Aldo Coffee in Mt. Lebanon. They also have really great lattes and coffee with amazingly knowledgeable baristas. Just beware, if you aren't a regular, you might not enjoy the kindest of service.

If you are feeling brave, here's a great coffee cake recipe from a blog I follow regularly, Smitten Kitchen. I would eliminate the rhubarb and fruit altogether myself, but to each their own!

Other cinnamon Sugar Lovin fall treats to try? The oh-so-obvious cinnamon rolls. Now, with cinnamon rolls, your best bet is just to find a really good bakery and let them do the hard work for you. A real cinnamon roll is a lot of time and effort and it's truly hard to take a shortcut and get the same result. In Pittsburgh, we have no shortage of great cinnamon rolls. The Pie Place makes a delectable cinnamon rolls, with the classic confectioner sugar glaze. Others who are looking for a cream cheese iced cinnamon roll might want to try Prantl's.

If you really wanted to make one at home, try this recipe. It's faster than the traditional cinnamon roll, and manages to make a tasty cinnamon sugar treat.

The last cinnamon goodie you must try is a cinnamon croissant from Jean Marc Chatellier's in Millvale. You've probably all had a chocolate croissant or an almond croissant, but a cinnamon croissant is unique and delicious, especially when it comes from Jean Marc's little French bakery.

Cinnamon sweets are back again to grace the fall season. Make sure to try at least one and honor that Cinnamon Sugar Lovin fall craving!

Jean Marc Chatellier's Cinnamon Croissant on the Sugar Love Scale
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