Baked Caramel Apple Doughnuts

It is my beautiful sister Pam’s birthday on Saturday! I can’t be with her in person,  so I made her these little beauties!

Caramel Apple Doughnuts!

I remembered that she used to really like these Halloween candy suckers, caramel apple flavour.

So when I saw this recipe I thought these would be perfect for her!

They are moist and delicious, and the caramel topping, good lord, so so good!

What you need,

1¼ cup flour

2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
2 eggs
½ cups packed brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 medium apples, peeled and grated
1 ½ cups chew caramel candies
1 tsp whole milk

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray your doughnut pans with cooking spray and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, brown sugar and granulated sugar until smooth.

Whisk in the vanilla and oil. Stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the grated apple.

Spoon the mixture into the doughnut pans. Bake until golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Anywhere from 15-20 minutes, mine took about 16.

I got 9 full sized doughnuts.

When the doughnuts are done put them on a rack to cool completely.

After they are cool it is time for the topping.

In a microwavable bowl, combine the caramels and milk. Microwave for 1 minute on medium power. Stir, continue in 30 second intervals until smooth and creamy, it probably took 3 minutes or so.

Dip the lovely doughnuts right in the caramel topping and put them back on the rack to let it set up.

Stuff your face!

Happy Birthday sweet sister! I so wish I could be there with you. I promise to eat 1 or 3 of these on your behalf!!

Have a great day!

HUGS!!

Miss you lots, but I will see you soon!! I can’t wait.

Jen

recipe from Shutterbean

Cranberry Apple Muffins

I used to really dislike fall. I know horrible right! But you see I HATE winter… hate it. I hated the cold and snow in Regina and now I hate the dark and rain in Vancouver. Sigh…  Anyway, I have learned to really appreciate fall, for 1 reason. The food!

There is something comforting about the tastes and smells of fall food. So many warm soups, stews and breads, fresh pumpkins, squash, and apples. yum!

These tasty little muffins taste like fall. Cranberry Apple, with a touch of cinnamon.

Here is what you need,

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar
2 whole eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup plain yogurt, I used Greek cause I love it!
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup shredded apple, I used 2 smallish apples
1 cup dried cranberries

Start by preheating your oven to 375 degrees. Line a muffin tin with paper liners.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together, add in the eggs, vanilla and yogurt mix well. Add in the flour, baking powder and soda and the cinnamon. Mix until just incorporated. Fold in the grated apple and cranberries.

Fill the muffin cups, using a large ice cream scoop. You get nice perfect sized muffins that way!

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from the pan and cool on a rack.

This made 2 dozen muffins.

Just to add a little extra punch of fall to these muffins I made a super tasty honey butter to slather on them.

In a small bowl coming ¾ cups of softened butter with ¼ cup of honey, stir until well combined. Taste it, you can add a little more honey if you want to. Depends on how sweet you like it.

You can keep it in the fridge for a week.

So take one of those warm muffins and slather on some of that honey butter and tell me that it doesn’t taste like fall!

So so good!

Jen

Recipe adapted from Miss in the kitchen

PB&J Grilled Cheese

Do you guys watch Modern Family? It is one of the funniest shows on TV right now! I laugh out loud every episode.

In one episode last season Mitchell made his partner Cam, his favourite sandwich, a PB&J, Pear, Brie and Jambon, which cracked me up… but then I thought, hey that actually sounds pretty darned good.

So I tried it! With my butternut squash soup the other night I whipped up a pear, brie and ham grilled cheese.

All you need is,

A couple of slices of lovely bread

A smear of grainy mustard
A couple tablespoons of brie cheese
A ripe pear
2 thin slices of ham
A little bit of butter

Spread some grainy mustard on one of the bread slices. Spread the brie cheese onto the other. Then layer on the pear slices and the ham.

Spread the outside with butter and grill in a pan over medium high heat until well browned and melty inside.

It was delicious!!

Go and rent the first season of Modern Family and make this sandwich! You will be happy you did!

Jen

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

We have been having very fall like weather here is Vancouver this past week or so. I needed some warming up so I made this butternut squash soup. It was really easy and it tasted amazing!

 It just looks lovely doesn’t it?

What you need,

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large butternut squash, cubed (about 16oz)
1 small leek, cleaned and sliced (about 1/3 cup)
1 clove garlic, minced
¾ cup cubed granny smith apple
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
½ cup water
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp maple syrup
1 ½ tsp minced fresh sage leaves
¼ cup half and half

In a large heavy bottomed pot, Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil until shimmering. Add butternut squash and sauté over medium heat for about 10 or so minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the leeks and garlic to the squash and sauté for 1-2 minutes until the garlic is fragrant. Add in the apples and sauté for another 2-3 minutes.

Cover the vegetable mixture with the broth and water. Add the bay leaf. Simmer over medium low until the squash and apples are tender, approximately 10 minutes.

Once the veggies are cooked remove the bay leaf.

Ok, now it is time to puree the mixture. I used an immersion blender which worked great. You could use a blender as well. Just do the puree in batches and be careful to hold the lid down!! You don't want any of that hot soup to spray on you!

After the veggies are pureed stir in the maple syrup, sage and half and half.  Stir until combined. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Serve right away, with a little extra cream or sour cream and garnish with sage leaves.

This soup is so good. It is smooth and velvety. It has a great flavour!

Give it a try, it was easy and quick and with a grilled cheese on the side it would make the perfect dinner on a cold and rainy evening.

It will warm you right up!

Jen

Banana Snack Cake with Peanut Butter and Chocolate Topping

I have 11 over ripe bananas in my freezer right now. I don’t know how it happened; I usually have like 3 or 4, But 11... Really! Sheesh.  I decided I better make something and quick, before they take over!

I found this tasty looking cake on Baking Bites. Really there is no point in me trying to describe it to you once you see it you will understand… it is just so good.

I mean anything topped with a layer of peanut butter and chocolate can’t be bad!

What you need,

1 ¾ cups all purpose flour

1 cup sugar
¾ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ cup butter melted and cooled, this didn’t make it into the photo, and I forgot it in the microwave, NICE JEN!
3 small ripe bananas, mashed.  Approx. 1 cup
2/3 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
¾ cup peanut butter
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 inch baking pan with non-stick spray.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.

In a separate bowl, combine the melted butter, mashed bananas, sour cream and vanilla.  Pour banana mixture into the flour mixture and stir to combine. The batter will be quite stiff, if it seems a little dry, add in a heaping tablespoon more of sour cream, it worked for me. Pour into the prepared pan and smooth out the top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean.

Let the cake cool for 10 minutes. Put the peanut butter in the microwave for 20 seconds to soften it a little, then pour it on top of the cake and spread it all over in a thin layer with an offset spatula or knife.  Ok, at this point it already looks amazing but just wait, it gets better!

Let the cake cool completely and the peanut butter set up. I put mine in the fridge to speed this process up. I am so impatient!

Once the cake is cool and the peanut butter is firm. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave on medium heat until totally melted. Stir every 30 seconds or so.

Pour the chocolate over the peanut butter layer and spread out in a thin layer.

Stash it back in the fridge until the chocolate layer is firm.

Cut and eat and die!

At least now I am down to only 8 bananas in my freezer…

Jen

Recipe from Baking Bites