Someone had a 1/2 Birthday!

Here's what's going on...



::  Fall naps on or with a quilt is a must
::  Apples abound for homemade applesauce
::  Sammy never tires of playing fetch with her favorite toy of the day

::  The pups are getting more and more alike and same-sized.  Getting harder to tell them apart at first glance
::  I got my hairs cut and am loving my bangs
::  Puppy butts.  As in, taking lots and lots of fall weather walks

::  This is a tree in which I am nearly 99% sure that faeries live in
::  Good hard chewing bones are a must on those colder rainy days to entertain the pup
::  Sammy may be everyone's shadow, but 1st she is Katie's shadow.  It's more evident lately that Sammy wants to be exactly like Katie when she grows up.  We just hope that's sooner, than later. 

p.s. Sammy had her half birthday recently.  She's is officially 1 and 1/2 years old.  Aww!

Baked Apple Cider Donuts {baking notes}

I saw a pin on Pinterest for Apple Cider Donut Holes recently, and pretty much dropped everything and made a batch.  You know... for testing purposes.  The recipe originally comes from Feastie, however, I'd like to share the baking notes I've made after two batches. 

These donuts are totally tasty and baked... so healthy, right?  Plus, they give me an excuse to use my mini cupcake pan.  Love that!

{recipe from Feastie -- link here -- but re-posted so we can talk about small changes I made}

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon  {I also added pumpkin pie spices to kick the taste up a notch}
• 1 large egg
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup apple butter  {I successfully replaced apple butter with apple sauce}
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup apple cider  {I successfully also made these with apple juice}
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt  {I was able to skip this ingredient and use 1/3 cup more apple sauce}
• 2 Tbsp canola oil
• canola cooking spray
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a mini muffin cupcake pan with cooking spray. 
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. 
3. In another large bowl, whisk together the egg, brown sugar, apple butter, vanilla extract, honey, apple cider, yogurt, and canola oil. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient mixture and whisk until just incorporated. Don't over-mix - a few lumps are okay. 
4. Using a tablespoon or cookie scoop, fill a 24-hole mini muffin pan with the batter; fill each hole only 3/4 of the way, or you'll end up with huge mini muffins (maxi muffins?). Bake for approximately 10-12 minutes and cool on a wire rack. 
5. While donut holes are still warm, melt butter in a microwave safe dish. Combine cinnamon and sugar in another dish. Using a pastry brush, very lightly brush a tiny bit of melted butter onto the top of each donut hole, then dip the top of the muffin in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll the donut hole in the cinnamon sugar to coat the sides and top. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The instructions (#2 and #3) say to mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl... and I actually followed this suggestion and it worked out really well.  I encourage you to do the same!  I'm saying this because I'm the type of person to usually skip the second bowl parts of recipes.

A cookie scooper worked out really well to get the batter in the tiny baking pan wells.

Here are the donut holes fresh out of the oven and piping hot.  I used a tooth pick to test if they were done.

Did I mention these are stinkin' hot?  My Tip... use the tooth pick to also get each donut hole out of the pan.  Sticking the tooth pick in the center allowed me to simply pluck each one out and put on a cooling rack.

I know the recipe says it makes 24 donut holes.  I made more.  I think I came out with nearly double that.  It's all about how much you fill the wells with batter.  I found that about half way full made a good bite size donut.

I did cover my donuts with the cinnamon and sugar mix.  A short cut for this part is to melt the butter in a small bowl -- you can see my small blue one below.  Then I took each donut and dunked the top in the melted butter, then rolled around in the cinnamon and sugar mix. 

In Batch #One, I replaced the apple butter and yogurt with apple sauce and also used apple juice in place of apple cider.  This batch was so light and fluffy.  Not heavy and they browned nicely.

In Batch #Two, I again replaced the apple butter with apple sauce (simple an ingredient I didn't have handy either time), but followed the rest of the recipe.  This batch was really good too.  I didn't notice much difference between the apple juice vs. apple cider.  However, in this batch the donuts were a little denser, a little tougher.  Still incredible.  I'm not sure if it's the addition of yogurt or that I over stirred the batter this time. 

I swear these little bites turn invisible before your eyes and I can certainly see making these again really soon.  Enjoy!

Mini Apple Pie Bites

I did a little baking for a neighborhood get together.  It went something like this.

Gather up assistant baker.  (That's Sammy)

Search for recipe I had seen recently on a blog.  Somewhere.  Didn't find it.  Ended up loosley following this one.

Dice three granny smith apples and add sugar, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice to taste.

Check on number one dog to make sure she is doing ok.

Laugh when my picture taking wakes up Katie from her sun nap. 

Prepare a sugar and cinnamon mixture to coat the tops of the crescent pies.

Curse the heat from the oven on the hot day, but then drool from the smell of apple pie wafting through the house.  And jump for joy at how adorable these little crescent pies are.

To make: simply spread the apple pie filling on a crescent triangle then roll it up.  I then dabbed a bit of water on the top and then sprinkled the sugar mixture liberally.  Then cook them per the package. 

And were a beautiful golden brown.

Almost the same golden brown as these two.  Sammy's on the left, Katie on the right.  They took up the job of guarding the cooling pies. 

Then I did a little slice and dice to make single bite sized pie pieces.  Outta this world!  They are presented in a mini muffin papers so they are easy grab and go.

I don't recommend using the oven on a hot hot day, but these were sure worth it.  And a neighbor shared that she does this with chocolate chip filling to make quick and easy chocolate croissants.  Genius!!  I see many more of these in my future!

Quick Look at the Week

Over 1500 miles traveled.  
Some late nights.
Some early mornings.
Lots of puppy kisses.
Phew.  It's been a long, long week.

Here is a quick review of the week:

Sewing-wise, I made good progress on X Marks the Spot {still thinking about the name}

I was about to sew the whole top together.

It looks really pretty with the bigger pattern.  I couldn't resist putting it on the clothesline to get an idea of how it was looking!

Next up is to work on the border.  I am going to put a piano key like design all the way around the border.  Here is the pile of all the strips.  I have started laying out what each edge will look like.  Going for random.  Enjoying the process!!

Gardening and flowers-wise... there are lots of pretty things blooming and growing...

The lily's are a bright beautiful orange!

The daisies are starting to form and open.

The yarrow is getting bigger and budding.

The apples are the size of golf balls.

And look how many there are!

So excited to make at least one apple pie from our apples this year!

The wild strawberries are so pretty this year too!

And with all this rain we have been having these wild mushrooms (in a zillion colors and shapes) popping up everywhere!

Lastly, in puppy news... Sammy is still as cute as can be!

Yup, it was a whirl-wind week, but I am so thankful to hang on to the little moments and let all that craziness slip quietly away.

Miss you!  I can't wait to catch up and see what you have been doing, but with over 800 posts in my reader it may take bit.  Talk to you soon?

日本のための多くの愛
Much love for Japan

Spiced Caramel Apple Cupcakes

I am so happy with how these cupcakes turned out!!

More details about the crazy caramel frosting and snaps later! -- general steps for creating this frosting can now be found here.

Apple Bake Challenge Cupcakes

Yup, like the title suggests I entered an Apple baking challenge!  It's really a cooking with apples challenge, but you get the point.  For my entry I decided to go with an apple spiced cupcake.  You know I can't resist a reason to make cupcakes!

I have made this recipe a few times now but more recently I made them this weekend as a trial run and then I made my big batch of the cakes last night.  These snaps are a mix from those two baking sessions.

I started by peeling and dicing a bazillion apples.  Not really a bazillion... it's actually only 1 cup of diced apples for 12 regular sized cupcakes.  Pretty reasonable in my book. 

I know it only called for 1 cup, but I thought a heaping cup made more sense!

In the mixer I creamed 1/2 cup of white sugar, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, and 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter at room temperature.  I really like how this cupcake 'feels' more healthy overall -- you will see what I mean in a minute!

Then I created a mix of the dry ingredients: 1 cup flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and baking soda,  1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon (I may have added a bit more), and 1/8 a teaspoon of nutmeg and cloves.

I added 1 egg and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the butter-sugar mixture, then 1/3 of the dry ingredients and mixed it up.

Then you add my favorite part... 3/4 cup of homemade strawberry applesauce (healthy!) that I showed you here as Straw-pple Sauce.  The recipe called for regular applesauce, but I liked the twist! 

Add the remaining dry ingredients.  And lastly fold in the chopped apples.

This is the batch from Saturday.  So pretty as the rough chunks of apples stick out of the cupcake liners!

As, yes the batter tastes as good as it looks.  The cinnamon and apple flavors really stick out!  Can you see all those cinnamon flecks!!

This is a snap of the triple batch I made last night.  I seriously think this is the most I have ever had in my mixer bowl at one time.  It's a light batter thought.  As soon as the mix is together the chemical process takes over quickly and adds a lot of air to the dough!

One change I made last night was to tuck a small piece of caramel in the center of each uncooked cupcake as a sweet surprise once you bite into it!

I was making both regular and mini cuppies last night.  I think the mini's will be a real crowd pleaser as the crowd gets to sample and pick their favorite dish!

Batch after batch I popped cupcakes in the oven.

And yes, I am going to leave this hang right here.  I am whipping up spiced caramel butter cream frosting tonight and decorating all bazillion cupcakes.  I will be sure to take a ton of photos and see if I can't get a few on here pronto. 

Till then, I leave you with the smell of baking apples and cinnamon in your nose and the thought of biting in to fluffy moist cupcakes!  I'm a stinker... ain't I?

Creative Tuesday: Taking Flight

Mr. Toast's Creative Tuesday's assignment is here again.  (I nearly forgot to post!)

This week's theme is "Taking Flight!" *love!*

This theme conjured so many ideas in my head and I had aspirations of everything from a scaly dragon breathing fire, to a baby bird taking the first leap, to a hot air balloon.... so many choices!

Again, I wanted to stay true to how I am playing with this exercise.  I set a pad and pencil in front of me and let whatever wanted out the most to become what filled the page.

Yes, those are flying apple faeries.  Yes, I realized that's not really how apples are picked this time of year.  Yes, I realize that you probably wouldn't plant just one apple tree on a cliff.

But, dream with me for a moment and you can see how absolutely wonderful and charming this could be!

The flight patterns are a bit dizzy.  Either that or I am seeing sewing stitches in everything from the absurd amount of time I have spent with my sewing machine the last few days.

Adorable, no?

Who's in the mood for an apple pie?  I kid... I kid!  I wouldn't really try and eat a magical faerie apple. 

Promise!

Thanks for day dreaming with me!!

And won't you check out all my fellow artists here!