Cinnamon Apple Scones

I'm on an apple kick, so here is another apple recipe.  I have some pumpkin recipes coming up so there will be some variety soon - I promise!

The idea for this recipe came from this recipe at King Arthur Flour.  The first time I followed their recipe exactly.  I loved the flavor combination, but not the texture - it wasn't as biscuity as I like - so I took the flavor ideas and put them in my regular scone recipe, resulting in a perfect fall scone.

I had the bag of cinnamon chips in my pantry for about 6 months and was never really sure about them.  Everyone I know who has tried the chips loves them, but I wasn't sure if I would have the same feelings.  In my mind chips are chocolate, maybe peanut butter.  When I saw this recipe, and being in an apple state of mind, my opinion of the cinnamon chips changed slightly.  Mixed with the sweet juicy apples and the buttery scones I now understand why so many people love these chips.

These are great any time of day, but I - and the rest of the Yellow Cheetah parents - found them particularly delicious as we sat outside on a chilly fall morning watching an early morning soccer game.  I made them on  Friday afternoon, put them in the refrigerator, then popped them in the oven Saturday morning.  They made watching girls U6 soccer even sweeter.

Cinnamon Apple Scones

5 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cold
2 cups All purpose flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup heavy cream
½ cup diced apples
½ cup cinnamon chips
½ cup finely chopped pecans
Cinnamon sugar

Preheat oven 425°.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cut butter into ¼” cubes, or smaller, place in freezer while preparing rest of ingredients.

In large bowl combine flour, baking powder and sugar.  Toss to combine.  Using a pastry cutter, or your hands, gently combine the dry ingredients and flour until the mixture resembles a coarse sand.  Add heavy cream and mix until the dough begins to form.  Pour mixture out onto lightly floured work surface and knead until mixture forms a sticky ball.  Pat into a flat circle, sprinkle apple pieces, cinnamon chips and chopped apples on top of dough, fold dough in half and shape back into a circle.  

Cut into 8 wedges and place on baking sheet.  Place in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.  Remove from refrigerator, brush top with milk and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  Bake for 12-15 minutes or until tops are a light brown.

 

Apple Ginger Bread

It is the peak of fall which means there has been a lot of baking with apples going on around here.  Scones, pies and bread have been coming out of the oven in the past few weeks.

 Everything has been very yummy, but this bread has been has been the family favorite.

I used a combination of shredded and diced apples.  This makes a moist bread with soft juicy chunks scattered throughout which is the perfect contrast for the crunchy Streusel topping. The addition of crystallized ginger gives a wonderful sweet heat.  Mixed with the tang of the cranberries and the nutty pecans it is a perfectly sweet, spicy fall bread.

Apple Ginger Bread Adapted from mybakingaddiction.com 

Yield: 1 loaf        Prep Time : 30 minutes                 Cook Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients

Batter:

½  cup unsalted butter, softened

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup lightly packed dark brown sugar

¼ cup milk

2 tsp.  apple cider vinegar

2 tsp. baking powder

2 eggs

1 tsp. Vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. apple pie spice (see below)

½ tsp. salt

2 cups peeled, shredded apples*

1 apple, peeled and diced

¾ cup chopped pecans

½ cup dried cranberries

2 Tbsp. chopped candied ginger

Streusel Topping:

¼ cup lightly packed dark brown sugar

3 Tbsp.  all-purpose flour

¼ tsp.  apple pie spice (see below)

2 Tbsp.  unsalted butter

1/3 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1.       Preheat oven to 350.  Spray a 9x5x3- inch loaf pan with cooking spray, line bottom with parchment paper.    Set aside.

2.       In medium bowl sift flour, apple pie spice and salt together.  Set aside. 

3.       In the bowl of an electric mixer combine butter and sugars.  Mix until light and fluffy.  Add the buttermilk, vinegar and baking powder, mix until combined.  Add eggs and vanilla, mix until incorporated.  Slowly add flour mixture, mix on low until just combined.  Fold in apples, pecans, cranberries and ginger.  Pour in to prepared pan, spread evenly.  Set aside while preparing Streusel topping.

4.       For Streusel topping.  In small bowl combine sugar, flour and apple pie spice, stir to combine.   Cut in butter until mixture resembles small pebbles, stir in pecans. 

5.       Sprinkle Streusel topping over the batter, gently pressing it into the batter.

6.       Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

7.       Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes.  Remove from pan.  Cool completely on wire rack

Wrap tightly and - if you can wait – store overnight before slicing and serving, this give the flavors a chance to blend and enhances the taste. 

* Two cups is about 4 apples.  Honey Crisp or Granny Smith apples are recommended.   For additional texture dice one apple and shred the remaining 3 apples. 

Apple Pie Spice

5 Tbsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. allspice

1 ½ tsp. ground cardamom

1 tsp. ground ginger

In small bowl combine all ingredients, stir until thoroughly combined.  Store in an airtight container. 

*this is a great spice mixture for all of your fall baking.  It also makes a wonderful gift when stored in a decorative spice jar or container. 

 

Free Form Mini Apple Tarts

This week Edy and I had two "Bacon" days.  We had our usual baking day on Tuesday and then on Wednesday we got to bake with all of her classmates, as I was the parent helper in her preschool class.

This was the first time cooking with this group of kids so I planned a snack that was primarily assembly.   Cooking with a group of young 3 year old kids always requires a lot of advanced prep and flexibility, but I have learned that the first project of the year requires even more prep, flexibility and patience.  As the kids get more comfortable cooking during class I will let them do more and more, but for this one we kept it pretty simple by making free form apple tarts.

Edy and I prepped the dough the day before.  We made a simple Pate Brisee (pie crust) which is one of those great hands on recipes for kids.  They get lots of opportunities to feel the ingredients come together and even if they play with the dough a lot it is hard for them to over mix it.

After we made the dough and let it chill I broke it into individual balls and flattened them out into small discs and left it to chill again until the next day when we were ready to use it at school.  I had planned on having the kids roll the dough out, but I had forgotten to bring some extra flour and the dough was pretty moist, so I decided to have the kids press the dough between their hands instead.  This worked well.  It provided a thicker base for them to work on and eliminated the frustration that sometimes comes with rolling out dough.

For the topping I had a bowl of diced apples, raisins - that had been soaked in apple juice, chopped pecans and cinnamon sugar.  I thought the kids would load up on the apples, but as often happens I completely misjudged and the raisins turned out to be the popular item.  A few kids even skipped the apples and just had raisin tarts with cinnamon sugar.

As always I had a hard time not adjusting the tarts after the kids were done.  I wanted to add some apples to those raisin tarts and wanted to flatten the dough on the tarts that were just balls with apples stuck in it.  As hard as it is the resist the temptation to help them too much and have them do it my way, the pride on their faces when they sit down to the snack they made, makes it worth it.


Free Form Apple Tarts
makes:  12 mini tarts

1 recipe Pate Brisee
4 apples, peeled, cored and diced
1 cup raisins
1 cup pecans or walnuts roughly chopped
1/2 cup cinnamon sugar

Preheat oven to 350
Divide dough into 12 equal size pieces, form into small discs and chill for 30 minutes.  After chilling roll dough in to 1/2" thick rounds, forming a thick lip around the outside edge.  Top each round with apples, raisins and nuts. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  Place on parchment lined baking sheet.  Bake for 20-25 minutes or until dough is a light golden brown.

Pate Brisee
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, cold cut into 12 pieces
2 egg yolks
3 Tbsp. cold milk

Using a mixer with the paddle attachment, or by hand, combine flour sugar and salt.  Scatter butter pieces over top of flour mixture.  Mix mixture resembles a coarse sand.  In a small bowl whisk together yolks and milk.  Ad to the flour mixture, mix until the dough just comes together and has a shaggy appearance.  Pour onto work surface, using the palm of your hand smear the butter chunks into the dough and gather mixture together.  Gather dough into a thick disc, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Can be kept in refrigerator for at least 4 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.

Apple Cake with Maple Frosting

This month the Cake Slice bakers began baking with our new book.  This year we are baking our way through "The Cake Book" by Trish Boyle.  I have had the book for about two months and I think I have read every recipe.  It looks likes a great book with lots of yummy cakes.  Despite my lateness in posting I have been very excited to begin baking.  I actually baked this cake two weeks ago and had hoped to bake it again to, because it was so yummy, and to get better pictures.  Hopefully not all of my posts will be as late as this one.

This cake is described as "a moist, unpretentious cake, perfect as a simple fall dessert or snack." and this really is the perfected description.  Simple yet yummy.  A wonderful treat in the afternoon with a cup of tea, or as I enjoyed it as an unhealthy, yet really yummy, breakfast with a cup of coffee.  The spice mixture on this cake was wonderful, the perfect blend of cinnamon, cloves and ginger,  it just screamed of Fall.  To top things off this cake is finished with a wonderful maple cream cheese icing.  I could have eaten the entire bowl on its own.  I didn't have maple flavoring, but I did have something even better, maple cream.  If you have never had maple cream you need to go find some now, it is absolutely magnificent.  I added the maple cream to the butter and cream cheese and creamed all the ingredients together, it was hard to not just spread this mixture on a piece of toast and eat the entire bowl.

Apple Cake with Maple Frosting
from “The Cake Book” by Trish Boyle
Printer Ready

1 ½ c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground cloves
¼ tsp. ground ginger
¼ tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
½ c. unsalted butter, softened
1 c. firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
⅔ c. buttermilk
2 c. peeled and chopped Granny Smith apples (about 2 apples) *
½ c. coarsely chopped apples

*I used Honeycrisp

Directions:
Preheat oven 350. Grease bottom and sides of 9” cake pan, line bottom with parchment paper.

In medium bowl whisk dry ingredients together, set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer beat butter until creamy.  Gradually add the sugar and beat at medium-high speed for about two minutes until light and creamy.  Add the vanilla and eggs, one at a time.  Beat well after each addition, scrapping down sides of bowl as needed.  Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with buttermilk, in two additions.  With each addition blend until just incorporated.  Remove bowl from mixer and stir in chopped apples and walnuts.
Pour mixture into poured pan, smooth top.  Bake cake for 25-30 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.  Cool cake completely, then top with frosting.  

Maple Cream Cheese Spice Frosting

Printer Ready

6 oz.  cream cheese, softened
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
2 Tbsp. maple cream
½ tsp. vanilla extract
⅛ tsp. ground cinnamnon
⅛ tsp. ground ginger
1 c. confectioners sugar, sifted

In bowl of electric mixer, at medium speed, beat cream cheese, butter and maple cream together until smooth and fluffy.  Beat in vanilla, cinnamon and ginger.  Reduce speed to low and add confections sugar, beat until blended.  Raise speed to high and beat until light and creamy, about 2 minutes.

Apple Cookie Pie

Everybody was a little crazy this afternoon, so while Marshall took the girls out for a while Liam and I spent some time in the kitchen.  With some sugar cookie dough that was in the freezer and apples that needed to be used this is what we came up with.

Here is the recipe that Liam created:

1 batch Sugar Cookie Dough

3 Apples

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1 tsp. Cinnamon

1/4 cup Crasins

1/4 cup Nut Topping
1/4 cup Apple Butter

Roll out cookie dough and place in pie pan, refrigerate.  While dough chills thinly slice apples.  Combine apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, crasins and nut, stir.  Spread apple butter in cookie crust, add apple mixture.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.