TWD: Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

I usually bake my TWD "assignments" over the weekend, but it completely slipped my mind this weekend. In fact, I didn't fully realize that today was Tuesday until about 2pm...and of course remembered that I hadn't made my Oatmeal Breakfast Bread! Luckily, Baking: From My Home to Yours is on Google Books, so I was able to review the recipe to see if I needed to stop by Kroger on the way home for any additional ingredients. Luckily, I was in good shape. And even better, after reading the recipe, I found that I would probably even have time to get the bread baked and photograph it in natural light!
Sadly, this was the only picture I got before it got dark. And oh, is it tasty! Sarah mentioned in her post that it reminds her of fall...and I have to say that it does the same for me! Applesauce, raisins, and spices all combine in this bread to make a perfect fall quickbread. (And as a side note, I am totally ready for it to be fall. I am done with heat and humidity.)
This week's pick was chosen by Natalie, of Oven Love. Thanks, Natalie! You picked a good one!

TWD: Cran-Apple Crisps

I had planned on making these little Cran-Apple Crisps last week for TWD, but life just got in the way, as it is wont to do these days. I finally got around to making them late tonight, just in time for David to have a little snack during the UK game. These were the perfect warm-up for tomorrow's Thanksgiving feast.
These little crisps are the perfect fall dessert. The apples, cranberries, and raisins are perfect complements to one another. The crisps aren't too sweet; in fact, it's the tart cranberries that make it work, I think. The crumble on top is wonderful...David said it was his favorite part. With brown sugar, oats, and sweetened shredded coconut, what's not to like?!
Dorie's recipe makes 8 individual crisps, but tonight, I just made two...one for me and one for David. But I made the whole recipe of the crumble topping. I thought it would freeze well and be very handy to have for future impromptu crisps this winter!
Em, of The Repressed Pastry Chef, chose these tasty little desserts as her TWD selection. And her blog is actually right above mine in the TWD blogroll, so we're neighbors! You can check out her blog for the recipe. These came together very quickly and easily, which is always a plus, especially this time of year. Great choice, Em!

TWD: All In One Holiday Bundt Cake

I love bundt cakes. Maybe not quite as much as Mary, The Food Librarian, but they do have a special place in my heart. They're a homey dessert. Simple, not fussy at all. You can frost them, or just dust them with powdered sugar. They're perfect. And I've had my eye on this one ever since I got my copy of Baking: From My Home to Yours...the Dorie Greenspan cookbook that inspired the Tuesdays With Dorie baking group. I love fall flavors, and I love bundts, so this was perfect.
It's full of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger...fall spices that I adore. And diced apples, fresh cranberries, pumpkin puree, and pecans. All of the flavors of our favorite holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas!) are in there. What's not to love?! As is the case with all bundts, this one is very simple to put together. Britin, of The Nitty Britty, made a great choice...it's probably what I woudl have chosen, if I didn't happen to be the 251st person in the recipe rotation!

Anyway, I'm very thankful that Laurie has given us permission to bake the recipes out of sequence this month. I wouldn't have had time to make (or acquire the ingredients for) the Chocolate Caramel Chestnut Cake this week, but I could throw this together in my spare time Sunday night. If you visit the other TWD bakers this month, you'll see that we're all probably baking out of sequence, which I think will be pretty fun and interesting. You'll notice in my pictures that I didn't make the maple icing... and that's because this beautiful bundt is going in the freezer for a future date.

There it is, all wrapped up. I loved the scent of this bundt baking, but it's killing me to not know what it tastes like! I'm keeping it for any number of upcoming holiday events. It might end up at CUB's Thanksgiving potluck, or I might keep it myself for our Thanksgiving dinner. I can't decide. But I do have plans on making another batch of the batter and baking it in my mini loaf pans for Christmas gift. Yum!

Apple Muffins

I'm back again with more muffins! These are the last ones, for a little while, though. When I went on my muffin-baking binge last weekend, my plan was to use up some ingredients that needed to be used. I had some golden delicious apples that we hadn't finished eating, and I didn't want them to go bad, so I went on a search for apple muffins. I found these yummy ones at Smitten Kitchen, where the food is always good and the pictures are always beautiful (and these days, you might even see a picture of a beyond-adorable baby boy!)
I ran across Deb's Smitten Kitchen website not long after I discovered food blogging. I've tried several of her recipes, and they never disappoint. She's truly talented at this whole cooking thing, and I'm amazed that she does it all in a NYC apartment kitchen. Wow.
These muffins were very simple to make, and again, I had all the ingredients on hand. As Deb mentions in her post about these muffins, they're super moist, which I loved. Of the three kinds of muffins I made last weekend, these were David's favorite. They were my second favorite...a very close second behind the pumpkin muffins. They're definitely a recipe that I'll keep in my muffin rotation. I'm not going to post the recipe, because I want you to go to the Smitten Kitchen. Just click here, and you'll go right to the post/recipe for these delightfully apple-y muffins! I didn't make any substitutions or changes to her recipe...I did exactly as Deb said (even not skimping on the topping!). I used golden delicious apples in my muffins, but I think you could use just about anything.

I've gotten a couple of comments about my groovy Halloween muffin liners. They came from Kroger. My Kroger has an aisle of seasonal products that changes fairly frequently, and that's where I always get my muffin/cupcake liners. They always have the cutest designs. I got some super-cute Christmas ones last year, and I've also gotten some Valentine's day ones, too. If you have a Kroger, check to see if they have a seasonal aisle. In my experience, the cute liners are never with the baking supplies. Good luck! Oh, by the way...they're Wilton brand, so you might be able to find them through Wilton, as well.

TWD: Flaky Apple Turnovers

For this week's assignment for TWD, we have Julie to thank. Her cute little blog is called Someone's in the Kitchen, and she's quite the baker! Besides TWD, she participates in Operation Baking GALS and Cookie Carnival. I'm jealous of someone who has enough time to participate in all those baking events!
She made a great pick this week...Flaky Apple Turnovers. At first, I was intimidated by the idea of making the dough...I though turnover dough had to be extremely tough to make, right? I mean, how in the hairy would I get all of those flaky, tasty, layers? But leave it to Dorie...she took all the guesswork out of the equation and I made my first flaky pastry dough. Woo Hoo! It was interesting...besides the butter, sugar, and flour, the recipe called for sour cream. I've never done that before. I've made dough that had cream cheese in it, but never sour cream! After some chilling, folding, and rolling, I had a nice looking (and tasting) dough.

I didn't have a cookie cutter the right size, but it worked out well because I didn't roll my dough out thin enough. I just rolled each round out to the right thickness, and it worked fine! At first, I added too much filling and I struggled to get my turnovers closed, but I cut back on the amount of filling in each turnover, and they turned out perfectly.
The filling was simple. I used Granny Smith apples, as Dorie suggested, and I had a little filling left over. I ate a few bites of it straight out of the bowl. Delish!

We had these turnovers as a dessert after Mama's birthday dinner, and she was impressed. She said they reminded her of a fried pie, except baked (since she saw me take them out of the oven). She said, "They must be a lot healthier than fried pies, right?" Um, no. Has anyone made an acronym out of the name of this week's TWD assignment? Try FAT. There's still plenty of butter, sugar, sour cream, etc. in here to keep it from being considered healthy. But, oh...they're good! The best part is that you can assemble them and freeze them. Then, just take a frozen FAT (Flaky Apple Turnover) out of the oven, brush it with a little egg wash, bake it in the oven, and in about 20 minutes, you'll have a delightful little dessert! YUM! Thanks, Julie, for choosing this recipe! If you want to make the FATs, or if you want to try any of the other goodies Julie's been baking, you'll need to visit her little corner of the Internet...Someone's in the Kitchen. Happy baking!

TWD: Applesauce Spice Bars

Thank goodness we had another easy TWD assignment this week! I love a good baking challenge, but not during my busiest work time of the year. I work for Lindsey Wilson College's School of Professional Counseling, and we're in the last week before our Fall semester begins...so needless to say...life is crazy! But thank goodness for Karen, of Something Sweet by Karen, for choosing a delicious and simple recipe.
I was just telling David the other day that I'm tired of summer and ready for fall. I can only take so much heat and humidity before I start dreaming of crisp breezes, the smell of leaves burning, the softness of cozy sweaters, and the smells of autumn baking. This recipe was perfect for satisfying my fall yearnings! Apples, brown sugar, spices...all of the hallmarks of a fall comfort food recipe are here! Dorie's Applesauce Spice Bars were wonderful, and they couldn't have been more simple to prepare. The recipe calls for unsweetened applesauce in the batter, and I didn't have any on hand. However, I did have some homemade applesauce that I decided to use. Since it was sweetened, I cut back on the brown sugar a little...but not enough. These turned out a little too sweet for me, but delicious nonetheless!
If you're pining away for fall and need a little "pick-me-up" this week, you can grab this recipe from Karen's cute little website, Something Sweet by Karen. Enjoy!

Allison's Birthday Cake

Friday was my little sister Allison's birthday. She's the beautiful bride in the picture up there. I'm the Matron of Honor. That sounds old, doesn't it? Anyway, since it was her birthday, she got to pick her birthday treat from Dorie Greenspan's cookbook Baking: From My Home to Yours. She picked the Double Apple Bundt Cake. When I read the recipe, I thought two things: "Man, that sounds delicious," and "This sounds like a fall cake." And her birthday is in July. I mean, it's got apples, apple butter, raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. It doesn't get more fall-like than that. But it was Allison's birthday, and by golly, if she wanted a fall cake she was gonna get it!
But listen to this. First, let me preface this by telling you that Kentucky in the summer is three words: HAZY, HOT, and HUMID. But this past weekend, we had the most delightful, cool weather you could imagine. It was about 70 degrees on Saturday and about 72 on Sunday! Woo Hoo! It felt like fall all weekend. The perfect time for a double-apple bundt cake! And didn't it turn out nicely? Allison made two requests: no nuts and no icing. She just wanted a dusting of powdered sugar. She's a nice, simple girl...like me! I think we're all pretty much simple folk, the Bickerses, Orrs, and Lawrences. She did get some good natured ribbing from Larry, Chet, and David about the absence of icing. As Mom and I were cutting and plating the cake, we heard her say, "WHEN IT'S YA'LL'S BIRTHDAYS, YOU CAN HAVE ICING!" She cracks me up. I love that girl.
The cake was absolutely fantastic. It was super-moist, and the apple flavor was perfect. It also came together incredibly easy, so it will definitely go into the rotation this fall. I usually have all the ingredients on hand to make it, too...that's always a huge bonus. Here's the recipe for you to file away for the first crisp, cool day of fall. Hopefully Dorie won't whip me for posting her recipe:

Double Apple Bundt Cake

Dorie Greenspan

For the Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. salt

1 1/4 sticks (10 Tbs.) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 large eggs

1 cup store-bought apple butter, spiced or plain (I used homemade that I've been hoarding for a while)

2 medium Braeburn apples, peeled, cored, and grated

1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup plump, moist raising (dark or golden...I used golden)

Confectioner's sugar, for dusting (optional)

For the Icing (Optional)

1/3 cup confectioner's sugar

About 2 Tbs. fresh orange or lemon juice

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9- to 10-inch (12 cup) Bundt pan. If your pan is not nonstick, dust the interior of the pan with flour, then tap out the excess. Don't place the pan on a baking sheet--you want the oven's heat to circulate through the Bundt's inner tube.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed, scraping the bowl as needed, for 3 minutes, or until the mixture is smooth, thick, and pale. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each addition; you'll have a light, fluffy batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the apple butter--don't worry if it curdles the batter. Still on low, add the grated apples and mix completely to blend. Add the dry ingredients, mixing only unil they disappear into the batter. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the nuts and raisins. Turn the batter into the Bundt pan and smooth the top of the batter with the rubber spatula.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted deep into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Transfer the pan to a rack to cool for 5 minutes before unmolding and uncooling the cake to room temperature. If possible, once the cake is completely cool, wrap well in plastic and let it stand overnight at room temperature to ripen the flavors.

If you're not going to ice the cake, you can dust it with confectioner's sugar just before serving.

To make the optional icing: Put the sugar in a small bowl an dstir in a squirt or two of either orange or lemon juice. Keep adding the juice a little at a time until you have an icing that falls easily from the tip of a spoon. Drizzle the icing over the top of the cake, letting it slide down the curves of the cake in whatever pattern it makes. Let the cake stand until the icing dries, a matter of minutes, before slicing.