Showing posts with label Muffins & Scones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Muffins & Scones. Show all posts
Homemade Apple Cider Donuts. These are a favorite treat this time of year when the outdoor colors are changing and the air is filled with the scent of wood-smoke, drying leaves and fresh apples.
Moist and spicy and coated in cinnamon sugar, they go down wonderfully served up on a damp overcast day with a hot drink.
Baked and not fried, I adapted my recipe from one which I found on NY Times cooking site by Erin McDowell. You can find the full sized recipe here.
I didn't want or need a dozen donuts however, so I cut the recipe in half to make just six, deliciously dense, cake-like, cinnamon sugar, cider spiked donuts!
In the UK, all apple cider was hard cider, meaning alcoholic. Here in the beautiful Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, cider this time of year is sweet cider, of the non alcoholic variety.
Made from freshly pressed apples there is no alcohol present in this cider. The alcohol develops a bit later on as the cider ferments. Eventually it will turn to vinegar, but that's a whole different story.
My first husband came from a farming family here in the valley. They had a few orchards scattered here and there. The best pickings are used for selling to eat out of hand.
The drops are pressed and used to make apple cider, apple sauce and the like. I picked drops one year and it is back breaking labor.
Drops are the apples which fall off the trees. Found on the ground, there is a lot of picking involved to fill one of those big wooden bins, which seem to loom larger and larger as the day progresses.
Normally, or at least back in those days, you were payed by the bin, not by the hour. If you were a good and quick picker you could make a decent wage.
But, I kid you not, it was hard work. Farm work always is.
I like to get a jug of fresh cider early in the season when the apples are sweet and the cider sweet as well. In the UK you can use pressed apple juice (the good stuff you find in the chiller section of the shops.)
You can cook the cider down to make a more concentrated flavor for baking, but I am always happy with it just as it is.
If you want to reduce it, begin with approximately 1 1/2 cups (360ml) of the sweet cider and cook it over moderate heat, until it has reduced to approximately 1/2 cup (120ml).
This will take about 20 minutes. You won't need all of it for this recipe, but you can keep it in the fridge to use another time.
Fresh cider is an unpasteurized form of apple juice. It is raw and has not been processed. No filters have been used to remove particles of pulp.
Slightly opaque, it is highly perishable because of this, but it is also very delicious.
It is perfect for drinking fresh out of the refrigerator (it must be kept refrigerated) and it is lovely served warm and mulled with spices as a hot drink.
It is beautiful in baked goods as well. Delicious things such as cakes, muffins and these baked Apple Cider Donuts I am sharing today.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO MAKE BAKED APPLE CIDER DONUTS
Other than apple cider there is nothing very much out of the ordinary here.
- apple cider (in the UK use pressed apple juice, not alcoholic sparkling cider)
- all purpose flour
- granulated sugar
- light brown sugar
- vanilla
- salt, cinnamon, nutmeg
- eggs
- butter
HOW TO MAKE BAKED APPLE CIDER DONUTS
One of the things I love most about these donuts is that they are not fried. This means I don't have to feel overly guilty in indulging.
I hate the fuss and muss of deep frying. It makes your house smell. I don't like it when my house smells like a fat fryer.
When I was a very young bride we lived over top of a cafe and bush stop. Our apartment always smelled like deep fried foods. That gets old really quickly.
To start off with, I like to have my butter and egg at room temperature for these donuts. Some of the butter will be creamed to make the batter and some of the butter will be melted to finish them off.
You will need a donut pan to bake these in. I use a six hole Wilton one which I bought on Amazon. It makes medium sized donuts, not small ones.
The butter for the batter needs to be creamed together with both white and brown sugars until light and fluffy. I use my electric hand mixer for this.
Once it is light and fluffy, I beat in the egg and the vanilla. Again with the electric mixer.
I always like to sift my flour, spices and leavenings together.
Baking powder and soda are known as leavenings. Leavenings are ingredients which are used in baked goods to give them lift and make them rise.
By sifting the dry ingredients together you ensure that the leavening and spices are evenly mixed throughout the flour.
I use a large sieve for this. In the old days they would have used a flour sifter, which was a jug shaped thing with several layers of wire mesh in the bottom. Both do the same thing, with the same results.
The dry ingredients get beaten into the creamed mixture until thoroughly combined. You then beat the apple cider in slowly so that it also gets combined and the cake mixture doesn't curdle.
Once you have a smooth homogenous batter, I pop it into a zip lock baggie. This makes it easy to pip the dough into the buttered/sprayed donut pan.
Just clip off a corner with some kitchen scissors (1/2-inch opening) and start piping. Try to get them as even as you can so that your donuts are all the same size.
These only need to bake in the oven for about 12 to 15 minutes to perfection. You will know they are done when they are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the thickest portion comes out clean.
Once baked you leave them to cool in the pan for about five minutes before tipping them out onto a wire rack.
Once you can handle them it is an easy job to brush the rounded tops and sides with melted butter and then to dredge the still warm and butter covered donuts in cinnamon sugar to coat.
I used a bit more cinnamon in the dough than the original recipe. These smell and taste AMAZING!!
I enjoyed one of these warm for my lunch with a cup of hot spiced apple drink/tea. Oh my but it was some good.
I could have easily eaten another one, but I need to exercise some self control. These are the perfect autumn treat!
Quick and easy to make. Cakey, moist and dense textured, with a lovely cinnamon sugar crunch. These baked apple cider donuts are quite simply fabulous!
I am now wishing I had baked the full recipe and made an even dozen. In retrospect, however, its probably a good thing for my waistline that I did not.
Baked Apple Cider Donuts
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 15 MinTotal time: 25 Min
These delicious baked doughnuts are a real autumnal treat. You do need a doughnut baking pan to make them the right shape. Alternately you can bake in a medium muffin tin. Delicious any shape you decide to bake them!
Ingredients
For the donuts:
- 3/4 cup plus 2 TBS (115g) all purpose plain flour
- 1/2 tsp plus 1/8 tsp baking powder
- 1/3 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 5 TBS butter, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup (80g) soft light brown sugar, packed
- 2 TBS granulated sugar
- 1 large free range egg, room temperature
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 fluid ounces (60ml) apple cider
To finish:
- 1/4 cup (60g) butter, melted
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/ gas mark 4. Lightly spray a 6 cavity non-stick doughnut baking pan with cooking spray. Alternately spray a 6-cup muffin tin with cooking spray.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a bowl. Set aside.
- Using an electric mixer, cream the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and then the vanilla, scraping the bowl as necessary.
- Stir in the flour mixture, making sure it is thoroughly combined. Drizzle in the apple cider beating it in thoroughly as you go. The batter should be smooth.
- Spoon or pipe the batter into the prepared tin. For doughnuts bake 12 to 15 minutes. For muffins 15 to 20 minutes.
- Leave to cool in the pan for a few minutes before tipping out.
- Melt the butter in a bowl. Whisk the cinnamon and sugar for the topping together in another bowl. Brush the surface of each doughnut with some of the melted butter and then dredge/roll in the cinnamon sugar.
- For muffins, dip the tops in the melted butter and then in the cinnamon sugar.
You are probably asking yourself right now, what is a muffie? Its another word, modern slang, used to describe Muffin Tops.
Made famous by Panera Bread, muffies are just the tops of the muffins, which have long been held to be the most delicious part of any muffin.
All of the content you see here on this page, both photography and written, are the sole property of The English Kitchen, Marie Rayner. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com
This Pumpkin Muffie recipe is the most delicious muffin top recipe you could ever want to bake and to eat. I kid you not.
I adapted the original recipe from a page entitled Lil Luna. The original recipe made a dozen muffin top. I can't possibly eat a dozen muffin tops and so I adapted the recipe to make only six.
Six beautiful pumpkin and spice flavored, cinnamon streusel topped muffin tops.
Moist and delicious from the pumpkin. Flavored with warm baking spices, but that is not all.
I also got two beautiful normal sized muffins. I dare to suggest that the original recipe makes more than twelve muffin tops when using a muffin top pan. I used the proper suggested measures in mine and had extra batter.
This batter I baked in two custard cups to make two additional muffins. Not a problem because my daughter and her husband are coming over this afternoon for an early Thanksgiving dinner, and I will probably gift them the muffins to take home with them when they leave.
I dare say nobody will complain. Every time I bake muffin tops I am reminded of the Seinfeld Episode about Muffin tops. Episode 21 of Season 8.
While eating the top off a muffin at J. Peterman's book signing, Elaine tells Mr. Lippman, who is publishing the book, that someone should open a store selling just the tops. Lippman, stealing her idea, starts a business called "Top of the Muffin to You!".
I won't spoil it for you by telling you the rest.
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE STREUSEL TOPPED PUMPKIN MUFFIN TOPS
I can almost guarantee you have everything you need to bake these muffin tops in your kitchen right now, except for maybe the pumpkin, which can be very easily picked up at the shops.
- all purpose flour
- white granulated sugar
- brown sugar
- warm baking spices
- baking powder and soda
- salt
- canola oil
- eggs
- pumpkin puree
For the streusel topping:
- old fashioned oats
- flour
- brown sugar
- cinnamon
- toasted walnuts
- melted butter
Don't worry if you don't have a muffin top tin. You can bake these on a baking sheet. Just be sure to line it with some baking parchment.
You also need to leave plenty of space in-between for the dough spreading a bit when baking. I dare say as well, if you want to you can bake the whole mix as muffins. You will probably get about 8 medium to large muffins. (Just a guess.)
HOW TO MAKE THE MUFFIN BATTER
This recipe varied a bit in how it is put together from the regular way of making muffin batter. You begin by mixing both sugars and the oil together in a bowl. It was quite thick. Make sure you mash any lumps in the brown sugar out.
Once you have blended them, you need to stir in the spices, soda and baking powder. This gets mixed together in a bowl first. Make sure you blend them really well together so that the leavening gets mixed evenly throughout.
Up to this point, it won't look like any muffin batter you have ever seen. This is all about to change when you beat in the egg and the pumpkin.
Make sure you use pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling. They are not the same thing. Pumpkin puree is just cooked pumpkin, which has been drained and pureed and is quite thick.
The pie filling will have other things added to it.
These get blended in well and then you simply stir in the flour. I stirred it in just until it was evenly mixed with no floury streaks. As with any muffin a few lumps are quite acceptable and in fact desireable!
The muffin batter then gets spooned into the prepared pan (s). And the streusel gets sprinkled on top.
HOW TO MAKE THE CINNAMON OAT & NUT STREUSEL TOPPING
This is also very easy to make. Simply combine all of the ingredients in a small bowl and drizzle the melted butter over top.
Mix everything together until you have a crumbly mixture, perfect for sprinkling.
Unless you are a total glutton you will probably have some leftover muffies to store. You can easily store them in an airtight container with some paper toweling in between the layers to absorb any moisture that might develop and make them soggy.
You can also freeze these, tightly wrapped, in the freezer. They will keep for up to 3 months. Simply thaw and warm in the microwave for about 15 seconds on high. Delicious!
You can also, likewise, freeze the leftover pumpkin from the tin. I place it into an airtight container and then pop it into the freezer ready to thaw out and use in my future baking endeavors.
Oh, I do so love the autumn when we can freely indulge ourselves in all things pumpkin and pumpkin spice, don't you?
Streusel Topped Pumpkin Muffies
Yield: Makes 6 muffies (plus 2 regular sized muffins)
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 15 MinTotal time: 30 Min
These fabulous muffin tops are autumn favorites with lots of moist pumpkin goodness with a crunchy buttery sweet oat and toasted walnut streusel topping!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (200g) sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) soft light brown sugar, packed
- 3 fluid ounces (85ml) canola oil
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- scant cup (1/2 of a 15 ounce tin/212g) pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1 large free range egg
- 1 3/4 (245g) cup plain all purpose flour
For the streusel topping:
- 4 TBS old fashioned oats
- 3 TBS flour
- 3 TBS soft light brown sugar, packed
- 3 TBS finely chopped toasted walnuts
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- pinch salt
- 2 TBS butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/ gas mark 5. Butter a six hole muffin top pan (see notes for alternative instructions), along with two medium muffin cups.
- Make the streusel topping by combining the oats, flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt together in a small bowl with the nuts. Drizzle the melted butter over top and combine all together to give you a crumbly topping.
- Mix the spices, baking powder, soda and salt for the batter together in a small bowl.
- Whisk both sugars and the oil together in a bowl. Stir in the spice mixture, mixing well to combine. Beat in the egg and pumpkin puree until smooth. Stir in the flour just to combine.
- Spoon by heaped 1/4 cupsful into the prepared baking tin.
- Divide the remaining batter between the two muffin cups. Sprinkle a portion of the streusel topping over each. (You may not need it all.)
- Bake the muffin tops in the oven for 15 minutes until done and the tops spring back when lightly touched. The muffins will take about 20 minutes.
- Tip out onto a wire rack to cool slightly before serving. Delicious. Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
Notes:
If you don't have a muffin top pan you can still make these muffin tops. Line several baking sheets with baking paper. Drop the muffin batter onto the baking sheets by 1/4 cups full, leaving plenty of space in between. Bake time is the same.
Cinnamon and Jam Biscuits. I am almost embarrassed to show you this simple recipe today, but what the heck, when have I ever let embarrassment stop me from sharing with you? Never, that's when. Why start now.
I had seen a few recipes like this on the world wide web, and I had a tin of refrigerated biscuits about to expire so I thought why now. I will give them a go!
Plus I got up much later this morning than I usually do. Combine that with the General Conference of my church and the time that takes to watch . . . and you find me, a person who was looking to make something not only delicious, but quick and easy to eat.
So I decided to make these Cinnamon and Jam Biscuits which promised to deliver on all counts. Quick to make. Easy to prepare. Delicious to eat.
I was not disappointed. They were quick to make. Incredibly quick. They were easy to make. Very easy.
And yes, they were delicious. So much so that I wish I had a houseful of people to help me eat them up. Alas I have only two kittens and these kittens don't eat things like this . . . sigh . . . its a tough job but somebody has to do it.
All kidding aside, I didn't eat all of these. I am very fortunate that I live in a neighborhood with some elderly people who are always only too happy to enjoy the abundance from my table that I can't possibly use up myself.
And I am always only too happy to share with them. Its a win/win situation. So back to the Biscuits.
These really are very easy to make. So much so that you probably won't even break into a sweat making them. If you can open a biscuit can, melt some butter, dip and roll then you can very easily make these tasty delights.
You do need a can of refrigerated biscuits, the buttermilk ones if you can possibly get them. They break up into 10 biscuits. Alternately you can make some biscuit dough from scratch, and I have an excellent recipe to do just that here.
Just make the dough and then cut it into round biscuits and then proceed as per this recipe.
And on another note here I am referring to biscuits here as in North American biscuits (scones) not British biscuits (cookies)! Not the same thing at all!
The biscuits for this recipe get rolled first in melted butter. Just the tops and the edges. You then roll the tops and edges into Cinnamon sugar and place them onto a baking sheet.
You actually don't need to butter or line the baking sheet, but I always do, just in case. When sugar is involved, I always line.
Once you have done this, you take the end of a wooden spoon handle or a thimble and press a deep hole into the centre of each biscuit. Not all the way through, but about 2/3 of the way through to the bottom.
A portion of jam then gets spooned into the hole. Just a teaspoon. Don't be tempted to use any more than that. Experience has taught me through the years that hot jam expands exponentially and you don't want that mess.
This is truly a case where less IS more. Trust me on this.
Today I used my sister's homemade strawberry jam, but you can use any kind of jam you enjoy. You can even use lemon curd. Lovely, just so you know!
Don't let the simplicity of these biscuits, whether you use a refrigerated biscuit or make your biscuits from scratch, fool you into thinking that they are not something special. They are indeed very special.
Simple and quick, with only a few ingredients, but still a wonderful way to let the ones around you know that you love them enough to want to bake them something special to eat.
These are not something to be embarrassed of serving, but instead something that shows you care. After all it is really the simple things in life which bring us the most pleasure, and I can assure you that these will bring plenty of pleasure.
From that beautiful buttery cinnamon sugar crust to that sweet dimple of jam in the center, these are something you and your whole family will enjoy.
Food does not have to be complicated to taste good. These simple treats are proof positive of that fact. Light, fluffy, spicy, sweet. In short, scrumptiously tasty!
All of the content you see here on this page, both photography and written, are the sole property of The English Kitchen, Marie Rayner. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com
Easy Cinnamon & Jam Biscuits
Yield: makes 10 biscuits
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 15 MinTotal time: 30 Min
A snap to make using refrigerated buttermilk biscuits, sugar, cinnamon and your favorite jam.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup (60g) butter melted
- 1 tube refrigerated buttermilk biscuits, separated into 10 biscuits
- 10 tsp your favorite jam
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375*F/ 190*C/ gas mark 5. Line a baking sheet with some parchment paper. Set aside.
- Place the sugar and cinnamon into a bowl and mix well together.
- Place the melted butter in another bowl.
- Dip the tops and sides of each biscuit into the melted butter and then roll the sides and tops in the cinnamon sugar. Place well apart on the baking sheet.
- Using the end of a wooden spoon or a thimble make a deep indentation in the center of each biscuit. Place a teaspoon of sugar into each.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15 to 18 minutes until golden brown and puffed up. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before eating. (Jam is very hot)
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