Thankful for Desserts!

Thanks to traveling for work and visiting my family in NY I am a little behind. Also, I apologize for all the nice comments that were left for me that I didn't respond to yet....the past few weeks have been super hectic but nothing like baking to help me relax!

I made the desserts for Thanksgiving dinner and I made Cheesecake, correctly this time and it came out delicious!!! I also made an Apple Oatmeal Crisp, which I didn't try but it looked delicious and it wsa interesting because there is a crisp layer on the bottom and on the top! (Read the note below). I topped it off with some homemade whipped cream, which came out fantastic this year. I think it is because I made a huge batch, five times the amount!






It might not look pretty but it tasted fantastic!

APPLE OATMEAL CRISP
(Source: allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, melted
3 cups apples - peeled, cored and chopped
1/2 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C.) Lightly grease an 8 inch square pan.
- In a large bowl, combine brown sugar, oats, flour and butter. Mix until crumbly.
- Place half of crumb mixture in pan. Spread the apples evenly over crumb mixture.
- Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and top with remaining crumb mixture.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown.

NOTES

- I didn't think an 8 inch square pan would have been enough for Thanksgiving so I put it in a rectangle pan and used 6 apples and did all the ingredients at 1 1/2 times EXCEPT for the Sugar



WHIPPED CREAM
(Source: allrecipe.com)
I did the recipe times 5

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

DIRECTIONS:

In a large bowl, whip cream until stiff peaks are just about to form. Beat in vanilla and sugar until peaks form. Make sure not to over-beat, cream will then become lumpy and butter-like.

Cupcake Envy!

One of my favorite blogs is Good Things Catered. I am always thoroughly impressed just not what she can pull off but how beautiful everything looks. As we all know I am the first admit my stuff tastes excellent but is not pretty!

She had these beautiful cupcakes that I caught myself just going to stare at how pretty they were so I finally bit the bullet and made them!! Now mine were not pretty like Katie's but they were delicious! I made one change to the cupcake recipe and left out the rum; I didn't have any at home and just kept forgetting to buy it and they were still delicious!

Now I had some issues with the frosting and ended up making 2 batches! The first one I followed to the T and used light brown sugar and it just came out hard and gross! :( The second batch was delicious!! I used dark brown sugar, a tiny bit extra butter and some buttermilk (it is all I had in the house!). I didn't use it all but it worked out well and added just the right amount of sweetness. The cupcakes tasted like a yummy apple muffin with tiny bites of apple! These will definitely be made again, thanks Katie!







This is my traveling cupcake container and you should see the looks I get out on the metro with it!!

AS AMERICAN AS APPLE PIE CUPCAKES
(Source: Good Things Catered)

INGREDIENTS:

1 c. plus 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 pinch salt
1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1 Tbsp spiced rum
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c. apple, finely diced (about 1 large apple)

1/4 c. brown sugar
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 c. powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS:

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin tin with cupcake liners.
-In large bowl combine flour, brown sugar, soda, powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt.
-Whisk to combine thoroughly and break up all pieces of the brown sugar.
-Add milk, oil, rum, and vanilla and stir until just incorporated.
-Fold in apple until just incorporated.
-Spoon into fill cupcakes liners about 3/4 way full, dividing evenly among all liners.
-Bake in oven until cooked through, about 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cupcakes comes out clean.
-Meanwhile, make caramel glaze: In small saucepan combine brown sugar and butter over medium low heat.
-Bring to a boil, remove from heat, stir in powdered sugar and glaze cupcakes before mixture cools.

Makes 12

NOTE: You can certainly make these "lighter" by using a mixture of all purpose and wheat flours, subbing splenda brown sugar mix at half capacity and subbing applesauce for oil. We have noticed no compromise in taste with this.