Lovin' From the Oven

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Apple Muffins

by 1 Comment

applemuffins

applemuffins-2

applemuffins-3

applemuffins-4

applemuffins-5

Note to self: Don’t wait over 5 years for a doctor’s check up. I had to go in to get a physical/TB test for working with kids and they seriously hit me with the big bomb. Since they didn’t have any of my medical history from Southern California yet, they asked me a ton of questions and suggested that I get 4 shots and other “girl” check ups.

I’m up to date on everything BUT my shots so I figured that since I was going to get my TB test, why not get everything done at once? Terrible idea. The nurse asked me which arm I wanted to feel sore and which one I wanted to feel pain. I remember getting all my tetanus shots before going to middle school and didn’t recall they were a big deal, so I told the nurse to do two shots in my left arm and one in my right. Boy, was I in for a treat!

My HPV shot was really painful and the tetanus shot left my arm aching for days! I don’t remember shots hurting this bad. I have to do this two more times for my tetanus shots. I’m not scared of needles; I used to donate blood every 8 weeks back at UCLA, but holy cow! If you haven’t gotten your tetanus shots in the past five years, think about doing so cause apparently it’s a “new” one. It always is.

This muffins came out of the oven leaving me a bit wishful. Clearly, I added way too many apples since the batter::apple ratio was off. It tasted fine, but it was more like eating apple chunks lightly dipped in batter. Not what I was going for. I used three apples, but I’d recommend sticking to one! Adapted from Rather Be Baking.

Print
Whole Wheat Cinnamon Apple Muffins

Yield: 16-18 muffins

Ingredients

  • 2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar, divided
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 2 large (or 3 small) apples, cored, and coarsely chopped

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 450°F and line 18 muffin cups.
  2. Cream together the butter and sugar, and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Mix in the egg and sour cream.
  3. Stir in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until just moistened.
  4. Stir in the apple chunks. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup of sugar evenly on top of all the muffins.
  5. Pour the batter evenly into the muffin cups. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400°F, and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
https://lovintheoven.com/whole-wheat-cinnamon-apple-muffins/

Caramel Apples & a Giveaway

by 86 Comments

DSC_4376

DSC_4377

DSC_4388

My DB brought this monstrosity home the other day from the farmer’s market for me. It’s from Kelly’s Coffee and Fudge Factory at the Northridge mall and it’ll satisfy any craving you have in ten seconds. This, my friends, is a s’mores caramel apple. A granny smith apple dipped in caramel, then dipped in milk chocolate, and then topped with a graham cracker and swirls of white/milk chocolate. Glorioussss!

Speaking of apples…

My dear friends over at Shabby Apple wanted to do something special and give away a woman’s dress right here on my blog! If you don’t know what Shabby Apple is, it’s an online vintage inspired boutique that sells just the cutest little pieces. I, for one, am in love with the bathing suits and aprons!

Don’t even get me started on how cute the photo shoots are for each item. They really know how to put things together! The neutral top and white bottom just flow together effortlessly.

This one picture above is called the Spanish Steps, which I’ll be giving away to one lucky reader. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post saying which item you’d love the most from Shabby Apple! You can also like them on Facebook for an additional entry.

For those that just can’t wait and want to get their hands on one of their own, you can use the code “lovintheoven10off” to get 10% off your entire order.

This giveaway will end on Friday, June 24th at 11:59PM. US residents only! Good luck!

Apple Cinnamon Monkey Bread

by 14 Comments

DSC_3076

Looks good, doesn’t it? Too bad it was kind of a fail on my part. But as always, we must trek on.
I’ve always been intrigued by monkey bread and have had it bookmarked for for-ev-er. Why didn’t I ever get around to making it? Well, to be honest, refrigerated biscuits kind of freak me out. What person would create such a gut wrenching pop in order to simply open a can? I used to be scared of cracking eggs when I was little, for goodness sakes! This girl is not good with surprises.
My DB and I were invited to our friends’ new place for dinner. I figured that it was the perfect time to give monkey bread a try. If only I knew what I was getting myself into…
This is my favorite part of it all.. chopping up the apples and snacking away at them while I prepared the rest of the recipe.

DSC_2933
Covering the dough piece in cinnamon sugar:
DSC_2936

Place apples inside..
DSC_2937

and pinch it up!
DSC_2938

Everything started off well; The cans opened up with ease, the dough balls remained closed, and before I knew it, everything was layered up in the pan, ready for the oven.
DSC_2960

The sweet cinnamon sugar aroma filled the kitchen as I became a bit anxious. I baked it for the allotted 30 minute baking time, but after taking a peek at it, I wasn’t quite sure if it was done or not. When in doubt, leave it in for a little bit longer. So that’s exactly what I did– I left it in for another ten minutes before pulling the bread out.
DSC_2964

The hardest part of the whole thing? Flipping it over in one piece. I definitely did not succeed.
DSC_3093

Even though the top wasn’t that pretty, I was hoping it tasted as good as it smelled. The thing with bread is that you can’t taste it to make sure everything is okay. With cookies, you can try them before bringing them somewhere so you know how they taste. With cakes and bread, it’s like jumping in the pool head first.
I wrapped up the cooled monkey bread and took it with me to Sam and Adam’s place while hoping for the best. Sam made us baked brie and bruschetta with bread for appetizers. I’m pretty sure I ate an entire loaf before dinner. All throughout the main meal, all I could think was, “What if the bread is not throughly cooked? I’m done for!!” and “Gosh, this is one good burger!” Adam barbecued bison burgers with caramelized onions for dinner that were delicious! I devoured half of it before I even thought about taking a picture to share with you guys.
IMG_1046

We finished our meal and it was time for dessert. Cutting through the bread, I found out that it was not cooked all the way. Eeeeep, a baker’s worst nightmare! We nibbled around the baked edges and I ate all the apples inside. I was so embarrassed, but good thing I brought cookies and brownies to accompany the uncooked bread. Never again, I told myself. I’ll only bake things that are foreign to me when I’m baking for myself. I’ll leave cookies and familiar desserts for dinner parties.
This baking disaster kept me up all night. Not really, but I did think a lot about it. I think the reason why it didn’t cook all the way was because my biscuits were too thick. The original recipe calls for 3 12 oz cans and I used 2 16 oz cans instead, so each biscuit had less dough in the original recipe. I should have split each biscuit in half and make smaller balls. Lesson learned.
One day, I’ll tackle monkey bread again. Slightly adapted from Joelen’s Culinary Adventures.
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 3 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 (16-ounce) cans refrigerated biscuits
  • 3 small apples, peeled and finely chopped
  • 1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Spray or grease a bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. Mix the sugar and cinnamon, set aside.
  3. In a small bowl, stir together the melted butter and brown sugar; set aside.
  4. Press the individual biscuits out and flatten with your fingers; dredge each side of the flattened biscuit in the cinnamon sugar.
  5. Place about a teaspoon of chopped apples in the center of each biscuit, wrapping and sealing the dough around the apples; set aside. Repeat with all the remaining biscuits.
  6. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the nuts into the bottom of the bundt pan. Place half of the prepared biscuits in the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, pour half of the melted butter mixture over the biscuits, and sprinkle on 1/2 cup of nuts.
  7. Layer the remaining biscuits on top, sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon sugar, pour the remaining butter mixture over the biscuits, and sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of nuts.
  8. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Place a plate on top and invert.

Categories