Apple Brown Sugar Coffe Cake

Recently a friend came over to visit with her seven month old baby son.  She offered to stop at a local restaurant and pick up sandwiches for lunch and I made dessert for us.  I decided to make this coffe cake that I had bookmarked for awhile since I knew that there would be leftovers which would make a great breakfast treat.  This cake was nice and moist and I liked the addition of apples.  Like Edesia's my glaze didn't really glaze the cake, but ended up soaking into the cake.  When it hardened on the top it ended up giving the cake a little crunch which I actually enjoyed.  Luckily, I don't make sweets very often, because this recipe does use lots of sugar, with the cake, crumble, and glaze....but my friend and I (and the family!) both thought it was worth it!

Apple Brown Sugar Coffee Cake
recipe from Edesia's Notebook, originally from Emeril Lagasse

Yield:  24 servings

Ingredients:

For the Cake:
½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1½ cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
2 cups peeled, cored, and chopped apples

For the Crumble Topping:
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup flour
½ tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp butter, softened

For the Brown Sugar Glaze:
½ cup brown sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp water

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Coat a 9x13” glass baking dish with baking spray.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, sour cream, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Fold in the apples. Pour into the prepared baking dish, spreading out to the edges.

To make the topping, in a bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and butter, and mix until it resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the topping over the cake and bake until golden brown and set, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes.

To make the glaze, in a bowl, combine the sugar, vanilla, and water and mix until smooth. Drizzle the cake with the glaze and let harden slightly. Serve warm.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up!

This post is shared at:
Foodtastic Friday @ Not Your Ordinary Recipes
Full Plate Thursday @ Miz Helen's Country Cottage
Tasty Thursdays @ The Mandatory Mooch
Showcase Your Talent Thursday @ What's Cooking, Love?

The Secret Recipe Club: Healthy Apple Oats Cheesecake Bars

I am excited to be participating in my second month of The Secret Recipe Club.  This month I was assigned Elana's blog, Cook Book of Trial of Error.  This blog is filled with lots of tasty-looking recipes. Unfortuantely for me, I have an aversion to baking with yeast and Elana likes to bake!  She had so many tasty looking breads and rolls, but I just wasn't ready to challenge myself to make them quite yet!  I like how Elana rates each recipe by taste and by difficulty (both out of 5).  Since I had just made Banana Chocolate Chunk Nutella Muffins last month I had to control myself not to make Crunchy Nutella Bites.  For savory dishes, this Red Curry Salmon with Coconut Brown Rice caught my eye, as well as Chicken with Pecan Cream & Mushrooms.  In the end though I decided to go with a sweet dish and made these Healthy Apple Oats Cheesecake Bars.  They had a rating of 4 out of 5 on taste and a difficulty of 1.....my kind of recipe!  My family loves cheesecake and I just don't make it enough.  This was definitely an excuse for me to whip up a special treat for us but it isn't too bad, because "Healthy" is right in the title!  I made a few changes to the recipe on the blog.  The first one being that I used cream cheese instead of cottage cheese.  I don't make cheesecake enough for me to try to make it healthy!  Although I occasionally eat cottage cheese, when I'm on a healthy eating kick, it's not one of my favorite foods.  And I just couldn't see it being as tasty as cream cheese.  My daughter does not like nuts so I omitted the walnuts from the base/streusel.  Based on Elana's  afterthoughts I ended up using an 8"x8" pan.  I should have used less oat mix in the cookie base and saved more for the streusel topping.  The base was thick and I had barely any streusel topping.  While she thought the crust was a little salty I actually enjoyed it.  I might possibly cut it down to 1/4 teaspoon next time but I enjoyed the salty/sweet mix. I'm sorry for this not-so-stellar pic, but please don't let it deter you from making these great bars!

Healthy Apple Oats Cheesecake Bars
recipe slightly adapted from Cook Book of Trial and Error, which was adapted from Cooking with Chopin, adapted from The Pajama Chef

Ingredients:

For the base / streusel:
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda + 1 tbsp lemon juice
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces

For the cheesecake layer
8 oz bar cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup honey
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 1/2 cups apple sauce

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 8"x8" baking dish.

2. Prepare the cookie base in a large bowl. Use a wooden spoon to stir together the oats, flour, salt, and baking powder. Pour 1 tbsp or lemon juice over the baking soda, mix until bubbly and add to the bowl. "Cut in" the butter pieces with two knives or with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Then stir in the honey with the spoon. Set aside 1/4 cup of the cookie base. Press the remainder of the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes.

3. For the cheesecake layer, while the crust is baking, beat cream cheese until smooth.  Add the other ingredients, except apple sauce and process until combined.

4. After the cookie base has baked for 10 minutes, remove it from oven. Spread cheesecake filling over the partially-baked crust. Then spread the apple sauce on top. It will most likely sink partially, so you will have swirls rather than 2 separate layers. Sprinkle the reserved cookie topping over the apple sauce and bake for 30 minutes, or until topping is golden brown.

5. The cheesecake must cool down to room temperate (or even be refrigerated) before removing from the pan and cutting, otherwise it will break and sag.

6. Store in the fridge.

Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.

Apple Cheese Beer Bread

I made clam chowder the other day (see upcoming post).  To me soup is not a meal and I have to serve it either with a sandwich or bread of some type.  I have had this bread recipe bookmarked for awhile and thought that it would be a good time to make it.  The recipe below makes two loaves but I ended up halving it.  This was so easy to put together and we all enjoyed it!

Apple Cheese Beer Bread
recipe from Edesia's Notebook

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
½ cup shallots, minced
½ cup apple, peeled and shredded (use paper towel to remove any excess moisture)
3 cups flour
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
12 oz. beer
½ cup applesauce

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°. Heat oil in skillet. Cook shallots and apple for 7 minutes. Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Add cooked apple mixture, beer, applesauce, and cheese, stirring just until moist. Spoon mixture into 2 greased bread pans. Bake for 40 minutes or until done. Cool in pan for 5 minutes then remove and cool on wire rack.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up.

Apple Meatloaf

Meatloaf to me is such a great cold weather meal.  It screams comfort food, especially when paired with mashed potatoes, like I served with this meatloaf.  I've made lots of meatloafs, but this one caught my eye because it used ground turkey (healthier) and apple.  The apple gave the meatloaf a sweet flavor that wasn't overpowering.  Plus, I think it also helped moisten it.   The picture below isn't very pretty but the meatloaf was really tasty!  Even though this needs to cook for 40-45 minutes, if I wanted to cook this on a busy weeknight I would premake the meatloaf the night before and cook it the next day.

Apple Meatloaf
recipe from Mostly Food and Crafts

Ingredients:
1 small onion, chopped
2 teaspoons butter
3/4 cup peeled and shredded apple
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1 egg
4 teaspoons of ketchup
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt and pepper
1 pound ground turkey (or lean ground beef)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 6x5 loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a small skillet saute the onion in butter until softened.

In a large bowl, combine the apple, bread crumbs, egg, ketchup, mustard, salt, and pepper. Once the onion is cooked stir it into the large bowl with the other ingredients. Now crumble in the turkey and mix well.

Shape your ingredients into a 6x5 loaf and place into the baking dish.

Bake, uncovered, for 40 - 45 minutes until no longer pink.

Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.

This post is shared at:
Back for Seconds
Marvelous Mondays @ This Gal Cooks

Baked Apple French Toast Casserole

I've been trying to cook with apples before fall is over.  I saw this Baked Apple French Toast Casserole and knew that the kids would love it.  I pre-made it the night before so all it had to do the next day was bake.  It was a perfect breakfast for dinner meal.  The kids love french toast, which I don't make very often.  They especially loved the addition of the apples to one of their favorite breakfast meals.  This is a great weekend brunch dish and if you have a chunk of time to let it cook, a good breakfast for dinner meal.

Baked Apple French Toast Casserole
recipe from One Perfect Bite

Yield:  8 servings

Ingredients:

French Toast
1 (1 pound) loaf French bread, torn into bite-size cubes
6 eggs
1-1/2 cups skim milk
1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons white sugar, divided use
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 medium Golden Delicious apples - peeled, cored and cut in 1/2-inch dice
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1) Spray or grease bottom and sides of a 9 x 13-inch baking pan.

Directions:
1) Spray or grease bottom and sides of a 9 x 13-inch baking pan.


2) To make French toast: Scatter bread cubes in bottom of prepared pan. Place eggs, milk, 1/3 cup sugar and vanilla in a large bowl and beat to combine. Pour mixture over bread cubes. Mix cinnamon, nutmeg and 2 tablespoons sugar in a medium bowl. Add apple cubes and toss to coat. Spread apples over bread cubes. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Thirty minutes before baking, remove casserole from refrigerator and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake casserole for 60 to 75 minutes, or until custard is set and golden brown. Serve casserole hot with warm syrup.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up.

This recipe is shared at:
Foodtastic Friday @ Not Your Ordinary Recipes
Foodie Friday@ Simple Living and Eating

Pasta Bake with Kielbasa and Apples

My kids love salty, processed meat.  Bologna, sausage, salami, kielbasa, pepperoni....they love it.  I know it's not the healthiest, but I think anything in moderation is okay.  When my son heard there was kielbasa in our dinner he asked, "Don't we eat that on Easter?"  Yes, we have a traditional Polish breakfast on Easter morning with my parents, including kielbasa, hard-boiled eggs, and my mom's home-made Easter bread.  But I told him that we can also eat kielbasa at other times.  Like in this dish......with apples.  I've been trying to cook with apples as much as I can.  Even though we didn't go apple picking this year they are in season and the kids love them.  So I figure they'll hopefully enjoy them cooked in various dishes too.  This is one of those comfort food type dishes perfect for a chilly fall night.  It's really easy to make and cooks for about 30 minutes with some resting time.  The kids enjoyed it a lot and you know it's rare when my son enjoys dinner! The original recipe called for 1/2 tsp. hot sauce that I forgot to add to the adult bowls (I'm sure made this dish even tastier).

Pasta Bake with Kielbasa and Apples
recipe slightly adapted from Mostly Food and Crafts

Ingredients:
1 lb. box of rigatoni
2 cups of milk
2 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 1/2 shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp salt
2-3 apples  (Fuji or Braeburn) cored and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
8 ounces of Kielbasa, halved and sliced 1/4 inch thick

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 3 quart baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

Cook pasta according to directions, drain and return to pot.

Meanwhile in a medium saucepan over medium heat,whisk together the milk and flour until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat and add half the cheese, salt and pepper and mix until smooth.

Add the sauce to the pasta along with the Kielbasa and the apples and combine. Transfer to baking dish; cover with foil.

Bake in oven for 20 minutes. Remove foil and top with remaining cheese. Bake 10 minutes more, until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbly. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.

Pampered Chef - Taffy Apple Pizza

We went to a friend's annual Halloween party this past Saturday.  I usually end up bringing a dessert but try to stay away from cupcakes, cake, or brownies, since others tend to bring those types of desserts.  I found this dessert recipe and thought it would be perfect.  It isn't really "Halloween-y" but it is definitely "fall-ish."  There really isn't much cooking involved, just a lot of preparation and assembling of ingredients.  I had a little difficulty getting the cookie off the stone after baking. With my husband's help we ended up pre-slicing the cookie and trying to patch the slices back up, before I put the rest of the ingredients on.  As I predicted, there were a lot of cupcakes and brownies at the party.  I got a lot of compliments on this dessert and everyone seemed to like it.

Pampered Chef-Taffy Apple Pizza
recipe from Home Cooking

Ingredients:
1 package (18 oz.) refrigerated sugar cookie dough, softened
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 medium Granny Smith apples
Ground cinnamon
1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping, warmed
1/2 cup peanuts, chopped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. For crust, shape cookie dough into a ball. Place dough in center of round baking stone; flatten slightly with palm of hand. Roll out dough to a 14-inch circle, about 1/4-inch thick. Bake 16-18 minutes or until light golden brown; cool 10 minutes. Carefully loosen cookie from baking stone using a serrated knife; cool completely. For topping, combine cream cheese, brown sugar, peanut butter and vanilla mix well. Spread mixture evenly over top of cookie. Peel, core and slice apples. Arrange apples evenly over cream cheese mixture; sprinkle with cinnamon. To heat caramel topping, microwave on HIGH 30-45 seconds or until warm; drizzle over apples. Chop peanuts sprinkle over apples. Cut pizza into 16 wedges.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up!

This recipe was shared at:
Creative Thursday
Full Plate Thursday
Tasty Thursdays

Chicken and Apple Curry

We normally take an annual trip to our local apple orchard and go apple and pumpkin picking with the kids.  This year though my son's preschool is going pumpkin picking and my daughter is going apple and pumpkin picking with her class.  After spending all of the money on their trips we didn't think it was necessary for us to take another trip as a family.  However, that isn't stopping me from trying all of the apple recipes that I've been saving and waiting to try. This recipe I found in all*you magazine.  Not only was it featured in "Dinner Under $10" but it didn't have a gazillion ingredients.  Unfortunately, after it was made none of us really enjoyed it.  The kids ate all of the apple pieces.  For me though, it was definitely lacking in flavor.  There are lots of easy curry recipes out there, this just wasn't a favorite.

Chicken and Apple Curry
recipe from all*you, May 2012, recipe courtesy of Cheryl Dorsey

Ingredients:
1 cup basmati rice
juice and zest of 1 lime
1 13.5 oz. can coconut milk
2 tsp. curry powder
2 tsp. cornstarch
2 cups shredded skinless rotisserie chicken, dark and white meat
1 sweet apple, like Gala or Honeycrisp, peeled, cored, and chopped
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Boil 2 cups of water in a medium saucepan.  Stir in rice, return to a boil, cover, reduce heat to low; simmer until tender, about 15 minutes.

2.  Whisk lime juice, coconut milk and curry together in a medium skillet over medium-high heat.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low; simmer 3 minutes.  In a small bowl, stir cornstarch and 2 Tbsp. of water until smooth, then whisk into a skillet. Continue whisking for 2 minutes.  Mix in chicken and apple; season with salt and pepper.  Cook stirring occasionally, until apple is tender, 8 to 10 minutes.

3.  Divide rice among 4 plates and spoon chicken on top.  Sprinkle with zest.

Family Rating: So-so.

Apple Pie Cookies

Unfortuantely, I recently experienced computer problems....again.  So that and a trip to visit my sister and her family in Maryland this past weekend explains the absence of posts.  But I have plenty of recipes to catch up on.  Starting with this one.  I had made this recipe for this month's "apple pie" themed crazy cooking challenge at Moms Crazy Cooking but wasn't able to post in time because of my computer problems.  I still have to share the recipe with you though because these were really good!  I'm not a big pie fan.  I like the pie part (i.e. the flaky, buttery crust!) but the warm fruit part is not my favorite.  Plus, I am NOT a baker.  I actually really dislike making dough and/or anything that requires yeast, since those recipes for me are usually epic fails!  I was really excited when I discovered these cookies since I wouldn't have to make a traditional pie. I have to admit that my husband, The Weekend Chef, did help me make the dough for these.  And he also helped me roll the dough out and cut the cookies.  Warning:  the dough was super sticky, even after refrigerating it (our dough was in the fridge for almost 24 hours).  After using a lot of flour, we (meaning my husband!) was able to work the dough without too much stress!  The apples are shredded, so there are not big fruit pieces.  It's a sugar cookie with a surprise sweet filling inside.  I ended up bringing these cookies with some vanilla bean ice cream to my parent's house for dessert.  Both of them enjoyed these a lot and my dad is not a big dessert eater.  

Apple Pie Cookies
recipe from Cassie Craves

Ingredients:

For the sugar cookies:
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

For the filling:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 medium tart apples, peeled and grated (about 2 cups)
3/4 cup water

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, milk, vanilla and lemon zest. Combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture. Divide in dough in half. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours or until easy to handle (dough will be soft).

2. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the filling ingredients. Cook over medium heat until apples are softened and mixture is thickened; cool.

3. On a lightly floured surface roll out each portion of dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 2 1/2-inch cookie cutter. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Spread with 2 teaspoons of filling to within 1/4 inch of edge. Top with another cutout seal edges.

4. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, if desired. Makes 2 dozen cookies.

Family Rating: 2 thumbs up!

Turkey Apple Swiss Melt

I have a feeling that sandwiches are going to be a go-to dinner for us soon.  They are usually really quick to make and I can serve them with soup, since I can't eat just soup for dinner.  Cold fall and winter nights are perfect for a soup and sandwich dinner combo.  I haven't made any soup yet, but I recently made this sandwich.  When I was growing up grilled cheese involved the yellow american cheese slices in the plastic wrapper, which was never my favorite.  There are so many types of cheese/bread combos out there the choices are endless!  Unfortunately, I have a daughter who doesn't really like cheese....unless it's on pizza.  She does like turkey and apples and that's why I made this recipe.  I made hers without the cheeese and the rest of us had it as the recipe directed. I even had mine without the honey mustard sauce since I don't like mustard very much.  Sandwiches = easy customization!  The flavors of this sandwich worked well together.  The tart apple, sweet turkey, and tangy swiss.  This was an easy and tasty sandwich perfect for a quick weeknight dinner.

Turkey Apple Swiss Melt
recipe slightly adapted from Cooking Light, September 2012

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
8 (1-ounce) slices bread
4 (1-ounce) slices Swiss cheese
5 ounces thinly sliced Granny Smith apple (about 1 small)
8 ounces thinly sliced maple turkey breast
Cooking spray

Directions:
1. Combine mustard and honey in a small bowl. Spread one side of each of 4 bread slices with 1 1/2 teaspoons mustard mixture. Place one cheese slice on dressed side of bread slices; top each with 5 apple slices and 2 ounces turkey. Top sandwiches with remaining 4 bread slices. Coat both sides of sandwiches with cooking spray. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add sandwiches to pan. Cook 2 minutes on each side or until bread is browned and cheese melts.

Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.