An Apple A Day!

Apple is perhaps most versatile fruit. You can crunch on it, juice it, cook with it, puree it and bake with it. It's equally good for adults, kids and babies. Applesauce is the first semisolid food babies start to eat. Even now, I like to eat apple sauce whenever I feel like having something sweet. I could absolutely have an apple, but when you crave the dessert, you are not looking for that high crunch.

I froze the crepes I made for Mark's birthday dinner. I had planned to use them for different fillings and this one was one of those fillings. Who doesn't love a warm piece of apple pie with cold vanilla ice cream?! Apple and cinnamon is such a perfect marriage. The aroma of apples being cooked in butter with cinnamon and sugar is so heart warming and inviting. It's very homey. It's something you would like to come home to in cold winter days to warm up with.

I've made apple pies in the past. My only problem is the pastry dough! It's half flour half butter. That's what you call killjoy! Butter does make everything taste better but you definitely wouldn't want something to from your lips to sit on your hips! That's why I stopped baking and having apple pies. Yes, once in a blue moon, no problem. But I just can't have it every single time I crave for warm apple dessert. That's when the idea struck me. Why not use the crepes as a carrying vehicle for that warm, gooey apple pie filling? I followed my heart and the result was such hit.

The problem with the picture here is the sauce! I forgot to pour more sauce over the top of this crepe. And leftover sauce ended up in the kitchen sink! Not going to make the same mistake again.

Apple Pie Crepe
For Crepes:
Same as my Strawberry Crepes

Filling ingredients
2 apples
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp cinnamon
How to:

Cube apples. Melt butter in a sauce pan. Add apples, sugar and cinnamon, cook till apples are tender crisp.
Fill the crepes with it, serve the way you want!

And now the muffins! You can call them doughnut muffins or cake muffins. They came out soooo good. I loved to have my family wake up at the sweet, spicy, warming aroma on a Sunday morning! Since we go to the church on Sunday mornings at around 10, I had just about enough time to whip up a batch of these muffins. I decided to make them for Sunday breakfast so I prepared and mixed the dry ingredients the night before. All the wet ingredients were waiting for me either on the counter or in the fridge. I also laid out the required utensils so that I don't have to pull the drawers out and disturb anyone's sleep. My reward: Mark commented that I should make these muffins often as they are much better than the storebought! Hooray! I just hit the jackpot!

Apple Pie Muffins
Ingredients
3 cups All Purpose Flour
1 tbsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
¾ cup Evaporated Milk
1/3 cup plain yogourt
½ cup vegetable oil
¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups grated apple

For Topping:
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
¼ cup unsalted butter, melted

How to:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease or line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder,baking soda and salt. In separate bowl, mix
evaporated milk and yogourt.
In a separate bowl, beat shortening, butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in eggs,
beating well after each addition. Add vanilla.
With mixer on low, add flour and yogourt mixtures to shortening mixture, starting and ending with flour
mixture and scraping down between each addition.
Fold in apple. Scoop batter into prepared muffin cups.
Bake for 30 - 35 minutes or until firm to the touch.
Let cool in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes.

Topping: In a small bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon. While muffins are still hot, brush with
melted butter. Roll each muffin in cinnamon sugar until thoroughly coated. Best served warm.