Home Made Oreos

In a bout of domestic-ness, I made home made oreos today.  I only ate half of one, as the rest went to work with Joe... gotta feed those hungry soldiers :)  Heaven knows I don't need to be eating a lot of these! :)

In the bite or two I did have- YUM.  They are super sweet, so you can only eat one in a sitting, but I really enjoyed it.  These would be great for a party.

You can see the recipe here (I adore King Arthur and their blog!) and even a different version I'd like to try- peppermint!

Joe's Last Meal... aka Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Joe's having his surgery tomorrow and can't eat after midnight, so I made a nice meal (lemon chicken with rice) and on a whim tonight decided to make a recipe I've been eyeing since October... Caramel Apple Cupcakes... man oh man are they tasty!

[iPhone photo]

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Ingredients:
(frosting to follow)

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 large eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup applesauce
1 cup shredded or finely chopped, Granny Smith apples

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners.

2. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.

3. With a mixer, stir the eggs, butter, and applesauce. Mix until combined. Carefully add the dry ingredients.

4. Now chop the apples. Peel and slice the apple. Then using a grater, grate the apple into fine shreds, like cheese. You can also chop it finely which works just as well. Now stir the shredded apples into the batter mixture.

5. Fill the cupcake liners 2/3 full to almost full, so that they have a nice rounded top like an apple. This batter will make 12 cupcakes.

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Test with a toothpick for done-ness. Cool on a wire rack. While they are cooling, make the frosting.

Caramel Frosting

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup whole milk
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1tsp cinnamon
1 TB maple syrup

1. In a saucepan on medium heat, melt the butter and brown sugar. When they are melted and bubbly, add the milk. Carefully raise the heat and bring the mixture to a quick boil. Careful - you don’t want to burn it. Once it foams up and turns that lovely caramel color, take it off the heat immediately.

2. Remove pan from heat and stir in the powdered sugar and vanilla, cinnamon and syrup, mixing until frosting is smooth. Then, I simply frost the cupcakes by dipping them into the frosting. It’s more of a glaze - in the sense that it will firm up.

This is Me... Baking!

This won't happen very often, but I actually baked cookies AND muffins today!

I made Katie's Banana Muffins with Honey Cinnamon Frosting and Kate's Chocolate Cookies, and they were both extremely tasty. But I didn't get to have too many because these weren't for me, I made them for Joe and the other troops at Ft. Detrick. They were soooo good, though.

Thanks for the amazing recipes, girls!

Katie's Banana Cupcakes

Ingredients:
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 c. mashed bananas (about 4 ripe bananas)
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
-In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
-Make a well in center of flour mixture.
-In well, mix together butter, mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla.
-Stir to incorporate flour mixture (do not over mix).
-Dividing evenly, spoon batter into muffin cups.
-Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.
-Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely on a wire rack.
-Spread tops with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting.

Honey Cinnamon Frosting

Ingredients
1 1/4 c. confectioners' sugar
1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 Tbsp honey
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions
-In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer, beat confectioners' sugar, unsalted butter, honey, and ground cinnamon until smooth, 4 to 5 minutes

Kate's Soft and Crispy Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar, plus more for dipping
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:
-In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
-In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and the sugar until fluffy, then add the eggs and vanilla.
-Turn the mixer on low speed and gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture.
-Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge at least one hour, but preferably overnight.
-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
-Pinch off a small piece of the dough and roll into a 1 inch ball. Dip the top of the ball in granulated sugar. Place on baking sheet. Leave 1 1/2 inches between cookies, they will spread out a lot.
-Bake cookies 8-12 minutes, or until spread out and slightly puffed in the center. (The cookies will "fall" after baking, which gives them the appearance pictured).
-Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.