Fresh summer peaches, another awesome Farmer's Market find...not what to do with them? I've made peach pie a million times so that was out. Then I happened to see peach cupcakes on Smitten Kitchen and knew a cupcake it must be! I wanted something a little different though, so the Peach Pie Cupcake was created.
I couldn't decide though which frosting I wanted, so I made three, I know I'm a compete dork. I preferred the brown sugar, T liked the brown butter better. The mascarpone was pretty great, just not really the right thing for this cupcake though, it needed something with a little more depth and heaviness. Amazingly, the kids actually ate these...cool...and they're not half bad for breakfast either. Inspired by Willow Bird Baking.
Peach Pie Cupcakes
1 stick unsalted butter
3/8 cup light brown sugar
3/8 cup white sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
½ cup buttermilk
¼ cup applesauce (or any fruit flavor baby food you like)
3 Tbs Tuaca liquor, divided
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp salt
2 cups fresh peaches chopped
1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Line 12 wells in a cupcake pan. In a small bowl, make streusel. Add all the ingredients and cut the mixture into crumbles using a pastry blender. In a separate bowl, combine chopped peaches with 1 tablespoon Tuaca liquor, set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Add the eggs one at a time and mix. Mix in the buttermilk, applesauce, vanilla, and the Tuaca/peach juice and extra 2 tablespoons Tuaca.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add a little of the flour mixture at a time to the wet ingredients, mixing well after each addition. Beat the batter well until air is incorporated, about 2 more minutes.
4. Pour batter until each cupcake well is just under half full. Spoon a thin layer of streusel over this batter, then drop in one tablespoon of peaches (making sure not get extra juice from the peaches). Fill in with the rest of the cupcake batter. If you love a lot of peach in your “cobbler,” you can add a few more hunks on top. Spoon a sprinkle of streusel over the top of the batter in each well. Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in pan for a couple of minutes, and then on a cooling rack. Once cupcakes are completely cool, frost them.
Streusel
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
½ cup flour
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ cup unsalted butter (4 tablespoons)
Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting, Smitten Kitchen
1 ¼ cups light brown sugar
¼ cup cornstarch
½ cup powdered sugar
2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
½ cup (4 ounces or 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
In a small bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, cornstarch and powdered sugar. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add the sugar-cornstarch mixture and vanilla, beat until frosting is smooth and light. Chill the bowl in the refrigerator until it thickens back up a bit, about 30 minutes, then spread or dollop on cooled cupcakes.
Mascarpone Frosting, Martha Stewart
1 cup heavy cream
8 oz mascarpone cheese, room temp
½ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form (be careful not to overbeat, or cream will be grainy). In another bowl, whisk together mascarpone and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Gently fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture until completely incorporated. Use immediately.
Brown Butter Icing, Martha Stewart
4 Tbs un-salted butter
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 Tbs milk
1. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat until nut-brown in color, about 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat, and pour butter into a bowl, leaving any burned sediment behind.
2. Add sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon milk; stir until smooth. If the icing is too thick, add the remaining tablespoon milk, a little at a time, until consistency is spreadable. Let cool 5 minutes. Use immediately* These cupcakes would have looked amazing if I'd had chocolate brown cupcake liners, I really need to buy some!
I've seen snickerdoodle cookies, but never actually tried one... so although these are supposed to be snickerdoodle muffins, I'm not sold on the name, so I'm renaming them Cinnamon Crunch Muffins. They are a seriously yummy breakfast muffin, or... just happen to be cruising by the kitchen, grab one off the counter muffin...whatever.
The kids can be really funny about muffins, so imagine my surprise when these Cinnamon muffins were gone in less than 24 hours...can we say HIT?!?
I admit they were a bit of work, and I think I'll refrigerate the dough for maybe 15 minutes before trying to 'roll' them. I use the term roll lightly, they actually ended up more like blobs that I dumped in cinnamon sugar. Rolling was not gonna happen, so I ended up spooning the cinnamon sugar over the blobs until well coated.
However you do it, who cares, no one is going to see your funky blobs, they just want good muffins!
Cinnamon Crunch Muffins
8oz unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
¾ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp cream of tartar
¾ tsp nutmeg
1 ¼ cup sour cream
2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar and 2-3 Tbs cinnamon mixed together for rolling (shallow bowl).
Preheat oven to 350°.
1. Cream butter and sugar until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Add the vanilla, mix on medium. Add eggs one at a time and mix until each is incorporated.
2. In a separate mixing bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cream of tartar, and nutmeg.
3. Add the flour mixture and the sour cream alternately to the egg-butter mixture. Start with and end with the flour. Scrape sides of bowl as needed.
4. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out muffin batter (leveled), one at a time and drop into cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll the muffin until well covered, or like me, spoon cinnamon sugar over the blob until well coated. Place muffins in ungreased/unlined muffin tins and bake about 20-22 minutes or until cinnamon sugar top is well cracked.
Tips:
1. If the dough seems real real wet, don't add all the sour cream.
2. Refrigerate dough 10-15 minutes before rolling in cinnamon sugar.
I know I know, I already made these, and I did, sort of. I had many issues with the blueberries in the pancakes last time... I have one kid who loves blueberries, but doesn't like them in the pancake, another who didn't want them at all, and honestly they're a bit of a pain to make, plus they burned on my skillet (I'm still trying to scrape them off). This time I skipped them in the pancake and made an awesome Blueberry Syrup. It was a huge hit with all the children and dad, so it's a keeper. Doesn't hurt that it was way easy to make!
Buttermilk Cornmeal Pancakes, adapted from Martha Stewart
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup cornmeal
¼ cup sugar
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ cups buttermilk
¼ cup milk
3 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled
1 egg, lightly beaten
1. Melt butter and allow to cool while you prep.
2. Whisk together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt and soda in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
3. Whisk together buttermilk, milk, butter, egg and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl.
4. Add wet mixture to dry, stir until just combined.
5. Pour ¼ batter per pancake, turn when edges are just brown.
Tip: Keep cooked pancakes on a baking sheet in a 200° oven until you’re ready to serve.
Blueberry Syrup
2 cups fresh blueberries
½ cup water
½ cup sugar
Bring blueberries, water and sugar to a boil over medium-high heat. Mash the blueberries with the back of spoon and continue to boil for about 3-5 minutes. Serve hot over pancakes.
Have some extra pears or apples laying around, have both laying around? These muffins are a delicious and healthy way to put them to good use. You can use either pears or apples or a combination of the two, any variety of the fruit will work, so use your favorites. I've attempted to make this as healthy as possible, but if you're looking to be even more health conscious, exchange the flour for wheat flour and leave off the caramel topping.
I'm sad to say, Aidan picked around all the pieces of the fruit (but of course licked the caramel off every little inch), thankfully my twin hoovers were not so picky and ate it right up.
Spiced Apple & Pear Muffins with Caramel Topping
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
¾ cup apple sauce
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cloves
2 cups pears/apples/both, raw peeled & diced
- (I recommend dicing very, very tiny)
Caramel Topping
¼ cup brown sugar
2 Tbs milk
4 Tbs butter
Heat oven to 350°. In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, apple sauce, and vanilla, set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cloves. Pour wet ingredients into your dry ingredients, mix just until combined. Fold in fruit. Using an ice cream/cookie scooper, even divide batter into muffin pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes.
Heat brown sugar, milk, and butter in a small saucepan. Slowly boil for about 3-4 minutes on low-med/low. Pour a small amount of caramel sauce onto each muffin, put back in the oven and continue to cook for an additional 4-5 minutes. Remove and cool.Tips:
1. Boil caramel on a low setting (not a rolling boil) or you will curdle your milk...ewww.
2. Save the left over caramel, let it cool a bit and drizzle over individual muffins
It's as easy as apple pie...err...say what? If Apple Pie was that easy, I'd probably have just gone and made an apple pie. Apple Tarts are not only easier to make, but a heck of a lot easier to eat, at least if you're trying to eat with your hands. The big difference is in the crust, you can just used a premade frozen pasty sheet, so NO pie crust to make,Yay! I was originally going to make Pioneer Woman's Apple Tart, and I sort of did, I just changed it a bit and added a caramel drizzle on top...mmmmm, caramel!
Easy as Pie Apple Tart with Caramel Drizzle
Tart
Frozen Pastry Sheet
3 apples, peeled/cored/thinly sliced
fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
Caramel
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup milk
1/3 lb butter
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Liberally spray a cookie sheet with Pam baking spray, place the frozen pastry sheet on the pan and allow to thaw for about 15-20 minutes. Once thawed, cut into any size you'd like for your tarts, I used a pizza slicer and cut into 6 even pieces. If you notice your sheet getting soft and doughy looking, throw your cookie sheet into the freezer for a couple minutes.
Place your apple slices in large bowl and toss with the juice of about half a lemon. Add in your brown sugar, cinnamon and salt, coat well. Arrange your apple slices on the pastry sheet in overlapping layers. This time I did mine in a straight row, next time I think I'll cut my pastry sheet into circles, fanning my apple slices, so that it ends up sort of like a cookie. Cook your tarts for about 20 minutes, or until you notice the edges getting nice and brown, the browner the better!
Remove your tarts, allow to cool for a couple minutes then carefully transfer to a wire cooling wrack. While your apple tarts are cooling you can make the caramel topping. The caramel is completely optional, I just thought it really added something special to the tart. I didn't put much on at all, just a little is needed.
Using a small saucepan, bring your brown sugar, milk and butter to a gentle boil. Cook for about 3-4 minutes, making sure not to burn. Remove from heat and allow your caramel to cool for few minutes and thicken slightly. Using a small spoon, drizzle your caramel over the apple tarts, each will only need about a tablespoon of caramel. If your caramel becomes too thick, just reheat over low for a minute or two.
We made our 3rd annual trip to Brandermill to watch the fireworks over the reservoir. The kids were exhausted by the end of the show and let us sleep in till 7:30am, what a treat :) These tarts were a perfect and easy dessert for our picnic and just as good the next morning for breakfast, ENJOY!
Tips:
1. Either use a baking sheet with sides, or place a large sheet of tin foil on the bottom of your oven, juice from the tarts WILL run and make a huge burnt mess in your oven...thankfully I did think of this and was saved that disaster. I really need to get baking sheets with sides!
2. Use an apple corer, it will make your life easier while making sure your slices are beautiful, I really need one of these.
3. These tarts are a wonderfully dessert and so much easier to make than an apple pie, but they were awesome the next day for breakfast, just heat in your microwave for about 20 seconds.
4. Do not skip the fresh lemon juice. Use the bottled stuff if you have to, but make sure lemon juice gets in there, it adds just the right amount of fresh tartness.
I found this recipe on Bakerella, adapted from Martha Stewart the other day and was oh so tempted. Butter, maple syrup, butter, blueberries, butter...who could resist, certainly not me! Ignore the terrible photo, the kids and dad were screeching from the other room, starving for blueberry pancakes so I was unable to take my time and set up a good shot. The Maple Orange Butter was OK, I love the concept but think I'll search around for a differnt idea next time. The ingredients were a pain to incorporate together, so I ended up pulling out the hand mixing and whipping it, which made it more of a production than I cared for. The pancakes themselves were very good actually. The cornmeal adds an interesting texture and I think lends a ton of flavor. Dad says this one's a keeper and has kicked our basic pancake recipe to the curb. Since my kids (except for Bryce, photo below), are picky about the blueberries, I think I'll heat some slightly in a sauce pot with some sugar and serve on the side next time. Everyone can then get the amount they want, where they want it on their plate, and it will actually make flipping the pancake a lot easier. Enjoy!
Fresh summer peaches, another awesome Farmer's Market find...not what to do with them? I've made peach pie a million times so that was out. Then I happened to see peach cupcakes on Smitten Kitchen and knew a cupcake it must be! I wanted something a little different though, so the Peach Pie Cupcake was created.
