Apples Galore

Who doesn't love apples? In one day I made three different apple yummies.



Timmy and I love drinking cider; if only it was easier to find cider all year 'round. To kick up store-bought cider a knotch simply simmer the cider in a pot with some cinnamon sticks and cloves. Ground cinnamon doesn't work so well (it tends to just float on top of the cider rather than mixing in), so, be sure to use cinnamon sticks. We often add amaretto to our cider as well which not only increases the sweetness, but helps create the wonderful warm tummy feeling.

These apples are super easy to make. I simply cubed up an apple, and simmered it in the pot with the cider. When the apples were done to the softness I wanted, I took them out with a slotted spoon, and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. They were really, really good.



The third apple item I made was apple muffins. I hestiate to call them muffins because they were really, really moist; I did use an apple cupcake recipe to make them, however, without the frosting it called for I don't really like calling them cupcakes either. I based my apple "muffin" recipe off of this apple cupcake recipe, however, I changed a lot of the ingredients. My recipe is healthier because I eliminated the oil, cut down the egg yolks, and eliminated the frosting (which had heavy cream and a lot of butter). Here is what I used to make my "muffins" (I underlined the items I changed from the original recipe)...


3 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 whole eggs, and 4 egg whites
1 1/2 cup sugar*
1/2 cup brown sugar*
1/4 cup apple cider
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup apple sauce
2 cups grated apples (make sure to peel)


*The only reason I made changes to the sugar/brown sugar ratio was because I did not have enough brown sugar. In the future, however, I plan to reduce the regular sugar (by a 1/4 or a 1/2 of a cup) since the apple sauce adds extra sugar.

I went with the recommendation of mixing sweet and sour apples and I was glad that I did. I followed the original recipes' instructions for mixing and baking, and like I said, I completely left off the frosting.