Apple Streusel Egg Muffins

It's been a long time since we've posted a new recipe. Sorry about that. No good excuse really other than being busy with life. This particular recipe that I'm posting today is from the 21 Day Sugar Detox Book . I did this detox back in June, and it was pretty difficult. But, I really think it helped with sugar cravings, and I lost about 8 pounds! Fortunately, the author provides plenty of wonderful recipes to choose from during the detox. This Apple Streusel Muffin was something I ate for breakfast everyday. There's absolutely no sugar in it save for the diced apples. However, it's still very good. I'm still eating this for breakfast along with a Chocolate Avocado Smoothie! Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 tbsp butter, coconut oil, or ghee (I use butter)
1 1/2 cups peeled & chopped green apple
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, divided
3 tbsp warm water
6 eggs (I use 5)
2 tbsp full-fat coconut milk
1/2 tsp  vanilla
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp coconut flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
Pinch salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium sized skillet, sautee the diced apples in the melted butter over medium heat. Sprinkle 1 tsp of the cinnamon and stir. Add in the water. Stir and cook for about 10 minutes until the apples are the consistency of chunky applesauce or apple pie filling. Set aside to cool completely.

In a medium size bowl, add the eggs and whisk. Then, add the coconut milk and vinegar. Whisk until incorporated. Sift in the coconut flour, baking soda, and salt. Add in the remaining 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Whisk until well combined. Next, stir in the cooled apples. Prepare 6 cups of a muffin tin with parchment paper muffin cup liners. Pour the mixture into the cups. Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until the muffins have risen and golden in color. Enjoy.

Iron Chef Cinnamon Recap

We had a full house for Iron Chef Cinnamon this February, either because everyone really likes cinnamon, or because everyone wanted to see our lovely hostess Morgan's new place. Either way, it was a great night with lots of tasty cinnamon dishes first, followed by a lot of wine, gossiping and laughing. Hard to say which part was better. Alright, since there are so many dishes, I'm going to jump right into the recap! 

Cara's drink was first out of the gate and she upped the presentation ante right away with her fancy schmancy apple with a cinnamon star design. The drink was an Apple Cider Champagne and it tasted a little bit like apple pie in a glass! The champagne made it more refreshing and light than a regular apple cider. I would say Cara completely redeemed herself from the Great Ginger Champagne Fiasco last year at Iron Chef Ginger. 

We had TWO drinks this time which was either a genius idea or a really bad idea. I say genius. Doan brought out her Cinnamon Horchata next. Horchata is a traditional Latin drink made with milk and cinnamon and Doan spiked hers up with some rum. Yay, rum! I'm a huge fan of White Russians and this was a bit like that. Plus, any time you can't taste the alcohol in a drink, you know it's trouble, especially when Doan's involved. 

Now we move into the appetizers. Emily was first with her Chicken, Pear and Goat Cheese Tarts with Cinnamon Bacon. Apparently goat cheese and cinnamon is a common pairing because we had more than a couple dishes that involved both. As a huge goat cheese fan, I was definitely not complaining. I admit to going back to Emily's tray a few times-- it was one of my favorites of the night. Using pear instead of the traditional apple was really smart and unique, and the whole thing made for a really enjoyable bite (or two bites if you have more manners than I do.) 

Jen made a surprise (and very welcome) appearance after we hadn't seen her in awhile. She brought some cinnamon and (I think) walnut crusted goat cheese balls served on a crispy bagel chip. As you can see, it maybe wasn't the prettiest dish of the night, but you can't taste pretty! It actually tasted great. As previously mentioned, I'm a big goat cheese fan so these worked perfectly for me.

We also had a spiced butternut squash, cinnamon apple bisque from Kristy that we ate too quickly to grab a photo of (oops!). The squash and apple were great together and the cinnamon added depth to the flavor of the soup. Slightly sweet and creamy with a lot of autumn flavors, I think it would be a wonderful Thanksgiving appetizer! 

We only had one side, courtesy of Kim, but it was a really good one. She made a cinnamon and goat cheese sweet potato mash that she topped with marinated red grapes. Sweet potatoes are usually too sweet for me, but the goat cheese cut them perfectly, and the tartness of the red grapes helped as well. Again, I think this would be a great addition to your Thanksgiving table as it elegantly improved the classic yam.

Shu was the first main and served cinnamon spiced chicken with cous cous. I think there was cinnamon in the cous cous as well as on the chicken and it had sort of a Moroccan vibe to the whole dish. Since a lot of our dishes were on the sweeter side of savory, it was nice to have a dish that wasn't so sweet. It did have some rehydrated fruits in it (which Shu later told us included prunes) that had a bit of sweetness, but not too much. Eating the chicken and cous cous together in one bite was a really delicious mouthful. 

I had the other main, and after a loooong dry spell I was totally happy and pretty surprised to pull off a win. I made cinnamon fried chicken and waffles with a honey cinnamon sauce. The chicken was oven baked but still was as crispy as deep fried chicken would have been, and even though I froze the waffles and reheated them in the oven, they were nice an crispy as well. The sauce was pretty sweet but worked with the chicken and evidently turned out as tasty as I hoped. It was a complicated dish, but worth it to get a win.

The night's second place dish was our first dessert made by Laura. Cinnamon ice cream over crispy cinnamon chips, drizzled with chocolate sauce. It reminded me a lot of fried ice cream, as far as the flavors go. It had a ton of cinnamon flavor, maybe the most of any other dish of the night, and the creamy ice cream and crispy chips were a really nice contrast. This is the kind of dish you could serve at a party without too much trouble and get a really good response.

We saved our hostess of the evening, Morgan, for last. She made an apple cinnamon crumble that was absolutely classic and delicious, even as stuffed as we all were. Served warm, the way it should be, it was nice and tender. It would have been even better with a spoonful of Laura's cinnamon ice cream! 

Congrats to the winners (thank you, thank you,) and great job cooking, ladies. I'm already looking forward to the next one. Iron Chef Kale, perhaps? 

Swedish Tea Ring

Ever since I was a little girl my mother has made these English Tea Rings for Christmas day breakfast. Basically, they are a type of cinnamon roll. The rolls, however, are much fluffier than cinnamon rolls and they don't have as much cinnamon goodness. The other difference is the rolls are made into a ring instead of rolled and cut. As far as the flavor goes; they are very delicious. Just the right amount of cinnamon. I absolutely love them. Well, I wanted to make these for my neighbor who has helped me out a lot since I've lived in this home. I found this recipe for a Swedish tea ring, and I thought it looked pretty similar to the version my mom made. I decided to give it a whirl. Boy, they turned out excellent. The cardamon and lemon zest really gave the rolls a nice zing. I highly recommend this recipe. And, it was really easy to make. Enjoy!

Ring Dough:
1 package instant yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 Tb sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp. cardamom
zest of one lemon
2 1/2 - 3 cups all purpose flour

Filling:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 TB cinnamon
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2 Tb milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

First, heat your milk in the microwave for about a minute and a half until the reading of your thermometer comes out to 105-110 degrees. Set aside. Next, add in the flour, sugar, salt, cardamon, instant yeast, butter, and lemon zest into your bowl. Briefly, mix together. Now, with the dough hook attached pour in your milk and egg; mix until it forms a nice dough that pulls apart from the bowl. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for a couple minutes until the dough becomes smooth and shiny. Take a large bowl; lightly spray with cooking oil, and place your dough into the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and place the bowl in a warm oven (around 80 degrees). Let rise until doubled in size...about an hour or two. I let mine rise for 2 hours.

Once the dough has doubled in size, remove from the oven. Punch down the dough, and turn out onto a floured surface. Roll the dough into a 12x18 rectangle. Now, get your filling together. I did not use walnuts. Pour the sugar/cinnamon mixture onto the dough and spread evenly leaving a slight border around the dough. I did make another batch of the cinnamon sugar mixture because I didn't think it was enough. Roll your dough into a log starting at the short end of the dough. I had to kind of pull the dough as I rolled to make it long enough so I could make it into a ring. Once you have the dough in the form of a ring, take scissors and cut every inch or so only about 3/4 of the way. You don't want to cut the ring. Twist each piece slightly so the rolls fan out from the ring. Place the ring on a parchment lined cookie sheet and put plastic wrap over the dough. Place in your 85 degree oven and let rise for an additional hour. Remove from oven; and pre-heat at 375 degrees. Place the ring in the oven and let cook for about 20-30 minutes or until the rolls have a nice golden color. Remove from oven. And, let cool on a cooling rack. When completely cooled; gather together the ingredients for the glaze into a small bowl. Pour with a spoon over the ring. Enjoy!

(Click here for printable recipe)

Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread

Yesterday was a cold, windy, and rainy day. It was a perfect day to stay in and do absolutely nothing. Because of this cold and dreary day; I had decided to make chicken and dumplings for dinner. And, while I was looking for this recipe I came across this one for Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread. It sounded delicious so I decided to bake this as well. I have to say baking anything that has cinnamon in it is so delightful. The house smelled so lovely. This bread tasted awesome. If you are home on a dreary day be sure to bake this bread. You won't regret it. Thanks to Joy the Baker for the recipe! Enjoy!

Ingredients

For the Dough:

2 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 ounces unsalted butter
1/3 cup whole milk
1/4 cup water
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Filling:

1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
2 ounces unsalted butter, melted until browned


To make the bread; mix the 2 cups flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a mixing bowl. Next, take your butter and milk and melt over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, remove from heat and add the water and vanilla. Once the temperature of the milk mixture reaches 115 to 125 degrees pour this into your flour mixture. Stir with a dough hook. Add the eggs and mix well. Add the remaining 3/4 flour. The dough should be sticky. Place the dough into a well-oiled large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, and place in a warm oven (85 degrees) for 1 to 2 hours. While the dough rises; incorporate the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a small bowl. Next, take 2 ounces of butter and melt until nicely browned. Set aside. Once the dough has doubled in size, remove from oven, punch down the dough, and knead in another 2 tbsp of flour. Let rest on the counter with a kitchen towel over the dough for about 5 minutes. Now, roll out the dough to about 20 inches in length and about 12 inches in width. Mine was only around 15 inches in length and about 10 inches in width. Now, brush the butter onto the dough. Then pour the brown sugar evenly onto the dough. Next, cut the dough vertically into 6 strips. Then layer the dough on top of each other and cut into 6 more strips. You should have 6 stacks of 6 squares. I didn't really have this, but I just went with it. Next, place the dough (like flip books) into your oiled and floured loaf pan. Place a kitchen towel over the bread and place in a warm oven and let rise for another 30 to 45 minutes. Remove from oven. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Place bread in oven and let bake for about 30-35 minutes or until the bread has a nice dark, golden brown color. Remove from oven and let rest for another 20-30 minutes. Use a knife to run around the edge of the pan to help loosen the bread from the pan. Invert onto a plate. Turn the bread right-side up and serve.
Best eaten the same day, but will keep for 1 to 2 days as long as it is tightly wrapped. Enjoy!

(click here for printable recipe)

Cinnamon Swirl Bundt Cake

In my opinion, I think in order to be a good cook or baker you need to be really good at following directions. If you don't then you can pretty much guarantee that the recipe will turn out horribly. In baking it's especially important to follow the recipe. I think it has something to do with dealing with sugars, flour, butter, and measuring exactly. Well, this happens to be one of those occasions where I read the instructions, but I didn't properly follow them. However, my inability to follow instructions turned out perfectly. Okay, I did try to take out the cake too early from the bundt pan thus messing up the cake aesthetically. But, when I took a bite out of that cake it was so moist and the crumbly cinnamon part of the cake (one part I messed up) was wonderfully tasty. I've been wanting to make a cinnamon cake or a cinnamon coffee cake and this recipe definitely hit the spot. It was very moist, filled with plenty of cinnamon, and it was deeeelicious. Thanks to divine-baking for the recipe! Enjoy!

Ingredients:
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
¾ cup dark Brown sugar

First thing in the morning, I took out the butter and 3 eggs in order to let it come to room temperature. The recipe didn't call for this, but since Barefoot Contessa always thinks it's a good idea I decided to go for it. When I was ready to start baking I preheated the oven to a 400 degree temperature.
I took the 3/4 cup of brown sugar (I used light brown) and cinnamon and 1/4 cup of white sugar. Mix together and set aside.

Next, I took my mixing bowl and put the 3 eggs along with 1 1/2 cups of sugar and mixed well. Then, I added the sour cream and butter. Mix well. I had placed the flour, baking powder, and baking soda into a small bowl. Now, gradually add the flour mixture into the mixing bowl. Mix well. Add the vanilla and nuts (I omitted the nuts). Stir well. Okay, this is where I messed up. I ended up adding an additional 1/4 cup of sugar into the mixture. Take your lightly oiled bundt pan and pour half the batter into it. Now, this is the second part where I messed up. You are supposed to pour the entire cinnamon mixture onto the batter. And, then pour the remaining batter on top. Well, I poured half the cinnamon mixture onto the batter, poured the remaining batter on top, and then added the remaining cinnamon mixture on top of that. I'm really glad I did that, because it had a nice crunchy topping. Cook the cake for 8 minutes at 400 degrees and then turn the temperature down to 350 degrees and cook an additional 30 minutes. Well, it ended up taking me an additional 50 minutes to cook the cake. Not 30 minutes. I had to stick a toothpick in it to make sure it came out clean before I took it out of the oven.
The third part where I messed up was removing the cake from the bundt pan before it properly cooled. So, make sure that you remove it from the pan after it's cooled completely.

Now, you can make the icing to go on top of the cake if you so desire. To make the icing take 4 cups of powdered sugar and 3-8 tbsp of milk. Gradually add the milk a tablespoon at a time until it reaches the consistency and taste that you like. Pour onto the cake. I ended up using about 3 1/2 cups of sugar and about 5 tbsp of milk.

(Click here for printable recipe)