Apple Streusel Bars

I've been on hiatus for quite some time now, I know, but nursing school has been consuming my life. Also, my apartment sucks and I have little to no kitchen. But what doesn't suck is shortbread crust, apples and cinnamon, streusal topping and sugary glaze. Hence: Apple Streusel Bars. I gave a batch to my boyfriend and his family and the other half to my classmate and her husband and got 0 back. I borrowed this recipe from Our Best Bites , however modified it just a bit (mostly because I didn't have what I was supposed to in my kitchen). Anyway, hope you like it!



apple streusel bars: crust.

2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. real butter, softened (I used 1/2 c. margarine and 1/2 c. butter because I actually ran out of butter...I wouldn't recommend this but...you gotta do what you gotta do)
1 egg, beaten

apple filling.
1/2 c. white sugar
1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon (I used 1 TBSP...mmm cinnamon)
4 c. (about 3 medium) sliced, peeled baking apples (I used fiji)

glaze.
2 c. powdered sugar
About 3 Tbsp. milk (whole milk is best)
1 tsp. almond extract

1. Spray a 9×13 baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
3. Prepare crust: mix flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl.
4. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or two knives until you have pea-sized crumbles. Gently mix in beaten egg.
5. Gently pat about 2/3 of the crumb mixture onto the bottom of the dish and set aside.

6. Prepare apple filling: combine flour, sugar, and cin namon and toss with apples.
7. Spread apples out on prepared crust.
8. Sprinkle reserved crust mixture over apples evenly and bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes. When finished, allow to cool completely.

9. Prepare glaze: whisk together powdered sugar, almond extract, and enough milk to achieve desired consistency.
10. Place glaze in a Ziploc bag and cut off a very small portion of one of the corners.
11. Drizzle glaze over cooled pastry and allow to harden (you can place it in the freezer to hurry things along). Cut into bars and serve.

leftovers: sour cream blueberry banana bread

So I was really stoked to make angel food cake the past few days and just haven't been able to get around to it. My brother-in-law is in town, so I was hanging out with him, plus Glee was on last night and I was not going to miss that, not to mention I am taking 2 classes and working 11 hour days at my job, 13 hour days if you count my commute. Needless to say, while my life is passing by at record speeds, I've got almost rotting bananas, sour cream, and blueberries that are waiting to be baked into something delicious...hence, sour cream blueberry banana bread. Based on the circumstances, I think I am going to call it "my life is out of hand and I am about to have a minor meltdown bread"...heh, just kidding. I think I'm just tired.

Needless to say, I did a Google search for all of the over ripe items in my fridge and found sour cream blueberry banana bread from a website called bakespace.com. The woman who posted the recipe said she got it from Cooks.com. There was no picture attached but the recipe sounded completely fine to me and I was determined to use up the ingredients I had So here it is, sour cream blueberry banana bread, pictures and all.

 sour cream blueberry banana bread.
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I used 1 tsp...cinnamon is good.)
1 cup buttered, softened
3/4 cup sugar*
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed ripe bananas
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup pecans ( I omitted these, as I said before, I don't really like nuts in my food)

*In hindsite, I would probably add a little bit more sugar.  The bananas made the bread sweet enough, but I prefer sweeter. 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Grease and flour a 9x5" bread pan
3. Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy
4. Add the eggs, banana, and sour cream.  Beat until well blended.
5. Gradually beat in the flour mixture on low speed, until batter is smooth
6. Fold in the blueberries and walnuts
7. Bake for 1 hour*

*My oven usually bakes things faster than what a recipe calls for, but I actually had this bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes.  I was so nervous that the top was going to be too well done but this bread is really heavy and the darker crust was a nice touch.  It was like a container for the moist delicousness inside. 

Want more blueberry recipes? Try my Blueberry and Cream Cupcakes.

walnut streusal cinnamon swirl banana muffins.

I know I am supposed to be transferring over my recipes from my other website that is now out of commission, but I had a bunch of over-ripe bananas lying around and I just had to get them out of my house.  So ladies and gentlemen, I bring you, the first recipe I have ever created on my own.  I will warn you, I am by no means a master baker nor am I creative for that matter, but I had this idea so I just went for it.  I was pretty impressed with the outcome.  These have more of a cupcake consistency than a muffin, honestly.  They are very light and fluffy for a muffin.  The dough was sticky, almost like it was about to be bread dough. . Oh and um...the measurements are a little off.  I had a lot of extra cinnamon and sugar mixture, and a lot of extra streusal, so you may want to adjust those down a little bit.

streusal*.
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup chopped walnuts toasted**
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Mix  all ingredients together using a fork or your hands.  That's it. Piece of cake. Piece of crumb cake. 

  

*I call this streusel, honestly, I don't even know what streusel means, but I'm pretty sure this is it.  Please feel free to call me out if its not.
**I really hate nuts.  But after biting the bullet and putting toasted walnuts in the Blondies I made (I will post that recipe soon...amazing), my life is changed for ever.  Please don't slide over this step and not toast them, it brings out a fabulous flavor. 

cinnamon swirl.
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon sugar

Mix sugar and cinnamon together; set aside. 

muffins.
 3-4 bananas mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Line a standard cupcake pan with papers
3. Mix first 6 ingredients  (up to vanilla) together until well blended
4. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt
5. Beat in the flour mixture alternatively with the buttermilk, starting and ending with flour mixture
6. Fill muffin papers 1/3 full of mixture
7. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar in a layer over batter 
8. Fill muffin papers the rest of the way (about 2/3 full) 
9. Cover top of muffins with streusel.  Push it into the batter a little bit with your fingers, so it stays on when they rise.
10. Bake 20-25 minutes (mine took 22)  - I only made 12, it would probably make about 18 otherwise*

*I had some extra batter left so instead of  making more muffins, I opted to see how this would work as a bread/cake.  I greased a 9x5 inch bread pan and poured the batter in there and baked for about 40-45 minutes.  It came out beautifully.  I think this would honestly work best as a cake, but I guess it doesn't really matter, its all going to the same place in the end.

Want more Cinnamon recipes? Try my Snickerdoodle recipe.

cinnamon sugar snickerdoodle cookies.

Snickerdoodles.  I’ve been dying to make these.  Apparently they are a common “childhood” favorite, however; I don’t believe they ever took part in mine.  But I mean, cinnamon and sugar coated sugar cookie (essentially), how can that turn out bad? Initially, I was a little disappointed in the outcome of these.  Maybe my expectations were set too high as I am sitting here on a Thursday night, 80 degrees in DC in the middle of April and raining...working on that silver lining, but I wasn’t thaat impressed, initially.  They did grow on me though.  Not sure I would use this recipe again for this cookie but I am now set out to find a perfect snickerdoodle cookie, no offense Martha Stewart.

snickerdoodles.
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
     1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
8 TBSP (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup pure vegetable shortening (the solid stuff)
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 TBSP ground cinnamon
2 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper*.
2. Sift (or whisk) together flour, cream of tartar, salt, and baking soda; set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, shortening and 1 1/2 cups of sugar.
4. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy.
5. Add eggs and beat to combine.
6. Add dry ingredients and beat to combine.
7. In a small bowl combine remaining 1/4 cup of sugar and cinnamon.  
8. Use a small ice cream scoop** to form balls of dough and roll in cinnamon sugar. 
9. Place about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes, rotating cookie sheets at 5 min***.

 

10. Transfer to wire rack to cool.

I used one batch with parchment paper and one without.  I had nonstick baking sheets and the parchment paper made no difference, just turned slightly crisp.  Which is fine, if thats how you like your parchment paper, not necessary though.

** Small ice cream scoop? I don’t even know what that means.  I used my fingers and got exactly 24 cookies which is what she got.  Guess I’m just good at sizing up balls...ha.

*** I baked the first batch for 10 minutes and they burned.  The bottoms were actually black.  I baked the 2nd batch for 7 minutes and they weren’t black, but still pretty dark.  I imagine these could be done at 5-6 minutes depending on your oven, just keep an eyeball on them.