Apple Pie Muffins

Let's see, I ordered a mystery package from Julep, at some point, last week. It was the truth&dare mystery package, where you picked a box with one product that you wanted and you knew what it was, and the rest of a mystery. They had like six different boxes to choose from and I chose the one with the Kajal Eyeliner because I've found that their black eyeliner that comes with that pencil duo works really well on my water line, and the sharpener that comes with that pencil is an amazing sharpener, it is the first sharpener I've found that doesn't destroy my 24/7 eyeliner pencils when I sharpen them. So... That will probably be here, at some point, next week, most likely since they sent it via DHL. Hopefully Julep can redeem themselves for the  Cynthia Fiasco that occurred in my July Box, that I'm still bitter about.

Ipsy went out last week, so I should get it either today or tomorrow, methinks.

But until then, you get Apple Pie Muffins.

I was baking a lot of cookies this summer, and cookies are bad for me because cookie recipes make a shit ton of cookies, and I love cookies. So I eat a lot of cookies. Therefore, I decided to go with something different this week, and made apple pie muffins. 

I had tried to make apple cinnamon muffins once before, back when I lived in New Jersey, and they were um... special. I like to think I've come a long way from those baking days. These muffins came out amazingly delicious. 

Ingredients:

2 cups of all purpose-flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 cups of apple pie filling

 [which is found  in the baking section, Though additionally, I'm sure, if you had the patience, you could just dice the apples yourself. I'm just not that patient.]

1 stick of butter

2 eggs or egg substituite

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup of milk

Optional: Cinnamon/Sugar Spice

[I found mine in the baking section of the supermarket.]

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and spray muffin tin with Pam or something similar.

2. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a separate bowl.

3. Coat the apples with 2 teaspoons of flour in another separate bowl. I cut my apple pie mixture into smaller pieces so it would fit better into the muffin tin.

4. Coat the apple flour mixture with a cinnamon/sugar mixture. I just bought the cinnamon and sugar spice I found at my supermarket, but you could also just mix like two teaspoons of sugar and two teaspoons of cinnamon with each other, and coat it like that.

5. Cream the sugar and butter together in a big bowl.

 6. Add each egg, one at a time, and mix the mixture after each egg is added.

7. Mix in the Vanilla.

8. Put about 1/2 of the flour mixture in the bowl and mix.

9. Mix 1/4 of the milk [half of half a cup] into the mixture after blending the flour.

10. Put the other half of the flour in, mix, followed by the other half of the milk, and mix.

11. Dump the apple mixture into the bowl.

12. Mix the apple mixture with the batter.

 13. Pour the batter into a muffin tin, and cook for 30 minutes.

14. Remove the muffins from the oven. 

Optional topping:

1. Melt some butter in one bowl, and make a sugar/cinnamon mixture in the other.

2. Take one muffin, at a time, from the tin, dip it into the melted butter, and roll it in the cinnamon/sugar mixture.

 Transfer the muffins to a plate to cool, AND ENJOY. 

They taste like an apple pie inside of a muffin. SO GOOD.

Sunday Sweets: Peppermint Mocha Cookies

I am ridiculously OBSESSED with frapachinos, to the point, where I should probably be admitted to a mental ward for my addiction to it. My obsession with frapachinos started during my senior year at high school, when my friends and I would hang out at Starbucks every weekend.... before Starbucks became cool... Before Starbucks got all hipster, it was more of a place for artsy losers like my friends and me.

The first frapachino I obsessed over was a simple caramel frapachino. There were nights in high school, where I would go through two Venti fraps in one night... Back then, I ran track, so it was okay to drink fraps like a college student chugging beer at a frat party.

Then during my first college winter break, I bumped into a girl, who I went to college with, working at my local Starbucks, and she introduced me to peppermint frapachinos. From there, my obsession was born, and since then, I've also gotten my fiance addicted to peppermint mocha frapachinos. 

So... instead of spending tons of money on frapachinos, I decided I'd try to mimic the drink in cookie form, and hence the Peppermint Mocha cookies were born.

Ingredients:

* 3/4th cup of butter, softened

* 1/2 cup of white sugar

* 1/2 cup of brown sugar

* 1 egg or egg substituite

* 1 tsp vanilla extract

* 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour

* 1/4th cup unsweetened cocoa powder

* 1 1/2 tsp of espresso

* 1 tsp baking soda

* 1/2 tsp salt

* 1 cup of Andes mint peices

[Note: If you can't find the Andres pieces, you can use 1 tsp of peppermint flavoring, found in the baking aisle, usually, and then use 1 cup of regular milk or dark chocolate chips in place of them]

Instructions:

1. Preheat Oven to 350 degrees

2. Beat butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until they're creamy.

 3. Stir in egg and vanilla extract.

[Note: If you're using peppermint flavoring instead of chips, this is where you'd mix that in, as well.]

4. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and espresso into the wet ingredients and beat them together till the dough is smooth.

5. Mix in Andres mints [or chocolate chips].

6. Drop teaspoons of dough onto a baking tray.

[Note: The dough is very gooey, that is okay, it's much looser than say chocolate chip cookie dough, so don't freak out if your dough is runny!]

7. Cook for 10-12 minutes and let cool. [Note: I found 11 minutes worked perfectly.]

8. ENJOY!

They're really good!!! They really do taste like a peppermint mocha frapachino in cookie form. SO FREAKING GOOD!

That is all :)

Tuesday Tastiness: Toffee Oatmeal Cookies

So Julep sent me an email today stating that my July Box would be delayed because they can't send nailpolish via airline mail, so it has to be delivered via ground mail... Which is fine and all, but how did they send me my polish before? Is this flying rule a new one or something? Regardless, it is what it is, and they credited me with some joules, so I suppose I'll get it whenever it gets here.

On another HAPPY SUBSCRIPTION  BOX NOTE, my FMLA will be over at next pay cycle... Well technically, it's been over since May 27th, but they'll be done taking all the money from my paychecks to repay for my benefits and whatever they took it for, by July 15thish, so I'm hoping I can slowly reintroduce certain boxes into my monthly subscription selection aside from Julep and Ipsy. I definitely want Starbox back, my favorite subscription that I love to hate. Then there's my Birchbox, which is only ten dollars! I go back and forth about wantable, I do think I want it eventually, but I think I also need to wait till I've paid off some of the medical bills and such before resubscribing to everything I used to subscribe to. Then there are also NEW subscriptions that I've been eying.

Moving on... I did say I was posting a recipe, right?

I LOVE BAKING COOKIES, I've always loved baking cookies. I used to bake them all the time when I was living in NJ. I'd bake a double batch and send half away to Justin, my then boyfriend [now fiance], who lived in Texas, and leave the other half for my family. I would bake, at least twice, a month. I did ruin cookies like I tended to ruin other things I attempted to make... although, I've gotten MUCH BETTER in the kitchen since those Jersey days.

Then I moved to Texas, and stopped baking, not really for a lack of wanting to bake. I just didn't have an electric mixer, and never wanted to spend the money to buy one because subscription boxes are so much better I'm cheap. Then, for Christmas, Justin's mom got me a mixer, this year, and I hadn't touched it since she bought it for me till I made her those gluten free chocolate chip cookies... and that reopened a part of myself that had been repressed since I moved to Texas... and now I want to bake cookies, at least once a week or every two weeks... so I bring you.... TOFFEE OATMEAL COOKIES.

Ingredients:
* 1 cup margerine or butter, softened  

[which to me means leave it in the microwave till it melts, about two minutes, if you're curious.]

* 1 cup granulated sugar

* 1 cup brown sugar 

* 2 eggs or 2 eggs worth of egg substituite

* 1 tsp vanilla extract

* 2 cups all purpose flour

* 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

* 1 tsp baking soda

* 1 tsp salt

* 3 cups of oats

[I used Kroger whole grain oat, but I don't think it makes much of a different, which sort of oats or oatmeal you use]

* 1 cup of Health Toffee Bar Bits

[The entire toffee bar bits package is like 1.5 cups, so I just dumped the entire bag in. And if you don't like toffee, I'm sure chocolate chips or whatever would work out just as well.]

Directions:

1. Preheat Oven to 375 degrees

2. Cream butter/margarine and sugars until smooth.

3. Beat in Eggs and Vanilla

4. Combine and blend flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.

5. Stir in oats and toffee bar bites.

6. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto greased baking sheet. 

7. Bake 10-12 minutes, I found that 11 minutes worked great with my oven.

8. Eat them. They tastes amazing.

Some warnings, THIS RECIPE MAKES A SHIT TON OF COOKIES, it literally made me like 40 cookies! We're drowning in toffee oatmeal cookies! Luckily they're delicious.

I'm tempted to make care packages of cookies to mail to my family and friends because we have so many!

Therefore, you may want to cut the recipe into half, if you want less cookies.

So there you have it, the random cookie recipe that I thought I should bake, last night, so I did. I do not regret this decision, and I don't think Justin does either.

I'm tempted to add more to my blog... Like vacation descriptions? Justin and I went to Schlitterbahn Galveston, Friday, and I could write up a review for that.  And our honeymoon will be a CRAZY road trip through the United States. So we shall see.

Till then, enjoy the cookies.

Thursday Treats: Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Nope you read that right, Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I personally, don't have an issue with gluten, but my fiance's mom came over for dinner [I served the balsamic chicken and the roasted broccoli recipes that I've posted.] yesterday, and she has Celiac Disease, so she can't process gluten. I wanted to make something for desert, that she could eat... and hey, I LOVE EXPERIMENTS, especially baking ones, so I tried my luck at gluten free chocolate chip cookies... and know what? THEY DIDN'T SUCK! And I think she appreciated it.

 Ingredients:

* 3/4 cup of softened butter

* 1 1/2 cup of brown sugar

* 1 egg or egg subsituite

[Note: I used egg-beaters instead of eggs because they're less fattening, and I developed a taste for them because my grandpa used to love them.]

* 2 1/4 cups of gluten-free baking flower

[Note: The brand I used was Hodgson Mill, and it worked pretty well. I've also heard good things about King Arthur Brand, but my store didn't carry that one.]

* 1 tsp baking soda

* 1 tsp baking powder

* 1 cup chocolate chips

[Note: I used dark chocolate chips because I think they're tastier]

Preparation:

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees

2. In a medium-sized bowl, cream butter and sugar.

 2. Add egg and stir till blended.

3. Add the gluten-free flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir/Mix till it's all well blended. 

 4. Stir in the chocolate chips.

5. Drop teaspoon sized cookies onto the prepared baking sheet [use pan to grease it or whatever] and bake for about 8-10 minutes. [I baked mine for 8]

The recipe made me about twenty two cookies. This is just one tray of two.

 6. Let cookies cool before taking them off the sheet. 

The cookies were really good. I couldn't really taste the different between them and regular chocolate chip cookies. They might have been a tad bit saltier than regular chocolate chip cookies, but the salt mixed with the dark chocolate tasted amazing.

I refrigerated mine overnight before serving them, and I think that made them cool off better and taste better. 

This has made me want to try to bake other gluten-free recipes, so this gives me excuses to invite his mom over for dinner, just so I can experiment with such things. 

Anyhow, enjoy :)