Baked Apple Pudding

I grew up eating this dish at my grandparent's river home every summer.  They had several apple trees that we were always helping clean apples up from.  I'm pretty sure I'll never be able to pare apples as well or fast as my Grandpa could (he must have really liked this stuff)!

This could be named a few different things - crustless dutch apple pie, apple crisp, but I'm going to stick with my gram's original name of baked apple pudding! :)  This is pretty much a throw together dish, so I've done my best to get measurements close.  The recipe below is made in an 8"x8" pan (a 2 quart casserole dish could easily be used) - make a double batch for 9"x13".

Eat warm or cold, with ice cream, whipped cream, or my personal favorite, heavy cream (fat free of course!).

Enjoy!

Baked Apple Pudding

Apples
1 Cup Sugar, divided
Cinnamon
1 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup + 2 Tbsp Butter, Chilled

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Fill baking dish (8x8) with apples.  Sprinkle with sugar (1/2 cup) and cinnamon, then dot with butter (2 tbsp, cut into dots).  In medium bowl, cut (with pastry blender, forks, or clean hands) flour, last 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup cold butter until crumbly (similar to pie crust).  Cover apples with topping mixture.  Bake for 45-60 minutes, until apples are tender when you test with fork.

A Little Teaser!

I've been hinting at a give-away on and off for a few weeks...here's a little teaser of what's coming very soon!! :)

Make sure to share MCC with your friends on Facebook!

Have a great weekend! :)

Tip: How to Make Your Own Buttermilk/Sour Milk

Have a recipe that calls for buttermilk or sour milk and you don't have any in the fridge?

You can easily make your own by taking 1 cup of milk (preferably whole milk) and adding 1 Tbsp vinegar - let sit for 5 minutes.  Woolah - sour milk!

Penuche Frosting

pe.nu.che (noun) Also, panocha. Northern, North Midland, and Western U.S. a fudgelike candy made ofbrown sugar, butter, and milk, usually with nuts.

I came across the recipe for this frosting in a book of my grandma's treasured recipes that was passed on to me.  It took me a minute to remember what this tasted like or looked like based on the name of it (amazing how fast we get attached to having a picture with a recipe), then it dawned on me, this was the stuff that tasted like caramel!! :)

This is an incredible frosting!  I love it on spice cake, but it's yummy on many other cakes too!  

Enjoy!

Penuche Frosting

1/2 Cup Butter
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Milk
1 3/4 - 2 Cups Powdered Sugar

In medium saucepan, melt butter then add brown sugar.  Bring to boil, stir constantly for 2 minutes.  Stir in milk and bring to boil again.  Remove from heat, cool to lukewarm (I only let it sit for about 5 minutes), then add powdered sugar (too keep from having to whisk your wrist off to get lumps out, pre-sift powdered sugar...or just don't worry about it like me).  Add a little hot water if it becomes too thick to spread.  Spread quickly onto cooled cake.  

Applesauce Spice Cake

Last fall I canned a bunch of applesauce - aside from how yummy it is to eat straight out of the jar, I love using it in baking.  It adds a lot of moisture to cakes and also reduces fat (by removing the need for oil) without removing flavor.  This recipe is one of my favorite ways to use it! :)  I then topped off the cupcake version with Penuche frosting!

Enjoy!

Applesauce Spice Cake

3 Cups Flour
2 1/4 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Salt
3/4 Tsp Baking Soda
3/4 Tsp Cinnamon, ground
1/2 Tsp Ginger, ground
1/4 Tsp Allspice, ground
1/4 Tsp Nutmeg, ground
3/4 Cup Butter, Softened
1 1/2 Cups Brown Sugar, Packed
3 Large Eggs
1 Tsp Vanilla
1 1/2 Cups Applesauce, unsweetened
1/3 Cup Buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour 9"x13" pan.

In medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, and nutmeg - set aside.

In large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until fluffy.  Beat in eggs, one at a time.  Then, add vanilla.

Next, stir flour mixture into butter mixture, alternating with applesauce and buttermilk - making 3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of wet ingredients.  Spread into prepared pan.

Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean from center.  Let cool in pan on rack.

Note: Recipe yields approximately 30 cupcakes - bake for 15-20 minutes (don't overbake).

Double Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Wow...that's a mouthful of a name for a cookie isn't it?!  As you all can probably tell, I have a thing for anything with peanut butter and chocolate.  For example, this recipe, this recipe, and this recipe!  I also have a thing for cookies. :) Throw the two together and I have to control myself from eating a whole batch and drinking a gallon of milk with them! 

This is a big batch (makes about 4+ dozen) and could easily be halved.

Enjoy!

Double Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/2 Cups Flour
1 1/2 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp Salt
1 Cup Butter, Softened
2 Cups Peanut Butter (1-16oz jar will do the trick)
1 1/2 Cups Sugar (Plus some for rolling the dough in)
1 Cup Brown Sugar, Firmly Packed
2 Large Eggs, room temperature
2 Tbsp Milk
2 Tsp Vanilla
1 Cup Peanut Butter Chips
1 Cup Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

In a large bowl, combine flour, soda, powder, and salt.  Set aside.

In another large bowl, cream butter and peanut butter until fluffy.  Add the sugars and beat until smooth.  Then add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each.  Add milk and vanilla extract.  Add flour mixture and beat thoroughly.  Stir in chips.  Roll rounded teaspoonfuls in sugar and place on pan.  Flatten with a fork in crisscross pattern (like picture above) or flatten with a spatula/bottom of a glass, back of spoon, etc.  Bake for 10-12 minutes (do not overbake - cookies will appear underdone).  Let cool on cookie sheet for 1-2 minutes before transferring over to cooling racks to cool completely.