Spiced Caramel Apple Cider Doodles

 I really wanted to combine caramel and spiced apple cider into a cookie. I could get the spice and the caramel but the apple part was eluding me. So how would I get that intense apple cider flavor I wanted? Boil down some of our hand-pressed cider into a dark, syrupy goodness. Then combine it with butter, sugar and cream and make caramel. Place on top of a mulling spice snickerdoodle. Yup. That's it...

I used the Smitten Kitchen recipe HERE but only make a half batch for this recipe with a couple of changes.

First... make the snickerdoodles.

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 3/4 cups flour

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp soda

1/4 tsp salt

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1/4 cup sugar

3 tsp cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cloves & allspice

Heat oven to 400.

Mix butter, shortening, sugar, and eggs thoroughly. Blend flour, cream of tartar, salt, and soda. Stir into butter mixture. Mix well. Shape dough into 1” balls and roll in spiced sugar mixture.

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes. Before removing from pan and while still warm, press an indentation in the top of each cookie. I used my wooden tart shaper from Pampered Chef, but you can be creative.

Then remove and let cool on wire rack. (the cookies in the picture aren't the ones I used for these cookies, so no indentation for caramel... 😊)

Now to make the caramel. And this takes a while. Oh, and prep all your ingredients while you're reducing your cider. You won't have time later...

Reduce 2 cups of cider to 1/4 cup. 

You can't use just any cider for this. It needs to be the real stuff. Not the one you get at the grocery store. This needs to be hand pressed with the sludge at the bottom. Look at your local natural grocer or farmer's market.

Pour 2 cups of cider into a heavy saucepan and turn on a fairly high heat. Not your highest setting but close. And then just let it boil, hard. Stir it every once in a while. This is going to take a bit of time. Like maybe a half an hour. When it starts to get foamy, you know it's getting close. So keep an eye on it, it goes much quicker at this point. Have a heatproof measuring cup for liquids nearby so you can check your amount. 

Ingredients to prep while reducing cider:

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

Mix together in small bowl.

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

scant 1/4 teaspoon of salt

Mix in small bowl

3 Tablespoons of heavy cream

Pour into small glass

4 Tablespoons margarine (I don't use butter because it makes a stickier caramel and I hate caramel that sticks in your teeth)

Cut the margarine into smaller cubes

When your cider is down to 1/4 cup, immediately pour it back into your saucepan and remove from the heat. Stir in sugars, margarine and cream (in that order) and stir until margarine melts. 

Place back on burner and reduce heat just a bit (still med-high). Put a candy thermometer into the pan. Bring the mixture up to 252 degrees that can't be stirred down, while stirring constantly. You don't want it to burn. 😬

Stir in cinnamon and salt.

Carefully pour the caramel into a bowl and stir until it cools and begins to thicken a bit. 

Then carefully fill the centers of the cookies with the caramel. 

Let cool completely before eating. 

Caramel Apple Oatmeal Muffins

 Inspired by the salted caramel chips at Trader Joe's, we had these muffins for breakfast this morning. Apple and caramel are one of my favorite flavor combinations and apple is my transition food between Summer and Fall. 😋🍎🍂

I was so nervous about how they would turn out, I only baked 6 as a trial. But they were moist, apple-y and sweet, but not too sweet. Next time I'll throw some pecans or walnuts in my half of the batch... 😜

Preheat oven to 425. Grease or place 12 muffin papers into standard sized muffin tin. You may make more or less depending on how full you fill them.

First mix 1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt with 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda in a small bowl. 

Next grind 1/2 cup of rolled oats in food processor or blender until they have a flour-like consistency. Then pour them into a new mixing bowl.

Add:

1/2 cup white flour

1/2 cup wheat flour

3/8 cup or 6 Tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix the dry ingredients together. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture.

Grate a cored and quartered apple until you have 1 cup. You don't need to grate it first, but you can if you want.

Add:

1/3 cup melted coconut oil

1 beaten egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

the sour cream/baking soda mixture

Stir until mixed but don't over mix or the muffins will become tough. Stir in grated apple and 1/4-1/3 cup caramel chips.  Gently fold them in, making sure they are both well incorporated.

Spoon into prepared muffin tin. The batter will be very thick.

Bake for 5 minutes at 425. Then turn off the oven and turn temperature to 350. Do not open or remove the muffins from the oven. Just continue to bake for 10-14 minutes, or until a pick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool on wire rack for 5-10 minutes before removing. Continue to cool on rack or enjoy while warm. 😊

Pumpkin Butter Muffins

 I really love this muffin! I know this sounds strange, but I was inspired by this soap I bought at Bath & Body Works. Don't worry... It doesn't taste like soap. LOL

It was also my first time using my new silicone muffin cups, which, by the way, work great! 

These taste a lot like mini pumpkin coffee cakes. They stay moist for days and have a hint of coconut... You know, the soap. ;) 

1 3/4 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

Mix dry ingredients in large mixing bowl. Make a well in the flour mixture. 

2 cups pumpkin butter (or pumpkin puree)

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1/2 teaspoon coconut extract (can substitute with vanilla)

/1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk the wet ingredients together and pour into the flour well. Mix until just combined.

Fill prepared muffin cups 2/3 full.

Combine brown sugar with a little white sugar. Mix with pumpkin pie spice, to taste.

Sprinkle generously on top of muffins.

Bake at 425 for 5 minutes. Then lower oven temperature to 350 and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until a pick comes out clean. 

Cool in wire rack. 

These are good warm or at room temperature. 

Beef & Mushroom Pasties

I am rather obsessed with British cooking shows right now... I even bought some lamb pasties at a local farmer's market and fell in love. So when my favorite guys on YouTube made pasties, I just had to give it a try... With my own twist.  They turned out amazing! The filling was delicious and the pastry was light and flaky with no "soggy bottoms." LOL

First you have to make your pastry:
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup ice cold water
Mix four and salt together and cut in shortening until it forms fine crumbs. Slowly stir in ice cold water just until it forms a ball. Flatten out slightly and wrap in plastic wrap and place in fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 365.

Next I used some of my leftover cold Buttery Beef & Mushroom Stew from the fridge. I mixed it with a handful of frozen peas & carrots mix and another handful of frozen hashbrown potatoes.

Roll out the dough on a well-floured surface until thin. Cut into large 5-6" circles. This recipe makes 4 circles.

Place dough on large baking sheet.  Place about 1/3 cup of filling in center of each circles. Wet the edges of the dough with water. Bring up both sides and crimp edges well. The pasties are standing up on the tray rather than laying down flat.

Brush with a beaten egg mixed with a touch of water.

Bake for about 45 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with tomato jam, if desired.

5 Spice Pumpkindoodles

I bought Chinese 5-spice this week and discovered that it goes beautifully with pumpkin. I've always wanted to try pumpkin cookies, so I took this opportunity and used my homemade 5-spice pumpkin butter and made snickerdoodles with it. YUM! The warm spicy mix is perfect on sugar cookies warm from the oven...

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup pumpkin butter (see recipe HERE)
2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsp Chinese 5-spice
Heat oven to 400.
Mix butter, shortening, sugar, and eggs thoroughly. Blend flour, cream of tartar, salt, and soda. Stir into butter mixture. Mix well. Shape dough into 1” balls and roll in 5-spice sugar (1/4 cup sugar and 4 tsp 5-spice mixed together).

Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes

Ginger Blondies

I have enjoyed blondies (aka Butterscotch Brownies) since I was a kid. But in order to make them taste a bit more like Fall, this time I made them with dark brown sugar and crystallized ginger. Perfection!

1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9” square baking pan.

Melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, egg, vanilla and almond extract. Mix in flour and salt. Fold in ginger pieces.

Spread into prepared pan. Bake 20 minutes or until set and golden brown.

Cool on wire rack.

Chai Cider

Chai tea tastes like India and Autumn. On cold rainy days, a hot, creamy sweet chai tea warms you from the inside. But on warm sunny fall days,a chai cider hits the spot. What is chai cider? Cold chai tea and apple cider.

Mine was made with my homemade chai and the cider we pressed on Saturday.

To make chai, simmer 3 black tea bags in 6 cups of water with your favorite blend of spices for 15-20 minutes. I haven't found a combination I didn't like...

Choose from these spices: (always use whole spices, not ground)
cardamom
allspice
black pepper
cloves
cinnamon
nutmeg (whole grated)
star anise
fennel
ginger root

Serve hot with cream and sugar or cold with apple cider.

Pumpkin Butter Scones

A crisp fall day of watching BBC with a friend calls for a cup of maple cream tea and a batch of pumpkin scones. I have a freezer full of pumpkin butter, so I made up a recipe for these little gems. Just the perfect thing for the Call the Midwife Christmas special!

2 cups flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cold butter

1/2 cup pumpkin butter (I used this orange bourbon recipe. But you could use this one or this maple one or any of your favorites.)

1 egg

Preheat oven to 400.

Mix dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Cut in cold butter until the flour mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Whisk together pumpkin butter and egg. Add to flour mixture. Stir well to combine.

Knead a few times on a floured surface.

Place on greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Press into a circle about 1/2” thick. Cut into 8 wedges. Separate them slightly from one another.

Bake for 15-17 minutes.

Let cool on rack.

Make a orange spice glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Add orange juice until it becomes a good consistency for drizzling over the top of the cooled scones.

Drizzle over the scones when they are warm but no longer hot. Eat right away or wait until the scones have gotten to room temp and glaze has set.

Bourbon Orange Pumpkin Butter

This is the darkest and most flavorful of the three pumpkin butters I made. It is my favorite to throw into pancakes or yogurt!

4 cups pumpkin puree (see how to make your own HERE)

1/2 cup apple cider

1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (see my recipe HERE)

1 cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon bourbon

1 teaspoon orange juice

Combine pumpkin, cider, sugars, and spice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered, still stirring often, until it reduces down and gets thick. You can make it as thin or thick as you want.

Remove from heat and stir in bourbon and orange juice.

Let cool in fridge. Pour into jars or freezer containers. Store in fridge for up to 3 weeks or in freezer up to a year.

Pumpkin Pie Butter

No, it isn’t made of pumpkin pie… But it does have pumpkin pie spice in it and is yummy enough to eat from a spoon!

First you need to make pumpkin puree (you can try this method HERE)

3 cups pumpkin puree

1/4 cup apple cider

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice (my recipe HERE)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 Tablespoon orange juice

Combine pumpkin, cider, sugars, and spice in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered, still stirring often, until it reduces down and gets thick. You can make it as thin or thick as you want.

Remove from heat and stir in extract and orange juice.

Let cool in fridge. Pour into jars or freezer containers. Store in fridge for up to 3 weeks or in freezer up to a year.

Maple Pumpkin Butter

I decided to tackle the pile of pumpkins sitting on the hot tub today!

First step was to get them all baked and pureed. Super easy using this oven method!

Before I knew it, I had 25 cups of pumpkin! Fifteen cups went into the freezer and the other 10 got made into pumpkin butter. I’d never made it before, but from the recipes I saw on-line it didn’t seem too difficult. So, I made it up as I went along and am pretty darn pleased with the results!

spiced bourbon orange, pumpkin pie & maple

My mind is reeling with all kinds of ideas to do with them! If they work, I’ll post them here. But first, the Maple Pumpkin Butter recipe:

3 cups pumpkin puree (see recipe HERE)

1/4 cup apple cider (I used our homemade cider)

1/2 cup brown sugar

4 Tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon maple extract

pinch salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine pumpkin, cider, sugar and syrup in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered, still stirring often, until it reduces down and gets thick. You can make it as thin or thick as you want.

Remove from heat and stir in extracts,, salt and lemon juice.

Let cool in fridge. Pour into jars or freezer containers. Store in fridge for up to 3 weeks or in freezer up to a year.

Maple Cream Pumpkin Roll

This recipe is from my friend at SweetAnna’s. I decided last minute to make this for Thanksgiving. Like that morning last minute. But thankfully this super easy recipe turned out great!

I really wanted something maple-y, so I put maple extract instead of vanilla in the filling. Unfortunately I was so stuffed on Thanksgiving that it didn’t even taste good. I decided not to even bother posting it until I tried it again the next day for lunch… It tastes much better when you don’t feel like you are going to explode!  But it is rich and will totally fill you up until supper when you have it for lunch… ;o)
Here’s the recipe. The only thing I changed was the maple extract in the filling.
Ingredients:
for the cake:
1/4 cup powdered sugar (for dusting the towel)
3/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup pumpkin purée
for the filling:
1 (8oz) package cream cheese, room temperature
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or maple extract)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375ºF.  Line a 10x15" jelly-roll pan with parchment paper and then spray with baking spray.  Sprinkle a clean tea towel with powdered sugar.  Set pan & towel aside.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice & salt.
In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, vanilla & sugar until thick & creamy.  Add in the pumpkin and mix to combine.
Stir in the flour mixture and spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.
Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until the top of the cake springs back when touched.  Immediately (with oven mitts...  it is hot!) loosen the edges of the cake and turn it out onto the sugared towel. 

Peel off the parchment paper.

Roll up the cake & towel together fairly tightly, starting with a narrow end.

Cool completely on a wire rack.

In another medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter & vanilla until smooth.
Carefully unroll the cooled cake (removing the towel) and spread the cream cheese filling evenly over the cake, coming to about 1/4" away from the edges. 

See, you don’t even see the cracks under the filling… ;o)

Reroll the cake, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour.

This cake can be stored in the fridge up to 5 days, or wrapped well in plastic and foil - in the freezer for several weeks!

Pumpkin Pudding Pie in a Jar

It’s kind of a cumbersome name but I just couldn’t think of anything better…

First whip 1 cup of whipping cream until thick. Stir together 4 Tablespoons of powdered sugar and 1 Tablespoon of instant clear gel (to stabilize cream). Add to whipped cream along with 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Whip until very thick. *You can also use an 8oz tub of whipped topping.

Cream 4 oz softened cream cheese

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup powdered sugar

Mix until smooth

Beat 1 3/4 cups milk with one 3 oz box of pumpkin spice instant pudding mix until thick.

Mix together the pudding and cream cheese mixture.

Fold in whipped cream.

Fill the bottoms of 6-8 half-pint, wide-mouthed jars with cookie crumbs. I think graham crackers or ginger snaps would be best.

Top with mousse and chill for at least 1 hour before serving.

I think I will try making these for Thanksgiving this year… Maybe???

Pumpkin Pancakes

Super simple way to turn boring old pancake mix into a delicious autumn treat!

2 cups just-add-water pancake mix

1 1/2 cups water (or more if needed)

1/3 cup pumpkin

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Mix all ingredients together until smooth. Add more water if batter is too thick.

Pour onto heated griddle. Flip when bubbles appear on surface. Cook until done on both sides.

Serve them with syrup:

Or cook them with a cinnamon swirl…

Or throw in some cinnamon or chocolate chips…