Apple Crumble Cupcakes

It' has been ages since I made cupcakes. I have mentioned before that Mr Birdie likes to joke that cupcakes are all I make - well hopefully this blog has proved him wrong! I made these once before and Mr Birdie declared them 'the best cupcakes I'd ever made'! I decided to make these as I had a couple of Bramley apples that needed using up.

These cupcakes are a combination of recipes - the cupcake recipe is from Eric Lanlard's Cox, Cookies & Cake book and the cream cheese frosting and crumble topping come from the Cup O' Sugar blog. If I had had lots of time I would have filled them with custard as my Dad gave me a cupcake filler gadget for Christmas that I am still waiting to try out but sadly time flew by today. I made 18 cupcakes from the mixture but this will probably depend on how much apple mixture you make.

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:
2 cooking apples (peeled, cored and chopped - you may want to use 3 to ensure you have enough)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
100g butter (softened)
200g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
350g self-raising flour

For the cream cheese frosting:
4 tablespoons butter (60g)
4 cups icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
6oz cream cheese (approx. 1 packet)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

For the crumble topping:
55g plain flour
55g rolled oats
Pinch of cinnamon
55g butter
40g soft light brown sugar

Method:
1) Preheat your oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6 and line a cupcake tin with paper cases.
2) Put the apples in a saucepan with the cinnamon and cook over a gentle heat until mushy. (This will take a long time - the first time I made these I added some water but didn't this time. You will need to keep stirring it regularly to make sure the mixture doesn't catch on the bottom of the saucepan. The original recipe says to strain the mixture after it's cooked and to then weigh out 250g but I only had 100g without straining it which is why you might want to try 3 apples instead.)

3) In a bowl, mix the bicarbonate of soda into the apples.

4) In a separate large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Once these are combined add the eggs.

5) Alternately fold the self-raising flour and apple mixture into the butter mixture and mix well (the mixture will be quite thick - although it may be looser if you use the correct amount of apple.) 

6) Divide between the paper cases and bake for 20-25 minutes until the cupcakes are golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out clean (mine took 20 minutes.) Leave them to cool in the tins for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

7) Once the cupcakes have cooled make the cream cheese frosting. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix with an electric whisk until well-combined. Frost the cupcakes with a knife (you can alternatively use a frosting bag with a nozzle but I think they look better rustic.)

8) To make the crumble topping mix the flour, oats and cinnamon in a bowl. Then add the butter and rub in using your fingertips until all the ingredients come together in a crumble-like consistency. Then add the sugar making sure it is evenly mixed in.

Spread the crumble mix on a paper-lined baking tray and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes until golden brown. You will need to gently stir the mixture to ensure it browns evenly (I checked mine every 5 minutes and found it needed about 20 minutes.) Once the crumbs are golden, remove from the oven and set aside to cool. 

9) To finish the cupcakes sprinkle the crumble topping onto the cream cheese frosting and enjoy (with cream or custard if you're feeling extra indulgent!)

Toffee Apple Pudding

We are big Aldi fans in the Little Birdie household. Their fruit and vegetables are cheap and good quality. So when Mr Birdie spotted some bargainous Bramley apples over the weekend (4 for 99p) I decided it was time to make an apple-based pudding. After some investigation work I found this BBC Good Food recipe for toffee apple pudding which looked easy enough and I had all the ingredients for. I did consider making this treacle apple pudding, especially as I have pudding basin that I have used yet but opted for ease instead! Although this dessert isn't a 'looker' it was tasty and went down well after dinner on Sunday.

Ingredients:

For the pudding:
85g butter (melted)
140g self-raising flour
100g golden caster sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
200ml milk
1 egg (beaten)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Bramley apples

For the topping:
140g dark brown sugar
50g pecans (roughly chopped)

Method:
1) Heat oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease a 2-litre (3 1/2 pint) ovenproof dish lightly with butter.
2) Tip the flour, sugar and baking powder, along with a pinch of salt, into a large bowl.

3) Mix together the milk, butter, egg and vanilla extract.

4) Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until you get a smooth batter.

5) Peel, core and slice the apples and arrange into the bottom of your ovenproof dish. Spoon the batter on top and smooth with a knife until the apples are covered.

6) For the topping, pour 250ml of boiling water over the sugar and stir together until smooth.

7) Pour the liquid over the pudding mixture (it will look pretty bad at this point but don't worry the liquid starts to sink to the bottom) and then scatter over the pecans.

8) Bake for about 40 minutes until the pudding has risen and is golden. 

9) Use a large spoon to serve the pudding (to make sure you get the caramel sauce at the bottom) and serve with cream, custard or ice cream.

10) Enjoy!

Happy baking :-) 

Toffee Apple Pie

Apologies that it has been quiet on the blog front. Mr Birdie and I jetted of to the west coast of America during half term and then we have been busy catching up with friends and meeting our gorgeous new nephew Elliot (congratulations Ian and Steph!) I plan to do a blog post on our foodie adventures in America and have a couple of recipes to catch up on but for now here is my most recent adventure in baking.

Autumn is in full swing and comforting, warming baking is the order of the day. This recipe for toffee apple pie is from Ruth Clemens of 'The Pink Whisk' which you can find on her blog here. I'd never made an apple pie before and as I think I've mentioned before pastry scares me. This recipe uses flaky pastry which I was surprised to find was actually quite easy (for someone who has a pastry phobia!) I am quite tempted to try it again for some mince pies this Christmas. I was pleased with my first attempt at this recipe however I did find that the toffee sauce separated and a lot of butter was at the bottom of the dish (having read comments on The Pink Whisk website other people have had this problem too). It did meet my husbands approval despite this!

You will need an 8 inch pie dish which was something I didn't possess so this was an excellent opportunity to go shopping. I purchased this lovely teal number in TK Maxx.

Ingredients:

For the pastry
300g plain flour
225g butter
35g caster sugar
6-8 tbsps cold water (I needed 10)

For the filling
475g tart, firm or cooking apples (I used Gala apples as these were cheapest in Aldi!)
150g butter
75g light muscovado sugar

1 egg for egg wash
Caster sugar for sprinkling

Method:
1) Begin by making the toffee sauce as it needs time to cool down. Melt the butter and light muscavado sugar in a pan over a gentle heat. Stir it gently and often until the toffee sauce is smooth and well combined. Remove from the heat and set it to one side.

2) Then start to make the pastry. Measure the flour into a large bowl.

3) Dice the cold butter into small pieces. Use a plate to slice the butter and add a spoonful of the flour for the pastry to it. This will help it to stop sticking.

4) Add the butter to the flour and start to rub it in with your fingertips. Only rub it in half way so that you are left with little lumps of butter.

5) Stir through the caster sugar.

6) Start to add the water, a couple of tablespoons at a time. Mix it together using the blade of a table knife until it just comes together with being crumbly.

7) Lightly knead the pastry in the bowl to form a ball. Then wrap it in cling film or a freezer bag and place it in the fridge to chill for 1 hour.

8) Dust your work surface and your rolling pin lightly with flour. Divide your pastry into two halves.

9) Grease your pie tin. Roll out one portion of the pastry and line the base of the tin. Trim off any excess neatly.

10) Peel, core and slice the apples. Add them to the lined pie dish and pour over the toffee sauce (this is where I started to have some issues as my toffee sauce was starting to solidify and was not really pourable - it didn't really look that appetising as you will see in the photo!) 

11) Roll out the second portion of flaky pastry and lay it over the top. Use a pair of scissors to trim the pastry so that there is 1.5cm extra over the side of the tin. Fold this extra pastry underneath the lip of the base layer and gently press to seal them together. Then chill the pie in the fridge for 30 minutes. 

12) Preheat the oven to 180C(fan)/200C/Gas 6. Crimp the chilled pie crust by gently lifting the pastry lip around the edge and using the thumb and forefinger of your left hand to press the top of the pastry over the forefinger of your right hand to make the fluted shape. Work your way around the pie - alternatively you can use a fork. 

13) Brush the top all over with egg wash and sprinkle with some caster sugar. Cut a couple of slits in the centre of the pie with a sharp knife to allow the steam to escape.

14) Bake for 35 minutes until golden brown.

15) Enjoy with cream, ice cream or custard!

Happy baking!