Apple Muffins

I was going to enter these apple muffins into the baking contest at our local harvest festival, but got some information messed up and missed out. Oh well... more for my family. :)

I started with a basic muffin recipe.
1 3/4 cups of flour,
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp baking soda
1 beaten egg
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup cooking oil (I use olive oil)
1/4 tsp salt

Then, I added about 1/4 cup of applesauce, a chopped up medium apple, and a couple dashes of cinnamon.
Of course, I forgot to take pictures until the end.... I have a bad habit of doing that. :P
I baked them at 400 degrees. The recipe said 20 minutes, but I pulled them out after about 17, and they were nice and golden brown.

Next, I mixed up the apple filling. I chopped up two medium apples and mixed them with about a cup or so of applesauce, and a couple teaspoons of cinnamon and sugar. Then I scooped out the center of each muffin, and spooned the apple filling in.

















I filled all the muffins up, and replaced the tops, ready for icing!

















I thought maple would be pretty good on top, so I mixed some powdered sugar with a splash of heavy cream, and added maple syrup and granulate maple sugar. I can not tell you the portions, as it was pure guess work. Mostly, I just kept adding ingredients until it had the right consistency and taste. :P















I poured the icing into a plastic bag and piped it onto the muffins. Then we sprinkled the top with a pinch of granulated maple sugar.

















Aside from a couple lumps of baking powder; that made certain bites taste rather nasty; they came out quite delicious. Next year, perhaps, I'll get that blue ribbon. ^_^

Oreo Truffles

I first ate Oreo Truffles last year, in February, when a friend of mine made them for a get-together I attended. They were an immediate hit with my family, and since then they have been enjoyed many times, and as gifts from various people. They can be made in many different forms. I've had them made with Regular Oreos, Peanut Butter Oreos, and Mint Oreos. Hard to say which were my favorite, but mint and peanut butter are close ties.
And yet, I have never made any, myself. A shipping address for my collegiate brother, who happens to love Oreo Truffles, seemed the perfect time to make them.

I decided on Peanut Butter, and Golden Oreo Truffles. First up, of course, was to get the ingrediants. I purchased the Oreos and cream cheese the evening before I planned on making them, and having still three hungry siblings in the house, I decided to mark them so there was no doubt as to their availability for general consumption. ^_^


















I measured out about 2/3 of the Oreos and put them in a bag to be crushed. The recipe calls for 3 cups to mix with one box of cream cheese, and since a whole package of Oreos is about 4 1/2 cups, I figured this should be about right. It was. :)


















Crushing them with a rolling pin was not the best way to do it, I found out. I pounded them with a wooden mallet. That worked better. ^_^


















Next up, I mixed in the cream cheese. It made for a rather gooey mess, and I had to refrigerate them before rolling them into balls.


















Then, I rolled them into balls, and popped them back into the refrigerator before dipping them in chocolate.



















Rolling them in chocolate proved a bit harder than I thought. I think it might have had something to do with the fact that I used chocolate chips, instead of real baking chocolate, since it was cheaper. ^_^ You're supposed to use 8 squares of semi-sweet baking chocolate. I used a large handful of chocolate chips. :P


















I covered the Golden truffles with white chocolate, and the Peanut Butter truffles with milk chocolate. Then I drizzled the opposite color on top to make them more decorative. :P



















Jake, they're on their way to Virginia! :D