Lemon Crumble Tart

No matter what the season, I love lemon desserts - the bright, mouth-puckering flavor and the tangy sweetness are the perfect way to end any meal. And when people think of a lemon tart, they almost always thing lemon-meringue, but I just don't love meringue that much. I still wanted something to top the creamy lemon curd in my tart shell, so I dreamed up a lemon crumble tart. And my dreams are good. 

Mini Dutch Apple Pies

 I'm a sucker for individual desserts. And, I know I'm not the only one, since they always seem to disappear before my eyes when I bring them places (or from the kitchen table). And what better thing to miniaturize than one of the all time classic desserts - apple pie? 

"Jammers" - Giant Streusel Jam Cookies

Sometimes I'll see a recipe in a magazine and it will inspire me to create a certain dish. Sometimes I'll flip through a cookbook looking for inspiration. Often I come across recipes on other food blogs that I either follow or modify for my needs. But for this recipe, all I needed was one photo to convince me to make them. I spotted one image of these cookies, and I was sold.

A Tale of Two Crumb Cakes

Entenmann's Ultimate Crumb Cake has long held a special place in my heart. I'd never turn down a piece of all-butter loaf or cheese danish, but bring me a box of crumb cake and I'll love you forever. Or until I finish the cake.

So I started out on a quest to recreate my favorite cake in the kitchen. Usually when I'm looking for a recipe for something specific, I'll head to RecipeZaar to see what I find. Well it didn't disappoint, and I located a recipe for New York Crumb Cake with almost all positive reviews.
Well maybe I did something wrong but I sure wouldn't give it a positive review. The cake layer was so thick and there was barely any of it - I had to struggle to spread it across the bottom of the pan.
Then the topping was dry and crunchy - nothing like the soft, thick crumbs I'd been yearning for. It certainly looked pretty, and a few pieces got eaten, but I was left quite unsatisfied.

So when I saw this recipe on Piece of Cake for, once again, New York Crumb Cake, this time with the seal of approval from America's Test Kitchen, I figured I would give it another shot.
Of course since I rarely follow instructions, I made this in a round pan which was all I had on hand. Please don't question the emptiness of my kitchen. It makes me cry. Anyway, this was certainly a marked improvement, but with a great deal of effort - as I was warned on Piece of Cake. The topping is formed by carefully rolling the topping into little pieces and placing them on the batter. I hoped that this step could be skipped, but I was assured otherwise.
As I said, this still didn't quite hit the Entenmann's mark for me, but it was good, and my friends devoured it. That is basically a theme on this blog - I made a recipe, it was OK, and then it was consumed in thirty minutes. I imagine that an Entenmann's worthy recipe would have enough butter for a three-course Paula Deen feast, so I'll be satisfied with this for now.

P.S. If you've been paying attention, you'll notice Baking and Mistaking has had a little bit of a facelift! Let me know what you think, and what else you'd like to see around here - leave me a comment or shoot me an e-mail at Bakingandmistaking [AT] gmail [DOT] com.

Tip of the Day: A 9-inch round pan has the same area as an 8-inch square, so you can substitute them without any changes to temperature or baking time. You can use your high school algebra to prove me bright!

Recipe:
I won't rewrite the first, unsuccessful recipe here, but feel free to follow the link above and see if you can tell where I may have gone wrong. Below is the second recipe, from America's Test Kitchen.

Topping:
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted
1 3/4 cups cake flour [I used all-purpose, perhaps I shouldn't have]

Cake:
1 1/4 cups cake flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsps (3/4 stick) butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup buttermilk

Stir together the topping ingredients until they come together. Set aside.

Stir the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt together. Gradually add in the butter, beating until combined.
Then add the egg, egg yolk, vanilla and buttermilk. Beat until light and fluffy.
Spread the batter into the bottom of a parchment paper or foil-lined 8-inch square pan.

Break apart the crumb topping into large pea-sized pieces, rolling them between your fingertips to get them to hold their shape. Spread the crumbs in even layer over the batter.

Bake on 325 F for 35 to 40 minues, until the crumbs are golden. Cool on wire rack for 30 minutes, then dust with confectioner's sugar before serving.

You get an Apple Pie!

Ah, the joys of baking with flour. Well, truth is I'm about to embark on a collection of recipes that I made pre-Passover, pre-tree, pre-stress. Well not really pre-stress. But you get the idea.
I have a handful of desserts that I have yet to share with you, but that's about to change.

Let's get started: everybody gets an apple pie!
Longtime readers may remember that I tried this way back in the dark ages - with canned pie filling and horrible photos. But now I'm at it again - this time with delicious (if I do say so myself) photos and homemade filling. But I start the same way: with store bought mini pie crusts.
They are so adorable, and really not too expensive (they come in a pack of 6) that I simply can't resist. And why should I? (You can also find mini frozen pie dough crusts in most supermarkets.)

I filled each crust with the pie filling, and topping with a crumb crust. I was a little nervous about the crust before, since I've had some bad experiences with apple pies and crumb crusts before.
But my fears were unfounded, and they all came out of the oven crispy and delicious looking. I'm getting hungry as I type.
Well not all of them actually - I ran out of crust for the 12th pie, so I just sprinkled a little brown sugar on top and stuck it in with the rest.
Since it obviously isn't fit for company, I got to eat it right out of the oven. Too bad.

These pies were to bring to my friend Rachel's apartment for a meal. Which ended up being in the back of the cab during Snowpocalypse 2010. I'm sure everyone appreciated the effort.

Tip of the Day: If you're looking for a really quick dessert that still looks like you put in effort - fill each mini pie crust with sliced strawberries and top with whipped cream.

Recipe:
Mini Apple Pies

12 mini graham cracker crusts (mine are Keebler)
1 egg yolk
3 golden delicious apples, cored and diced
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp flour
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Lay the crusts out on a baking sheet. Beat the egg, and brush the crusts with it.
Bake at 375 F for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.
Stir together the apples, sugar, flour, cinnamon and lemon juice.
Let sit 20 minutes in the fridge. (Can skip this step)
Divide apples evenly among crusts.
Beat together the butter, flour, sugar, brown sugar and cinnamon, until crumbly.
Add in more flour if needed. Crumble over apples.
Bake at 375 F for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden brown.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

The word "bread" in this recipe is clearly used quite loosely. To me, bread has yeast, not much sugar and is toasted for breakfast.This recipe resembles bread in that...it's baked in a loaf pan. And cut into slices. If calling it bread makes you feel better about eating it for breakfast - then be my guest.
It's also ridiculously easy and totally delicious. It just contains these ingredients!
Directly after I took this photograph, I moved the oil, and the egg rolled away from me in slow motion and crashed in a dramatic splat on the wooden floor of my living room. (No I wasn't baking in the living room - but tiny Manhattan apartments often mean they're just an...egg's roll away!)
Luckily, I was trained well by my mother (after having made such messes in the past), and quickly grabbed the salt, dumping it on top of the slowly spreading disaster. The salt, for scientific reasons unbeknown to me, makes the raw egg clump up and stop spreading slowly around your floor - making it easier to pick up and dispose.
On to the cake (with a brand new egg) - came together in one bowl, in ten minutes, and was really great.
Just beware of rolling eggs.

Tip of the Day: As if you weren't convinced - in case of an egg crack disaster, sprinkle the white and yolk with a generous amount of salt, and wipe up with a cloth. Make sure to wash the floor and your hands afterwards.

Recipe: (from Bake or Break)

1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/3 cup oil

1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Stir together the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt.
Make a well in the center, and add in the egg, milk and oil.
Stir until just mixed.
In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar and cinnamon.
Pour half the batter in to a greased, 9"x5"x3" loaf pan.
Sprinkle with half the sugar and cinnamon mix.
Pour remaining batter on top, and top with remaining sugar mix.
With a spatula, swirl the batter and topping in an up and down motion.
Bake on 350 F for 40 to 50 minutes. Cool in pan ten minutes, then invert.

Cinnamon Bun Muffins

I've been reading Joy the Baker's website for a few months, and she has some great-looking recipes. I made her low-fat oatmeal muffins once, and when I saw this recipe for cinnamon bun muffins, I immediately wanted to try them.

But, well, if you came here looking for me to crash and burn once again...you're in the right place. This recipe is basically a cinnamon bun - yeast included - with a little less waiting and dough working. And baked in muffin tins. Sounds good so far, no?

I rarely work with yeast, since what little experience I have with it, has proven that yeast dough products deteriorate quickly. While they're good the first day, by the second day the drop off is significantly noticeable.

Anyway, I didn't let that stop me, and I set out to create these muffins. I was a little concerned working with the yeast, and mixing it with warm milk to "activate it." Since I really haven't worked with it much, I had no idea if it was doing the right thing, but I went ahead anyway.
Here's the dough, waiting patiently to expand.

At this point, you're probably assuming that something with the yeast went horribly wrong, and they either blew up to three time their size or sat in the muffin tin as hard little balls - but that simply isn't the case.

Instead it was the streusel, the innocent little mixture of butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, that turned my muffins into disasters.
I patiently followed the directions that said to press the streusel mixture down into the batter...
But, when I snuck a peak about halfway through the baking process the mixture had melted and spread all over the muffin tin, and was barely inside them at all.

Not easily discouraged, I let them finish anyway, and when they were cool I mixed up the icing and drizzled it on top. Since the tin was already such a mess I figured I might as well ice them in there anyway.

And yes, I ate one first.

Of course we ate every muffin, and they weren't bad, but something definitely went wrong. The next day, they were a lot drier, but after a quick zap in the microwave, they are certainly improved.
Moral of the story? Who knows. Sometimes with my disasters, it is clear what went wrong, but there are also times like these, where I'm just not sure what I didn't do.
One thing is for sure - in my house - even the mistakes get eaten.

Tip of the Day: Your yeast is working if it starts to bubble in the warm water after a couple minutes. Be patient!

Recipe: (from Joy the Baker)

Dough:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
4 tsp active dry or rapid rise yeast
2/3 cup warm milk
3 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Filling:

2 tbsp butter, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch ground cardamom

Icing:

1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tbsp milk or cream

Combine flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Combine yeast and warm milk, in a cup.

Pour the milk, oil, vanilla and egg into the flour mixture and stir until smooth.

Divide batter into 12 greased cupcake tins.

Mix together the butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and cardamom in a small bowl.

Sprinkle over the muffin tins and press down in to the dough.

Place the pan in a cold oven, turn it to 350F, and bake for twenty minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool before topping with the icing.

Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins

While I certainly need to bypass my reluctance to break out the stand mixer since I moved, I still enjoy making muffins and other one bowl, no mixer desserts. Like these Toll House Streusel Muffins.After the previous chocolate chip muffins I made, I was searching for something else, and found this recipe online that adds a nice crunchy streusel topping. I left out the nuts, because I'm not really a fan, and the muffins were still good.Everyone at work said they were great because they had such a high density of chocolate chips. So if you'd rather a little less, use 2/3 or 3/4 of the bag.
I always use Trader Joe's semi-sweet chocolate chips in my recipes - they're really big and very good!
There they are!

Tip of the Day: While its not usually a good idea to change the amounts of key ingredients like flour or eggs in your recipes - add ins are a place to be creative. Nuts, chocolate chips, raisins, dried blueberries, peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips - I'm sure you could name ten more - can be substituted in recipes like this. Find a mix that works!

Recipe: (from Toll House)
Muffins:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
12 ounces (2 cups) chocolate chips

Streusel:
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 tbsp flour
1 tbsp butter or margarine, melted

Stir together flour, sugars, baking powder and salt. Mix in butter, milk and egg until just combined.
Stir in chocolate chips, and divide batter among 12 lined muffin cups.

Combine brown sugar, flour and butter in a small bowl.
Sprinkle over muffin batter, press down lightly.
Bake at 350F for 20 to 25 minutes.

Apple Streusel Cake

Apples, cake, cinnamon, crumbs - what more could a girl want? A scoop of vanilla ice cream, maybe.
I was looking around for a cake recipe that, of course, included only ingredients I could currently find in the house - and I stumbled across this recipe for Quick Apple Streusel Coffee Cake on the food network website and I thought I'd give it a shot. I feel like I don't do many cakes here - I do alot of cookies and cupcakes and muffins - but I only have a few cakes - and most of them focusing on the decorating aspect.
Cake are great because they're often less time consuming and difficult - one pan, in the oven, and you're done! Of course, there are plenty of difficult cakes out there as well.

Back to this cake - it was pretty good, sweet and light, with the right balance of apple to cake. The topping wasn't as crumb like as I would have thought - it ended up being more of a crispy layer on top than a traditional crumb cake. It was still good, but if you wanted to change you could probably double the amount of butter in the topping to 4 tablespoons.
Happy eating - and if you have any great and simple cake recipes send them my way!

Tip of the Day: In recipes calling for apples, try using two or three different types for variety in the dish.

Recipe: (from foodnetwork.com)
1 1/2 cups flour
2 1/4 tsps baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups chopped Granny Smith Apples

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
2 tbsps butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and cinnamon in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, beat together the egg, milk and shortening.
Pour the wet ingredients in to the dry ingredients, and stir until combined.
Stir in the chopped apples.
Pour the batter in to an 8 inch square pan and bake at 400 F for 25 to 30 minutes.

Apple and Cinnamon Smells

Mmmm these smelled great when they were baking. And they tasted great when they were done.These are apple and cinnamon muffins, again from the Cookie and Biscuit Bible by Catherine Atkinson. (Recipe at the end of the post.)
These were my second attempt at making muffins (the first didn't go so well - more on that another time) and was pretty successful. A muffin is different than a cupcake in that it uses melted butter instead of solid, and often has whole wheat flour (though not always) and fruit and nut additions, which overall make for a denser cake.
These were pretty great, and they smelled amazing while in the oven - who needs Glade plug-ins anyway, just bake all day long! I doubled this recipe, as the original only makes 6, and for once I got all the ingredient amounts right - go me!
I used Granny Smith apples in these, since that's what I had in the house (yes, another recipe selected simply because I already had the ingredients - nothing like laziness to make a baker resourceful!) and I personally thought they were a little tart against the sweetness of the muffin, but others liked the contrast. Golden Delicious would be a sweeter alternative, or you could experiment with a mix of different types.
The recipe topping calls for crushed brown sugar cubes, which I didn't have, so I substituted regular brown sugar. I doubt it made much difference.

Tip of the Day: If you don't want to use paper liners when making muffins or cupcakes, don't forget to spray the pan(s) first - or else you'll end up having to eat them out of the tray!

Recipe:
Apple and Cinnamon Muffins:
1 beaten egg
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp ground cinammon
two small apples chopped

topping: 12 crushed brown sugar cubes and 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Mix the egg, sugar, milk and butter in a bowl. Sift in flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add the apple and stir until just mixed.
Spoon into muffin tin and sprinkle topping on top.
Bake at 400 for 30 to 35 minutes.
Enjoy!