The weather was horrid these past few days. Stuck at home, I used my time effectively and made a winning Apple Crisp. I must say, it is winning indeed. It was superb! The taste of traditional apple pie with the crisp goodness of oats and sweet brown sugar. Duh, like brown sugar was ever not sweet.

I did a lot of revisions, though. Breaking it down:

Following the recipe at point blank, the pie was revoltingly sweet. So I reduced the sugar by half, both for the sauce and crust.

I doubled the crust servings, so I wouldn’t have to divide the serving in half. Because the original crust portion forced the apples and apple sauce to ooze out. What a waste. The original serving left the crust almost unnoticeable (taste-wise, of course).

I increased the apples and mixed Gala, Fuji and Granny Smith. Instead of using 4 (which I assumed to be 4 cups), I used 7 relatively small apples! I wanted to have the apple commanding taste at every bite — if that’s even a legit experience or description or aim.

Happy to know that after 2 tries, I managed to make the pie of my apple pie dreams — not too sweet, apple-y and scrumptious and filling at every bite. My family was very much delighted! Even my mother who is rarely delighted by sweets she did not personally purchase.

Please try this. I’ve always been so daunted with pie making before. I’m very proud and ecstatic over this triumph. This recipe is easy, simple and rewarding.

Good days are surely ahead!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

 

 

I was pretty overwhelmed with this! Packed them with peanut butter, peanut butter chips, flaxseed and walnuts, too! I believe too much though because every bite contained much less the cookie base and very much chocolate!

I’m quite lucky that I haven’t experienced horrid baking experiences or crappy recipes.  The cookies were sweet (duh), but I can’t complain. They were a good kind of overly sweet. The kind you’ll crave for. The midnight snack type. The wake-up-feel-good-eat-a-cookie type. The dunk-it-in-milk-kid-nostalgia type. Sometimes, a simple cookie base packed with your traditional cookie ingredients and toppings makes the baking (and eating) experience so worthwhile.

Next time, I’m thinking: white chocolate chips + walnuts.

Oh, and bake it for at least 15 minutes to have the crispy exterior with chewy interior. With 10-12 minutes, cookies were quite undone forcing them to fall apart once placed on cooling tray. And if you’re famished for cookies, waiting for them to harden/cool after baking them for only 10-12 minutes will take some time.

 

Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

2 things: where’s the cream cheese frosting and why do the cupcakes look like spongecake/chiffon?

I didn’t follow the original recipe for the cream cheese frosting, instead I followed what claimed to be the best cream cheese frosting ever. Boy, was that lady wrong. It was the worst! Packed with confectioner’s sugar, I wanted to die. My tongue was so revolted with the taste. I felt like I was chugging spoonfuls of sugar in my mouth and passing it as frosting. I could not attempt to lather it on the good cupcakes I have already baked.

In fairness to the best cream cheese frosting ever, trying it the next day, wasn’t so bad. I don’t know whether placing it on the fridge froze the sugar or whatever, but it seemed to go well with the cupcakes. I plan to use them in small portions and mix them with cream cheese to level-out the sweetness. I’m very excited for that because we all love cupcakes with a dash of sweetness on top!

Addressing the chiffon-looking issue, I should really invest on better muffin tins and cups. I got mine so cheap and thought I could get away with it. At least I know how to make banana mamon? Yeah, visually speaking, cupcakes weren’t appealing. But more importantly, the banana “cupcakes” were moist and yummy. Taste was just right! I added more bananas because I go bananas over bananas!

My family loved it. Said it had the right consistency and passed their expectations of what banana cupcakes should taste like (like your classic banana cake).

I was going to add walnuts, but I remembered it while it was already baking. That was a waste of better ingredients and experience!

P.S. Wouldn’t it be great (awesome and stupendous, if you ask me) if you placed peanut butter in the middle of the cupcakes? Like molten lava only peanut butter will spew (not the best word to use) at every banana cupcake bite? PEANUT BUTTER SURPRISE! Pretty amazing, eh!!! I’ll blog about that when I make them real soon.

Something similar to this, but only better! WAY, WAY GOOEY AND BUTTER, PEANUT BUTTER!!!

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

I was waiting for a day when I make bread and say it’s divine. Glad to know it came early in my baking experience. The warm, soft bread sheltered in a cinnamon sugar crusted crunchy outer layer. The experience? Spectacle. Wonderful. Amazing. I had it for breakfast, dreamt about it all day at work and devoured almost entirely for dinner. Good thing I already gave some to people in our house before hoarding little of what’s left.  By night, there weren’t leftovers to share, only memories of a flavorful, euphoric (and oddly simple) dessert.

If it were possible to make this everyday, I would. But fearful for my waistline, I’d be wary to even attempt. Please try it once and know that something this great exists AND can exist in your own kitchen. It’s the type of dessert I’d bring to my friends over brunch,  a Sunday family gathering or a sure pick-me-up when I’m just not feeling quite myself.

I’m thinking of baking this next week again. I’d really love it if my friends and family could try it freshly baked. The experience is always best when it’s right out of the oven, anyway.

Rustic Cheddar Cheese Biscuits

 

 

Recipe says cheddar cheese muffins, but they resemble biscuits or scones more than anything. So, I improvised.

In the future, though, I would add more sugar, a teensy bit of salt and less flour. Or chives. Yum.

Was quite disappointed with the turnout. I was expecting it to be scrumptious, sweet and gooey. But in all fairness to the recipe, I failed to read the reviews before baking them. I wasn’t expecting a scone-like taste and texture. I can’t say it was bad, though. I’ve asked a couple of people to taste/eat/devour it and I received mixed reviews. If you were to prepare it for dinner, to serve as a replacement for bread, then it’ll be awesome! Even better paired with afternoon tea or coffee! On the brightest side of things, the ones I baked in the morning are now consumed and happily digested in full and satisfied tummies!

 

 

Brown Sugar Cookies

Today was a beautiful and successful day for baking! I made brown sugar cookies with varying combinations (plain, walnuts, oats and flaxseed). It was delicious! I couldn’t resist eating a lot. It had the right amount of sweetness and taste. It wasn’t overwhelming, so before I know it, I have eaten a handful. Crunchy on the outside, but very chewy and flavourful on the inside. Each bite reminded me of Mrs. Field’s White Chocolate Macadamia (and we all know how great that is). For such a simple and quick recipe, the results are surely amazing! I can’t wait to make more for my officemates and cousins! I’m still contemplating whether I should add chocolate chips. I think that’ll be too sweet and quite the sugar overkill.

Exhilarated with the results, but very fearful for my weight. I’d really have to strike a balance. I’m planning to bake early in the morning, so sweets consumed have a chance of being digested throughout the day. I’m not even sure, if that’s legit reasoning. Cognitive dissonance is really a bummer.