Apple Crumble Bars

I was inspired to make this Apple Crumble Bars over the weekend, after reading Alice's Apple Crumble post. Alice's "bottomless" Apple Crumble (without the bottom cookie base) looks good. I knew I would bake this pretty soon as I love to bake with apples.

For this Apple Crumble Bars, I used the recipe from Annie's Eats which I've used several times.

Apple Crumble Bars

Ingredients:

For the base:

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 113g unsalted butter, at room temperature

For the filling:

• 4 medium-sized apples, peeled, cored and coarsely diced
• 5 tbsp sugar ( I cut down to 3 tbsp)
• ¼ tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 2 tbsp lemon juice (I cut down to 1.5tbsp)
• ¼ cup fruit jam (I used blueberry jam)

For the topping:

• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 55g unsalted butter, softened

Directions:

1. To prepare the filling, cook the apples, sugar, and cinnamon over medium heat in a pot. Stir  occasionally, for 5-7 minutes, until apples are tender but still firm. In a small cup, whisk together cornstarch and lemon juice. Add to the apple mixture and continue cooking, stir constantly for 3 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
2. Preheat oven to 176°C. Line an 8×8” baking dish with foil, leaving overhang on both sides for easy removal later. Grease foil.
3. To make the base, mix flour, sugar and salt in mixing bowl. Cut the butter into it using a pastry blender, until it resembles breadcrumbs. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges. Remove from the oven. Spread the fruit jam evenly on the base while it is still hot. Top with the cooked apple mixture.
4. In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients for the topping. Mix well with fingers or pastry blender until combined and crumbly. Sprinkle over the apple layer. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Using the foil, lift the apple crumble bars out of pan. Cut into squares and serve.

(This tip from Annie is very useful - refrigerate before cutting to firm up a bit for easier slicing.)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chips Cookies

Tomorrow is an important day for my elder daughter. It's PSLE (Primary School Leaving Exam) result release day. She will be collecting her result from her school at noon tomorrow. As her parents, hubby and I are equally nervous as we know that she has put in effort from the beginning of her Primary 6 to prepare for the exam.

As tomorrow will be her last time seeing all her classmates at her primary school, she asked for me to bake her peanut butter cookies for her to share with her classmates tomorrow.

I took this fuss free cookies recipe from JIF but made some variations. The cookies did not disappoint both the girls who are peanut butter fans.

 

 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chips Cookies

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup Chunky Peanut Butter
• 1/2 cup Crisco® All-Vegetable Shortening
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tbsp corn flour
• 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Baking Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Combine peanut butter, shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Add egg. Beat just until blended.
2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in separate bowl. Add to creamed mixture. Add in chocolate chips and beat at low speed until just blended.
3. Roll the dough into 1 inch ball and flatten it slightly with you hand. Place the flattened cookie dough on the baking tray at 2-inches apart.
4. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes, or until set and just beginning to brown. Cool 2 minutes on baking try. Remove cookies to cooling racks to cool completely.

This recipe yields about 36-40 cookies, depending on the size of your cookies.

Apple Muffins with Walnut Streusel

This is another baking recipe using apples. J

It is my second time baking these muffins. They are moist in the inside and crunchy on the outside, fitting all the criteria for a yummy muffin.

I adapted the recipe from Baking Bites but made some variations.

Apple Muffins with Walnut Streusel

Streusel Topping:

• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup walnuts (crushed with rolling pin to little pieces)

Batter:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2/3 cup brown sugar ( I reduced to 1/2 cup)
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (I used plain yogurts)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup grated apple (I used 3 apples, peeled and diced them. Yield about 1 cup)
• 1/2 tsp salt
  

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 175 degree C. Line 12 muffin cups in the muffin tin.
2. For the topping: Mix all ingredients to resemble coarse crumbs. Set aside.
3. For the batter: Mix together all dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
4. Whisk together all wet ingredients in a large bowl, including the diced apples. I kept about ¼ cup for later use.
5. Fold flour mixture into wet ingredients until just combined.
6. Divide batter evenly into tins and top with the remaining apples and sprinkle with the streusel mixture.
7. Bake for 18 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.
8. Cool on a wire rack before serving.

Funfetti Cupcakes

Funfetti Cupcakes are cupcakes with colorful sprinkles added into the batter. I came across several Funfetti Cupcakes posts several months ago when surfing in Foodgawker site for nice cupcake recipes for my girl's birthday party. Even though I did not make any of these cupcakes for her party eventually, I did bookmark several of them in my KIV list.

I finally baked these cute and colorful little cakes for the first time last week and regretted for not making them earlier as they are not only pretty looking, they are so soft and tasty. My kids and colleague's children all loved them.  The big kids in my office adored them for brightening up their work day too. Their appreciations make my day too! It's so true that "Little Things Make Us Happy". 

A plus point of this Funfetti Cupcakes recipe from Tracey's Culinary Adventures is that only egg whites instead of whole eggs are used for the cakes which make them healthier and lighter for those who need to be conscious of their cholesterol intake.

Funfetti Cupcakes

(Tracey's Culinary Adventures)

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• ½ cup milk, at room temperature
• 3 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (I increased to 1.5tsp)
• ¼ tsp almond extract (I omitted this)
• 1¼ cups all purpose flour (I used cake flour)
• 1 cup sugar (I cut down to ½ cup)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature (equivalent to 85g)
• 3 tbsp rainbow sprinkles
  

Baking Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 175 degree C. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
2. Whisk the milk, egg whites, vanilla extract together in a mixing bowl. Set aside.
3. Place the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in another large mixing bowl and mix to combine with a fork. Cut the butter into 6 pieces and add them to the dry ingredients. Using hand mixer, mix on low speed until the mixture is coarse and sandy. Add in the liquid mixture and beat at medium speed for 1½ minutes. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold in the sprinkles.
4. Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake liners to not more than 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the pan and allow them to cool completely before storage.

Note: I’ve omitted the frosting but you may visit Tracey's post for her vanilla frosting recipe.

I am linking this post to Aspiring Bakers #13 – Enjoy Cupcakes hosted by Min.

Matcha Sablés (Green Tea Shortbread Cookies)

This is a very late post which has been sitting in my blog as "draft" for a few months which I did not realise until now. Blur me!

These Matcha Sablés (Green Tea Shortbread Cookies) were baked sometime in September as a birthday gift for the best friend of my elder daughter who loves green tea a lot. These cookies are crunchy and full of green tea flavor. If you love green tea like me, you will sure love this.

The recipe is adapted from here (text in Chinese) but I halved the quantity and had also made some slight adjustment as below.

Matcha Sablé Recipe

• 112g unsalted butter
• 80g powdered sugar
• 1 egg
• 200g cake flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1g baking soda
• 12g green tea powder
• Some white chocolate chips

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and green tea powder. Set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add in beaten egg over 2 times.
3. Fold in the flour mixture and mix till combine into a dough.
4. Transfer the dough out of the mixing bowl, place it on a plastic wrap and wrap it in the shape of a disc.
5. Chill the dough in the fridge for around 2 hours till firm.
6. Remove the dough from the fridge, roll it flat (slightly less than 1 cm in thickness), use cookie cutter to cut out the desire shape, place the sables over baking paper. Lightly press chocolate chips on top of each sable.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 150 degree C for 20 minutes. Keep a close watch during the baking process to prevent over-baking. Over-baking will cause the sables to turn from green to ugly brown.

Note: Instead of using cookie cutter to cut out the sables, sables are usually prepared by rolling the dough into cylinder shaped log and keep in the fridge to film up before being sliced into pieces of sables for baking. But I personally prefer to flatten the dough and use a cookie cutter to cut out nicely.

Cinnamon Walnut Swirl Cake

This simple, nutty and aromatic Cinnamon Walnut Swirl Cake was baked in mid October for a colleague who loves cinnamon as well as walnut. She was so delighted with this cake - a combination of her 2  favourites into one cake :)

Cinnamon Walnut Swirl Cake
(Source: Double Batch)

Ingredients:

* 1/3 cup sugar (I used golden castor sugar)

* 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted (I used walnut)

* 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

* 1 cup sugar (I used only 1/2 cup golden castor sugar)

* 2 cups all-purpose flour

* 1 teaspoon baking powder

* 1/2 teaspoon salt

* 1 egg

* 1 cup milk

* 1 teaspoon vanilla

* 1/3 cup cooking oil

Baking Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 175 degree C. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 loaf pan.
2. Combine 1/3 cup of sugar, walnut, and cinnamon. Set aside.
3. Combine 1/2 cup of sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat egg. Then, stir in milk, vanilla and oil. Make a well in the flour mixture and add the egg mixture. Stir just until mixed. Do not over mix.
4. Pour half of the batter into loaf pan. Sprinkle with half of the cinnamon walnut mixture. Pour the remaining half of the batter on top, followed by the rest of the cinnamon walnut mixture. Use a fork or knife, swirl the batter & cinnamon-walnut mixtures together with a zip-zap and and circular motion.
5. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until done. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes. Then, cool completely on a wire rack.

Cute Little Doggie Cookies

 

Do you find them adorable and wish you can take one home? :)

I baked these cute little doggie cookies in end October together with my two girls. My younger girl gave them out to her friends and teachers as farewell goodies on her last day with her last student care centre.

These cookies are pretty easy to make and I urge you to bake some on your own / with your little ones at home during the school holiday.

Doggie Cookies Recipe

(Source: ohbin)

Ingredients:

• 180g unsalted butter
• 20g castor sugar
• 80g Horlicks powder
• 25g corn flour
• 25g milk powder
• 200g cake flour
• Nestle's Cocoa Crunch
• Chocolate rice
• Mini Chocolate chips

The above yield about 50 cookies

Baking Steps:

1. Sieve corn flour, milk powder and cake flour together. Set aside)
2. Beat butter, sugar and horlicks powder till creamy
3. Add in flour mixture, and mix well until it come together as a dough (don't over do)
4. Weight dough 10g each and shape into small round ball and decorate with

          Ear- Cocoa Crunch

          Nose- chocolate chips

          Eyes- chocolate rice

     5. Bake at pre-heat oven for 25mins at 150c

An ideal gifit/treat for the little ones.