Caramel Apple Cupcakes

It's that time of year again and I. am. so. excited.  I love Fall and Winter baking...pumpkins, apples, and lots of spice! 

My first "Fall" recipe this year is Caramel Apple Cupcakes.  I saw a picture from one of the local bakeries here in Austin for their Caramel Apple cupcakes and decided to try my own version.  Unfortunately, I can't share the exact recipe I used with you for the cake because of a secret project, but I've browsed a couple of recipes so that I can share links with you and hopefully you'll find a recipe you love!  

I started with an apple spice cupcake and topped it with homemade cream cheese frosting.  

After icing the cupcakes, I put them in the fridge for 2 hours so the frosting would harden a little.  I melted Kraft Caramel Bits according to package directions, then quickly dipped the cupcakes into the hot caramel sauce and placed back into the fridge to cool. 

For decoration, I cut candy lollipop sticks in half and tied a little twine bow around them.  Too cute!

Here are some links to some apple spice cupcakes recipes!
Caramel Apple Cupcakes from Juneberry Lane
Caramel Apple Cupcakes from justJenn
Caramel Apple Cupcakes from Your Cup of Cake

Happy Baking!

Cream Cheese Frosting
2 sticks butter, room temperature
1 package cream cheese, room temperature
6-8 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp vanilla

Cream butter and cream cheese together until smooth.  Add vanilla. Add in 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time until desired consistency.

Caramel Apple Crunch Pie

Happy (day after) Thanksgiving!  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday filled with friends, family, and food.  

I am thankful for so many things...my husband, my family, my friends, my house, my dogs, my pink mixer, my health, and definitely this apple pie.  

It's been a few years since I've made this pie and to be honest, I couldn't remember what it tasted like, I just remembered it was really good.  My roommate from college gave me this recipe from her aunt and I'm thoroughly convinced this pie could change lives.  Or at least your opinion of apple pies.

I took this to Thanksgiving lunch at my in-laws and everyone loved it!  It's "lick your plate" delicious.  Cinnamon-y apples in a flaky crust, with a crunchy streusel topping, toasted pecans and caramel drizzle...yes, please.

I couldn't decide what type of apples to use in this pie and googling opinions only made things worse.  So I did it my way....2 granny smith apples, 2 gala apples, and 2 Macintosh apples.  All which came out to about six cups of apples.  

Word from the wise.  Take the time to toast your pecans. The flavor is worth it. (This coming from the girl who hates waiting on butter to soften)

And now I'm ready for Christmas.

Crunchy Caramel Apple Pie 

from Allison's Aunt Puckett

(printable recipe)

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp salt

6 cups peeled and thinly sliced cooking apples

1 unbaked pie shell

Topping:

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup quick-cooking rolled oats

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans

caramel sauce for drizzle

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt.  Add apple slices and toss gently to coat.  Transfer apple mixture to pie shell.

2.  Topping:  Stir together brown sugar, flour, and rolled oats.  Using a pastry blender, cut in softened butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Sprinkle the mixture over the apples.  

3.  Cover the edge of pie crust with foil.  Bake 25 minutes then remove foil and bake 25-30 more minutes or until top is golden.  Remove from oven.  Sprinkle pie with toasted pecans and drizzle caramel syrup over top.  Cool on wire rack before serving.  

Caramel Apple Spice Cupcakes

I love the holidays.  More specifically I love December and Christmas and cold weather.  But, I also love October because it usually brings cooler temperatures, pumpkin patches, Autumn decorations, Starbucks specialty drinks (Pumpkin Spice and Gingerbread Latte, anyone?), "Fall Back" time change, and most importantly, it's only 2 months away from December.  

I also love Fall baking and I've been waiting all year to be able to whip out the cans of pumpkin.  Something just doesn't seem right about using pumpkin during the spring and summer.  Oddly enough though, this recipe has nothing to do with canned pumpkin.  But it is along the same line of thought....Fall.  

Browsing some blogs, I saw a recipe for Caramel Apple Spice Cupcakes at YourCupOfCake.  They looked delicious and I loved the idea of pie filling in a cupcake.  I just "spiced"  it up a little by changing the flavor of the cake mix and chopped the pie filling up more.....and made the icing a little different.


Result:  Icing=I could eat it with only spoon and no cake good.  Cake= more like a muffin, a little dense, but tasty.

The cake batter was pretty thick, but I was okay with that since I've glorified mixes before and the cake still turned out moist and wonderful.  I just don't think there was quite enough liquid though to make these more cakey.  Next time, I think I would still add the water that the box mix calls for in their directions, but cut the oil.   I would assume using the apple pie filling is similar to using apple sauce as a replacement for oil in recipes...right mom? 


Bring on the holidays. Dense cake and all.  

Caramel Apple Spice Cupcakes 
(printable recipe)


Cake:

1 box Spice Cake mix

1 can apple pie filling

3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place cupcake liners in cupcake tin. Place apple pie filling into food processor and pulse until filling is "chunky" and there are no more large slices of apple.  Mix together cake mix, eggs, and pie filling until combined. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and bake for 14-18 minutes.  Let cool.

Frosting:

1 (8oz) package cream cheese

2 sticks butter (1 cup)

6-8 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup caramel

Beat cream cheese and butter together until smooth.  Add caramel and mix.  Add in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until you reach desired consistency.  Frost cool cupcakes.  Drizzle frosted cupcakes with caramel sauce.

Back to baking

Pretty sure it's been a few months since my last post---my apologies.  A little thing called "planning a wedding" seemed to consume and take over all of my time.  Now that that's out of the way---back to baking.

With a wedding, though, comes a multitude of presents.  Only problem is....I have no space to unpack them.  Hence the reason, these said presents now make up the "present room."

I can hardly wait to get into a bigger and (much) better place and start using all of these wonderful items.

Until then, I've stuck to my same old baking dishes, but tried out a few new recipes.

First up, Chicken Parmesan with Pepperoni.  I made this last night and I'm pretty sure the words "You're the best wife ever," came out of my husband's mouth.  And rightly so. This might be my new favorite meal.  No lies.

I admit, this pictures makes the dish look super greasy, but I swear that resting "grease" is what cooked out of the chicken, with a little pepperoni goodness/grease on top.  

I can't wait for leftovers tonight!

In addition to the chicken parmesan, I tried out a recipe for Salted Caramel Butter Bars that I found on a blog my younger sister reads.  They looked fabulous, sounded fabulous, and you can't really go wrong with butter.  I put my own twist on the recipe though and added "low-sugar" apple pie filling.

I call them "Caramel Apple Pie Bars" (with lots of butter).

Little bit closer? Here ya go.

After the husband tried these, he said I was "definitely the best wife ever."  And I smiled.

Try these yourself. You won't be disappointed.  And now I need to go for a run.

Chicken Parmesan with Pepperoni

adapted from Food and Wine and ELR

4 Chicken Breasts, pounded thin

2 cups Panko bread crumbs

2 eggs

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup milk

1 cup shredded mozzarella

2 ounces pepperoni

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan

1 large jar marinara sauce

1/4 cup oil

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 450.  In a shallow dish, combine eggs and milk.  In another shallow dish, pour panko. In one more dish, spread the flour.  Add salt and pepper to the flour.

Pound each of the chicken breasts thin (I didn't get mine thin enough). Dip each chicken breast in the egg mixture, then the panko breadcrumbs, then the flour.  

Heat oil on medium heat in large skillet.  Add the chicken breasts and lightly fry until golden on each side and cooked through.  Because my chicken breasts were a little on the "thick" side.  I cooked them until golden brown on each side, then put them on a pan in the oven for about 5-10 minutes until cooked through, so I wouldn't burn them in the skillet.  

Place cooked chicken breasts in 9x13 pan and cover with marinara sauce.  I used 3/4 of the jar on the chicken breasts and put the rest aside to put over my pasta.  Sprinkle the parmesan cheese and mozzarella over the chicken breasts and top with pepperoni slices.  

Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown and serve with noodles....and a Pinot Grigio. :)

Caramel Apple Pie Bars

adapted from Cookies and Cups

Crust:

1 lb. salted butter room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 tbsp vanilla

4 cups flour

Filling:

1 can apple pie filling (or any pie filling for that matter)

Topping:

1/2 bag of caramel candies (I used the ones in the baking section that were already unwrapped)

To make the crust:

Preheat oven to 325.

In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugars.  Beat until creamy.  Add the vanilla.  Add the flour until mixed and soft dough forms.

Spray 9x13 dish with PAM and press half of the dough evenly into the pan.  Place rest of dough in refrigerator until ready to use.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until a pale golden brown then take out of oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes.

Pour can of pie filling onto crust, then crumble the rest of the dough on top of the filling and baking for another 30-35 minute, until lightly golden.

While bars are baking, microwave caramel pieces until melted and smooth.  May need to add 1-2 tbsp of milk to thin out.  

Once bars are out of the oven, drizzle caramel over the top.  Let cool and serve.