Apple Cinnamon Muffins

The cinnamon flavor in these muffins is very subtle. If you're a big fan of cinnamon, I'd recommend doubling the amount of cinnamon, or using even more than that.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup apple juice
1 egg
1 cup (about 1 large) apple, peeled, cored, and finely diced

Preheat oven to 400*F. Grease or line a muffin tin with baking cups.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Whisk together the vegetable oil, apple juice, and egg. Add wet ingredients to the flour mixture; fold until dry ingredients are just moistened but batter is still lumpy. Gently stir in apple chunks. Divide batter among muffin cups. Bake for 18 - 22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into one or two of the muffins comes out clean.

Raw Apple Cake

This recipe is from my Grandfather Smith. I don't have the original recipe in his writing, but I'm sure it says to enjoy this with whipped cream and ice cream! Personally, I like it just plain.

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup oil
1 egg
3 large apples, peeled and grated
1 tsp soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup flour
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Beat egg. Add sugar and oil. Add dry ingredients. Stir in apples and nuts. Pour into a greased 8" square pan. Bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes.

Caramel Apple Pie

2 pie crusts for a 9" or 10" pie

Filling:
6 cups apples (Jonathan or Granny Smith)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
1 T lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla
4 T heavy cream
4 T butter

Streusel Topping:
1/2 cup flour
3 T sugar
1 T butter
2 toffee bars (Skor or Heath)

Filling:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put bottom crust in pie plate.

Peel and slice apples. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and add apples. Toss to mix. Add vanilla and cream. Melt butter in heavy skillet. Add apple mixture and cook approximately 8 minutes, to soften apples. Turn into pie shell.

Streusel Topping:
Combine the flour and sugar. Mix in butter with fork until coarse crumbs. Stir in the crushed toffee bars. Sprinkle over pie. Add top crust. Seal, flute edge and vent top. (I'll also take left over pie crust dough and cut out small leaves or apples to decorate the top. This makes it a little fancier if you're trying to impress your guests!) Brush with beaten egg white and sprinkle with sugar (I use cinnamon sugar). Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake 45 minutes longer.

Caramel Apple Crisp

Apple Filling:
5 large Granny Smith Apples (Braeburn also work great)
peeled, cored and thinly sliced (I just use my food processor to slice them up)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 Tbsp flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup water

Crumble:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup quick oats
1 cup butter, softened

Caramel Sauce:
1 (14 oz) package individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped
1 5 oz can evaporated milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss apples with sugar flour cinnamon, lemon juice and water. Spread evenly into a 9 x 13 pan. In another bowl mix together the crumble topping ingredients (flour, brown sugar, oats and butter). In a heavy sauce pan over low heat melt the caramels with the evaporated milk. Heat, stirring frequently until the mixture has a smooth consistency. Drizzle 3/4 of caramel mixture over the apples, spoon crumble on top and then drizzle the remaining caramel over the crumble. Bake for 45 minutes or until apple mixture bubbles and topping turns golden brown.

Microwaved Apple Betty

4 med. apples, pealed & sliced
1/2 c. sugar
2 T. flour
1/2 t. cinnamon
3 T. lemon juice
1/4 t. nutmeg
1 1/2 T. butter
Arrange apple slices in 8x8 or large pie plate. Mix remaining ingredients together and sprinkle over apples. Dot w/ butter and sprinkle w/ lemon juice. Sprinkle topping over top...

Topping:
1/2 c. butter
1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. flour
3/4 c. oatmeal
Pinch of salt
1/2 c. finely chopped nuts (though, I of course, omitted the nuts)

Melt butter and add brown sugar. Stir in flour, oatmeal, salt and nuts. Pat in place over apples. Cook uncovered for 15 minutes turning twice (unless you got a "turn table" in your microwave).

Let stand 15 minutes and serve w/ ice cream.

Impossible Apple Pie

Don't worry, the only impossible thing about this is it's impossible to mess up.

3-4 apples peeled and diced
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 c melted butter or margarine
1 c sugar
1 beaten egg
1 c flour

Fill bottom of 9 inch pie plate w/ apples. Sprinkle w/ cinnamon and sugars. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over top. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Serve warm w/ vanilla ice cream.

Caramel Crunch Apple Pie

I found this recipe online a few months ago. I was a little bit skeptical of the topping at first, but it turned out really, really well.

(PS - This is the last one for today. I have actual work to do, honest.)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

6 cups peeled, sliced baking apples (I've had good luck with Fuji apples in this recipe)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 cup sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 9-inch unbaked pastry shell (save yourself some trouble and buy one of the Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts; they're rolled in a red box and they work!)

28 caramels

1 can (5 oz) evaporated milk

Combine flour, brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon. Spread into an ungreased baking dish (I think glass works best.) Bake at 400 F for 6-8 minutes or until golden brown. Cool. Crumble and set aside.

Sprinkle apple with lemon juice. Combine sugar, flour, and cinnamon, and toss with apples. Place apples in pie shell. Cut a circle of foil to cover apples but not the edge of the pastry; place over pie. Bake at 425 for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 F; bake for 35 minutes more or until apples are tender.

Meanwhile, melt caramels with evaporated milk in a saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently. Remove foil from pie. Pour caramel mixture over spples. Sprinkle with topping; return to oven for 5 minutes. Serve warm.