Delicious Spice Muffins

At my daughters  preschool they have a day at school where the dads get to come into the classroom and see what the kids do on a daily basis.  It is called "Doughnuts with Dad" and Abby was looking forward to it for two weeks. The sad thing is the day that Doughnuts with Dad came around we were all sick, and by sick I mean the stomach bug (I hate cleaning up barf).  Well Abby has been asking for doughnuts ever since, so we started looking at recipes to make some.  After some research I found this recipe here and it looked and sounded delicious. I loved that the doughnuts were baked, but I didn't have a doughnut pan to bake the doughnuts so I decided I would make mini muffins instead. I had to adapt the recipe a little bit because I have a little one who has some food allergies and can't handle pumpkin.  So I substituted applesauce for the pumpkin and choose to add a crumb topping instead of the cinnamon sugar topping.  It reminded me of a Costco muffin and my family thought it was delicious.

Delicious Spice Muffins


1 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon allspice

1/8 teaspoons ground cloves

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup applesauce

1/2 cup milk

Crumb Topping

1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Oats
1/4 cup All Purpose Flour 
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, softened

Preheat oven 350 F.  Butter a mini muffin tin and set aside.
In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and spices together and set aside.
In a large bowl (or the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment) whisk together oil, brown sugar, egg, vanilla, applesauce and milk until combined. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the mixture and stir until just combined.
 
Fill each muffin tin with the batter. I find it easiest if I place the batter in a zip-lock bag and cut the corner off to fill the tins.  I love that there isn't any mess.  

Make the Crumb topping by combining the brown sugar, oats, flour, and cinnamon.  Then using a fork stir in the softened butter until the topping is combined.  Place the crumb topping on top of the muffins and bake for 10-12 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean.  Place muffins onto a wire rack and allow to cool for a few minutes.  Enjoy! 

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Baguette

I just tried this delicious bread recipe this morning and was so surprised at how easy and delicious it was.  The best part was the total time to make it was 1 hour, that includes a 30 minutes of rise time and a 15 minute bake time.  Here is the recipe that was originally found here. Enjoy!

Baguette

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 1/2 Tbs. (2 packages) dry yeast

2 tsp. honey

3 1/4 cups flour

2 tsp. salt

In a small bowl mix the yeast and honey in the warm water. Let the mixture sit for about 5-10 minutes until frothy.

In a large mixing bowl combine the flour and salt. Gradually add the yeast mixture and mix until the dough becomes a smooth ball.  Then knead for about 5 minutes.  

Cut the dough in half and then shape into 2 baguettes. To make them smooth and pretty, roll each half dough into a rectangle and roll up lengthwise.  Pinch the edges to seal and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet (or parchment papers) with seam down Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  With a very sharp knife (I like to use a serrated blade) gently make a slash down the length of each baguette. This will give it that authentic look.  Pour water in a cookie sheet and place it on the bottom rack of the oven. Bake the bread for 15 minutes. Half way through, brush the bread with melted butter.