Apple Cranberry Walnut Breakfast Bars

Fall is in the air so it's time to bake!




Apple Cranberry Walnut Breakfast Bars

BAKE at 350 for 35 minutes

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 and 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups (packed) brown sugar
2 eggs
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup), softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 and 1/2 cups diced apples
2/3 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 inch cake pan with cooking spray and set aside. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. In an electric mixer, beat brown sugar, eggs, butter and vanilla until smooth. Slowly add flour mix until combined. Add apples, cranberries and walnuts and spread into cake pan. Bake for 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cut into bars and enjoy!

Don't muffin it up . . .

In an attempt to try to be more domestic I made muffins from scratch on Thursday morning. I got up super early and made them before I started work. Amazing, I know.



Based on this recipe for butternut squash muffins though adjusted to suit my curiosity and pantry. I recently made a pumpkin cake and had half of a large can left over so I substituted that for the squash. I also substituted half the flour for whole wheat flour, added chopped walnuts and ground flax seed. And since I was out of eggs I used apple sauce instead plus 2 TBS of canola oil.



Not bad, but next time I think I'll up the amount of pumpkin pie spice or maybe add some ginger. They needed a bit more zing.

In my effort to cook more I've tried or am trying the following recipes:

Chicken Marsala - delicious! It tasted just like a restaurant dish. :) A keeper.

Fettuccine with sweet pepper cayenne sauce - good, however I substituted Cajun seasoning for the cayenne, added smoked turkey sausage and deglazed the pan with sherry so a totally different meal.

Slow Cooker Tortilla Soup - in the crock pot now!

Chicken & Black Bean Casserole - to be served with the soup tonight (DH does not think soup equals a meal.)

Asian Turkey Meatballs - on deck for tomorrow night though I might make a sweet coconut rice as the side.

Also have plans for corned beef with sweet potatoes (I know, I know but I have a really hard time eating white potatoes) and chicken enchiladas. What new things have you been making?

Let Them Eat Tiramisu

I've always wanted to learn to cook and bake the right way. You know, when you can look in your fridge, see 5 random things and whip them into a gourmet meal. I would love that!

To celebrate my new motto, "You're not getting any younger!" lol I've been trying some new recipes and actually READING those parts in the cookbooks that teach you tricks and techniques. My first endeavor? A tiramisu cake to take to a dinner party. Quite risky to make a new recipe and then have other people count on it as their dessert LOL. But it turned out great! I tweaked two different recipes and will make it again. Since it's really my own recipe now I thought I'd share it here. It's pretty easy. I am a lazy cook. :)

Rebecca's Kahlua Tiramisu Cake



Vanilla Buttercream Cake

12 tbs of butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup white sugar
4 eggs
2 cups self rising flour
1/4 cup of milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9 inch round cake pans with Pam (or other) and line with parchment circles.*

Beat butter, vanilla, sugar, eggs, flour and milk with electric mixer on low until ingredients are combined. Increase speed to medium and beat until mixture becomes a paler shade.

Pour half of mixture in each prepared pan. You want your cakes to been thin, so about an inch of batter in each. Bake until golden on top, about 20 minutes. Cool cakes in pans for about 10 minutes and then remove to racks to cool more.

Coffee Syrup

1 cup white sugar
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup strong brewed coffee
1/8 cup Kahluha (you could substitute 2 tbs vanilla or almond extract)

Stir together 1 cup sugar, boiling water, coffee and 1/4 cup rum until sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

Mascarpone Cream

1 (8 ounce) container mascarpone cheese
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/8 cup Kahluha (you could leave this out I would think)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups heavy cream

Combine mascarpone, 2 cups confectioners' sugar, Kahlua and 1 teaspoon vanilla in a large bowl. Whisk together until completely smooth, scraping the bottom of the bowl to remove any lumps. Gradually whisk in the heavy cream. Whip with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Stop whipping when the mixture shows the first sign of graininess.

To assemble:

Place one layer of cake in 9 inch spring form pan. Poke holes in the cake (a lot) and pour half of coffee syrup over cake. Spread a generous amount of mascarpone cheese on top. Don't be stingy, you'll have cream left over. Spread all the way out to the edges of the pan. Place next layer of cake on top and press down into pan. Poke holds and pour remaining syrup over top. Spread another layer of mascarpone cream. Top with shaved dark chocolate (if desired.)



Refrigerate cake for AT LEAST 4 hours. This is very important. You can leave it over night if desired. Remove side of spring form pan and enjoy!

This really is an easy cake to make and it's quite impressive! LOL I do think next time I'll go a little easier on the cream for a better presentation but that is the yummiest part of the cake. I've frozen my remaining cream (I had about 2 cups left over) and plan to make vanilla butter cake cupcakes and make mini tiramisus this weekend. I got the idea from this book. My Mom found it at the thrift store. It has some fun cupcake ideas in it. I think I'll try the banana caramel ones sometime soon. :)

If anyone tries a tiramisu let me know! You can leave out the Kahlua or substitute dark rum or extracts. As long as you use strong coffee in the syrup it should have the traditional tiramisu taste. :)

hugs
Rebecca

* - trace your pan bottom onto parchment paper and cut out a circle. Voila!