Apple Cinnamon Biscotti Cookies

What can you do with 5 Apples? Well with 2 apples I made these Apple Cinnamon Biscotti like cookies. I peeled, cored, and diced 2 apples, and by doing so I was able to make 3 mini Apple Cinnamon Rum Loafs and these Apple Cinnamon Biscotti Cookies. I actually wanted to make pinwheel cookies, but after rolling out the dough into a rectangle and spreading the apple filling evenly throughout the rectangle and rolling it into a log, I decided to just bake it as is and cut them after they bake. This is very easy, and all I did was use a basic cookie recipe. So really its more cookie then biscotti, just with a biscotti shape. If you would like to try, this is a recipe from my other post called Mini Apple Sugar Cookie Pie. I used lefted over cookie dough to make these cookies.

Apple Filling:

2 Granny Smith Apples- peeled, cored, and diced/chopped small
1/4 cup Sugar
1 tbsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
1 tbsp Rum (dark or light)
1. Peel, core, and dice the apples into small pieces. Place medium saucepan over low heat and place apples, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and rum into the pot. Stir all ingredients together for about 1 to 2 mintues until well coated, then cover and let cook for about 8 mintues or to your liking.
2. Once done to your taste and texture, remove from heat and let completely cool.

CINNAMON Roll Knock-Up!

This is what I call a knocked up job of Cinnamon Rolls. As a student living in a studio, money, space, and lighting are limited resources, so bare with me lol. Usually when I want something sweet and homemade, I go rummaging through my pantry and grab hold of whatever I can find. So luckily for me I had all-purpose flour, cinnamon, sugar, yeast, and powered sugar. Then I scanned through some recipes and decided to make cinnamon rolls, however the recipe asked for bread flour and another recipe also asked for plain white flour, so hey! at least I had most of the required ingredients. One thing I did learn is that, improvising is cool but following a recipe thoroughly is better, because my cinnamon rolls came out kind of heavy.. not so light and fluffy. But when your looking for a knock up job consisting of something sweet this is the way to go. OK so here's the real recipe not my knocked up cinnamon rolls.

1 pkg active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 egg, room temperature
2 1/2 cups Bread flour, sifted

Filling:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar

1. Dissolve the dry yeast in warm water, let stand until creamy about 10 minutes
2. Combine the yeast with sugar, salt, egg, and 1 cup of flour, stir well until combined.
3. Stir in the remaining 1/2 cup of flour at a time, beating well with each addition. When the dough pulls together place on top a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 8 minutes. Cover and let rest 10 minutes or let rest over night.
4. Roll out dough into somewhat of a rectangle and now combine the filling mixture, brown sugar and ground cinnamon. Brush the dough with the melted butter and sprinkle the brown sugar mixture over the entire dough. Now roll dough length wise into a log and pinch edges.
5. Cut the dough into 16 pieces and place cut side up in a 8x8 squared pan. Cover pan with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until double in size, about 45 minutes.
6. Preheat oven 400 degrees. Bake rolls until golden brown and Enjoy!

Breakfast with Sophie!

My mom was a nurse, and she took care of a sweet but tough little old lady name sophie. Her name may sound soft, but she was far from it. But, from time to time I would visit and help out. My real interest in baking came from visiting sophie, (because I was more of a cook since I was 10 years old, rather then baking).

I got the idea that it would be nice to bake something for her.. she loved sweets and trying new things. So I first began with breakfast, where I baked Almond stuffed Pastry Pretzels. It was in the shape of a pretzel and lightly stuffed with a mixture of sugar, almonds, and almond paste. As they were baking the house filled with a sweet aroma, and she could not wait. She enjoyed it, for the next couple of mornings.

Then I made semi sweet cinnamon buns, with her heath in mind and for christmas I made cookies. Sophie really enjoyed the treats, and she wanted to help so bad sometimes. It was more of a treat to see her face when she started to smell different things baking.