Apple and Cinnamon Doughnuts with Maple Syrup Glaze

I made these at the weekend as we had a guest who has given up eating chocolate for lent and so I needed to find something yummy but un-chocolatey to make. I found the recipe for the doughnuts at peaceloveandfrenchfries.com and the glaze I just made up. I changed the recipe a bit to fit with ingredients we have available here and I changed it to European measures.

Ingredients

Doughnuts:
340g apple sauce
1 egg
1 tbsp sunflower oil
100g brown sugar
280g all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp cinnamon

Glaze:
6tbsp maple syrup
250g icing sugar

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 200C and thoroughly grease your doughnut pan.
In a large bowl mix together the apple sauce, egg, oil and sugar.
In another bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon.
Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well.
Add the vanilla essence and mix well.
Pour the mixture into the doughnut pan making sure each doughnut hole is filled to no more than half way.
Put them in the oven on the middle shelf for about 8mins or until they have risen and are springy to the touch.
Remove them from the oven and leave them to cool on a wire rack.
This should make around 24 doughnuts.

When the doughnuts have cooled mix together the maple syrup and icing sugar until it is thoroughly combined and then spread the glaze onto the doughnuts.

Enjoy :)

Small beginnings...

I mentioned a week or so ago that we had a plan brewing for a big creative event for young people here in Jajce - the plan is still brewing and is coming along nicely. Today a group of us started limbering up for the big day. Small beginnings but hopefully the end result, when the day comes, will be fab!

Raspberry Cheesecake Flapjacks

Cream cheese is currently my favourite ingredient. I love the combination of cheese and sweet, of cheese and cake. A while ago we were in a restaurant which offered for dessert 'cheesecake of the day'. We asked the waiter which cheesecake they were offering . He was foreign and perhaps the concept of cheesecake was foreign to him because his answer was, 'it's a cheese and a cake!'. Even after we asked him a few times, trying out different wordings of the question, he still kept saying, 'it's a cheese and a cake!' We ordered it anyway and it turned out to be a very good honeycomb cheesecake.

Last night I made these Raspberry Cheesecake Flapjacks. It's an idea I've been mulling over in my mind for a few days and last night the idea made it into reality. Once again I think the combination of cheese and cake makes these a very yummy, possibly kind of healthyish snack.

Raspberry Cheesecake Filling:
125g low fat cream cheese
100g raspberries
100g icing sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
1/2 a vanilla bean.

Flapjacks:
100g yoghurt butter (you can use normal butter, this is just lower fat)
100g brown sugar
300g oats
3 tbsp maple syrup
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 190C and line a brownie tin with baking paper.
In a large bowl mix together the cream cheese and icing sugar. Add the vanilla essence and vanilla bean seeds and mix well. Add the raspberries and mix until you have a deep pink creamy mixture.
In a saucepan melt the butter and sugar until they are combined. Take the pan off the heat and add the maple syrup and vanilla essence and mix well. Add the oats and mix until they are totally coated in the syrupy mixture.
Pour half the flapjack mixture into the cake tin and press down so it is evenly spread across the whole tin.
Pour the raspberry mixture over it and spread it out so it is evenly spread across the whole tin.
Add the rest of the flapjack mixture on top. Press it down lightly so it spreads evenly across the whole tin, but doesn't sink into the raspberry mixture.
Place it in the oven on the middle shelf and cook for 20mins.
Leave to cool.
When completely cold, cut into squares.

Another happy customer!

 This little bunny found it's way to it's owner today. It's always nice to receive positive feedback from customers.

 He always travels prepared, with a carrot in his bag. If you'd like to have a go at making a little carrot yourself then click here to go to my tutorial.

Not the skull, just the pitcher and other stories...

Today's theme for Fresh Stitches Design Week is 'Trouble Spots'. Yesterday I told you that I am trying to make an amigurumi version of this picture for the current Plush Team challenge. I showed you how I'd done the skull and ended by saying 'next step - the pitcher'.

The pitcher is definitely a trouble spot! It's such a weird shape, it is going to be really hard to make it in 3d. Here's a sketch where I've tried to imagine it flattened out. I've only drawn 2 sides - the third side will be even harder!

 I've decided to start with the base as an equilateral triangle and build it up from there, making each side separately. Does anyone have any better ideas or other advice to give?

And in today's other news, the circus is in town! If you look carefully you can see a black blob to the right of the first megaphone - that is the backside of a monkey! Yes, a real monkey, tied to the roof of the van as it goes through town advertising the circus. I took the photo quickly with my phone as it drove by which is why I managed to miss getting all of the monkey. Some things only happen in BiH! (well probably other places too, but not any places I've been too.)

This blog post is for Day 5 of Fresh Stitches Design Week.

Skull and Pitcher

The Plush Team Challenge for March and April is to make a plush self portrait or a plush still life. When I read the words 'still life' the idea came into my head to try and make an amigurumi version of a Picasso still life painting. I looked on google images and decided on this one - The Skull and Pitcher.

 So far I have only made the skull - here are my workings out in my notebook. I'm not really sure if I will succeed in making everything - it's harder than I thought!

The skull has turned out ok-ish though. Next step - the pitcher!

This post is for Day 4 of Design week by Fresh Stitches.

Youth Art Month

I just found out that this month is Youth Art Month in the USA. The goal of it is to emphasize the value of participating in art for children and young people. There are national, state and local events to celebrate it. Sounds like a great idea.  Here in BiH at Novi Most Jajce, every month is Youth Art Month in one way, as we are always doing new art projects with young people. But it would be great to have some bigger events to celebrate the work they are doing and the value of young people having creative opportunities. In fact,we have a plan brewing, not for this month, but maybe the next...Keep your eyes open to see how it all unfolds. The photo above is from our art session last night.

Chocolate and Cinnamon Doughnuts

A couple of months ago I saw a doughnut baking pan in the random everything shop across the road. I didn't buy it, but I did start thinking about making doughnuts. Recently I've seen a lot of lovely looking baked doughnuts on Pinterest and on Thursday we were out shopping and I bough the pan. This morning I read a lot of different baked doughnut recipes and with a bit of mix and match, came up with my own recipe. The main recipes I learned from were this one by Lara Ferroni and this one by loveveggiesandyoga.com.

My recipe goes like this:

Doughnuts - makes 12
100g flour
40g cocoa
80g sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
30g sour cream
60g natural yoghurt
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
14g butter, melted.

Grease your doughnut pan thoroughly and preheat the oven to 180C.

In a large bowl mix the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt until it is all combined.
Then add the sour cream, yoghurt, egg, vanilla and butter and mix well. At first I thought I would need to add more liquid, but persevere with the mixing and it will come good! It should end up looking like this:

Then you need to put the mixture into the pan. Most of the recipes I read recommended using a piping bag so you get a nice neat circle of dough in each space in the tin. I don't have on so I just used a spoon. You need to fill each space between 1/2 and 2/3 full. If you overfill the hole will disappear when the dough rises.

Put the pan into the oven on the middle shelf and bake for 6-8 minutes. If the dough springs back when pressed, they are done. I was really surprised by how quickly they were ready. They only took 6mins in my oven.

Loosen them round the edges with a knife and then pop them out and leave them to cool on a wire rack. Whilst they are cooling it's time to make the glaze.

Vanilla Glaze
120g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
5 tsp milk
sugar sprinkles

Add the vanilla to the icing sugar and then add the milk a teaspoon at a time, mixing constantly. When the glaze is liquid enough to drip off a spoon, drip it onto the doughnuts. Beware - this can be very messy! When you have iced all the doughnuts pour sugar sprinkles over them. Leave them for a while so that the icing can set.

And then eat and enjoy!

Lemon and Poppy Seed Muffins with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

This is another great recipe I found on Pinterest. You can read all about it here on joyofthebaker.com. I have converted the recipe into European measures, so if you're American and reading this then make sure you click the link above to find the recipe in your language!
The texture of the muffins is amazing - firm and moist all at the same time. I decided, rather than make a glaze for these muffins as is suggested in the original recipe, that I would make lemon cream cheese frosting. It worked very well! So here is the recipe...


Muffins:
150g sugar

zest and juice of 1 lemon
250g flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
170g sour cream
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
113g butter, melted until browned and cooled
2 Tablespoons poppy seeds
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar (for topping the batter before baking)

Preheat the oven to 200C.  Line a 12 holed muffin tray with paper muffin cases.

In a large bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together until the sugar is slightly yellow and sented with lemon.  Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix. In another bowl whisk together the eggs, sour cream, vanilla, melted butter and lemon juice.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix. Add the poppy seeds and mix well.  Spoon the batter into the muffin cases and sprinkle a little bit of sugar on the top of each one.

Place the muffin tin on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until the tops are golden. Put a cocktail stick into the middle of a few of the muffins. If it comes out clean they are done. Let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:

100g cream cheese

60g butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
zest of half a lemon
375g icing sugar

In a bowl mix the butter and cream cheese until they are fully combined. Add the vanilla and lemon and mix well. Add in the icing sugar little by little, mixing constantly, until you have a stiff and creamy texture. Frost the muffins, and then take a bite!

Enjoy :)

Introducing Gertie

Gertie spends a lot of time wandering and thinking. She is a bit of a loner really, but she's ok with that. By wandering she has seen a lot more of the world than the other bunnies from her town. They all know she's about to go off again when they see her pack some carrots into her bag, sling it over her shoulder and start off down the main street. Lots of the bunnies secretly wish they were as brave as her and could see the things she's seen, but instead they just wait in anticipation for her to return and tell them tales of places far away. Gertie is available in my Etsy Shop.