Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I did, my mom worked all day on dinner and it was delicious. Here is what we had. I will have recipes for at least some of these dishes in the next couple weeks.

                                    I made pumpkin coffee cake for breakfast

Rolls, one of my favorites (I love bread)

                   Stuffing, Mashed potatos and gravy, and creamed corn casserole

Sweet potato casserole (my absolute favorite), twice baked sweet potatoes, and green bean casserole.

                                                              Maccaroni salad

                        Cinnamon applesauce jello salad (not sure what it’s really called)

                                                    and for dessert Pumpkin Pie

Peanut Butter Pumpkin Dog Treats

You could eat these if you wanted to, but they are probably kind of bitter. Our dogs love them, they wouldn't stop following me after I gave them some.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 large eggs
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
3 tbs. peanut butter

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Put all ingredients in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer, with paddle attachment.

3. Mix on medium for about 1 minute or until dough looks like this. If you pinch a piece and it crumble, add a little water, if it's sticky add a little more flour.

4. Form dough into a ball (I divided it into 2 balls, because it was easier to work with). Roll the dough out on a slightly floured surface (use the whole wheat flour) to about 1/4 inch thickness.

5. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters or with a knife (doesn't have to be sharp, I used a butter knife) until you've used up all the dough. I didn't have any smaller cookie cutters, so I just cut them into little squares.

6. Place on a baking sheet, they can be pretty close together, because they don't really expand much.

Dixie waiting for treats

7. Bake 15-20 minutes for softer treats or 30 minutes for hard treats. Let cool completely before giving them to your dog.

Dixie

Molly, waiting for me to say ok so she can have the treat

Can I have more?

Molly protecting the treats from Dixie, she started growling when ever Dixie came closer.

Coffee Cake Muffins

I've been busy the past several days, and probably will be all this month, but I was able to make these Coffee Cake Muffins last night. They didn't take very long and were pretty easy to make.

Enjoy!


Ingredients:
Batter:                                                 Topping:
2 cups all-purpose flour                         3 tbs. butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar                                       1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder                            1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt                                          3 tbs. all purpose flour
5 tbs. butter, melted                             1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup milk

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Topping
1. Mash together ingredients in a small bowl until it is in small crumbs. Set aside for later.

Batter
1. Mix together dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Mix together wet ingredients in a small bowl.
3. Stir together wet and dry mixtures. The batter should be thick, but not dry. If it is too dry add a little more milk.
4. Grease 10 muffin tins or use paper muffin cups. Fill each on 1/3-1/2 full.
5. Pack a spoonful of topping onto each muffin
6. Top with the rest of the batter, then add the rest of the topping. They don't expand much while baking, so it's ok if they are overflowing a little.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
8. Let muffins cool for 5 minutes then take them out of the tin.

Pumpkin Bread

I love bread, and one of my favorites is pumpkin bread! I found this recipe on pinterest, it was really good and pretty moist.

This recipe makes 2 loaves. You bake them together for the most part, but if after 45-50 minutes it's still not done in the middle, bake them separately for an extra 5 minutes.

Ingredients:
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree                  3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
4 eggs                                                        2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup vegetable oil                                   1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, melted                                 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
2/3 cup water                                             1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 cup brown sugar                                      1/2 tsp. ground cloves
2 cups white sugar                                      1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. vanilla extract                                    1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9x5 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, butter, water, both sugars, and vanilla.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, an pumpkin pie spice.
4. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended
5. Pour into prepared pans, Bake 45-50 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean.

Original Recipe

Pumpkin Pancakes

Pumpkin is my favorite fall flavor, other than apples and cinnamon, so this morning I made these yummy pumpkin pancakes. These are actually the first pancakes I have made from scratch, they were pretty easy to make.

Makes 8 to 10 pancakes, I doubled the recipe since there are 6 of us. It made about 21. I didn't put any  ground cloves in them, because we didn't have any, but I don't think it makes much of a difference.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tbs. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
1 cup milk
6 tbs. pumpkin puree
2 tbs. melted butter
1 egg

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt, nutmeg, and cloves.

2. In a separate bowl, stir together milk, pumpkin, butter, and egg.

3. Fold pumpkin mixture into dry mixture. Don't stir it, if you do the pancakes won't be fluffy, but try to get all the dry stuff mixed in.
4. Melt butter on a griddle or skillet, (I used a griddle, on about 325 degrees F) pour about 1/4 cup a batter for each pancake. Cook pancakes about 3 minutes on each side. Serve with butter, syrup, or any of your favorite toppings.

Apple Cinnamon Muffins

We've had a lot of food with pumpkin lately, so I started looking for something that tasted like fall (If fall was a flavor), but wasn't pumpkin and I found these muffins. They are so good! They are soft inside, but have just a little bit of a crunch with the apples inside and the crumbles on top!

The original recipe said it made 6 muffins, but mine made 12. The apples make up about half of the batter, if you want less, just use 1 apple. The crumble topping wasn't so crumbly when I made it, it was kind like a paste which is one of the reasons I added the oats. If you did 1/4 cup of butter instead of 1/2 cup, it would probably be more crumbly.

Ingredients:
  Muffins                                                 Crumble Topping
1 1/2 cups of flour                                 1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup of white sugar                            1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt                                           1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. baking powder                              1/2 cup butter, cubed
1 tsp. ground cinnamon                          1/2 cup oats (optional)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
2 apples, peeled and cubed

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) Grease muffin pan or line with paper muffin cups.

   Muffins
Mix together flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon. Mix in oil, egg, and milk. Fold in apples. Spoon mixture into the muffin cups, filling them almost to the top

  Crumble Topping
In a small bowl, add sugar, flour, cinnamon, butter, and oats. (if the butter isn't soft enough to mix it all together, heat the whole thing for 10-20 seconds in the microwave) Mix together with a fork and sprinkle (or spread) over the top of the unbaked muffins

Bake for 20-25 minutes, to check if they are done, put a toothpick in the middle of a muffin and pull it out, if it comes out clean they're done, if not, bake them for 2-5 minutes longer until they are done.

Let cool about 5 minutes before taking them out of the pan, then enjoy!

Original Recipe

Welcome!

Welcome to The Sandy Apple!
 Why the sandy apple? No, I don't eat sandy apples. I love the beach and the color and texture of sand, and I LOVE the smell, taste, and color of apples.
This blog is all about baking and cooking. I'll have all kinds of recipes and baking and cooking tips! I'm not a professional, so come learn with me!

           Abby

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http://imcraftingmyway.wordpress.com/