Cinnamon Apple Dutch Baby

It's time again for  Secret Recipe Club (Secret Recipe Club) reveal! My blog assignment this month was Spinach Tiger where Angela posts a wide variety of beautiful delicious food.  It was, once again, a challenge to decide which recipe to try.

A couple recipes that I thought about trying were this Baked Spaghetti and Broccoli Frittata and this Roast Chicken with Lemons - and I'm planning to make both of them soon - but in the end I decided on this Cinnamon Apple Dutch Baby.

Cook the apples, sugar & cinnamon

I've made Dutch Baby pancakes before, but I never baked the apples right in the pancake.  I don't know why, because it makes complete sense - why use two skillets - one to bake the pancake, and one to cook the apples - when you can use one?

Pour the batter on top

The first time I made this, I followed Angela's recipe - using 4 eggs, 1 cup flour, and 1 cup milk.  It was good, even though I cooked the apples and sugar a bit too much before I put the pancake in the oven so it was almost burnt around the edges.  We drizzled it with a bit of maple syrup, and it was yummy.

The second time I made it - yes, I had to make it again - I used only 3 eggs, 1/2 cup flour, and 1/2 cup milk.  And I made sure to only cook the apples for about 5 minutes like the recipe says.  I really liked the apple/pancake balance better this time, and I didn't even bother with the syrup.  It really didn't need it; the cinnamony, sugary goodness of the apples came through wonderfully.

Cinnamon Apple Dutch Baby
recipe from Spinach Tiger

Ingredients

• 2 large apples (I used Fuji)
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• Powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions

1. Peel, core and thinly slice apples.  Preheat oven to 450°.  
2. Melt butter in 10 inch frying pan (that can be transferred into oven). Cast iron is optimal. Add in cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar. Once melted, add in apples and cook until apples are softened, about five minutes. Place pan in oven while making batter.
3. Mix eggs with flour until smooth. Add in milk and vanilla.
4. Pour batter over apple mixture.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Dust with confectioner’s sugar. Cut into wedges

 Note: If you don’t have a frying pan that will go in oven, fry apples on top of stove and pour into a round cake pan, add batter and bake.

I will definitely be making this again!

Blackberry Rhubarb Crumble

I'm kind of obsessed with everything rhubarb right now, so when I pulled a package of blackberries out of my freezer, I went looking for a recipe that called for both blackberries and rhubarb.  I found recipes for Rhubarb and Blackberry Snack Cake, Rhubarb and Blackberry Crumble Bars, and this Blackberry Rhubarb Crumble.

Blackberry Rhubarb Crumble
adapted from theKitchn

For the fruit:

• 2 cups frozen blackberries, mostly thawed
• 4 cups frozen rhubarb, mostly thawed
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• Pinch salt

For the crumble topping:

• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1-1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
• 8 tablespoons butter (1 stick), melted

Directions:

1. Place the blackberries and rhubarb in a 9x13-inch baking dish. Sprinkle with the 1/2 cup brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and salt; toss gently.
2. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs.  Mix in the vanilla and 3/4 cup brown sugar.
3. Mix the flour with the baking powder and salt and stir into egg mixture to make a clumpy dough.
4. Using your hands, drop clumps of dough evenly over the fruit.  Have some extra flour handy to clean off your hands and clean out the bowl, spreading 'crumbles' over the top of the clumps. Sprinkle the chopped pecans over the top, then pour the melted butter over everything.
5. Bake for 35 minutes at 375°F, or until the top is golden brown and the crumble is baked through. Let sit for at least 30 minutes before eating.

The original recipe called for a bit more (fresh) fruit, but I used what I had - frozen.  One of the comments said that rhubarb and blackberries are not in season at the same time, making it hard to have both at the same time.  Using frozen works very well and solves that problem.  It does not even need to be completely thawed.

I mixed the fruit, sugar, cinnamon and ginger right in the baking dish -
no need to dirty another bowl.

What surprised me - never putting rhubarb and blackberries together before - is that the blackberry flavor really comes through, even though there is twice as much rhubarb.  I did not cut the sugar down in this recipe as I normally do because Faith, who posted the original recipe said the fruit was "proudly tangy and not too sweet" and that rhubarb should not be covered up with sugar - which I completely agree with, of course.  So I took her at her word, and I think it was just right.

Fresh out of the oven

Yum!

I especially love the topping on this.  I'm pretty sure it's the brown sugar.    I'm going to have to try it with different fruits, too.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.  Enjoy!

Related articles

• Rhubarb Crumb Bars
• Rhubarb Crumble
• Rhubarb crumble - with a twist
• Rhubarb Apple Crisp

Cranberry and Lime Muffins

After I made my Lemon Cranberry Muffins for this month's Secret Recipe Club reveal, I started thinking they'd be good with lime, too.  So I had to try it!

Cranberry and Lime Muffins
Adapted from The Pajama Chef

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 2/3 cup sugar (half brown)
• 2 large eggs
• zest and juice from one lime
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1 cup unbleached flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1-1/2 cups frozen cranberries (or fresh)
• 1/2 cup coconut
• coarse sea salt

Directions:

1. Line muffin tin with paper liners or grease with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, beat together yogurt, sugar, and eggs. Then add lime zest, lime juice, and vanilla extract. Lastly, stir in oil.
3. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Gently fold into wet ingredients and stir until just moistened. Batter will be lumpy.  Add cranberries and coconut and stir until combined.
4. Preheat the oven to 350°.  Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups and sprinkle tops lightly with coarse sea salt.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
6. If not using liners, allow to cool a few minutes before removing from pan cooling on a wire rack 

Enjoy! Makes 12 muffins.

Yep, cranberry and lime are awesome together. I also love the addition of the coconut, which was a last minute thought.  It adds just a touch of chewiness that I think is perfect.

I also love how the whole cranberries pop and explode in these muffins as they bake, leaving little pockets of cranberry goodness.

Related articles

• Lemon Cranberry Muffins

Lemon Cranberry Muffins

It's time again for  Secret Recipe Club (Secret Recipe Club) reveal!  This month I got to choose from Sarah's blog The Pajama Chef.

Sarah lives in Indiana with her husband Ben (they just recently celebrated their 4th anniversary) and two kitties.  She loves reading, getting good deals, peanut butter,  and pajamas - as the name of her blog suggests.  She'd wear pajamas all day every day if she could.  Sarah has a lot of great looking recipes on her blog, making it very difficult to choose again this month.

I started browsing Sarah's recipes, and I thought maybe these Mexican Hot Chocolate Breakfast Bars or these Peanut Butter Pretzel Granola Bars or these Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars. This Crockpot Saucy Italian Chicken looks awesome, and I am definitely going to try Sarah's recipe for Cornmeal Pizza Dough - maybe this will, at last, be the perfect pizza crust.  Sarah seems to think so.

But, when I came across this recipe, I knew I'd found the one for SRC.  Two of my favorite flavors in one muffin!  There was no way I could NOT make these muffins.

Lemon Cranberry Muffins
Adapted from The Pajama Chef

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp. lemon zest - or more
• juice from one lemon - about 3 T.
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1 cup unbleached flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 2 cups frozen cranberries (or fresh)
• coarse sea salt

Directions:

1. Line muffin tin with paper liners or grease with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, beat together yogurt, sugar, and eggs. Then add lemon zest, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. Lastly, stir in oil.
3. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Gently fold into wet ingredients and stir until just moistened. Batter will be lumpy.  Add cranberries and stir until combined.
4. Preheat the oven to 350°.  Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups and sprinkle tops lightly with coarse sea salt.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
6. If not using liners, allow to cool a few minutes before removing from pan cooling on a wire rack 

Enjoy! Makes 12 muffins.

Oh, Yum!! These are so good! Lots of cranberries in a lemony muffin.  These just might be my new favorite muffin.

Sarah decreased the sugar in these muffins from 1 cup to 2/3 cup because she used vanilla yogurt.  I used plain yogurt, because that's what I had, but chose to keep the sugar at 2/3 cup because I really like tart flavors.  I also added the juice from my lemon for extra lemon flavor - and because I was having a hard time getting much lemon zest (Sarah's recipe calls for 1-1/2 T zest)   I also decreased the oil from 1/2 cup to 1/3 cup and added a sprinkling of coarse sea salt to the tops of the muffins.  I think it adds the perfect touch.

Next, I'm trying these with lime instead of lemon - because lime and cranberry are awesome together, too.

Rhubarb Apple Crisp

It's Spring, which means Rhubarb!  If you're lucky enough to know somebody who has some - and even luckier to have someone willing to go cut it for you.  Oh, I would definitely go cut my own rhubarb because I love it, but my friend Peggy lives closer to our friend Alice than I do, so she gets me some when she gets hers.  I use it in muffins, rhubarb bread, this Rhubarb Pudding Cake that I adore, and pretty much anything else I can think of.  And I freeze lots of it so I can have rhubarb throughout the year.

Today I was thinking Rhubarb Apple Crisp, so I went looking for recipes - as if I don't already have plenty of my own recipes - like that pudding cake that I'm now wishing I'd remembered and made.  But anyway, I found this one for Apple-Rhubarb Crisp that looked pretty good, so I started there.  But I wanted a different topping, because my friend Peggy, who cuts the rhubarb, doesn't eat wheat, and I wanted to avoid using flour.  That's when I found the Apple Cranberry Crisp recipe in my favorite cookbook ever - The Best of Mennonite Fellowship Meals - and I had a note right there in the cookbook that the recipe is also good with rhubarb and apples, as well as a modified topping recipe - without flour.  So I used the basic idea of the recipe I'd looked up - because I liked the idea of the juice mixed in with the fruit - with the topping I had written in the cookbook.

Rhubarb Apple Crisp
adapted from About.com Southern Food and The Best of Mennonite Fellowship Meals

Ingredients:

• 4 cups chopped rhubarb (fresh or frozen)
• 3 medium apples, cored and diced
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 T. pineapple orange juice (or orange juice)
• 6 T. butter, melted
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup whole oats
• 1/3 cup quick oats
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

ready to bake

Directions:

1. Mix rhubarb, apples, brown sugar, cinnamon and juice.  Place in 2-qt baking dish.  (or mix directly in the baking dish)
2. Mix topping ingredients - melted butter, brown sugar, oats, and pecans - until crumbly, and spread evenly over fruit.
3. Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until fruit is tender and bubbly and topping is browned.
4. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Yum!