Apple Streusel Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze

See these apples? We picked them….for free. And we took them home…for free! Seriously people, nothing is free anymore. I found out about this cute little orchard owned by the city last year but we never got around to checking it out. So when I heard that the apples were ready this year I put it as top priority in my phone’s to-do list. I take my lists VERY seriously.

So we headed to the orchard and had a great time picking the apples.

Good thing that boy of mine is so tall!

Many of the apples we brought home were dedicated to Noah’s favorite snack, lala, known to normal people as applesauce. We are still not sure where he came up with that one. To use up the rest of the apples, I went through all my recipes I have saved to find some yummy apple options.

This was the first recipe I found and after giving Joel tons of options, it was his hands down favorite. I will be sharing another of his must have picks later. It was even Noah’s top choice (after lala of course). Whenever we give him two options he always picks the second one, no matter what it is. I’ll admit we sometimes use that to our advantage.  Anyway, I asked him if he wanted apple cake or apple pie. His response: “apple cake.” I reversed the order and: “apple cake.” I asked several more times with a conclusive result of: “apple cake mama.”

You can’t really blame them can you? Apple cake with streusel and a glaze…I’m totally with them! I don’t care for fruit in dessert all that much but I can absolutely get behind this.

Apple Streusel Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze
recipe from Lauren’s Latest

For the cake:
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup peeled, diced apple (1/4 inch pieces)
1/3 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1/4 cup low fat buttermilk
1/4 cup low fat sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the streusel:
3/4 cup oats
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup walnuts

For the glaze:
3 oz. softened cream cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons softened margarine or butter
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons milk, or enough to make it a glazing consistency

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray 9-inch spring form pan with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk all dry ingredients together. Make a well in the center and pour all wet ingredients in. Slowly start mixing the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just combined. Toss in apple pieces and stir. Pour batter into prepared pan. In a small bowl, stir all ingredients for streusel together until butter pieces are small chunks found throughout mixture. Sprinkle over top of cake and bake 45-55 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted. Remove from oven and cool.

3. Before serving, whip cream cheese and margarine together until smooth. Stir in powdered sugar, vanilla and milk until smooth and runny. Add the milk slowly until desired drizzling consistency is reached. Un-hinge spring form pan and place cake on serving platter. Drizzle with glaze and serve.

Cinnamon Streusel Pancakes

These are simply amazing. Definitely not the pancakes you make every weekend but a great occasional recipe to break out for special celebrations. Pancakes are usually for special occasions around here anyway. I don’t know why I don’t make them often because we love them…just don’t think about them I guess. And I don’t have a griddle so I basically make them one at a time which can take quite awhile if I’m cooking for a crowd.

Obviously, it’s the cinnamon streusel that puts these pancakes over the top. I have made these pancakes twice, the first time with the full amount of streusel and the second with half the amount. I found that the full amount was of course amazing but they were still really great with only half of what the original recipe states. I didn’t miss the extra streusel too much so I think I will halve it in the future. I left the recipe at the full amount so you can go ahead and make your own decision (sugar overload or just short of it?).

We just love these pancakes. Noah enjoyed them as his second breakfast. Second breakfast you ask? Well, Noah usually gets up around 6:30 or 7:00 and eats Greek yogurt and Cheerios. On Saturday, Joel gets up with Noah so I can sleep in then once I wake up (usually around 8:30) I try and make a yummy, homemade breakfast. When we sit down to eat and put Noah in his highchair he thinks he needs to eat again. And it’s just mean and torturous to eat in front of him without sharing. Alas, second breakfast. I know this blog is all about food but I couldn’t help but share this picture and video of Noah enjoying his pancake.

Cinnamon Streusel Pancakes
recipe from Real Mom Kitchen

Streusel mixture:
3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
10 Tbsp cold butter

Pancake mixture:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups buttermilk  (I substituted sour milk see note below)
2 large eggs
1/4 cup canola oil

1. Prepare the streusel mixture by mixing the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl.  Then using a large shred cheese grater, you grate the butter into the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon mixture.  Grate a little and then stir it in and continue until all the butter has be grated.  You want a nice crumbly mixture.  If you don’t have the cheese grater you can cut the butter into small pieces and use a fork or pastry blender, but I love to use the cheese grater method.

2. In another bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients for the pancake mixture together.

3. Add all wet ingredients (eggs, buttermilk, and oil)  to a separate bowl and stir just until blended.

4. Add the wet ingredient to the dry ingredients just until combined.   Do not over mix, batter will be slightly lumpy.

5. Lightly coat skillet with oil.  Heat to medium low (I do one notch below medium).

6. Drop 1/2 cup of the pancake batter onto heated skillet.  If needed, use the back side of a spoon to help even out the batter.  Sprinkle with 1 Tbsp of the streusel mixture.

7. Cook on first side until bubbles begin to form on surface and underside is golden, about 2 minutes.  The pancake with be puffy and the streusel mixture will have dissolve into the pancake.

8. Flip over and sprinkle the now cooked side of the pancake with 3 Tbsp of the streusel mixture.  You want it nice and even on the pancake. Cook for 2 minutes until golden brown and the streusel is nice and melted on the top of the pancake.

9. Serve warm with maple syrup and butter. Makes 8 large pancakes.

Note: If you don’t have buttermilk just add 1 Tbsp of vinegar or lemon juice to your liquid measuring cup.  Then add enough milk to make 1 cup.  Allow to sit for 5 minutes and you have a substitute for 1 cup of buttermilk.

Recipes linked to Mangia Monday, Totally Tasty Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, These Chicks Cooked, What I Whipped Up Wednesday, Full Plate Thursday and Fusion Friday.

Crunchy Caramel Apple Pie

Ok, so I’m not a fruit for dessert kind of person. I just don’t enjoy cooked fruit, it get mushy and weird….not my thing. But Joel loves apple pie. For the past few Thanksgivings I have made this pie for him with lots of success and raves. Although I am not a fan, the crumbly streusel topping does make it much more appeal. m a total sucker for streusel. My mom took the leftovers to work and two people told her it was the best apple pie they had ever had. Score!

As I’ve said before, I struggle with crusts and dough of all kind. Pie crust is a huge frustration for me. I can never get the edge perfectly beautiful which angers me. While perusing Pinterest one day I came across some amazing decorative pie crust edges that I knew would fix my frustration. I fell in love with the braided crust and knew it was something I hopefully couldn’t mess up. And I didn’t! It turned out so cute. There was a little hiccup because I didn’t roll out the dough long enough to make one braid to fit across the whole pie. I ended up with 3 braids that didn’t match up perfectly when placed on the edge so my mom cut out several little leaves to put in those spots to cover up the imperfections.

It almost looked to good to eat….but only for a minute. In all the Thanksgiving hustle and bustle I forgot to take a picture of a slice of it but you get the gist of the crunchy, apple goodness.

Crunchy Caramel Apple Pie
recipe from food.com

For Pie:
Premade pie crust (two if you are doing a braided edge)
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 cups thinly sliced peeled apples

Crumb Topping:
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
1/2 cup butter, room temperature

Caramel topping
Pecans

1. Prepare pastry for single-crust pie, being careful not to stretch dough too much.

2. Place single crust in pie plate and trim and crimp the edge or click here for directions for braiding the crust.

3. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt. Add apple slices and gently toss until they are coated well.Transfer mixture to pie.

4. FOR CRUMB TOPPING: Stir together brown sugar, flour, and oats. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until topping resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over apple mixture in pie.

5. To prevent over-browning while baking, cover edge of pie with foil. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes.

6. Remove foil and bake 25 to 30 minutes more, or until top is golden.

7. Drizzle top with caramel topping; sprinkle with pecans. Cool on wire rack and serve.

Recipe linked to Strut Your Stuff Saturday, Sweets for a Saturday, Everyday Sisters Sharing Sundays, Mangia Monday, Totally Tasty Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday, Crazy Sweet Tuesday and 2 Maids a Baking.

Easy Blueberry Skillet Cake

I love Paula Deen.  I know many of you out there don’t but I find her hilarious and charming.  That being said, I don’t make a lot of her recipes due to the usual caloric intake.  When I saw this recipe made for a Mother’s Day special by her sons, I knew it was something that we had to try.

This was soo easy to make due to the store-bought biscuits and simple steps.  This looks and tastes so fancy, like you worked on it all morning but it came together in about 5 minutes.

I don’t have a cast-iron skillet and my pans are not oven-proof so I used a pie plate instead with perfect results.  I’m sure it would be better in a cast-iron skillet though as it would create a nice, crispy bottom on the biscuits.

This was one of the yummiest streusel’s I have ever had.  I love almonds and they just put it over the top.

Another problem I ran into was that I couldn’t find a 12-oz. container of pre-made biscuits.  So instead I used a 10.5-oz (which was 5 biscuits).  I went with less because we would rather our cake be a litter saucier rather than drier.

The whole house smelled of blueberries and cinnamon…how could you go wrong?

Easy Blueberry Skillet Cake

Streusel Topping:
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Coffee Cake:
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 (12-ounce) tube buttermilk biscuits
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen and thawed

1. For the streusel topping: Combine the almonds, sugar, butter, flour, and cinnamon in a food processor and pulse until large crumbs form.
2. For the coffee cake: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. In a 9-inch cast-iron or other ovenproof skillet, cook the butter and brown sugar over medium heat until melted.
3. Arrange the biscuits in a single layer in the skillet. Scatter the blueberries over the biscuits, and then distribute the streusel topping over the berries.
4. Bake until the biscuits are golden and a tester inserted in the center of a biscuit comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Allow to cool slightly and serve from the skillet.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins

These muffins are just amazing. I know it’s not pumpkin season but I just couldn’t resist after stumbling upon the recipe.  And with the buttermilk and whole wheat flour they are healthy, right? That’s what I keep telling myself at least.

My husband doesn’t like pumpkin. I think he may have been dropped on his head as a child because that is just wrong.  I’m out of town visiting my parents this week so I jumped on the chance to make something pumpkin.

The spices perfectly compliment these moist, pumpkin-y little gems. The texture is more dense and chewy than an average muffin due to the whole wheat flour but I think it goes well with the pumpkin. If you prefer a lighter muffin, replace the whole wheat flour with all-purpose flour.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins
recipe adapted from Sweet Tooth

MUFFINS
1/4 cup of butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 tbsp molasses
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

STREUSEL
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp rolled oats
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cream together butter and sugars.
3. Add the pumpkin, buttermilk, eggs, and molasses and blend.
4. In a separate bowl, combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and chocolate chips.
5. Add dry ingredients to wet and stir until well mixed.
6. Put 12 liners into a muffin tin, and split the batter evenly between the liners.
7. Sprinkle the streusel topping on the batter evenly.
8. Bake for 25 minutes (or until fork comes out clean) and cool on a wire rack.

Recipe linked to:
Everyday Sisters Sharing Sunday

Cream Cheese Streusel Banana Bread

All week I’ve been secretly hoping my husband wouldn’t eat the bananas.  I even considered hiding them.  I was craving banana bread and it is just not the same with fresh yellow bananas.

This amazing banana bread recipe from Southern Living is the best I have ever had.  It’s a simple, dense and decadent bread that is super moist.  And it’s so easy to throw together for a quick breakfast for guests.  Every time I make this the recipe is requested.

We prefer our banana bread a little “spicy” so I have altered the original recipe a bit to fit our taste.  The cinnamon, allspice and cloves in the batter are my additions so if you would like to try the original recipe simply leave those out.

The streusel makes this bread a dream come true…and the cream cheese.  I think it helps fancy up a normally humble bread.

See what I mean?

There is an insane amount of streusel on this bread and we like it that way! But if you don’t just cut the recipe in half (that’s what the original recipe called for anyway).

The aroma of this bread baking fills our house and is undeniable.  Sometimes I wish I could sit in front of the oven and watch it bake.

Cream Cheese Streusel Banana Bread
Recipe from Southern Living

6 Tbsp. butter, room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 ½ cups flour
¼ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. allspice
¼ tsp. cloves
1 cup banana (I use three bananas)
½ tsp. vanilla

Streusel Topping:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup pecans, optional*
2 Tbsp. butter, room temperature
2 Tbsp. flour
½ tsp. cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter and cream cheese until creamy.
2. Gradually add sugar; add the egg.
3. Add dry ingredients until combined.
4. Mash bananas then stir into batter.  Add vanilla.
5. Spoon into greased and floured loaf pan.
6. Combine topping ingredients until crumbly then sprinkle over the bread.
7. Bake for about an hour.  You may want to place a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil below the bread as it sometimes overflows.
8. Enjoy a slice slathered with butter!

*Storing your nuts in the freezer will prevent the essential oils from spoiling too fast creating a longer shelf life