Cinnamon Sugar Stuffed Chocolate Chip Scones

Scones are one of those baked goods that seem really simple to make, but are also really simple to mess up. A bit too much or too little of something and they venture off into the realm of the dry and unappetizing... You go along, following the recipe as you should, seemingly making no errors, yet they come out of the oven dense and crumbly. They must be good friends with pie crust. It also likes to journey to tough, dry, barely edible baked goods land. That being said, when a scone comes out well, it is heaven with a cup of coffee. 

These scones combat the dry, crumbly problem, giving you a leg up on the game with a rich, moist filling of cinnamon, butter, and sugar. It's pretty hard to go wrong with that! The batter is speckled with dark chocolate chips and they the recipe includes oats, which made me feel better about all the butter I was consuming. The recipe hails from one of my favorite sites, mykitchenaddiction.com. I have tried many of the recipes on that site, and I haven't had a bad one yet! The original recipe calls for flax seed, so all you health nuts can go crazy with it ;) I left them out, some days I don't feel like a nut... okay, it's been a long day, and I need to stop with the puns, so here's the recipe, enjoy!! 

Cinnamon Sugar Stuffed Chocolate Chip Scones

mykitchenaddiction.com

For the filling:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened 

2/3 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed 

1 tablespoon cinnamon 

1 tablespoon all purpose flour 

1 tablespoon dark cocoa powder (optional) 

For the dough: 

1 cup old fashioned rolled oats 

1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour 

1/2 cup all purpose flour 

1/4 cup milled golden flax (I left this out) 

1/3 cup granulated sugar 

1 tablespoon baking powder 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) unsalted butter (cold) 

6 ounces plain greek yogurt 

1/4 cup lowfat milk plus additional to brush on tops of scones 

1 egg 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1 cup chocolate chips 

Cinnamon sugar for sprinkling on top of scones 

Preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a nine-inch cake pan and cut a circle of parchment to line the bottom of the pan. Set aside.

In a small mixing bowl, combine the ingredients for the filling, using a fork to evenly incorporate the butter to form moist crumbs. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients for the dough – the rolled oats, white whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, milled golden flax (if using), granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. 

Use a cheese grater and grate the butter into the dry ingredients, working it in with your fingers until the mix resembles sand. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the yogurt, milk, egg, and vanilla extract. Add the wet ingredients and the chocolate chips to the dry ingredients. 

Use a fork to incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry, just until a dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and use your hands to gently knead the dough and form it into a ball. Don't overwork the dough, or you may get a drier scone. 

Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a disc that is approximately 9 inches in diameter (to fit into the pan). 

Place one of the discs of dough in the bottom of the prepared baking pan. 

Spread the prepared filling on top of the first disc. Top with the second disc of dough, pressing down lightly to remove any air bubbles.

Use a dough scraper to cut the scones into 12 wedges (as you can see from the picture below, mine was ten uneven wedges, nobody's perfect).

  

Brush with milk and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Bake the scones for 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

Use a wire rack to flip the scones out of the pan, and then use a plate to invert the scones one more time so that they are right-side up. 

Thank you to 'My Kitchen Addiction" for originally posting this great recipe! Hope you all love it! 

Apple Pie Cinnamon Roll Pull Apart Bread

When I saw a recipe on pinterest for cinnamon pull apart bread I was inspired, why had I never thought of cinnamon rolls in bread form? Amazing! I also saw a recipe for apple pie cinnamon rolls, so I put those two together and what resulted is Apple Pie Cinnamon Roll Pull Apart Bread. I had to cook it a lot longer than the cinnamon roll bread recipe called for, possibly due to the liquidity of the apple filling. If I make it again I am going to try and figure out a way to decrease the runnyness of the filling. It was quite messy to cut the apple filled dough into slices, but the messiest part by far was smooshing the rolls together. I imagine this is a cooking project that kids would LOVE!

Apple Pie Cinnamon Roll Pull Apart Bread

Smooshed together from Top With Cinnamon and Alli n Son

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 teaspoon dried active yeast

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup milk

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup water

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For cinnamon sugar filling...

2/3 cup dark brown sugar

2 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon cornstarch

For apple filling...

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup peeled, cored, grated apple (1 to 2 large apples, 3-4 small apples)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 cup butter, melted

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attached, place the cornstarch, sugar, yeast, salt and 2 cups of flour. Heat the milk and butter together in a small saucepan until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat and add the water. Let this cool for about a minute, then add the vanilla, and pour all the liquid into the bowl with the flour. Stir this all together until all the dry ingredients are moistened. Start the mixer on a low speed as you add the eggs one at a time until they're just incorporated.

Stop the mixer and add 1/2 cup more flour to the bowl. Mix again at low speed for about half a minute. Add 2 more tbsp of flour and mix in on medium speed until you get a smooth, slightly sticky dough (about 45 seconds). On a work surface sprinkled with about 2 tbsp of flour, knead the dough until it's not sticky (about 1 minute). Place the dough in a large, oiled bowl and cover it with cling film. Leave the dough to rise in a warm place until it's doubled in size which should take about an hour.

While the dough rises, make the fillings. In one bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch, set aside.

In another bowl, stir together the sugars, flour and spices called for in the second filling.

Mix the grated apples with the lemon juice, then add to the flour and sugar mixture. Mix well, and place in the fridge until ready to use.

Once the dough is ready, lightly flour your work surface and gently tip the dough onto it, sprinkling a little more flour on top of the dough.

Roll the dough out into roughly a 40 x 40 cm square, then brush about 2/3 of the butter over the entire surface of the dough.

Sprinkle 3/4 of the first (cinnamon sugar) filling mixture evenly on top of the butter on the dough.

Top with the apple filling then roll the dough tightly into a log. Be prepared for some oozing.

Place the log horizontally on your work surface. Take a piece of thread and place it vertically on your work surface. With the thread still vertical, place log on top of the middle of the thread. Move the thread to the left or right, so it is still under the dough, and is one centimeter in from the end of the log. Take the ends of the thread and hold them above the log. Cross them over each other once and pull them away from each other until the thread has cut through the dough completely. (you are effectively making a loop of thread around the dough and pulling on the ends to make the loop smaller so that it cuts through the dough on all sides with an even force). On a piece of parchment paper, lay the slice down, and sprinkle with cinnamon. Cut another slice and place it on top of the first slice, sprinkle with cinnamon.

Continue until you have a stack about five slices high.

Smoosh the stack a bit and place horizontally in a greased 9x13 inch bread pan. Continue in this manner until you have no dough left. Be prepared for lots of leakage, I covered the entire area with a slip pat and clean up wasn't too bad.

When all of your slices are in the pan, cover pan with plastic wrap and put in a warm place to rise for another hour. Fifteen minutes or so before dough is done rising, go ahead and preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Bake the bread for 1 hour, when it should be golden brown on top.

Let it cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes.

Run a butter knife around the edge of the pan and gently tip the loaf out onto the wire rack. Put the bread the right way round again and enjoy!

Have a sweet day!

Apple Brown Sugar Bars

Hi everyone! Hope you had a fabulous New Years! Mine was spent relaxing and enjoying time with good friends and good food. New Years day, I was invited to dinner and, of course, volunteered to bring dessert. I chose a bar cookie recipe that has been on my "to bake" list for quite a while. Brown Sugar Bar Cookies, I envisioned them turning out a bit like pecan pie but I had no pecans so added apples instead. I made the shortbread crust per the recipe's instructions, and while the crust was baking, whipped up an apple pie filling. The bars were delicious, but not very esthetically pleasing. To tell you the truth, I was a bit embarrassed to bring them to the dinner. Luckily, the blend of rich custard with tart apples and crisp, shortbread crust made up for their less than perfect appearance. I have never tried a bar cookie quite like these. The recipe involves lots of sugar and butter, so if your New Year's resolution is a diet, look away now! Or just start the diet tomorrow...

Apple Brown Sugar Bars

Adapted from this food.com recipe

Crust

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup margarine or 3/4 cup butter

3 tablespoons sugar

Apple Topping

2-3 large apples (I used Fuji)

1/4 cup butter

4 tablespoons brown sugar

3 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 1/2 teaspoons flour

Brown Sugar Topping or Filling

3 eggs

2 1/4 cups light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat crust ingredients together until crumbly (I used a pastry cutter and my hands).

Press mixture into a 9x13 baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

While that's baking, peel and dice your apples.

Melt the 1/4 cup butter in a saucepan on the stove over medium low heat. Add in the apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, and 4 tablespoons brown sugar.

Mix, mix, mix. Cook for about 5 minutes, then add in the flour and mix some more. Cook until the apples are just beginning to soften (I apologize, I didn't calculate how long this took, not long though). Remove from heat and start on the brown sugar topping.

In a separate bowl, combine eggs, brown sugar, and vanilla.

After crust has cooked for 20 minutes, remove from oven.

Spread/pour apples over baked crust.

I had an audience...

Then cover with brown sugar topping. Bake for another 25-30 minutes.

Cut into squares when cool.

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Sugar Bread

Hello friends! Today I made cinnamon sugar bread. It took me oh, about 6.5 minutes to get it in the oven and then 45 tortured minutes waiting (actually I sat on my bum and watched Sex and the City). THEN I read the recipe again, and realized it said to let the bread sit, wrapped in aluminum foil, overnight.. um, ya, about that.... Didn't so much happen. BUT This bread was OUT of THIS world fabulous warm from the oven. Some of it made it overnight, and the next day I warmed it up and it was even fabulouser (okay not a word, but descriptive nonetheless). Warm swirls of cinnamon meet creamy crumbly quick bread. Probably the easiest thing I've made in a while. I didn't even dirty more than one bowl and I stirred it up with a tablespoon, no wooden spoon or mixer required. Seriously this stuff is good.

Cinnamon Sugar Swirl Quick Bread

Adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

1/3 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup white sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

In large bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt and 1 cup sugar. Add egg, milk, and oil to flour mixture.

Stir until just moistened.

Pour half of the batter into pan.

Sprinkle with cinnamon and 1/3 cup sugar (you can mix together cinnamon and sugar before hand, I didn't though I just sprinkled away).

Cover with remaining batter.

Top with more cinnamon/sugar if desired.

Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.

Let cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Wrap in foil and let sit overnight before slicing (as mentioned, I sliced off two pieces then wrapped the rest of the loaf in foil).

Enjoy! Happy Easter Weekend!