Since I like to cook, I think a lot of my posts will be about food and sharing recipes. Here’s what we had for Christmas day:

Breakfast

• Breakfast casserole (a plain sausage/egg/cheese variety, since someone in this household who shall remain nameless won’t eat it with mushrooms, veggies, etc.)
• Cinnamon crumb cupcakes (like little individual coffee cakes)
• Sautéed apples

Dinner (with my parents)

• Roast beef and gravy (my mom)
• Hashbrown potato casserole
• Green beans (my mom)
• Homemade oat dinner rolls
• Frozen cranberry salad and 5-cup salad (an orange/pineapple thing) (my mom)
• Cranberry-apple pie and pumpkin cheesecake with whipped cream

As you can see, I ended up supplying the carbs. That seems to be what I’m best at!

The recipe for the Cinnamon Crumb Cupcakes came from a Penzey’s catalog, except I added the apple. David and I are big fans of Penzey’s spices. All you have to do is smell supermarket cinnamon and Penzey’s cinnamon side-by-side, and you’ll be hooked too. When you’re making this recipe, it may seem like too little batter and too much streusel, but it comes out just fine.

Cinnamon Crumb Cupcakes

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 apple, peeled and finely chopped

Streusel topping:

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) cold butter, cut in 1/4-inch pieces

Preheat oven to 325°. Spray 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray.

In large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla and eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour and baking powder; add to rest of ingredients. Mix on low speed until well-blended (the batter will be very thick). Fold in chopped apple. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.

For the topping, mix together the flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles coarse crumbs. (If you have a food processor, it works great for this; use about 8-10 1-second pulses.) Sprinkle streusel evenly over muffin batter.

Bake for about 18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes in pan, then remove to a wire rack.

Comments(1)