Thanksgiving Apple Loaf with Maple Syrup Buttercream

A little late to the blog this week, but I haven't been able to write about the Apple Loaf I baked for Thanksgiving, mainly due to being busy with the thing I am most thankful for in the whole world... Our little girl arrived safely on Wednesday 1st October, and we are just the most happy little family and life couldn't be better. 

So now perhaps baking isn't the baby in my life anymore!  But I have successfully baked, and one-handed baking is now a thing I should probably get used to, but it couldn't be more fun :-)

I had a bunch of apples to use and Thanksgiving dinner at my cousin-in-laws so I wanted to find a relatively easy and quick loaf recipe to bake in between feeds and changes that would work for the post-dinner, post-dessert, coffee and cake course of Thanksgiving!

I found this Apple Loaf recipe and thought it looked like just what I was looking for... As usual a few tweaks and it was just perfect!  Very moist, which meant it also kept really well too.  Give it a try this Fall!

 

Ingredients:

175g unsalted butter, softened
175g sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
25ml milk
2 medium apples, peeled, cored and grated

 

Method:

1.  Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F and grease and line a loaf tin with parchment paper.

2.  In a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

3.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition and add the vanilla extract with the last egg.

4.  Sift in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice and mix together until combined.

5.  Add the milk and stir in.

6.  Add the grated apples and fold through so that they are evenly distributed. 

 

7.  Transfer the batter to the prepared tin and place in the preheated oven for 1 hour - 1 hour 15 minutes, until a skewer or cake tested comes out clean. 

8.  Take out of the oven and leave the cake to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

 

For added deliciousness I took some plain buttercream I had leftover that was in the fridge, and added 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, mixing it together to make a maple buttercream that I didn't decorate the cake with, but put in a bowl ready to be spread on the loaf (kind of like bread and butter) for people to have as much or as little of a wee bit of sweetness with their slice of apple loaf!

 

 

It has been the best October so far, and I can't wait to post more baby related crafts, sewing projects and one handed bakes soon :-)

Fall into Autumn

It is officially the best season of the year!!!!  I'm so excited for Autumn right now.   The best part of nature happens, colours, Autumn foods and flavours, the best clothes to wear - layers, oh layers I missed you over Summer!

Last week I got into the spirit of the new season and made Maple Leaf Cookies by request for our choir rehearsal on Tuesday.  It was in fact to the day last year that I first made these cookies, so what better time to try them a second time.  They went down a treat last year - for choir, and for friends visiting Toronto from England so for sure I was happy to try this recipe again, thank you Martha Stewart for the original!

This year I got more adventurous and wanted to create a pile of leaves look to my cookies and thought that the maple glaze painted on the biscuits after they came out of the oven could do with some sprucing up - some red food colouring, and some brown so along with the plain coloured ones they created that amazing multi coloured leaf effect the maple leaves here in Canada create.

So on Tuesday I woke up bright and early and got to work on these cookies.  It had to be early to get done before work, giving it enough time to chill in the fridge, and then also freeze for a little while before putting them in the oven.  So I was on a mission, and I didn't stop moving until I had to leave.

Here's the recipes and some pictures along with it... I HIGHLY recommend this cookie, they are so delicious and well worth the bake!

I halved Martha's original recipe as I didn't need 8 dozen cookies that's for sure (although Jonathan may disagree!) and also had a minor freakout at 8am when I didn't even have 1 egg in the house!  I risked it and substituted it with nothing bad happening phew!

Ingredients (This made 36 cookies using my 2inch maple leaf cookie cutter)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (plain)
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 oz unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 large egg yolk  (Here is where I had a mild panic.  No eggs so instead I just tried 1 tbsp milk and all was fine!... Maybe better than measuring out half a yolk anyway!)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup for the cookie batter
2 tbsp pure maple syrup for the glaze
Optional food colouring for the glaze (I used red and brown following the mixing instructions on the box)

Method

1.  Sift flour and salt into a bowl.

2.  Beat butter and both sugars with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and creamy (around 3 minutes).

3.  Reduce speed to medium-low and then add yolk (or milk!), and maple syrup - beating well as you go.

4.  Add the flour mixture and beat until just incorporated.

5.  Shape into 2 disks, wrap each in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (or up to 2 days).

6.  Preheat oven to 325°F/ 160°C.

7.  Prepared baking sheets - coat them with cooking spray, line with parchment and then spray again.

8.  Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness onto a slightly floured surface.  Cut out with cookie cutter.  Place cut shapes onto prepared baking sheets, 1 inch apart, and place in the freezer for 15 minutes until they are firm.

9.  Bake cookies until the edges begin to turn golden brown - between 15- 18 minutes - but watch closely.

10.  Leave to cool for a couple of minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.

11.  After 5 minutes brush cookies with maple syrup and food colouring using a brush only used for food or cake decorating!

12.  Leave to dry, and then dig in!  Be prepared to be addicted!

I actually chose to only glaze 2/3 of the cookie batch.  The plain coloured cookies were un-glazed, not only to keep the original colour of the cookie, but just in case anybody (like me) didn't want their cookies too TOO sweet!  The maple syrup although delicious, does make for a chewy sweet flavour that I know not everyone wants :-)

Happy Autumn everybody!  

For more Fall inspired makes and bakes, check out my Pinterest 'Fall into Autumn' board, and also a NEW part to this blog... look below and add your email address to follow me :-)