One of my favorite things about September is the abundance of apples everywhere. Each year, we pack up the car and drive about an hour and a half to our favorite little orchard and farmstand where we pick apples straight from the trees, take a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch, drink cider and eat cinnamon sugar covered donuts to our hearts’ delight. To me, it is the absolute signification that Fall is truly here.
This year, however, September seems to have gotten away from us and we have yet to make the trip out to the orchard. I know we’ll get there eventually, but I’d hate to have a repeat of last year where we waited too long and the trees were picked bare. It’s just not as much fun to dig for apples in a giant bin.
So in order to get my apple fix before we head to the orchard, I found a great recipe for Apple Cinnamon Bites from Everyday Insanity, another blog that participates in the Secret Recipe Club. Unfortunately, the blogger who was assigned Cindy’s blog didn’t follow through, and when our fearless leader Amanda emailed me looking for a volunteer, I jumped at the chance to make sure that Cindy wasn’t abandoned during today’s group’s reveal. She’s been making these for over 32 years, and that’s a sure sign that they would be nothing but delicious.
And they were! I had just happened to pick up a couple of Honeycrisp apples at the market and was super excited to try to replicate just a bit of the goodness we are so used to while tiding us over until we get to the orchard. I was really intrigued by her method of making the dough in the food processor instead of the stand mixer and found it was another great way to create tasty treats. The Husby walked into the kitchen just as I had finished topping the bites with the cinnamon sugar and when I turned back around, 3 of them had disappeared. And I may have have a few of them myself before I could snap a picture. I’m pretty sure they’ll be gone before tomorrow morning.
Apple Cinnamon Bites – slightly adapted from Everyday Insanity
- 1 1/2 Cups Flour
- 1 3/4 tsp. Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp. Salt
- 1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
- 1/2 Cup Sugar
- 1/3 Cup Butter, cold
- 1 Egg
- 1/3 Cup Milk
- 1/4 Cup Apple Cider
- 2 Small Honeycrisp Apples, shredded
- Melted Butter
- 1/3 Cup Sugar
- 1 tsp. Cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350. Spray a mini muffin pan with cooking spray.
Combine flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and sugar in a food processor. Process for 30 seconds, then add butter and process again another 10 seconds.
Mix together the egg, milk, apple cider and shredded apple then add to the processor and process for 10 seconds.
Scoop a small spoonful of batter into each muffin tin and bake for 12-14 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl then dip each muffin top into melted butter and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture.
