Apple Crunch Muffins

A few years ago, I started working my way through the Cream of the West Cook Book. Or at least in my head it was a few years ago. As I look back now, I realize it was a decade ago. Time flies, I guess. Back then, I thought I might have a recurring blog and I tried everything from English muffins to carrot quiche, but eventually life took over and the idea fell off my radar. 

Fast forward to this weekend. I wanted to make muffins and started flipping through recipe books. I turned to Cream of the West thinking I might make bran muffins until a recipe for apple crunch muffins caught my attention. After making the batter and portioning it in muffin cups, you topped them with applesauce and then a crumble topping. Perfect. I ran downstairs to retrieve a jar of the applesauce I made in November.

Until this fall, I had never made applesauce before. But following a Sunday excursion to Mabou Market one weekend, we returned with a grocery bag full of foraged apples. They were delicious and, following a Bernardin-approved recipe, cooked down to a beautifully thick applesauce. I canned six half-pint jars and ate the rest for breakfast the next day. After 24 hours, I picked up the jars to inspect them and the applesauce appeared as if it had set like jelly or jam. As I stored them in my makeshift cellar, I told myself it didn't matter if it hadn't turned out perfectly, I could just heat it to make it more liquid before using it. Problem solved.

Only, that wasn't necessary. When I popped the seal to make muffins and dipped in a spoon, the texture was perfect. I layered the batter, applesauce, and crumble, and popped them in the oven. The result? Delicious. The muffin itself isn't overly sweet and has the texture of a quick bread rather than a cake-style muffin. The topping is sweet and crunchy. It gives the feel of a bakery-style muffin, but without the guilt. 

My only complaint is related to the appearance. The applesauce sinks down into the batter as it bakes and leaves a bit of a crater on top of the muffin. In the future, I might try sandwiching the applesauce between layers of batter before adding the crunch topping. 

In any event, another solid recipe from the Cream of the West Cook Book.   

Rock Candy

February 5, 2025 Update

The rock candy experiment was successful! 

Look at this beauty!

- - - - - - - -ORIGINAL POST - - - - - - - -

Earlier this week as part of my candy course, I watched a video on how to make rock candy. Now, the method wasn't exactly new to me. I think most people are first introduced to this concept in grade school as a science experiment involving a supersaturated solution. But as I sat watching the demonstration, it occurred to me that despite knowing about this for the better part of my life, I'd never actually tried it myself. Clearly the time had come. Challenge accepted, Tony Morris!

The recipe called for more than three cups of sugar and I could see that the candy maker had syrup left in the pot after filling a jar, so I decided to cut the recipe in half as I was measuring out my ingredients. I probably made my life more difficult by doing that, but I also didn't want to create a lot of waste. I only had paper lollipop sticks on hand and imagined that would be unpleasant at best when eating the rock candy, so instead I used the blunt end of a bamboo BBQ skewer. I expected that I would only have enough syrup to produce one rock candy stick, but prepared a second just in case. Then I rigged up a few mason jars with post-it note "lids" to hold the syrup. Finally, I went into my handy tool kit -- a gift from my father when I first went off to university -- and pulled a clamp to suspend the skewer in the solution. Probably not what he was imagining when he gave it to me, but here we are. Armed with a thermometer, I prepared the solution.

Now, dissolving an obnoxious quantity of sugar into a very small amount of water is no easy task, but if you take your time, adding a little as you go, you eventually get it done. I was surprised by just how thick the syrup was. The sweet and sour bar mix I made a few months ago for a Halloween party couldn't hold a candle to this. I decided that green apple was the perfect colour-flavour combination and stirred the syrup to distribute the colour. Finally, I carefully poured the syrup into the jar, suspended the skewer in the syrup, and set it aside to do its thing for a few days. 

Within hours, I could see crystals forming, but it appeared that they were growing more rapidly than they should. On day three, I decided to open the jar and see what was happening. I certainly had crystallized sugar, but there would be no getting the candy stick out. What I had was a candy stalagmite. The texture would have made a great centre for a chocolate geode, but was definitely not what I was going for in this experiment.

As luck would have it, we then had a snow morning. And that meant take two for the rock candy. I thought I knew where things went wrong the first time, so I modified my technique a little and set up a clean jar ready to receive the sugar syrup. Immediately I could tell this batch had more promise. I left it  to cool without disturbing it. 

Twenty-four hours later, I could see a few crystals starting to form on the stick, much slower than the first batch. I took that as a good sign. 

Forty-eight hours later, the characteristic large square crystals were gathering on the stick. 

Seventy-two hours later, I posted this blog. I had hoped to have a final product by the time it went live, but sugar has a mind of its own and can't be rushed. 

When I finally do remove the rock candy from the mason jar, I'll update this post. I can't wait to try it!

Getting Back Into Cake Decorating

In October, I had the opportunity to make a birthday cake for a friend's daughter. She was interested in a Descendants cake. When she first asked me about it, I had no idea what that meant, but after some googling and research on Pinterest, I figured it out.

A few weeks in advance, I made a fondant apple and crown. The night before, I baked two French vanilla cakes, one 6" contour and one 9" contour. Then on the day of the party I made buttercream icing and covered the cakes in rosettes before applying the apple and crown. It is my first Disney-inspired cake. And I'm very proud of it! It also helped me realize just how much I enjoy the creative process of cake decorating.