{ Apple Flautas }

In High School, I had a weird, wacky, and wonderful Spanish teacher. Let's be honest here, aren't nearly ALL the langugage teachers weird and wacky? Our favorite thing she did was yelling "Ducles!" as she threw candies around the classroom.

My Spanish teacher was also my Odyssey of the Mind coach. Yeah, I was that kid. We'd often get together at her house to go over plans for our competiton. She would serve us up snacks and we pondered how to create machines, write our skit, go over music choices, etc.

One of the snacks she often had was Apple Flautas. I'd never had one before and I was instantly smitten. Her's were frozen and I've searched for them on and off over the years, but have never found them.

She'd bring them out and declare, "Flautas!", as she mimicked playing the flute so we'd know exactly what 'flauta' meant.

I finally decided to make them. They are really easy, so I'm not sure what took me so long.

You need minimual ingreidents, probably things you already have in house, and minimual time and effort. Let's be honest here, those are our favorite recipes, amiright?

You can garnish them with a little powdered sugar, caramel sauce, whipped topping, and sprinkles too!

They are also amazzzzing with vanilla ice cream.

So this one goes out to you, Senora Morton, where ever you are! Dulces! Dulces para todos!


Tina


Apple Flautas
by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

12 flour tortillas (8"- taco sized)
1 -21 oz can apple pie filling
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For garnish:
whipped topping
powdered sugar
sprinkles
caramel sauce
-or-
serve with vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 350 F, line rimmed pan with parchment paper, set aside.

Dice up the apples in the filling.

In a small bowl, mix together cinnamon and sugar.

Brush the outside of tortilla with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon mixture. Lay on prepared sheet and do the same to the inside. Repeat for remaining shells. Spoon filling in tortillas, roll up. Lay seam side down on baking sheet. Brush with a bit more butter and sprinkle again with cinnamon sugar.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the apple filling is bubbly (A small amount may ooze out while baking, this is to be expected). Allow to cool slightly, serve warm.

{Caramel Apple Cake}

I think you all should know that today is Hermione Jean Granger's birthday, BUT, I promised not to talk about Harry Potter for a while, so, I did NOT just tell you that. (However, I WILL tell you that Darla has some aweeeeeesome cuppies made for our favorite smartypant's birthday. Oh, and there are also these that I made for her a while back!).

Anyway...

I've been following the production of what promises to be an amazing movie (no, not the new Potter universe film). The movie is called The Fault in Our Stars and is based on the best selling book of the same title by John Green. If you didn't already know, I'm a Nerdfighter and rabid fan of John Green. For reference, or to figure out what the heck a Nerdfighter is, see my post here.

Finally watching one of John's movies head to the screen (Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and Paper Towns were all optioned by movie companies, but never made) is pretty exciting. John has been on set and keeps posting videos and photos. It's all so much fun to see come to life.

The Fault in Our Stars has been by far John's most successful book (although they have all been on the best sellers list. In fact, early this year, they were all on the best seller list at the same time). Many celebs have read TFiOS, it's been in magazines, and John's even been on the Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

So, it's pretty popular. It's also going to be an AMAZING movie and I can't wait. I wasn't too excited about the actress cast as Hazel Grace, but, meh, I'm giving her a chance. She WAS nominated for a Golden Globe, so I guess the bad acting on the "teen" show was due to poor writing!

I'm totally over here in my corner having a hipster moment. You know, I liked John Green before it was cool, I read TFiOS before it was the big time. Yeah, I'm cool like that.

I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!! (I know, I know, I just lost my cool points yelling like a fool).

What does this have to do with the cake I made?

Exactly....nothing.

However, read the book. You'll need cake after. I promise.

This cake is a wonderful fall recipe. It's sweet but spicy, moist and covered in a delicious streusel. It's great for dessert or for breakfast. 

  Drizzle with a bit of caramel topping to make it even more delicious.

Then... eat up! 

 Hello, my lovely Fall treat. I've missed you and your friends so.

 

Le yum.

And as they say in my hometown, don't forget to be awesome,
Tina

If you haven’t already,  you can ‘like’ my Facebook page here, and follow me on twitter here, and you can follow me on instagram here.


Caramel Apple Cake 
recipe by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

Cake:

1 cup flour
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and diced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup caramel ice cream topping

Topping:

1/4 cup butter, cold
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup quick cooking oats
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Grease a 9x9 baking pan and set aside

For Cake:
Beat together melted butter, egg, and brown sugar until fluffy. Add in caramel topping. After incorporated mix in dry ingredients. Finally, fold in apples. Pour into prepared pan.

For Topping:
In a mixing bowl, cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles peas. Sprinkle over prepared cake.

Bake for 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Allow to cool, drizzle with caramel ice cream topping, if desired.

{ Streusel Topped Apple Muffins }

Last night, for the first time ever, the Bean went out with a teenage driver.

Now, my friend Lori's girls have driven him home from school on occasion, but we live under 5 minutes from there. This was an 'out all evening, drive 20 miles one way' type of deal.

Eep.

I know the guy he went with. I love him, he's a totally great, responsible kid. But still...

The fact that my own kid is now old enough to get his Learners Permit freaks me out.

They went to see "Here Comes The Boom". I told them, beware the TwiHards, but they went anyway. When he got home he told me that they had to park at the Kroger store 1/4 mile away walk a very busy road in the dark. 

I'm so glad I didn't know that until he was home safe!

After that, they went to Mickey D's, got some grub then headed home.

Good news? I survived! 

Even better news?

I made muffins.

These apple muffins would be excellent for Thanksgiving morning. Something light and tasty that won't fill you up for the big day ahead.

 This recipe features apples

and streusel

yum! yum!

 

yum!

Streusel Topped Apple Muffins

adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything

Muffins:

 1 1/2 cups sugar (you can use 2 cups for a sweeter muffin)
2 eggs
1 cup oil
1 Tablespoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

pinch of ground ginger

pinch of ground cloves
3 cups peeled, cored, diced apples (around 3 apples)

Stresuel:

 1/2 stick (4 Tablespoons) cold butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup quick oats

1/2 cup flour

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffin pan with paper liners.
Cream together sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla. Sift flour, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and mix well combined. This batter is very thick. Almost a dough. Add in the diced apple. Stir well to combine.

For the stresuel:

Cut the dry ingredients into the butter with a pastry cutter or fork (or you can use a food processor), until the mixture resembles peas. 

Fill your cupcake liners almost to the top with the batter, about 3/4 full. Then sprinkle stresuel over the tops.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-24 minutes (check at 20). 

The original recipe says this will make 18 muffins, but I got 24. This recipe doesn't rise much, so I could have filled my liners a little fuller to get nicely domed muffins.

Doesn't matter though, they still taste delish!

 *

So, I made it through this milestone with the Bean.

However, when HE is the one behind the wheel I will definitely need chocolate.

Sorry apples!

Tina