Apple Cinnamon Twist

 

I got this recipe off of someone else’s blog but can’t remember which one it was. I have tweaked it some to be egg, soy, dairy, and nut free and a little easier ( Making my own dough recipe and making the dough in the bread maker instead of by hand).

To make dough:

1 1/4 cup very warm water

1/4 cup melted butter (Earth Balance Soy Free Buttery Spread)

1/3 cup sugar

1.5 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

4 cups flour (I use all purpose)

3 teaspoons yeast (rapid rise)

Put all ingredients in the bread machine pan in order and then pick any cycle and push start. Mine kneads for about 15 min, rest 30, kneads 15 again.

While it is kneading, skin, core, and chop 2 regular apples, or 4 small apples until you have about 2 cups of chopped apple. Mix in:

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon apple pie spice

1/4 cup of melted butter (Earth Balance)

Put in refrigerator or to the side

After the second knead, take the dough out and put it on a lightly floured surface.

Divide it into three clumps and roll out into 3 separate long, flat pieces. If you don’t have a rolling pin, use a big cup that it lightly floured, that’s what I do!

(Sorry I didn’t get a picture of this because Kaylee was screaming and I was hurrying!)

Put the apple filling in a line down each of the pieces of dough and roll them up to where you have an apple filled cord. This is kind of messy and the juice of the apples comes out some. You have to play with it a long time to get it to look right. (Again, I didn’t this time because of the baby.)

When all three are rolled up, braid them and put them on parchment paper on a flat baking sheet or pan.  I find it easier to put the cords on the parchment paper in the pan before I braid.

 

Cover this with saran wrap, get a dish rag really hot with water and put it over it too. Heat your oven to 350 degrees and put it on top to rise. Let it rise for an hour.

Before putting it into the oven mix a few tablespoons melted butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar together and brush over top. You can bake it like that and it will turn out looking like this:

  

This time I had an idea to make a sugar cinnamon crust like the bagels at Panera, so I put the topping above and sprinkled regular sugar and cinnamon mixed  all over it and coated again with the melted butter. Let me tell you, it makes all the difference this way! More dessert- ish! 

 

(This one is not as pretty looking because I didn’t take my time, but it tastes sooo good!)

Bake on 350 for 30 min. Take out and put on wire rack to cool. ENJOY!

And the Bad Blogger Award goes to…..

ME!!!!

I can’t believe how long I have let myself go with out blogging again. A lot has been going on that I want to post about, but somehow I just keep putting it off and putting it off. Now I have way too much to share, but am going to any way in one big long drawn out post. Hold on tight, here we go….

I guess I’ll start from way back (a few weeks ago) when Kaylee experienced yet another first: a train ride! Judy and Jake (Granny and Papaw) came down to spend a day with us and we decided the most fun thing to do would be to ride a train.

It was such a beautiful day, but unfortunately Kaylee hadn’t napped well that morning. She fussed a lot in the train station and was passed around as we all tried to make her happy!    

As soon as we got on the train she began to drift off into sleepy land. She slept the whole way down to the turnabout while we enjoyed the scenery

  

When we got off to watch the train turn around, she woke up and luckily  she was in a good mood! She loved looking at the trains and playing with her grandparents.

Boy was that fun!

The next bit of news wasn’t much fun. It was actually frightening. I was with my mom,about to start a sewing project, when Jon called and said he was in a wreck and that they were going to take him to the hospital via ambulance.

I left Kaylee with mom, and drove to the site, I couldn’t get past all the cars that were blocking the road so I pulled over on the side of the road and ran up to all the flashing lights and this is what I saw.

  

(pictures taken later)

Jon was on a stretcher in the ambulance with a neck brace on. I asked to ride with him, but was told it was better if I followed. As I followed them, I remembered being glad that the sirens and lights weren’t on; I took that as a sign that things weren’t too bad.

When we got to the hospital, they ran tests on him, including a chest x-ray and a CT scan. Both came back fine and five hours later we went home.

Jon was beat up, but other than that, just fine! Praise the Lord!!

 

The next big adventure was Kaylee turning 4 months old. Can you believe she is already that big??? We can’t. She fills our days with joy and laughter more than we ever thought she could.

At 4 months, our GI doctor told us we could introduce rice cereal to her, but nothing else until she is 6 months old because of her protein intolerances. This has been a lot of fun!

At first she made this “What IS this?” face and then began to open her mouth for it. Just about everything that goes in comes right back out, so she doesn’t have the hang of it yet, but we all enjoy it!

Today, we took her for her 4 month shots. She did so good, only cried for a few seconds and then was over it. She was in the 70th percentile for height and weight, so that is good too! She came home and took a 3 hour nap and now is playing in her swing.

This weekend we are going up to my grandmother’s house to celebrate Thanksgiving early like we do every year! We will be going to Jon’s family’s next week on actual Thanksgiving. I wish I was able to tell you I have come up with a bunch of new recipes for the holidays, but despite being encouraged by a good friend, I am resorting to just eating sandwiches. Hey, it will still be fun to be with everyone, and I can always eat the good stuff next year!

Last but not least, Jon and I are considering adoption sometime in the near or far future. It is still a very new thing; we are in the early, early stages of praying about it, but would love it if you’d pray with us too!

Till next time I award myself a bad blogger award…

Katie

P.S. I forgot to mention, we bought a new truck that has a backseat so that Kaylee is safe and now we have the Toyota for sell! If you’d like to buy it, let us know!!!

New feats!

Kaylee has been able to roll over from tummy to back for a while now, as you can see it perfected in the first video, the second shows her new ability to roll from back to tummy. The first couple of times she did it, she made a pouty face because she hates being on her belly! FUNNY!!! Looks like she is trying to get her legs under her too…. Wonder how long until she starts crawling???

 

Halloween 09

Kaylee wasn’t too sure about the pumpkin or the penguin outfit. Maybe when she can actually eat the candy she will like it better!

 

Ya wanna piece of me????