Mini applesauce pies

Today I felt like a fraud because I made muffins out of a box, and was equally upset because I had nothing to blog about. But alas, tonight after making thai chicken curry pie, I had leftover pastry and decided to make some applesauce pies with Tom's mum's homemade applesauce.

1 egg
1/2c sugar
1/4c melted butter
1 tbsp flour
1/4tsp vanilla
1tbsp lemon juice
1/2c apple sauce

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, pour into ramekins, top with flaky puff pastry and bake for 30-40 mins on 180deg C.
If you want to make a regular sized pie the recipe was originally double these ingredients.

These are delicious! I couldn't eat a whole one, it's quite sweet, we topped them with whipped cream in a can. What an awesome end to the weekend!

P.s. Can you guess which one is Tom's!?

Peanut butter cookie dough bites

1 1/4c canned chickpeas, rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel
2tsp vanilla
1/2 c + 2 tbsp peanut butter
1/4c honey
1 tsp baking powder
1/2c choc chips
pinch of salt

- Preheat oven to 175 deg C
- Combine all ingredients in a food processor (except choc chips) process until smooth
- Add choc chips and stir to combine. Mixture will be thick and sticky
- Roll into balls
- Place on baking paper, bake for about 10 minutes. They don't rise much, and will still be moist after baking.

These are... interesting. This is a recipe I found online and gave to a workmate who is gluten intolerant. She bought some in to work today for morning tea. As far as gluten-free baking goes it's pretty good, the chickpeas aren't noticeable, although you'd swear otherwise ONLY if you already know they're there. I think it's just an interesting texture. I do, however, think they'd be so great to freeze and microwave to soften/heat up whenever you want a sweet treat- we ate ours warm and they were tasty, if a bit oily. I'd definitely recommend these to those who are gluten-intolerant, but not sure that I'd ever make them!

Mini quiches

Today I wasn't baking for Tom because his mum left him some baking last weekend. I was a bit at a loss, because I always bake on a Sunday! But then I remembered we're having a morning tea at work tomorrow and thought to myself, 'Bugger it. Everyone always brings rice crackers, sausage rolls or timtams, I'm making quiches!' and off I went...

Thanks to kidspot.co.nz for the recipe!

3 sheets of puff pastry
5 eggs
2/3c milk
4 rashers of bacon, diced
1/2 onion, finely diced
1c grated cheese

Thaw pastry sheets for about 10 minutes before you start...

- Preheat oven to 180deg C and lightly grease 2x 12 hole muffin trays
- Cook bacon and onion until lightly browned
- Use a circle shaped cutter (or drinking glass) to cut 24 circles out of the pastry
- Place a teaspoon of bacon and onion in the bottom of the muffin tin, I also used 1/2tsp of tomato chutney
- Whisk the eggs and milk together and pour up to the level of the pastry
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until the egg has risen and pastry is golden

These were tasty, a total hit with my workmates! The chutney really makes these :) I froze them in half dozens to thaw when we have nothing for lunch on a weekend, what an easy treat!

Nutella muffins

140 g./2/3 cup butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 c. white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp. of vanilla
1-3/4 c. of all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
9-12 tsps. of Nutella
ALL INGREDIENTS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE

- Preheat the oven to 165 deg C
- Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time.
- Stir in vanilla
- Add sifted dry ingredients
- If it appears lumpy at first, keep beating until smooth. It must be the same consistency as the nutella to allow you to swirl them together
- Full muffin pans about 3/4 full. Add a dollop of nutella and use a toothpick/skewer to swirl together... In my case the nutella was too thick (might recommend melting a little bit first?) so mine have a nutella centre with half a boysenberry in there too because I had some leftover :)
- Bake for 20 mins 

These are awesome! THey were so easy, and I was thrilled to try out my new apron that I bought in Portland, Oregon. Plus it's the first time I've baked in about a month so I thoroughly enjoyed it. Yummy cup-cake like muffins with a gooey centre, and some muffins had nutella spilling out the top. Until today I wasn't a fan of nutella but after making these I'm ashamed to say my self-control disappeared and I've been eating teaspoons of it!