8 Apple Pie Cupcakes

It's been forever since I've made cupcakes just for whatever. No birthday. No last day. No occasion at all. Just because I felt moved to bake. And for that reason, I could use a recipe that made only a few cupcakes. I'm always worried about everyone getting a cupcake, so I always try to make at least 2 dozen. Not today! As my sister and I flipped through the pages of a cupcake recipe book, only a few of the recipes caught our attention for this not-occasion. We set our hearts on these particular cupcakes for a few reasons: 1. The recipe only makes 8. 2. They sounded tasty (like any cupcake recipe of your choosing should) 3. They looked pretty easy and 4. These were nothing like a normal cupcake.

The only ingredients for these cupcakes that I didn't have were apples and cinnamon rolls, the two main ingredients. The recipe says to grease the inside of muffin pans. I obviously used paper liners in mine, since that is kinda the purpose of the blog. It didn't cause any problems and it would probably be more helpful if you had to bring them somewhere. My sister and I each peeled an apple. I got mine peeled all in one piece! The peelings make excellent bunny treats too.

We chopped the apples into little tiny pieces, since they were for little cupcakes and not a big pie. I try to shy away from using the stove when I make cupcakes. I'm a baker, but not a cook by far. So my sister cooked up the apples with no problems at all. We didn't use the juice of half a lemon, since there were no actual lemons in this recipe. We just added the recommended 4 1/2 teaspoons.

While she did that, I made the crumbly topping. I used softened butter. Don't do that, use cold butter. And don't try and avoid getting messy by using a fork, use your hands and have fun.

Get messy... Have fun!

For the cinnamon roll crust, I just opened up the can and squashed the rolls with the palm of my hand. When I put the cinnamon rolls into the liners, we just pushed them all the way into the bottom of the cups and squished the edges to make them go to the tops of the papers. My sister scooped the apples into the crusts. There was plenty to fill them up. I crumbled the topping on top of the apples, and there was plenty of that too. We baked them for 11 minutes, right in the middle of the suggested time.

These cupcakes should be called cup-pies. The recipe says to top it off with whipped cream and caramel sauce. But... nothing goes better with apple pie than vanilla ice cream. It worked out perfect because neither my sister, mom, nor I had the patience to wait and eat these cupcakes. We all sat in the living room with our ice cream topped cupcakes like a cupcake discussion group."What do you think about these?" "What do they taste like?" "The walnuts add a little something." They were weird to eat with a spoon, but the cinnamon roll crust would definitely make them easy to hold to eat like a normal cupcake. They taste exactly like an apple pie. The lemon juice in the granny smith apples keep them tart through cooking them. The walnuts gave a good little crunch to the crumblies. All apple pies should have cinnamon roll crusts. These cupcakes were super simple to make. They were worth the amount of work for how few cupcakes they made, but the fact that these were incredibly delicious makes it a billion times more worth it.

Cooked Up Apples

Apple Filling
2 tablespoons butter
2 large Granny Smith apples, peeled, chopped
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Juice of 1/2 lemon (about 4 1/2 teaspoons)

Topping
2 tablespoons unsalted butter


Squished Cinnamon Rolls

1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Base
1 can (12.4 oz) Pillsbury refrigerated cinnamon rolls with icing

Garnish
Whipped cream topping (from aerosol can)
Caramel-flavored syrup (from bottle)

Cupcake How to
1. Heat oven to 400. Spray 8 regular-size muffin cups with cooking spray. In 10-inch skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter over medium high heat. Cook apples in butter 5 minutes. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons brown sugar, the cinnamon and salt. Cook 5 minutes longer until tender. Stir in lemon juice.
2. In small bowl, mix topping ingredients with fork or hands until crumble. Separate dough into 8 roll. (Set icing aside for another use.) Flatten each roll into 4-inch round; place in muffin cups. Divide filling among cups. Sprinkle evenly with topping.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until bubbly. Cool 2 minutes; remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool completely. Garnish with whipped cream and syrup.

Apple Peelings Are One of Ozzie's
Favorite Treats

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