Baked Apple Doughnuts, random thoughts and a frugal Tip...

After the huge push yesterday to get my Valentine's cards in the mail, I spent today focused on cleaning up my craft area, cleaning my house, and homeschooling the kids. I wanted to get back to work my my Valentine's towels, but that didn't happen. (I would wager that spending time catching up on my blogs didn't help my sewing/crafting, but it was so fun!) After dinner, I did make these awesome Baked Apple Doughnuts (which are more like light muffins rather than doughnuts) that I found on Bunny's Warm Oven and they were awesome. (The recipe is at the end of this post.)

So, just in case you've ever wondered what the rest of my days (the non-crafting, non-cooking parts) are like, this is how my day went today:

3 hairbrushes and 2 children should NOT equal fighting over a hairbrush

d still equals rt (d=rt) and velocity is expressed in positive and negative numbers as a way of expressing relation to point of origin and speed is expressed in absolute value.

'45 x 3' is the same as '40 x 3 plus 5 x 3'. '50 x 3' is the same as 5 x 3 with a zero at the end!

Capitals, periods, and commas are a necessary part of any paragraph...always!

"beggar" ends with an "ar", NOT an "er", even though you think it sounds like it should be an "er" and "obnoxious" is a spelling word, not just a way to describe your little sister!

Laundry still doesn't fold itself, either (darn it!)...and my bread didn't turn out today. (It was very odd...it just didn't cook in the middle...I must have done something wrong, but I can't think what...oh, well.)Baked Apple Doughnuts:
A View of America

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (I substituted cinnamon)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup grated unpeeled apple

Topping:
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup melted butter (to roll muffins in)

Directions:
(I did not read the directions completely before I made mine, so read the notes at the end.)

Sift first 4 ingredients and 1/3 cup sugar together in bowl. Cut in shortening until crumbly. Stir in egg, milk and apple, mixing well. Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Melt butter in small bowl. Mix 1/3 cup sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon in separate bowl.
Remove doughnuts from pan and roll in butter, then in sugar mixture and serve.

Notes: Okay, so I didn't read the directions well because I went at it completely differently (and more simply) and, fortunately, they turned out well. This is what I did. I mixed the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in one bowl and set aside. Then I mixed the sugar, egg, milk, and apple in another bowl, adding the shortening after the other stuff was mixed together. The shortening obviously didn't mix well, and that was fine. I then added the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and I mixed just until it was all incorporated. (Wait, it gets even better.) Then, a la the Snickerdoodle muffins, I rolled the first few muffins in butter, then the sugar mixture, and then dumped them into the muffin tin. After three muffins, I caught my mistake and skipped those steps for the rest. So, I baked three muffins that had been baked AFTER being rolled in butter and the sugar mixture and the rest were straight dough that got rolled in butter and the sugar mixture after baking.

The result: both were really good. The butter-after-baking method adds a rich, buttery taste to the muffins and they were more "doughnut-like", but the butter-before-baking created a muffin that would save a little better and definitely serves more easily. The picture directly above the recipe is one of the butter-and-sugar-before-baking muffins and the picture at the top of the post is of the butter-and-sugar-after-baking muffins. Superman preferred the butter-after-baking, but I liked the butter-before-method. Definitely an either or proprosition. Either way, they were definitely a terrific muffin and great way to use apples that aren't so crisp anymore. So, let me know which method you follow if you try them.

And, finally, I'll leave you with a frugal tip. Stop using paper towels! In the Nagle house, we don't use paper towels except for when I fry foods and need them to soak up the grease, so I go through about 3-4 rolls a year - that's it.
So, stop using paper towels. I mean it. Just go to Target or Walmart and buy two 12 packs of cheapie wash cloths and use those instead, throwing them in the washer throughout your day...you don't care how they look, just that they get washed and ready for your next task. Seriously, this is awesome and can save you a ton of money. I keep mine in a basket under the sink and another basket upstairs. Currently, the 12 pack of wash cloths sat Target is $2.99...I always have about 24 wash cloths in rotation, so we're talking a whopping $6.00 investment. How much are you paying for paper towels...$1.50 a roll? Think about it. Assuming you only use a roll of paper towels a week (yeah, right), that is $1.50 x 52 or $78 a year (plus tax). ...and let's be real here, you know you use more than one roll a week, so you're looking at more than $100 a year on paper towels!

So, that is my frugal tip for today...I think I might start posting more frugal tips, what do you think?