Kim's Recipe Box Apple Muffins

These didn't last long at my house!

                               Apple Muffins

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup apple juice
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup apples - peeled, cored and finely diced

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Grease bottoms only of 12 muffin cups or line with baking cups.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt; mix well. In a small bowl, combine apple juice, oil, and egg; blend well. Add dry ingredients all at once; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened (batter will be lumpy.) Stir in chopped apples.
3. Fill cups 2/3 full. Top with granola
4. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 1 minute before removing from pan. Serve warm.

Being 1st generation American there is a lot of European dishes

that I have been able to try but I don't think there is much that tops this one.

As a desert. This is one of my families favorites:

Baklava

It's hard to capture Baklava's beauty, all my other pictures looked like shepherds pie

Ingredients:

18 sheets of filo pastry

1-1/4C. finely chopped pistachios and walnuts

2 1/4 sticks melted butter

1 tsp cinnamon

For the syrup:

1 cup and 2 Tbs honey

 1C water

Mike doing the nut sprinkling

1. Take a square tin (roughly the same size as the pastry would be good) and grease it up, then pre heat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Lay the first 10 sheets of the filo pastry in the tin, one at a time, brushing with the melted butter each time. 
3. Mix the chopped nuts and cinnamon together and then sprinkle half the nut/cinnamon mixture over the pastry
4. layer another two sheets, brushing with butter each time, then sprinkle over half of the remaining nuts
5. Place the last 6 filo sheets on, again brushing with butter each time
6. Cut a criss cross patter in to the top of the baklava then pop in the oven for 30 mins
7. While it's baking make up the syrup by mixing together the honey, water and sugar in a pan and bringing to the boil. Then leave to simmer for 20 minutes and leave to cool.
8. When the baklava is done, pour the cool syrup in to the hot baklava and top with the remaining nuts.
9. Leave to cool and enjoy!