Baking Friday - Bread # 10

What would Halloween be if it didn't include Chocolate and Bobbin' for Apples?

Chocolate croissants and bobbin' for applesauce muffins that is!

I've share the basic croissant recipe back in July for our red, white & blue danishes; that link is here.  I will show you pics of turning these into chocolate croissants, but the recipe I will share is for the applesauce muffins, because those are a new recipe.  It's not a hard recipe, but the results are pretty good for a muffin - soft, moist, almost cake-like muffin.  Not that I'm saying an applesauce muffin will hold a candle to a chocolate croissant, because let's face it - chocolate croissant.  I mean really!

Does it get more French and tender and flaky and chocolate than a chocolate croissant?  No muffin could ever hold its own against that sort of competition, but a sweet friend had asked for chocolate croissants, so even though the croissant dough isn't a new recipe to share here, how could I say no?  It is the same dough that I used to make these on Friday morning...apple stollen that I took into work...

...and this blueberry one that I left for G.  Talk about a versatile dough filled with possibilities!

So here is how I shaped the chocolate croissants and then I will share the applesauce muffins with a maple butter and cinnamon topping at the end.  Both recipes taste like fall and Halloween, just in very different ways!  (And in most cases, you wouldn't serve these side by side like I did, so you wouldn't get the natural comparison.)

Have I included enough unofficial Deb Disclaimers yet?  I hope so...

I split the batch of croissant dough in half and rolled each half into a rectangle about 12" X 14".

Then I cut them into squares about 3" X 4".  I mean rectangles about 3" X 4", because if I called them squares I would have to surrender my math and geometry geek card.

Now a traditional chocolate croissant will be made with a chocolate pain bar,  However my local gourmet kitchen supply store didn't sell any.  In fact the owner said that I was the first person she knew about who had ever asked for them.  (Seems impossible to me, but ok!)  So I made my own chocolate bars by melting semi-sweet chocolate with a small touch of milk chocolate.  I spread it into a pie plate or any fairly flat surface until it was about 1/4" thick and let it harden.  Then I cut it into "bars".  However as you can see, my bars were far from perfect.  Oh well!  I was going to use them anyway!

Since I was also curious about trying something a little different, I spread the first half of dough with some Nutella before adding the chocolate bar.  And because I wanted these even chocolatier, I added some mini chocolate chips, too!  Cause why not?

And I have to say that I will totally do the Nutella version again!  Totally!  But there is nothing wrong with these made with only a chocolate bar and mini chocolate chips.  But come on...Nutella people!

I simply rolled these up and laid them on a parchment-line cookie sheet to rise for about 2 hours.

I brushed them with an egg wash before setting them in a preheated 350 degree oven.  See how much they have risen?!  They get fat and puffy and a bit looser after they have risen.

And then after about 35 minutes in the oven, they get even flakier and golden brown.  Yum!

I'm hungry!  Why don't I have any more of these right now?  Oh yea...cause I done shared 'em all...I like to share...I like to share...I like to share...except sometimes I wish I hadn't shared!  Not really, but my stomach isn't really agreeing with my brain and heart at the moment.  Please be patient with me..

Ok, so on to the bobbin' for apples applesauce muffins with a maple butter emulsion and cinnamon sugar topping!  (If you give something a super long name and description, does that give them more cred to stand up to a chocolate croissant?)

These are easy schmeezy to put together - creaming butter and oil with the sugars, adding eggs and then the dry ingredients and applesauce alternately like you've read a thousand times when making a cake.  Here's the list of ingredients to make about 18 regular size muffins.  I made a double recipe, which made 24 regular size muffins plus 30 mini-muffins.

Muffins
1/4 cup softened butter
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup applesauce
1-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. ginger
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. salt
3/4 cup of grated apple
1 T. lemon juice
2 T. apple cider or  milk
Topping
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup maple syrup
Cinnamon sugar

I mixed all of the dry ingredients together on a sheet of waxed paper ready to add in thirds with the wet.  I peeled, cored and grated the apple and then tossed with the lemon juice.  Grating the apple is about the hardest part of making these!

I creamed the butter, oil and sugars together and then added the eggs, beating all very well.  Then I mixed in the dry ingredients with the applesauce and apple cider alternately, beginning and ending with the flour.  Then I scooped the mixture into my sprayed muffin tins or the sprayed paper-lined muffin tins.  Since I had some Halloween cupcake liners, I used those for my regular size muffins but not the mini-muffins.

I baked these at 350 until done - about 12 - 15 minutes on the mini-muffins and about 18 - 20 minutes on the regular size.

A toothpick or cake tester will come out clean when these are done.

Now, these are perfectly tasty to serve as they are, but if you're feeling like you want a bit more embellishment, I would recommend going ahead with the Topping part, too! I wanted a bit of butter, but I also wanted some maple flavoring, so I mixed the two together.

Except obviously they weren't mixing.  So I put them into my blender to emulsify and voila!

All I did was dip the tops of the muffins in this maply buttery goodness and then in the cinnamon sugar to finish these off!

Pile them on some lovely Fall napkins, and you have some treats ready for "bobbin'" for a Halloween breakfast!  Kid friendly and the mini ones are just right for popping in your mouth as you head out for trick or treating!

Happy Halloween!  We have our cookie next week, our 5th Friday cookie the week after that, and then we are heading down the home stretch of this here 2014 Baking Friday adventure of ours!  Hope you have enjoyed, maybe learned a tip or trick or two, but mainly been inspired to bake something!

Thank you for helping me learn this blogging thing!  Seeya next time!