Recipes and Junk: Park Sale Series

Over the last two weekends my roommates and I have been trying to get rid of all our shit, quite unsuccessfully. With intentions for our belongings to fly off the shelves (or the grassy hill in Trinity Bellwoods Park), we made a killing of around $45.00 over the two weekends. We were mostly selling clothes, VHS's and some kitchen ware, but I thought these were great occasions to bake some fall-inspired treats, and sell some wild mint that has colonized our backyard. Here's to fall cleaning!

September 21:

Banana 'Candy Apple' Muffins:

Muffins:
1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 bananas, ripened and pureed
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup almond milk

Combine all of the wet ingredients + the sugar and salt with an electric hand mixer. In a separate bowl sift and combine the rest of the ingredients. Combine the two mixtures and fill up your greased muffin tray to each cups rim. Bake at 325 celsius for about 15 minutes, until they begin to brown and have firm tops. Let cool at room temp.

Caramelized Apples:
2 Granny Smith apples, sliced thin on a mandolin
Brown sugar
Butter
Cinnamon
Vanilla

Core and quarter the apples, then, slice paper thin using a mandolin. If not using immediately store the slices in water with a few drops of lemon juice to prevent browning. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a pan on medium-high heat. Add some sugar, cinnamon and vanilla, stir until dissolved. Add enough apple slices to cover the surface of the pan and gently stir them around until they're all doused in sugary butter goodness. Remove the apples and individually lay them out on a sheet tray covered in parchment. Repeat the steps above until all of the apples have been cooked.

Bake the caramelized apples at 350 degrees celsius for about 10 minutes, or until they begin to turn dark brown.

Caramel topping:
White sugar
10% cream

There are no specific quantities for this recipe, it just depends on how much you want to make, and how thick you want it to turn out. I used about 1 cup of sugar and about a 1/8 cup of cream. Melt the sugar in a pot on low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon occasionally. As the sugar melts it will turn to caramel, but you want to give it time to melt and you don't want it to burn, so you should watch it at all times. Once all of the granules have dissolved add the cream. It will split at first but just slowly keep stirring. The amount of cream you add depends on how thick you want it. You can also add water to thin it out.

I used the caramel to glue the apples onto the muffin tops, then spooned a small blob on top. In a perfect world I would have found my cooking brush and glazed the tops. Serving these muffins fresh and warm would be nice, but if you're like me selling them outside on a chilly day will do. Beware of ants.

September 28:

Maple Bacon Fig Muffins:
1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cups dried figs, diced
1/2 cup partially cooked bacon, diced
1/2 cup crispy bacon, diced (for garnish)
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup almond milk

First get the bacon cooking. I used three quarters of a regular pack and diced it up before baking it in the oven (no one wants to chop up scorching hot bacon). Bake at 400 degrees celsius for about 8 minutes, it should be at the stage right before it starts to get crispy. Using a slotted spoon, scoop out half the bacon and reserve in a bowl, let the rest cook until crispy (about 5 more minutes). Remove the crispy bacon from the oil and let cool in a bowl.

Combine all of the wet ingredients + the sugar and salt with an electric hand mixer. In a separate bowl sift and combine the flour, baking powder and soda. Combine the two mixtures then add the par cooked bacon and chopped figs and fill up your greased muffin tray to each cups rim. Bake at 325 celsius for about 20 minutes, until they begin to brown and have firm tops. Let cool at room temp.

Once the muffins have cooled brush the tops with maple syrup to get them a little moist. With your crispy bacon, mix it up with some maple syrup or something equally as syrup-y, like agave, in a bowl to encourage everything to stick together. Carefully place your clusters of bacon on top of each muffin. There should be some residual, cooled down bacon grease in the mix to encourage everything together, and give off a salty, buttery flavour when you eat these gluttonous things.