Bake Sale Madness

This past week was our community's Harvest Homecoming, a big fall festival with a parade, music on the river, rides for the kids and of course all of that festival food you wait all year to eat.  The go-to yummies are the chicken and dumplings, ribs and pork chops, homemade glazed doughnuts and Amish made ice cream turned with a belt driven hit-and-miss engine.  The crowds are shoulder-to-shoulder and the lines wrap around the block to purchase these delectable, mouth-watering treats.

All of this gets me in the mood to bake, so when my church decided to host a bake sale in tandem with the festivities, I was at the ready wire whisk in hand.   Here's what I made:

Caramel Apple Bread

Pumpkin Pie Muffins with  Marshmallow Butter Creme Filling

Mojito Cupcakes

Cher Bowlies CuppyCakes

Recipe for Caramel Apple Bread

-2 small boxes of instant sugar-free butterscotch pudding

-1 large Granny Smith apple with peel, diced into 1/4" cubes

-1 1/3 cup buttermilk

-1/2 cup dark brown sugar

-2 teaspoons cinnamon

-1 teaspoon ginger powder

-1 pinch of salt

-3 cup whole grain flour ( I used whole wheat)

-1 Tablespoon baking powder

-2 teaspoons baking soda

-1 3/4 cup unsweetened apple juice or cider

-2/3 cup sugar-free caramel ice cream topping

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
• Cube apple, measuring about 2 cups, toss with 2-3 T. of pudding mix.  Set aside.
• In large bowl, whisk together the pudding mixes and the buttermilk.  This will be very thick.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda, salt and flour.
• Add dry ingredients to pudding mixture a little at a time, alternating with apple juice and blend well after each addition.
• Fold in the apples.
• Bake in a greased bundt pan or small loaf pans.  Time for large bundt pan will be 45-50 minutes.  The small loaves will take only 20.  Test with toothpick to make sure the bread is done.
• Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes.  Remove from pan.
• Cool completely.  When cool, drizzle caramel syrup on the top.  You should get 12 mini-loaves or 12 slices from bundt.

And you are reading correctly, there are no eggs in this recipe.  The pudding mix has enough emulsifiers to hold it all together.   Because of the same pudding you don't need oil.  And in each serving there is only 12 grams of sugar! You could substitute oat flour for the whole wheat if you want to and you would have a more nutty flavor.  

Because I wanted to have a more intense caramel flavor, I used French Vanilla instant pudding mixes and added 1/4 teaspoon of super concentrated butterscotch flavoring.  You can buy the super concentrated flavorings at a cake decorating store.

Happy baking!