Crisscross Apple Muffins

     Hello!  It's Recipe Tuesday and Crisscross Apple Muffins comes from one of my many Pampered Chef recipe books (anyone else out there LOVE every recipe they make?).  These muffins are loaded with fresh apples, raisins and walnuts..... perfect for a crisp autumn morning.
     I made these for a family gathering back in September and got rave reviews from everyone.  While the directions can be a bit tricky (I think it's harder to explain what you do than it is to actually DO it), once you get the hang of it it takes seconds to build each muffin.

     The original recipe calls for 1 pkg of 8 flaky biscuits and 1 pkg of 5 flaky biscuits.  I don't know where these test bakers do their food shopping, but I could not find a tube of Pillsbury Grands with anything less than 8 biscuits.  But no need to worry, I was able to use all 16 biscuits and still had a bit of leftover filling (even though the recipe said I'd have extra rolls).

 Apple Muffins

• 4 Granny Smith apples
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 3 tbsp flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 2 pkg Pillsbury Grands biscuits (8 per tube)
• 1 tbsp butter
• Ice cream (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Peel, core and cut apples in 1/2" pieces.  Place apples, chopped walnuts, raisins, flour, 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon in mixing bowl and mix well.  Microwave apple mixture for 3 minutes (I did not do this last step)

2. Combine remaining sugar and cinnamon in small bowl.  Melt butter in separate bowl and set aside.

3. Separate 16 biscuits.  Lightly flour rolling pin and surface and roll biscuit into 5" circle (I recommend rolling 1 biscuit at a time since they tend to shrink while your not working with them). 

4. Sprinkle biscuit circle with cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Scoop 1/4 cup of apple mixture (I used a teensy bit less than 1/4 cup).  Gather edges of biscuit over filling and pinch to seal.

5. Holding filled biscuits at sealed end, dip each biscuit in butter and then in cinnamon-sugar mixture.

6. Place biscuits, seam side down, into muffin pan.  Cut an "X" pattern with knife through top of each biscuit.  Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from pan and serve warm.