Classic Apple Pie

Happy Tuesday! Today I have a fabulous apple pie recipe to share with you all! I never had to worry about cooking Thanksgiving dinner until a couple of years ago when we moved away from home. And this year was the very first time I'd attempted my own apple pie. My mom ALWAYS made apple pie for Thanksgiving, but last year I decided not to do it (again, because of that tricky crust recipe of hers!). It just wasn't Thanksgiving without apple pie. So a few weeks back, when I found that awesomely easy pie crust recipe, I decided to also try out the apple pie recipe in my cookbook. It. was. delish!!! I was going to just make this pie instead of pumpkin this year, but my kids all begged me to make both. So both it is!

Ingredients:
2 pounds McIntosh apples (4-6), peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4" thick
1.5 pounds Granny Smith apples (3-4), peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4" thick
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 recipe double-crust pie dough, bottom crust fit into pie plate
1 egg white, lightly beaten

Adjust oven rack to the lowest position, place a rimmed baking sheet on the rack, and heat the oven to 500 degrees. Toss the apples with 3/4 cup of the sugar, flour, lemon juice, zest, salt, and spices, and set aside.

Roll out the top crust to a 12-inch circle. Spread the apples in the unbaked pie crust bottom, mounding them slightly in the middle. Lay the top crust over the apples, seal and crimp the edges, and cut four vent holes in the top. Brush the crust with the egg white and sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.

Place the pie on the heated baking sheet and lower the oven temperature to 425 degrees. Bake until the top crust is golden, about 25 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet, reduce the oven temperature again to 375 degrees, and continue to bake until the juices are bubbling and the crust is deep golden brown, 30-35 minutes longer (**at this point, I suggest covering the edges of the pie crust with foil, but the recipe doesn't say that**). Transfer the pie to a wire rack and cool to room temperature before serving.

What's your favorite kind of pie?

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Double-Crust Pie Dough

We're on the countdown to Thanksgiving now!! I've got 3 great posts lined up for you this week, and we'll be doing it a bit differently. Instead of the typical Monday, Wednesday, Friday line-up, I'm going to post Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday instead. :-)

For years, I've been trying to make pie crust. My mom has a fabulous pie crust, but whenever I try her recipe, it's been a total flop. Last Thanksgiving I was in tears (seriously...) because the pie crust was just horrendous. It was either too flaky and wouldn't roll out without crumbling or it was too tough. My sweet hubby suggested I look in our trusty America's Test Kitchen cookbook to see if they had a pie crust recipe instead. SCORE! This is SO easy, especially compared to my mom's recipe. Apparently my mom is the only one that can get her recipe to turn out perfectly. ;-)

Ingredients:
2.5 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out the dough
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
8 tablespoons Crisco, cut into 1/2" pieces and chilled
12 tablespoons (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1/4" pieces and chilled
6-8 tablespoons ice water

Process the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor until combined. Scatter the shortening over the top and process until the mixture has the texture of coarse sand, about 10 seconds. Scatter the butter pieces over the top and, using short pulses, process the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs, about 10 pulses. Transfer to a bowl. Sprinkle 6 tablespoons of the ice water over the mixture. Stir and press the dough together, using a stiff rubber spatula until the dough sticks together.

If the dough does not come together, stir in the remaining water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until it does.

Divide the dough into two even pieces and flatten each into a 4 inch disk. Wrap the disks tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Let the chilled dough soften slightly at room temperature before rolling it out and fitting it into a pie plate.

To make ahead: The dough can be refrigerated, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 2 months. Let the frozen dough thaw on the countertop until malleable before rolling.

Stay tuned for a fantastic apple pie recipe tomorrow!

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New York Style Cheesecake

I really have been a slacker and poor Hillary probably thinks I've abandoned her here or something ;) But I'm around. Just don't do a lot of cooking due to my work schedule. I'm not sure where I got this recipe but I found it somewhere a few years ago. My mom actually made it this time for my brother's birthday yesterday.

New York Style Cheesecake

1 cup honey maid graham cracker crumbs (or you can make your own if you are too cheap to buy crumbs like I am)
3 T sugar
3 T butter or margarine, melted
5 pkg (8 oz each) Philadelphia Cream cheese (any brand will do), softened
1 C sugar
3 T flour
1 T vanilla
1 C sour cream
4 eggs
Topping of your choice

Mix crumbs, 3 T sugar and butter; press firmly onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan. Bake at 325 for 10 minutes.

Beat cream cheese, 1 C sugar, flour and vanilla with electric mixer until well blended. Add sour cream; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on low speed after each addition just until blended. Pour over crust.

Bake at 325 for 65 minutes or until center is almost set. Loosen cake from rim of pan; cool before removing rim. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Spread topping over cheesecake and garnish as you please before serving.

Makes 16 servings.

And boy is it ever yummy! :)

Is your mouth watering yet?

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Cream Cheese Carrot Muffins

This is another recipe that I got from Full Bellies, Happy Kids. My kids LOVED these! I think her recipe is actually missing an ingredient, because when I mixed up the ingredients as written on her site, the batter wasn't batter-y at all. It was totally crumbly, and there was no way it would have worked. So I just added a bit of milk, and it was perfect.

Another change I made was that I used fresh carrots instead of canned. I don't use canned carrots at all, so I just sliced and steamed my own. I ended up using 4 carrots, and I just used my steamer basket and steamed them for around 10-15 minutes until they were soft.

After I mixed up the batter and went to pour it into my muffin tin, I couldn't find my muffin tin. I have NO idea where it got off to, and my kids were all conveniently clueless as well. So I just poured it into a baking dish, topped it with the filling, and cooked it for an extra 20 minutes or so.

This could easily be served for breakfast, brunch, or even as dessert. It's super yummy!

Ingredients:
1 15-ounce can sliced carrots, drained
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves
2 eggs
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened

In a food processor, blend the carrots until they are smooth. After carrots are smooth, add in 1 egg, the oil, and the milk. Then, in a large bowl combine the flour, 1 cup of the sugar, salt, and spices. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until combined.

Once batter is prepared, combine cream cheese, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 1 egg. Mix until smooth. Fill 12 greased muffin tins 1/3 of the way full with the batter. Then put a large spoonful of the cream cheese mixture into the center of each muffin. Top with remaining batter.

Like I said, I improvised. So here's what mine looked like this morning:

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes (or if you did it like I did, then around 45 minutes), or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

Where is the strangest place you've found something you've lost?

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Sweetheart Cookies

This is my mom's recipe. She makes a huge batch of these every single year around Christmas. It's one of the things that makes me feel closer to home when I make them because they were such an integral part of our holiday season.

It's such an easy recipe. And it's fabulous to let your kids help you make. My kids just love sticking their little thumbs into the dough balls to make the hole for the jam. I let them have at it this time, so our cookies turned out really flat, but we all had fun, which is all that matters.

You can use any flavor jam you'd like to fill these with. I always use strawberry or raspberry, but that's only because my oldest daughter will scoff at any jam that isn't one of those flavors. :)

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
jam

In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg yolk and mix well. Then add flour. Mix gently until combined. Pick up some dough and try to roll it into a ball. If it doesn't come together and breaks apart, add a tablespoon or 2 of milk and mix until combined.

Chill for 2-3 hours. Remove from fridge and let sit on counter for a few minutes to soften. Then roll into 1 inch balls (ours were a lot bigger than that because my kids insisted on doing that part themselves. Don't worry if yours are larger -- that'll just mean they'll end up being flatter after they bake) and place 2 inches apart (more than 2 inches if you make larger balls). Using the end of a wooden spoon (or the thumbs of your kids), press a hole into each dough ball.

Then fill each hole with jam.

Bake at 350 for about 13 minutes, or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack. They're supposed to hold their shape and be dainty and cute. But I love these imperfect cookies my 3 sweethearts and I made! :)

Anyone have any fun weekend plans?
I'm baking tomorrow -- bread, rolls, etc.
Fun, fun!

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Symphony Bar Brownies

This is the easiest recipe ever! It is very rich and delicious and I know you will love it.... if you love chocolate, that is. :)

Symphony Bar Brownies

2 boxes brownie mix
3 giant symphony bars

Prepare one brownie mix and pour into 13x9 pan. Lay symphony bars over batter. Prepare second brownie mix and pour over symphony bars. Bake according to package directions, but bake 5-10 minutes longer.

Enjoy the richness....

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Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

This is a slight variation on an old recipe from my mom’s recipe box. I absolutely love oatmeal cookies and this is the best recipe ever! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

¼ cup shortening

½ cup butter or margarine

1 egg

1 ¼ cups firmly packed brown sugar

1/3 cup milk

1 ½ tsp vanilla

Approx 2 ½ cups flour *

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda

3 cups oats

¼ tsp cinnamon **

1 cup raisins

Heat oven to 375. Grease baking sheets.

Combine shortening, butter, brown sugar, egg, milk and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat at medium speed until well blended.

Combine oats, flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Mix into creamed mixture at low speed just until blended. Stir in raisins.

Drop rounded tablespoonfuls (cookie scoop) of dough 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Bake for 10-12*** minutes or until lightly browned. Do not overbake. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Cool completely on sheets of foil.

* The original recipe only calls for a cup of flour but that’s not enough. I didn’t measure exactly but just put in enough so it’s not super sticky.

** I don’t measure the cinnamon because I love it so just dump some in if you’re like me.

*** Definitely err on the side of underbaking. You’ll be glad you did.

One final note… as if there could be more, I know… With the cookie scoop, you get very rounded cookies. If you like them more traditional looking just flatten them a bit after you scoop them onto the baking sheet. You’ll see what I mean in the pictures.

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Brownie Pudding

Please forgive our absence. I am working full time and Hillary has been working on home improvements for her cute new house. Here's something to make your mouth water. It's my grandmother's recipe so please enjoy it!

Brownie Pudding

1 cup sifted flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ to ½ tsp salt
¾ cup sugar
2-3 T cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup milk
2 T shortening
1 cup chopped nuts (opt)

Sift all ingredients together; add milk, shortening and nuts. Spread in greased 9 inch pan.

Topping:

1 cup brown sugar
4 T cocoa
1 ¼ cup boiling water

Mix sugar and cocoa; sprinkle over mixture in pan. Pour boiling water over all. Bake in 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes.

Makes 6-8 servings

Disclaimer: Very, very rich! Devour slowly and at your own risk. :)

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Fruit-Filled Coffee Cake

This recipe is another from the Kraft Food and Family Magazine. You can find it here. It was so simple and so tasty. Next time I’m going to try blueberry. Yum!

Fruit-Filled Coffee Cake

1 pkg. (2-layer size) white cake mix
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 cup Breakstone’s or Knudsen Sour Cream
3 eggs
¼ cup water
1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling
½ cup Planters Sliced Almonds, toasted*
1 cup powdered sugar
1 ½ T milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat first 5 ingredients with mixer until well blended. Pour into greased and floured 13x9 pan; top with spoonfuls of pie filling.

Bake 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean; sprinkle with nuts. Cool 10 minutes.

Mix sugar and milk; drizzle over cake. Cool completely.

Note: If glaze is too thick, add milk by teaspoonfuls until thin enough to drizzle.

* We did not use the almonds because the cake was for a lot of people and not everyone likes them.

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Strawberry Peach Smoothie

I don't know about in your neck of the woods, but in mine, it's bliseteringly hot already. As in, it's been over 100 degrees for a few weeks. Yesterday as dinner time was approaching, I couldn't bring myself to turn on the stove or the oven. I used my trusty electric griddle to make BLT's, and then I remembered a recipe page I'd just clipped from one of my magazines that was full of tons of smoothies. I thought it would be perfect, and it was! Really yummy, refreshing, and my kids all thought I was giving them dessert with their dinner! ;)

When I made it, I wanted something a little thicker, more shake-like, so I added some ice. But that part is totally optional.

Ingredients:
2 cups vanilla yogurt
2 cups fresh strawberries
2 cups fresh of frozen sliced peaches
2 tablespoons sugar
ice cubes, optional

Rinse and slice your strawberries.

Put all ingredients into the blender and pulse until thoroughly mixed. Garnish with whole strawberries (cut a slit in them and stick them on the side of the glass) or sliced.

What's your weather like??

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Crock Pot Rice Pudding

I've been wanting to make rice pudding for a long time. I recently stumbled across the blog A Year of Crock Potting, and I found this recipe. It's really yummy! Very rich. Very. But the kids and I really enjoyed it. My husband said, "Rice? As a dessert?" and refused to even try a bite, which is odd considering he loves anything and everything. But that was okay with me because it meant more leftovers! :)

I changed the recipe a bit. I used jasmine rice instead of regular rice. We don't even have regular rice at our house. I also added a little less liquid. Her recipe calls for 8 cups, I only used 7 and thought that was plenty.

Ingredients:
7 cups milk
1 cup white rice
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Spray crock pot with cooking spray. Combine milk, rice and sugar in the crock pot. Cook on low for 4-6 hours.

When the rice is tender, combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl.

Add about a cup of the hot rice mixture in to the egg mixture, and stir well to combine. Add 2-3 more cups into the egg mixture (this is called tempering your eggs -- if you don't do this step, your eggs will scramble, so it's VERY important!). Then pour everything back into the crock pot. Mix well, and cook on low another hour. Serve warm or cold, topped with berries or raisins or nothing at all. It's good any way you serve it.

You're all pretty quiet out there in Blog Land!
Talk to us!
What's your favorite dessert?

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Lemonade Cheesecake Pie

This recipe came from the same Kraft Food and Family magazine that I got the peaches and cream cheesecake. My mom actually made this one so give her credit for the yummy looking pictures! It is very refreshing and delicious. You can also find the recipe here.

Lemonade Cheesecake Pie

1 pkg (8 oz) Philadelphia cream cheese, softened

½ cup thawed frozen lemonade concentrate

1 tub (8 ox) Cool Whip whipped toping, thawed, divided

1 Honey Maid Graham pie crust

1 ½ cups sliced fresh strawberries

2 T sugar

Beat cream cheese in large bowl with mixer until creamy. Gradually add conc3entrate, beating well after each addition. Whisk in 2 cups cool whip; spoon into crust.

Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm. Meanwhile, toss berries with sugar. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Pipe or smooth remaining cool whip around edge of pie just before serving. Top with berry mixture.

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Dessert Pizza

I have had this recipe since I took a cooking class in high school. I have been in love with it forever! I love fruit and you can use anything you want on this and it's just delicious! It's a perfect spring/summer dessert and you can have it any time. It can easily change with the seasonal fruit if you want fresh all the time. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!

Dessert Pizza

Dough:

¾ cup shortening, part butter (I use ½ cup shortening, ¼ cup butter)

1 c sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

2 ½ cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

Mix shortening, butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Blend in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover. Chill 1 hour. Pat dough onto cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 12 minutes.

Topping:

1 pkg. (8 oz) cream cheese

½ cup sugar (I used some powdered sugar as well... just a little)

Fruit

After crust has cooled, add sugar to cream cheese and blend. Spread over crust. Decorate with fruit as desired.

Fruit ideas:

Bananas

Grapes, halved

Peaches

Pineapple

Strawberries

Kiwi fruit

Blueberries

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Philadelphia Peaches ‘n Cream No-bake Cheesecake

My mom got the newest issue of Kraft Food and Family Magazine and this yummy looking recipe was in it. We tried it on Sunday and it was delicious so I thought I would post it here. You can also find this recipe here: http://www.kraftfoods.com/kf/recipes/philadelphia-peaches-n-cream-110364.aspx

Philadelphia Peaches ‘n cream no-bake cheesecake

Ingredients:
2 cups honey maid graham cracker crumbs
6 T margarine, melted
1 cup sugar, divided
2 pkg. (8 oz each) Philadelphia Neufchatel Cheese, softened
1 pkg (3 oz) Jell-O Peach flavor gelatin
1 can (15 oz) sliced peaches in juice, drained, chopped
1 tub (8 oz) Cool Whip Lite Whipped Topping, thawed

Mix graham crumbs, margarine and ¼ cup sugar; press onto bottom of 13x9-inch pan. Refrigerate while preparing filling.

Beat Neufchatel cheese and remaining sugar until blended. Add dry gelatin mix; mix well. Stir in peaches and Cool Whip. Spoon over crust; cover.

Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm. Refrigerate leftovers.

Substitute: Prepare using 2 chopped fresh peaches.



Next time I think I'll try raspberry!

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Oreo Truffles

This is MY kind of recipe. Hillary might object but oh she should at least try them first ;) I was browsing around one day and found this site where I got this recipe. So I cannot claim the genius as my own. But it is so yummy! I didn't use the mint oreos but I plan to try them. I made these around Christmas time and covered them in melted milk chocolate chips. Let me just say RICH!! As I ate them I got to thinking they would be even better covered with white chocolate so that's what you'll see here. I also ran out of white chocolate before i was done so I had to dip a few in melted semi-sweet chips and then I used some of that to drizzle on the white chocolate ones. I hope you'll try them and I hope you'll enjoy!


Oreo Truffles

1 20 oz. pkg. Oreo brand cookies (She recommended the mint)
8 oz pkg cream cheese, light or regular, softened
20 oz package milk or dark chocolate chips (She recommended Andes mint pieces as well)

1. Crush the cookies fine with food processor. Add cream cheese and mix well. Roll into 1" balls (or smaller) and set on cookie sheet. Place in refrigerator to chill for 1 hour.

2. Melt the chocolate in microwave safe bowl 30 seconds at a time until melted and smooth (you may not need all the chocolate). Add 1-2 tablespoons of oil to the chocolate as it is melting to help with the consistency. Dip the Oreo balls into chocolate and place on cookie sheet. Place in refrigerator to chill until firm.

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