Apple Recipes

Since we went apple picking and had over 51lbs. of apples on hand, I had to come up with some ways of using them.  I didn't want to do the typical apple pie, because frankly, I don't like apple pie.  So I started to explore.  First up, applesauce!  I had never made applesauce before so I wanted to give it a try.  My friend A gave me this suggestion:
For every 4 mid-size apples (peeled, cored, chopped), add 1c apple juice or cider. Boil in a large pot on the stove until the apples squish with the side of a spoon. Mash by hand or blender for the consistency you like, then add the spices of your choice.  I really liked this!!!

Next came an apple cherry crisp that I made from the book The Happy Baker by Erin Bolger
Her's is an apple cranberry crisp, but I had cherries instead.  I LOVED this one!!!

I'm not Dutch Apple Crisp:

4 cups of apples, peeled, cored, and cut into small pieces
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 1/2 cups frozen cranberries (or cherries), thawed
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

topping:
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp. salt

1. Preheat oven to 375.  Grease an 8 or 9 inch square baking dish.
2.  In a large bowl, combine apples, lemon juice, cranberries, sugar and cinnamon.  Pour into prepared dish.
3.  In a medium bowl, cream together the flour, butter, and brown sugar; mix well.  Stir in the oats and salt.  Sprinkle evenly over fruit mixture.
4.  Bake for 40 mins or until fruit is tender and topping is browned.


This one was my favorite out of the 2 crisp recipes that I tried.  I loved it warm with freshly whipped cream.

The other apple crisp that I tried was from Family Fun magazine.  I won't post the recipe but I will post the link.  http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/fabulous-fruit-crisp-941584/
I don't have pictures of either of these because they all went way too quickly!

And the last thing I have made so far was the America's Test Kitchen Apple Dapple cake.  This was good, but just didn't hit the spot for me. (Although I have been eating it warmed up for breakfast the past few days ;-)

This recipe is:

cake:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/3 cups vegetable oil
3 large eggs, room temp
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4' pieces
1 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Brown Sugar glaze:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
4 tbsp. butter, cut into 4 pieces
2 tbsp. milk

1.  Adjust rack to middle postion and heat oven to 350.  Grease 16 cup tube pan.
2.  Whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.  In a large bowl, beat the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla together with an electric mixer on medium speed until thick and glossy, about 2min.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly beat in the flour mixture, in 3 additions, until just incorporated.  Stir in the apples and nuts.
3.  Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.  Wipe any drops of batter off the sides of the pan and gently tap the pan on the counter to settle the batter.  Bake the cake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 50 to 60 mins, rotating the pan halfway through baking.
4.  Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 min.  Run a small knife around the edge of the cake to loosen, then flip it out onto a wire reack.  Turn the cake right side up and let it cool completely, about 2 hours.
5.  Boil all the ingredients together for the glaze in a small saucepan over medium high heat until thick and syrupy, 1-2 in.  Drizzle the thick glaze over the top and sides of the cake.  Let the glaze set, about 25 min, before serving.

Some other apple recipes:

That wretched interloper
Soft Ginger Apple Cookies
Mini Applesauce Muffins

Cookie of the Week!- Peppermint Whoopie Pies

This picture does not do them justice! These taste like a little bit of heaven all wrapped up in your mouth. Yum!

Sorry I am a little behind posting this, but it was a busy weekend and the internet was very patchy. So I made the normal whoopie pies when I headed up to visit my friend Maryjane, and boy were those super yummy. But we thought they would taste really yummy with peppermint in the filling, and of course as we all know if you flavor anything peppermint, you must color it pink! I used the America's Test Kitchen recipe and changed the filling just a touch.

Whoopie Pies
cakes:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup dutch-processed cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

filling:
12 tbsp butter, softened
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
3/4 tsp. peppermint extract
a few drops of red food coloring
1/8 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups marshmallow creme

1. For the cakes: line 2 baking sheets with parchment. whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.

2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla.

3. Slowly mix in half of the flour mixture into the butter/sugar mixture, followed by half of the buttermilk, repeat with half of the remaining flour and the remaining buttermilk. Add the remaining flour mixture until combined.

4. Scoop generous 1/4 cup mounds of batter onto the prepared baking sheets, about 2" apart. Bake the cakes until they spring back when pressed, 15-18 minutes. Let cool completely before removing from baking sheets. (Modification: We didn't do 1/4 cup, we thought this would be HUGE so we used a cookie batter scoop and made them the size of regular cookies)

5. For the filling: Beat the butter and powdered sugar together with a mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and salt. Beat in the marshmallow creme until incorporated.

6. To serve, spread 1/3 cup filling (or less, if using our mods) evenly over the bottom of the cake and then make a sandwich by pressing the bottom of another cake onto the filling. Repeat with the remaining cakes and filling.

It's my birthday!

It has been party central over in my house this week. You see, this last Wednesday (11-11) I turned 30! AAAAHHHH, 30! Actually I am totally fine with that age. But we have been partying it up for a week straight now. It also happens to be my friend Diane's birthday also, so we have had fun sharing our birthday! It started last Friday when my friend Amanda took me out for dinner. Saturday Diane and I hosted a dinner birthday party with a few local friends. What a blast! My mom took the kids for the weekend so we could just have fun. Tuesday my dad and brother came out to visit bringing cards, flowers, and a cheesecake. They of course also took us all out to eat. Famous Dave's BBQ here we come. Wednesday was my actual birthday and my mom came out during the day. She brought presents, and a caramel cake. She took the kids and I out for lunch for Five Guys. Hurray! Then Adam got home and made a pear upside down cake. He was going to take us out for dinner to Red Robin back in our old city. I couldn't understand why he was making us drive an hour away when there was one just 5 min from our house. Well when we got there I understood. He had contacted all our friends that live out that way and had a surprise dinner ready and waiting for me. It was great to see everyone, and what a great surprise! Last night I got to go on a mini shopping spree at Target with a gift card I had gotten, and came home to split a bottle of wine with the hubby! Right now I am packing my bags, and in the morning I will be heading on a little road trip of my own. I am getting a rental car and going to visit my friend Maryjane in Wisconsin! We have never met in real life but have none each other for almost 3 years now. Go check out her blog if you haven't already. She has amazing stuff going on over there. And she is planning on us making some whoppie pies! Can't wait! And don't worry, I will take tons of pics and blog about it next week when I get back.





This is the cake I made for our dinner party on Saturday. It's a black forrest cake from the America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book. If you don't have this book, you must get it. It is amazing!

The girls. The 2 birthday girls are in the middle!

Cookie of the Week!- Vanilla Meringue kisses

edit: I did just find the picture of the vanilla kisses. See like I said they got a little too golden brown, but tasted super yummy and melted in our mouths!


Okay so I know I am way behind, and I'm sorry. The good news is that I have still been making these cookies every week, the bad news is that I haven't been able to sit down and blog, and now I have lost the pictures of them. So please bear with me. I promise that this Friday will be back to normal!

So on with the recipe, I got this one from the America's test Kitchen Family Baking Book. If you do not own this, you need to. It has all the info and recipe's you could possibly need or want. They also have great substitutions, and advice for when things go wrong.

The recipe is:

3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. cornstarch
1/8 tsp. salt
4 large egg whites
3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

* Please be aware that they may not turn out if it is a humid day out. So if it is raining, please wait a day or two to try to make these.

1. Adjust the oven rack to the upper middle and lower middle positions and heat the oven to 225 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a small bowl.

2. Whip the egg whites, vanilla, and cream of tartar together with an electric mixer on medium low speed until foamy, about 1 min. Increase the mixer speed to medium high and whip the whites to soft, billowy mounds, about 1 min. Gradually whip in the sugar mixture, about 1 min. Continue to whip the whites until they are glossy and form stiff peaks, 1-3 min.

3. Use a spoon or a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip to make 1 1/4 inch wide meringue kisses on the prepared baking sheets, spaced about 1 inch apart. (I just used a ziploc freezer bag and sniped the corner off to pipe the kisses on the baking sheet, and it worked really well!)

4. Bake the meringues for 1 hour, switching and rotating the baking sheets halfway through baking. Turn the oven off and allow the meringues to cool in the oven, about 1 hour. Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool to room temperature before serving, about 10 min.


Now when I made these they turned out a golden brown, and I'm not sure if that is correct. But they tasted super yummy and melted in our mouths. I also tried to make some peppermint, but they did not turn out quite right. The egg whites just didn't want to fluff the right way. I tried twice and each time tried to add the peppermint extract in at different times. Neither helped. Not sure what the problem was, maybe it was too humid. But after the second time I did just pipe the mixture on the baking sheet to see what happened. They still tasted very yummy, the only difference was that they were more button shaped as opposed to a kiss shape. Oh well. Try again, right?