Caramel Crunch Bars

Is anyone else already thinking about Christmas?  Or Christmas goodies to be exact.  Every year I make an assortment of desserts to hand out as gifts to neighbors, teachers, family, etc, and I've been on the lookout for a few new things.  For me, not only do they need to taste amazing, but they need to be simple and quick to prepare, cause really, who has the time for complicated around the holidays!

I immediately turned to Baking from My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, she manages to come up with recipes that aren't so simple that they're boring, but not fussy and overly complicated.

Not exactly sure why Caramel is in the name of these bars, as there isn't a lick of caramel in them, but who cares, they were yummy!  The base layer of the bars is buttery with a little chew factor.  It's melt in your mouth goodness from the first bite of toffee to the crumbly base...mmmmmmm, definitely making it to my Christmas baking list.

TWD | Flaky Apple Turnovers

What a great week to bake apple turnovers since we still had a bunch left from the orchards.  Julie with Someone's in the Kitchen picked this weeks Tuesday's with Dorie recipe.  Please go check out her blog, not only to get her thoughts on the turnovers, but to get the recipe!

I had major issues with this dough, which is probably more about me than the dough.  One day I'm going to be able to afford a big food processor, but for now it's just me and my pastry blender.  Most times that is enough, but I think it may have been my downfall here.  The dough was seriously dry, even after adding in a little more sour cream.  It just would not come together!  And chilling did not help matters, it just became a huge heavy brick that was nearly impossible to roll out.  I was forced to let it come to room temp just to roll, which we all know ruins a good pastry dough!

These little guys puffed up like you would not believe, I used the best for the photo here, but I should have taken at least one picture of a flop, they were pretty comical looking.  The turnovers were actually quite tasty though so it all worked out in the end.  I did however find out that 4 apples is way more than you'll need for this recipe, I bet I only used 2 little suckers, so if you're using store bought apples, I think you'd get away with just 1.

For a few of these, I mixed in some Red Currant Jam with the apples, they were awesome, wish I'd done this with more of them.  I didn't have good course sugar for the tops, so I used some homemade vanilla sugar, yum-e!  I definitely recommend giving these a try!

TWD | Espresso Cheesecake Brownies

I'm running so late tonight, I'm supposed to be meeting the hubby for dinner in an hour and a half and I haven't even showered, yikes, so I'll keep this post short and sweet!


Melissa, of Life in a Peanut Shell chose this weeks Tuesday's with Dorie recipe, Espresso Cheesecake Brownies...I knew I should have skipped this one, I don't even like brownies.  They ended up over cooked and not really good at all, but I think it's because of the changes I made.  It was supposed to be cooked in a sheet pan, but I wanted individual sized portions.  You have to check out Melissa's blog though, her pictures make me almost want to try this one again some day... almost!  If you haven't checked out, Baking: From my Home to Yours, Dorie Greenspan, you must do so immediately, it's now my favorite, the recipes rock and the pictures are almost as good, worth every penny :)

TWD | Creamiest Lemon Cream Pie

Yay, my first week as part of the Tuesday's with Dorie baking group.  I had to wait 2 weeks after officially joining while I waited for my cookbook to come in...it was worth the wait, this pie is awesome!  It's supposed to be the Creamiest Lime Cream Pie, but I had a fridge full of lemons, so I decided to make the switch.

I know it looks pretty ugly, the egg whites were whipping away when Aidan decided to wake up from nap, cranky and needing some Mommy love...the dangers of motherhood baking...in my absence, the egg whites were way over whipped, but no matter, they still tasting great, just less than pretty.


This pie is sooooo super tart, which I absolutely LOVE.  I've never made a cream pie, and after reading the comments on the TWD blog, I was a bit worried, but thankfully I had no problems at all getting my cream to reach 180 degrees (and it only took about 3-4 minutes).  The meringue had just the right sweetness to compliment the tart lemons, it was perfect.  The only thing I would change about this is the pie plate, it really needed a deep dish, the meringue is heavy, so once I plopped it on, it caused a lot of the lemon filling to ooze out and over the edge.  

Thanks Linda of Tender Crumb, it was an excellent pick!  Check out Tuesday's with Dorie, or buy the book yourself, you won't be disappointed.

Peach Pie Cupcakes

Fresh summer peaches, another awesome Farmer's Market find...not what to do with them? I've made peach pie a million times so that was out. Then I happened to see peach cupcakes on Smitten Kitchen and knew a cupcake it must be! I wanted something a little different though, so the Peach Pie Cupcake was created.

I couldn't decide though which frosting I wanted, so I made three, I know I'm a compete dork. I preferred the brown sugar, T liked the brown butter better. The mascarpone was pretty great, just not really the right thing for this cupcake though, it needed something with a little more depth and heaviness. Amazingly, the kids actually ate these...cool...and they're not half bad for breakfast either. Inspired by Willow Bird Baking.

Peach Pie Cupcakes

1 stick unsalted butter
3/8 cup light brown sugar
3/8 cup white sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
½ cup buttermilk
¼ cup applesauce (or any fruit flavor baby food you like)
3 Tbs Tuaca liquor, divided
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp salt
2 cups fresh peaches chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Line 12 wells in a cupcake pan. In a small bowl, make streusel. Add all the ingredients and cut the mixture into crumbles using a pastry blender. In a separate bowl, combine chopped peaches with 1 tablespoon Tuaca liquor, set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Add the eggs one at a time and mix. Mix in the buttermilk, applesauce, vanilla, and the Tuaca/peach juice and extra 2 tablespoons Tuaca.

3. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add a little of the flour mixture at a time to the wet ingredients, mixing well after each addition. Beat the batter well until air is incorporated, about 2 more minutes.

4. Pour batter until each cupcake well is just under half full. Spoon a thin layer of streusel over this batter, then drop in one tablespoon of peaches (making sure not get extra juice from the peaches). Fill in with the rest of the cupcake batter. If you love a lot of peach in your “cobbler,” you can add a few more hunks on top. Spoon a sprinkle of streusel over the top of the batter in each well. Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in pan for a couple of minutes, and then on a cooling rack. Once cupcakes are completely cool, frost them.

Streusel

1/3 cup packed brown sugar
½ cup flour
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ cup unsalted butter (4 tablespoons)

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting, Smitten Kitchen


1 ¼ cups light brown sugar
¼ cup cornstarch
½ cup powdered sugar
2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
½ cup (4 ounces or 8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, cornstarch and powdered sugar. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Add the sugar-cornstarch mixture and vanilla, beat until frosting is smooth and light. Chill the bowl in the refrigerator until it thickens back up a bit, about 30 minutes, then spread or dollop on cooled cupcakes.

Mascarpone Frosting, Martha Stewart

1 cup heavy cream
8 oz mascarpone cheese, room temp
½ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form (be careful not to overbeat, or cream will be grainy). In another bowl, whisk together mascarpone and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Gently fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture until completely incorporated. Use immediately.

Brown Butter Icing, Martha Stewart

4 Tbs un-salted butter
1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1-2 Tbs milk

1. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat until nut-brown in color, about 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat, and pour butter into a bowl, leaving any burned sediment behind.

2. Add sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon milk; stir until smooth. If the icing is too thick, add the remaining tablespoon milk, a little at a time, until consistency is spreadable. Let cool 5 minutes. Use immediately

* These cupcakes would have looked amazing if I'd had chocolate brown cupcake liners, I really need to buy some!

Blackberry Pie Bars with Lemon Sugar

Another Farmers Market find was blackberries. They are not my favorite, but I knew T liked them so I grabbed them up...didn't hurt that they were huge and gorgeous! You can see my smallest rug rat above scoping them out, with good reason, they were delicious! I had a bit of a hard time getting my bottom crust to set right and get crunchy, but it still tasted great.

Blackberry Pie Bars with Lemon Sugar, Joy the Baker

Crust and Topping

3 cups all-purpose flour
1½ cups sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 ½ cups (3 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes
zest of two lemons
Blackberry Filling
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
¾ cup all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
2 (16-ounce) packages frozen blackberries, defrosted and drained

(You can also use 6 cups of fresh blackberries, or 1 (16-ounce) package frozen blackberries and 3 cups of fresh blackberries)

To make the crust and topping

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease a 9 x 13-inch backing pan with butter or cooking spray and set aside. Zest two lemons. Measure out the sugar onto a clean work surface. Rub the lemon zest into the sugar with a bench scraper or the back of a spoon. Rubbing the zest into the sugar will release oils from the zest and create a lemon-scented sugar.

2. Combine lemon sugar, flour, salt and butter in an electric mixer fit with a paddle attachment. Beat the ingredients on medium speed until the mixture looks dry and crumbly.

3. Reserve 1 1/2 cups of the crust mixture to use as the topping. Press the remaining mixture into the bottom of the pan. Bake the crust for 12 to 15 minutes until it is golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes while you make the filling.

To make the filling

1. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl. Add the sugar, sour cream, flour and salt. Gently fold in the blackberries. Spoon the mixture evenly over the crust. You may have to distribute the blackberries evenly around.

2. Sprinkle the reserved crust mixture evenly over the filling. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes until the top is lightly browned. Cool for 1 hour before slicing.

Tip: If you’re using frozen berries, be sure to defrost and drain the excess liquid. Place the frozen berries on a plate in the refrigerator overnight. They’re defrosted and ready for bar baking!

Apple Tartlets, Melissa d'Arabian

Ever since the first episode of The Next FoodNetwork Star, I have been dying to try Melissa d'Arabian's Apple Tartlets...but FoodNetwork was not giving up the recipe! Well, after doing a quick Google search, I found Melissa on Facebook, yay. I posted a link to my review of her 5-Minute Individual Potato Gratins, and begged her to post her recipes not only for the Tartlets, but the Orange Chocolate Pastries as well. And can you believe she responded back!?! I was floored, how cool is that. She gave me the link to the Tartlets and a promise to soon post her Orange Chocolate Pochette recipe!

Still waiting on that Pochette recipe Melissa, but I can be patient, I know you're busy ;) In the meantime, here's the Tartlets:

Apple Tartlets, adapted from Melissa d’Arabian

3 Medium Granny Smith Apples, thinly sliced
2 Tbs Sugar for Sprinkling
2 tsp Cinnamon for Sprinkling
2-3 Tbs Butter for Dotting
2 T Water
1 Egg Yolk
Dough for Crust (recipe to follow)
Caramel Sauce (recipe to follow)

Peel, core, and thinly slice the apples. Once the dough is done resting, roll out in between 2 sheets of wax paper until the dough is between 1/8 and ¼ inch thick. Using a large (3 - 4 inch) biscuit cutter, cut out 8 - 10 mini tartlet crusts and place on buttered baking sheets.

Place the apples on the crust decoratively, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and dot each tartlet with a small cube of butter. Mix egg yolk with water in a small bowl and brush the sides of the crust using pastry brush.

Bake at 375° for 35 - 40 minutes until golden brown. Drizzle with caramel sauce and sprinkle with salt.

Dough for Crust

1 stick of Unsalted Butter
1 c All Purpose Flour
¼ c Whole Wheat Flour
1 T Sugar
1 tsp Salt
8 T Ice Water

Cut butter into half inch cubes and chill in freezer for 10 - 15 minutes. Once cold, place butter in a food processor, add flour, sugar and salt. Pulse quickly on and off until mixture resembles coarse sand. Then add water and pulse quickly until the mixture starts to clump and the texture is like peas, but not yet sticky. Add more water, a teaspoon at a time, being very careful not to put too much in or to make the dough sticky.

Once the dough as pea-sized clumps immediately pour the mixture into a large, plastic, zip-top bag (or a large piece of plastic wrap). Very gently use your hands to shape the dough into a ball. Let rest in the refrigerator for at least one hour and up to one day. * I don't have a processor this large, so I used a pastry blender.

Caramel Sauce

¾ c of Sugar
¼ c of Water
½ c of Half and Half
½ Vanilla Bean, Scraped

Place sugar, water, vanilla bean in medium sauce pan and stir to mix over high heat. Let the mixture melt without stirring, once the mixture bubbles and starts turning golden brown begin whisking quickly.

Add half and half in a very thin stream, whisking constantly. As sauce becomes caramel colored and starts to thicken remove from heat and let it cool.
- -

I couldn't get the caramel sauce to work out, so I reverted back to my standby caramel recipe. These were really awesome, and came out a lot like a cookie, which is so cool. Definitely will make these again. Next time I'll cut the circles a little larger so that I have more flaky crust around the edges.

Cherry Turnovers | Cherry Pie Lollipops

Cherry season seems to be in full swing, at least they're up to 60% regular price at my local grocery store, so we've been buying them left and right. Everywhere I turn is some cherry dessert or another...in the bakery display, on every other blog I read...it's had me just craving them! I decided to try a cream cheese pastry dough for these and a simple cherry pie filling. I seriously s-u-c-k at pastry dough so I have no idea why I decided to bother with these.

Half of the recipes I read require you to have a full size food processor, and for the 3 of you that regularly read this blog, you know it's on my Two on Tuesday wishlist! The other recipes say you just have to have a dough blender, and I think the latter would be correct...too bad I didn't wait to try the recipe until I'd bought one! I could not keep my dough cold enough while mixing and rolling, but it still tasted great. There is absolutely no discernible cream cheese flavor, just really good flaky dough.

Basic Cream Cheese Dough

1 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 Tbs granulated sugar
¼ tsp table salt
8 Tbs unsalted butter (1 stick), cold, cut into ½ inch pieces
4 ounces cream cheese (cold), cut into ½ inch pieces
2 tsp lemon juice from 1 lemon
1-3 Tbs water (ice cold)

Combine flour, sugar, and salt. Add butter and cream cheese cubes, blending with a hand dough blender until the butter and cream cheese clumps are about the size of peas. Add lemon juice and 1 Tbs, with a wooden spoon, mix until just combined, adding 1-2 Tbs cold water if needed.

Tips:
1. Use ice water so that your water is super cold.
2. Refrigerate dough at any/all stages as needed to keep it cold

Cherry Turnovers

4 cups pitted fresh cherries
½ cup sugar
4 Tbs cornstarch
¼ tsp salt
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
¼ tsp almond extract
¼ tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbs cold unsalted butter, cut into small bits

Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

Assembly & Cooking Instructions

1. Liberally flour a clean, dry surface. Roll out your cream cheese dough to desired thickness (I went for pretty thin). Using anything circular in the size you'd like your turnovers to be, cut out circles. For the large turnovers, I used an upside down small plate, for the smaller turnovers, use a regular drinking glass. Cut out your circles and place on a cookie sheet. If the dough is too warm, refrigerate for 10 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 400° F. Using the tip of your finger, spread an egg wash around the edge of half of the circles. Spoon in cherry filling, don't over fill!

3. Fold over, clean side to egg wash side. Crimp around the edge of your turnovers, and cut 2-3 slits in the top to allow steam to release.

4. Brush the top with butter, sprinkle with sugar and bake until golden brown, about 20-25 minutes.

Egg Wash: Whisk together 1 egg and Tbs water.

Not many cherries fit in here, you can cut them in half so that it fits a little better.

For the little guys, I cut the cherries into small pieces, that's maybe one cherry there!

Sprinkle with powdered sugar..yum...

Aren't these little ones cute, and bite sized!

When making the lollipops, wrap your sticks in tin foil so they don't burn. These are two circles of dough, one on top of the other. Thanks for the idea Bakerella.

They were not at all sure about these, didn't take them long to dig in...

The Ultimate Sundae with Homemade Sauces and Cherry Compote

Boy, I wish I'd thought to make these for dessert after Sunday's burger dinner, what a way to end a meal that would have been! Honestly, I had everything in the fridge to make these without much effort, all store bought stuff of course. But... I watched a Throwdown with Bobby Flay episode and just couldn't resist recreating his winning sundae.

A couple suggestions...
1. Only make all this stuff if you have a bunch of people to feed
2. If you don't feel like going all out like this, skip everything except for the Marshmallow Fluff and the Cherry Compote. The cherries cause they are scary spectacular, and the Fluff cause it's just cool to say you've made Fluff!

Most everything was made exactly as Bobby said to make it, some of them I halved because it was just too much. Do not halve the Cherry Compote recipe and make 1/4 of the Fluff recipe, cause I did halve it, and holy moly that was a lot of Fluff!





Marshmallow Fluff

6 Tbs water
1 ¼ cups light corn syrup
1 vanilla bean seeds
4 large egg whites
pinch salt
pinch cream of tartar


1. In a small saucepan fitted with a candy thermometer, bring the water, corn syrup, 3/4 cup sugar and vanilla bean to 246° F.

2. In the meantime, in a completely clean, dry mixing bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar until creamy and foamy, about 2 minutes. Still whisking, sprinkle in the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar and continue to whisk until the whites hold very soft peaks, about 2 minutes.

3. While mixing on slow speed, carefully drizzle in the hot syrup. Turn the mixer to high and whisk until thick, fluffy and just warm, about 7 minutes. Turn the mixer to low and whisk in the vanilla seeds.

Butterscotch Sauce

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter
½ vanilla bean seeds
2-4 Tbs good quality Scotch
2 tsp salt
½ cup heavy cream

1. Bring sugar, butter and vanilla bean to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat, whisking until combined.

2. Remove pan from the heat. Add the Scotch, return the pan to the heat and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and whisk in the salt and warm cream until smooth.

Hot Fudge Sauce

2/3 cup heavy cream
½ cup light corn syrup
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
¼ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
¼ tsp salt
6 oz quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 Tbs unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla

1. Bring cream, corn syrup, sugar, cocoa, salt, and half of chocolate to a boil in a 1 to 1 1/2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring, until chocolate is melted.

2. Reduce heat and cook at a low boil, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes, then remove from heat. Add butter, vanilla, and remaining chocolate and stir until smooth. Serve warm.

Cherry Compote

¾ cup sugar
2 cups cherries, pitted
½ cup water
2 Tbs Kirsch (Cognac)

1. In a saucepan combine sugar, cherries, and 1/2 cup water. Bring to s a simmer and cook until cherries start to breakdown, about 6 minutes.

2. Remove the cherries with a slotted spoon; reserve. Simmer the cooking liquid until reduced and syrupy. Remove from the heat, add the Kirsch and ignite with a long kitchen match until flames subside. Return the cherries to the pan and heat briefly. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I don’t have Kirsch and there was no way I was lighting up anything! I just added some Cognac in the first step with everything else.

Top your Ultimate Sundae with chopped nuts of choice for it to be perfect!

Snickerdoodle Muffins aka Cinnamon Crunch Muffins

I've seen snickerdoodle cookies, but never actually tried one... so although these are supposed to be snickerdoodle muffins, I'm not sold on the name, so I'm renaming them Cinnamon Crunch Muffins. They are a seriously yummy breakfast muffin, or... just happen to be cruising by the kitchen, grab one off the counter muffin...whatever.

The kids can be really funny about muffins, so imagine my surprise when these Cinnamon muffins were gone in less than 24 hours...can we say HIT?!?

I admit they were a bit of work, and I think I'll refrigerate the dough for maybe 15 minutes before trying to 'roll' them. I use the term roll lightly, they actually ended up more like blobs that I dumped in cinnamon sugar. Rolling was not gonna happen, so I ended up spooning the cinnamon sugar over the blobs until well coated.

However you do it, who cares, no one is going to see your funky blobs, they just want good muffins!




Cinnamon Crunch Muffins

8oz unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
¾ tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp cream of tartar
¾ tsp nutmeg
1 ¼ cup sour cream
2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar and 2-3 Tbs cinnamon mixed together for rolling (shallow bowl).

Preheat oven to 350°.

1. Cream butter and sugar until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Add the vanilla, mix on medium. Add eggs one at a time and mix until each is incorporated.

2. In a separate mixing bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, cream of tartar, and nutmeg.

3. Add the flour mixture and the sour cream alternately to the egg-butter mixture. Start with and end with the flour. Scrape sides of bowl as needed.

4. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out muffin batter (leveled), one at a time and drop into cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll the muffin until well covered, or like me, spoon cinnamon sugar over the blob until well coated. Place muffins in ungreased/unlined muffin tins and bake about 20-22 minutes or until cinnamon sugar top is well cracked.

Tips:
1. If the dough seems real real wet, don't add all the sour cream.
2. Refrigerate dough 10-15 minutes before rolling in cinnamon sugar.

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

These really are, The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever! I searched and searched to find a recipe that I really loved, and here it is. I didn't make this one up I'm afraid, all the praise goes to Emily, at Visions of Sugar Plums. Make sure to check out her blog and whip up as many recipes of hers as you can. She's won a bunch of contests that were well deserved :)

Chocolate Chip Cookies are not my favorite, but now that I've found this one, they've managed to get up in the top 5. The husband ate so many right out of the oven that he was sick, sick, sick, but very appreciative. Make sure to use top quality chocolate, it really makes a difference! The sprinkled salt kinda threw him, so he ate one without it just to see the difference. Hands down, sprinkled with salt is the way to go, really brings out the taste of the chocolate chunks (and make sure to leave your chunks nice and big).

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever, adapted from Visions of Sugar Plums

½ cup unsalted butter (browned)
2 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ tsp baking soda
1 tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp kosher salt, plus additional for sprinkling
¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
½ sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
8 oz coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate (60%)
¾ cup coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted

1. Melt ½ cup butter in a small saucepan over medium heat; continue to cook the butter, whisking frequently until it starts to brown and foam, about 4-5 minutes. Set aside.

2. Beat softened butter, brown sugar, and sugar on medium until well combined and grainy. Beat in browned butter for an additional minute. Beat in eggs and vanilla until well combined. Reduce speed to low and gradually beat in flour mixture until just combined. Stir in chocolate and walnuts with a wooden spoon. Spoon dough onto a large piece of wax paper; chill dough in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, or about 40 minutes in the freezer. If you prefer, roll dough into a log about ½ - 2 inches wide.

3. Preheat oven to 375°. Generously butter one cookie sheet. Drop up to ¼ cup measures of dough onto cookie sheet, forming into large mounds and flatten slightly. (If you rolled into a log, slice cookies about ½ - ¾ inches). Bake for about 11-14 minutes, or until golden brown around edges. Cool for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire wrack.

4. Sprinkle lightly with extra kosher salt.

Tips:
1. Only cook 1 cookie sheet at a time.
2. Use cold butter to butter your cookie sheets
3. Refrigerate dough between each batch, do not allow your dough to warm at all.

Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies | It's Christmas in July

Mmm, the smell of the spices that have filled my kitchen this morning have had my mouth watering. I don't begin to know why, but I have been craving these cookies for weeks now and this morning decided to give up the fight. I had molasses on hand, so fighting was a lost cause. I've only ever made these for Christmas, I make a batch for the family, then make tons to give out with gifts...that's why today, it's Christmas in July!

These cookies have chew and crunch like no body's business! My mom has been making a variety of these since I was a little girl, but hers were always too chewy (almost gooey) and the molasses flavor could knock your socks off. This past Christmas I was able to perfect the recipe, FINALLY to something I think will appeal to everyone. It's chewy and spicing with a mild, yet distinct molasses flavor... ENJOY!

Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground clove
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup chopped candied ginger
1/2 cup sugar for rolling

1. Preheat oven to 350° degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, ginger, and salt. Place ½ cup sugar on a plate to roll your cookie dough balls in.

2. With an electric mixer, beat butter and remaining cup of sugar until combined. Beat in egg and then molasses until combined. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in dry ingredients, just until a dough forms.  Add candied ginger and mix until combined, being careful not to over mix.

3. Pinch off and roll dough into balls, each about 1 tablespoon. Roll balls in reserved sugar to coat.

4. Arrange balls on baking sheets, about 3 inches apart. Bake, one sheet at a time, until cookies puff and turn a golden brown, edges of cookies should be slightly darker, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool 2-3 minutes on baking sheets; transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight container up to 4 days.

Tips:
1. Do not under cook or your cookies will be mushy. The cookies should puff 2-3x the end size, then start to flatten almost immediately once removed from the oven.
2. Cook them one sheet at a time. I know this takes a lot longer, but it is the only way to even cook them and get a nice cracked cookie.


Your dough will look something like this.


You can refrigerate your dough (or freeze) to use at a later date, this is especially helpful at Christmas time, but I recommend the dough be room temperature when you're actually ready to bake. It makes for a stickier dough, but you'll prefer the end result.


Roll the balls around in the sugar until they're well coated, this will help with the 'cracking' effect.


These cookies are awesome dipped in fresh whipped cream, or you can make Molasses Ice Cream Cookies... this was a first for me, but O-M-G they were awesome!

Spiced Apple & Pear Muffins with Caramel Topping

Have some extra pears or apples laying around, have both laying around? These muffins are a delicious and healthy way to put them to good use. You can use either pears or apples or a combination of the two, any variety of the fruit will work, so use your favorites. I've attempted to make this as healthy as possible, but if you're looking to be even more health conscious, exchange the flour for wheat flour and leave off the caramel topping.

I'm sad to say, Aidan picked around all the pieces of the fruit (but of course licked the caramel off every little inch), thankfully my twin hoovers were not so picky and ate it right up.

Spiced Apple & Pear Muffins with Caramel Topping

½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
¾ cup apple sauce
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cloves
2 cups pears/apples/both, raw peeled & diced
- (I recommend dicing very, very tiny)

Caramel Topping
¼ cup brown sugar
2 Tbs milk
4 Tbs butter

Heat oven to 350°. In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, apple sauce, and vanilla, set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cloves. Pour wet ingredients into your dry ingredients, mix just until combined. Fold in fruit. Using an ice cream/cookie scooper, even divide batter into muffin pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Heat brown sugar, milk, and butter in a small saucepan. Slowly boil for about 3-4 minutes on low-med/low. Pour a small amount of caramel sauce onto each muffin, put back in the oven and continue to cook for an additional 4-5 minutes. Remove and cool.

Tips:
1. Boil caramel on a low setting (not a rolling boil) or you will curdle your milk...ewww.
2. Save the left over caramel, let it cool a bit and drizzle over individual muffins

Banana Cupcakes with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

Is it a muffin or a cupcake? It's all in the frosting, leave it off and you have a delicious muffin for breakfast, add it on and YUM, awesome little cupcakes! Both the cupcake and frosting are adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe, I just think they needed something extra. I've made these before and they were unbelievable, but decided to make just one more change, exchanging some of the butter for applesauce instead and I'm glad I did. So that you don't have a super sweet cupcake, make sure your applesauce isn't sweetened, or use baby food!

Banana Cupcakes with Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
¾ cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted
¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
1 ½ cups mashed bananas (about 4 very ripe bananas)
2 large eggs
¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon pure almond extract
¼ cup ground pecans (finely grind in a food processor), optional
* more ground pecans for topping

1. Preheat oven to 350° degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
2. Make a well in center of flour mixture. In well, mix together butter, applesauce, mashed bananas, eggs, and both extracts. Stir to incorporate flour mixture (do not over mix). Fold in pecans. Dividing evenly, spoon batter into muffin cups. (Ice cream/cookie scoop is best).
3. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. (Start checking at 20 minutes, and remove as soon as toothpick is clean, do not over bake). Remove cupcakes from pan; cool completely on a wire rack.

Honey-Cinnamon Frosting

1 ¼ cup confectioner’s sugar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, 15 minutes out of fridge is best
1 tablespoon honey
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract

1. Cream butter with electric mixture until warm and smooth. Add honey, cinnamon, and extracts. Beat on high 4-5 minutes.
2. Frost cupcakes with the back of spoon once completely cooled.
3. Sprinkle with extra ground pecans.

Tip: If you only have sweetened applesauce, cut bake slightly on the sugar.

Classic Cheesecake with Raspberry Glaze

Say Happy Birthday with a cheesecake. My baby girl turned 15 this week, and she happens to hate cake, what's a mom to do. Don't get me wrong, she is a typical teenager in every way, she can consume more junk food in 24 hours than you or I could in a month. To give her credit, she does like good food, some of it even good for you, but like most teens, she's a bit lazy in the kitchen and will opt for cereal 90% of the time if I let her.

This year I decided on making her a Classic Cheesecake with Raspberry Glaze. I considered strawberry, but raspberry is just so much better! I didn't come up with the recipe, I'm not sure where it came from actually. It's been in my recipe box forever, getting tweaked over the years. For any new bakers, cheesecakes are just about the easiest thing out there to make, and what a WOW factor you'll get, so go give it a try.

Classic Cheesecake with Raspberry Glaze

Crust
1 3/4 Cups ground graham crackers
6 Tbs butter, melted
4 Tbs sugar

Filling
2 8oz packages cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
zest of one lemon
1 Tbs lemon juice
1/2 Tbs pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 Tbs flour
3 eggs, room temperature

Sour Cream Topping
1 1/2 cups sour cream
3 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Raspberry Glaze
10 oz raspberries, frozen
2 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs cornstarch
2 tsp cherry brandy (or any cognac you've got)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter in a medium sized mixing bowl. Press into your spring form pan, making sure the bottom is covered and pressing up the sides, about 1/2 way up. Place the pan on a large sheet of tin foil, wrapping up the sides (see picture below), this will ensure that if any butter leaks out, it won't burn in your oven, what a mess. Bake your crust for 8-10 minutes, transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Beat cream cheese, preferably in a stand mixer until creamy, about 4-6 minutes. To your cream cheese, add lemon zest, lemon juice, vanilla, and salt. Beat until smooth, scraping the sides of your bowl often. Taste your mixture, add extra above ingredients if necessary. Beat in flour. Add eggs, one at a time, beating in after each.

Did you know, a water bath is the way to make sure your cheesecake doesn't crack? I've never had a roasting pan big enough to do this before now. And guess what, it worked! I produced my first non-cracked cheesecake, I'm so proud... LOL
Place your cooled crust, still wrapped in tin foil, into a large roasting pan. Pour boiling water into the roasting pan, about half way up the side of your spring form pan. Since you don't want a soggy crust, make sure you don't get any water in the tin foil ;) If you don't have a pan large enough, no worries, this recipe has a sour cream topping which not only tastes amazing, but will hide your cracks! Pour your cream cheese mixture into the crust, filling no more than 3/4 up the sides.

Bake for about 60 minutes. The cheesecake should be puffed and slightly tan around the edges, with the middle still a little jiggly. Allow your cheesecake to cool for about 10 minutes, in the mean time you can make the sour cream topping.

Mix sour cream, sugar and vanilla in a medium sized mixing bow. Beat until smooth. Pour onto your cooled cheesecake, spreading evening. Bake an additional 7-8 minutes to set.

Remove cheesecake and cool for at least 30 minutes. Run a knife around the edges and refrigerate, do not remove the spring form ring until you're ready to serve! Cheesecakes are best the 2nd day, so make yours ahead of time.

-Raspberry Glaze
Thaw frozen raspberries, drain and reserve the juice. To get the most juice, really smash your raspberries in the strainer. Combine reserved juice, sugar, cornstarch, and about 1/2 of the smashed berries. Bring to a boil, stirring often. Allow to cook until it thickens and is fairly clear. Strain to remove any seeds, make sure you scrape the bottom of your strainer or you're going to lose a ton of raspberry goodness that's just clinging there. Add your cognac and you're done. Drizzle over individual cheesecake slices!

Tip: This cheesecake is just fine plain if you're wanting to skip the raspberry glaze, but I recommend the sour cream topping, especially if you aren't doing a water bath.

I didn't actually get any pictures of my illusive teen with her birthday cheesecake, if she ever decides to make another appearance, I'll give it go!

Apple Tart and the Fourth of July!

It's as easy as apple pie...err...say what? If Apple Pie was that easy, I'd probably have just gone and made an apple pie. Apple Tarts are not only easier to make, but a heck of a lot easier to eat, at least if you're trying to eat with your hands. The big difference is in the crust, you can just used a premade frozen pasty sheet, so NO pie crust to make,Yay! I was originally going to make Pioneer Woman's Apple Tart, and I sort of did, I just changed it a bit and added a caramel drizzle on top...mmmmm, caramel!

Easy as Pie Apple Tart with Caramel Drizzle

Tart
Frozen Pastry Sheet
3 apples, peeled/cored/thinly sliced
fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Caramel
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup milk
1/3 lb butter

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Liberally spray a cookie sheet with Pam baking spray, place the frozen pastry sheet on the pan and allow to thaw for about 15-20 minutes. Once thawed, cut into any size you'd like for your tarts, I used a pizza slicer and cut into 6 even pieces. If you notice your sheet getting soft and doughy looking, throw your cookie sheet into the freezer for a couple minutes.
Place your apple slices in large bowl and toss with the juice of about half a lemon. Add in your brown sugar, cinnamon and salt, coat well. Arrange your apple slices on the pastry sheet in overlapping layers. This time I did mine in a straight row, next time I think I'll cut my pastry sheet into circles, fanning my apple slices, so that it ends up sort of like a cookie. Cook your tarts for about 20 minutes, or until you notice the edges getting nice and brown, the browner the better!
Remove your tarts, allow to cool for a couple minutes then carefully transfer to a wire cooling wrack. While your apple tarts are cooling you can make the caramel topping. The caramel is completely optional, I just thought it really added something special to the tart. I didn't put much on at all, just a little is needed.
Using a small saucepan, bring your brown sugar, milk and butter to a gentle boil. Cook for about 3-4 minutes, making sure not to burn. Remove from heat and allow your caramel to cool for few minutes and thicken slightly. Using a small spoon, drizzle your caramel over the apple tarts, each will only need about a tablespoon of caramel. If your caramel becomes too thick, just reheat over low for a minute or two.

We made our 3rd annual trip to Brandermill to watch the fireworks over the reservoir. The kids were exhausted by the end of the show and let us sleep in till 7:30am, what a treat :) These tarts were a perfect and easy dessert for our picnic and just as good the next morning for breakfast, ENJOY!

Tips:
1. Either use a baking sheet with sides, or place a large sheet of tin foil on the bottom of your oven, juice from the tarts WILL run and make a huge burnt mess in your oven...thankfully I did think of this and was saved that disaster. I really need to get baking sheets with sides!
2. Use an apple corer, it will make your life easier while making sure your slices are beautiful, I really need one of these.
3. These tarts are a wonderfully dessert and so much easier to make than an apple pie, but they were awesome the next day for breakfast, just heat in your microwave for about 20 seconds.
4. Do not skip the fresh lemon juice. Use the bottled stuff if you have to, but make sure lemon juice gets in there, it adds just the right amount of fresh tartness.