Let's make some pie!

With the temperatures dropping, I've been in the mood for some baking. This weekend, the project was apple pie. Yum!



The Recipe


Crust (this will make enough for the top and bottom crust of one pie):
2 c flour
2/3 cup crisco (I use the butter flavored crisco)
1/8 t salt

1)Mix together ingredients with a pastry blender (or cut in with 2 forks). I often add the flour a little at a time, just to keep things more manageable.

2)Add warm water 1 T at a time, mixing well between each until you've added 4 T warm water to the dough.



3)Finish blending by hand, then pat into a ball (and separate in half if you're making a top and bottom crust) and roll the dough flat between 2 sheets of wax paper.

4)Remove one of the wax sheets and flip crust over into a pie plate and remove second sheet of wax paper, then prepare apples.

Apple Filling


1)Peel 5-6 apples (for reference, I used about 3-3.5 pounds for 2 pies). You need a tart apple, like Jonathan. I like to use Gala, because we'll eat those if we have any left over.

2)Once peeled, core and slice the apples into slices.

3)Mix together cinnamon (I don't really measure this, I just try to make sure that the mixture ends up looking a little more brown than white, if that makes sense) and 3/4 c sugar. Sprinkle over the apples and mix to coat the apples.



4)Dump apple filling in pie shell and slice one stick of butter (or margarine) into butter pats and spread all over the pie.

Finishing and baking:
Add your top crust (removing wax paper the same way you did with the bottom crust) and crimp edges to seal. Use a spoon to poke vent holes in the top and bake at 375 for about an hour.

Voila! Apple pie from scratch! :D

Creative Monday: Cupcakes!!

A belated creative Monday post:

I've done a ton of baking this week (these were for my hubby's birthday) and I attempted to do the icing like a real person. That's sort of creative, right?



Recipe:

Carrot Cake:
2 c flour
2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
3 c grated carrots (1 lb.)
4 eggs
2 c sugar
2 t cinnamon
1 t baking powder
1 1/2 c vegetable oil
1 t vanilla

1) Mix dry ingredients and carrots.
2) Add vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla and mix thoroughly.
3) For cupcakes: Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes (toothpick should come out clean)
4) Allow cupcakes to cool completely (I allowed overnight) and then add frosting.



Frosting:
1 stick butter (softened)
1 t vanilla
4 c powdered sugar
1 8 oz. "brick" of cream cheese (softened)

1) Whip together cream cheese and butter. Add sugar (I tend to do this a cup at a time) and then vanilla.

Yum yum!

Happy belated 4th of July! Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

Jeff's boss, had his last day on Thursday (he's moving up to the next team) so I made sme banana split cake for the occasion. Yum.



It's one of my favorite summer recipes, and it's easy to do to. It's basically just layering a graham cracker crust, cheesecake like filling, bananas, nuts, pineapple, whipped cream and then cherries and nuts on top. Easy peasy.



Banana Split Cake:
Ingredients:
2 sticks butter (margarine is fine, just no low fat substitutes)
26 squares of graham crackers (13 graham crackers, as packaged), crushed
1/4 cup sugar
8 oz. cream cheese
1 egg
2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons of milk (reduced fat or skim is fine)
bananas (I used 4, but it will depend on the size of the bananas), sliced
1 large can of crushed pineapple, drained
1 cup nuts, chopped (I used walnuts, but just about anything will do)
1 large container of Cool Whip (the double sized containers, fat free/low fat is fine too)
maraschino cherries

1) Crust:
Mix 1 stick of butter (melted), crushed graham crackers and 1/4 c sugar. Pat into ungreased 9x13 pan.

2) Filling:
Beat together 1 stick butter (softened), cream cheese (softened), 1 egg, powdered sugar and milk. Blend well with mixer and spread evenly over crust.

3) Slice bananas and spread in a layer over cheesecake layer.

4) Drain juice from pineapple and spread over bananas.

5) Sprinkle 3/4 cup chopped nuts, then cover with a layer of cool whip.

6) Decorate with maraschino cherries and remaining chipped nuts.

7) Refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Gimme S'More!

We went to friends' house for a bbq last night, and I opted to give the S'Mores Cupcakes a try.



I used peanut butter chips instead of chocolate chips (because that's what I happened to have on hand). That was a little weird, just because they didn't melt on top, so it had a little stronger taste than I'd imagined, but oh well...they were still yummy!

The marshmallow topping is particularly good!