Thanksgiving Dutch Apple Pie – A Traditional Favorite

Tags

baking, dessert, Dutch Apple Pie, Thanksgiving, vegan, vegetaria

Yesterday I was a baking fool! First I made cranberry pecan muffins. These were only so-so, so I won’t burden you with that recipe! BUT then, I went on to bake an apple pie and chicken pot pie. Now these two recipes are worth sharing! Today I’ll start with the Dutch Apple Pie. This was my first time ever baking an apple pie! I decided to keep it basic and use a frozen ready made pie shell and went with a dutch topping, instead of crust. The pie was fairly easy to make and it was delicious!!! If you’re looking for a pie to serve at your Thanksgiving dinner, this is an easy version that can fit into your busy cooking schedule. Pies even freeze pretty well, so you can make it ahead and freeze for the big day.

Now I say this was pretty easy, but this is coming from a girl who was blessed to receive a Kitchen Aid spiralizer for Christmas last year. This particular spiralizer has a spiral slicing blade along with a peeling blade, so I did not have to peel and slice 8 cups of apples! Having to do this manually would make this pie more time consuming to make. If you don’t have a Kitchen Aid mixer, but you think you might make this more if you didn’t have to peel and slice apples consider investing in an hand crank apple peeler/corer that attaches to a table. We have an antique one of these and they work great!

Lastly, I cannot take credit for this recipe. This is a Betty Crocker recipe minus the portion to make your own pie crust. I substituted a frozen pie shell.

Dutch Apple Pie

1 frozen pie shell (set out and let thaw for 10-15 minutes)

Filling

8 cups peeled and sliced apples (I used about 5 medium sized apples)

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Topping

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup all-purpose flour

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Preheat ove to 400 degrees. In large bowl, toss Filling ingredients. Pour into pie plate, mounding apples toward center.

In medium bowl, use pastry blender or fingers to mix butter, 1 cup flour and the brown sugar until a crumb forms. Sprinkle evenly over top of pie. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon granulated sugar on top.

Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until pie crust and crumb topping are deep golden brown and filling begins to bubble. Transfer to cooling rack to cool.

Enjoy!

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Pumpkin Cheesecake – I Lowered the Fat and Simplified the Process! Can’t Beat That!!!

Tags

baking, dessert, low-fat, lowfat, Pumpkin Cheesecake

So first try at cheesecake with a berry topping was delicious, but didn’t set up the way it should. I would not be defeated!!! I was getting in the fall mood last weekend and decided to try again with a pumpkin cheesecake. This one was a winner!!!! It had a firm, yet silky texture and the wonderful, comforting taste of pumpkin. I’m not usually a fan of pumpkin pie, but the cream cheese ads a wonderful tang to this dessert!

Tip: In my first attempt at cheesecake I learned that you can’t cut out all the fat and expect it to set up nicely. This version is a compromise. I used the reduced fat cream cheese and used full fat sour cream.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

1 Pre-made graham cracker crust

2 – 8 oz blocks of reduced fat cream cheese, softened

1 (15-ounce) can pureed pumpkin

3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk

1/4 cup sour cream (full fat – see tip above)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

2 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add remaining ingredients one by one while continuing to beat. I used my stand mixer for this. Pour filling into crust. You will likely have some leftover. I poured this into small oven safe bowls and baked as well. Making little custard like bowls. Place dishes on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 1 hour. Remove from oven and cool for 15 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours. Serve topped with whipped cream.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie – I really need to try this!!! It sounds fantastic!!!

Tags

baking, Chocolate Bourban Pecan Pie, Thanksgiving, vegetarian

This pie sounds and looks fantastic!!! I’m going to have to try this myself!!!

https://casseylouise.wordpress.com/2016/10/07/the-thanksgiving-desert-saga-part-1/

Cheesecake with Berry Lemon Topping – Not Perfect, but Delicious!!!

Tags

baking, berry lemon topping, lemon zest, mixed berries, tyler florence, Ultimate Cheesecake, vegetarian

So this food blogging girl had never made cheesecake before. Don’t ask why! I just never got around to it until recently. As you can see from the picture, it didn’t turn out perfect, but it sure tasted fantastic! I think this recipe is still solid and I made some mistakes that you can easily correct and make a perfectly great cheesecake! I cannot take credit for this recipe though. This was from Tyler Florence of the Food Network.

So my mistake was that in trying to keep this low-fat, it didn’t firm up as much as it should. It did still taste great and have a nice texture though, so if you care more about fat content than the beauty of your dish, you can follow my notes below.

I also cheated and used a pre-made graham cracker crust. I had one leftover from my Canteloupe Pie and that’s what inspired me to try making cheese cake. I was happy with the crust, so if you don’t have a springform pan or just want to save a little time, the pre-made crust worked just fine! I did still follow the baking instructions of adding water to a baking pan and setting the cheesecake in that.

The Ultimate Cheesecake by Tyler Florence

Ingredients

Crust: (My note: I used a pre-made crust with success)

2 cups finely ground graham crackers (about 30 squares)

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 stick unsalted butter, melted

Filling:

1 pound cream cheese, 2 (8-ounce) blocks, softened (My note: I used reduced fat cream cheese, but I think this contributed to it not setting up completely.)

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 pint sour cream (My note: I used fat free sour cream and this probably also contributed to it not setting up completely.)

1 lemon, zested

1 dash vanilla extract

Warm Lemon Blueberry Topping, recipe follows

Warm Lemon Blueberries:

1 pint blueberries (My note: I had a bag of frozen mixed berries. I thawed them out and then cooked according to this and it was delicious!!!)

1 lemon, zested and juiced

2 tablespoons sugar
Filling:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

In a mixing bowl, combine the crust ingredients with a fork until evenly moistened. Lightly coat the bottom and sides of an 8-inch springform pan with nonstick cooking spray. Pour the crumbs into the pan and, using the bottom of a measuring cup or the smooth bottom of a glass, press the crumbs down into the base and 1-inch up the sides. Refrigerate for 5 minutes.

For the Filling:

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese on low speed for 1 minute until smooth and free of any lumps. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and continue to beat slowly until combined. Gradually add sugar and beat until creamy, for 1 to 2 minutes. Add sour cream, lemon zest, and vanilla. Periodically scrape down the sides of the bowl and the beaters. The batter should be well mixed but not over-beaten. Pour the filling into the crust-lined pan and smooth the top with a spatula.

Set the cheesecake pan on a large piece of aluminum foil and fold up the sides around it. Place the cake pan in a large roasting pan. Pour boiling water into the roasting pan until the water is about halfway up the sides of the cheesecake pan; the foil will keep the water from seeping into the cheesecake. Bake for 45 minutes. The cheesecake should still jiggle (it will firm up after chilling), so be careful not to overcook. Let cool in pan for 30 minutes. Chill in the refrigerator, loosely covered, for at least 4 hours. Loosen the cheesecake from the sides of the pan by running a thin metal spatula around the inside rim. Unmold and transfer to a cake plate. Using a spatula spread a layer of Warm Lemon Blueberry topping over the surface.

Slice the cheesecake with a thin, non-serrated knife that has been dipped in hot water. Wipe dry after each cut.

Warm Lemon Blueberries:

In a small saucepan add all the ingredients and simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes or so until the fruit begins to break down slightly. Leave to cool before spreading on cheesecake.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/the-ultimate-cheesecake-recipe2.html?oc=linkback

Enjoy!!!

Peach Cobbler – The Perfect Summer Dessert for Your Barbecues

Tags

cobbler, dessert, Easy, fresh, fruit, Peach, recipe, summer, vegetarian

Happy Father’s Day!!! One of the desserts we’ll be enjoying today is peach cobbler. My husband got some beautiful fresh peaches from a neighbor’s tree. One of the great thing about living in Northern California, is the amazing, local produce that we have access to. These peaches were perfectly ripe, so sweet and delicious. Cobbler was calling to me! It’s so good, but rather easy to make. This came of the oven a wonderful bubbly golden brown! If you have access to fresh fruit (peaches, berries, nectarines) I highly recommend this recipe!

Peach Cobbler

1/2 cup butter

4 large peaches or about 5 cups, sliced (or other fruit)

2 1/2 cups sugar, divided

1 1/4 tbsp lemon juice

1 1/4 cup milk

1 1/4 cup flour

1 1/4 tbsp baking powder

Dash of salt

Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375. Put butter in medium size baking pan and put in oven to melt butter. Meanwhile, add peaches, 1 1/4 cup sugar and lemon juice to sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium high heat while stirring constantly.  Once butter is melted (do not let brown!), remove baking pan from oven. In a mixing bowl, combine 1 1/4 cup sugar, milk, flour, baking powder and salt until just mixed. Pour over butter in baking pan, but do not stir any more. Pour peach mixture over batter in baking pan, but do not stir. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden and bubbly. 

This is delicious served with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream!

Enjoy and again, Happy Father’s Day!

Basic Dinner Rolls – Let Your Bread Maker Do the Hard Work!!!

Tags

baking, bread, bread machine, bread maker, dinner rolls, vegetarian

I have to warn you! These things are addictive! Lately, our favorite thing to use our bread machine for is making dinner roll dough. It’s so nice to have the bread maker do all the mixing and some of the rising for you. The rest of the steps are pretty simple, but it yields some delicious rolls! They have a good, basic, yeasty bread flavor and nice texture. This one recipe makes 2 dozen rolls, so even with dinner guests you’ll have plenty. We had 7 people for Mother’s Day dinner. My daughter made these and we still had a few leftover, but they disappeared quickly!

While simple, this process does take some time, so give yourself 3 – 3 1/2 hours to have these ready. See my tip below for an awesome way to create a warm environment for dough to rise.

Basic Dinner Rolls

3/4 cup +3 tbsp water, 80 degrees (microwave 30 seconds)

3 cups bread flour (invest in a good flour. I like King Arthur brand)

2 tbsp dry milk

3 1/2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp butter, cut into 6 pieces

1 1/2 tsp fast rise yeast or 2 tsp active dry yeast

• Add water to bread maker pan
• Add flour, dry milk, sugar and salt to pan. Tap pan to settle dry ingredients, the level dry ingredients, pushing some into the corners. Place pieces of butter around outer edges of pan on top of dry ingredients
• Make a light well in the center of dry ingredients and add yeast
• Place pan in bread maker and set maker to Dough setting and turn on
• When bread maker is done (usually takes about 1 1/2 hours), remove dough and let rest on a floured surface for 15 minutes
• Divide dough into 4 equal pieces. Each piece will be divided into 6 equal pieces. I shape dough into a ball, kind of pulling the sides down and tucking under creating a smooth domed top. Place rolls into greased muffin pan or baking pan.
• Place pans with rolls on the top rack of your oven. DO NOT TURN OVEN ON. On the bottom rack of oven, place a large oven safe pan filled with boiling water. Close oven and allow dough to rise for 1 hour. Keep oven closed. No peeking!!!
• After rising, remove dough and water pan from oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. While oven is heating melt 1-2 tbsp butter and then brush tops of the rolls with the butter.
• Bake rolls for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

Enjoy!

Spinach & Sausage Quiche – A Delicious Dish for Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner

Tags

Cheese, Cooking, eggs, Food, Quiche, recipe, sausage, spinach

  
Our family loves quiche! If you love eggs, sausage, cheese in a wonderful pie crust, you’ll love this dish. It also sneaks some veggies in! It’s so tasty though that your picky eaters won’t even fuss about the spinach in the dish! It’s fairly easy to make and since the pie shells come in a two pack, I usually go ahead and double the recipe making 2 quiches. These freeze great, so I’ll make two and freeze one for a quick dinner on another night. 

On this particular night, by 17 year old daughter was our chef doing the cooking. She also made my recipe for Hawaiian Sweet Bread to accompany our quiche. 

Quiche is a great dish for breakfast, lunch, brunch or dinner! On a few occasions, we’ve hosted a brunch for Mother’s Day. This quiche was a perfect dish for such a brunch and was very well received.

In the following recipe, I’ve given some tips on how to reduce the fat and calories. In a previous blog post, I shared a method for cutting additional fat and calories by replacing the pie crust with shredded potatoes.

Spinach and Sausage Quiche

1 frozen deep dish pastry shell

8 oz bulk pork sausage (I use the light Jimmy Dean sausage)

¼ cup green onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced or pressed

½ (10 oz) package frozen chopped spinach, cooked, and drained well

½ cup herb-seasoned stuffing mix (I use Stove Top)

1 ½ cups Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (6 oz)

3 eggs, slightly beaten (Egg substitute also works well)

1 ½ cups half and half (I use fat free)

2 tbsp parmesan cheese, grated

Paprika

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Let frozen pastry shell stand at room temperature for 10 minutes, do not puncture the pastry shell. Bake 7 minutes. Remove from oven, set aside. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees. In a medium skillet, cook sausage, green onions and garlic over medium-high heat until sausage is done, stirring occasionally, breaking sausage into small pieces. Drain sausage mixture. Stir in spinach and stuffing mix. Sprinkle first cheese and then sausage mixture into the pastry shell. In a medium bowl, combine eggs and half and half with a whisk or fork until mixed well but not frothy. Pour egg mixture over sausage mixture in the pastry shell. Bake 35 minutes. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and paprika. Bake 20 minutes or until knife inserted off-center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Makes 3-5 servings.

Soft Baked Pretzels – Use Your Bread Maker to Do All the Work!!!

Tags

baking, bread machine, bread maker, Cooking, Food, pretzels, recipe, Soft Baked Pretzel

 I got a great response to my earlier post on making pizza crust dough in the bread maker. In talking to one of my food blog friends, the topic of pretzels came up. I shared that I also have a recipe for making pretzel dough in the bread maker. Those bread makers are a work horse! If you don’t have one, I would seriously think about getting one!

I was a little hesitant about investing in a bread maker. I heard from so many people that have them and never use them. So I went on a mission to get one on the cheap or even better, free! I put word out on Facebook to see if anyone had a bread maker they wanted to unload. Low and behold, one of my friends had one that she never used and was glad to give it up. Don’t worry! I have shared many a loaf of fresh baked bread with her! I purposely leave my machine out on the counter as a reminder to use it and I would say I do use it once or twice a week.

The great thing about these machines is they do more than just bake a wide variety of breads. You can use the dough setting to make dinner rolls, pizza dough and pretzels. There might be other uses too that I have yet to uncover. I have posted several bread recipes over the last few months. You can find them by searching my blog site.

So in that spirit, here is my recipe for Soft Baked Pretzels. These pretzels are lot of fun to make with the family. Kids get a kick out of shaping their own pretzels. They can get creative as the shape really doesn’t matter much and the taste remains the same.

I do have to give one warning though! I thought I would use this recipe and try and make my own pretzel rolls. We love sandwiches and burgers served on pretzel rolls! This venture did not turnout well! They did not bake well and were very doughy. I think there must be a better recipe for this, but I’m still working on that! I will figure it out though and share it when I do.

Soft Baked Pretzels

 1 cup, 2 tbsp 80 degree water (I microwave it for about 30 seconds)

3 cups bread flour

3 tbsp brown sugar

1 ½ tsp fast rising yeast

2 egg whites

Coarse salt

Load first four ingredients in bread maker in the order listed. Set bread maker to dough setting and turn on. You DO NOT want your bread maker to bake the dough.

When dough cycle of bread maker has completed, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place dough on a floured surface and knead for 1 minute. Roll dough out into a rectangle about ½ inch thick. Divide dough into 12-15 equal size pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and place on a greased baking sheet, cover and let rest for 20 minutes. Roll each ball into a 12 inch long rope. Shape into a pretzel shape on a greased baking pan. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Boil each pretzel for 10-15 seconds using large slotted spoon or spatula to remove from water and drain. Place pretzels on greased baking sheet, brush with egg white and sprinkle on coarse salt. Bake for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Homemade Pizza – Make the Crust in Your Bread Maker

Tags

barbecue sauce, basil, bread maker, Cooking, Food, homemade, pesto, Pizza, recipe, sausage

  
Pizza is my kryptonite! Once I start eating it I have a hard time stopping, so I don’t have it very often. Because of the depravation, I had been craving the stuff. I figured if I make my own pizza, I can control what goes into it, so it must be a little healthier, right?!?  I don’t now how healthy it was, but it sure was good! I made my crust dough in my bread maker, which made that portion easy peasy and it turns out a great crust!

From the pictures you’ll notice we made two different types of pizzas. I made one for my husband and me and my daughter made one for her and her friend. The crust dough recipe below makes enough for two crusts in a single bread maker batch. My obsession with ranch salad dressing mix continues! I decided to add a tablespoon to my dough and it added a nice extra bit of flavor and you could see the seasonings in the dough.

So here is what we did…

Bread Maker Pizza Crust

1 1/2 cups water, 80 degrees (I microwave it for about 30 seconds)

4 tbsp vegetable or canola oil

4 cups bread flour

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp ranch salad dressing mix

3 tsp fast rise yeast

Put ingredients in bread maker pan in this order. Before adding yeast, create a well in the center by pushing flour out to the edges. Pour yeast in the center of well. Set bread make to dough cycle and turn on. You don’t want this to bake in your bread maker!

When cycle completes, place dough on a floured surface and knead for 15 minutes. Cut dough ball in half. Place dough on greased pizza pan or stone and roll or press into place. This makes two 12-14 inch pizzas. I have one round pizza stone, so we made one on there and then I made the other on my rectangular stone baking pan. After rolling out dough, let dough rise in a warm place for 20 minutes. Top as desired and bake in a 425 degree oven, one pizza at a time, for 20 minutes.

So what did we top our pizzas with, you ask?

Pizza #1

• Sauce: I used jarred sauce and mixed some Sundried tomato pesto into a marinara sauce
• 1st layer motzarella cheese
• Turkey Pepperoni
• Lowfat Jimmy Dean Sausage (I browned this in a skillet first and crumbled over pizza)
• Fresh basil leaves
• Sundried tomatoes
• Mushrooms
• Green onions
• Sliced black olives
• 2nd layer of motzarella cheese

Pizza #2

• Sauce: Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce
• 1st layer motzarella cheese
• Grilled Chicken – I was feeling lazy and bought pre-cooked chicken
• Pineapple chunks
• Onion
• 2nd layer motzarella cheese

Both pizzas were great! The second pizza was similar to a version that our local pizza joint, Mountain Mike’s Pizza, offers. Their version also has bacon on it, but one of our girls doesn’t eat bacon, so they left it off. It was still delicious though!!!

We had plenty of pizza left over. This could have easily fed 6-7 people. We also had salad with our pizza.

 

Pillsbury Irish Soda Bread- An Easy and Delicious Bread

Tags

baking, Cooking, Food, Irish Soda Bread, recipe, St. Patrick's Day, vegetarian

 This recipe was originally shared by http://pennysfoodblog.com/. I baked some personally last night and our family loved it! It was so easy to make and didn’t take much time at all. It doesn’t need time to rise and other than breaking the butter up in the dry ingredients with forks, I mixed the dough in my KitchenAid mixer prior to kneeding briefly. This was a perfect addition to our belated St. Patrick’s day dinner. Its texture reminded us of biscuits and my kids loved this stuff! I baked mine in my 8″ cast iron skillet and it popped right out with no trouble!

And some delicious Irish Soda Bread that went along with our St Patrick’s Day dinner. There are already a couple of soda bread recipes on my blog but this one was especially good, almost like a cake instead of a bread, so good with some butter and strawberry jam.

Pillsbury Irish Soda Bread
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon melted butter

1 Heat oven to 375, 350 for dark pans. Grease 8″ round cake pan. Combine dry ingredients and mix well. With pastry blender or fork, cut in 1/4 cup butter until mixture is crumbly. Add buttermilk and mix well.

2 On a well floured surface, knead dough 5 – 6 times until no longer sticky. Press dough into prepared pan. Cut an “X” 1/4″ deep on top of loaf. Brush with melted butter.

3 Bake 25 – 35 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from pan. Cool 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe from Pillsbury