Two Personal Sized Caramel Apple Pies

There are some days where you just NEED dessert.  Some of those days though I either don't trust myself to make a whole pie without wanting to eat the whole thing myself (ugh, I'd be so regretful and sick!), or I lack the ingredients to make much.  On days like that, two personal sized caramel apple pies are perfect!  Clearly these are for Jeff and myself to enjoy after the kids go to bed.  Shh!

The only thing that could have made these better would have been if I'd remembered to get vanilla ice cream.  A scoop on top would not go amiss.


Two Personal Sized Caramel Apple Pies

Ingredients:

• 3 large apples (I used fuji), peeled and diced
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/3 cup Kraft caramel bits
• tiny pinch of salt
• 1 ready made pie crust (I like Pillsbury)
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon decorating sugar

Directions:

1. Place the diced apples, lemon juice, cinnamon, caramel bits, and salt into a pot and stir on medium until the apples are soft and the caramel has fully melted.  It should smell amazing.
2. Take the pot off the heat and let cool.
3. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.  Take two oven safe pie tins, tart pans, whatever you have that are about 4 inches wide and lightly spray with PAM.
4. Unroll your ready made pie crust and cut out 4 evenly sized circles (I had a round cookie cutter about 5 inches across which worked perfectly).  If you don't have a large round cookie cutter use a glass or small bowl turned upside down.  Place a crust circle in the bottom of each pan, stretching them out a little if the sides are too short.
5. Scoop the apple pie filling evenly into the two pans.  Make a lattice crust with the two remaining crust circles and top the pies with them.  
6. Brush an egg wash over the lattice top and sprinkle the decorating sugar over the tops.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, then remove and let cool completely.  Enjoy!

Foolproof butternut squash soup

Seriously though, this soup is amazeballs and smells like Autumn.  I love it.  I love soups like this, equal parts creamy, rich, filling, and HEALTHY!  Yay!  Plus, pureed soups just scream out to have some nice fresh crusty bread dunked into them.  *Mouth watering now*.

You can't really mess up this soup, plus it can be ready in an hour (most of that time is roasting in hte oven).  Easy peasy.  Plus, it really doesn't require that many ingredients.  In fact, I first made this soup on one of those nights where I just tossed in whatever I had on hand and hoped it would turn out well.  Experimental soups always turn out yummy.  So far anyway.


Foolproof Butternut Squash Soup
serves 6
total time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

• 1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 2 shallots, peeled
• 6 garlic cloves
• 4 yukon gold potatoes
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 2 teaspoons thyme
• 6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 3/4 cup white wine
• 1 cup milk

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.  Roast the squash, shallots, garlic, and potatoes with the olive oil, salt, and pepper sprinkled on top on a parchment lined baking sheet for 40 minutes.
2. Remove the pan from the oven and scoop the contents into a large pot.  Add the broth, chili powder, and thyme and turn on to medium heat.  Stir occasionally for 5-10 minutes.
3. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup thoroughly.  Slowly stir in the white wine.  Remove from heat and slowly stir in the milk.  Serve immediately

Note:  This reheats in the microwave really well after being refrigerated up to a week.

baked sprinkle donuts

Wow.  I can't believe it's been two months since I last blogged!  Life tends to get pretty crazy in the spring (between Easter, Liam's birthday, and trying to figure out the upcoming school year) and this year was no exception.  I've either been busy or using recipes I've already posted.  I can't tell you how nice it was to have free time this weekend to experiment!  

I love this donut recipe and so do my boys.  Sure, it's a donut so its full of sugar.  BUT this donut is baked instead of fried, and has protein powder in it, so at least it has a few nutrients to go along with all the sugar.  If you want to be really bad you could add icing on top and some more sprinkles over that, but honestly these donuts don't need the extra sugar or mess.

This recipe is great for busy mornings because it takes less than 30 minutes (including bake time!) and you can easily eat them on the go.  No mess.  Plus they taste so good!  

Baked Sprinkle Donuts
makes 12

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3/4 Cup AP flour
• 1/4 Cup vanilla whey protein powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 6 tablespoons milk
• 1/4 Cup rainbow sprinkles

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Add all ingredients except sprinkles to a medium bowl and whisk just until batter is smooth.
2. Gently stir in sprinkles.
3. Scoop batter into a freezer bag and seal.  Snip a small corner out and fill the bowls of a greased donut pan 3/4 full.  Bake for 6-8 minutes.  
4. Remove from oven and immediately turn donuts out onto a cooling rack.  Enjoy warm and fresh.

Notes:  I only have one donut pan (makes 6) so I have to make my donuts in two batches.  Donuts are fully baked when a toothpick comes out clean or the edges are lightly golden and not overly shiny.  I like to eat these as is, but you could easily make icing to dip the donut tops in if you wanted.  Mix milk and powdered sugar until smooth and dip donut tops lightly, shaking off any excess. Immediately drop extra rainbow sprinkles on top before icing hardens.  Enjoy!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!  I know, I know, this post is super late.  I totally lost track of time this morning and forgot to post.

The boys had sooo much sugar today.  They were totally bouncing and vibrating everywhere.  Luckily the Easter Bunny set an alarm and woke up really early to set out the eggs because the kids woke up early too.  They had already finished their egg hunt (and half their candy) by 8am.  Yikes.

I color coded the toys that the Easter Bunny left out so the boys would know what got what.  Lima was so cute.  He helped Jack find some of his things and made sure to share some eggs with Jack.

They still needed help reaching the odd egg.

My favorite part about the photo above is that it is not posed in any way.  Aren't they so cute?!

I couldn't really get any pictures today of both kiddos looking at the camera or smiling.  They were too distracted with all the sugar.

Garlic Rosemary Chicken Bake

I love one dish dinners.  They look fancy, they're so easy to make, and less dishes for me to wash!

This one was a big hit with my boys.  They love anything chicken or bacon, and this has both!

The best part was that I only needed about 5 minutes of prep before I had the whole dish finished and stuck in the oven, but the boys still thought it looked fancy and impressive.  

I don't have a million photos of this like some other dishes, but I'm probably going to make it again pretty soon, and I'll add more photos then, okay?  :)

Garlic Rosemary Chicken Bake

serves 3

Ingredients:

• 3 whole chicken breasts (I used frozen ones, no thawing needed!)
• 3 russet potatoes
• 1/4 Cup garlic cloves, peeled
• 3 branches rosemary
• 3 strips bacon
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  Drizzle 1 teaspoon olive oil onto the bottom of a 9x13 inch casserole dish.  
2. Slice the potatoes into medallions and lay them flat in the dish.  Lay the chicken breasts on top of the potatoes.  Slice the bacon into 1" pieces and lay the pieces on top of the chicken and potatoes.  Sprinkle the garlic cloves over the bacon, and lay the rosemary branches down as well.  Season with the remaining 1 teaspoon olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder and slide into the oven.  
3. Bake for 60 minutes, or until the bacon and chicken are fully cooked.  

Strawberry Hand Pies for Pi Day!

Happy Pi day everyone!  March 14th is an awesome day because it gives me the perfect excuse to bake.  I've done classic pies and pizza (pies) before on Pi day, so this year I thought I'd shake it up a bit and make hand pies.

Hand pies are great because they are perfect for portion control, and if you forgo the icing (so sad!) they're a less messy dessert option for all those messy eaters out there.  Kids, I'm talking about you.

Another part of my decision to make hand pies was because I got a set of super cute molds for Christmas (here) and hadn't gotten a chance to break them in yet.  I just love fun kitchen gadgets.  Especially ones that I can easily chuck in the dishwasher.  Woohoo!

You can use my go-to pie crust recipe, your own favorite, or heck, even store bought.  Whatever floats your boat.

I put about a tablespoon of filling (essentially a quick jam, you could do any flavor filling you want, just nothing too liquidy) into he smallest sized mold.

This set is really easy to use.  I just lightly pressed down and gently flipped the hand pie out onto a lined baking sheet.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes, rotating halfway through, and remove when the hand pies are firm and just barely beginning to turn golden at the edges.

Once the hand pies have cooled, drizzle with a basic icing.  Then eat them all.  :)

I used frozen strawberries in this recipe because I like the jammy consistency I know I can get every time with them.  Plus, even with the sugar they retain a bit of tartness, which I enjoy.

Strawberry Hand Pies
makes about 12-14

Ingredients:
Filling:

• 16 oz. bag frozen strawberries
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 Cup powdered sugar

Crust:

• 2 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
• 7 tablespoons ice water

Icing:

• 1/2 Cup powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons milk
• dash red food coloring

Directions:

1. Make the crust.  In a food processor add the flour, salt, sugar, and butter.  Pulse until the mixture resembles wet sand.  Slowly add the water as needed until the mixture is a solid, bt not sticky.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
2. Make the filling.  In a pot on medium high heat add the frozen strawberries.  Stir occasionally until they have fully thawed and have begun to break down.  Then stir in the cornstarch, lemon juice, and powdered sugar.  Use a potato masher to break up any large pieces of berry, otherwise just continue to stir occasionally until the filling begins to tighten up.  Remove from heat and let cool a bit.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  After the crust has been refrigerated at least 2 hours roll it out thinly on a flour covered counter.  Use a dough press or a large round cookie cutter to cover the dough with circles.  Place 1 tablespoon of filling in the center of each circle and fold the circles in half, pressing the edges down.  Place the hand pies on a lined baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes, rotating halfway through.  Remove the hand pies from the oven when the edges are firm and only beginning to turn golden.
4. Allow the hand pies to cool and make the icing.  Combine the powdered sugar, milk, and food coloring and mix well.  Gently drizzle the icing over the cooled hand pies and waiting for the icing to dry.  Enjoy.

Blueberry coffee cake

This is one of the easiest baking recipes ever.  Okay, I totally cheat here and use Bisquick.  Normally I am a "completely from scratch" type of baker, but I like to keep a bit of Bisquick on hand in case I want something baked very quickly, or run out of too many essential ingredients.

Liam was my baking assistant today.  He was so excited to get stirring and egg cracking duty (his favorite), but he was mostly excited to eat them... :)

The picture above was Liam instructing me to take a picture that looked like he was trying to eat the uncooked coffee cakes.   Silly boy.

As you noticed, I used mini fluted pans for this recipe.  Totally unnecessary, but SO pretty!  Plus portion controlled.  Always a plus!  If you don't have a mini fluted cake pan, just use a 9" cake pan.

I love this recipe because it's so simple, and sometimes in the mornings I completely forget about breakfast... but it's okay because this recipe only takes about half an hour to make!

Blueberry Coffee Cake
serves 6

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 Cups Bisquick
• 3/4 Cup skim milk
• 1/4 Cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
• 1 large egg
• 2 tablespoons old-fashioned oats, uncooked
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2/3 Cup blueberries
• 1/4 Cup brown sugar, unpacked

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Spray a mini fluted cake pan (or one 9" cake pan) with baking spray and set aside.
2. Stir all ingredients except the blueberries until there are no lumps.  Gently stir in the blueberries.  Pour the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.  Sprinkle brown sugar over the tops.  Bake until inserted toothpick comes out clean.  Remove from oven to cool for 5 minutes before eating.

Bake times:

mini fluted pan: 16-18 minutes

9" cake pan: 18-23 minutes