Tasty Tuesday: Apple Pie Tartlets

I think these apple pie tartlets are pretty much perfect--all the goodness of apple pie in a cute, little two-bite form. 

The only problem? 

They're so dangerous! With a whole pie, you have to commit yourself to sitting down and eating a slice, but with these tarlets, you can just grab one as you walk by. I mean, it's just a teeny, tiny, bit of pie. No harm, right? Right. Until you've eaten six. 

They're dangerous, I tell ya.       

I prefer jonamac apples for these. The rich sweet-spicy taste makes the tartlets burst with flavor. And because jonamacs break down while baking, they produce more melting juices that, when combined with the flour, make a nice, gooey appley gel to hold it all together.

And what could be better than that?

These tarlets are a favorite in our house. They take a little bit more time than making a traditional streusel-topped pie, but they are totally worth it.

And remember, since they're small, you can eat more!

Enjoy!

Pie Crust 

Ingredients:

½ cup shortening 

1½ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup ice cold water

Directions:

1. Mix shortening, flour, and salt together in a food processor with a dough blade (or in a bowl with a fork or a pastry blender) until very crumbly. Add as much water as needed to hold together and mix until combined. Place the dough in the freezer for 5 minutes.
2. Roll dough gently on a floured pastry mat to about ¼ inch thickness and cut portions using a flower (or 2-inch round) cookie cutter. Gently press dough flowers into the wells of a mini cupcake/tarlet pan. Continue rolling the scraps of dough and cutting flowers until gone. If the dough gets warm and hard to use, place it back in the freezer for 5 minutes.    

   
Pie Filling
Ingredients:
2½ cups apples - peeled, cored and diced
¼ cup white sugar
¼ tsp cinnamon
⅛ tsp nutmeg
1 tbsp flour
2 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp brown sugar

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together and fill tartlets.

Streusel Topping
Ingredients:
¾ flour
⅓ white sugar
½ cinnamon
6 tbsp butter

Directions:
1. Mix flour, sugar, and cinnamon together. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle on top of the pie filling.
2. Bake tartlets at 350° F for 20 minutes, or until the edges of the flower petals are just beginning to brown. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Wordless Wednesday 6/12/13

Tasty Tuesday: Apple Cookies

I can't believe that this was the first apple recipe we've done this fall. We have a bunch of apples that were calling my name. They were begging to not be eaten plain. They deserved more out of their short lived lives. They needed to be combined with sugar and spices. I owed it to them to make them into cookies. 

I was busy gathering the ingredients and readying everything to start baking. 

And what does Alyssa decided she wants to do?

Eat one of those apples!

She's lucky I had more. I just feel sorry for the poor apple. Its hopes and dreams of being made into delicious cookies were broken with each crushing bite.

 I eventually put her to work though . . .

Pouring

 Dumping

 Mixing

 And of course, grating.

The kids shredded the apples since I knew that Jake would not eat the cookies if they had bits of apple chunks in them. This is the kid who begs for asparagus, but doesn't like "things" in his cookies and what-nots. For that reason (and also because of his daddy), we did not add the raisins or walnuts either.  We did however, add a half cup of quick-cooking oats to make up for some of the missing substance.

Let me just say . . . yum! These cookies are the perfect way to use up a couple of apples in the fall or anytime of the year, for that matter. The shredded apples worked perfectly in place of the diced and the added oatmeal gave the cookies a wonderful consistency. They really don't even need the glaze on top; the cookies are pretty sweet as it is. We made half a batch of the glaze and it was just enough for one batch of cookies.

Whether you use glaze, raisins, walnuts, oatmeal, or a combination of four, you will not be disappointed with these apple cookies!

Besides, just think how happy you'd make the apples.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening                                                  1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar                             1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 egg                                                                       1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour                                 1 cup chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon baking soda                                          1 cup apples - peeled, cored and finely diced
1/2 teaspoon salt                                                     1 cup raisins

Glaze:
1/4 cup milk                                                             1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar                     2 1/2 tablespoons milk, or to desired consistency    
1 tablespoon butter   

Directions:

1. Beat shortening and brown sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and blend thoroughly.

2. Stir together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.

3. Stir half the dry ingredients into creamed mixture. Stir in nuts, apple and raisins, then stir in remaining half of dry ingredients and milk. Mix well.

4. Drop from tablespoon 1 1/2 inches apart onto lightly greased baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. Remove cookies to racks and let cool. Spread with glaze.

5. To make Glaze: Combine powdered sugar, butter, vanilla and enough milk to make glaze of spreading consistency. Beat until smooth. Spread on cooled cookies.
Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com.

Pantry Surprise 11/12/11

I know I'm a stickler for not wasting food, but this is a bit much even for me.

I guess there is a bite or two on the underside of the apple. Maybe the culprit was planning to finish it off later? I left it there for a while . . . and then threw it away! *gasp* Shh, don't tell my kids.

Tasty Tuesday: Apple Crisp

Another apple recipe. No, we're not sick of them yet. Yes, we're finally making a dent in the bushel that we picked at the orchard.

Apple Crisp
Ingredients:
10 cups apples, peeled, cored, sliced

3/4 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup water
 
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Place the sliced apples in a 9x13 inch pan. Mix the white sugar, 1 tablespoon flour and ground cinnamon together, and sprinkle over apples. Pour water evenly over all.

3. Combine the oats, 1 cup flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and melted butter together. Crumble evenly over the apple mixture.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 45 minutes.

Ideally, that is the way it should have gone. I've realize though, that with this "super" type of couponing that I've been doing for the past 9 months, I don't always have adequate amounts of certain ingredients. Sure, I have a stockpile. If you look in my pantry, you'll see 12 boxes of cereal, 9 bottles of bbq sauce, and 6 jars of salsa. (And yes, I checked.) What you will not find is extra all-purpose flour, brown sugar, and quick-cooking oats. Today was a day of substitutions. For the flour, we used 1 cup of bread flour minus 1 tablespoon. We used old-fashioned oats (a little chewier.) For the brown sugar, we took 1 cup white sugar, subtracted 1 tablespoon, and replaced it with 1 tablespoon of molasses. Now I know what to add to my grocery list, along with the cinnamon that we finished off today too.

Mixing white sugar and molasses

Fresh brown sugar

"Don't worry. I got it under control," he told me.

The apple crisp is delicious. It just needs one thing.

Ice cream!

Doesn't ice cream make everything better?

Tasty Tuesday: Apple Butter

Jake has been on a "field trip" to his grandparents' house the past couple of days. He has done his school work there, much to his disappointment. So, we didn't do anything yesterday for Make It Monday. I was able to do some deep cleaning in the bedrooms though, since he wasn't here to reclaim the toys I was taking. I guess yesterday was Make It Clean, which makes me very happy.

Today, Alyssa and I made apple butter. She enjoyed having Mommy all to herself.

Ingredients:
5 1/2 pounds apples - peeled, cored and chopped         2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 cups white sugar                                                          1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 cup brown sugar                                                           1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1. Place the apples in a slow cooker. In a medium bowl, mix the sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Pour the mixture over the apples in the slow cooker and mix well.

2. Cover and cook on high 1 hour.
3. Reduce heat to low and cook 9 to 11 hours, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is thickened and dark brown.

4. Uncover and continue cooking on low 1 hour. Stir with a whisk, if desired, to increase smoothness.

5. Spoon the mixture into sterile containers, cover and refrigerate or freeze.

After six hours of cooking, I made the mistake of trying it. Actually, the mistake was allowing Zac to see me try it. He insisted on having some himself, and when I say "some," I mean a bowl full. At this point, it tasted and smelled like apple pie. Good, but not apple butter.

When it was finally finished cooking, I poured it in the blender and pureed it until smooth. Finally, after 12 hours, we have apple butter! It was worth the wait!

It's great on toast, pb&j sandwiches, as a topping for ice cream or however else you can think of serving it. I had never been a fan of apple butter before, but I love this homemade version!

Linked to Savvy Slow-Cookin'

Tasty Tuesday: Apple Dumplings

I had never made an apple dumpling. In fact, I had never even tasted an apple dumpling before today. My favorite part of any kind of pie is the crust. The Backyardigans got it right when they sang about the Great Pie, "The crust is extra crusty . . ." I figured this recipe would be perfect.

Ingredients:
2 large apples, peeled and cored                           1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 (8 oz) cans refrigerated crescent roll dough       1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup butter                                                            1 (12 fluid oz) can Mountain Dew

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. Cut each apple into 8 wedges and set aside. Separate the crescent roll dough into triangles. Roll each apple wedge in crescent roll dough starting at the smallest end. Pinch to seal and place in the baking dish.
3. Melt butter in a small saucepan and stir in the sugar and cinnamon. Pour over the apple dumplings. Pour Mountain Dew over the dumplings.
4. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

He told her, "Put your whole weight on it!"

I took the dumplings out after 40 minutes. The bottoms were extremely soggy since they were swimming in sauce. I put them in a new dish upside down and baked them for another 10 minutes. They are so yummy! Jake even told me they are better than cinnamon, and he's a big fan of cinnamon. Next time, (and there will be a next time) I will cut way back on the sauce. I can't wait to try one with ice cream.

While the dumplings were baking, we made an apple dip. Mix together 1 package cream cheese, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract until smooth. It could be used for just about any fruit. Actually, it's good enough to eat with just a spoon. Jake asked, "Can we make this all day every day?" Every time I tried to put it back in the fridge, one of them would be right there asking for more. Jake eventually said, "My tummy's full, but I can't stop eating!" Needless to say, it's almost gone already!

It's a little difficult to eat dipped apples when you have only six teeth, so Zac got to lick his first beater today.  He loved it, of course. He loves to eat just about everything! The other two were not very happy about sharing it with him though. I think that I'm going to have to buy a new mixer, one with 3 beaters.

Off to the Apple Orchard

A tradition has started the past few years with our family to go apple picking at the orchard. This is something that we begin to look forward to right after we finish it. It is one of those things that has to happen at a certain time with certain weather or it just isn't right. The apple season has to be at the right point to get the apples we want for eating and baking. The fall season has to be at the right point so that we are able to wear sweaters. T-shirts just are not right for fall apple picking pictures, just doesn't look right. As we began to plan our trip to the orchard for this past weekend the apple season was right for the types of apples we wanted, but we began to worry about the weather as Thursday got into the upper eighties. We ended up with sixty degrees a ton of wind and nearly coat and hat weather. We adorned ourselves in sweaters and sweatshirts and made way for Westview Apple Orchard in Romeo, MI.

When we left the house the sun was beginning to shine and a beautiful day was growing for apple picking. By the time we made it to the orchard the clouds had returned and the wind was kicking up, but still it was a good day to pick apples. We paid for our apples received two half bushel bags and hopped on the wagon to go apple picking.

Jake and Alyssa both look forward to eating apples as we pick, so much so that Alyssa ate three apples while were picking and didn't have room for a donut from the cidermill later. Jake started a couple and made it half way through them before dropping them while trying to pick others. The big discovery early on was a dead frog in the walkway that led Alyssa to beg Erika to save her and carry her, not sure why she didn't turn to her Daddy though. I don't think Alyssa pulled too many apples down that she didn't eat. Jake had a ton of fun climbing up the middle of the trees to see how high of an apple he could pull. Poor Zac didn't pull any, although he did get his own little apple that he nibbled on a good majority of the time. All in all we had the expected good time picking apples which we followed up with cider and donuts.

The kids wanted so bad to go and play on the playground that the orchard had in there "Family Fun" area, the problem came with the $32 it was going to cost for us to get in there. So in order to lesson the heartache of not playing there we stopped at Burger King for an early dinner and let them play there. They completely forgot about the playground at the orchard and had a blast playing where they could. Now we just have to do something with fifty pounds of apples. I have a feeling we will have no problems.

Make It Monday: Hand-Painted Apple Trees

We never got a chance to do a craft yesterday, so we pulled double duty today.

I love all things fall. The feel of the cool, crisp breeze; the sound of the crunching leaves; the taste of apple and pumpkin baked goods; the smell of backyard fires, the warmth of soft, cozy sweaters; the beauty of the changing colors. This weekend we are going to the apple orchard. I am so very excited! It is my favorite family tradition. In honor of that event, the kids painted apple trees today.

  First, we mixed equal parts red and green in order to make brown paint. 

We did add a little yellow too, to lighten it up a bit.

Then, we used a paint brush to paint their hands.

They loved this part because it tickled!

Next, they made the tree trunks.

Time for the green leaves.

Jake said, "Oh, I'm feeling sick. People turn green when they're sick."

We used a blow dryer to speed up the drying process.

Finally, they dipped their fingers in red paint to make the apples.

Alyssa very first apple already fell off the tree.

I helped with the positioning of the trunks, but they did the rest by themselves.

Jake keeps asking, "Is it time to go to the apple orchard yet?"

Apparently, I'm not the only one who's excited!