Delicious Apple Pie for the Birthday Boy

One birthday tradition I love is to allow the birthday boy or girl choose the meal for dinner. This year, Little Man has become quite a good little eater. He loves steak and chicken, tacos and spaghetti. I had no idea what he would choose for his birthday dinner.

He thought about it long and hard and decided that he wanted Curried Chicken Pot Pie for the meal with homemade bread and Apple Pie for his birthday dessert.

One of my favorite Apple Pie recipes is Grandma Ople's Apple Pie from Allrecipes. I don't know who Grandma Ople is, but she is one clever lady. Little Man LOVES this pie.

I started with a blend of Granny Smith and Gala apples.

Peel all the apples. I hate this part; I'm not going to sugar coat it. I would buy one of those apple peeler gadgets, but think I'd hate cleaning and assembling it more than I hate the peeling. I'm just not as good at peeling as my mom is. Bummer.

 

 Next, slice the apples into thin (1/4" thick) slices and core the apple at the same time.

I'm still married, btw. My rings needed to be cleaned and re-sized, so hence the ring-less fingers.

Toss the apples in a bowl and squeeze some lemon juice over them, or use the bottled lemon juice. Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon on top and some freshly grated nutmeg--about 1/8 teaspoon.

Next, get your pie crust ready. I almost always use homemade since I discovered a couple good recipes, but today I just didn't have the time. I took the Pillsbury way out. Don't hate me.

Toss your apples in there and get going on the next step, which requires a stick of butter, brown and white sugars, and flour.

Get melting that butter over medium heat.

Add in your other ingredients: flour and sugars, then bring to a boil.

Mix well to avoid lumps. I love, love, LOVE this tiny whisk for making roux or for this recipe. It's from Pampered Chef. I highly recommend. While I think of it, preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

While the caramel syrup is coming to a boil, prepare your top crust. I couldn't just do a plain top crust. The reasons are two-fold: 1. I'm a nut-job and can't make anything "simple." 2. It's a Birthday Pie! It needs a little birthday love in the form of a number SIX!

I also couldn't stop at just a number 6. SO I cut out tiny stars out of the "6" scraps and added those, too.

I have issues, but at least I recognize it!

By now your caramel syrup topping should be at a lovely rapid boil, like so:

Let it boil for a few minutes and it will reduce a bit. It will become a nice caramel brown color and smell delicious. Be careful; it's VERY hot!

Next, carefully and slowly pour the topping over the apple pie. It works to beautifully color the top of the pie, bring amazing flavor and it also drips all inside the pie. Yum!

You'll want to use a silicone pastry brush to evenly spread the caramel-y goodness all over the top of the pie.

Wipe the edges of the pie plate (to keep it pretty) and place on a foil-covered heavy baking sheet. Bake according to recipe, and enjoy!

Isn't it lovely?

Isn't he lovely?

The pie was delicious and Little Man was thrilled with how it turned out. I was too! He ate his entire piece and was ready for seconds before I sat down to eat my piece! I guess he was a fan!

And guess how he rewarded his mama? In the best possible way:

Lucky me.

Grandma Ople's Apple Pie

adapted from Allrecipes

1 recipe of pastry for a 9" double crust pie

7-8 peeled, cored and sliced apples, I use Granny Smith and Gala or Golden Delicious

Juice of 1/2of a lemon

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4-1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1/4 cup water

3 TB. flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Prepare crust in 9" pie plate. Peel, core and slice apples. Toss apples with the lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg in a medium sized bowl. Add to the prepared crust and top with the 2nd crust.

Over medium heat, melt the butter. Add water, flour, and sugars. Bring to a rapid boil for several minutes, reducing. Carefully pour over the crust, ensuring it is evenly covered using a pastry brush. Place pie plate on a foil-covered baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 and bake for 35-45 minutes longer, until apples are tender-crisp. Cool and serve!

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Caramel

Hello my bloggy pals. I'm going to tell you a secret. Come closer.

Cheesecake is the secret to making people happy.

Okay. That's not entirely true. It's not THE secret. But cheesecake certainly is A secret of temporary happiness. I know that having Christ in my heart and my life is the secret to a blessed  and joyful life. But serving people cheesecake makes me happy. It will make you happy, too. Try it sometime. Like with this little doozie of a recipe.

I adapted it from the one cookbook that I actually use on a fairly regular basis. Most of my recipes come from my mom, my best friends and/or their moms, magazines or the internet. But Joy Of Cooking is one cookbook that I can get behind (even though Julia did do a little Irma Rombauer bashing in Julie and Julia). It is well-written and does a great job of elucidating the details on basic recipes that home cooks may fear attempting. 

Team Cheesecake does have a lot of players, but don't be frightened. And ignore the flour, which I thought the recipe called for (some cheesecakes call for a bit), but didn't. Oops.

I realize you probably can't see who is in this picture. It's like a massive group shot on Facebook where kids from your 9th grade Washington DC Trip are tagged, but you can't see their faces.

I'll give you the details below, I promise.

I started out with the crust. I began with preheating my oven to 350 in order to bake it after it was done(freezing it was an option, too). I made a basic graham cracker crust from the Joy cookbook, but think that gingersnaps would be even better. I didn't want to run to the store, though. Start by tossing 10 grahams in the food processor. Or get out some frustration by crushing them by hand. I recommend the food processor, though, because the whole crust can be made in there.

Run the graham crackers until fully crushed and, meanwhile, gather your other crust ingredients: sugar, cinnamon, 6 TB melted butter and  1/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Salt? In the crust of a sweet dessert? The salt adds the certain je ne sais quoi---that balance of a bit of salty with the sweet. It also serves to flavor the crust since salt enhances other flavors, even those that are sweet. An aside: please use kosher salt in your baking. I have switched and will never go back. I only use iodized salt in pasta water occasionally, and for gargling, or if a recipe demands it. I probably should take an iodine supplement, but figure my vitamin takes care of that for me.

Add all these items to your food processor and process until the crumbs are well-moistened. Then, press into your 9-inch springform pan, like so.

I know you wish your hands could look like this. See the "L" they're forming? They're talking about me and my dorkiness.

Press the crumbs about halfway up the sides of the pan and bake for 5-10 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool. Keep the oven at 350, but prepare a bread pan filled with water to create a "steamy" environment for baking your cheesecake. Place it into the oven once you remove the crust.

While your oven is getting the steam facial ready for your cheesecake, you'd best get cracking at making it! Start by combining 2/3 cup packed brown sugar, 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ginger and 1/8 teaspoon cloves.

Then whip out your fabulous Microplane. If you don't have one, ask Santa! They're fabulous. I use mine to grate nutmeg (and chocolate for the top of whipped cream on hot cocoa. Divine!). Combine these first five ingredients well.

Little Miss Pink served as my cooking assistant. She, like her mama, was quite taken with the Microplane and demanded a turn. I promise, it was after I was done with it!

See? Every girl needs a microplane!

 

Okay, onto the cheese part of the cheesecake. In the bowl of your mixer, add 2-8 ounce packages of cream cheese. They MUST be at room temperature. Use the microwave (with the wrapper off!) if need be, but don't ever use cold cream cheese. It will KILL your cheesecake's texture. Mix the cream cheese on medium for a minute or so, then scrape the beaters and add the brown sugar/spice mixture.

Beat again until creamy, about 1 or 2 minutes. Then add your eggs (2 large eggs + 2 large yolks) one at a time, beating after each addition.

Make sure to stop and scrape the beaters and sides periodically to make sure there are no chunks or lumps. I usually use the "whisk" attachments when I'm making cheesecake to make especially sure that there aren't any, but I forgot today. Next, you'll add in 1 cup of pumpkin puree--not too little, not too much. People who don't care for "pumpkin-y" desserts will like it, as will pumpkin lovers. It's a people pleasing recipe, people!

Doesn't that look yum? Just wait! Once you've mixed the pumpkin in well (15-20 seconds), pour the mixture into your crust and smooth the top with a rubber scraper.

 

Remember how we put the bread pan of water into the oven? See, it's right there in the bottom right corner, waiting to give this cheesecake a little steamy lovin' while it bakes.

The recipe calls for baking the cheesecake at 350 for 30 minutes, then lowering the temperature to 325 and baking for an additional 10 minutes, until the center is puffed but not fully set (just a bit jiggly). 

While that beauty is working in the oven, mix up the second of THREE layers (!) of this cheesecake goodness! Whisk together 1 cup sour cream, 1/4 cup packed brown sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla.

When you pull out the cake, spread that goodness on top and bake for 7 more minutes. While it's baking, lick your rubber scraper because that little mixture is yum-o!

Doesn't that look so delicious!?! When you pull that baby out of the oven, set it on a rack to cool and place a larger pot lid (I used the big lid of my cast-iron dutch oven) on top of the cheesecake to ensure a very slow cooling process. The Joy doesn't state this, but I think slow cooling must minimize cracks on the surface.

Now, this cheesecake would've been quite delicious as it was right now. Well, cooled, but unadorned. I thought it needed just a little something else to put it over the edge. And I found that "something" in the fridge:

Hello, T. Marzetti. Would you like to dance delicately atop a yummy, high calorie dessert? Perfect.

I admit, I did a lousy job of applying the caramel. I tried to drizzle it, but the lid of my drizzling bottle popped off on the top of the cheesecake. Bummer. You get the idea, though.

Regardless of aesthetics, this was some good dessert. Or my favorite Irishman tells me it was, since it has too many eggs for me to eat. I took a tiny nibble and found the flavor to be creamy and delicious.

I hope you will try it and let me know what you think!

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Caramel

Adapted from Joy of Cooking

 Crumb Crust (recipe follows), cooled completely

2/3 cup brown sugar, packed

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

2-8 ounce packages cream cheese (NOT non-fat!),definitely at room temperature!

2 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 cup sour cream

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 - 1 cup prepared caramel topping (I used T. Marzetti's from the refrigerator section, though jarred ice cream topping may work just as well).

Preheat oven to 350 and place a bread pan filled with hot water in the oven to create a "steamy" atmosphere.

In a medium bowl, combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg.

In the bowl of a mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth, about a minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the beaters well. Add the sugar mixture slowly, scraping down the sides as needed and beating until smooth and creamy, about a minute or two longer.

Beat the eggs and yolks in one at a time, scraping down the sides/beaters after each addition. Beat until well blended and add the pumpkin puree. Mix until just combined.

Scrape the batter into the cooled crust and smooth the surface. Set the pan on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes at 350, then reduce the oven temperature to 325 and bake for 10 minutes longer, or until not quite fully set (a little bit jiggly in the center). While the cheesecake is baking, whisk together the sour cream, brown sugar and vanilla until well-blended. When the cheesecake is done, spread the sour cream mixture on top the hot cake gently and return to the oven for 7 more minutes.

Remove cake to a rack to cool, covering with a large lid that surrounds the cake pan and traps some of the heat, allowing the cake to cool slowly. Once mostly cooled, refrigerate the cake at least 6 hours, or better yet, 24. Before serving, smooth 1/2 cup of caramel topping on the cheesecake, or drizzle decoratively. Unmold and serve.

Crumb Crust for 9-inch spring form pan

10 graham crackers, or 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (Gingersnaps would be great!)

6 tablespoons butter, melted

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350. Using a food processor, make fine crumbs of the graham crackers. Add remaining ingredients and process until well-moistened. Press the mixture evenly in the pan and about halfway up the sides.

Bake 5-10 minutes, or until the crust is lightly browned and firm to the touch. Cool completely on a wire rack.

 

Milkshake

 
The other day, I mentioned why I so love my immersion blender. Proof is in the pudding, or the milkshake. I was making one for my honey, who is sick as a dog. Milkshakes make everything better.

Team Milkshake is as easy as can be: Milk, Good Ice Cream, Vanilla. We're making a good old-fashioned vanilla milkshake.

Start with 3 good scoops of ice cream.

Add 2/3 cup of cold milk of your choosing (skim, 1%, 2%, whole).

Add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla, but please not imitation!

Now, get out your handy immersion blender and go to town!

It only takes 30 seconds or so, and the clean up is easy.

And the results are worth it; I promise.

Basic Vanilla Milkshake

Serves 1

3 generous scoops of good quality vanilla ice cream

2/3 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Scoop ice cream into a large glass. Add milk and vanilla. Using an immersion blender, blend until creamy. Serve immediately.

*If you'd like, add chocolate, frozen or fresh strawberries, caramel, whatever blows your skirt up! The options are endless!

Pumpkin Crème Brûlée

Or, "Fun with a Blow Torch!"

I have a sad, maddening egg intolerance. I used to be able to eat eggs galore: scrambled, sunny side up, quiche, you name it. Then, after my first pregnancy, I was unable to eat eggs. They gave me a weird heartburn/discomfort. And with each subsequent pregnancy, it got worse. Now, hard boiled eggs in potato salad actually make me ill and, most tragically, I can barely tolerate custard type desserts, like pumpkin pie. SO tragic. I should probably go to the allergist or doctor, but who has time for that? 

Why, then, would I make crème brûlée? It is a highly egg-y dessert? Well, two reasons: 1. I've never made it before and always, always wanted to. 2. My favorite Irish fellow LOVES creme brulee. We were having some dear friends over for dessert, so I knew they'd enjoy it as much as I'd enjoy making it. And making it really is half the fun, anyhow.

I found the recipe here at this amazing blog, Whisk. How have I not seen this blog before? I'm ashamed to admit it! It seems to feature some AMAZING recipes, tips, and all around culinary goodness. I will leave the expert to the detailing of the recipe. I just want to share some tips that I discovered along the way making my first crème brûlée (a rhyme!).

This recipe for Pumpkin Crème Brûlée calls for a yummy caramel base in the bottom of the ramekin. Kind of a cross between  Crème Caramel (or is it Coeur de Crème?)and Crème Brûlée. I am notoriously bad at making caramel. I have failed more times than I have succeeded. And let me say, that a caramel burn is infinitely worse than a hot glue gun burn! For sure.

I decided though, that I wasn't going to let this caramel intimidate me. I mean, it was sugar, water, and a bit of lemon juice! C'mon! I think the key is patience. Once the sugar water comes to a boil, it takes a few minutes of a rapid, undisturbed boil to render the sugar water into caramel.

This shot was taken at 11:42am. The mixture is just at a rapid boil. The photo shows a bit of caramel color to it, but to the naked eye, it was clear.

This shot was taken one minute later. A tiny bit of caramel color was visible.

11:44am. Now we're getting there. I didn't touch it, shake it, stir it. Just left it be.

11:45 am

Literally, two seconds later, still 11:45am. I think it got a teensy bit too dark in color, but was still good--just a bit rich and dark, like French caramel.

Or what I hear french caramel is like since I've never been to France.

Next and very carefully, I poured the caramel into the ramekins. Please don't laugh at my heart shaped ramekins. They're all I have. I am asking Santa for new ramekins, serious white ramekins.

 

I swirled it around a bit and it was already starting to harden, further proof that I'd probably over cooked the caramel by 30 seconds.

Heart shaped ramekins aside, the caramel looked so lovely in the bottom and I imagined that it would give the dessert a nice depth of flavor. My guests and hubby said it did; I only had one tiny bite and almost had to excuse myself.

With the caramel tackled (yeah, me!), I started on the custard. How can you go wrong with heavy whipping cream, whole milk, vanilla, pumpkin, eggs and spices? Not at all!

I used a mix of farm fresh eggs and regular old eggs from the grocery store. The recipe called for 3 eggs and two egg yolks, which I got to work separating using this handy dandy Tupperware product. I do usually use the egg shell itself for separating, but I was feeling...you guessed it....lazy.

Once the eggs are separated, they get whisked with some sugar to make the base of the custard. I love whisking. It is a good way to vent frustration and makes me feel so very Julia Child.

As I mentioned before, I never made Crème Brûlée before. I guess I was very intimidated by it. Once I jumped into making this recipe, I realized how unfounded my fears were. Crème Brûlée is very easy and basic, made with simple ingredients. I'm excited to try a plain, even more basic version of it soon. The custard is based on eggs, sugar and lovely heavy cream:

Little Man likes to smell everything. He has the most keen sense of smell I've ever encountered.

He was bummed the heavy cream didn't have much of a smell.

Being Pumpkin Crème Brûlée, this recipe also called for canned pumpkin, though if you have your own pumpkins, I'm sure you could substitute the "real deal."

 

I heated the heavy cream, milk and vanilla over the stove until it came to a low boil, then mixed it into my custard base, whisking constantly. The constant mixing is necessary to temper the eggs, instead of making them into scrambled eggs. Once that was done, I followed the instructions and let the mixture rest, then strained it.

Once the straining was done, I poured the mixture into the ramekins, which were in a glass baking dish. Then, I poured boiling water about 2/3rds of the way up the sides in the baking dish. I think this makes for even baking. But I'm totally guessing.

Then, into the oven they went.

The recipe online said it should only take 25-30 minutes until a knife comes out clean in the center. Mine took more like 40-45 minutes. I checked often.

This is what the lovelies looked like after their stay in the oven:

But now, for the real fun! The blow torch. I don't own a kitchen torch, but my husband has a blow torch he was more than happy to let me use.

I sprinkled the tops with sugar---too much at first. I had to dump some excess off. The recipe calls for 4 TB for 6 ramekins. I had 5 ramekins and 3 TB. was too much sugar. It's really more of a dusting of sugar. I poured some on then shook and tapped off the excess. 

With that done, the best part! Since brûlée means "burnt" in French, that's what I did next. Burn, or caramelize the sugar on top to make the crispy top that, in my opinion, is the coolest part of the dessert. The combination of textures is just divine.

Here are some "action" shots my hubby got while I was at work with the blow torch:

 

 

Tada! So there you have it! The recipe was really not complicated or difficult at all. And the results were (I'm told) delicious. I can't believe I've never tried making such a classic dessert before. It was well worth the effort!

For the complete instructions and recipe, go to Whisk. I hope you try it soon!