Dutch Apple Pie

Winter to me, is comfort food. YUM. And a great comfort food is pie. Apple pie.
 I actually never had made a dutch apple pie, just two crust apple pie. So without further ado, a yum delicious pie!

Dutch Apple Pie

one recipe for single pie crust (if you want to try whole wheat crust, like in the picture, go here)
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup old fashion oats
2 to 4 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons melted butter

3 lbs. apples 11 to 12 smallish apples peeled and cored
1/4 cup to 1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

preheat oven to 375 degrees

Dice or thinly slice the apples.

I used red delicious apples, but you can use other baking verities such as granny smith (more tart) honey crisp or pink lady.

 Next, coat the apples in the sugar and spices.

Roll the crust out into a large circle and drape in the pie tin and tidy up the edges. (If need be, see the crust recipe for more detailed instructions)

Then place the apples in the unbaked pie crust.

 Now, mix together the flour, oats, sugar and melted butter, until it resembles crumbs. 

Sprinkle on top of the apple mixture. 

And, that's it. Unless you want to dress up the edges, you can use the left over crust.

You can roll out the scraps and then cut into thin strips and braid them and place around the border. It helps to brush some water on the base crust and gently press the dough on top.

I use a tiny apple cookie cutter and outlined it. Now it's ready for the oven.

Tip:

 Take 2 inch strips of tin foil and place them around the edges, make sure that the crust is covered. This helps prevent the crust from burning in the oven.

Place in the preheated oven and bake for 50 minutes.

And around the last 10 minutes, remove the foil to finish browning.

 Looks great!

Enjoy!

Whole wheat pie crust

I ran out of regular white flour and I wanted to make an apple pie. Like, really bad. But all I had was whole wheat flour. After a very short search, I found a good recipe. It's just like a regular crust. Super easy.

 Whole Wheat Pie Crust

 

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/3 cup unsalted butter  (cut into small pieces)

4 to 5 tablespoons cold water

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

 

Simple enough!

 Cut into small pieces

In a medium bowl, mix the flour, salt and butter. Blend with a fork, or pastry blender (I LOVE mine).

Or, you can even use a food processor for quicker results.

Using the fork or pastry blender means you need to add some elbow grease, but I find that by hand, you get a flakier crust (there are small chucks of butter when you roll out the crust).

Add water a little bit at a time until it will form a nice rolled ball.

Next, roll it out on a floured surfaced, to about a 15 inch diameter (for a 9 inch pie pan).

Next:

 Fold in half.

 Now, fold that half in half, again.

Looks like a pie piece (hehe).

Gentle lift the dough in the pie pan, with the point in the center of the pan.

 Now,  start to unfold it, being careful to not stretch or tear the dough.

There should be plenty extra hanging over the edge.

 

Trim off the excess, starting from a half an inch from the edge of the pan. 

Tuck the extra under its shelf, but not enough to show the pie pan underneath. Shape the edges any way you like, like using a fork to press down the edge or pinching it with you fingers.

 Before you bake it or adding filling, poke holes into it so it doesn't bubble up with air pockets.

 Now it's ready to be baked or filled.

If you are just baking the crust (for a cream pie), bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

A tip that I like to give for fruit pies:

Wrap your finished unbaked pie edges in tin foil. This helps prevents the crust from burning. And to get that lovely golden brown (for non whole wheat crusts) color, removed the foil from the last 10 minutes of baking.

Example:

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Lets just cut to the chase with this one. I think buffalo chicken is too spicy for my tastes, but it's pretty damned tasty.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

 

1 recipe for pizza crust

1/2 cup ranch dressing

half a package of frozen buffalo style breaded chicken

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Prepare the pizza crust.

Spread the dough on a 13 inch round pan.

Then spread the ranch dressing around the crust, make sure to leave a 1/4 inch from the edge clean.

Next take the frozen chicken pieces and cut them into 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces. Place them around sauce, spacing them out evenly.

Then take the cheese and sprinkle it all over the top. 

(I added a lot. We love cheese)

Now it's ready to pop in the oven for about 20 minutes or until crust is done and cheese is a nice golden brown.

Homemade Chili Seasoning

I'm starting to make a lot of things at home instead of buying them. A major reason is the salt/sodium content in all of the seasonings and mixes.
My mixes are not very salty tasting and at first they were a little bland, but I grew to love it, and now I can't stand the pre-made store bought ones.

Chili is one of my favorite dishes when it's cold out. Chili seasoning is pretty much made up of basic and common spices that you have in your cupboard as we speak.

Homemade Chili Seasoning

1 tsp. garlic powder

2 tsp. onion powder

1 tsp. Cajun seasoning (optional)

2 tsp.paprika

1 tbsp. chili powder

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. ground black pepper

(salt can be added to taste)

Here is the recipe for my chili too:

Chili

 

1 lb. ground turkey

1/2 large onion 

1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce (reduced sodium)

1 can (15 oz) diced tomatoes (reduced salt)

1 can red kidney beans

1 can black beans 

1 recipe of chili seasoning

Drain and rinse the beans. 

Brown the ground turkey in a large stock pot with the onion.

Next add the tomatoes and beans, then the chili seasoning.

Simmer in the pot for 10 minutes.

serve with shredded cheese, saltines, sour cream, Fritos, etc.

Soften Butter Quickly

When a recipe calls for softened butter, the best thing to do is let it sit out at room temperature for an hour to an hour and a half.

But things happen to cause you to forget (or last minute recipe decisions) to take the butter out of the fridge ahead of time.

There is a quick way to soften up your butter without the microwave. Microwaves are not the best method, they tend to melt part of the butter or completely if you are not careful. Setting the power percentage lower does help a little bit though.

Here is an alternative solution.

Take the designated amount of butter out of the fridge and unwrap it but leave it on the wrapper.

Take a knife and cut it into little cubes. Doing so allows the heat from the air to warm it faster.

Then place it in a mixer bowl (a stand mixer is the best choice for this), and use the paddle attachement and beat the ever loving crap out of it.

Set it on a medium high setting to really beat it to a smooth texture. Continue to beat for at least a minute after it becomes smooth. Longer if it's still lumpy.

And now your butter is softened and will mix easily with the rest of your ingriedents and should be clump free.

It's very simple and easy to do, really takes no time at all.

One Eyed Jacks

One of my husband's favorite breakfast foods is a combination of a slice of bread and a fried egg.
I don't really have to ask him what to make for breakfast anymore. I know that he will eat it.
In fact, he gave me the recipe, he originally had them when he went camping in Boy Scouts.

It's a quick and light breakfast.

One Eyed Jacks

one or more slices of bread

one or more eggs

1. Cut a hole in the center of a piece of bread. Try to not cut the edges. This acts as a barrier so the egg doesn't run all over the pan. Do not throw away the bread disks, you can use those as toast on the side.
   
2. Preheat a large skillet on medium heat. Lightly spray the pan before you place the bread in the hot pan. You can also place the disks in the pan to toast them.
3. Next crack the egg over the hole in the bread. Cook on one side for one minute, then carefully flip over with a large spatula. You can cook the eggs to your liking. These are cooked to be over easy.
   

Then transfer the one eyed jacks to a plate and you are done!

I usually cook for sausage patties or bacon to eat along with it.

I used my trusty biscuit cutter to make the holes. I bought it at a restaurant wholesale store.

Spritz Cookies

It's that time of year again. Christmas cookie time! But I make cookies all year round anyway.

Spritz cookies are one of the more popular holiday cookies. They are made with a cookie press. You fill a press with some dough and squeeze! (not quite, but close enough)

A couple of years ago I got an electric cookie press from my mom. I remember she had one when I was growing up, it was the kind that you turned like a water hose spicket. It would press down the dough and squeeze out the bottom through a metal plate with holes in it.

It is my pretty pink cookie press. It plugs in and you squeeze the the silver tab and that's it! Pretty easy.

I used these four plates. The dough is very stiff, so I just tore it in to chunks and put it in the press. You reattach the tube and squeeze the trigger and the presser foot thing rotates down and pushes the dough out through the holes.

Reminds me of a Play-Doh press I always wanted as a kid.

Enough of the cookie press lesson, now on to the recipe!!

Spritz Cookies

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour and baking powder.

Next in a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then, add the egg, milk, vanilla, and almond extract, mix well.

Lastly, gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beat until a smooth stiff dough forms.

Fill the cookie press with the dough, use with the desired plates, press cookies onto a cookie sheet, ungreased or parchment papered or baking mat. (with the electric press, I hold down the trigger for 3 seconds, and hold to two seconds before I pull it away)

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges are light golden brown.

Cool for a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet then move to a cooling rack.

 

Another thing about cookie presses is that you have to play around with the timing. Too little time and barely any dough comes out to the desired shape. Too long of a time and way too much dough comes out and the shape is very distorted. So just play around with it until you find what's right.