Apple Tart

Yes I know, second dessert in a row. But, in my defence, the last post was for Rebecca who did make her delicous dessert!

This is a compilation of different recipes, and I think it might be more appropriately named: Brown Butter Dutch Apple Tart. The pie crust recipe is from my Better Crocker cookbook. The apple filling is from Fine Cooking's Apple Brown-Butter Jalouise. The dutch apple topping is from allrecipes.com. I thought I had my Mother-in-Law's recipe, but it now appears I don't! Her's is much better than the one I used.

I chose to make a tart instead of a pie for two reasons: First, I think tarts look better, second, they are not as tall, so it is easier to get a small slice. I really like the rippled edge of my tart pan, and all tart pans in general. Greg gave this one to me a few years ago from Christmas. Talk about a gift that gives back! =). Well, here is a picture of the tart edge. You can see the apple filling bubbled over a bit. I would recommend baking this one top of a jelly roll pan. I did that, and there were some spills and splatters on it.


I doubled the pie crust and pie filling recipe, but left the crumb topping a single. My Mother-in-Law's recipe makes a tall crumb top, and I assumed this recipe would do the same. But, I really like that on this tart the topping is spread out and you can see the apples. It gives it kind of a elegant rustic feel. Greg really enjoyed this, too. The only complaint I have is that the butter flavor in the filling is really strong. I'll probably at least half, if not quarter it for next time. A nice hint of the butter would be nice, and add a little something extra to traditional apple pie filling. I will be curious to see how reducing the butter changes how the apples cook, though.

Recipe: Doubled version of filling & crust. Makes 1 11 inch pie tart, serves 12.

filling:
6 apples, peeled, halved, cored and sliced. (I took a metal 1/4 tsp spoon and scooped out the core)
1/2 C brown sugar
1 1/2 ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla

crust:
2 C. flour
1 tsp salt
2/3 C + 2 tbs shortening
4-6 tbs cold water

topping:
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup flour
1 stick butter

-Make the pie crust first. Sift flour and salt together. Cut in the cold butter until it forms pea sized balls. Slowly add in water (1 tbs at a time) until you can gather it and form a ball. Mix with your hands (it will work much better). Make one flattned ball, chill for atleast 45 minutes.

-Roll out the pie dough on a floured surface. Should be about 3 inches larger on each side than the tart pan. I prefer to gently fold my pie crusts into quarters and pick it up, opposed to lifting it with the rolling pin. Press dough into the tart pan. Fold edges over and into the pan, pressing down on the sides. Bake at 375 degress for 5 minutes. Press down bubbles and let cool to room temp.

-Peel, core and slice apples. If they are going to sit for a while, toss them with lemon juice to keep from browning. Once they are peeled, toss with brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.

-In a large stock pot, melt and brown the butter. Once browned, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Because the alcohol will evaporate, expect an unusually strong scent from the vanilla. You can inhale alcohol through evaporation, so if you are weary of that, please don't add in the vanilla at this point.

-Make the dutch apple topping: Mix flour and sugar together. Add butter, cut in until pea sized balls form.

-Add in the apples. Stir to coat with the butter/vanilla mixture. Stir occasionally for 5-10 minutes. Longer if your apple slices are thick. Remove from heat. At this point, you may also stir in the vanilla.

-Pour into the pie crust, juices and all. Top with dutch apple topping. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until topping has started to turn golden and the crust has pulled away from the tart pan a bit.

-Let sit for at least 30 minutes.

-Enjoy!!!

Chocoate Chip Cookies + New Oven!

That's right, I have a new oven!!! After a year of baking frustrations, my life has gotten much, much better! We have had an oven thermometer for a while, and noticed that our oven at it's best tends to be about 50 degree's cooler than what we set it for. At it's worst, the oven's temperature will fluctuate from 75 degree's too cool, to 20 degree's too hot; all in one baking cycle.

After complaining to our apartment manager (yes our apartment, we are young newly weds after all!) and a visit from our very friendly maintenance technician, we found out that some internal sensor was broken. We were also told that the oven was too old to find replacement parts for, and that we should get a new oven.

We tried to talk to the manager several times with no luck, that is, until yesterday! While at work, Greg received a call from them with the best news, "We have an oven in stock for you, can they come over right now to install it"? Luckily, I have Thursdays off. With in 5 minutes the old piece of junk was gone and the brand new, clean, digital oven, with a window was installed! It was time to celebrate/test out this new toy.


First, I thought about making something fussy and fancy. Then I thought, why not go for something classic that will let me know right away if this oven is any good? The obvious answer: Chocolate Chip Cookies! I must say, I forgot how wonderful it is to bake each batch of cookies for the same amount of time, and have them all turn out the same! Standardization, what a concept! With my old oven we had to check each batch every 3 minutes...what a pain.

And so, without further ado, the classic chocolate chip cookie. No real modifications here, just a bit more flour and vanilla. This is essentially the Nestle recipe, but almost all of these recipes are the same.

Recipe:

3 C. Flour
3/4 C. brown sugar, packed
3/4 C. white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 C. butter, softened
12oz bag chocolate chips (I love mine very chocolaty)

-Cream butter and sugar together, add eggs and vanilla.

-Add flour, sat & baking soda, mix to combine

-Add chocolate chips

-Chill dough for at least 30 mintues

-Spoon out dough in 1 tbs balls, about an inch and a half apart on a baking sheet

-Bake for 8 minutes 30 seconds at 375 degrees. (yes that is specific, but I found that 8 minutes left them too soft, even after cooling on the baking sheet, and 9 minutes left them a bit too dark).

-Enjoy!!!

p.s. I promise next time to post a non-dessert!

Rich Fudgy Brownies

Well, a Fine Cooking recipe has come through yet again! These are my new favorite brownies, without a doubt. If you like a more cakey brownie, these are not for you. These are even more addicting than the Brownies with m&m's and Peanut Butter! The two recipes are strikingly similar, and so it was very fun to see how the slight differences really changed the outcome.

One of the components of Fine Cooking that I love is all of the pictures. I was able to compare my brownies to the published great looking magazine shot. After following the recipe perfecting (yes I know...), my brownies rose about double what the picture shows. I'm really not sure why that would be, but the flavor was still great. Greg and I decided that we could make wonderful ice cream sandwiches using these if we were to press these down while in the pan, pour soft ice cream on top, and then put another layer of pressed brownies on the ice cream and freeze. Hm...yum.


Recipe:
1 C. butter
2/3 C. flour
2 C. sugar
4 eggs, room temp
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 C. cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

-Mix all dry ingredients together, set aside.

-Melt butter. Stir in sugar, eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients (takes a while for it to get incorporated).

-Pour batter into a greased 9x9 baking pan

-Bake for 40 mintues at 350 degrees.

-Enjoy!!!

Blondies with Chocolate Chips

This was another "what's in the cupboard" baking adventure. After Mom Dekker brought some wonderful blondie bar cookies down on their last visit, I've been wanting to make a batch myself. I didn't have much butter on hand, and ended up choosing to follow a recipe that called for just about all I had to spare. I found the recipe on allrecipies.com, and it had a pretty high rating.

Overall, these aren't bad, but they are just a bit bland. They really lack any butterscotch flavor that I associate with blondies. The recipe calls for you to melt the butter and stir in brown sugar. I think that if you browned the butter there would be much more flavor. There is 1/2 tsp of cinnamon in the recipe, and that does bring something unique to the cookie. It is very subtle, and you might not taste it if you didn't know it was there.

They do have a wonderful texture; more cakey than a brownie, very nice crumb, and they didn't dry out over a few days. I think I will make these again, but add a variety of chips into the batter. I also think it would be fun to make a frosted treat out of these, a lot like the giant Mrs. Fields cookie treats.

Recipe:

3 C. flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 C. butter
2 1/3 C. brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

-Melt butter, add brown sugar and stir to melt. Remove from heat and let cool. Add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla.

-Add dry ingredients, stir to combine. Fold in chocolate chips.

-Bake in a greased 9x13 at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

-Enjoy!!!

Chocolate Cake

In the middle of last week, someone brought a cake to Keeneland. Greg said that it looked like a chocolaty hot mess, but it didn't have any flavor and was overall a bit disappointing. Since I love to spoil him so, I decided to treat him to a cake this weekend while he had to work!

This is a pretty classic recipe. It's not creative or unique, it's especially not healthy, but it is WONDERFUL! I found this recipe on the back of a Hershey's cocoa box, along with my brownie recipe. I haven't messed around with the cake batter, but I have made different frostings. My favorite alternative is a mocha frosting, and I would love to try a dark chocolate-orange frosting. Yum!

Recipe:

Cake:
2 C. Sugar
1 3/4 C. all purpose flour
3/4 C. Cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 C. milk
1/2 C. veg oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 C. boiling water

-Mix sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, and salt.
-Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla
-Stir in boiling water
-Bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees


Frosting:
1 stick butter, melted
3/4 C. cocoa
4 C. powdered sugar
1/3 C. milk
1 tsp vanilla

- Melt the butter
- Add the rest of the ingredients, mix with a mixer. Add more powdered sugar if needed to get a desired consistency.

Let cakes cool all the way, frost and eat up! Great with a cup of milk!

-Enjoy!!!

Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles are a Hellman family favorite, and I doubt my Dad would forgive me if I give this recipe away, sorry! Well, once again my talented husband took a great picture! I love that you can see the edges are rounded over just so, and the top has nice smooth cracks in it. The crust of the cookie is nice and firm, much like a shell. Since the shell is so distinct, it is always a surprise that the inside of the cookie is very soft and chewy!

I believe I found this recipe from an extra credit "lab" in a science class. It must have been early high school. Our teacher gave us a sheet of cookie recipes and instructed us to make each batch (if we wanted, of course) and to write down the exact ingredients, methods and procedure we used, as a way to show us how specific instructions need to be, or else they can be interpreted differently.

As a hint for other snickerdoodle recipes; cream of tartar is key! Also, don't over bake them!!!