Never underestimate the power of FLAN!

Lately, my girls and I have been watching season 1 of Sabrina the Teenage Witch on Hulu. Here's a quick shout out to Hulu and Netflix for showing all of my favorite 80's and 90's shows like Saved by the Bell, Jem and the Holograms and Sabrina....HOLLA! My kids love these shows as much as I do. Anyhow, the most recent episode we watched featured Flan and I realized that I needed to share my recipe for flan so others

PB & Chocolate go together like Batman & Robin

Hello my bloggy friends! Boy have I got a surprise for you today! Before I start, I should tell you that if you are dieting, you should think twice before reading this posting. There, you have been sufficiently warned and I take no responsibility for what happens after you read this. Who doesn't love a good Reese's Cup? Well, besides people with peanut allergies. I used to buy no bake Reese's Bars and make them for my family quite frequently. I haven't made them in a while and was really wanting some of that peanutty goodness and also I was at my election campaigning breaking point (I, too, am really tired of Bronco Bama and Mitt Romney). I went to the store to pick some up only to find that they no longer carry them.....WHAT?!?! So, I tried making buckeyes instead. I really like buckeyes, but they just weren't quite right. They taste great, but not like a Reese's cup or bar. So I started searching Google and I found it. The perfect recipe. It taste's just like Reese's to the 10th power...or heaven. So, first I have to credit BakerLady for the original recipe. I tweaked it a bit, though, and look at that yummy piece of paradise! The good news is that I made it through the election intact, but sadly the peanut butter bars did not.

How do ya like them apples?

Happy OCTOBER!!! It's apple time and as you may have seen in a previous post, I recently went to Jaemor Farms and bought a lot of apples. I have a recipe for peach cobbler that is so delicious and I make it when peaches are in season, but today, I decided I should try it with apples and here are the results.

It looks so yummy and trust me, it was fantastic!

Ingredients

Filling

4 cups sliced and peeled apples (any fruit would probably work)

1 1/2 cups sugar

cinnamon to taste (optional)

Batter

1 cup butter

2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

2 tsp baking powder

2 cups milk

You want to start my peeling, coring and thinly slicing your apples. I have one of those combo units from pampered chef that I decided to use. It doesn't always work the way it should, check it out:

The cinematography is thanks to my youngest child, Stinkerboo, and yes, I always speak to my ingredients in funny voices. That's what they mean when they tell you it's made with love. When you are done loving cutting your apples you will then want to mix them with the 1 1/2 cups sugar and cinnamon and just let that sit for about 20 minutes stirring occasionally, this is what it will look like at the end of that time.

Meanwhile preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Put your butter in a 2.5 qt baking dish or larger and place it in the oven to melt. This was my first time baking this cobbler in stoneware and It turned out really well. This is my deep covered baker from pampered chef and I highly recommend it. If you get one be sure to ask your consultant to email you the free cookbook that comes with it.

Keep an eye on the butter to make sure it doesn't burn in the oven and take it out as soon as it is melted, but in the meantime you can go ahead and mix up your batter. Sift together the flour, sugar and baking powder and then whisk in the milk, lumps will remain. (BTW, do you like my frankenstein nail polish?)

Pour the batter into the dish on top of the butter. I know this seems backwards, but trust me, the batter cooks up around the fruit and the butter rises to the top to create a nice crust. It's magic! 

Once the fruit has been in the sugar for 20 minutes you can go ahead and pour it on top. Don't STIR!!!! Just spread it out on top and let it be.

You'll need to bake it around 45 minutes to an hour depending on your stove and what type of baking dish you use. It's done when you can insert a cake tester or knife in the center and it comes out clean. This is a great dish to take to a covered dish or just to have at home. I hope you'll give it a go and let me know how you like it in the comments below!

Not your Mama's Apple Pie.

So, I got to go to Jaemor farms today to buy some farm fresh produce. It's about an hour away but well worth the trip. I only go there once or twice a year, usually in the fall to get apples and the elusive pink pumpkin (aka Warsaw Buff Pumpkin). It is my favorite pumpkin to bake with. However, that's not what I'm blogging about! Today I bought a peck of Apples for $10.00. I don't remember what kind they were, but they are yellowy green with a bit of red on them. They are a nice blend of tart and sweet, just perfect for an apple pie. So, since I was making apple pie, I thought I would share my recipe with you.

Ingredients:

Crust (Pate Brise)

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

2 sticks of cold butter cut into pieces

1/4-1/2 cup ice cold water

Filling

7 apples cored, peeled and thinly sliced

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 tsp cinnamon

nutmeg to taste

3 tbs butter sliced

First you need to start with the pie crust since it will need to be refrigerated for one hour before you can roll it out. It is fine to make it in the morning or even a day or two ahead of time. You will need a food processor to make it this way so if you don't have one then you can buy or make your own crust. I do have to tell you that this crust is the BEST and it's my fave...mostly because it has two sticks of butter in it. So combine the first three ingredients in the food processor and pulse until mixed. Then add your butter pieces all spread out like so:

Then mix that until it resembles a corn meal like consistency. Next, with the food processor on high, pour the icy cold water in through the tube veeeeerrrryyyy slooooowly.....

.....until the dough holds together and forms a ball. You may not use all of the water, but I generally do.

Scrape the dough out onto a piece a plastic wrap, press into a disk, wrap and refrigerate for one hour. Meanwhile, go ahead and peel, core and thinly slice your apples. Put them in a fairly large bowl, I had to pour them into a larger bowl a bit later on, and add the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. 

This is also a great moment to have your helper Sous Chef add some ingredients.

After you have added all of the dry ingredients stir to coat and let it sit while your crust refrigerates. Give it a stir every now and then while you wait.

Once your crust is ready to come out of fridge, break it in half and roll out half of it. Be sure to roll it pretty thin because pie crust is best when it's thin. Here's a neat trick I learned from my grandmother, If you don't have a plastic sheet for rolling out dough, you can do what we do. Find an old pillowcase that you don't use anymore (make sure it's clean), flour it really well and roll your crust out on it. Afterwards you can just shake the excess flour into the trash can and toss the pillowcase in the wash. After it's washed I usually just fold it in half and roll it around my rolling pin for the next time.

The pillowcase is also great for helping me flip my pie crust into the pan without breaking it. I just put my hands under the pillowcase in the middle of the dough, put the pan on upside down and then flip the whole thing. Once its flipped I arrange the crust and press it into the edges of the pie dish.

Pour in those nicely coated apples....

...then top with the 3 tbsp of butter.

Normally at this point I would roll out the other half of the dough cut some slits and flip it onto the pie, but my Sous Chef insisted that we make a lattice pie. So, since I don't have a fancy schmancy wavy cutter I just used my pizza cutter to cut the dough into not very even strips.

Then I used my very best elementary school weaving skills. I don't think I could explain this if I tried. So here's the best picture I could come up with.

Next, you will need a fork to crimp the edges.

And then cut off the excess dough and pop that baby in your 450 degree preheated oven (oh yeah, did I forget to mention that earlier??? oops!)

This is what it looks like after it's baked. We couldn't wait for it to cool to eat it, so now we can't taste anything with our burnt tongues. 

This is what it looks like after your family of five has gone at it. YUMMMM!

Thanks for reading!!! I promise to blog again soon, when we will find out about my adventures in canning!!!! YAY!

Love ya peeps,

Kasey