Posts Tagged ‘dessert’

Apple picking is probably my favorite Fall activity. I LOVE it. I could go every week. In fact, I think that may just be my plan this season.  Two weekends ago we went to the apple orchard to pick honey crisp apples right off the tree.  Eating apples that you’ve picked seconds before you take that first bite…ah it really doesn’t get much better than that.

I always pick more apples than I can eat.  This time was no exception. I came home with eight pounds of apples. Hmm, what to do? Fortunately, when I checked my mailbox that same day, I found a postcard from one of our cruise friends.

(Yes, I know the cruise post hasn’t come yet….JenTastic needs to add her two cents to my post before I publish it, but at the rate she’s going, we’ll need another cruise to refresh our memories before this one gets written)  

Anyway, that postcard happened to have a recipe for apple strudel, so that is what I decided to make.  I didn’t actually use that recipe, but I researched a bunch of them on the Interwebs and took a culmination of what I found.  That’s how I roll in the kitchen, people. Improvise.  Sometimes more successful than others.

I had completely forgotten how finicky filo, phyllo, whatever you call it, dough is.  That stuff will drive anyone crazy. It’s no wonder things like baklava are so incredibly costly, and rarely made at home!

So here’s my apple strudel – step by step, except for the steps where I crushed sheets of filo between my fingers, cursed at my ceiling and then threw them angrily into the trash. Sadly, those steps have been edited.  Tis a shame…they were pretty amusing moments.

I’ve never made strudel before, but I used to make apple pie all the time when I worked at a little grocery store after high school so I was fairly confident in my strudel making ability.  I always TRY to stick with a traditional version the first time I make something so I actually added raisins. I don’t usually include raisins in food that needs to be cooked because of a traumatic, childhood incident.   I love raisins, really I do.  As a child, I never went anywhere without my box of Sun-Maid raisins.  Everyone knew this, including my brother.  One day, my wonderful, caring, nurturing brother decided that he would rip the legs off ants, crush them and feed them to me as if they were my beloved raisins.  Apparently, I ate many an ant until Mom discovered what he was doing.  I learned of this later in life, thankfully (I have a bug issue, much like my friend Kim) but I’ve never been down with warm, plump raisins.

I really don’t want to think about that right now. I’d rather talk strudel.

Apple Strudel – made 2 strudels (filo was smaller than I remember, so you may have to adjust filling amounts)

5 medium apples – peeled, cored and chopped
1c apple juice
2T corn starch (maybe a little less)
1/4c sugar (may need more if apples aren’t sweet enough)
1 t cinnamon
4T butter – melted
1t vanilla
1/2c raisins
1/2c chopped pecans (or walnuts)
1/2c plain breadcrumbs
4-5 sheets of filo (or as many as you can separate fully and still have enough to work with) Filo should be thawed, but very cold.  Keep it frozen until day before you use it.  Keep in fridge until you’re exactly ready to use it and keep it under a damp, cold cloth when working with it. (got that?)

Add corn starch to 1/4c of apple juice to make a slurry – set aside.

Peel, core and chop apples. In a large saucepan combine apples, remaining apple juice, sugar, cinnamon and raisins.  Cook over low to medium heat until apples are softened, about 10 minutes.  Stir slurry to mix, add to apple mixture, stir continually for another minute. Add vanilla and remove from heat.  Stir in pecans.  Let cool.

I haven’t added the pecans yet, but here they are:

On a clean, dry surface lay out one piece of filo (I put a piece of parchment right on my baking sheet and it was very easy to move around.)  Lightly brush it with butter; a pastry brush OR your fingers will work…just be careful, it’s very fragile.  Sprinkle with bread crumbs. (Yes, I know! I didn’t realize this was a secret part of strudel.  You can also use cake crumbs if you happen to have them, but really who keeps cake crumbs around? I thought that’s what your mouth was for??)

Repeat with 3 or 4 more layers, butter, breadcrumbs, repeat.  Finally you’ll have a little stack of layers.  I added half of the filling just off center on my filo stack.

Then I carefully rolled it up (with more cursing and under the breath mumbling) and ended up with these beauties!  Don’t say a word about the misshapen one, you’ll give it a complex.  When it was all baked and sliced, it looked perfectly normal thankyouverymuch.

Brush the tops with remaining butter. Bake at 450 degrees for 15-18 minutes. I think mine took about 20.  Just watch them.

Oh la la!  Look how pretty they are! and NOTHING makes your house smell better than apples and cinnamon cooking.

I let them cool overnight and then I sprinkled them heavily with powdered sugar and sliced. Here are some glamour shots of my strudel.  Head shot.

Side angle.

That’s it! With practice, the filo will come easily, but as I was fighting with it, I was already thinking of back up plans. You could cut the filo in half and layer in muffin tins making strudel cups. I may try that next time, but I WILL be making more of this soon! I COULD have made one big one, but I’m not sure how I would have rolled it up. It was hard enough with these little ones.  I’d guess that as I get better at the filo, I can make larger ones.

These actually made perfect size slices. I took them to work and shared.  I did. Really.

See?

My cruise friend Julia, whose postcard sparked this whole idea, suggested topping it with a warm vanilla sauce or of course, vanilla ice cream.  Both sound good, but warm vanilla sauce is now on my “to do” list.

This is a variation of a recipe I saw on a cooking show.  It might have been Paula Deen, which shocks me because I can never cook anything she makes.  She uses too much butter and sugar for me.  Why yes, I did just actually say “too much sugar.”

These are Lemon Coconut Macaroons and they are SO delicious.

1 large egg white
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 c sweetened condensed milk
2+ Tablespoons lemon zest (I used a whole lemon, it was a big one)
1/2 T lemon extract (I didn’t have any, so I used all the juice from the lemon I zested and it tasted just fine)
1/2t vanilla extract
1 – 14 oz bag of shredded sweetened coconut – roughly chopped.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

In a bowl,whisk the egg white and salt until frothy.  This took about 2- minutes using a hand whisker, faster if you use an electric mixer (which you do not need for this recipe)

Stir in condensed milk, zest and extracts (and juice if you use the lemon juice).

Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, fold in the coconut until combined.

You can use a small ice cream scoop or just use your hands to make 1 1/2 inch macaroons.  You will need to use your hands to form them together, so be prepared to get your hands dirty.

Place them about an inch apart on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.

Bake until lightly browned. Check on them after 20 minutes, but mine needed almost 30.  They will turn brown very quickly after  they start browning so be sure to watch them.

Transfer to a wire rack and cool.

Notes: If you like your macaroons a little more refined and not so crazy, you can chop the coconut  more finely.  There are a lot of variations you can make with this recipe, just experiment with flavorings.  They can be dipped in chocolate or rolled in nuts, all sorts of things.  Be creative. If they turn out less than desired, you can always bring them to work and call them “test recipes.”

This recipe is from my friend Stephanie.  She makes the most delicious holiday cookies and she always includes these yummy brownies. I made ONE change to the recipe, which I’ll note below.

TURTLE BROWNIES (aka Lava Brownies — see below)

1 box chocolate cake mix (original recipe uses German chocolate cake mix)
1 (14 oz.) pkg. caramels
2/3 c. evaporated milk
3/4 c. melted butter
1 c. nuts
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate pieces

Enjoy!  Do not be tempted to cut these into giant pieces. Small ones really are enough.

Yes, I did just say a small brownie is enough.

Really, I did.

Muffins, cupcakes…what’s the difference really?  Frosting?  You could frost these with a nice chocolate ganache and call them cupcakes. Either way, they are tasty and SUPER easy.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
1/2 cup oil (will try again with applesauce)
1 3/4 cup flour (I used 1 cup regular and 3/4 white whole wheat flour)
1 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t ginger
1/2 t cinnamon
3/4 cup chocolate chips (roughly half a bag)

In a bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin puree, oil and eggs.

In another bowl combine dry ingredients and mix together (I use a wisk to lighten the flour and make sure there are no lumps)

Add the dry ingredients to the wet in small amounts, be careful not to overmix.

Add the chocolate chips at the end.

Makes 12 muffins or 2 trays of mini muffins

Bake at 350 for 15-18 mins (less for the mini muffins)

Enjoy!

(PS I tweaked this recipe from here.)

This is a very easy, show stopping dessert that takes no skill at all and even less time.  You can make this dessert a million times with different flavors.

First, make a 9X13 cake, I chose chocolate this time. I baked the cake according to package directions and let cool overnight.  I did line the cake pan with parchment paper since I knew I would be flipping the cake out and cutting it up.

Once the cake has cooled completely, cut it into cubes.

Put cubes back into the cake pan until you’re ready to assemble the trifle.

Make a box of pudding (any flavor) according to the package directions. I used the larger box.  I usually make the cake and pudding at least one day in advance so both are chilled and ready to go.

Next, whip one cup of heaving whipping cream until it’s the consistency you like.  Tip: Keep the beaters and bowl in the freezer overnight. It will make the cream whip easier.

I do not add sugar here because the pudding is sweet enough, but you could add vanilla or other flavorings if you want.

The only technical part of this entire recipe is this step. You have to fold the whipped cream into the pudding to lighten it up.  To do this, just scoop the whipped cream on top of the pudding and slide your spatula down through the middle and up towards the edge of the bowl. Keep turning the bowl so you fold all the cream into the pudding.

You don’t want to just mix it up willynilly because that will deflate the whipped cream.  This will take a few minutes to do properly, but will result in a light, fluffy filling. You should still see streaks of whipped cream and pudding, so it will not be completely incorporated.

You will also need a container of cool whip.  You could make another batch of whipped cream for this layer, but the cool whip is easier and tastes just as good.

Start layering cake into your trifle bowl (Mine was $10 at Target..well worth the investment).  You should be able to get three full layers, but it will be VERY full.  It may not fit in your fridge, so check that out first.  For this one, I just did two cake layers and two of pudding/cool whip and added a small bit of each to the top.

Here’s another version I did last year. This was butterscotch pudding and cake.

Add a small box of butterscotch pudding to the yellow cake mix when you’re making it.  Bake as directed but it may need 5-10 extra minutes.  Continue as planned.

Enjoy!