Individual Apple Crisps—12 Weeks of Christmas Treats

Individual Apple Crisp

Don’t freak out, but today is the start of 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats!  I know, you’re all thinking the same things as me.  Yes, it WAS just Christmas.  Yes, it IS that time of year again.  Look on the bright side, you still have 12 weeks, well, really more like 14 since we’ll finish posts for the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats a couple weeks before the holiday.  You’ve got all the time in the world! ;)  

In thinking about what to post first and my mind not really on Christmas treats just yet, I had what I think is a great idea for holiday gift giving or any time, really.  Everyone I know seems to love food gifts.  I had in my pantry some of these cute, little 5 1/2 inch pie tins and it came to me that they would be great for making individual treats.  Having a basket full of apples we needed to use, I decided to make apple crisps.  I made enough to use the four little tins I had.

I think these would be great teacher, friend, or neighbor gifts for any time of the year.  Love the lids with each tin.

What else would you put in them?  Cute little pies?  What else?

For the apple crisps, I used this crumble topping recipe, which is a recipe from Paige at For Love of the Table who is a chef I took classes from when we lived in Kansas.  It is a perfect crumble and my go-to for crisps.  I halved her original recipe, since I knew I was only make four crisps.  Then I made up the apple part of the recipe and came up with what to put in it as I went along.  I think it turned out great.  Apple crisp is pretty basic.

Individual Apple Crisps, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

Crumble:

1/2  cup plus 1 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

6 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

4  1/2 tablespoons (2 ounces plus 1/4 ounce) unsalted butter, cold and cut into pieces

3/4 cup old-fashioned oats

1/4 cup lightly toasted and chopped walnuts

Apple Filling:

6 apples, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch chunks (any type of apple you’d like)

a squeeze or two of fresh lemon juice

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Have individual 5  1/2 inch tins or ramekins set on a baking sheet ready to fill.  Spray them lightly with cooking spray.

In a medium sized bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour, salt, nutmeg and oats.  Add the butter and begin rubbing it in to the dry mixture, pinching it between your fingers, until it is well incorporated and it feels like all of the mixture is moist.  Add the nuts and stir together.  Set in the refrigerator until ready to use.  *If you really don’t want to use your hands, you can put the ingredients in a food processor and pulse a few times until it is all combined.  Don’t over process it if you do it this way.  Add the nuts at the end and stir them in. 

In another bowl, add the apples and toss them with the lemon juice.  Add the sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt and stir to combine.  Scoop an equal amount (about a cup) of the apple filling into each tin.  Next put equal amounts of the crumble evenly on the tops of each tin full of apples.  Bake for about 30 minutes, until topping is golden and crisp.  Let the crisps cool until warm.  Or if giving them as gifts, let them cool completely, put the lids on and label them.

*Have an abundance of another fruit?  Use that instead and add sugar according to the sweetness of the fruit.  You can also add some dried fruit, cranberries, cherries to the apple crisp if you’d like. 

Brenda from Meal Planning Magic is hosting the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats round up this year (again).  Check out her blog for more information.   Check out all the other recipe from the other participants.  I know I’ll get some great ideas for the holidays this year and you will, too, I’m sure.

Pumpkin Cake with Browned Butter and Pecan Streusel

Happy Halloween!

I HAVE to share this cake with you and then you HAVE to make sure you have everything and make it right away.  Ok, go trick-or-treating first, but you’ll for sure want to make this cake soon!  I love it.  And guess what—you know I really love something when I just made it last night and am hurrying to get this post off to share it with you all.  And you also know I really love something when I actually follow a recipe exactly!  I must say, it sure is easier to share a recipe with you when I didn’t make so many changes!

This pumpkin cake is SO good.  It’s moist, (especially if you eat it still-warm, we had company over and it hadn’t even finished cooling all the way_.  Only problem with that is it’s hard to cut nice pieces when it’s still warm.  You also know something was really good when I didn’t even remember to get pictures of the whole cake and was lucky enough to snap these few I’m sharing with you. 

The star of this cake is the browned butter pecan streusel!  I would have thought it wouldn’t make much of a difference, but the browned butter gives this that little bit more of a kick that is just so delicious.  I had the pleasure of being served this cake back in Kansas when we attended one of my favorite chef’s classes, Paige, at A Cooking Life.  (You’ll learn so much from her blog.)  When Paige shared this cake, it was in one of her classes that we (Kevin and I) went to that was called Dinner With Class.  Five star, three course meal, prepared in front of you (with instruction and conversation) by Paige, then served in a date-like setting with just a few other couples also taking the class.  Loved those dinner classes!  I loved this cake when Paige made it and FINALLY more than a year later got my act together and made it again.  It was just as good as I remember it (although her nice serving always looks better than what I can do).  The cake is simply served with a dollop of whipped cream (or you could also serve vanilla ice cream).  That said, I think it is just as good as a snack like a coffee cake.   Most of the boys and even the company really liked it, too.  Winner!

Here is Paige’s recipe as written by her with no adaptations from me.  I have a great big three-ringer binder full of all the recipes I got from taking Paige’s classes and I make many of them often and try new ones I haven’t made yet as well!  Check out her blog for more deliciousness and GREAT instruction (link above for A Cooking Life).

Pumpkin Cake with Browned Butter & Pecan Streusel, by Paige Vandegrift

Pecan Streusel:

½ cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup light brown sugar

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, browned (*see instructions below), then cooled

½ cup pecans, lightly toasted and coarsely chopped

Combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Drizzle the butter over and stir with a fork until the ingredients are combined and have formed clumps. Stir in the pecans and chill until ready to use.

Pumpkin Cake:

2 cups cake flour (256 grams)

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup solid pack pumpkin (or use freshly roasted and pureed pumpkin or winter squash--**see below)

½ cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup light brown sugar (220 grams)

½ cup granulated sugar (100 grams)

2 large eggs, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10-inch round (or 9-inch square) cake pan, line with a round of parchment paper, butter the paper, then flour the pan. Set aside.

Sift the dry ingredients together and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, milk and vanilla. Set aside.

Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter with the sugars until light and fluffy, stopping the mixer once or twice to scrape down the sides. This will take 2-3 minutes at medium-high speed. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides after each addition. Increase the speed to medium-high and briefly beat until the mixture lightens in color and expands in volume. By hand, fold in half of the dry ingredients, followed by all the liquid ingredients, followed by the remaining dry ingredients.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle the streusel topping evenly over the cake. (Always start putting the streusel around the edges so the middle isn’t weighed down.) Bake for 35-45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cake cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes. Loosen the sides of the cake by running a thin knife around the edges of the pan. Turn the cake out of the pan. Cool the cake, streusel side up, on a wire rack.

Serve the cake with whipped cream or ice cream.

*To “brown” butter, place the butter in a small saucepan set over medium heat. As the butter begins to sputter and pop, whisk occasionally. The butter solids will begin to turn brown. When the solids are a deep golden brown and the butter has a pleasantly nutty aroma, transfer the butter to another container to stop the cooking process.

**Roasted pumpkin puree: Use a sugar pumpkin. Choose one that feels heavy for its size. Cut the pumpkin in half horizontally and scoop out the seeds. Place the pumpkin halves cut side down on a greased rimmed baking sheet. Bake in a 350 degree oven until very tender (pumpkin may begin to collapse)—about 1 hour, depending on the size of the pumpkin. Remove from the oven and turn the halves over so the flesh is exposed. Allow the pumpkin to cool. Puree the flesh in a food processor or pass through a food mill fitted with the fine disc. Dry the puree further by spreading in a shallow pan and baking at 300 degrees, stirring occasionally, until the desired consistency is reached—it will darken a little and will no longer “bleed” water. A medium-sized pumpkin (2 ½ to 2 ½ lbs.) will produce 10 to 12 ounces, or about 1 ¼ to 1 ½ cups of puree.

I made the cake in a 9-inch square pan since I don’t have a 10 inch round pan (same volume)—either way—it’s so good.  You need to make this cake—it’s the perfect time of year!

Pie Party---Best Cherry Pie

Some people on Facebook and Twitter were talking about pie and how great pie is and how everyone loves it.  They decided to make today a virtual Pie Party.  I decided I just HAD to join in so there was a legitimate excuse to make pie. ;)  Cherry pie is one of our favorites around here, but I have swore off the canned pie filling if I can help it.  In searching for cherry pies on the internet, I settled on one from Food.com called Best Cherry Pie submitted by Luby Luby Luby in 2003.  The pie has a 5 star rating and all the reviews I read were great.  The pie was also a blue ribbon winner at a county fair.  I knew I couldn’t lose there.  And it called for canned tart cherries, which I had on hand.

I followed the recipe exactly, but when it came down to needing some lemon juice, I found that I didn’t have any lemons.  So I used lime!  Cherry and lime go well together and the pie tasted great!  I used an all butter pie crust, which is a recipe from my friend Paige for basic pie dough (aka—pate brisee).  This has become my go-to pie crust!

After assembling the pie with the top crust, it sprung a leak that I could not patch up.  So I tried dabbing the leaking cherry juice with paper towel and a cloth and it just kept getting worse.  So I finished up crimping the edges and slitting the top with some holes and baked the pie with its little pool of red on the top.  Sigh.  The pie still turned out nice.  I always put my signature pie crust cut out of what is in the pie on the top, in this case two little cherries.  Before baking the pie, I brushed some cream over the top and sprinkled it with granulated sugar.

My pie looks like it had a little injury, but it gave it a little character, right? ;)  This cherry pie had a perfect sweet/tart taste to it and is surely one I’d make again.  What I’d really love is to get my hands on some actual fresh tart cherries, that would be heavenly!

We had a great 4th of July.  It started with us waking up early and going to a parade.  It was perfectly cloudy yesterday so that we didn’t get too hot sitting at the parade.

The coolest thing at the parade was a big Star Wars float and a bunch of marching storm troopers, etc.

I think the look of anticipation on Sam’s face is really cute as he could see each float, band, etc. coming down the street.

We took it easy the rest of the day, then I made everyone going running/walking with me that evening before they could have pie and before we lit off some fireworks.

Sam’s first sparkler.

When Kevin was about seven years old, he disobeyed his parents and got into some fire crackers and matches and lit one off that exploded in his hand.  He has told the boys about how he really burned some of his fingers and got hurt.  He has not really liked fire crackers since and we have never bought any ourselves.  It has worked out fine in that we usually have ended up spending the evening with friends or watching a big fireworks show.  But this year, we spent the day by ourselves.  So Kevin ventured out and bought a bunch of things.  I think he was secretly really enjoying lighting them and watching them blow.  Shhh, don’t tell him I told you. ;) 

A Great Blog to Check Out—A Cooking Life, by Chef Paige

Photo courtesy of Paige Vandegrift, check out the link to her post for more photos!

I’ve had the pleasure (Thanks a million, Kevin!) of being in Kansas this week, just as a little getaway without the family (because I believe every mom should get to do this).  I’m visiting friends that I’ve dearly missed since we moved last summer and one of the highlights of the trip has been taking another cooking class from the wonderful, Chef Paige.  Six friends and I were able to make it to the class (missed you, Ellen!) and it was a joy to be there with so many and to enjoy Paige and her expertise and delicious food once again.  How I’ve missed that!

Today happens to mark one year since Paige started a blog.  She posted a yummy looking cake today made with ground pistachios with a chocolate frosting on top.  It looks really good and perfect for St. Patrick’s Day, since it’s green from the pistachios.  Check out her post and her blog.  It is always a pleasure to read her posts, especially since I don’t live in Kansas anymore and don’t get to go to her classes.  She mentions in her post thanks to me for encouraging her to start her blog and whether I really feel like I did anything or not, I’m really glad she did and can’t wait to keep reading along.  Thanks, Paige.  I’ve learned more than you know from your classes, your blog, and you!