Apple Hand Pies

Joel loves apple pie. But I am no good at making them. The crust is always all wrong, it’s sticky and ends up tough. I can never crimp the edges and it always looks like a big, hot mess. When I asked Joel what dessert sounded good, he suggested apple pie since he never has it. I cringed and then a magical thought popped into my head. Why not hand pies? I’ve been seeing them all over the blog world recently and figured this was the perfect opportunity for me to give them a whirl.

I searched online and found a recipe that sounded relatively easy. And luckily it turned out to be. The dough came together so easily in the food processor and I literally only had to knead it twice. It rolled out thinly without much effort. The only little problem I had with the dough is all the chilling time it required.

It is super important for the butter to be cold and diced into small chunks.

The pie crust should look like sand when it is ready to be kneaded.

Then simply knead the dough until it comes together then refrigerate for an hour (or overnight as I did).

I didn’t have the right size biscuit cutter (4 1/2 inches) so I used one of Noah’s baby bowls to cut the mini pie crusts which worked out perfectly. I got exactly 15 crusts out of the dough just as the recipe stated.

Fill the pies with 1 tablespoon of filling then crimp closed with a fork.

Brush with egg wash, sprinkle with coarse sugar, bake and enjoy!

Apple Hand Pies
recipe from DisneyFamily.com

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks frozen butter, cut into little cubes
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup ice-cold water
4 teaspoons lemon juice
2 large granny smith apples, peeled and cut in large dice
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup brown sugar

1. Place flour, salt and butter in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade attachment. Pulse just until it looks like coarse sand. In another bowl, whisk together sour cream, water and lemon juice. Slowly drizzle in the liquid mixture to the flour and butter, pulsing just until a rough ball forms. Pour out onto a lightly floured board and knead until just combined. Pat dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for one hour.
2. Meanwhile make apple filling. Melt butter over medium heat in a large skillet. Add apples and sauté for 3 minutes or until beginning to soften slightly. Add cinnamon and brown sugar. Cook for 2 minutes more, or until brown sugar melts. Remove from heat and cool completely.
3. Remove dough from refrigerator and cut in half. Roll each portion of dough to a thickness of about 1/8 of an inch. Using a round biscuit cutter, cut into circles, about 4 1/2 inches in diameter (the rim of a small bowl works well if you don’t have a biscuit cutter that size). Place on a baking sheet, lined with parchment. Scraps can be re-rolled and cut again. Place baking sheet in the refrigerator and repeat with the other ball of dough. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
5. Remove dough from refrigerator. Place about 1 tablespoon of apple filling on each round. Lightly brush edges with water, and fold over, using a fork to crimp edges together. Place back in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes. Remove from fridge. Brush the tops of each pie with an egg wash (whisk 1 egg yolk with 2 teaspoons of water), and sprinkle with sugar. Pierce each pie with the tip of a knife. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

This recipe is linked to:
Sweet as Sugar Cookies
A Well-Seasoned Life
This Week’s Craving
Holiday Sweet Swap

Easy Blueberry Skillet Cake

I love Paula Deen.  I know many of you out there don’t but I find her hilarious and charming.  That being said, I don’t make a lot of her recipes due to the usual caloric intake.  When I saw this recipe made for a Mother’s Day special by her sons, I knew it was something that we had to try.

This was soo easy to make due to the store-bought biscuits and simple steps.  This looks and tastes so fancy, like you worked on it all morning but it came together in about 5 minutes.

I don’t have a cast-iron skillet and my pans are not oven-proof so I used a pie plate instead with perfect results.  I’m sure it would be better in a cast-iron skillet though as it would create a nice, crispy bottom on the biscuits.

This was one of the yummiest streusel’s I have ever had.  I love almonds and they just put it over the top.

Another problem I ran into was that I couldn’t find a 12-oz. container of pre-made biscuits.  So instead I used a 10.5-oz (which was 5 biscuits).  I went with less because we would rather our cake be a litter saucier rather than drier.

The whole house smelled of blueberries and cinnamon…how could you go wrong?

Easy Blueberry Skillet Cake

Streusel Topping:
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Coffee Cake:
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 (12-ounce) tube buttermilk biscuits
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen and thawed

1. For the streusel topping: Combine the almonds, sugar, butter, flour, and cinnamon in a food processor and pulse until large crumbs form.
2. For the coffee cake: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. In a 9-inch cast-iron or other ovenproof skillet, cook the butter and brown sugar over medium heat until melted.
3. Arrange the biscuits in a single layer in the skillet. Scatter the blueberries over the biscuits, and then distribute the streusel topping over the berries.
4. Bake until the biscuits are golden and a tester inserted in the center of a biscuit comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Allow to cool slightly and serve from the skillet.

Strawberry Pancakes

Happy early Mother’s Day to all the momma’s out there!  This is my first Mother’s Day and I am very excited to spend it with my boys.  This recipe would be great to make mom for breakfast in bed!  It’s easy, uses ingredients most have on hand and tastes soo good.

The addition of strawberries is great but the cinnamon really put these over the edge for me.  I love anything cinnamon or strawberry so they were pretty much a dream come true.  This is a great base batter too if strawberries aren’t your thing.  Blueberries, chocolate chips, bananas, apples…go crazy!

The strawberries give a sweet punch and a unique texture to the pancakes.  I’m sure these would be delicious and decadent topped with some whipped cream and a sprinkle of mini chocolate chips.

Strawberry Pancakes
recipe from Food.com

2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup strawberries, sliced
Non-stick cooking spray

1. In a bowl, add the first 6 ingredients and stir to combine.
2. In another small bowl, add the buttermilk, eggs, and butter. Stir to combine.
3. Add the buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients; stir just until combined.
4. Gently fold in the strawberries.
5. Spray a large skilled or griddle with non-stick cooking spray.
6. Pour enough batter into the skillet to make a 5-inch circle; cook the pancakes until the tops are covered with tiny bubbles, then flip them over and finish cooking.

Recipe linked to This Week’s Craving.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins

These muffins are just amazing. I know it’s not pumpkin season but I just couldn’t resist after stumbling upon the recipe.  And with the buttermilk and whole wheat flour they are healthy, right? That’s what I keep telling myself at least.

My husband doesn’t like pumpkin. I think he may have been dropped on his head as a child because that is just wrong.  I’m out of town visiting my parents this week so I jumped on the chance to make something pumpkin.

The spices perfectly compliment these moist, pumpkin-y little gems. The texture is more dense and chewy than an average muffin due to the whole wheat flour but I think it goes well with the pumpkin. If you prefer a lighter muffin, replace the whole wheat flour with all-purpose flour.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Streusel Muffins
recipe adapted from Sweet Tooth

MUFFINS
1/4 cup of butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 tbsp molasses
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

STREUSEL
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp rolled oats
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cream together butter and sugars.
3. Add the pumpkin, buttermilk, eggs, and molasses and blend.
4. In a separate bowl, combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and chocolate chips.
5. Add dry ingredients to wet and stir until well mixed.
6. Put 12 liners into a muffin tin, and split the batter evenly between the liners.
7. Sprinkle the streusel topping on the batter evenly.
8. Bake for 25 minutes (or until fork comes out clean) and cool on a wire rack.

Recipe linked to:
Everyday Sisters Sharing Sunday

Homemade Poptarts

I think many of us can admit that we have gone to poptarts for a quick, on-the-go breakfast more than once in our life.  While they may not have the healthiest ingredients and sometimes resemble cardboard more than a pastry I have eaten my fair share of them.

When I came across this recipe at Brown Eyed Baker I knew it was something that we had to try.  They took quite a bit of time but they are so much better than the boxed variety and you know every ingredient in them.  If you don’t have the time or inclination, you can simply buy premade pie crust and follow the directions with similar results.

These are light, flaky and chewy unlike the store-bought version.  I made some with a powdered sugar glaze and sprinkles to look like the “real thing” and I left some plain.  My husband preferred them with the glaze and I without.  Either way, they are great!  I only made the strawberry filling but will definitely try the brown sugar cinnamon next time as that is my favorite variety.

If you have another fruit filling in mind (blueberry, cherry, apple…) just replace the strawberry jam with your flavor option and follow directions as listed.  If you try another filling flavor, let me know how it turns out!  Each filling recipe makes enough for 9 poptarts so if you want to try both, scale the filling amounts down.

Homemade Poptarts

For crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 cup unsalted butter, cold and cubed
1 egg
2 Tbsp. milk

For strawberry filling:
3/4 cup strawberry jam
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. water

For brown sugar cinnamon filling:
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
4 tsp. all-purpose flour

For glaze:
2/3 cup powdered sugar
milk to slightly thin

1. Prepare the strawberry filling by whisking together the cornstarch and water. Combine with the jam in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and let cool.
2. For the brown sugar cinnamon filling, whisk together all ingredients well.
3. To make the crust, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt. Using your fingers or a pastry blender, work in the butter until it is the size of peas and the mixture holds together when you squeeze it. Whisk together the egg and milk and add to the dough. Mix together with a fork until everything is evenly moistened. Knead briefly on a floured surface, if necessary, until the dough comes together.
4. Divide the dough in half. (At this point you can wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 days.) If you refrigerate the dough, let it come to room temperature for about 15 minutes before rolling out. Roll out one piece of dough to about 1/8-inch thick, in a 9½ by 12½ rectangle (using lots of flour as it can get sticky). I discovered a great trick on Dirty Jobs for rolling out dough (I know you are thinking “Dirty Jobs?” but trust me). Cover the dough with plastic wrap and then roll it out. This way, it doesn’t stick to the rolling pin. Using a sharp knife, pastry wheel or bench scraper (I used a pizza cutter), trim the rectangle to 9×12 inches. Cut the sheet of dough into nine 3×4 rectangles. Using a spatula, transfer the rectangles to a baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
5. Brush the lightly beaten egg on each of the rectangles. Spoon a tablespoon of filling into the center of each rectangle, leaving a ½-inch of space around the edges.
6. Roll out and cut the second piece of dough in the exact same manner as you did the first. One at a time, place a second rectangle of dough on top of the nine assembled ones. Using your fingers, press around the seams of the dough to make sure they are sealed (if your dough is too soft, refrigerate it now for 30 minutes rather than in the next step). Press the tines of a fork around the edges of the rectangles. Prick the tops of the rectangles in multiple spots to allow steam to escape.
7. Refrigerate the pan with the pastries (you don’t need to cover them) for about 30 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool slightly before serving. Store pastries in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.