Caramel Apple Pie

Note: Let me apologize for this picture, I was lucky to snack anything to get a picture before this was devoured by O and a few friends! I will try to get a better picture when I make this again in the coming weeks.

This is Owen’s favorite apple pie. I originally found it on Allrecipes as Grandma
Opies Apple pie. I have made some changes over the years to suit out tastes more, and now it is the most requested apple pie I make, the main change I made is the addition of cinnamon - it isn't a true apple pie around here unless there is cinnamon.


Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tbsp cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
8 apples - peeled, cored and sliced (I like to use a slightly tart, baking apple)
Pastry dough for a double crust 9 inch pie



Directions:
1. Roll out the bottom crust of the pie and place in the pie plate.
2. Pile the apple slices into the pie crust, you want them so they mound slightly in the middle.
3. In a pot on the stove, melt the butter. Mix in the flour so that it forms a paste.
4. To the butter ‘paste’ add the sugars and water. Mix well and bring to a simmer until it thickens.
5. Add the cinnamon to the butter sugar mixture and pour over the apples in the pie crust.
6. Roll out and add the top crust (we use a full top crust with slits cut in it, but a lattice top works nicely as well if you like less crust).
7. Bake at 425F for 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 350F and continue to cook for about 35 minutes.

Note: This pie freezes well. Just wrap in tinfoil and place in the freezer after step 6. When baking it, don’t let it thaw, pop it right into the oven and add an extra 20 to 30 minutes to the cook time.

Reviews:
This pie always gets great reviews, and is always requested when I ask if I should make an apple pie.

Apple Stars

These were my favorite snack as a kid, my brother and I would always ask our Dad for apple stars for our evening snacks. We didn’t always get them, and we usually fought over who got the one with the best “star” when we did get them. Eating these now takes me back to those memories and always makes me smile (plus I can always have the best “star” now that my little brother and I no longer live under the same roof). They are a quick, simple treat and not all that bad for you.

Ingredients:
1 apple
½ to 1 tsp brown sugar
dash of cinnamon

Directions:
1. Slice the apple in rings through the core, remove the seeds from the inside of the apple.
2. Lay the apple slices on a flat surface and sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon over the apples.
3. Serve and enjoy!

Caramel Apple Bunt

We just recieved our first order of apples - just over 200lbs! (Don’t worry I did get some apples for other people and most are windfalls for making juice.) So I have an abundance of apples around the house. I also tried a couple of new varieties this year and wanted to see how they held up in baking before I started the mass pie production. This cake seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out the new baking apples - that and it was my husband’s birthday, so I was in need of a cake.

I found the original recipe on all recipes.com, but modified it a bit to suit my tastes (well hubby’s tastes and my aversion to 1.5 cups of oil in one recipe). Below is what I came up with and it was a delicious fall cake, even without the topping. I may make it again adding cinnamon to the batter and leaving off the topping.

Ingredients
CAKE:
3 eggs
1 cups sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 cup apple sauce
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups chopped, peeled apples

TOPPING:
1/4 cup butter or margarine
2 tbsp milk
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
Pinch salt


Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs until foamy; gradually add sugar. Blend in oil and vanilla.
2.Combine flour, salt and baking soda; add to egg mixture.
3.Stir in apples and pecans.
4.Pour into a greased bunt pan.
5.Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the cake tests done (toothpick comes out clean).
6.Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cake to a serving platter.
7. For topping, combine all ingredients in a saucepan; boil 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Slowly pour over warm cake (some topping will run down onto the serving plate.)

Reviews:
My husband liked this cake and didn't mind having an apple birthday cake rather than the traditional birthday cake. The leftovers were fed to my coworkers and received rave reviews. Everyone really enjoyed the cake, and it was still nice and moist a couple days later.

Bulldogs Update

I have been really bad about posting the bulldog's cookies each week, but with all that was going on I barely had time to get the cookies made let alone write up posts to go with them, so I am giving you the last of their cookies now, and will start working on the backlog.

This is what I made for the bulldogs for the last playoff game they were in - they were playing 2-3 games a week at this point so I was short on time between games. Also supplies for baking was running out in the house, and as I was leaving a couple days later on vacation, grocery shopping was the last thing on my mind. I had tried this with a couple of leftover egg roll wrappers the last time I made egg rolls, and they got great reviews.

Apple Rolls

Ingredients:
1 pkg egg roll wrappers
3-4 apples (use a tarter apple such as Granny Smith)
Brown sugar
Cinnamon
Water
Oil for deepfrying

Directions:
1. Peal and core the apples, cut each apple into 12-16 slices. You want the slices to be no more than 1/2 and inch wide on the widest side.
2. Take one egg roll wrapper, and place an apple slice near one of the corners. Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon - tarter apples will need a little more sugar, so go with what you like. Top with another apple slice.

3. Fold the bottom corner over the apples, fold in side corners and roll up like an egg roll. Wet the top corner so it will seal.
4. Repeat until you run out of egg roll wrappers.
5. Deep fry the rolls in oil at about 375F until the wrappers are golden. Drain, let cool slightly and enjoy.
Note: they will become soft if stored too long - so just give them a quick cook in the oven to crisp them up again (375-400F for 5-10min).


Reviews:
These were a huge hit, I got more comments on them than any of the others cookies from through the season. One player stated that they were his all time favorite. One warning that O noticed (he has had them twice now) is to make sure you don't overcook them or the apples will be soft. Not a problem if you don't mind soft apples, but he says they are better with apples that are still holding their shape a bit.

Bulldogs:
Alright, the Bulldogs got into their divisional playoffs in first place. Sadly they were unable to make it to the finals.

Chewy Apple "crisp" Cookies - Bulldogs Week 2

The bulldogs played on Friday night, and for this week I decided to try my hand at making a recipe of my own without modifying other recipes. I knew I had a bunch of apples that I needed to get rid of and decided to try making a cookie that would be reminiscent of apple crisp. I started tossing things into my mixer and looking for the right consistency. Once I thought I might have it, I would bake up a cookie, test it and then add more as needed. I think we ended up with 4 or 5 versions of this cookie in various stages before I was done.

Apple “Crsip” Cookies – makes about 2 doz depending on cookie size

Ingredients:
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup butter
¼ cup + ½ cup applesauce
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
½ cup all purpose flour
½ cup whole wheat flour
¼ tsp baking powder
2-3 tsp cinnamon (depending on how much you like cinnamon)
½ tsp nutmeg
1 sm to med apple chopped
1 sm to med apple grated (just use a cheese grater)
1 ½ cup large flake oats

Directions:
1. Beat the sugar and butter together until fluffly. Add in ¼ cup of apple sauce, egg and vanilla.
2. Add in the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and baking powder and mix until just mixed.
3. Fold in the Apples, oats and the last ½ cup apple sauce.
4. Spoon with teaspoons onto a baking sheet (I cover mine with parchment paper and they didn’t stick at all), and sprinkle the tops with a touch of brown sugar (1/4tsp ish).
5. Bake at 350 For 12-14 minutes, the cookies with be a bit spongy when done, but will hold their shape when touched.

Reviews:
Oh wow did this ever make the house smell like apples! They smell was great and the cookies packed a great deal of apple flavour into them. Owen did say they tasted a bit like an apple crisp (which is what I was going for, so woo hoo for me). The cookies are super moist and don’t need to be stored in an airtight container which is nice – you can leave them sit out for quite a while.

The boys apparently really enjoyed the cookies and I didn’t end up with any leftovers.

"Those apple pie cookies (worth at least a few goals) were good" Team Captain


Game Score:
The Bulldogs won 6-1 for their game, way to go boys!

Mini Apple Pies

I was making a lot of apple pies, and had all the little trimmings of pie crust. Seeing them all sitting there in a big pile made it impossible for me to through them out. I had to do something with them. I didn't want to do anymore pies, and I am not a fan of overworked dough, so I made mini pies!

Ingredients:
Pie crust
1 apple
dash of cinnamon
Sprinkle of brown sugar
dash of flour

Directions:
1. Cut the pie crust into little rounds - this will depend on the size of the mini-muffin tin you have, but a 3" circle worked well for me for the bottom and a 2.5" circle for the top.
2. Mix the apple chunks, cinnamon, flour and sugar together (I just give it a quick taste to see if I like the mix - i find this better than any measurements as all types of apples will need varying amounts of sugar).

3. Assemble pies in a mini-muffin tin, crimp the edges and bake for about 20 minutes at 350F.

Reviews:
Everyone loved these little bite sized pies. They were easy to transport to people, you didn't need to bring along any plates or forks, as they could just pick them up and pop them in your mouth. Some friends have named the "Two bite Apple Pies" as they reminded them of two bite brownies.

Simple Apple Pie - For the Freezer

In the fall when apples are cheap (directly from the orchards) I like to stock up and make apple pies for the winter. It is great for potlucks and chilly nights to come home and just pop a pie in the oven, without the work of slicing apples and making pie dough. This is just a simple pie that I like to have in the freezer for those days. (I am really sorry for the no picture, they are all lost in the freezer)

Ingredients:
Pie crust for a double crust pie (I use the recipe on the tenderflake container for freezer pies, I find it freezers really well)
4 to 5 cups of apples
2 tbsp flour
½ tbsp cinnamon
½ to 1 cup sugar (depending on your taste and the sweetness of apples)
1 tbsp butter

Directions:
1. Roll out the pie shell and line a tin pie plate. Roll the top crust to have ready.
2. Peel, core and slice the apples.
3. Toss the apples with the flour, cinnamon and sugar.
4. Place the apples in the pie shell, and place cubes of butter on top.
5. Top with the top crust, and seal the edges. Cut a vent in the top.
6. Cover the pie with tin(aluminum foil) and place in freezer.
To Bake:
1. Place directly from the freezer into an oven at 450F, and bake for 15 mintues.
2. Turn the oven down to 350F and bake for an additional 45-60 minutes. If the top crust becomes too brown cover with the aluminum foil to finish baking.
Reviews:
Owen loves the fact that he can have apple pie anytime he wants – all he has to do (or I have to do) is put it in the oven. Friends have received frozen pies and have Loved them. The only unfortunate part is that odd shape of a pie takes up freezer space. You can also do this as a filling (like I have done for peach and apricot) and put into a fresh pie shell to conserve freezer space.

I have made about 15 of these this year, and many went to friends. I have gotten rave reviews from everyone who has cooked theirs so far!

Maple Apple Pie

I wanted something a little special for thanksgiving dinner apple pie, as we will be eating apple pies a lot this winter. One of my friends sent me a link to her Maple Apple Pie recipe and I knew this is what I had to make – my Mom is a huge fan of anything maple.

Ingredients:
1- 9 inch unbaked pie shell
2 pounds apples, peeled, cored, & thinly sliced
1/2 cup plus 2 TBSP unsifted all-purpose flour (keep amounts separate)
1/2 cup REAL maple syrup
2 TBSP butter, melted
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup COLD butter
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Directions:
1. Place rack in lowest position in oven & preheat to 400.
2. In a large bowl, combine apple slices & 2 TBSP flour. Toss to coat.
3. Separately, combine syrup & melted butter together. Pour over apples, mix well, & place in pie shell.
4. In a medium bowl, combine remaining 1.2 cup flour, sugar, & cinnnamon. Cut in the cold butter until cumbly. Sprinkle mixture over apples.
5. Bake 10 minutes then reduce heat to 375. Bake for an additional 35 minutes or until golden brown.

Reviews:
This went over really well with everyone who was eating the apple pie. Mom loved it as it had maple, and Owen liked it stating that it didn’t taste strongly of maple (which he views as a bad thing).

Apple Peel “Taffy”

After making 15 apple pies and a couple batches of cinnamon apple chips I had roughly 6 lbs off apple peel in my fridge. There was no way I could just toss them without feeling bad (“use everything” has been drilled into since childhood), so I searched out recipes. I was going to make apple jelly from them using the natural pectin that is supposed to be in apple peels. I say supposed to be as apparently I did something wrong and got no pectin. I had gotten to the point were it should have been jelling and it wasn’t happening. I used rubbing alcohol and tested for pectin, to find I didn’t have any. Well I had already put a lot of boiling time into the project, so I decided to see if I could just turn it into candy. This turned out to be an interesting candy with all natural sugars and colours (it is only apple peels and water) that was fun to make.

Ingredients:
Apple peels
Enough water to cover peels

Directions:
1. Put the apple peels and water into a large pot and bring to a simmer. Stir for a while until you can smell the apples, and taste it in the “juice”.

2. Drain the juice from the peels and run through a jelly bag.

3. Place the juice in a clean, heavy bottomed pot and boil until the temperature reaches 270F (soft crack stage). Note: this will take several hours and really depends on how dilute your juice is.
4. Pour the hot candy onto parchment paper or a silicone mat. Let the candy cool until it you are able to handle it, then butter your hands and pull the candy – folding, not twisting it.

5. When it is becoming to cool to pull, form it into a rope and let cool a little more.
6. Cut the rope into small pieces.

Reviews:
The candy was tasty, and even though I scorched the syrup a little it was still and interesting candy. The peels made the candy a nice dark red color that is great to look at.

Apple Butter

One of the suggestions I got from a few people when I asked what to do with apples was apple butter. I had never heard of nor tried apple butter before so this was a little interesting. I took out the Bernardin preserves book and got to work.

Ingredients:
3 lb apples cored, peeled and chuncked(I used a mix of 3 or more varieties)
1 ½ cup water
¾ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cloves
1 ½ cups sugar

Directions:
1. Put the 3lbs of apples and water into a pot. Simmer until the apples are softened.
2. Transfer the apples to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
3. Combine the puree, cinnamon, sugar and cloves together in a pot and bring to a boil then turn down the heat (trust me, you do not want this boiling once it starts to thicken!)
4. Let simmer on the stove until thick and brown. It should be smooth and spreadable. This took me about 5 hours.

Reviews:
This is basically a thickened and reduced apple sauce. My jars are packed away in the pantry awaiting some pork later this fall. My mother got the pot scrapings which she ate on toast, and is now planning on making her own with some of her apples (we delivered over 40lbs to her).

Pressed Apple Juice

I am a big fan of apple juice, I use it my smoothies, I drink it and it never lasts more than a day or so around our house. With that said I am always on the look out for ‘the best’ apple juice. After a bumper crop of crab apples last year my parents made some pressed apple juice, it was delicious. I knew I had to use up some of the apples quickly, so I took them out to my parents and my Dad and I got to work making juice.

Ingredients:
A mixture of sweet and tart apples (I used about 30lbs of apples for this, and I did use some macs which are not the juiciest of apples.)

Directions:
1. Make sure the apples are clean.
2. Half or quarter the apples and them turn them into a mash. To do this we used a sterilized meat grinder.

3. Put the apple mash into the into a cloth, with this large number of apples we used a pillow case.
4. Apply pressure to the apple mash to extract the juice. To do this we used a sterilized sausage stuffer, which worker fairly well, as they do require a lot of pressure if you want to get all the juice out.
5. Pour the juice into sterilized jars and place the lids on. (Note the apple juice will be very brown at this point as nothing has been added to stop it from reacting with the air. Don’t worry, it won’t affect the taste.)
6. Process the jars in boiling water for 20 minutes. The juice will become lighter in color after processing.


Reviews:
From the approximately 20 pounds of apples, I got 6.5 quarts of juice. The juice is very strong and could be diluted with water if you wanted, but I wanted a strong juice and left it. Upon trying this O commented that it tasted just like an apple – that is a good start considering it is made from nothing but apples! Due to all the gala apples I used, I now have a fairly sweet juice, but it so good.

This is a cloudy juice – you will not be able to see through the juice. Upon looking on the a few articles, it could be that this juice is better for you than it’s clear counterparts. The particles will settle as it sits and you can pour the juice off if you wish.

Cinnamon Apple Chips

Cinnamon Apple Chips

With 120lbs of apples sitting in my apartment, and knowing I could only make so many pies before my freezer and friends were full, I had to find other ways to deal with the apples. One of the people at work offered to lend me a dehydrator – this sounded like a fantastic idea, they would keep for quite a while and would be easy to store.

Ingredients:
4-5 Apples (I used both Gala and Mac apples. Both were tasty, so just pick if you would like something sweet or a little more tart).
½ to 1 tbsp sugar (prefer brown, but white is tasty as well)
1 tbsp cinnamon

Directions
1. Peel and core the apples. Slice into thin slices (I did all of this using my Apple Peeler, Corer Slicer – this little gadget has been a life saver for dealing with all these apples).
2. Sprinkle the rings of the apples with the sugar and cinnamon.

3. Lay on the trays of the dehydrator. Leave a small space between each of the rings so they won't stick together.
4. Dehydrate for about 6 hours at 135F. The apples will be dry but pliable when they are done (ie they shouldn’t be sticky to the touch or squishy, but won’t snap if you bend them).
5. Let cool to room temperature (they will become a little more crisp) and store in an airtight container.

Reviews:
Everyone has loved these chips, and they disappear quickly after I put them out. I am making a lot more of these than originally planned because they have been so popular.

Applemania

Last week I made a trip to the farmers market for some veggies and fruit. My husband being a native of the Okanagon region of BC, loves his fruit, and I was so excited to get him some BC grown apples! Apparently I went a little overboard on the apples and before Owen could eat them, they were getting a little overripe. (Although I have a little feeling that there was a little bit of forethought on this on his part - as he quickly put in a request for apple crisp!) So I humored him and made my apple crisp, then having leftover peeled apples, I went on the search for something new and found a yummy cookie recipe!

Vikki's Crisp

I originally made up this recipe in a search for the perfect rhubarb crisp, and it turned out so well I adapted it to other fruits over the years. This is the apple version (of course).

Topping
1/2 cup warm (NOT melted) margerine or butter
2/3 cup flour
1 1/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup oatmeal

Fruit Filling
4 cups peeled and chopped apples
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp lemon juice
(if using tart apples, you can add a little white sugar to the fruit)
1-2 tsp cinnamon to taste

Directions:
1. Mix the topping ingredients together in a medium bowl. Mix until it forms crumbly mixture and set aside.
2. In an 8x8 pan mix togethet the filling ingredients
3. Top with the topping mixture ( you may not want to use all the topping, I usually have about 1/4 cup or so left over - it makes a yummy snack!)
4. Bake for 35 minutes at 375.

Apple Oatmeal Cookies

I found this recipe from a cookbook I got as a shower present - 500 best Cookies, Bars & Squares by Esther Brody. It called for 1 cup of nuts as well, but as I am not a huge fan of nuts in my baking and as such didn't have much on hand, I decided to leave them out.

Ingredients
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup oats
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup finely chopped and peeled apples
1 cup raisins

Method:
1. In a medium bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, oats, cinnamon and nutmeg.
2. In a second large bowl cream together the shortening and brown sugar. Add the eggs one egg at a time and mix throughly.
3. Mix the apple and raisins into the shortening and sugar mixture. Add in the flour mixture and stir. (if adding nuts, they should be folded in after the flour)
4. Drop teaspoon sized cookies onto a prepared cookie sheet and bake for 10-12minutes. The cookies should be a golden brown colour but still soft.
5. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Ratings/Comments:
Owen seems to really like these cookies - he even refused to share them his hockey team! I did manage to sneak some to the hockey wives, and came home with non left.



I used my mini-food processor to chop the apples and it took about 30 seconds which was great! I can also eat come of the cookies as their aren't large chunks of fruit! I highly recommend this!