Cranberry Apple Pie

I know I am supposed to showing you only post-holiday guilt-free recipes but it isn't really after the holidays yet and I just had to share this amazing pie recipe with you. I made it for Christmas dinner at my parents' house and it was so heavenly! IThe tartness of the cranberries and apples and the sweetness of the glaze were delicious. The nutmeg and cinnamon really gave the whole pie that holiday taste. I added a pinch more of each spice to the filling. If you have any sort of exuses occasions to make this pie, you should! Recipe adapted from e-mealz.

Ingredients:

Pie

Basic Pie Dough (doubled)

6 cups peeled, sliced Granny Smith apples

1 cup fresh cranberries, washed and chopped in half
1 cup sugar + 2 Tbsp
3 Tbsp flour
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
Dash salt
4 tsp butter

Glaze
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1-2 Tbsp milk

Directions:
Heat oven to 425. Roll out half the pie dough and place in bottom of 9” pie shell.

In lg bowl, combine apples, cranberries, sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Turn into pastry-lined pan. Add 4 dabs of butter on of fruit filling.

Roll out additional dough and place over pie filling. Trim edges and seal. Flute edges and cut 3-4 slits in top pie crust to vent. Place tin foil around pie crust edges to prevent burning. Bake for 40 -45 min.

Whisk confectioners sugar and milk together paint or drizzle over pie crust while hot. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream!

 

Linked to A Southern Fairytale's Mouthwatering Mondays and Mangoes and Chutney Fat Camp Friday.

Thumbprint Cookies

Here is my last post from our holiday bake-fest. This was a new recipe that we tried that turned out great! I love the mix of the buttery cookie with the sweet jam. You can use all different types of jam for these for a fun variety.

I wish you all a very merry Christmas! I'll be back next week with some low-cal meals for you!

Ingredients:
2 cups sifted flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
1/2 cup superfine sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract (or 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp almond extract)
Your preferred jam or other filling
1/2 cup sifted confectioners sugar

Directions:

Sift together flour and salt; set aside. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy; add extract(s). Slowly mix in flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until just blended. Chill dough for 1 to 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 325. Menawhile, quickly shape dough into 1 inch balls and space them 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Make a deep thumbpring in the center of each; fill with preferred jam or chocolate.

Bake for 15 minutes, or until cookies are the color of pale sand. Transfer to wire cooling racks. When cooled, dust with confectioners sugar.

 

Chocolate Peppermint Crinkle Cookies

When I saw this recipe posted on Bakers Royale I knew I had to try it. I love chocolate and mint together. These cookies turned out great, they are nice and soft, which I love, and have a wonderful peppermint flavor!

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons spooned and leveled bleached all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped

2 3/4 cups sugar, divided

1/4 cup canola oil

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and warm, not hot

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

2 large eggs

1 large egg yolk

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 ½ teaspoons of peppermint extract

1 cup sugar

Directions:

In a medium bowl, beat together well the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. Melt the chocolate in the microwave on 50 percent power for 1-2 minutes, stir, and microwave for 15 seconds more and stir; set aside.

In a mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together 2 1/2 cups of the sugar, the oil, butter and corn syrup to blend. Beat in the eggs, egg yolk, vanilla and peppermint extract. Then on low, beat in the melted chocolate. Add the flour mixture and beat in on low speed. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Line bakesheet with parchment. Take out about one-quarter of the dough at a time to shape. Roll the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. Pour the remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar into one bowl and the confectioners’ sugar in another bowl. Roll each cookie dough ball lightly in granulated sugar first, then very heavily in confectioners’ sugar. (By rolling in plain sugar first, the confectioners’ sugar does not soak in so much and stays on the surface better).

Arrange cookies 2 inches apart on the foil. For crisp cookies, bake 12 to 14 minutes. For a chewier cookie, bake 10-12 minutes. Bake one sheet at a time.

Makes 2 dozen cookies.

Notes:

• The cookie dough can be prepared four days in advance. Once the cookies are baked they can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
• To keep your cookies chewy add a plain piece of bread to the container. The cookies will absorb the moisture from the bread and stay chewy. Replace the bread piece once it starts to resemble a crouton in texture.  

Russian Tea Cakes

These Russian Tea Cakes (also called Mexican Wedding Cakes) are one of my mom's favorites. They are yummy, bite size and super easy to make.

 

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup finely chopped nuts

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400.

Thoroughly mix butter, sugar, and vanilla. Work in the flour, salt, and nuts until the dough holds together.

Shape into 1 inch balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set but not brown.

While the cookies are still warm, roll in confectioners sugar. Allow to cool and then roll in sugar again.

Linked to Prairie Story Recipe Swap Thursday.

Chocolate Raspberry Crumb Bars

These bars are one of my favorite treats. They are so rich and decadent and always a huge hit. They are also quite simple to make which is a definite plus! I accidentally used a whole 2 cups chocolate in the filling and then added a third cup chocolate chips for the topping so they were extra chocolaty. The layer of chocolate in the middle is a lot thicker than they normally are. No complaints from the tasters, though!

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups (12 ounce package) semi-sweet chocolate morsels, divided
1 1/4 cups (14 ounce can) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cups chopped nuts (optional)
1/3 cup seedless raspberry jam

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.

Beat butter in a large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in flour, sugar, and salt until well mixed. With floured fingers, press 1 1/4 cups crumb mixture onto bottom of greased 13 x 9 inch baking pan; reserve remaining mixture. Bake fro 10-12 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

Combine 1 cup morsels and sweetened condensed milk in small, heavy-duty saucepan. Melt over low heat, stirring until smooth. Spread over hot crust.

Stir nuts into reserved crumb mixture; sprinkle chunks of crumb mixture over chocolate filling. Drop teaspoonfuls of raspberry jam over crumb mixture. Sprinkle with remaining morsels. Continue baking for 25-30 minutes or until center is set. Cool completely on wire rack.

Makes 3 dozen bars.

Linked to For the Love of Blogs Tasty Tuesday and Good Cheap Eats What's on Your Plate.

Super-Sized Ginger Chewies

Over the weekend, my mom and I got together for a holiday bake-fest. We used to bake cookies together all the time when I was growing up and it is a fun tradition to carry on. My mom always has the best tips and tricks to share with me while we bake. This week I will be posting the cookie recipes that we tried this year. We still have tons of recipes ready to try next year!

These ginger chewies are fabulous! I love a good ginger/molasses cookie. This recipe is from the Washington Post and is very similar to PW's spicy molasses cookies that I posted about before, however, this recipe calls for butter instead of shortening.

How cute is this stand my mom had? She found it at TJMaxx and it is the perfect way to display sweet treats!

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

6 oz (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup molasses

About 1/4 cup sugar

Directions:

Set an oven rack on the middle level and preheat the oven to 350. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves and set aside.

Using a stand mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and brown sugar until blended, about 1 minute, stopping the mixer to scrape the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the egg and molasses and mix until blended and light brown in color, about 1 minute. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing just to incorporate it.

Spread the sugar on a large piece of wax paper. Roll 3 tablespoons of the dough between your palms into a 2-inch ball. Roll each ball in the sugar and place it on the prepared baking sheets, spaced 2 inches apart.

Bake one sheet at a time for about 14 minutes or until the tops of the cookies feel firm and have several large cracks but the insides are still soft.

Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes, then use a wide spatula to transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. May be stored in airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Makes 14 large cookies.

 

 

Linked to A Southern Fairytale's Mouthwatering Mondays, Ekat's Kitchen Friday Potluck and Simplicity Photography Challenge: Food.

Merry (Belated) Christmas

This December passed by in a whirlwind, as it usually does. We got our tree up, in the past we have always been in tiny apartments so it was nice to give it plenty of room.

For Christmas, my wonderful husband gave me a new DSLR camera! I am so excited but am clueless about all the manual settings and am trying to teach myself how to use more than just the auto setting.

Our tree:

Using the candlelight auto setting:

A few ornament shots:

And, course, our Moravian star:

Gingerbread Cupcakes

I love gingerbread! My mom has the best gingerbread men (and women) recipe ever and we used to make it every Christmas. However, gingerbread men (and women) are a bit time consuming to make. Plus, I don't have a rolling pin. One of the reasons I don't have a rolling pin is because I don't have enough counter space to roll out dough on. Hopefully this will change when we move to our new house and renovate the kitchen (hear that Casey? renovated kitchen = yummy gingerbread cookies and other tasty treats that require rolling pins). I digress.

I found this recipe for gingerbread cupcakes and it seemed perfect to make for a family holiday party. Upon tasting, this gingerbread is quite delish! Yum. You will be a bit shocked by the lemon frosting especially if you didn't make the recipe and pick up what appears to be a sugar-frosted cupcake and bite into it and taste lemon. But, I think it really works well with the gingerbread. You could probably do a regular frosting on these and they would taste equally as good.

Wow, okay Chatty Cathy, on to the recipe...

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/4 cup water

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/8 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 cup unsulphured molasses (not blackstrap)

3 large eggs at room temperature

1/4 cup grated ginger

For Icing:

1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp powdered sugar

2 tsp lemon juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Line a muffin tin with cupcake papers.

In a small bowl, melt the butter and water together in the microwave, covering the top with plastic wrap.

Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and dry spices in a bowl.

Beat together molasses and brown sugar until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 30 seconds between each egg.

Beat in the flour mixture slowly until just incorporated. Add the butter mixture and the grated ginger and beat until smooth. Batter will be runny.

Spoon into cupcake papers, about 3/4 full. Bake for 12-14 minutes (I'm fairly certain you will need more time) or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool for a minute to set before moving to a wire rack to fully cool.

Makes about 12 cupcakes.

For Icing:

Combine powdered sugar and lemon juice together in a bowl and stir until smooth. Allow to stiffen up a bit for 4 minutes (I skipped this part, mine was thick enough already). Spoon over the cooled cupcakes and allow to harden.

Notes:

I doubled the recipe and ended up with 24 cupcakes plus 12 mini cupcakes (I had batter left over and decided to make the minis). The 24 cupcakes cooked for 20 minutes and the minis cooked for 14. Usually my oven cooks fast so I think the 12-14 minute time in the recipe will probably be a bit under even for just one pan.

The grated ginger was a bit of a pain. I ended up with stringy bits that I had to remove from the final batter. I would suggest removing any strings before you add the ginger to the batter. Also, I doubled the recipe so I needed 1/2 cup ginger. I got a medium-sized ginger root and didn't quite make it to 1/2 cup. The recipe still tasted good even with slightly less ginger. Just know that if you are doubling the recipe you will need a pretty big ginger root.

If I had thought about it, red or green sprinkles would have made a nice little touch on top of the icing. I didn't think about it, but you may want to.

Recipe found at Simply Recipes