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Posts Tagged ‘Apples’

Cinnamon Pecan Nut Butter

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , on January 14, 2013 | 4 Comments »

After the holidays, I take stock of what ingredients are left over from all the baking. Then I try to make recipes that will use up those items. I try! That normally means that instead of going to the store everyday, I go every other day!

Ok, so maybe that needs to be a resolution for this year- to use up what is in my pantry (it’s almost over-flowing), before buying more baking stuff. Hmm, I’m not holding my breath!

Well, one thing that I did use, were pecans. After making nut balls and pecan tassies, I still had quite a few left. So I decided to make some pecan nut butter. Nut butter and apple slices (peeled- sorry, I don’t like the skin) are a snack that I enjoy. And making your own nut butter is easy and can be customized so many different ways. I went pretty basic with mine and just added cinnamon and a little vanilla bean paste. Note: if you are interested in making different flavors of nut butters, I highly recommend Ashley’s blog, Edible Perspective. She has a nice list of nut butter recipes.

Cinnamon Pecan Nut Butter/ Bake, Run, Live

One Year Ago: Hot Chocolate Cookies with Marshmallow Bits

Cinnamon Pecan Nut Butter

10 oz. pecan pieces, toasted
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

To toast the pecans, preheat oven to 300 degrees. On a baking sheet, evenly spread the pecans. Toast in a preheated oven for 5-7 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, place the toasted pecans in a food processor. Process until the pecans are smooth. You may need to scrape down the sides a few times before you reach the desired texture. Add in the cinnamon, vanilla bean paste, and sea salt and process for another minute. Scrape the pecan butter into a jar or plastic container and enjoy!

Note: I usually eat mine fast enough that I don’t bother to refrigerate it. However, if I still have the same batch after a weeks time, then I will move it to the refrigerator. Also, while I am giving you exact measurements of how I made this nut butter, feel free to play around with it (different spices, different nuts)! Some nuts (like cashews) need a little help in becoming smooth, so I add a little oil (melted coconut oil is my first choice, but vegetable oil will also work). The pecans for this recipe, became smooth quickly and without adding any oil.

Cinnamon Pecan Nut Butter/ Bake, Run, Live

I’m linked at: Create With Joy, Addicted to Recipes

Made with love, not calories!

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National Food Day: Cheesecake (Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars)

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , on July 30, 2012 | 2 Comments »

July 30th is National Cheesecake Day!

Cheesecake is a dessert consisting of a topping made of soft, fresh cheese, usually on a crust or base made from biscuit (such as a graham cracker crust), pastry or sponge cake.[1] It may be baked or unbaked. In the United States, July 30 has been unofficially declared “National Cheesecake Day”. (Source)

I am a big fan of the combination of caramel and apples. I don’t do so well with the caramel apples you get at a fair, as they are too hard on my teeth, but the flavor combination is yummy!

I sometimes struggle with making cheesecakes that do not crack- sometimes they work, other times they don’t! However, I like to make cheesecake bites or cheesecake bars (no cracking!), so for National Cheesecake Day, I decided to make cheesecake bars using caramel and apples. I prefer to use Golden Delicious or Granny Smith apples, but you can use whatever apple you like (pears would be good too!). I also made my own caramel sauce, but you could easily use a jar of caramel ice cream topping.

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars
Cheesecake bar recipe lightly adapted from Paula Deen
Caramel Sauce from Epicurious

Cheesecake:
2 cups flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed, divided
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
2 8oz. packages of cream cheese, softened
1 cup caramel sauce, divided
2 eggs
2 large apples, peeled, cored, and finely diced (I used Golden Delicious)
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Streusel Topping:
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

Caramel Sauce:
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup light corn syrup
3/4 cup heavy cream, room temperature

To make the caramel sauce:
In a medium-sized saucepan, stir together the sugar, water, and corn syrup. Place over medium heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring the mixture to a boil, and without stirring, boil it until it is a light amber color. Remove the pan from the heat and slowly pour in the heavy cream. Note: the cream may bubble up, so be very careful. Return the pan to low heat and stir until all the caramel has dissolved and the mixture is smooth. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature (or if using for ice cream, let cool until just warm enough to pour!).

To make the streusel:
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, oats, and cinnamon. Add in the butter and using a fork or pastry cutter, work in the butter until the mixture is the size of peas. Set aside.

To make the cheesecake bars:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine the flour and 1/2 cup brown sugar. Add in the butter and using a fork or pastry cutter, work in the butter until the mixture is the size of coarse sand. Press into the bottom of a 13×9 baking pan that has been lined with aluminum foil, and sprayed with cooking spray. Bake in a preheated oven for 15 minutes (the crust will not be cooked all the way).

While the crust is baking, in the same mixing bowl, combine the cream cheese, 1/2 cup of the caramel sauce, and 2 tablespoons brown sugar. Mix these well, either with a spoon or with a hand mixer. Add in the eggs and mix well to combine.

Once the crust has come out of the oven, evenly spoon (or pour) on the cream cheese mixture.

In a small bowl, mix together the diced apples, remaining 2 tablespoons brown sugar and the cinnamon. Mix well. Spread the apples evenly over the cheesecake layer. Top the apples with the streusel topping. Place back into the oven for 30 minutes or until the center is set. Remove from the oven and let cool for 1 hour. After 1 hour, serve with the remaining 1/2 cup caramel sauce, or place in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Enjoy!

Cheesecake layer…

apple layer…

streusel layer

Made with love, not calories!

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National Food Day: Apple Turnovers

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , on July 5, 2012 | 4 Comments »

July 5th is National Apple Turnover Day!

Do any of you like the apple pies that you can buy at McDonald’s?

What if I told you, that you can make them yourself?

And guess what?

They taste better!

And they are cheaper!

And they taste better (oh sorry- I said that already!)

AND…they go really well with homemade cinnamon with candied pecan ice cream (I did this- though you would never know by the lack of pictures, because I was too busy eating it!)!!

Apple Turnovers
Makes 6
Prep time: 10 minutes     Bake time: 15-17 minutes

2 large golden delicious apples, peeled and finely diced
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch salt
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoons sugar + additional for sprinkling on top
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed (I used Pepperidge Farms)
egg wash (1 egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon water)

In a small bowl, combine the apples, cinnamon, salt, flour, and 2 tablespoons sugar. Mix well, then set aside.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Lightly flour a flat surface. Unfold the sheet of puff pastry and using a rolling pin, gently roll out the dough. Cut the dough, lengthwise into 3 pieces, and then make 1 cut widthwise- so that you end up with 6 rectangles. Spoon 2 to 3 tablespoons of the apple filling into the center of each piece of dough. Brush the edges of the dough with the egg wash. Take the top edge of the dough and fold it down to the bottom edge. Press on the 3 edges to seal. Using a pancake turner, move the pastry to a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Repeat until all 6 pastries are on the cookie sheet. With a fork, crimp the 2 sides and bottom of the pastries. Using a sharp knife, make 2 slits on the top of each turnover. Brush the tops with the egg wash and sprinkle with additional sugar. Bake in a preheated oven for 15-17 minutes, or until the dough is cooked and the tops are golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Enjoy!

Note: 2 pieces of advise…1. finely chop your apples. See mine in the pictures- too big. Go smaller! 2. Don’t skimp on the filling. I did (hangs head). My diced apples were too big, so I didn’t use as much filling as I should have. I made an update in the directions, so that you should be using more filling than I did.

Made with love, not calories!

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National Food Day: Raisin Day!

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , , on April 30, 2012 | 1 Comment »

April 30th is National Raisin Day!

“The word raisin dates back to Middle English and is a loanword from Old French; in French, raisin means “grape,” while a dried grape is referred to as a raisin sec, or “dry grape.” The Old French word in turn developed from the Latin word racemus, “a bunch of grapes.” (Source)

I think one of the most common desserts in which you will find raisins, are Oatmeal Raisin cookies.  However, rice pudding also comes to mind (well, my mind) and I haven’t made rice pudding in a while. I had some apples sitting out on the counter, so I decided to make an apple raisin rice pudding!

I know you can eat rice pudding cold or warm. My personal preference is to eat it warm. That way I can add whipped cream or vanilla ice cream to the bowl of rice pudding. Yum!

Apple Raisin Rice Pudding
Makes: 3 cups
Prep time: About 1 hour

1 1/2 cups water
1 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup long grain white rice
1 medium apple, peeled and diced into small pieces (I used a Granny Smith apple)
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins

In a medium-sized saucepan, combine the water, whipping cream, and rice. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add in the diced apples and continue to simmer, stirring frequently (adjusting the heat if needed so that the mixture doesn’t boil).

In a small bowl, whisk together the egg, salt, brown sugar, vanilla bean paste, and cinnamon. Set aside.

Once the rice and apple mixture has soaked up almost all of the liquid, remove the pan from the heat. Take two spoonfuls of the rice mixture and add it into the egg mixture. Stir quickly and make sure everything is fully combined. Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan and place it back over the heat. Reduce to medium low and let the rice pudding thicken (10-15 minutes). Remove from the heat and enjoy while warm, or let cool and then enjoy!

Made with love, not calories!

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Apple Spice Whoopie Pies

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , , , on January 23, 2012 | 3 Comments »

WHOOPIE!!!

As in hooray! Come on people, behave yourselves!

We celebrated Nick’s birthday the other day, and I asked him what I could bake for him. “You know what I like” was his response.
Now on one hand, this makes things easy. I can choose basically whatever I want to make. On the other hand, this makes things more difficult. There are so many things I could make! I was given no direction (like- “I’d really like a cheesecake”, or “brownies would be great”).

Sigh.

One thing I know he REALLY likes, is cream cheese frosting. So I decided whatever I made, I had to incorporate that. Spice cake and carrot cake both work well with cream cheese frosting, so I decided to make something similar. Apple Spice Whoopie Pies. A slightly spicy batter with grated apples mixed in. I used cake flour instead of all-purpose flour, in order to achieve a more cake-like texture. I also added vanilla bean paste to the frosting for a little more added flavor. The whoopie pies are a delightful combination of flavors, and they were an enjoyable dessert for Nick’s birthday!

Apple Spice Whoopie Pies (with a cream cheese filling)
Makes: 12 whoopie pies
Prep time: 20 minutes     Bake time: 12-13 minutes

1 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup molasses
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup shredded apple, packed
3 cups cake flour
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
2 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, molasses, and brown sugar. Cream these items together. Add in eggs and stir to combine. Add in the baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Stir in the grated apple (Note: I used 2 small apples and peeled them before shredding with a box grater. If you don’t have a grater, chop up the apples into very small pieces). Stir in the cake flour until just combined.
Using a large ice cream scoop, scoop dough onto a parchment-paper lined cookie sheet. Bake for 12-13 minutes. Don’t under-bake!
Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, move to cooling racks and let cool completely.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add in the vanilla bean paste (you can substitute vanilla extract), then slowly add in the powdered sugar. Beat the mixture until smooth.

Once the whoopies/cake-cookies/cookie-cakes :) are completely cooled, spoon the cream cheese filling onto the bottoms of 12, then top with the remaining 12. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

Dough- hmmm, not the prettiest picture!

Cream cheese frosting!

Question(s) of the day: What’s your favorite flavor of whoopie pie? What’s your favorite birthday dessert?

Made with love, not calories!

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