Dear Jesus..

Thank you for giving me the gift of  baking!!

X&O

-Courtney

For a while now I've been wanting to bake a pie, not just any pie but an apple pie. Completely. From. Scratch. I've never got around to buying a pie pan, call it laziness or lack of "pie pan" money. So I went to my parents house yesterday and dug through their cabinets. I came across FOUR!! Now considering that my mom doesn't bake(no offense mom) I was shocked to find four of them. I decided to take two, cause I figured she won't be baking a pie any time soon.  Any who, I woke up this morning REALLY wanted to bake a pie but unfortunately I didn't have any apples :( On the bright side, my friend Lisa was going to be coming over today with her daughter. SO, I did what any normal desperate stay-at-home mom would do who doesn't have a car, I text her and asked her to pick up some granny smith apples for me. And she happily obliged. 

So now on to the good stuff. I started with making a pie crust. Duh, what else would I start with. It was pretty dang easy. 3 cups of flour, 1/2 cup (one stick) butter cubed, 1/2 cup shortening, 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, Combine all that with pastry cutter or a fork. Add cold water a tablespoon at a time just until the dough comes together. Then put in refrigerator and chill for at least 30 minutes. Mean while, peel, core, and slice apples into 1/4 inch slices. Then melt a stick of butter(half cup) in a small sauce pan, add three tablespoons of flour, stir until well mixed. Then add, half cup of white sugar, half cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of vanilla, 3 tablespoons of water, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg. Mix it well, bring to a boil. Then just turn off the burner. 

Now back to the crust. Take it out of the fridge, and divid it in two equal parts. Starting with one ball of dough, roll it out on a floured surface until it's just bigger than your pie dish, roll it on to your rolling pin and transfer it to your pie pan. be sure that it is big enough to fold over the edge just a little bit, cut off any excess. The put that in the fridge. Now roll out the other ball of dough, lay it on a flat surface or on i pie pan that has been turned upside down and stick that in the fridge. 

Now take a break to eat a snack, grab a drink, watch your favorite tv show, or whatever you feel like doing to kill about 20 minutes. Then back to the kitchen. First take out the second pie crust we rolled out.  Lay it out on your cutting board (or counter) and cut into 1/4 inch(can be wider depending on how you want your pie to look) wide stripes.  Now with your apples in a large bowl add the syrupy mixture and stir to coat all the apples.  (Btw did I mention I used about 3 pounds of apples to start with) Then get your other pie crust out of the fridge and dump all your apples in the crust. Then put on your lattice crust top (here's a video of how to make the lattice crust)

It should look something like this^ Then fold under the edges and crimp the edge of the pie (video on how to here) You will want to cover the edge with tin foil so it doesn't over cook. Then bake it in a preheated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes, When that 15 minutes is up reduce your oven temperature to 350 and bake for 35-45 minutes. the last 10 minutes, I paused the timer and took the pie out on the oven and brushed the entire top crust with a mixture of dark corn syrup, butter, and a little bit of hot water. Then sprinkled a cinnamon and white sugar mixture over the top. I put it back in the oven and let the timer finish the last 10 minutes. It is now sitting on a cooling rack on my counter. Tempting me to cut into it.

Anyway I can't WAIT until it cools. It looks and smells delicious!!

Recipe for the original pie was found here. 

Definitely on the christmas cookie list...

Yesterday I was at my sisters house and  I was in the baking mood, which I've been in for about the past week. So I decided with my sister's encouragement to bake some. So I went on to allrecipes.com, (my default for finding a recipe.) I searched and search until I decided to just take one of the recipes and make it my own, as usual. So this was my take on the Spice Cookies with Crystallized Ginger 

Orange (and next time cranberry) Spiced Cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons dark corn syrup
• 3 tablespoons orange zest
• Juice from half an orange
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar for decoration (add some colored sugar to make them prettier)
• 1 cup dried cranberries (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 2 large cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add egg, and corn syrup; mix until fluffy. Stir in the orange zest. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger, and cloves; stir into the egg mixture. When dough starts to come together, add cranberries, then mix with your hands to form a smooth dough (dough will be very moist)
3. Form dough into 1 inch balls and roll in white sugar. Place balls on a cookie sheet 2 inches apart, and press down with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes, cookies should be golden brown. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before Moving to a rack to cool completely.

I completely forgot to add baking soda, but they still came out okay. They were a little to dry, but if you like a crunchy cookie I guess that's good. When we made these yesterday we decided that a few things need to change especially to help with the moister so I marked all the changes that we plan on making next time with gray font. I also think that substituting brown sugar for the white sugar will help with the moister and give it a deeper flavor. These will be a huge hit at Christmas time.

Cupcake Goodness...

So I've never been much for baking sweets from scratch, but I've decided to try my hand at it. Mostly because I've had a really bad sweet tooth.

So I did a little research on cupcake recipes and just kinda threw my own recipe together with whatever stuff I had in the pantry.

Slightly Tropical Virgin Piña Colada Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup Butter, softened
• 1 cup Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Egg Yolk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 2 3/4 cups Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/4  teaspoon Salt
• 3/4 cup Sour Cream
• 1/2 cup Cream of Coconut
• 1/2 cup Pineapple Juice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350℉. Line cupcake pan with paper or foil liners.
2. Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla
3. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
4. In another separate bowl whisk together sour cream, cream of coconut, and pineapple juice.
5. On low speed, add dry ingredients a half cup at a time to creamed butter, alternating with a half cup of sour cream mixture. Blend on high speed for 2 minutes.
6. Fill cups 2/3 full. Bake for 22 to 26 minutes. Cool completely before icing.

For Next Time:

Next time I make these I will probably get some coconut flakes and sub crushed pineapples for the pineapple juice.  And they weren't as sweet as I would like so I'll probably add more sugar. Plus maybe add some coconut extract, cause they "tropical flavor" I was going for isn't there at all. The moistness wasn't a problem, they are very moist. But they are a little dense for my likely so I will do some research to find out what to do to help with the denseness for next time. 
As for the icing, I couldn't give you the recipe if I wanted to cause I just threw some stuff together and added things here and there to get the flavor I wanted. But next time I make these I want to come up with some sort of pineapple frosting. When I do I'll get the recipe down and post it.

I feel like...

☂Rainy days. They are perfect for creating. I always feel like baking, knitting, drinking a cup of tea, reading a good book, watching a movie(although movies are always better when I have my honey to snuggle up with on the couch), and blogging of course.  

 Today I'm craving some delicious muffins.  I found a recipe that would be perfect, but looked in the pantry only to discover I'm out of brown sugar!!! what kind of non-sense is that! And if only I had a car I could just run up to the store and grab some. Then I would also be able to grab some eggs, which I'm also out of.☹


So my delicious muffins will have to wait for another day.

Banana Crumb Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla 
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375℉  Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, nutmeg, 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, and salt. 
3. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
4. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. 

Make it, if you dare. Let me know how it is.
✌

Most Delicious Cookies

If you are an oatmeal raisin cookie fan, you must try this recipe. It is my absolute favorite! It's perfect with all the spices and so chewy and moist!

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup raisins

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, butter flavored shortening, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Stir in the oats and raisins. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 9 to 11 minutes until light and golden. Do not over-bake. Let them cool for 2 minutes before removing from cookie sheets to cool completely. Store in airtight container.  (source)