After a long break from recipe blogging, I am excited to be back and to introduce a new member of my family. This new addition has been long awaited and I am happy to call it my own…

My brand new cuisinart food processor was a gift for my birthday. I am trying to think of recipes that require a food processor, just so I can play with my new toy. I decided, for my first round using my food processor, I would make an apple crisp. Rather than doing a plain old pie I decided to make them bite sized. These little pies would be great as an addition to your fall party.

Bite Sized Apple Pies

Topping:
1 cup Oatmeal
1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 stick butter, chilled

Filling:
6-8 Medium Honey Crisp Apples (or another firm, tart, cooking apple)
1/2 stick Butter
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 Tbsp Cornstarch
1 Tbsp Cold Water

1 recipe Pie Crust

Place all topping ingredients in the bowl of the food processor. You can easily do this by hand, I just really wanted to use my new food processor! Blitz a few times until ingredients are well combined.

Peel and dice apples. Saute in a medium pan over medium heat, with butter. Cook until nearly soft. Add brown sugar and cinnamon. Combine cornstarch and water and pour into simmering apple mixture. Cook, while stirring until well thickened. Turn off heat and allow to cook slightly.

Roll out chilled pie crust and cut into circles. Be sure to cut one then double check that the circle size works for the size of your muffin pan. Place circles in greased muffin tin, be sure not to pierce holes in the bottom. You can use mini muffin tins for bite sized treats or regular for something more substantial. Spoon filling into dough cups, all the way to the top. Place one spoon full of topping over that. Press the topping gently so the crumbs don’t fall off of your pies. Bakes pies at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes then serve warm.

If you are in a rush and don’t want to make all of these components from scratch you can:

Use pre-rolled purchased pie crust
Use canned apple filling
Give the recipe to someone who likes to cook and invite yourself over for dinner

~SD

I am a huge fans of oatmeal raisin cookies. I make them every so often, but this time around I decided to branch out… try something new! Instead of sticking with the ever faithful california raisins, I raided the pantry to find some new little treats…

I loved the cranberries, apples and golden raisins in these cookies! My little cousin didn’t want to eat these cookies because he doesn’t like raisins. So, I told them to just pick them out. He picked out all of the cranberries and ate the golden raisins! Such sneaky little raisins!

Fruit and Oatmeal Cookies

2 sticks Butter, softened
1 1/2 cups Brown Sugar
3 Eggs
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Vanilla
3 cups Flour
2 cups Rolled Oats
1/2 cup Golden Raisins
1/4 cup Diced Dried Apples
1/4 cup Diced Dried Cranberries

Whip together (with electric mixer) softened butter, brown sugar and eggs until fluffy. Mix in baking powder, soda, salt and vanilla, then flour. With rubber spatula stir in rolled oats, raisins, apples and cranberries. Spoon scoops about the size of a ping pong ball onto an ungreased sheet pan. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on the pan for about a minute, then place onto cooling rack.

Ah! Warm Cookies and milk just can’t be beat!

~SD

Apple Strudel

2 sheets Puff Pastry
6-8 Apples, peeled and diced
1 tbsp Butter
3/4 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 cup golden raisins
1 Egg

Allow puff pastry sheet to thaw at room temperature, or in the refrigerater.

I love this brand of puff pastry. I have made homemade pastry before, but it is a very time consuming project. I have found that the frozen version is just as good!

Peel and dice apples. Melt butter in a medium saute pan then cook apples until nearly tender. Add brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins.

Place puff pastry on floured surface and roll out slightly. Spoon half of the apples onto the edge of the puff pastry, leaving about one inch excess of dough to fold when you roll the strudel. Mix egg with about 2 tablespoons of water, then brush around the edge of the dough. Roll the dough tightly around the apples, and fold in sides. Secure edge with egg wash, and brush top of strudel. Bake at 375 degrees until golden, about 20-25 minutes.

This recipe is super simple and can be eaten any time of day. Whether it is breakfast, or dessert with ice cream!

~SD

This time of year is prime time for baking with apples.  Of course, anytime of the year you can go to your local grocery and grab a bag of Granny Smith, Golden Delicious or Macintosh apples, but there is something special about apples when they are in season.  Right now the orchards are harvesting some of my favorite eating and baking apples… and I love to take advantage of the great varieties that are available.  My personal favorite for eating and baking is Honey Crisp, which is a newer apple variety and is becoming more available each season.  I also really love a great Northern Spy.  This apple is an heirloom variety that my great-grandmother used in her fall baking.  Although not great for eating, this type is great used alone in baking, or combined with Honey Crisp.

For this recipe I chose to use Northern Spy apples, but any tart, firm baking apple will do.  These muffins are great snitched straight out of the oven, warmed with vanilla ice cream or with a great cup of coffee for breakfast.  The addition sour cream, as with many other baking applications, makes these muffins super moist, with a uniquely rich flavor.  This recipe makes two dozen muffins, which is a great way to share the bounty with friends! 

Apple Streusel Muffins
Makes: 2 Dozen

Muffins:
4 cups Flour
2 cups Sugar
2 ½ tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
½ tsp Cinnamon
4 eggs
2 cups Sour Cream
½ cup Butter, melted
1 cup Heavy Cream
3 cups Diced Apples

Topping:
½ cup Sugar
6 Tbsp Flour
½ tsp Cinnamon
4 Tbsp Butter, softened

For Muffins:  Combine all dry ingredients in large bowl.  In a separate bowl blend all wet ingredients well.  Mix wet ingredients into flour mixture, then add diced apples. 

For Topping:  With hands blend sugar, flour, cinnamon and softened butter until mixture reaches a crumb-like texture. 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease muffin tin well and fill each section ¾ full with muffin batter.  Top generously with streusel topping.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.  To test:  gently press the top of a few muffins with your index finger, if the top gives and then springs back the muffins are done.

~SD

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today as I was sorting through my daily mail that usually consists of junk, bills and the occasional card I came upon something out of the ordinary.  There, addressed to me, was a letter from my alma mater.  This envelope was especially interesting because it looked like the poor person who addressed it had the same terrible hand writing as I have been cursed with!  Upon further inspection I realized that I had, in fact, addressed the envelope… was this some kind of joke?  No, this was a letter that I had written to myself five years ago, in my junior year of high school!  I had completely forgotten about this assignment, but was impressed to see that a younger me had written quite a long letter!

As I read the letter memories flooded back to me… I could picture myself curled up in my overstuffed pink arm chair, surrounded by childhood collectibles writing vigorously every thought that came to mind.  Of course, I wrote about the straight A’s I received on my report card (for the first time ever) and how I should learn to love cleaning my kitchen, but I went a little deeper than that.  I wrote about how important my family was to me and how grateful I was for all of the opportunities I had.  To quote a younger me I said,

“I realize that I am so lucky, my family is one of the few that I know that actually eat supper together every night… I can only imagine what it will be like in five years!”

Five years have past and so much has happened to me since.  I achieved every goal I had set for myself way back then: get scholarships, go to a good culinary school, and become an Executive Chef.  I have maintained certain things that I have always been most important to me, it is still my top priority to feed my family, to cook for others and to be hospitable.  I don’t know where I will be five years from now, but I know that those things will never change.  Thank you Mrs. E. Miller for sending those letters… it was a true joy looking back.

After taking a trip down memory lane I thought I would make something very special.  When I was a junior in high school I made it my quest to create the best apple pie.  I was practicing and planning for a $25,000 scholarship to a very prestigious culinary school- an apple pie baking contest.  For two years I devoted myself to researching apples, crust and pie baking techniques.  I baked over 100 pies and recorded my finding in an “apple pie journal”.  I did not win the competition (which is something I am still bitter about and is another long story) but I did perfect my apple pie recipe!

Pie Crust
Yield: 4, 8 ounce portions

4 cups All-Purpose Flour
¾ cup Shortening
¾ cup Butter, softened
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp Sugar
½ cup Water, ice cold
1 Egg
1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar

Start by combining the flour, butter, shortening, salt and sugar.  Work together with your hands like this…

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