Pipe, Decorate, Fill and Sanwich.

Although I had no interest in the Super Bowl Game itself and really needed to be home taking out my hair in preparation for my trip this week, I did attend a party at our friends’ house. (I’m not telling yall where we’re going because I am surprising Greg and some of y’all can’t hold water so you’ll get the kool-aid when he gets it. Lol) Anyway, because I’d prematurely made the whoopie pies, they were murdered before the party so I had to make more. In the last post, I made Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Swiss Meringue Buttercream, but at hubby’s request, I made the second batch with a Peanut Butter Filling. The Swiss Meringue Buttercream yields a flavor that is similar to an ice-cream sandwich while the Peanut Butter Buttercream makes you think of a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. I mean, they are BOTH great but the peanut butter….there are no words.

The game was cool, I guess. I seriously kept forgetting which team I was rooting for because they were both wearing blue and it was really confusing for some reason. Other than their 10 month old Lab’s COMPLETE OBSESSION with licking my toes and my almost falling out of my chair trying to reach my phn (curse these short arms) nothing was out of the ordinary. Actually, me falling is pretty standard too…. But we had big laughs and good food. What more do you need at a Super Bowl party? Oh yeah, I guess it would help if your team wins. Lol Sorry Greg. :(  wanted the blue team to win too.   

The recipe below is for making standard pies in the traditional circular dome shape. If you are making footballs, trace 12  2-inch ovals onto each piece of parchment paper with a pencil and flip paper over so you don’t die of lead poisoning, lol. Pipe within that pattern. Otherwise, a small ice-cream scoop will ensure uniformity. I used a squeeze bottle to pipe some leftover white icing I had onto the footballs for the decor. (I have a ketchup and mustard combo pack in red and yellow from the dollar store that worked perfectly) You may choose to add more laces since mine start to look like Chinese letters after a while. lol  

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies

from Whoopie Pies

For me, this made 31 halves, so 15.5 whoopies  o_O 
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Ghirardelli)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature (Kerry Gold)
4 tablespoons vegetable shortening
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup milk

Position baking racks in the upper and lower 2/3’s of the oven.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a bowl, sift together, flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
In another bowl, beat butter, shortening and sugar with a mixer on low until just combined. Increase speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes.
Add egg and vanilla and beat for two more minutes.
Add half of the flour mixture and half of the milk and beat on low until incorporated. Repeat with remaining flour and milk and beat until combined.
Using a small ice cream scoop (or if making footballs, pipe in an oval shape), drop batter on baking sheet two inches apart. Bake for about 10-12 minutes each or until pies spring back when pressed gently.
Remove from oven and cool for about five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

Peanut Butter Filling

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter (or crunchy if you’re feeling frisky)
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature*
3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

*use regular American butter; here is not where you want a rich buttery taste to me. Save it for the baking.

Beat peanut butter and butter on low until creamy using a mixer.
Add sugar and salt and beat on low to incorporate. Increase speed to medium and beat for about four minutes until the filling is light and fluffy.
Spread filling on flat side on one cooled cake. Top it with a second cake and press gently.
Store whoopie pies in an airtight container in refrigerator for up to 3 days.

The first time I made these I was scared to add the filling until I need it on the cakes. I stored the whoopie pie shells in an airtight container and kept the filling in a Ziploc bag until the next day.

As you can see, we had waaaaaay more fun than adults should have playing with our food. lol

Nick Going Long - Rochelle Fakes and Eats it - Hiking the Whoopie

This recipe comes from my two new boos, Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. They are the authors of my baking bible, Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented. Enjoy!

Chocolate Whoopie Pies
Yields 10-12 large whoopie pies, 15-17 small pies

Ingredients
3 1/2 cups (17.5 oz) All Purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup (2.18 oz) dark cocoa powder, sifted
2 tsp instant espresso powder
1/2 cup (4 fl oz) hot coffee
1/2 cup (4 fl oz) hot water
2 cups (15.32 oz) light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup (6 fl oz) canola oil
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup (4 fl oz) buttermilk, shaken
Swiss vanilla filling (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line four baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, combine the AP flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

In a large bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder and espresso powder. Pour the hot coffee and hot water over the cocoa mixture and whisk until the mixture is completely smooth.

In another medium bowl, combine the canola oil and light brown sugar. Add this to the cocoa mixture and whisk until combined. Add the egg, vanilla, and buttermilk and whisk until smooth.

Gently fold the flour mixture into the cocoa mixture.

Spoon into a piping bag and pipe into 2 inch rounds on prepared baking sheets, 1 inch apart (or scoop onto sheets with a small scoop).

Bake 10-15 minutes, until the cookies crack slightly on top and spring back in the center when gently pressed. Let cool completely, then remove from sheet with an offset spatula. Pipe or scoop half of the rounds with the filling. Top each piped round with another cookie and serve.

Swiss vanilla filling
5 egg whites
1 1/2 cups (10.5 oz) sugar
2 cups (1 pound) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 1 inch cubes
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together egg whites and sugar. Place over a pan of simmering water and gently whisk until the sugar dissolves (test this by dipping your finger into the mixture – when you can no longer feel grains of sugar when you rub the mixture between your fingers, then the sugar has dissolved) – the mixture will be slightly warmer than body temperature.

Transfer bowl to mixer and beat with the paddle attachment until the mixture is smooth, white, and fluffy – about 5 minutes. Add the butter, one piece at a time. Add sea salt and vanilla extract and mix until combined. Beat until the filling is smooth and glossy (it may look curdled, but just continue to beat – eventually the mixture will come together).

We spent our Halloweens at the church for “Hallelujah Night” so while I don’t have much first-hand experience, candy apple say Fall and incidentally, Halloween. I’ve made caramel apples as a kid with the premade caramel discs found in the produce section. They never really worked out though. The problem was, caramel never stuck properly and it never produced the smooth polished finish it promised. After making homemade caramel for my Banana Pudding Pie with Salted Caramel, I knew I could do it! I did a little research and found out that supermarket apples have a wax coating that needed to be removed prior to dipping. To do this I dipped them in boiling water for 1 minute. You can actually see the wax that remains once you remove them from the water. Take a paper towel and wipe the rest off.

On to the recipe:

Caramel Apples:

6 small to medium, firm, blemish-free, apples*

4 Tablespoons butter (not margarine + more for parchment paper)

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/2 can (7 oz) of Sweetened Condensed Milk

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

*The favs are Granny Smith (extra tart) and Honeycrisp (sweet and tart)

Materials Needed:

6 skewers

Heavy bottomed pot

Cookie sheet

Parchment paper

Candy Thermometer

Remove stems, allow apples to dry completely and put them in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes and until you are ready to dip them. Chilled apples help the caramel set better.

First melt the butter in a saucepan until it browns. This will give you the nice dark caramel color. Stir constantly to avoid getting little brown bits of butter. Be careful because I had to throw out my first brown butter attempt. L (I hate waste)

Add all other ingredients except vanilla.

Stirring constantly over medium heat, bring to a boil and let boil until thermometer reaches soft ball stage (235°F–240°F).

After it reaches soft ball, remove from heat, add vanilla, then allow to sit for about 5 minutes.

Dip apple in caramel and swirl to cover. Twist apple to remove some of the excess but the excess is fantastic for that thick rimmed bottom that acts as a stand for the apples!

Working quickly, place onto buttered parchment paper.

You can stop here but if you want to dip them in chocolate, pop them in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to make sure the caramel is properly set. Recipe adapted from Grandma Betty’s Caramel Apples.

On to the chocolate…

 10oz – 60% cacoa Ghirardelli Chocolate chips

2 Tbsp shortening (vegetable oil)

Crushed candy, sprinkles, nuts, whatever!

 Lay out all of your fixings because you have a small window of time before the chocolate begins to cool and I like to use a 4 cup measuring cup when I melt chocolate because it is deep and I can fully submerge the apples with little effort.  Put the chips in the glass, add the oil and heat on 40% power (depending on your microwave wattage), for about 45 seconds. Stir and keep heating in 30 second increments until melted.

You can fully dip or partially dip and immediately add your preferred toppings.

Allow to harden and enjoy!

Recently, I made these delicious treats for a friend’s 40th Bday party! It was a Dessert themed event so we were in HOG heaven!  They are sophisticated, EXTREMELY easy and they can be prepared (the filling) several hours before your party and ready for assembly 2 hrs prior! Win, win, win…all the way around.

(Recipe adapted from Stephanie Hawkins, South Carolina, Southern Living Magazine 2008)

Special Equipment

8 dessert dishes- shot glasses, dessert glasses, mini trifle dishes, whatever your heart’s desire. Just be sure you can fill each one with the dessert and have enough for everyone.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons seedless raspberry preserves

1 tablespoon orange liqueur  (I used Grand Marnier. Purchased a mini from Publix Liquors since I didn’t need but one tablespoon)

1 (3-oz.) package cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 prepared lemon pound cake, cut into cubes fitting the bottom of your chosen dish*

8 fresh raspberries

fresh mint sprigs, for garnish

*Feel free to use a store bought cake or if you’re in a truly decadent mood make this Lemon Cream Cheese Pound Cake. The original recipe called for the use of Italian ladyfingers. I probably would’ve been fine using them but after checking Publix, Fresh Market and a local Italian Market and not finding the soft variety, I gave up and moved on to plan B. Which I think was better anyway.

Preparation

Microwave raspberry preserves in a small microwave-safe bowl at HIGH 20 seconds. Stir in liqueur. In a a separate bowl, beat cream cheese and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy (about 1 minute). In another bowl, beat heavy cream with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. (I know…I use a lot of dishes. Some one-pot meals coming up, lol) Fold your heavy cream mixture into the cream cheese mixture. Spoon into a zip-top plastic bag. (Do not seal.) Snip 1 corner of bag with scissors to make a hole (about 1/2 inch in diameter).

To begin layering, press your cake cube, into the bottom of your  chosen glass dishes. Make sure it covers the span of the glass for visual effects. Presentation is HUGE with Fiercefoodie! Drizzle about 1/2 tsp. raspberry mixture into each glass. Pipe a small amount of cream cheese mixture evenly into each glass. Repeat procedure with remaining cake pieces, raspberry mixture, and cream cheese mixture. Top each glass with a sprig of mint and 1 raspberry. Cover and chill 2 hours.

Variations

Add pineapples, coconut, shaved dark chocolate, almonds, use a blueberry pound cake, strawberries etc. I think the possibilities are endless if you are greedy enough.

TC’s Lemon Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Cake Ingredients

3 cups swans down cake flour
3 sticks of salted butter
1 8oz package of cream cheese
3 cups sugar
5 large eggs
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
1 – 2 tablespoons of lemon extract
Zest of 1 lemon

Icing Ingredients

2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup 10x confections sugar
4oz of cream cheese
Juice of half of a lemon

Directions

In a mixing bowl, add 3 sticks of room temperature butter and room temperature cream cheese. Mix well. Add the 3 cups of sugar. Mix well. Add large eggs one at the time, blending between each egg. After the last egg has been incorporated, add 1 cup of flour at the time and mix well before adding the next cup. The batter will be thick but it’s ok. Add the extracts and zest and mix well. It should smell (and taste if you’re daring) like vanilla ice cream. Butter and flour your bundt pan (or spray with Bakers Joy baking spray which has flour and butter already added) so that the cake slips right out when done. Pour cake batter into pan. Bake cake in a preheated, 320 degree oven for 1hr and 15 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean. Remember all ovens are different so make sure you watch the cake. If it looks like its browning too fast, turn the oven down to 310 degrees. Leave cake in the pan for 10 minutes and invert into your cake dish.

(NOTE: For my oven, after 50 minutes, turn heat to 310 degrees and keep checking thereafter)

Icing directions

Place room temp cream cheese in a bowl, add powdered sugar and vanilla flavor and juice of half a lemon and mix well. Place in microwave for 15 seconds and using a Wisk or fork, swirl over cake. Make sure to make it pretty lol!!!!

My work email needs to be cleaned out periodically but not because of all the personal stuff in there.   While deleting, I noticed a message from one of my coworkers following an office party with “Did you make that pound cake?” in the subject line. In the body of the message it said “because it was THE BOMB!” I resisted the urge to reply with a snide remark about her joining us in the 21st Century and updating her compliment to “THEBOMB.COM“. (Does anyone else miss Tamar and the rest of the Braxton crew? I can’t wait for the new season, lol)

Anyway, I just accepted the compliment and thought that it was time to share this recipe with you guys! Let me tell you……it is pretty-freaking-awesome! I have had the recipe in my possession for a hot minute now but somehow it ended up on the bottom of the “recipes to try” stack. Everyone knows I go on Facebook to look at my own pics and laugh at my own jokes but on this rare occasion, I actually checked the newsfeed and saw several comments from people begging one of my FB friends to SELL them pound cakes. When I realized this was the same friend who gave me the recipe, I just HAD to bake it. (A lot of people send me things but with my budget, I need some reviews to see if it is even worth me trying to tweak it at all, lol). This cake takes the cake, literally. It was perfectly sweet, had a crispy and buttery crust and a tender middle. It smelled like heaven and tasted like it too. The lemon-cream cheese icing was the perfect finish of sweet and tangy. The only negative with this cake is that the bottom crust (with its delicious butter cookie flavor and texture) tends to separate from the cake a little yielding a less than perfect look. (If you know how to correct this, please let me know!) However, if you don’t it’s perfectly ok. No one notices at all and if they did, they forget after tasting it!

At first, I wasn’t going to share this because being the only one with it would make me an instant fave at all the family gatherings but I kinda already am…. soooo…. ummmm……. yeah. LOL! After all, I HAD to. Who can get missing for a month and NOT come back with something phenomenal?! So, here is my gift to you, hoping it will prompt you to let me back in the house. lol  And trust me, I did not leave you for just any reason, Fiercefoodie is working on some BIG things and she can’t wait to take you with her!

(Note: the original recipe was awesome but it did not include any flavoring but I added lemon to take it into superstar status )

Thanks TC for sharing your cake with us! Your grandmother seemed like an awesome woman and baker. MUAH!

TC’s Lemon Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Cake Ingredients

3 cups swans down cake flour
3 sticks of salted butter
1 8oz package of cream cheese
3 cups sugar
5 large eggs
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
1 – 2 tablespoons of lemon extract
Zest of 1 lemon

Icing Ingredients

2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup 10x confections sugar
4oz of cream cheese
Juice of half of a lemon

Directions

In a mixing bowl, add 3 sticks of room temperature butter and room temperature cream cheese. Mix well. Add the 3 cups of sugar. Mix well. Add large eggs one at the time, blending between each egg. After the last egg has been incorporated, add 1 cup of flour at the time and mix well before adding the next cup. The batter will be thick but it’s ok. Add the extracts and zest and mix well. It should smell (and taste if you’re daring) like vanilla ice cream. Butter and flour your bundt pan (or spray with Bakers Joy baking spray which has flour and butter already added) so that the cake slips right out when done. Pour cake batter into pan. Bake cake in a preheated, 320 degree oven for 1hr and 15 minutes or until tooth pick comes out clean. Remember all ovens are different so make sure you watch the cake. If it looks like its browning too fast, turn the oven down to 310 degrees. Leave cake in the pan for 10 minutes and invert into your cake dish.

(NOTE: For my oven, after 50 minutes, turn heat to 310 degrees and keep checking thereafter)

Icing directions

Place room temp cream cheese in a bowl, add powdered sugar and vanilla flavor and juice of half a lemon and mix well. Place in microwave for 15 seconds and using a Wisk or fork, swirl over cake. Make sure to make it pretty lol!!!!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache Filling

You all know I am a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE fan of America’s Test Kitchen/Cook’s Magazine so it should come as no surprise to you that when I found this “free” posting of their recipe for “Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache Filling” I HAD to try it. Like the original poster said, they are recipe hoarders and while I do subscribe to one or two publications I am always looking for more.

The cupcakes themselves were the best I’d ever had. They were moist, soft, rich and velvety. The depth of chocolate flavor really exceeded my expectations. A grown up cupcake, if you will. I profess to be a chocolate gurl. But the icing they provided coupled with the cupcake was a little toooooo chocolaty, even for me. I couldn’t handle it. It scared me. lol. (The kids seemed to not care but they aren’t known round these parts for their discriminating palates….except when it comes to veggies. o_O)

So, I sought out for something else to partner with the scrumptious cake and found this much lighter (and much less involved) frosting. (It’s FROSTING for heaven’s sake. It shouldn’t take longer than the cupcakes to prepare if you ask me… but who am I? #shrug) It has a taste similar to a cool whip but you can tell it is more substantial and more akin to icing.

This recipe makes 12 cupcakes and for 12 very happy people.

Ingredients

Ganache Filling:

• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine (I used the Ghiradeli chocolate brick. It’s 60% cacao and premeasured into 1/2 oz. pieces. each square represents a 1oz portion so measuring shouldn’t be a problem…for my slow friends, that is 4 pieces.)
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar

Chocolate Cupcakes:

• 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate (6 pieces of the Ghiradeli block ), chopped fine
• 1/3 cup (1 ounce) Dutch-processed cocoa
• ¾ cup hot coffee
• ¾ cup (4 1/8 ounces) bread flour (While I usually use cake flour for baking, if they say use “bread flour” I am using it. I trust them.)
• ¾ cup (5¼ ounces) granulated sugar (regular table sugar)
• ½ teaspoon table salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 large eggs (room temperature) 
• 2 teaspoons white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting:

• 5 Tablespoons Flour
• 1 cup Milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 cup Butter
• 1 cup Granulated Sugar (not Powdered Sugar!)

Preparation

Ganache Filling:

Place-chocolate, cream, and confectioners’ sugar in medium -microwave-safe bowl. Heat
in microwave on high power until mixture is warm to touch, 20 to 30 seconds.
Whisk until smooth; transfer bowl to refrigerator and let stand until just
chilled, no longer than 30 minutes.

Chocolate Cupcakes:

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard-sized muffin pan(cups have ½-cup capacity) with baking-cup liners. Place chocolate and cocoa in medium bowl. Pour hot coffee over mixture and whisk until smooth. Set in refrigerator to cool completely, about 20 minutes. Whisk flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

Whisk oil, eggs, vinegar, and vanilla into cooled chocolate-cocoa mixture until smooth. Add flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

Divide batter evenly among muffin pan cups. Place one slightly rounded teaspoon ganache filling on top of each cupcake. Bake until cupcakes are set and just firm to touch, 17 to 19 minutes. Cool cupcakes in muffin pan on wire rack until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes. Carefully lift each cupcake from muffin pan and set on wire rack. Cool to room temperature before frosting, about 1 hour.

Frosting:

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. It should look like a thick, wet paste of sorts. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. (You can also place the saucepan over ice in the sink for about 10 minutes or so until the mixture cools.) Once it is completely cooled, stir in the vanilla. 

While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. You don’t want any sugar graininess left. Then add the completely cooled milk/flour/vanilla mixture and whip it on medium high for about 4 to 5 minutes.  If it looks separated, you haven’t beaten it enough! Beat it until it all combines and resembles whipped cream.

To frost, mound 2 to 3 tablespoons frosting on center of each cupcake. Using small icing spatula or butter knife, spread frosting to edge of cupcake, leaving slight mound in center.

Now eat! Told you they were good!!!!

So I keep up my skinny girl act during the gathering and when asked why I was not munching on the goodies, I promptly and proudly responded “Julie said I am looking skinny today….where is Julie by the way?”. One of the (skinny) heifers here could not wait to blurt “She’s at the eye doctor”. AND SHE REALLY WAS!!!! HA!!!! I can’t stand my friends at work….smh.

Anyway, I promise full retribution for the missed opportunity to give you a great (FIERCE FOODIE VERIFIED) cupcake recipe. I gotta get a little finer before my bday. (Thinking of taking some boudoir pics…..shhhhhh!)  But once the scale concedes and shows me the number I want (or a spitting distance to it), I promise to bake you the most decadent, rich, velvety, chocolate overdose cupcakes you’ve ever tasted! I’m talking about getting chocolate wasted! Of course, I would be doing this solely for yall. So scratch that IOU, we’re back to you owing me.

You can NOT be from Miami and NOT like Key Lime Pie. Sorry, it just aint happening. There is something about Key Lime that screams South Florida, The Keys (of course) and lazy summer days on one of the many beautiful beaches down there. I recall making Key lime pies in the kitchen with my mom and 4 sisters. We were sloppy and that “meringue” topping  always looked like it had bubbled up from some active underwater volcano. However, we continued to take our pies to funeral wakes and various showers and feed whomever was moved enough (either with crippling grief or elation) to look beneath (literally) the presentation and taste our creations. They were always a hit. I believe we even tried our hand at peddling a few come to think of it.

I cannot understand for the life of me why my mother would have all of us “assisting”. We made such a mess, we fought over the strainers, dropped egg shells in the batter and were responsible for the many we had to “scratch” and re-make. But babaaaaaay, after squeezing 27 of those quarter-sized key limes allllll by my lonesome, I NOW KNOW WHY! That was a lot.  But, I will say that I did not have the proper tools. I used a traditional reamer and that made it a little messy and tedious. Plus I’m sure I left a significant amount of  juice behind because I just couldn’t get in there good enough. Here is an image of the latest in juicing…GOTTA GET ONE ASAP!

Ingredients

• 2 (14-ounce) cans condensed milk
• 1 cup key lime or regular lime juice (27 key limes- by one bag and grab 2 or 3 regular limes to carry you over if needed)
• 2 whole eggs
• zest of 3 persian limes or 6-8 key limes (be sure to zest BEFORE juicing) 
• 12 Keebler prepared graham cracker pie crust tart shells
• 1 cup Heavy cream
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 tea vanilla extract

*Re Substitutions: Do NOT use store bought key lime juice, that’s just offensive. However, the common green limes (persian) will serve as good proxies if needed in this case. I was definitely surprised to see we even had key limes at our grocery store. They come in 1lb bags (about 20 per bag) for less than $3.00.  

Directions

I was charged with babysitting my nephews the other day and I couldn’t resist their little pleading faces when they asked me for dessert. I caught a glimpse of the bowl of apples in my periphereal and decided to make the “Company Apple Crisp”  dish I’d found in my Cook’s Illustrated magazine. I recalled how simplistic and common the ingredient list appeared to be and knew I had those items but was still amazed that I did, in fact, have every single item with the exception of fresh lemon juice. I did, however, have a lime and that would HAVE to work….and it did.

Sorry, but site or no site, I was too tired to wash dishes after babysitting and definitely NOT for the SAME 2 little reasons I was so beat. Therefore, you’ll have to deal with the styrofoam bowls I used to serve this sweet treat. They’re not completely unsightly when you peek in on their contents. YUM-MEEEEE.

It may have been inconsiderate of me to give them the Apple Crisp JUST before turning them back over to their mom but all they know is that Auntie Zina is the fav (and if you truly know anything, you know that is a bold face lie).

INGREDIENTS

Topping:

 3/4 c unbleached all-purpose flour

3/4 c pecans, chopped fine

3/4 c old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2 c (3 1/2 oz) packed brown sugar

1/4 c granulated sugar

1/2 tea. table salt

8 tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Filling:

 3 lbs. Golden Delicious apples (approx 7)

1/4 c granulated sugar

1 c apple cider

2 tea. juice from 1 lemon

2 tbsp. unsalted butter

DIRECTIONS

For the topping:

•  Adjust rack to the middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees.
• Combine flour, pecans, oats, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl.
• Stir in butter until mix is thoroughly moistened and crumbly.
• Set aside.

For the filling:

• Toss apples, sugar and cinnamon together in large bowl; set aside.
• Bring cider to a simmer in a 12-inch oven-safe* skillet over medium heat. 
• Cook until reduced to 1/2 cup, approx. 5 minutes.
• Transfer reduced cider to bowl or liquid measuring cup; stir in lemon juice and set aside.
• Heat butter in now empty skillet over medium and cook stirring frequently, until apples begin to soften and become translucent, 12 to 14 minutes. (DO NOT FULLY COOK THE APPLES BECAUSE THEY STILL HAVE TO BAKE IN THE OVEN)
• Remove pan from heat and gently stir in cider and mix until apples are coated.
• Sprinkle topping evenly over fruit, breaking up any large chunks.
• Place skillet on a baking sheet and bake until fruit is tender and topping is deep golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes.
• Cool on wire rack until warm, at least 15 mins. and serve….preferably with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.