Apple Pie

One of my favorite things about fall is apple pie. Although it feels nothing like fall in LA right now, I wanted to try to recreate it with a tasty pie. So I took a break from cleaning, organizing and packing for my move and baked. I am so glad I did! Following is a recipe I put together using inspiration from various pie recipes I've read recently. We had Splenda Brand Sugars for baking in the pantry in and I decided to try them here. It worked out really well and I like the idea of cutting the amount of sugar in half. It should work just as well with regular sugar and the measurements are in parentheses below.

Apple Pie

No Fail Pie crust
5 Granny Smith apples (peeled, cored and sliced)
1/4 cup Splenda brown sugar (or 1/2 cup dark brown sugar)
1/4 cup Splenda white sugar (or 1/2 cup white sugar)
2 tsps ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
3 tbsp flour
1 tbsp lemon juice or juice from 1 lemon
4 tbsp unsalted butter

1. Preheat over to 450 degrees. Place the pie crust in the freezer for approximately 30 minutes.
2. Toss sliced apples with lemon juice. Mix the sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and flour in a separate bowl. Toss dry ingredients with the apples and lemon juice. Let sit for 15 minutes.
3. Roll out pie crust and place in pie plate. Carefully pour apple mixture into the crust. Dot with butter. Cover with a second crust, making sure to cut steam vents in the top. It's also festive to decorate with leaf or other fall-inspired cutouts.
4. Place pie plate on a cookie sheet and into the heated oven. Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, loosely covered with aluminum foil. Then lower the heat to 350 degrees, remove foil and bake for another 40-50 minutes until the filling is bubbling and apples are tender.
5. Remove to a wire wrack and let cool for 1 hour, serving while still warm.

While apple pie isn't exactly brain surgery, I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised by the bite the ginger added to this pie and how well it balanced out the sweetness of the brown sugar. If you like apple pie, you have to try this one. Enjoy!

Apple Cider Doughnuts

I saw this recipe a few weeks ago on Coconut & Lime and had to try it. Apple doughnuts are the perfect sign of fall. When I was younger we used to go to a pumpkin farm in Upstate NY and they had the best fresh doughnut holes, rolled in cinnamon & sugar. I spent last Saturday checking out a suburban pumpkin festival and decided that afterwards I'd try out these doughnuts. They are different from the fall doughnuts I grew up on, as those were cake doughnuts, and this is a yeast risen doughnut and actually my favorite kind. They were actually quite easy and so tasty that I had to promise the boy I'd make them for him when we were together again.

Apple Cider Doughnuts
from Coconut & Lime

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
3/4 cup milk, at room temperature
1/4 cup apple cider, at room temperature
1/4 cup warm apple cider (about 110 degrees)
3 1/4 cups flour
4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoons salt

apple cider frosting
3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup apple cider

canola oil for frying

1. for the frosting: Beat all ingredients together until a spreadable icing forms.
2. doughnuts: In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm cider in the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the flour, remaining cider, milk, butter, egg yolks, sugar, and salt until you have a soft, elastic dough that comes together easily into a ball.
4. Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap. Let the dough rise until it has doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.
5. Flour a clean work surface. Place the dough on the surface and roll it out. Roll until it is about 1/2 thick. Cut out doughnut shapes. Do not reroll to dough.
6. Place them on a parchment or silipat lined cookie sheet, cover again with the tea towel and let them rise 15-30 minutes. They should look puffy but don't need to have doubled. (I actually didn't do this step and didn't even realize it until I was typing up this post. I don't recommend skipping it though and will do it next time I make these)
7. Meanwhile, heat (to 350) about 3 inches of oil in a heavy pot. Fry the doughnuts (2 or 3 at a time works well) flipping at least once to insure that they are golden brown on all sides, about 2 minutes.
8. Drain on paper towel lined plates or baking pans. Repeat for remaining doughnuts. Frost cooled doughnuts if desired. Eat the same day they are made.

My sister, friend and I all thought these turned out quite well. I loved the icing and the entire doughnut had a really great apple cider flavor. I made little leaf shaped Munchkins, but would like to try making a more traditional doughnut shape and size next time.

White Chicken Chipotle Chili

Last week I decided to make a big pot of chili because the leftovers are always tastier than when you first make it and are great to bring to work for lunch. Also this is a completely South Beach friendly recipe, which you would never guess by tasting it. And what's a better entree into Fall than a big pot of chili? Enjoy!

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (1 ¾ lb), cut into 1-inch chunks
2 tsp chili powder (we were out of regular chili powder, so I used chipotle chili power giving it an extra smokey flavor)
2 tsp ground cumin
Salt and black pepper
3 cans (14.5-oz size) white kidney or cannellini beans, drained (save ½ cup draining liquid) and rinsed
2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth, divided
1 tsp canned chipotle chili, seeded and minced
½ cup nonfat half-and-half
Garnishes: Shredded reduced-fat Monterey Jack cheese, chopped fresh cilantro leaves

1. Warm oil in large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-low heat. Add onion; cook 4 minutes, stirring. Push onion mixture to one side; add chicken to skillet; sprinkle mixture with chili powder, cumin, salt, and pepper. Cook 5 minutes, stirring.
2. Increase heat to medium-high. Add 2 cans of the beans and draining liquid, 1 ¼ cups broth, and chipotle; bring to a simmer. Cook 10 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.
3. Meanwhile, combine remaining 1 can beans and ¾ cup broth in bowl of food processor. Puree until smooth. Add to soup in pot, along with half-and-half. Simmer a few minutes, stirring, until warmed through and flavors incorporated. Serve hot; garnish with cheese and cilantro.

This has become one of our go-to South Beach recipes for ease, taste and leftovers. I highly recommend giving it a try. It's also great for a Sunday football get together.

Applesauce

The last week and a half has been a little nuts. First I was out of town and then caught a nasty cold that knocked me out for most of this week. Anyway, let's get down to business. We are now officially in Fall and being a New England girl Fall means apple picking and making fun things with apples. While I didn't go apple picking, I saw a recipe for home made applesauce on Simply Recipes and had to try it out. It was so unbelievably easy and tasty that I doubt I will ever buy canned applesauce again!

Applesauce
From simplyrecipes.com
Preparation time: 45 minutes.

The sugar amounts are just guidelines, depending your taste, and on the sweetness of your apples, use less or more. If you use less sugar, you'll likely want to use less lemon juice. The lemon juice brightens the flavor of the apples and balances the sweetness.

3 to 4 lbs of peeled, cored, and quartered apples. (Make sure you use a good cooking apple like Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji, Jonathan, Mcintosh, or Gravenstein.) (I used all Granny Smith)
4 strips of lemon peel - use a vegetable peeler to strip 4 lengths
Juice of one lemon, about 3-4 Tbsp
3 inches of cinnamon stick
1/4 cup of dark brown sugar
up to 1/2 cup of white sugar
1 cup of water
1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 Put all ingredients into a large pot. Cover. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
2 Remove from heat. Remove cinnamon sticks and lemon peels. Mash with potato masher.
Ready to serve, either hot or refrigerated. Delicious with vanilla ice cream or vanilla yogurt.
Freezes easily, lasts up to one year in a cold freezer.

I halved the recipe, except for the amount of cinnamon stick, since I love cinnamon and it came out perfectly. I had some co-workers taste test it and they all agreed. Enjoy!

BLT Quiche

Since I made the Pear pie last week and my pie crust recipe yields at least 2, almost 3 crusts (probably would be 3 if I was better at rolling it all out!) I had some crust left over this weekend. I was going to make another sweet pie, but the sis requested a quiche and since I haven't yet made a traditional quiche, I decided to try it out. We had some bacon leftover in the fridge and a large assortment of cheese so I figured I would make a quiche that would use up some things we already had. I found this recipe for a Ham, Leek & 3-cheese Quiche that I used for my initial inspiration and combined it with this one for Madame Quiche's Quiche au Fromage.

Bacon Leek & Tomato Quiche

1 pie crust
5 strips of bacon - slices into 1/2" pieces
3 leeks - white & light green parts cut in half and sliced to 1/4" pieces
7 grape tomatoes - halved
1 cup of shredded Gruyere
1 cup of shredded Monterey Jack
1 cup of grated Parmesan
16 oz creme fraiche
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp black pepper
4 large eggs

1. Roll out pie crust and place into a 9" deep dish pie plate. Crimp edges and poke bottom with a fork or sharp tipped knife. Place in the freezer for 30 mins. (Doing this makes a huge difference in the flakiness of the crust)
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line the pastry with aluminum foil and pastry weights and bake in the bottom third of the oven until the pastry is golden at the edges, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and remove the aluminum foil and pastry weights. Return the pastry to the oven to bake until the bottom is golden, an additional 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and reserve. Lower oven to 350 degrees.
3. Place sliced leeks in cold water and mix them with your hands, to clean and separate the pieces. Drain in a colander and pat dry.
4. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat and cook the bacon pieces until crisp and brown. Remove bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon to drain on a paper towel, leaving the bacon renderings in the pan. Lower the heat to medium/medium-low and saute the leeks until tender, approx 8-10 minutes.
5. Line the bottom of the pie crust with the bacon pieces, they may overlap. Toss cheeses together and sprinkle on top of the bacon. Top cheese with the leeks.
6. Whisk together the eggs, nutmeg and pepper until combined. Add in the creme fraiche and whisk until smooth.
7. Carefully pour the egg mixture into the pie shell. Moving the leeks and cheese as necessary to allow for even distribution of the mixture. Top with the halved grape tomatoes, cut side up.
8. Cover the quiche with aluminum foil, being careful not to let the foil touch the egg mixture. Place on a cookie sheet and into the oven heated to 350 degrees.
9. Bake for 1 1/4- 1 1/2 hours until center of filling is puffed and set (center will be slightly wobbly but not liquid). Allow to cool for 20-30 minutes before serving.

I made this right before the sis and I went to the movies for a double feature. So when I got home I topped it with some extra Gruyere and popped it back in the oven to heat up and let the cheese melt. I love how easy quiche is and much like fritatta is a great way to use up extra things you have in the fridge.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Today I went to a Pie Festival in Malibu with some friends (one of which is as obsessed with pies as I am). It was a church sponsored festival with a judged pie contest and a pie eating contest and of course plenty of pies to try. While the festival itself was quite nice we were somewhat disappointed with the caliber of pies. I think we were hoping for some more in the way of inspiration for our own pie recipes. Anyway, it was a nice was to spend a Saturday but it made me want to bake something when I got home. In the spirit of fall I decided to try to make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes, inspired by the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies that my brother and sister LOVE from our local grocery store. I used a recipe I found for Pumpkin Cupcakes that had walnuts and just subbed in mini chocolate chips for the walnuts. Check it out below.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
from About.com

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, sift before measuring
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten until frothy
1 cup mashed cooked or canned pumpkin
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (I used 3/4 cup of mini semisweet chocolate chips instead of walnuts)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a bowl.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy; beat in eggs. Blend in mashed pumpkin.
3. Stir in the sifted dry ingredients alternately with the milk, blending until batter is smooth after each addition; stir in chopped walnuts or pecans (mini chocolate chips).
4. Spoon batter into well-greased and floured or paper-lined muffin pan cups. Fill about 2/3 full.
5. Bake for 25 minutes, or until a wooden pick or cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.
6. Let cool for approximately 2 hours and frost with Chocolate Cream Cheese frosting (recipe below). Makes 18-24 cupcakes (I got 18 cupcakes. Remember, if you don't fill every cup in a cupcake tin to fill the empty cups 1/2 with water to allow for even baking)


Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
from The Cupcake Project

1 8 oz package cream cheese at room temperature
1/4 C butter (1/2 stick) at room temperature
5 C sifted powdered sugar (You can decrease this amount if you don't care about it being as stiff for piping) (I used 3 1/2 cups and found that it was stiff enough for piping)
1/2 C cocoa powder

1. Mix cream cheese and butter until smooth and creamy.
2. Mix in powdered sugar, one cup at a time.
3. Mix in cocoa powder.

These cupcakes got the seal of approval from the sis and now I need to figure out a way to adapt them into tasty, cakey cookies. I have some ideas and will post about them when I figure it out.

These are pretty perfect for fall and with the orange and brown/black they actually would make a great Halloween cupcake.

Brandied Pear Pie with Pecan Crumble

This is a pie I conceived of on my last flight back to LA from Toronto. At that point I had already spent about 15 hours on planes in 11 days and was 2 hours into my last flight until early November. I couldn't read, wasn't interested in the movie and was so wired I couldn't sleep. So I sat and doodled and thought of ideas for recipes, specifically pie recipes. I'll admit I'm at the very beginning of mastering homemade pies, but the more of my own recipes I write the more I like doing it and the more I want to try. So here goes, the first pie recipe ever put together by me! Check it out:

Brandied Pear Pie with Pecan Crumble

5-6 cups of peeled, sliced pears (this is for a deep dish pie plate.)
1 crust pie crust
1/4 cup brandy
1 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 cup flour - separated
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 stick butter - room temperature
2 cup chopped/crushed pecans

1. Preheat to 425 degrees
2. Peal and and core the pears. I got this great method for coring the pears from Jaden's Steamy Kitchen: "To core a pear, lop off the top and the very bottom of the pear. Cut the pear in half, starting from the top at the stem end. Since I don’t have a melon baller, I used my measuring spoon - the 1-teaspoon spoon was the perfect size and shape to remove the core. Cut cored pear into wedges, lengthwise. You can cook with apples instead of pears; just increase the cooking time by 10 minutes." Once they are cored, slice them up.
3. Toss the pears with the brandy, white sugar, 1/4 cup flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Let sit for 15 minutes.
4. Roll out crust for the bottom of the pie plate and place in an ungreased pie plate, trimming off the excess.
5. Gently pour the pear mixture into the prepared plate.
6. In a medium bowl rub the stick of butter with the remaining 1/2 cup of flour, brown sugar and pecans, so that it all is evenly mixed and resembles coarse crumbs. Evenly cover the top of the pears with the pecan mixture.
7. Place pie plate on a baking sheet in the oven and lower heat to 350 degrees. Bake for 55-70 minutes at 350. Monitor it to make sure the top doesn't burn. When the color of the top is just how you like it, place a piece of foil lightly on top to slow the browning and prevent burning.

I tries this pie last night, because my entire office has a serious sweet tooth and all my talk of baking has made them jealous. Plus our movie FLASH OF GENIUS opens today and I thought some sweet treats were in order for that. And I was told not to talk about baking anymore until I brought something into share! So far the reviews back on the pie are good. I think it's really sweet and rich, which simply means you have to take a smaller slice. If anyone else tries it I'd love to hear how it turns out and what, if any, modifications you did or would make.

Go see FLASH OF GENIUS this weekend!

Chicken Cacciatore (Hunter's Chicken)

Cacciatore means "hunter" in Italian. Most of you know my affinity for Italian cuisine and my growing love for my slow cooker. Well, I had a ton of tomato sauce leftover from last week's eggplant parm and 3 huge bone in chicken breasts in my freezer. With the insanely hot weather we are having in LA this week, I figured this was the best time to break out the slow cooker and use some stuff we already had. Even though I've been baking alot more recently, I still try to keep most of our dinners low-carb if I can, so that was one goal here, the second was to truly make it a one pot meal. Traditional cacciatore's have tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and occasionally peppers. Those are all great veggies that are of course in mine, but I wanted to add something else and decided on zucchini because the sis loves it and I felt it would be able to hold up in the slow cooker. See my recipe below:

Chicken Cacciatore
serves 4-6

3 large bone-in chicken breasts (approx 2 lbs, I'm not sure of the weight I used, but you can use bone in or boneless and I would say approx 2 lbs of chicken would be good)
1 large onion thinly sliced
3 cups Simple Tomato Sauce (you can also use canned tomatoes)
8 oz sliced Baby Bella mushroom
1 large green bell pepper cut into 1 inch chunks
2-3 zucchini cut into 1/2 thick slices
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp or more dried oregano (is you use canned tomatoes I would up the oregano to a tbsp)
2 tsps or more dried thyme
1 tsp crushed red pepper (I didn't do this, but the sis and I both agreed it could use some heat)
salt & pepper to taste

1. Line the bottom of you slow cooker with the onions.
2. Layer the chicken breasts on top of the onions.
3. In a large bowl mix all the other ingredients and pour on top of the chicken.
4. Set slow cooker to cook on low for 7 hours. My chicken fell off the bone into big chunks making it easy to serve and eat. Just try to pull the bones before serving.

If you go the route of using canned tomatoes, I would first cut back the tomatoes to 2 1/2 cups and add 1 cup of red wine. Then mix 2-3 cloves of crushed garlic into the tomato-veggie mixture. I skipped these steps since there is garlic and wine already in my sauce.

This was a great hearty meal that would be good served over pasta or with potatoes or even with a nice crusty piece of bread. We actually enjoyed it solo with a bit of parmesan sprinkled on top. Using the slow cooker makes it something easy to have ready when you come home from work, but also good in the heat when you don't feel like cooking. If you try it let me know how you tweak the ingredients to suit your needs. Enjoy!