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Apples. Oats. Chocolate chips. How can this possibly go wrong?
It CAN’T.
My friend Vanessa came over while I was in the middle of winging these today, and they turned out to be the perfect dessert after our lunch of chicken and dumplings. They’re based on Rick Bayless’ recipe for Grandma’s Moist Apple Cake from Rick and Lanie’s Excellent Kitchen Adventures. I tweaked and added and subtracted and adjusted and came up with these. And I’m not sorry.
You will need:
- 5 ounces whole wheat flour
- 5 ounces AP flour
- 5 ounces old fashioned oats
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 eggs, well beaten
- 1/4 cup yogurt or sour cream
- 8 ounces butter
- 3 apples
- 1 cup chocolate chips
To make:
- Preheat oven to 325F and line/grease 18 muffin cups or one Bundt pan or two 9-inch cake pans
- Peel and chop apples and dump into a glass bowl; add stick of butter on top and microwave for two minutes till apples are partially cooked and butter is melted; set aside to cool for a bit (to avoid melting your chocolate chips too soon)
- Mix all dry ingredients, then make a well in the center and add in vanilla, oil, eggs, yogurt and buttery apples (hello? How good does that sound?) and chocolate chips, then stir everything together until just incorporated
- Pour into prepared pan(s) and bake at 325F: about 35 minutes for muffins or layers, about an hour for a Bundt cake; either way watch for it to feel springy in the middle
You can add a chocolate glaze or a dusting of powdered sugar over the top of this, but I think they’re pretty great just as is. Let me know what you think!
These were so much fun! Now, they’re complicated so take a minute to prepare yourself for the giant shopping list. I kid! Obviously. My awesome sister rocks a lower carb diet, but we felt the need to have a chips and salsa night so I made these as a chip alternative. As with most things I make, they’re ridiculously easy.
You will need:
- 8 ounces shredded Parmesan cheese
To make:
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat
- Put 1 Tbsp. cheese on the mat and tap a little with the back of the spoon to flatten it out a bit; repeat, leaving a couple inches between your little piles of cheese
- Bake at 350F for 4 to 5 minutes, watching for the edges to start browning; this will happen quickly so don’t go anywhere. Either pull them when the edges are brown, or let them go a little bit longer for even crispier, um, crisps
- At this point you can either leave them to cool on the tray or you can drape them over an overturned glass or a rolling pin (as above) to give them a little shape (the better to hold your salsa with, obviously). If you go the draping route, let them cool on the tray for a minute or two till they start to harden up a bit; when you can get a spatula cleanly under them then you can move them without turning them into a ball of cheese
Enjoy!
They’re not biscuits. I promise.
They’re bagels, but without holes. Get it? Unholey? I’ll be here till Thursday!
No, seriously. No holes = more surface area for cream cheese. That’s a total win in my book.
I had a couple bags of clementine puree in the freezerleft over from the Cutie Cakes so I decided to see if I could work them into bagels. Batch #2 was a success! Batch #1 involved dead yeast. D’oh. Anyhoo, work these up like super simple bagels:
Make an overnight starter of:
- 2 1/8 oz bread flour (I actually used AP flour for the starter and it was fine)
- 2 oz. cool water
- a pinch of yeast
and let it sit, covered, overnight at room temperature.
The next day add to the mixture:
- 12 oz clementine puree* (or 10 ounces clementine and 2 ounces water)
- 18 oz flour (bread flour would be great)
- 1 1/2 tsp yeast
- 1 3/4 tsp salt
And now:
- Knead, knead, knead, especially if you’re using bread flour. When it’s lovely and smooth and elastic (about 8 minutes in a stand mixer) then let it rise for about an hour; punch it down and let it rise again for another 30 minutes
- Transfer to a work surface (I use a silicone mat) and either divide into equal pieces, or roll out and cut out with a biscuit cutter if you’re doing the unholey version; cover with plastic wrap and let them sit for about 30 minutes while you preheat the oven to 425F and get a large pot of water boiling
- At the end of 30 minutes drop the bagels four at a time into boiling water, cooking for 1 minute on the first side, then flipping and boiling for three more minutes, then bake for about 20 minutes or until they’re nicely browned
*Need a refresher on clementine puree? Put five clementines in a pot and pour in enough cold water to cover; bring to a boil then cook at somewhere between a simmer and a boil for two hours; drain and cool, then halve the clementines and run them through a food processor (the whole fruit) until you have a smooth puree. Easy!
Enjoy!
This is an interpretation of a dish I saw at Carrie in the Kitchen (originally at About a Bit of Everything). It’s SO tasty, but rather unphotogenic — as I suppose a lot of casseroles are.
Regardless, you should try this. Just, you know, don’t sign it up for a food modeling contest.
You will need:
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1/4 cup taco seasoning
- 3/4 cup water
- 8 ounces cream cheese, cubed
- 8 ounces dried pasta
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese
- 1 can Ro*tel
To make:
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Cook pasta in salted water for two minutes less than lowest time recommendation on box (e.g. if “cook 7 minutes for al dente” then cook yours for 5 minutes); drain
- Brown ground beef and drain any grease; add water and taco seasoning, stir, and let simmer uncovered 5-10 minutes; stir in cream cheese, cooked pasta and RO*TEL
- Spoon into greased casserole dish and top with mozzarella cheese; bake for 20 minutes or so until cheese is bubbly and starting to brown around the edges
Bonus: this freezes like a dream! Make two and freeze one covered in a layer of plastic wrap then a layer of foil — just remember to remove the plastic wrap before baking!
This is an old recipe from the Homesteads. Don’t you just love the name? Being a kind of angel food cake it should, obviously, be made in an angel food cake pan. I had a moment of mommy brain and made it in a Bundt cake pan, though, and it turned out super yummy regardless.
You will need:
- 4 eggs, separated
- 7 Tbsp water
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 cups AP flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp lemon extract
To make:
- Preheat oven to 325F
- Beat egg whites until stiff; set aside
- Beat egg yolks and water for 5 minutes; add sugar and beat 5 minutes; add flour, salt and lemon extract and beat 5 minutes; fold in egg whites
- Bake at 325 in ungreased tube pan for 30-40 minutes; turn upside down to cool then run a knife around the edge to free from the pan
- Slice and mail to your sweet friend/Kiddo’s babysitter who has had the nerve to go back to college (this step optional)
In the fall of 2002 we sat down in our cellblock seats at a Predators game and said hi to the couple sitting next to us.
Fast forward almost ten (!) years, and we’re still friends with that awesome couple. The fact that Tracy brings me cupcakes when she comes to visit sure doesn’t hurt that friendship. I’m just sayin.
She brought me these and I am just fascinated by them!
Here’s what you need:
- One box cake mix
- One can of soda
Hello? That’s all?? Now two steps:
- Mix cake mix and soda
- Bake according to box directions
Tracy made this particular batch with chocolate cake mix and a diet cherry Dr. Pepper. CRAZY good, and Tracy tells me that baking 24 cupcakes with the mixture makes them one point each, for those counting such things. Isn’t that insane? And there are lots of different combination, too. White cake mix and orange soda? Spice cake and Sprite? Go crazy! What else sounds good?
I always command beg ask my sister to make buffalo chicken dip for football parties, and she does — what a good kid. I wanted to make it for Vanessa’s birthday but I wanted a way to make it a little more portable, so I came up with this!
You will need:
- 8 ounces cream cheese, well softened
- 1/2 cup blue cheese or ranch dressing
- 1/2 cup Frank’s Redhot sauce
- 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese or shredded mozzarella cheese
- one chicken breast cooked and shredded
- 2-3 packages mini phyllo shells
To make:
- Put cream cheese in a bowl and stir it up with a wooden spoon or something up to the task, then add dressing, hot sauce, cheese and shredded chicken and stir well
- Just before you’re ready to serve preheat oven to 350F and put shells on a cookie sheet. Scoop chicken dip into shells (I used a small cookie dough scoop) and bake at 350F for 8-10 minutes or until shells are just barely browning at the edges and chicken mixture is hot
Hello? How easy is this? Go! Go make it now! They’re so warm and yummy when one is snowed in…. which, like me, you probably are.
Due to the great camera debacle of 2010 I’m afraid I don’t have a picture of this. You’ll just have to trust me on its deliciousness. Or, you know, make it. It is the yum.
There are a thousand variations of this recipe floating around, but this is how we do it — always Christmas morning breakfast, and sometimes New Year’s morning breakfast as well (because, hey — more cheese!)
Ingredients
- 1 sheet frozen puff pastry (I use Pepperidge Farm; no they do not know I exist)
- One 8 ounce wheel brie cheese
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup cranberries, pecans or walnuts, optional
- Platter of crackers and or apple slices
- 1 egg
- 1 Tbsp water
Cooking Directions
- THAW THE PUFF PASTRY (what? I may have forgotten this once or twice). When I remember I do it overnight in the fridge so it is ready to go in the morning
- Lay the pastry sheet flat and slice the brie in half so you have two wheels of roughly equal thickness
- Put one half-thick wheel on the sheet of pastry and top with brown sugar and any nuts or cranberries you want to use, then top with the other half of brie. Fold the pastry up around the brie and pinch the seams closed. If you feel so inclined you can tie it shut with a bow of cooking twine; pretty and helpful
- Whisk the egg and water together and brush over the pastry; this will help the seams seal and give the whole thing a lovely shine
- Bake on a cookie sheet (the cheese could overflow a little) at 375 for 20-30 minutes or until pastry is browned and brie is all melty. Serve with crackers and or apple slices
Go make it! Let me know how you love it. And, uh, take a picture for me. 
What, like that’s not a descriptive name?
Kiddo’s Aunt Myrtle (hands seen above) made this for me this weekend. We may or may not have eaten it sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace and a chick flick. Ahem.
You will need:
- 1 block cream cheese
- 1 can RO*TEL, drained
- 2 cans Super Sweet Yellow & White corn (see below)
To make:
- Drain the corn and RO*TEL, then stir together in a shallow dish (that’s a double batch in a lasagna pan in the picture up there), then pinch off chunks of the cream cheese and scatter over the RO*TEL/corn mixture; bake at 350F for 15 minutes
- Carefully remove from oven and stir together so it’s all incorporated; return to oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes. The end!
Y’all know how I love me some easy recipes. Plus, this is really great hot and really great cold. New Year’s Eve anyone?
Enjoy!
First, I must apologize if my pictures look… off for a little while. My favorite lens met its maker on Christmas Eve. Well maybe not its maker, but at least the hardwood floor:
<<observed moment of silence>>
ANYHOO. The tart.
I’ve been wanting to try this tart dough recipe for a while now because who ever heard of melting the butter first? I figured it was definitely worth a shot. And it was great! A totally new way to make it, and totally fun to play with.
Definitely read through David’s instructions before making this. He is, obviously, the expert here, and has lots of great information in that post.
I weighed my dough ingredients, a la David:
- 90 g (3 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (canola works great)
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 150 g (5oz, or 1 slightly-rounded cup) flour
Plus:
- 4 apples, peeled and thinly sliced
- 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup craisins
Now the fun part!
- Preheat oven to 410F
- Put butter, oil, water, sugar and salt in an oven-safe bowl
- Place in preheated oven and let cook for 15 minutes till mixture is bubbling and the butter is starting to brown a bit at the edges
- Remove from oven (carefully! It will sizzle) and dump in flour (mixture will sizzle more here), stirring quickly to combine. As David says, it’s not usual practice to have a hot mixing bowl on the counter so keep reminding yourself not to grab the bowl with your bare hand
- Plop the dough into a tart pan or cast iron skillet (because, hey, any excuse to use cast iron) and pat it out a little with your spoon; wait for it to cool enough to handle, then use the heel of your hand and your fingers to gently press into place on the bottom and up the sides
At this point David recommends blind baking for 15 minutes, then cooling, then filling.
I hate blind baking.
For plan Erin:
- Bump oven temperature up to 425F
- Toss thinly sliced apples in lemon juice to prevent browning, then add in lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and Craisins; stir to evenly coat everything (I used my hands)
- Spoon into unbaked dough and bake for 15 minutes at 425, then lower oven temp to 350F; cook for another 25-30 minutes or until apples are super soft and crust is browned
- DO NOT CUT RIGHT AWAY. I know, I know. But you have to let it sit long enough for the juices to thicken up or it’ll just run everywhere
- Cool, slice, then foist upon your neighbors to prevent yourself from eating all of it straight out of the pan
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