Pie Crust

 Who doesn’t love pie? What makes it even better? Homemade crust! If you have a food processor, it’s shocking how easy it is to make your own pie crust.

It takes a bit of practice to roll out the dough and fit into the pie dish. My edges are a bit of a mess, but it still tastes delicious. :)

This recipe makes enough dough for two pumpkin pies or one pie with a bottom and top crust (like an apple pie).

 

Foolproof Pie Crust
from America's Test Kitchen

2 1/2 cups (12 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour 
1 teaspoon table salt 
2 tablespoons sugar 
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices 
1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces 
1/4 cup cold vodka 
1/4 cup cold water

1. Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. 
2. Add butter and shortening and process until homogeneous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (dough will resemble cottage cheese curds and there should be no uncoated flour). 
3. Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.
4. Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture. With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. 
5. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk. 
6. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.

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Butter Popcorn Bars

I am not a dessert person. Wait. I am not a bake-a-dessert person. I'm more of a enjoyer-of-desserts girl. These buttered popcorn bars, however, are my go-to dessert now. I always have the ingredients in the house, and, in less than an hour, I can have finished dessert. Voila! 

I made these bars for a family dinner and we decided to class it up. Ice cream, shaved chocolate, and sea salt take this dessert over the top! Feel free to experiment on your own.

You can make your popcorn any way you want: microwave or stovetop. The more buttery, the better. I use 1/2c popcorn kernels and 1/4c vegetable oil in a Whirly Pop (Whirly Pop makes air-popped popcorn in 3 minutes flat!).

Buttered Popcorn Bars
from Smitten Kitchen's cookbook

Ingredients

4 cups popcorn, popped (3/4 bag of microwave popcorn)

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 light brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1. Pop up a batch of popcorn using your favorite method. 

2. Preheat your oven to 375º F. 

3. In a large bowl cream together the softened butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. 

4. In another bowl, whisk the flour and baking soda together. 

5. Stir the combined dry ingredients into the butter sugar mixture. 

6. Fold in the cooled popcorn so that it is evenly distributed through the batter. 

7. Grease a 9x9" baking pan.

8. Press the batter into the pan and bake for 18-20 minutes.

9. Allow to cool and cut into bars.

10. Serving options: plain or fancy (with ice cream, popcorn, chocolate shavings, and a pinch of sea salt).

This recipe can also be doubled and placed in a 9"x13" pan. You can use 6 cups of popped popcorn (1/3c kernels in your Whirly Pop). The result is more popcorn-y, but delicious nevertheless!

Blueberry Muffins

If you've been following the weather in Florida for the past month, you'll know that we've had a lot of rain - in Biblical proportions. That being said, we've spent a lot of time stuck in the house. And, weekend after weekend, it's hard to keep a very rambunctious three-year old entertained. 

We've taken to cooking together to pass some time. I don't do much baking (much to Scott's dismay), but we did make these muffins....and you should, too! This recipe is a master muffin recipe. You can add any flavors you want. We chose classic blueberry with fresh, juicy blueberries! When you fill up the muffin tin to the top, they bake off to have that perfect coffee house, muffin spill-over.

We made one batch for ourselves and one batch for all the teachers at the kids' school. They were a big hit - at home and at school!! Pete's teacher said, "Those aren't the Martha White muffin mix crap with freeze-dried blueberries that I make. Those are homemade - with real blueberries!"

Blueberry Muffins
from Three Many Cooks


Makes 1 dozen large, 18 medium, and 4 dozen mini muffins as well as 4 mini quick-bread loaves



3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups applesauce
1 pint blueberries



1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees (or 450 degrees for mini muffins).
2. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. 
3. Beat in eggs. 
4. Alternating 1/3 at a time, beat in the dry ingredients and applesauce until a smooth, thick batter just forms. 
5. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray. Divide batter evenly among the cups with a 1/2-cup measure (fill it up to the top!). 
6. Bake muffins 25 minutes (18 min for a convection oven) or until golden brown, . 
7. Set pan on a wire rack to cool slightly, remove muffins and continue to cool or serve.

Baked Oatmeal Bars

I was on Pinterest wasting time browsing when I came across these baked oatmeal bars. I'm always up for a quick, on-the-go, healthy, filling breakfast item/treat. The blog I pulled the recipe from said these were less like granola bars than they were like oatmeal cookies. AND, they don't have any dairy?! You have my attention!

They were really good! With only 1/4-cup of sugar, they're pretty low-calorie yet filling. I might try a little less milk next time as they were pretty moist. But, they do hold together pretty well after a day.

Oatmeal Breakfast Bars
from Livingwithout.com

Ingredients:

• 2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg

• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup almond milk

• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

• 1 egg, or 1 T ground flax mixed with 3 T boiling water (let sit for 5 minutes until thickened)

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/2 cup craisins

Directions:



1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease an 8 x 8 baking pan.
2. Combine oats, cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
3. Add milk substitute, egg, applesauce, sweetener, and vanilla.  Mix well.
4. Stir in dried fruit.
5. Put batter into pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Allow bars to cool completely, then cut into bars.

Cadbury Creme Eggs

What says Easter better than a Cadbury Creme Egg? And, seriously, how long will they continue to show the same Cadbury Chicken audition commercial from the '90s? It is pretty funny, though.

You know I love me some Pinterest - mostly just to kill some time. But, every once in a while, you see something you simply must make. And,  homemade Cadbury Creme Eggs fall in that category. Creme Eggs are Scott's favorite Easter candy. So, of course, I had to give them a shot!

I get a little nervous with candy/dessert recipes. I much prefer to cook something more on the savory side. But, this recipe is very easy to get great results just like the real thing! The taste is pretty spot-on.

Notes:
- I first made a small batch. The source recipe calls to dip the eggs in chocolate twice. But, Scott said it was too much chocolate.....did you hear me? Too much chocolate??!! Can there be such a thing? They were quite tasty, but there was a lot more chocolate than the Cadbury originals (but incredibly yummy!!). My second attempt I only dipped them once, and it tasted a bit more authentic.
- If you are hand-shaping the eggs, the shape won't be completely egg-shaped like the Cadbury originals, but who the heck cares??!! You have a tray of Cadbury Creme Eggs!!!
- I only had dark corn syrup on hand. The "egg whites" were a bit off-white, but the taste was still great.
- After rolling out 8 eggs, the bowls of dough (for lack of a better word) started to get soft. So, every 8 eggs, I popped the tray of formed eggs and dough back into the fridge to firm up.
- The vanilla was a bit overpowering, so I decreased the amount.

Cadbury Creme Eggs

from A Way to His Heart


1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
3 cups powdered sugar
4 drops yellow food coloring
2 drops red food coloring
8 oz. milk chocolate chips
1.5 Tbsp shortening

1. Combine the corn syrup, butter, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl. Beat well with an electric mixer. Add sugar, one cup at a time, mixing by hand after each addition. 
2. Remove about 1/3 of the mix and place in a small bowl. Add yellow and red food coloring and stir. Cover both mixes and refrigerate at least 2 hours. 
3. When mixes are firm, roll a small ball from the orange filling and wrap around it a portion of the white filling that is twice that size. Form into the shape of an egg and place onto a cookie sheet that has been brushed with shortening. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Refrigerate 3 to 4 hours. 
4. Combine chocolate chips with shortening in glass bowl. Microwave on high for 1 minute. Then stir and microwave for another minute. 
5. Use a fork to dip each center into the chocolate. Place candy onto wax paper to dry. Refrigerate until chocolate is set.
6. If all the eggs haven't been devoured immediately, store in fridge until ready to eat.

Makes about 26 1.5 inch eggs.

Carmen Miranda Smoothie

I was brought up to transform sad, past-their-prime bananas into banana bread. Today, I was looking at some geriatric bananas and remembered the smoothie.

There are about a million recipes for smoothies out there - on Pinterest alone! And, the beauty of the smoothie is you can put whatever you want into it! I had some CSA mangoes and bananas that were begging to be eaten. So, in the blender they went! And, how easy can they be! My only problem is that we don't have a blender - just a food processor. A little challenge, but gets the job done. And, when you have the toughest critics in the house saying "mmmm" (Pookie Pants couldn't say much because she was busy slugging it down) and "not bad" (a huge compliment from Scott), you know it's a keeper.

Carmen Miranda Smoothie

- 2 c frozen blueberries. strawberries, raspberries....whatever you've got!
- 2 mangoes, roughly chopped
- 2 bananas, roughly chopped
- 1 c ice
- 1 c milk
- 1/2 c orange juice
- 1/2 c plain (or vanilla) yogurt

Combine in a blender and puree until all is combined and creamy!

Fig Newtons

Sometimes I see something on sale at the store, I buy it, and I pray for inspiration to come later. This week it was a deal on fresh figs. I've made fig preserves before, but I was looking for something new. AHA! That's where nostalgia came in.

When I was growing up, we always had a cookie jar full of fig bars. And, it was always a treat to have the strawberry or blueberry fig bars! My Grandma also made them: an Italian version with a white glaze over the top. Since they were homemade, they were very "rustic" looking and the fig was a little more pulpy. Still fig bars - but so much different in texture and taste than the store-bought kind.

These fig bars were a combination of the two fig bars from my past. These fig bars were VERY rustic looking. By rustic, I really mean....messy. I followed the recipe proportions to the letter, but I definitely put too much filling into each roll. And, I definitely neglected the all-important detail of placing the fig bars "seam side down" on the cookie sheet. If I had bothered to read that last direction, I think the fig bars would have turned out more atheistically pleasing. They tasted great, though! I'm looking forward to making them again!

Fig Newtons
from Beantown Bakers


Dough
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon or orange zest
1 large egg white
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Filling
2 lbs fresh figs
1/4 cup sugar
Juice of half a lemon

Make the dough
Cream together the butter, sugar and zest in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, for 2-3 minutes on medium speed. Scrape down the bowl and paddle. 

Add the egg white and vanilla and beat in. Scrape down the bowl and paddle again. 

Add the flour and beat on low speed until the dough comes together. 

Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Make the filling
Cut the figs in half and scoop out the seeds and pulp with a spoon. In a medium sauce pan, combine figs, sugar, and lemon juice. Mash mixture a few times with a potato masher or fork. 

Cook mixture over medium-high heat until bubbling and sugar has dissolved; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes, until it has reduced by about one-third and is beginning to gel. Set aside until completely cool.

Assemble the Fig Newtons
Place racks in middle and lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

On a floured surface, roll the dough out to a 12 x 16 rectangle. Cut into 4 equal strips, each 12 x 4 inches. Spoon a line of filling down the center of each strip. Fold the dough over the filling and pinch the edges together. Using a serrated knife, slice each log on the diagonal into 10 cookies. Place each cookie on the parchment-lined baking sheets, seam side down. 

Bake, rotating the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through, for 12-15 minutes, until golden. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a rack.