Apple Pie

  
Last weekend was the perfect fall weekend, which put me in the perfect pie baking mood.  You can't bake a good pie unless you're in the mood! 
Jody has been my best friend since kindergarten and is expecting her second child.  She has been craving baked goods, particularly apple baked goods.  I had invited Jody and her family over for dinner a couple of weeks ago, you know, one of those last minute things.  I called my husband, also last minute, to pick up an apple pie at Sweet Nothings, this great bakery close to where he works and they were closed.  So he pick up an apple pie at a different bakery...I won't say which one because I like this other bakery but it was the worst apple pie I had ever had!
So now I felt that I owed it to Jody to bake her a good apple pie.  You just can't do that to a pregnant woman!!  We all shared the pie last weekend at another friends house after pizza and it was good.  So good in fact that my daughter (who doesn't like much) said it was "sooo good!  It tastes just like McDonald's apple pie!!"  Not exactly what I wanted to hear but I guess that was her way of telling me that she liked it.

Here's my recipe

Apple Pie

Ingredients:

Pastry for 2 crusts (recipe below)
8 cups sliced, peeled assorted baking apples - about 3 lbs.  (I use Northern Spies but you could use Granny Smith or Cortland)
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 Tablespoons butter
1 egg yolk
1 Tablespoon milk

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, toss the sliced apples with lemon juice.
2. Combine sugars, flour and cinnamon; add to apples and toss.
3. Fill pastry lined 9 inch pie plate with apple mixture. Dot with butter.
4. Place second crust on top of pie filling, cut slits in top of crust to vent. Seal the edges of the crust.
5. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolk and milk. Brush mixture over top crust.
6. Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes.
7. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake 40-45 minutes more or until crust is golden and filling is bubbly.

Flaky Pastry Pie Crust Recipe
Makes two 9-inch pie crusts

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, chilled and diced
1/2 cup ice water

Directions:
1. Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl.
2. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
3. Stir in the ice water, a Tablespoon at a time, until the crust mixture forms a ball.
4. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight **
5. Sprinkle flour onto rolling surface. Roll dough out, then divide in half. Roll each half to fit a 9-inch pie plate.
6. Place crust in pie plate, pressing evenly into the bottom and sides.

** refrigerate if you have the time, if not,  roll it out and refrigerate it while you prepare the filling. The key is not to overwork it, the more you touch it with your hands, the softer the butter will get and the less flaky your pie crust will be.

 

Add a bit of food colouring to the egg wash to pretty up your pie

Meatloaf 101

This recipe is modified from Martha Stewart's Meatloaf recipe.  It's almost exactly the same except that I leave out a few of the fussy things that take extra time that don't really improve the taste at all.  

I also always make and bake two at a time.  I don't buy my ground meat at the meat counter so I am almost always buying a pound of each at a time anyway.  Also, it freezes really well.  I usually pop the fully cooked meatloaf in the freezer on a plate overnight and then put it in a freezer bag the next morning, That way, more of the glaze stays put.

Another trick is that I buy the larger packages of  ground meat and mix them all together, remove the three pounds I need for the meat loaf (I have a kitchen scale...a great investment) and use the rest to make a meat sauce.  You might as well while you have your hands in the meat...not my favourite thing to do.  I also freeze either the mix of meat in a freezer bag or make the sauce the same day and freeze it as well.

Ingredients

(makes 2 loafs)

6 slices white bread

2 large carrot, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds

2 celery, strings peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 medium onion, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled

1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves, loosely packed

1 cup ketchup

1 Tbsp dry mustard

16 (1 lb) ounces ground pork

16 (1 lb) ounces ground veal

16 (l lb) ounces ground round

4 large eggs, beaten

1 Tbsp salt

2 tsp freshly ground pepper

2 tsp Tabasco Sauce, or to taste

1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary

Glaze

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup dark-brown sugar

1 Tbsp dry mustard

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove crusts from bread, and place slices in the bowl of a food processor (I use a blender because I don't have a food processor). Process until fine. Transfer breadcrumbs to a large mixing bowl. Do not substitute dried breadcrumbs in this step, as they will make your meatloaf rubbery. 

2.  Place carrots, celery, onions, garlic, and parsley in the bowl of the food processor (or blender). Process until vegetables have been minced.  Chopping vegetables this way saves lots of time.  Add vegetables to bowl with the breadcrumbs and toss together lightly. 
 
 



3.  Add 1 cup of ketchup, dry mustard, pork, veal, beef, eggs, salt, pepper, and Tabasco. Using two forks, toss the ingredients until thoroughly combined.  Use the forks to fold, cut and toss together.  Don't over do it or the loaf will be tough. Now add the breadcrumb mixture and fold and cut with the forks again.  The texture should be wet, but tight enough to hold a free-form shape. 

 
 


4.  Set a wire baking rack into an 11-by-17-inch baking pan. Cut a 5-by-11-inch piece of parchment paper, and place over center of rack to prevent meat loaf from falling through. (Also cover the baking pan with foil for easy clean up)  Divide the mixture in half and using your hands, form an elongated loaf covering the parchment.   I also use my fingers to make a few grooves down the centre of the loafs to keep a little extra glaze on top but it's not necessary.

 
5.  Place the remaining 1/2 cup of ketchup, remaining 1 Tbsp of dry mustard, and brown sugar in a bowl. Mix until smooth. Divide evenly over the two loafs and spread with the back of a spoon. 


6.  Bake loaf until an instant-read thermometer (best investment EVER) inserted into the center of the loaf registers 160 degrees about 1 hour. Let meatloaf cool on rack, 15 minutes.

 

Frosty the Snowman!

Thumpaty thump thump.....

Here's an Easy winter cake that will make your kids smile!  
To make this cake, I used an 8" and a 6" round pan (I think, it doesn't have to be perfect) and a small 6" or 8" square pan.
Trim a bit off the top of the smaller round cake (snowman's head) so that his hat sits better.
After that, simply stack the smaller round cake above the larger round cake.   
Cut the bottom 1/4 of the square cake off and then cut that in half, so that you have 2 equal parts to use as the brim of his hat:

Ice the cake with a pure white frosting, I used a Seven Minute Frosting which can also be called Boiled Icing:

Boiled Icing

2 Egg Whites

1 Cup Sugar

1/3 Cup Water

¼ tsp Cream of Tartar

Dash of salt

¼ tsp vanilla

1.  In a separate bowl, beat  egg whites until very stiff peaks.

2.  In a sauce pan, boil sugar, water, cream of tartar and salt until clear and completely dissolved.

3.  Slowly drizzle clear sugar mixture into eggs while beating continuously until completely combined.

4.  Add ¼ tsp of vanilla. 

I sprinkled Oreo cookie crumbs onto the hat to make it look black and added candies to make the eyes, nose and mouth.  I used blue chocolate Easy Melts for the buttons and red shoestring liquorice for his bow tie.

I added a little extra icing at the bottom of the cake board and sprinkled it with coconut to look like snow.

I  also found snowflake sprinkles at the Bulk Barn which added a nice touch.

To make the large snowflakes, use Royal Icing and with a small piping tip, pipe snowflake shapes onto parchment paper and allow to dry.  You can just freehand snowflakes so that they are all a little different, just as snowflakes are or, you can lay parchment paper over a snowflake image and trace it with the royal icing.

Make extras because they are very fragile and some will surely break.

I love snowflakes!

La Pasta Bella

My parents spent a few weeks in Northern Italy in September and they brought me back a true taste of Italy.  Pasta from Venice!  I have to say, not only was it beautiful but it was like no pasta I have ever tasted!  Delizioso!!

Isn't it Gorgeous!! 

Spaghetti alla Bolognese

One with butter for Sophia

Thanks Mom and Dad, it was delizioso!!

Angry Cakes

Here they are....but why are they so angry?  I apologize  in advance for any spelling errors...this was a rush job and it's kind of late :0)

As always, I used my favourite Simple Buttercream recipe for these...for 24 cupcakes, you can half that recipe.

 

 

Nanny's Pumpkin Muffins

4 Eggs

2 cups Sugar

1 1/2 cups Vegetable Oil

1 3/4 cups Canned Pumpkin Puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

3 cups All-Purpose Flour

1 Tbsp Cinammon

2 tsp Baking Soda

2 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Salt

2 cups raisins (optional)

Brown Sugar (small amount)

1.  Whisk Eggs together until just combined, add Sugar, Oil and Pumpkin and mix thoroughly.

2.  Sift dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and add to wet ingredients.  Mix until just combined.

3.  Add raisins (optional)  Also could also add nuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds or nothing at all.

4.  Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and sprinkle tops with Brown Sugar.  I also sprinkle with a bit of ground Flax seeds or Wheat Germ as well.  I also use a mini muffin tin...great for school lunches.

5. Bake at preheated 375 degree oven for 15-20 minutes.

This recipe yields about 3 dozen muffins...which is a lot.  So, you can bake them all off at once and freeze them but what I prefer to do is freeze the muffin batter itself because, who doesn't prefer fresh baked muffins??

Here's how I do it and it works every time!

Lay plastic wrap over top of an empty muffin tin and portion muffin mix into tray as you would if you were baking them.

Cover entire tray with plastic Wrap and pop it in the freezer.

Freeze for at least 12 hours...they will not freeze completely but it will be enough to remove from the plastic wrap.

Place frozen muffin "pucks" into a freezer bag.  

When you're ready, pop the frozen muffin puck into paper lined muffin pans and bake as directed.  They might take an extra 5+ minutes so keep an eye on them.  

This is a great way to have fresh baked muffin anytime you need them.  They should keep for a few months this way but I've never had them in the freezer that long.

This also works for cookie dough.  I make a double batch of cookie dough and bake a dozen or so cookies then I portion the rest on a baking sheet and pop the whole baking sheet into the freezer until the dough is frozen.  That way, you can just bake off a few or a few dozen cookies without all the dirty dishes!!

Halloween Party!

 Sophia's 2nd birthday...this was a special one!  Yes, my baby was turning two but I'm afraid it was overshadowed by the fact that Martha Stewart herself played a role in this party!!  Let me explain... 

There are a few times during the year that I don't miss a Martha Stewart magazine, show or special; and one of them is Halloween.  So, I was watching The Martha Stewart show one October morning and she had asked that "we" send in pictures of our kids wearing their Halloween costumes.  Sophia had dressed up as a pumpkin the year before (super cute) so I sent the picture in, along with some of the pictures from her first birthday party, and that was that.

About a week later, I received an e-mail from the producer asking me if I would be interested in an opportunity to talk to Martha live on her show...unhhh, YES!!

Everything fell into place very quickly and before I knew it I was chatting with Martha live on her show!  Pretty cool moment!  

Follow this link http://www.marthastewart.com/article/halloween-ornaments-from-martha-stewart-show#ooid=JwNHVlMjoOElx3A9hNu7bkNQCJvke1kW and then click on "Watch the Video" on the lower left side below the Halloween Tree.  And yes, I did make the Halloween Tree.

The Martha Tree

  

I found these Creepy Cupcakes in the Martha Stewart Halloween magazine years before I was a mom and couldn't wait for a chance to try them out!  I used a simple vanilla cake recipe and Martha Stewart's Simple Buttercream recipe to ice them.  I think it works better than regular buttercream for this type of cupcake.  It's a lot less fussy and it sort of dries out, keeping the decorations in place and the cake moist and yummy!