November 19, 2013

tasty tuesday: caramel apples

November 19, 2013/ Kelsey from {ps:heart }

Caramel apples are just one of those classic Fall foods that I honestly can't get enough of. We always sell them during September and October during our apple festivals on the farm, so I'm spoiled with a steady supply of them. A farm down the road makes them for us, using our own apples, and they are so wonderful. Due to this, I had never actually made my own caramel apples from scratch!

I can now cross that off my bucket list though, because these beauts were completely homemade. Not even halfway homemade with store-bought caramels. No way. Although the ingredient list might make your teeth hurt by just looking at it.....hehe. I will tell you that these are hands down the best caramel apples I've eaten! The only thing that is keeping me from making them every day is because they take quite a bit of patience for your caramel to reach the right temperature. And if you know me....you'll know that patience is one of my strong suits. Ha!

This caramel has a beautiful colour, and is so creamy and rich. It went so well with the tart Elstar apples that it covered, and made many mouths quite happy. The extra caramel was used for dipping apples in over the next couple of days....and we also made some homemade turtles with it. Delish.

Caramel Apples

recipe from:Sprinkle Bakes

Ingredients:

12 small/medium tart apples (I used Elstar apples)

popsicle sticks (I used cake pop sticks, which got a bit soggy and then weren't quite strong enough!)

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1 cup light corn syrup

1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

*you will need a candy thermometer for this recipe!

Directions:

1) First, place a large sheet of parchment or wax paper on a work surface that will be able to hold all of your apples without them touching each other. Set aside.

2) Clean and dry your apples (the caramel won't stick if they're wet at all!). Remove the apple stems, and punch a guide hole for your stick using a metal skewer or skinny knife. Insert stick into each apple, and make sure it's secure.

3) For the caramel: in a 4-cup liquid measuring cup, stir together the sweetened condensed milk and heavy cream. Set aside.

4) In a large pot, combine corn syrup, brown sugar, and white sugar. Bring to a simmer over high heat. When the mixture boils, add the butter. Stir until the butter is melted, and reduce the heat to medium-high.

5) Add milk mixture in a small steady stream, whisking continually. You want the caramel to keep boiling slightly.

6) Reduce heat to medium, and attach a candy thermometer to your pot. Be careful that the candy thermometer does not touch the bottom of your pot, as it will give you a false temperature reading.

7) Bring to 250 degrees F. This will take approximately 15 minutes or so. So be patient!

8) Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.

9) Wait until the bubbling stops, and the caramel has a smooth glassy surface. Tilt pan slightly so that caramel is deeper on one side, and start dipping apples. Cover apples completely in caramel, and twirl and gently tap the stick on the side of the pot to help excess caramel drip off. Place on parchment to set for about an hour. Serve and enjoy!

[Optional]: Immediately after dipping, roll your apple in chopped nuts, chocolate, skor bits, coconut, etc.

Keep extras in the fridge until you're ready to eat them!

You may have noticed the mini caramel apples in a few of these pictures. We used a melon baller to carve out some mini apple balls for dipping. While this idea was great in theory, they ended up being a bit too wet, and the caramel slid off most of them. Sad day.

My favorite combo of flavors was definitely the pretzel covered apples. Sweet and salty will always get me. The extra crunch from the pretzels was also a lovely addition!

So, be creative and make these yummy treats!

♥ kelsey

October 24, 2013

[baked] apple cider donuts

October 24, 2013/ Kelsey from {ps:heart }

I've been seeing a lot of Fall bucket lists going around the interwebs these days, and sometimes they make me chuckle. I live on a pumpkin patch where I pick apples for my job, we make apple cider on a weekly basis, there are hayrides every day of the week, and picking corn is kind of like a boring version of a corn maze. Sooo....I've definitely crossed off most things on these bucket lists without even trying! It reminds me not to take things for granted, and every day I feel so blessed to live and work in such a cool place.

However, one of the things on my Fall baking bucket list was to make apple cider donuts! I had never actually heard of such a thing until I came across a post on tumblr about them. I was instantly intrigued, and thought they sounded like the epitome of a Fall dessert. Warm, cozy, fluffy donuts with apple cider and cinnamon? Perfection!

My expectations were cautiously high for these donuts, and I wasn't disappointed! I also quite successfully convinced myself that because they were baked donuts (and not deep-fried), they must be healthy for you. Am I right?

Apple Cider Baked Donuts
adapted from: eat, live, run

yields: 11-12 donuts

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs

2 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup apple cider

1/4 cup buttermilk [or 1/4 cup of milk with 1/2 tsp of vinegar....let stand for 5-10 minutes before using]

Topping:
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon (or to taste)

Directions:

1) In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

2) In a smaller bowl, mix together the softened butter with the eggs until fluffy (doing this ensures that your butter doesn't re-solidify once the cold buttermilk and cider are added). Add buttermilk and apple cider, and mix well.

3) Pour wet ingredients into the dry, and stir until just blended. Try not to overmix!

4) Spread the batter into a greased donut pan. I used a large spoon to drop the batter in, or placing your batter into a pastry bag to pipe into the pan makes the process nice and easy. Fill each mold about 3/4 full.

5) Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. You may want to break open a test donut just to make sure the inside isn't gummy!

6) For the topping: melt the butter in a bowl that will fit a donut inside it. Then, dip each donut quickly into the butter, and then into the cinnamon sugar mixture.

*These are best on the first day, as they tend to get a bit soggy once you place them in a container.

Do you have your own version of a Fall bucket list? I'd love to hear what's on them!

-kels

October 21, 2013

pop tarts and apple pie pops

October 21, 2013/ Kelsey from {ps:heart }

Today I thought I'd talk about a few creative ways to use up extra pastry you might have lying around after making

pie

, tarts, turnovers, piroshki, strudel....you get the idea. After making my apple pie, I decided to use up the extra pasty by making little pie pops, as well as pop tarts!

Or, if you want to just straight up make pop tarts or pie pops, here's the recipe for the pastry (although beware, it does make quite a bit of pasty!):

Pastry

from: Company's Coming - Desserts

Yield: Pastry yields enough to make 4 pies.

Ingredients:

5 cups Flour

2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Baking Powder

3 tbsp Brown Sugar

1 lb Lard (or vegetable shortening)

1 Egg

2 tbsp Vinegar

Cold water

Directions:

1) Mix together flour, salt, baking powder and brown sugar in a large bowl.

2) Cut up lard and add to dry ingredients.

3) Using a pastry cutter (or a plain old fork works as well), cut in lard until your mixture is crumbly.

4) Break your egg into a liquid measuring cup and beat well.

5) Add vinegar to the measuring cup.

6) Add very cold water to the measuring cup, until the mixture measures to 1 cup.

7) Pour liquid mixture over flour mixture slowly, and stir.

8) Use your hands to work the mixture together until it no longer crumbles apart. This is where experience will come in, as you don't want to overmix the dough! Once you make it a couple of times, you'll get the feel of it.

9) Divide into 4 equal parts. Each part will make one pie, so you can choose to use it all at once, store some of the dough in the fridge* for up to 2 weeks, or pop some of into the freezer for later!

*If you do refrigerate your dough overnight (or for a few days), be sure to take it out at least an hour before you roll out it. Otherwise it will be too stiff!

Now, pie pops and pop tarts follow the exact same steps, except for the different shapes....and for pie pops you'll want to insert a cake pop stick inside before adding the top layer.

First, you'll want to roll out your dough, and cut it into equal shapes (circles for pie pops, rectangles for pop tarts). Then, place a dollop of filling inside (we chose to use raspberry jam or nutella in each one). Place a matching shape over top, and use a fork to firmly press the edges together. We chose to use mini cookie cutters to cut out fun shapes in the middle, but that's totally optional! Finally, to help the pastry brown while it's baking, we brushed a tiny bit of egg white over the top of each pop tart (and also sprinkled some coarse sugar over as well).

Thanks goes to Jordyn for the use of her hands in most of these photos! She is also a nutella addict...so that addition was hers. You may or may not be aware of the fact that I'm really not a fan of nutella.

So yes, I'm a huge weirdo who doesn't like pie or nutella. Don't judge me.

Homemade is definitely better than store bought...although perhaps a little less nostalgic in the case of pop tarts. But these both make great treats that are perfect finger food for parties!

p.s.

♥ kelsey (and jordyn)

October 15, 2013

tasty tuesday: apple streusel coffee cake

October 15, 2013/ Kelsey from {ps:heart }

Coffee cakes are one of my favorite cakes. Second only perhaps, to chocolate cake. Depends on my mood I suppose. And coffee cakes in Fall are just plain delightful. There's something so cozy about them, and the fact that they usually contain cinnamon makes them even more wonderful.

This recipe came from my friend Rachel, and I am so in love with it. You've got cinnamon, apples, and a streusel topping....what more could you ask for? So much goodness.

Make this on a crisp Fall day, and serve with hot coffee!

Or hot chocolate, or milk, or whatever. For those of us that aren't really into coffee...

Apple Streusel Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

2 tbsp white vinegar

1 3/4 cup milk

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 3/4 cups white sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 medium cooking apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (I used elstars)

Streusel topping:

2/3 cup white sugar

1/2 cup flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup butter, cold

Directions:

1) In a large liquid measuring cup, combine milk and vinegar and let stand for 10 minutes to sour.

2) Next, mix together streusel topping: Combine sugar, flour, and cinnamon together in a small bowl. Cut in butter until you have coarse crumbs. Set aside.

3) Now you can start getting the cake batter ready. Beat butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and creamy.

4) Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

5) Add vanilla and mix well.

6) Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.

7) Add flour mixture to butter mixture in four additions, alternating with the milk mixture in three additions. (You want to start and end with adding the flour mixture). Mix together until just combined.

8) Spread about half the cake batter into a greased, 9x13 pan.

9) Place apple slices close together in a single layer over the batter, and then sprinkle with about half of the streusel topping over the apples.

10) Spread the remaining batter over everything, and sprinkle the remaining streusel topping on top.

11) Bake at 350 degree for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

p.s.

♥ kelsey

September 17, 2013

tasty tuesday: apple crisp

September 17, 2013/ Kelsey from {ps:heart }

Oh yes...more apple recipes! It started with

pie

last week, and it's not going to stop for a long time.

More apple, pumpkin, and squash recipes will be coming at you like crazy for the next few weeks. What can I say? We love Fall, and it helps when you live on an apple/pumpkin farm and have an endless supply of delicious fall fruit!

Crisps are definitely one of the easiest desserts in the world...and yet they're so dang delicous! You just throw fruit in a pan, top it with crumbs, and bam...you have a mouthwatering creation on your hands.

Oh yeah...don't forget to add ice cream!

Apple Crisp

Ingredients:

8 cups chopped tart apples (we used Elstar)*

2 tsp flour

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1/3 cup butter (cold)

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup rolled quick cooking oats

Directions:

Fruit Layer:

1) Mix together chopped apples, cinnamon and flour. Place in a greased 9x13 pan.

Crumb Topping Layer:

1) In a medium bowl, mix together the flour and baking powder.

2) Then, cut in cold butter with a pastry cutter or a fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

3) Stir in brown sugar and oats.

4) Sprinkle crumbs over fruit evenly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes, or until the top is lightly browned and the apple pieces are tender. Cook time will depend on how big your apple chunks are....so just keep checking it!

(If your crumbs are brown, but your apples are still crunchy, just loosely place a piece of tinfoil on top of the pan to keep the crumbs from getting any browner while it cooks a bit longer!)

Let us know if you have any suggestions for Fall treats! We'd love to hear them.

p.s.

♥

kelsey

September 10, 2013

tasty tuesday: apple pie

September 10, 2013/ Kelsey from {ps:heart }

I'm really not sure why it's taken me so long to talk about pie here....especially since I live on an apple and berry farm, and my mom's known as the best pie-maker in town, and we seem to have pie in the house every other week in summer/fall.

It may have something to do with the fact that I don't actually like pie. Ahem, yes you read that right. I'm not a huge fan....and my friends do enjoy teasing me endlessly about it! Because truly, who the heck doesn't like pie? Whatevs.

Anyways, I love making people happy...so if they want pie, I will give them pie!

My mama helped me out with this post...so not only did it look good, but it tasted amazing as well (or so I've been told...haha). I believe her two main tips for a deliciously flaky crust are: don't overmix your dough, and be sure to chill your dough for 20-30 minutes!

Apple Pie

Pastry recipe from: Company's Coming - Desserts
(Yields enough pastry for 4 pies)

Ingredients:

Pastry

5 cups Flour

2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Baking Powder

3 tbsp Brown Sugar

1 lb Lard (or vegetable shortening)

1 Egg

2 tbsp Vinegar

Cold water

Pie filling:

Ingredients:

6ish medium Elstar apples (or any tart apple of your choice)

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/4 cup Flour

3/4 cup Sugar

Directions:

1) Mix together flour, salt, baking powder and brown sugar in a large bowl.

2) Cut up lard and add to dry ingredients.

3) Using a pastry cutter (or a plain old fork works as well), cut in lard until your mixture is crumbly.

4) Break your egg into a liquid measuring cup and beat well.

5) Add vinegar to the measuring cup.

6) Add very cold water to the measuring cup, until the mixture measures to 1 cup.

7) Pour liquid mixture over flour mixture slowly, and stir.

*If you do refrigerate your dough overnight (or for a few days), be sure to take it out at least an hour before you roll out it. Otherwise it will be too stiff!

Directions:

1) Once your pie dough is ready, you can peel and chop apples (the exact number will depend on the size of your apples, and how full you want to make your pie). We used Elstar apples, which are nice and tart, and are wonderful for baking with!

2) Mix all ingredients in with your diced apples, stir, and let sit for a few minutes.

3) Take approximately an eighth of your dough, and roll it out in a circle. You want your dough circle to be big enough to cover the bottom of your pie plate, and to cover the outside edge at least a half an inch.

4) Add your apple mixture to the pie plate and roll out another dough circle for the top.

5) Before adding the top of the crust, dip your fingers in a tiny bit of water, and run them along the edge of the bottom crust. This will help the top adhere well to the bottom crust.

6) Cover the pie with the top crust, trim any extra dough hanging over the side...leaving about a quarter of an inch over the pie plate.

7) Pinch together the crusts, and fold inwards (this is so any juice that bubbles out won't end up in your oven). Then, you can choose to crimp the edges however you like!

8) Sprinkle the top lightly with sugar, poke several holes (for ventilation) in the top, and you're ready to go.

*If you want to be fancy, you can cut out shapes from the top crust (or from extra crust) to add decorations to your crust. We added a few cute leaves to ours!

9) Bake at 425 degrees for the first 15 minutes, and then reduce heat to 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes until nice and bubbly.