Apple Pie with A Cheddar Crumble

So recently I have been getting more and more into baking.    I have been traveling a lot so I have been enjoying baking because it allows me to leave some "goodies" behind when I take off for my loved ones.   Pie has been a particular focus for me as I friggin love pie.   Mmmm Pie.   hehe

Anywho!

I have made a couple of apple pies in order to lock into a REALLY great recipe.   I am not there yet but I wanted to start to share some food pics of some recent "wins" with my apple pie recipe hunt.  Specifically it is an apple pie with a cheddar crumble and it was DIVINE!   YUM YUM APPLE PIE!

 

The Finished Pie Untouched :)

The pie cut open.   YUM

Grilled Stickies! A Sinfully Sweet Pennsylvania Treat

On a recent trip to chitown a friend told me about a sinful treat that she loves from Pittsburgh.  The treat was called "Grilled Stickies."  When I heard the name I HAD to learn more.  I mean anything that is grilled and sticky can't be too bad!

She described them to me as a sinful french toast esque treat served with ice cream and caramel.   I HAD TO LEARN MORE!!!!!

I looked them up online and what I found was disturbingly delicious sounding!  Grilled Stickies are day old sticky buns that are sliced into 1/2" slices that are buttered and grilled.   I was sold.  I had to make em!

I ran to my bakery and got some sticky buns.   I picked up some sweet condensed milk and some vanilla ice cream and the Grilled Sticky party began!

Using sweet condensed milk to make caramel sauce is super easy.    I combine 4 parts sweet condensed milk and 1 part water and just whisk it while on low heat.   It turns into a nice thick caramel sauce.  YUM!

I applied clarified butter to each side of the 1/2" slices of Sticky Bun.   I put butter on a skillet and set it on low heat.   I put the slices of sticky bun on the skillet and browned each side.  I plated them with a scoop of ice cream and drizzled my caramel sauce on top.  YUM!

What I got was silly, stupid, absurd and delicious.   Grilled Stickies are AMAZING.   BEWARE THOUGH!  They are heavy!   This is definely a treat that should be enjoyed every once and a while.

Mmmmm Grilled Stickies!

Check out the pics:

The Redhead Bacon Peanut Brittle - A Review

While shopping around at the BKLYN Larder I picked up the redhead Bacon Peanut Brittle.  I mean come on!   Bacon + Caramel Peanuts!  Yes! Yes! Yes!  

I brought my groceries home and you never would guess what was one of the first things I tore open.  BACON PEANUT BRITTLE!  Mwahahahhahahaha 

I wanted to taste these little buggers.   Cooking with bacon in interesting ways has become a hobby of mine.  I especially love using it in deserts.  

So what did I think when I dived into the bag?  Honestly?  Let down!  I mean let me take a step back its a delicious treat.   Spicy peanuts with a hint of bacon and i didn't really get the brittle thing at all.  Honestly they need to repackage it.  It's good but if you are buying based on the label you will be let down.

Next time redhead if you put BACON in giant font followed by peanut and brittle I want to taste BACON first then the peanut brittle.   I got spicy peanut with a hint of bacon and i missed the brittle completely.   Still good though!

What to do when you are blue??? CUPCAKES!!! - A Recipe For A Hard Weekend

So the last few days have been a tough couple of days.    I have been on a bit of an emotional roller coaster due to a very close family member going through major surgery to try to make a dent in their stage 4 cancer.  To add to my tiredness and stress I had to work from 9-9 the previous weekend and then red-eye it home to begin helping my family prep for the surgery.   I have been basically going since 2/28 and last night was my first night off.   I had been suffering from migranes since friday due to exhaustion and stress and they were finally getting under control so I wanted to do something to celebrate my night off.

What to do...what to do...

Oh wait I know!  I will make that which has the power to make almost everyone smile :)

CUPCAKES!

So what were the attributes I wanted in my cupcake:

Heavenly Light and Fluffy
Flavorful and Robust Icing without the Fluff Factor

Fundamentally I wanted comfort food not decorative desert.  I looked up a quick recipe from Epicurious for white cupcakes as white cupcakes are light, fluffy and, pillowy cupcake heaven.  For some reason they remind me of being 6 years old and having my hand covered in icing.  haha.  I digress...

Here is a pic of the white cupcakes out of the oven cooling off:

For the icing I wanted to once again make something very comforting.    I thought about comforting and chocolate is about as comforting as it gets.   I mean for reals...they make your body release natural opiates.    That sounds comforting!

One of my favorite simple chocolate icing recipes is the one on the box of Hershey's brand unsweetened cocoa powder.   I mean it is hershey's...Once again I am six years old with my hand in the icing bowl! hehe :) xoxo

So I used the HERSHEY'S "Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting Recipe which is on the side of the cocoa box but also online.   I make one modification to the recipe though....  I cut out some sugar because I want the cocoa to be the star.   So my recipe has the following in it for ingredients:

1 stick of butter (mmmm)
2/3 cup of Hershey's Unsweetend Cocoa
2 cups of powdered sugar (recipe says 3 cups)
1/3 cup of WHOLE milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Now Hershey's recipe for "Perfectly Chocolate" frosting calls for 3 cups of sugar but I use 2 cups.   Why you ask?    I want COCOA to be the star NOT sugar.    With 2 cups it is sweet but also nice and choco-licious.  It retains a bitter of bitterness which is what makes chocolate great.

I let someone try my icing and they responded with the following statement:

"My oh my.  I just want to jump head first into that bowl"

hehe xoxo

Ok now given I am usually an ingredient nut I want to address the Hershey's Cocoa component of this recipe.  Some of you might be saying it's not gourmet, it's not organic, it's not this and it's not that.   Well guess what it's perfect.   Read the ingredients....There are only one.  Cocoa.   GO Hershey's the iconic american chocolate brand.  Oh how I love thee Hershey's.  Your taste, your flavor, your super exciting theme park....ALL OF IT.  ICONIC. xoxo

xoxo

So how did it turn out?????????

PURE COMFORT FOOD DELICIOUSNESS!

YUM YUM FLUFFY CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES!

Salty Bacon Chocolate Cracker Cookie - My Oscar Night Party Treats

My little sister Kat worked on True Grit so naturally we went to her house for an Oscar party.   She packed like 20+ people into her studio and the party was...how do you say....super (!*@# fun. 

She told me "just bring wine..."

Yeah right.   I mean...I am a foodie...I can't roll to a party without bringing some goodies.   I also didn't want to out do what she had planned so I decided to bring something that was simple, tasty, and of course made you really want to eat it.



So I racked my brain and an idea came out of it.   When we were at my families house in St Louis, MO we ate these chocolate cracker treats that were simple and delicious.   So I looked up the recipe and found it on cooks..com


Cooks.com Chocolate Top Saltines

1 stick butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. sugar
Saltine crackers
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 c. chopped walnuts

Line 13 x 9 inch pan with foil and then saltines. Melt butter, sugar and vanilla in a small pan. Pour over saltines and bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Remove from oven. Cover with chocolate chips. Let chips melt and spread evenly with back of spoon. Sprinkle with walnuts. Chill. Remove foil and break cookies into pieces.

Now this was delicious but REALLY REALLY SWEET.   I love sweetness but I wanted to do something to balance it a bit...

How recently I ate at Flour and Water in San Francisco.  While there I had their dessert that was like chocolate mousse with sea salt on top.  The salty sweet combo was OFF THE HOOK.

Ok idea.

Lets bring a level of saltiness to this dish to punch it up.     So where can I find salty that isnt as obvious as salt???????

B
A
C
O
N
BACON!!!!!

So the new plan was to up the amount of butter in this recipe to add 2 more tablespoons and a bit more sugar to make it richer.   Then when sprinkling on the the chopped walnuts add some crispy salty bacon with sea salt.   If I punch it up with salty bacon and make it more buttery to tie it up with a butter bow (salt in butter should be the evener on the salty flavor) then this will be AMAZING.

And what happened....

PURE DELICIOUSNESS

I mean absurd.   Choco-bacony YUM YUM YUM

Here are the pics:

 

 

 

YUM YUM CHOCOLATE BACON!!!!!!

Puerto Rican Bread Pudding Recipe

So when I was at my Mother's house for the holidays I made some Challah bread french toast for breakfast.   By the time I came back from shopping at Publix for the ingredients half of the people I was planning to feed had left the house to go shopping and surfing.   I made my challah bread french toast which was AMAZING but I had some extra ingredients.   Specifically I had an extra loaf of Challah bread.   

For those of you who have not eaten challah bread it is delicious.  It is eggy and wonderful.   So I thought to myself what can I do with an extra loaf of challah bread that would be delicious...

hmmmm.....

PUERTO RICAN BREAD PUDDING YUM

Puerto Rican Bread Pudding is one of those dishes that I grew up with and reminds me of being a kid.  A delicious dessert that is absolutely to die for.   My mother used to make it whenever I had to send food to school for a party or something like that.    I simply adore bread pudding.  ADORE...A DORE

The recipe that my mother used was from Carmen Ahoy Valldejuli's Cocina Criolla.   Here is a pic of the recipe from the book

Now the recipe is amazing but Carmen Valldejuli had a tendency to use too much sugar.   So the changes I made to this recipe are quite simple:

USE A LOAF OF CHALLAH BREAD

ADD RAISINS (not too many but maybe a small box you give a kid to go to school with)

HALF THE SUGAR

And boom.   Pure deliciousness.  I added a special touch of a smiley face to make it not only yummy but something that makes ya smile :) xoxo

Pic of the smiley puerto rican bread pudding out of the oven:

Picture of the mix before putting it in the baking dish

YUM YUM

PUERTO RICAN BREAD PUDDING