Homemade Harvest Apple Crisp

I know, I know...it's not fall, but can't I pretend? I miss the fall season a lot and making this delicious dessert made me realize just how much. Don't get me wrong...I am looking forward to spring coming (hopefully soon!) but there is something about fall that just makes me smile inside. Maybe it's the thought of the holidays approaching and how special it is to be around family at that time. Maybe because the leaves are changing colors and there is a new crispness in the air. Maybe it's just because I LOVE to bake in the fall with the apples that are in season and all the different things you can make with the oh so miraculous pumpkin :) I think it is probably a combination of all of those...

But anyway, here I am...in the month of March, sharing a recipe for a homemade Harvest Apple Crisp. I've made this dessert a few times, and I honestly don't think the month matters...it tastes good all the time. Whenever you have a craving for an apple-cinnamon combo, I suggest you make this. It is very quick and simple and will always come out tasting perfect. Everyone I have made this for has tried it and loved it. I hope you do as well :)

Filling:
-5 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch pieces
-1/2 cup granulated sugar
-2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
-Contents of 1 vanilla bean, or 1 tsp. vanilla extract
-1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
-1/2 tsp. nutmeg
-1/4 tsp. salt

Streusel Topping:
-1/2 cup unsalted butter
-1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
-1/4 tsp. salt
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-1/3 cup rolled-oats or quick-cooking oats

~ Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.

To Make the Filling:
Combine the apples, granulated sugar, lemon juice, contents of 1 vanilla bean, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in an 8-inch square glass baking dish and mix well. Set aside.

To Make the Streusel Topping:
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat, and stir in the brown sugar and salt. Add the flour and oatmeal and stir until just incorporated. Do not overwork. Crumble the mixture evenly over the apple filling. (If your kitchen is warm and humid, the mixture may resemble cookie dough. That is OK. Simply crumble the pieces over the apples.) Put the baking dish on a baking sheet and bake until the topping is golden brown and the filling is bubbling, 40-50 minutes.

*Serve yourself a scoopful (with or without some tasty vanilla ice cream), eat, and enjoy!

Streusel Topped Blueberry Muffins!

I really enjoy a good blueberry muffin. I've made a few different recipes in the past, but nothing has ever stuck. Honestly, one of my favorite things about blueberry muffins is the streusel topping! I think it makes the muffin tastier :) When I was young my family used to buy this box muffin mix and it was so tasty because it actually came with a streusel topping that you added on to the muffins before you baked them. They came out tasting so delicious! I haven't had a blueberry muffin I've enjoyed that much...until now! I tried to recreate this muffin and it was DELICIOUS. Thought I'd share:

Ingredients:
-2 cups all-purpose flour
-2 tsp. baking powder
-1/2 tsp. salt
-1 1/2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
-1 1/2 c. fresh blueberries (I used frozen and they were amazing!)
-1/2 c. butter
-3/4 c. white sugar
-2 eggs
-1 tsp. vanilla
-1/4 tsp. lemon zest
-1/2 c. milk
-2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
-5 Tbsp. white sugar
-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
-2 Tbsp. butter, diced

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
2. Combine 2 cups flour, 2 tsp. baking powder, and 1/2 tsp. salt in medium bowl. In a small bowl, sprinkle 1-2 Tbsp. flour over blueberries, and set aside. (This will keep you from having purple batter!)
3. In a large bowl, beat 1/2 c. butter with 3/4 c. sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, and stir in vanilla and lemon zest. Fold in dry ingredients alternately with milk. Fold in blueberries. Spoon batter into prepared cups.
4. Combine 2 Tbsp. flour, 5 Tbsp. sugar and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon in a small bowl. Cut in 2 Tbsp. butter with fork or pastry blender until mixture resembles course crumbs. Sprinkle over batter in muffin cups.
5. Bake for 20-25 mins, or until a toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. These muffins do freeze well and can be reheated in the microwave!

Hope you all enjoy!

Happy Valentine's!

Monday I made these tasty mini-heart cheesecakes for my husband and I to enjoy. They are the same recipe for cheesecake that I've used before, I just cut it in half to make 3 mini sized ones. I topped them with a raspberry coulis this time instead of strawberry like I've done before. They were delicious! The graham cracker crust is still my favorite part :)

Scrumptious Chocolatey Brownies!

Homemade brownies are delicious! I never would have said that before I made these. I am not a big brownie person, but homemade brownies, and specifically these homemade brownies were amazing! I have to share the recipe because they are outstanding and so you can enjoy them as well :)

The recipe comes from a modern cookbook called: Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Their cookbook takes traditional baked goods and add something modern or different to make it stand out. This brownie recipe has been awarded as the Best Brownie by America's Test Kitchen on The Today Show. I was very impressed!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. dark unsweetened cocoa powder
11 ounces dark chocolate (60-72% cacao), coarsely chopped
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1-in. pieces
1 tsp. instant espresso powder
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly backed light brown sugar
5 large eggs, at room temp.
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9-by13-inch glass or light-colored metal baking pan.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and cocoa powder together.
3. Put the chocolate, butter, and instant espresso powder in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be room temperature.
4. Add 3 eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the remaining 2 eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not over beat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.
5. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a spatula (not a whisk), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Let the brownies cool completely, then cut them into squares and serve.

I hope you think they are as delicious as I did! I think that the brown sugar adds A LOT of flavor. I also sprinkled the top of the batter in the pan with semisweet chocolate chips to make them a little more chocolatey :)

Tania's Birthday Cake

Hello all! Wow...2 entries in January? That's so unlike me!

I had to share about the scrumptious birthday cake I made my sister for her birthday. She picked this specific cake, and I was so glad she did because it was delicious! It was a pumpkin spice cake with a maple cream cheese frosting. I am a BIG fan of pumpkin, so anything with pumpkin (even if it's not the season!) is going to taste great to me. The recipe called for cake flour which definitely made this cake stand out from just a pumpkin bread. It was fluffy and light and tasty! I was a little disappointed with the frosting--it needed more maple flavor, but if I added more syrup to the frosting, the consistency would have been way too thin, and it was already thin enough. It was hard to frost this cake because the frosting was a little thin. I tried firming it up again and definitely let the cake sit in the fridge for a good while. I topped the cake with some toasted pecans!

I also made some chocolate cupcakes, mainly for my husband because he doesn't particularly care for pumpkin :( The cupcakes were really good too. I've made them before, but didn't remember just how great they were, and I'm not even a huge chocolate cake fan. They were topped with a chocolate ganache made with dark chocolate and then, for a little flair, I added some chocolate sprinkles :)

All was De-Lish!!

Chocolate Raspberry Tart

To celebrate Chad's new job, I made my first tart with the knew tart pan I received for Christmas. It was a tasty chocolate tart with fresh raspberries on the bottom. I don't think I've ever had a tart before...maybe the typical fruit with custard tarts, but this was a little piece of heaven. I've been interested in making tarts because I love the way they look. The crust is so perfect and the design is so pretty. It gets crunchy and has such a great flavor. I made an almond crust for this recipe, and the nuts brought out a lot of flavor. Tarts don't keep for very long, so I brought most of the leftovers to work and put it in the break room. All of the girls gobbled it up and I received compliments the whole day on it. Pretty impressive for my first tart! And you can never go wrong with chocolate and raspberries :)

Merry Christmas :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We were very blessed to spend the day with my family and we're off to see Chad's family this week for more celebrating! It was very fun to see family and eat some yummy food!

I, yet again, outdid myself with the baking this season. I had a wacky idea to bake cookies for my WHOLE family--4 different type of cookies to be exact, and pack goody bags to pass out to everyone. AND I was bringing a cake that I had never made before as one of the main desserts. I made one batch of cookies on Wednesday evening, but Thursday I spent ALL day in the kitchen baking. I didn't think cookies could be so much work, but when you're dealing with cookies that have to be refrigerated, frozen, rolled, frozen again, cut into shapes and then baked....yeah, it gets hectic! However, everything got done, and I was pretty happy with the way all of the cookies and the cake turned out.

I made gingerbread cookies, white chocolate peppermint cookies, snickerdoodles, Greek butter cookies, white chocolate macadamia nut cookies (for my sis!) and a white chocolate cranberry cake! Lots and lots of baking...but I wouldn't have it any other way :)