(The Big) Apple Crumble Pie

I guess I should get this started! I have a lot of recipes to post from Thanksgiving, and as usual, not a lot of time to post about them=( It is Thanksgiving break for me, but.....

I'M GOING TO NEW YORK ON MONDAY!

You may have remembered me mentioning this in previous posts, and now it's finally time!

To refresh your memory, here's the basic need-to-know's of the trip:

My school's Honors Chorus was asked to participate in composer Tim Janis's American Christmas Carol concert on December 2nd at Carnegie Hall in New York. It is a live concert composed by Tim Janis featuring many soloists and a 200 person student choir (that's where we fit in!) Since we learned about our trip back in March, we've had to memorize a ton of music. 10 pieces in all. All are Christmas inspired and I can honestly say I like them all.

Here we all are at PBS filming Tim Janis's Celebrate America in Pittsburgh, where we first got to meet him. (I'm on the right side, second row, second one in!)

Some Highlights of the Trip:
-Ferry over to Liberty Island and Ellis Island
-See Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera
-Visit the Empire State Building
-Time Square, Macy's shop windows, and St. Patrick's Cathedral
-See West Side Story
-Guggenheim Museum and Planet Hollywood
-See Marry Poppins
- And... a SURPRISE??

We leave the 29th, and return the 4th. It's going to be amazing. The best part is I get to share it with some of my closest friends=) Oh, and I'll do my best to take some food pics. If the food is worthy enough!


Okay, now on to the recipe at hand. The Pioneer Woman and Joy the Baker. Two of the most amazing food bloggers out there? Quite possibly. And what happens when you team them together in a recipe? You, my friends, are about to find out.



As I thought of the desserts I would choose for Thanksgiving this year, my family gave me the general consensus that there MUST be pie. There ended up being 3, but we'll get there. First up, was an apple pie. I chose a "dreamy" version that I saw on the Pioneer Woman's blog. I liked how there was a bit more to the pie than just throwing you apples in. In this recipe, you also make a creamy filling to pour in as well. That intrigued me so I knew I definitely wanted to try this one out.


Where does Joy come in? Well... the Pioneer Woman's pie dough recipe involves crisco, which is a no-go for me. I have already tried Joy's pie crust recipe and I knew I loved it, so I went with it instead. It NEVER fails. I might be getting ahead of myself, but it is the flakiest butteriest pie crust ever. It's pretty fool proof as well. I do believe that for this being my second time around it was a bit easier to make as well, naturally. I love this pie crust recipe, and you should too.
Note: You will have to half her pie crust recipe since you only need 1 crust as there is a crumble topping.


This was not too hard to put together. I did it over three days just because I felt like it. I made the apple filling one day, the crust another, and then put it together on the third day.
NOTE: I made one boo-boo. For some reason I cooked my apples in the cinnamon sugar mixture beforehand on the stove. To remedy this, I reduced the cooking time a tad, but otherwise I don't think it affected the outcome.


Served up with some cinnamon ice cream or whipped cream, this was luscious. It had more to it than your average apple pie thanks to the creamy filling. Secret time: We ended up finishing this pie before it was even Thanksgiving Day. Whoops!


Dreamy Apple Pie
from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients
1 whole Unbaked Pie Crust

Filling:
3 whole Large (4 Or 5 Small) Granny Smith Apples, Peeled, Cored, And Sliced Thin
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon All-purpose Flour
1 cup Heavy Cream
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
1/8 teaspoons Cinnamon

Topping:
7 Tablespoons Butter
3/4 cups All-purpose Flour
1/2 cups Brown Sugar
1/4 cups Pecans (more To Taste)
Dash Of Salt

Preparation Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Roll out pie dough and place it in a pie pan. Decorate the edges as desired.

Add apple slices to a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together cream, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon flour, vanilla, and cinnamon. Pour over apples. Pour apples into pie shell.

In the bowl of a food processor (or you can mix by hand) combine butter, flour, sugar, pecans (chop if you’re not using a food processor), and salt. Mix until everything comes together in clumps. Pour topping over apples.

Attach foil to the edges and lay a piece of flat foil loosely over the top of the pie. Place pie pan on top of a rimmed cookie sheet and bake for one hour. At the end, remove foil and allow to finish baking and browning. Can bake for up to 15 or 20 minutes more if necessary.

Remove from oven when pie is bubbly and golden brown. Serve warm with hard sauce, whipped cream, or ice cream.

Joy's Pie Crust
from Joy the Baker
makes a double crusted 9-inch pie crust

2 sticks (8 ounces) cold unsalted butter
2 1/2 (12 ounces) cups all purpose flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (5 to 6 ounces) buttermilk

1. Cut the butter into 1-inch pieces and place in the freezer to chill for 15 minutes. Measure out the buttermilk and store in the refrigerator to keep it cold (you could even put it in the freezer for a few minutes too).

2. Sift together the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Take the cold butter from the freezer and toss it with the flour mixture.

3. Dump the cold butter cubes and flour mixture onto a large work area for rolling. With a rolling pin, roll the mixture, flattening the butter cubes with the flour into long, thin, floured butter sheets. Work quickly to ensure that the butter stays cold. Below is what the rolled butter and flour look like after I’ve gathered them together on the work surface a bit.

4. Place the flour and flattened butter back in the large bowl and chill for 10 minutes. When the butter is cold, remove the bowl from the refrigerator, make a small well in the center of the flour and butter mixture. Add the cold buttermilk to the bowl all at once. Begin to bring the dough together with one hand ( keep the other hand free to answer the phone). Moisten all of the flour with the milk, using your hand to break up large clumps of milk and flour. The dough will be rather shaggy, but you can add another tablespoon of buttermilk, if you see that all your flour isn’t moistened. Form the dough into two disks. The disks will be rough, and hard to shape together, but once they rest in the fridge for an hour, they’ll be easier to roll out.

5. Chill the dough for at least an hour in the refrigerator. At this point, the dough will keep in the fridge for up to three days, or in the freezer for up to three weeks. For freezing, roll the dough out into sheets and wrap them in plastic film.

6. Roll out the top crust large enough to cut a 12-inch circle.

Transfer the pie filling mixture to the pie shell. Moisten the border of the bottom crust by brushing it lightly with water and place the top crust over the filling. Trim the overhang of the top crust so that there is only 1/2-inch of overhand. Tuck the overhand under the bottom crust boarder and press down all around to seal it. Crimp the border using a fork or your fingers and make about 5 evenly spaced 2-inch slashes starting about 1 inch from the center of the pie and radiating toward the edge. Cover the pie loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 1 hour before baking. This will chill and relax the pastry, preventing shrinking.

Go-to Sugar Cookies & Pics

Sometimes you just need something sweet. Simple and sweet and takes no time to come together. I didn't have a go-to sugar cookie recipe before, but I sure do now! When it comes to the perfect sugar cookie for me, I don't want it cakey. Also, I cannot cannot cannot stand eat n' park sugar cookies, or any hard sugar cookies for that matter.


Obviously there needs to be a common ground here. I want a chewy cookie with a soft middle and a ever so gently browned edge that I can still chew without hurting my teeth. And that my folks is the very definition of a sugar cookie. Now technically, sugar cookies should be sprinkled or rolled in sugar before put in the oven... well I didn't even do that. I told you I wanted simple! But I think the addition of more sugar would be superb as well.


In addition to this post, I'm posting some pictures from my school's Homecoming. I didn't take too many pictures because I wanted to enjoy the evening itself, rather than try to take pictures of everyone and everything.


Soft and Chewy Sugar Cookies
found at Bunny's Warm Oven

Ingredients

* 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup butter, softened
* 1 1/2 cups white sugar
* 1 egg
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup sugar for rolling cookies

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. Using a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and very fluffy.
4. Beat in egg, vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon peel.
5. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.
6. Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, and roll in sugar. Place on lined cookie sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart.
7. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until lightly browned.
8. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

Now for some schmancy dancey pics:

I'm Backkk!

I'm back my bloggie loves! I know it has been a terribly long time since I've posted but I can certainly explain myself. I had asked my sister to do some guest blogging for me while I was away, but I saw upon my return that she has failed me. What else is new? ;)

I went on a really great trip with one of my best friends (the commonly mentioned Maria) and her family. We spent time at their mountain house, then Washington D.C., then a whole week at Bethany Beach, Delaware! This was my first time going to the beach and I had such a great time. We had beautiful weather (most days) and stayed in a cute house. It was great having a pool you could return to after spending time at the beach as well.



I did try boogie boarding and riding some waves, but I wasn't a fan of being basically beat up by the waves. Oh, and the sand. Yeah, sand is nice, but not all up in your bathing suit. I did, however, enjoy tanning, laying out in the sun, getting some rays, etc. I happily returned nice and tan and sunburn free!


The day after returning from that vacation, I headed off to Cedar Point with my own family! My sister met some friends at the amusement park, while my mom, dad, and I headed to Soak City. I DO NOT do well at amusement parks. My stomach can not handle it AT ALL. I strongly emphasize this fact because it is really bad. Ever hear of Kennywood Park? It's a half hour from my house in Pittsburgh and my school has a picnic there every year. I go, I get sick, vow I'll never do it again, and then end up going the next year. I just don't seem to learn.

Soak City was really fun. I love love love water parks because I never get sick. I love the thrill of the slides, especially the enclosed ones! It was a three hour drive to Sandusky and I drove the whole way=) And, I continued to do all the driving while we remained there. However, I allowed my dad to drive us home. I need to do some hardcore texting, and you can't do that while driving of course!

So now I'm finally home after two full weeks of vacation and ironically I feel like I need a vacation from vacation! Just time to relax and unwind and make lists. I love making lists. To be honest, though, I have so much to catch up on because my school insisted on calling me and e-mailing me numerous times throughout my vacation. I was appointed president of this group at our school called Student Ambassadors. I won't bore you with descriptions.

Foodwise, I went to this amazing place called The Thirsty Pony. I had lobster bisque in a sourdough bread bowl. I loved how they put the bread bowl in a bowl and then drenched the bisque overtop, allowing it to get all mushy and gooood. For a dinner I went to a Perkins for the first time. Ehhh. Nothing special at all. I also went to a Denny's for the first time and loved it! They're french toast is awesome and they had nice yogurt and granola. Not to mention some fab pancake options. Also, I hit up the Hard Rock Cafe in DC and got the S.O.B. burger. It was money.

Now I've been dying to tell you guys something. But I think I'll do a separate post because this one is super long. Hint: DC Cupcakes.


So, will I be back to baking? If I am, it'll be slow. I'm a little busy but it should slow down soon. I still have some old posts in my back pocket to use in the meantime. What I can reveal is that I'm actually going to be doing some cooking. Gasp! I know I know, but I have to hold true to my blog title somehow!

Thank you if you were able to make it through this whole recap! Check in soon for some recipes!

Various Wedding Cookies

My cousin Lauren, who happens to have her own blog, got married this past weekend. I love weddings, but I can't honestly say I've been to a ton. Most of my cousins on my dad's side are a lot older than me. In fact, they are all practically married. Was I invited to their weddings or showers? No. Is 17 too young for these things? Thank goodness Lauren doesn't think so. She's from my mom's side and is the second one on that side to get married. So I have high hopes that all the others on my mom's side will invite me to theirs as well. Let's hope!

Back: Amy, Becky, Me, Michelle, Brian

Front: Josh, Louie, John, Teddy

I had such a good time at the wedding. I danced the night away with my family, even though th DJ was a nightmare! Just when everyone would be getting their Brick House or Super freak on, he'd throw in something completely bizarre. At the very end, Telephone did make its way in somehow.

I don't know how it is other places, but it's tradition in Pittsburgh (Western Pa, really) to have a cookie table at a wedding (and the shower). So everyone in the family made a type of cookie to bring in and they got set up all fancy like. Here's the catch of this post, my mom made all of the three cookie recipes I'm going to share with you. I helped in no way! She did a fabulous job and I loved all her cookies.

As a side note, the food at the wedding was really good. I never eat pasta, I'm not really a fan, but I had some penne noodles and sauce with tons of cheese which was great. But the potatoes, oh the potatoes! Super ah-may-zing. Anyway, on to the recipes!

My mom made these ones for the wedding shower. These thumb prints were a great cookie, but the frosting rocked! It was real buttery and creamy. I saw a few finished thumb prints as my mom was icing them, and I forced her to put on more icing. I'm always right;)

I can't find the recipe, my mom couldn't remember where she got it from. This greatly saddens me. Sorry!

These chocolate cookies were easy, according to my mom. I tried one to please, though we all know I am in no way a chocolate fan. I give it a thumbs up, but one was plenty for me.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

from Joy of Baking

Ingredients:4 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Topping:
1 cup confectioners sugar, sifted
In a stainless steel bowl, over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter. Remove from heat and set aside.
In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the eggs and sugar until thick, pale, and fluffy. (When you slowly raise the beaters the batter will fall back into the bowl in slow ribbons.) At this point beat in the vanilla extract and then stir in the melted chocolate mixture.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm enough to shape into balls (3-4 hours, or even overnight)..

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (170 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside.

Place the confectioners sugar in a shallow bowl. With lightly greased hands, roll a small amount of chilled dough to form a 1 inch (2.54 cm) ball. Place the ball of dough into the confectioners sugar and roll the ball in the sugar until it is completely coated and no chocolate shows through. Gently lift the sugar-covered ball, tapping off excess sugar, and place on the prepared baking sheet. Continue forming cookies, spacing about 2 inches (5 cm) apart on the baking sheets. (If you find the dough getting too soft for rolling into balls, return to the refrigerator and let chill until firm.)

Bake cookies for 8 to 10 minutes or just until the edges are slightly firm but the centers are still soft. (For moist chewy cookies do not over bake. Over baking these cookies will cause them to be dry.) Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
These cookies are best eaten the day they are baked.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Oh goodness my mom searched for days for those candies in the center! Apparently these nonpareil candies are basically extinct? I don't really know, but it was quite the ordeal. I'm not really a fan of mint, (I know it seems like I have very select tastes, well I do) but I enjoyed quite a few of these. The sugar cookie base was really bomb and the mint paired well. Again, my mom said these were a breeze to make.

Mint Blossoms
from Land O'Lakes
Yield: 4 dozen cookies

1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, softened
1 LAND O LAKES® All-Natural Egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
48 mint meltaway candies

Heat oven to 375°F. Combine 1 cup sugar, butter, egg and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until well mixed. Reduce speed to low; add flour, baking soda and salt. Beat until well mixed.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll in remaining sugar. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are very light golden brown. Remove from oven; immediately press 1 mint candy in center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheets to wire cooling rack; cool completely.

A Taste of Prom

Yeah it's been like FOREVER since I've posted anything at all. And now I come back to you with no recipes, just pictures. Not even of food. But here's some picture recaps of my prom night!

Overall I had a ton of fun. But because this is a food blog I do have to say the food sucked. I heard last year there were food stations all around the ballroom and it covered different parts of the world food wise. This year it was dry pork, penne pasta in a marinara sauce, and a salad. The best thing there was a cold pasta salad with a ton of different veggies like mushrooms, zucchini, and summer squash. Dessert was one sad tiny chocolate fountain with pretzels and marshmallows. Oh, and store bought cold cherry pies? Yeah, they cheaped out.

Oh well, here are the photos!

My dress

My parents

Julia, Me, Erin, and Maria
The neighborhood girls! They all live within a block of my house and we've all grown up together.

My date David

Sandy, Me, and Connor

Rachel

Jannah

My Best Friends: Katie and Taylor

Family portrait! Sean (father), Me (daughter), Taylor (mother), and Katie (dog)

Tim!

Brandon and Leah

Lexus and Me (we took this at the end of the night so we're all sweaty!)

Let's Catch Up! & an Oreo Cookie Attempt

(This is a teaser. You're going to have to read the rest to see the recipe! Hehe)

Okay, let's play a little catch-up here. I've been pretty MIA recently so let me fill you in on a few things:

1. I got my driver's license!

(Legally I must wear glasses when I drive haha)

My BFF showed me the course ahead of time and I practiced it a ton. I have no issue parallel parking outside my house, but when I did it for practice at the test center, I couldn't do it! I honestly spent hours trying to get it perfect, and finally, less than an hour before my test, I figured out what I had been doing wrong! So when it came time for the real test, I did it in one try! In fact, I didn't even pull forward after sliding in=X.

But, I do need to note that my test instructor was extremely intimidating and crazy! At one point he began screaming "Go left! Go left!" when I clearly had my left turn signal on and was turning to the left... He completely freaked me out and I got panicky and began flipping my turn signal back and forth to appease him. Whatever. Then, he had me going 30 mph over a pedestrian crossing and screamed at me for going to slow. Also, he told me I was going to fast on a 40 mph lane when I was going 30 mph.

Oh! And before I did my amazing parallel parking job, he started rambling off instructions and would scream, "Yes or No! Do you understand?" Apparently saying "no" was the wrong answer and he only got angrier. But he passed me. I did a MARVELOUS job, seriously! But he seemed to only pass me begrudgingly. Jerk.

2. Our school's musical is in full swing and we'll now be having 5 days a week practices. It's really fun so I don't mind it, but it sure is time consuming! Did I ever mention I have the opening solo line? Well I do. And I'm pretty darn good if I may say so;) Oh crap, all my ad sales are due Monday I just remembered... Add that to the "To-Do List".

3. I took the SAT's this Saturday (this morning). I was pretty stressed like the day before trying to cram studying in. I feel pretty good about it but we'll see=/

4. Prom. I found my perfect dress!

(I can also wear this in the summer thanks to that gorgeous floral print!)

But the designer, Flirt Prom Dresses, can't get it to any of the stores I've called until after my prom=( But I found one place about an hour away that has the only remaining dress and only one and it happens to be my size. I just need to find the time to drive up and get it. It should probably happen soon so if I need to get another dress for whatever reason I'll have time.

Also, these are some of the party buses my friends have been looking into getting. Just take a gander at these beaut's:

WOWOWOWOWOW! My group hasn't decided on what we want yet but it's still so exciting! I'll definitely post a ton of pictures of course;)

5. And finally there's just all my school work to keep up with. In my Adv. Chemistry class we're doing major power point presentations on a company and their product and then the chemistry behind it. I choose spandex and contacted the ASICS company about it. And they said they could send me a ton of free swag/promotional items! I haven't received them yet though...

My AP English class is kicking in gear with 2 rough drafts for 2 separate papers due this coming week. Can you say fun? It's just rough drafts, though, and thank goodness! Any Phantom of the Opera fans out there? Well, that's what one of papers is on;)

Okay enough about me. Here's food:


Homemade Oreos
from Smitten Kitchen

Makes 25 to 30 sandwich cookies

For the chocolate wafers:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar [see recipe note]
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1 large egg

For the filling:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.
2. In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
3. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.
4. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.
5. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream. Dunk generously in a large glass of milk
6. 

Take her advice. EAT WITH MILK! I thought it just tasted 10x better that way. It wasn't my fav thing ever=/ Than again, I'm no fan of chocolate or cookies, so I'm biased. The filling was pretty good. Just your reg frosting though. I may have to try it after it's had time to set.