Stepford Life.

Archive for November, 2009

I’m still trying to decide if my pie crust looks like fall leaves or tiny hands reaching up out of the pie as if to scream “help me, help me!!!!!!!!”

Part 2:
6 apples – peeled, cored and chopped
1 (12 ounce) package fresh cranberries, roughly chopped
1 1/2 cups white sugar

In a large bowl, combine apples, cranberries, and sugar. Cover, and set aside for about 20 minutes. Mix in tapioca, and set aside for 15 to 20 minutes, until tapioca has absorbed fruit juice. Spread mixture into the partially baked pie shell. Or uncooked pie shell. Whatever.

(see the leaves/tiny hands?)

Side view is a bit like a bulging volcano…

Place the pie on a cookie sheet to catch drips. Bake 45 to 60 minutes at 375 on the bottom rack of the preheated oven, or until apples are tender when tested with a wooden pick.

God’s gift to the baking world, Martha Stewart, had her first annual pie contest on an episode last week. The winner was a lady named Marjorie and if you want to see some catty smackdown, go look at the comments at the WEBSITE here under Marjorie’s recipe. Hilarious.
That said, this pie smells as amazing as it looks.
Makes one 9-inch pie
Crust
If you want her high maintenance cold leaf lard recipe, go click that link. Or make your own crust and be done with all that fanciness. Mine won’t taste like hers but I don’t know what the flip cold leaf lard is. I also snazzy up my crusts with cutouts because if the pie tastes like shit, at least it looks pretty.

Filling
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup firmly packed light-brown sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup Heath toffee bits
1 cup chopped pecans
22 pecan halves, for garnish
Directions:
Preheat oven with a rack set in the lower third to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together eggs, corn syrup, brown sugar, butter, salt, vanilla, almond extract, toffee bits, and chopped pecans.
Pour filling into pie crust. Top with pecans by evenly spacing 14 of them around the outer edge of pie filling. Make a second row by evenly spacing seven pecans in a smaller circle in the center; place 1 pecan in center.
Transfer pie to oven; bake for 20 minutes. Cover with parchment paper-lined aluminum foil and continue baking until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 30 minutes more. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

mostly related to my cheesecake pan and the fact I kind of went upstairs to brush my teeth, was side tracked by stuff and didn’t hear the timer going off for who knows how many minutes.

By the cheesecake spending one too many minutes in the oven (even covered, which it was, because I know that I tend to be, uh, forgetful) well the pecans overcooked a tad on the sides of the crust, causing my cheesecake to get REALLY stuck at the bottom corner as you can see picture to the right, I mean LEFT.
(It COULD be a learning disability maybe so don’t mock me).

Bottom line, it tastes really REALLY good.
AUTUMN CHEESECAKE
Crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
3 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a large bowl, stir together the graham cracker crumbs, 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, 3 tablespoons sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and melted butter; press into the bottom of a 9 inch spring form pan. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.

Cheesecake Filling and Apple Topping
2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups apples – peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup chopped pecans
In a large bowl, combine cream cheese and 1/2 cup sugar. Mix at medium speed until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Blend in vanilla; pour filling into the baked crust.
In a small bowl, stir together 1/3 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Toss the cinnamon-sugar with the apples to coat. Spoon apple mixture over cream cheese layer and sprinkle with 1/4 cup chopped pecans.

Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 70 minutes. Don’t disappear to brush your teeth and get side tracked for 20 minutes just as the timer is going off. With a knife, loosen cake from rim of pan. Let cool, then remove the rim of pan. Chill cake before serving.

going to be chosen by my husband!
I am seriously struggling because I’m like doing a 3 day diet before gorging myself Thursday and it’s only day one (read:starving) and every friggen recipe made my mouth water like mad.
So here are the finalists:

Image via Wikipedia

1. Steph- Autumn Cheesecake.
Ridiculous. My mouth is watering just reading this because cheesecake should be called awesome cake.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Autumn-Cheesecake/Detail.aspx

2. Adela- Chocolate Satin Pie with a…get this…pretzel crust?! I. just. died.
pretzel crust: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/recipe.php?recipeId=2236

3. Carrie- Cranberry Apple Pie. Last week I didn’t blog because I was busy making apple pies for the church bake sale but NONE had cranberries in them and my husband loves a cranberry!!! Yum.

4. Kelly’s Pumpkin Mousse Pie. Maeve LOVE LOVE LOVES pumpkin pie and keeps hovering over the couch (“LET ME PICK, MOOOOM!”) alas…she picked last month! Sorry little dudette!
Crust:
(I buy store bought pre-made, it’s easier) 1 1/4 cup (18 sq.) graham crackers, 3 tbsp. sugar, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, 1/3 cup butter softened, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/8 tsp. cloves
Filling:
1 can vanilla frosting, 1 cup canned pumpkin, 1/2 tsp. ground ginger, 1 cup sour cream, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. cloves, 8 oz. carton of whipped topping thawed
Directions:
Heat oven to 350. In a small bowl, combine all crust ingredients. Stir until blended. Reserve 2 tbsp. of crumbs for topping. Press remaining crumbs over bottom and up sides of 9″ or 10″ pie pan. Bake at 350 for 6 min. Cool. In a large mixing bowl, combine all filling ingredients except whipped topping. Beat 2 min. at medium speed. Fold in 1 cup whipped topping. Pour into prepared crust. Spread remaining whipped topping over filling. Sprinkle with reserve crumbs. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.This tastes like a pumpkin pie mousse. Super yummy and we have been eating this for years!

5. Sharri’s Totally Toffee, Y’all
Ingredients:
2 sticks real butter, 1 c. brown sugar, 1 sleeve saltine crackers, 1 bag white chocolate chips, 3/4 cup finely chopped pecans
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400; spray cookie sheet with Pam. Lay crackers on the cookie sheet. (Try not to use a great big cookie sheet…use a smaller one…one sleeve of crackers should fit perfectly). Melt butter and sugar; bring to a boil and continue boiling for 3 minutes, stirring often. Pour over crackers and spread evenly. Put in oven on top rack for 4 minutes. Take out sooner if they look like they are getting brown. Remove from oven and pour on chocolate chips. Spread evenly with a butter knife as they melt. Sprinkle pecans and “pat them in”. Let it dry for one hour. Cut in squares and enjoy!!!

And The winner is…………

AUTUMN CHEESECAKE via Steph! The pecans put my husband over the edge. He actually said, “the recipe with the pecans”. Now I hope you don’t mind but we just had a big argument over the timer because I’m evidently an idiot and the timer might actually be an ice cream cone! haha! but the band aids are cupcakes. either way, they are yours! Just email me at heathernkids @ yahoo . com and I will send it out ASAP!

And thanks for playing!
(Next month I might do this again with Christmas cookies!)

For the record, Martha’s cupcake book is awesome. Her recipes are great and so far, no fail. I don’t do everything she says necessarily, or follow it properly but I haven’t come across an issue yet.
So the base for this recipe was Martha’s except the fact I don’t have any Dutch processed cocoa right now because it’s $14 for like 8oz at Harris Teeter and that just pissed me off. Instead I used Hershey’s and snuck in some instant coffee to give it a rich flavor. So I’ll shut up now. Here’s the recipe.
Chocolate Mint Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (MS says DUTCH)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp kosher salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
(*I added 1/4 tsp instant coffee, she doesn’t)
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp pure peppermint extract
3/4 cup warm water

Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin tins with liners. With the electric mixer, whisk together flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Once mixed add eggs, buttermilk (I mixed the buttermilk with the 1/4 tsp of instant coffee) oil, peppermint, and water and mix on low until smooth. It makes 18 perfect cupcakes.
And I really do mean perfect.

The frosting is this recipe http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/chocolate-frosting-cupcakes
I didn’t want to overdo it with the mint, I know my kids wouldn’t have liked her mint buttercream icing, but we topped it with a junior mint instead.