Apple Pie with Caramel Sauce

I saw this recipe on my cousin, Alicia's blog. It was one of those times when a warm apple pie just sounded so good to me. I have never made a pie from scratch like this. But I just craved it for some reason after seeing it. So I made it. The only thing I would do differently is double the caramel recipe. We used the entire amount for only half the pie. But it was so good you had to just totally cover the pie in it! And my, this pie is seriously so good. Thanks Alicia!

FOR THE CRUST:
2 C flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
Pinch sugar
1 C Crisco/vegetable shortening
1/2 C cold water (with ice in it - you want it VERY cold)

Cut the shortening into cubes and put it in the refrigerator to chill. Combine flour, salt, and sugar in bowl. Using a pastry blender, mix in crisco cubes until shortening is mostly combined and texture is crumbly. (I used my Bosch and regular beaters, just didn't mix too much and it worked great) Be careful not to over-mix. Add water and use a fork to completely mix together into doughy texture, but still letting shortening marbling be visible. (Again just used my Bosch) Divide dough in half and shape each into a ball. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll out into a circle on a lightly floured surface until about 1/4 inch thick. Place one crust on bottom of pie pan.

FOR THE FILLING:
Apple Portion:
3 tablespoons butter
2 pound apples (Honey Crisp or Fuji are good) peeled & sliced 1/2-inch thick (I used 6 medium sized apples)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 lemon, juiced
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Pinch ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt

Sour Cream Portion:
1 C sour cream
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large saute pan, melt the butter. Add the apples and saute for 2 minutes. Add the sugars, lemon juice and flour. Continue to saute for 2 minutes. Season the apples with nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt. Mix thoroughly and remove from the heat. Cool the mixture. Spoon mixture into pie crust already assembled in pan. (I thought it would be too runny with the liquid, but it isn't! Pour it all into the pie crust)

Beat together by hand the sour cream, egg, and vanilla. Pour over apple mixture. Top with the remaining crust and crimp edges of crust together. Using a sharp knife, make 3 slits, about 4 inches long and 2 inches apart, across the pie dough. Glaze with egg, if desired. Place the pie in the oven, and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit until cooled or just warm.

Option: Warm Caramel Syrup (I think this really takes it to the next level!)

Ingredients: (I would double this!)
1/4 C sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
1/4 C butter
1/4 C heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla

Directions:
Mix sugar, butter and cream in a saucepan. Let mixture simmer 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Cool, and add vanilla. Sauce may be refrigerated and used over again. May be served warm.

Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Tart

Made this again last night and LOVED it!! SOOOO yummy!! It's rich - and wonderful :)

(From my friend Sarah Gale)
1 box Nonni's original biscotti
1/2 stick melted butter
10 oz extremely good quality chocolate, chopped up (I use Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips)
1 cup (half pint) heavy cream
12 oz package frozen raspberries, thawed
1 Tbl sugar

Preheat oven to 375. In a blender or food processor, crush the biscotti into crumbs. Stir in the melted butter and press into a pie or tart pan. Bake at 375 for 8 minutes. Remove and let cool completely. In the blender or food processor, puree the raspberries. Stir in the sugar and let it sit for a bit so the juices come out from the sugar. Strain out the seeds and set the puree aside. In a large microwave safe bowl, heat the cream for 1 minute and 30 seconds so that it's hot, almost but not quite boiling. Add the chopped chocolate to the hot cream and make sure it's all submerged. Let it sit for 5 minutes, then whisk it all together. It should be the consistency of a thin pudding. Add in 1/3 cup of the raspberry puree and pour it all into the cooled biscotti crust. Refrigerate for a few hours until set. To serve, slice into 12 very thin slices and drizzle with extra raspberry puree.  Whip cream on top is yummy as well :)

Black Bottom Banana Cream Pie MADE EASY

I combined a couple of different recipes for this pie, and it was way easier than the other way I used to make it. So here is the adapted recipe!

Black Bottom Banana Cream Pie

2 ready-made crusts, Oreo or Chocolate Graham
1 small instant vanilla pudding mix
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 c. cold water
3 c. whipping cream, divided
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp. butter
2 tsp. vanilla, divided
1/3 c. powdered sugar
Chocolate curls
Bananas

Ganache: In a saucepan, heat 1 c. whipping cream with 1 tbsp. butter. Heat until it's hot but not boiling. Add 1 c. semi-sweet chips and 1 tsp. vanilla. Stir till smooth. Divide into two crusts and chill for 30 minutes.

Pudding mixture: Mix together pudding mix, water, and sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Put into fridge to set up (5-10 min). Whip 1 c. whipping cream until soft peaks form. Gently stir into pudding mixture.

Arrange thin slices of banana on the ganache and top with pudding mixture.

Beat remaining 1 c. whipped cream, 1/3 c. powdered sugar, and 1 tsp. vanilla until stiff. Spread on top and save some to spoon mounds around the edge. Top with chocolate curls and enjoy!

Not sure how to make chocolate curls? I followed this tutorial and loved how they turned out. I used about 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips because I didn't have any Baker's on hand.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

AMAZING!

from Our Best Bites

(see my notes at the bottom)

Crust:

1 1/2 C gingersnap crumbs (about 25-30 small cookies)

6 tbsp. real butter, melted

3 tbsp. brown sugar

3/4 C ground pecans

Filling:

3 8oz blocks cream cheese

3/4 C canned pumpkin puree

8oz melted white chocolate (1 C white chocolate chips, melted)

1 C sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 350. Using heavy duty foil, securely wrap the bottom and outside of your cheesecake pan. This will prevent leaks when using the water bath. For Crust: Use a food processor to crush gingersnaps. Then do pecans. Combine gingersnaps, pecans, brown sugar, and butter and stir well to combine. Press into a 9" spring form pan. Evenly spread across the bottom of pan and up the sides about 1-1 1/2 inches.

To melt chocolate, place in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until smooth. Set aside. With an electric mixer beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time. Add pumpkin, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice. With the mixer running, slowly add in white chocolate in a steady stream. Pour mixture on top of the crust.

For waterbath: Place cheesecake pan inside of a larger pan. (Like a roasting pan.) The larger pan should be at least 2-3 inches in depth. Place in pre-heated oven. With a kettle or pitcher filled with hot water, pour water into the larger pan about halfway up, or approximately 1 1/2 to 2 inches. Bake for about 50 minutes or until set. The center should be just a tad bit jiggly still. It will finish cooking while cooling. When it's done, remove from oven and place on a rack until completely cool. Place in the fridge for at least 12 hours. Serve with whipped cream and caramel sauce!

NOTES: Since Carson in allergic to pecans, I omitted those from the crust. I also do not have a roasting pan, so I filled a cake pan with water and placed it below the cheesecake. I don't know if that's what you're supposed to do, but I think it worked! And finally, buy "Anna's" ginger cookies (flower shaped). I bought them to decorate the top with, and they are amazing. I wish I would have done the crust with them, because the ginger snaps I bought for the crust were bland and extremely hard. I thought I was going to break my food processor.

Chocolate Oatmeal Pie

1 9-inch unbaked pie shell
3 eggs
1/2 c. butter, melted
1/2 c. brown sugar
3/4 c. karo syrup
1 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 c. oats
1/4 c. flour
1/4 c. cocoa
1 c. mini chocolate chips

Beat eggs. Add butter, brown sugar, karo syrup, and vanilla and mix. Add remaining ingredients and combine. Pour into crust and bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes. Let it cool for a few hours or it will be too gooey.

Raspberry Peach Crumble Pie

1 9-inch unbaked pie shell

2 c. frozen raspberries

2 c. peeled, sliced fresh peaches (or thawed frozen ones)

1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

3/4 c. sugar (use 1 c. if you use fresh raspberries)

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

3 tbsp. quick-cooking tapioca

2 tbsp. butter, softened

Crumble topping

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. butter, softened

3/4 c. flour

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine fruits in bowl and sprinkle with lemon juice. In small bowl, combine sugar, salt, cinnamon and tapioca. Sprinkle over fruit and gently stir. Spoon into crust and dot with butter. In Bosch, mix together crumble topping until sandy crumbs form. Sprinkle crumble topping on top of fruit. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake about 45 minutes more, until topping is golden brown. Bake on a cookie sheet, because the filling will ooze and bubble over! Allow it a couple hours at least to set up or it will be a mess! I LOVE THIS PIE!

Pumpkin Pie

1 {29 oz} can pumpkin
2 C sugar
1 t salt
3 T flour
2 t pumpkin pie spice
1 {13 oz} can evaporated milk
1/4 C Karo syrup
3 eggs
2 t vanilla

Mix all ingredients together. Makes enough for two pie shells. Bake 15 minutes at 400 degrees, then 45 - 50 minutes at 350 degrees.

Peach Pie

26 big marshmallows
1/2 C milk
Melt, mix, and stir. Set aside to cool.

Cut up about 8 peaches.

Whip 1/2 of whipping cream
Fold whipping cream into marshmallow mix.
{I just buy piecrust but you can make one if you like. Have your pie crust cooked and cooled by this point}

Put 1/4 of your marshmallow/whipped cream mixture at the bottom of the pie crust. Then put on the peaches. Finally put on the remaining marshmallow/whipped cream mixture. Put in the fridge for about 3 hours before eating.

Peach Dessert

Filling:
2 cans Eagle brand milk
1/2 C lemon juice
1/3 C lime juice
12 oz Cool Whip

Mix together with a wire whisk.

Make a graham cracker crust using 2 packages graham crackers crushed and mix with 1 cube melted butter. Press into a rectangle cake pan. {Save a little crust to sprinkle on top}.

Put half of the filling on top of crust. Put sliced fresh peaches on next. Add remaining filling and sprinkle with remaining crust crumbs. Refrigerate.

Mud Pie

Crust:
40 Oreo cookies
1 cube melted butter

Crush Oreos and mix with butter. Press into 9x13 pan.

Filling:
Spread 1/2 gallon chocolate ice cream {or any flavor, green mint is good, too] onto the crust. Spread 1 carton Cool Whip on ice cream and drizzle chocolate syrup over top. Freeze until ready to serve.

Grasshopper Pie

Chocolate Chookie Crust:
24 chocolate sandwich cookies, finely crushed {oreo type}
1/2 C melted butter



Filling:
1/4 C milk
1 {7 oz} jar of marshmallow cream
4 drops peppermint flavoring
4 drops green food coloring
2 C whipping cream


Combine cookie crumbs and melted butter, press into greased 9x13 pan. Reserve 1/2 C crumbs for topping. In a mixing bowl, gradually add milk, peppermint flavoring, and food coloring to marshmallow cream. mix well. Whip cream and fold into mixture. Pour into pan. Sprinkle with remaining crumbs. Freeze. Cut into squares and serve.