Apple Treats

My favorite time of the year has arrived and I was very excited to go apple picking with my family.  Every year, we go at least once, (usually 2 or 3 times!) and enjoy an afternoon filled with a  hay ride, apple picking, cider donuts and farm animals.

 

 We came home with lots of apples and so far,  I've done the following with them

Apple Dip

8 oz. softened cream cheese

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix all of the ingredients together and then chill until it firms up a little.  Serve with sliced apples!*

*To keep sliced apples from turning brown, toss the slices in a little bit of lemon or orange juice!

and . . . . .

Dutch Apple Mini Tarts

(compliments of Pampered Chef)

1 package (15 ounces) refrigerated pie crusts

Filling

4 ounces softened cream cheese

1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 egg

 2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups peeled, chopped apples (I used Cortland)

Topping

3 tablespoons firmly packed light brown sugar

3 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons butter

Directions

  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Roll out 1 pie crust and cut 12 circles using a cookie/biscuit cutter.

Press into mini muffin pan using the handle of a wooden spoon.  Repeat with remaining crust.

For filling, mix cream cheese until smooth.  Whisk in sugar until fluffy.  Mix in egg until well blended.

Stir in flour and cinnamon until smooth.

Peel and slice apples.  Chop into small pieces.

Stir into cream cheese mixture.

Fill prepared muffin cups with apple mixture, filling over top of pastry.

For topping, combine flour and brown sugar.  Cut in butter until it forms coarse crumbs.

Spoon over apple filling.

Bake 18-20 minutes.  Let cool in pan 5 minutes before removing.

Serve warm or at room temperature.   Enjoy!

Fall Leaves

I'm back!  Sorry I haven't posted in such a long time, but with the kids being home all summer, it being soooo hot, and running off to the baseball field pretty much every night, there wasn't much time left for baking!  Now that the kids are back in school and Fall weather is setting in, I'm happy to be back in the kitchen.

A while ago. I saw a post from one of my idols, Sugarbelle, and couldn't wait to try for myself.  I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe and used a maple and oak leaf cutter.

When the cookies were cool, I iced them with lemon flavored Royal Icing colored with egg yolk yellow and orange gel paste.

First, I outlined them with piping consistency and a #3 tip.

Then, I filled them in with flood consistency.

When dry, I used more piping icing and a #2 tip to make the veins.

The last step was to use these spray colors. (Sorry, I forgot the green!)  I pretty much just randomly sprayed them until they looked like this!

Thank you Callye for the inspiration!