Apple crumble pie

Yea, I know, first post from me in years. About 4 moves later and here I am.

There have been many cakes made and decorated, tons of cookies and so on and so on, but it has just been easier for me to upload the photos to instagram. My instagram is @mssarahbunker if anyone reads this blog and wants to follow pictures of food and pets. Hmm, maybe I should just make an instagram account strictly for food stuff? Then my regular instagram would just be empty! Haha. Well I just created one, so my food instagram username is @cookiecakechaos.

So, I haven't made a pie in about 4 years. I usually only have pie on Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving is just so crazy, the last thing you think about is making homemade pies these days. We purchased a bag of New York macintosh apples (which I know are terrible for apple pies, but we had them in, so it is what it is, and I totally overcooked my filling, so the apple pie is more like an apple sauce pie, but still tastes killer!) So I decided that I would make an apple pie, but not just any apple pie.. a combination of 2 amazing apples desserts, apple pie and apple crumble... the result.... apple crumble pie! I got the idea from Marie Callender, we buy her pies every Thanksgiving, they taste great and are usually BOGO at Publix.
So in order to make this recipe, I scouted out the best recipes for each compoent of the pie, the best crust recipe, the best filling recipe and the best crumble recipe, and these are the recipes that I chose.

I really wanted this recipe that I Frankensteined together to be in some kind of clickable link, so that the next time I make it, I can pull the link up for this post on my phone, if I don't feel like pulling out my recipe folder and using the physical paper recipe, which is 2 pages haha.

So here we go.....

Apple Crumble Pie 10-12-2018

Crust (Makes 1 pie crust)

·         1  1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus more to dust, *measured correctly

·         1/4 Tbsp granulated sugar

·         1/4 tsp sea salt

·         1/4 lb COLD unsalted butter (1 stick) diced into 1/4" pieces

·         3 Tbsp ice water (3 to 3 1/2 Tbsp)

In a food processor, pulse together flour, sugar and salt.

Add COLD diced butter and pulse until coarse crumbs and some pea-sized pieces form.

Add 3 Tbsp ice water and pulse just until moist clumps/ small balls of dough form. Pinch a piece of dough between your fingers and if it sticks together, it’s done. If not add more ice water 1 tsp at a time.

Transfer dough to a clean work surface, and gather together into a ball. Resist the urge to knead the dough – it should not be smooth.. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour before using.

Cook’s Tip: Do not add too much water or it will be sticky and difficult to roll.

Can I make Pie Dough in Advance?

You can prepare the crust and refrigerate up to 3 days ahead. Soften slightly at room temperature before rolling it out. To freeze pie dough: wrap and seal airtight then freeze up to 3 months. Thaw completely prior to rolling.

How to Pre-bake Pie Crust (Blindbake):

1. Place pie crust in the freezer 30 minutes
2. Line the center with a 9-10″ ring of parchment paper and fill about 2/3 full with pie weights (*see below). Preheat oven to 375˚F and bake for 20 minutes. Remove pie weights, prick the bottom of the crust all over with a fork and place back in the oven without weights for 15 minutes or until golden.

https://natashaskitchen.com/easy-pie-crust-recipe/

Filling:

·         2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice  

·         3 pounds baking apples, such as Golden Delicious, Cortland or Mutsu  

·         2/3 cup granulated sugar  

·         4 tablespoons unsalted butter  

·         1 teaspoon ground cinnamon  

·         1/4 teaspoon ground allspice  

·         Generous pinch freshly grated nutmeg  

     Put the lemon juice in a medium bowl. Peel and core the apples; cut each in

half, and cut each half into 4 wedges. Add the apples and granulated sugar to the bowl with the lemon juice, and toss.

Melt the butter over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Add the sugared apples, and cook, stirring, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to simmer, about 2 minutes. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the apples soften and release most of their juices, about 7 minutes.

Strain the apples in a colander over a medium bowl to catch all the juice. Shake the colander to extract as much liquid as possible. Return the juice to the skillet, and simmer over medium heat until it has thickened and lightly caramelized, about 10 minutes.

Toss the apples with the thickened juice, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Set aside to cool completely.

(The cooled filling can be refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 6 months.)

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/dutch-apple-pie-3364300

TOPPING

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes 

Blend first 5 ingredients in processor. Add chilled butter cubes; using on/off turns, cut in until mixture resembles wet sand.  Preheat baking sheet on 375. 

Toss filling to redistribute juices; transfer to crust, mounding in center. Pack topping over and around apples.

Bake the pie on the preheated baking sheet until the crust and streusel are golden brown, 50 to 60 minutes. Let it cool on a cooling rack for at least 3 hours before serving.

(The pie keeps well, covered, at room temperature for 24 hours or refrigerated for up to 4 days.)

 https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/cinnamon-crumble-apple-pie

Royal Canin Veterinary Diet Urinary SO DIY Dog Treats

If you have ever taken one step into my home then you know that I have a Scottish Terrier, his name is Bosco. You know that I have this misunderstood beast because it's always a big production having any outsider come into the house, Bosco isn't a fan of company and shows his feelings with his teeth. Bosco isn't the most happy go lucky one in the bunch. I'm pretty sure that he's the only dog that could trademark his own dog bite, his is called "The Bosco Tattoo" by the way.

Nonetheless, he's our loveable little beastie boy and he has diabetes. He was also diagnosed with struvite stones/bladder stones in February and he was prescribed an extremely strict diet. He can only eat Royal Canin Urinary SO dog food. He's not allowed to have anything unless it's a prescribed urinary food. The company doesn't make dog treats, chewies, nothing! We originally thought that Bosco was only going to need to be on this dog food until his bladder stones cleared up, but we just recently learned that he is going to need to be on this food for the rest of his life because once a dog develops struvite stones they will always be prone to developing these stones, the only thing that breaks the stones up, is this specially formulated dog food.

Before Bosco was prescribed this dog food, he would eat chewies, that would help him with... anxiety... uhh, issues, I guess. Now that he can't have any treats, the only "treats" we could give him were a few pellets of his dry dog food, until this past week! We were picking up Bosco's dog food at the vet and chatting with other people at the vet, saying how much of a shame it was that the company doesn't make dog treats and this one lady told us that she makes her own! This lady uses the wet canned dog food, rolls it out, cuts shapes and then bakes it. I tried this out and I couldn't believe how well this worked! Bosco LOVED the dog treats. Then I started to experiment a little. So far I have 3 dog treat recipes that I'm pretty content with.

This is one of those dog treat recipes......


Crunchy Royal Canin Urinary SO Dog Treats

-Dry Royal Canin Urinary SO pellets
-Water

First you want to grind the dry dog food until the dog food has turned into a crumb texture, similar to graham cracker crumbs.

This is what your mixture will look like once all ground up

Now combine the ground up dog food with enough water to form a play-doh or cookie dough consistency, you don't want to add too much water, but you want to add enough water to make a dough consistency, remember, you can you always add, but you can't take the water out of the mixture.

This is what your mixture will look like, now you're ready to roll.... literally.

Bosco enjoys helping to clean up.

To help make less of a mess, I use my sugar cookie method to roll out the dough. I evenly sandwich the dough in-between 2 sheets of parchment paper, though next time I will definitely use freezer paper, because the wetness of the dough caused the parchment paper to curl up. You need something to prevent the dough from sticking to the counter, so this is just how I roll.

I rolled my dough out much thicker than I would for a sugar cookie, just think of the thickness of a milk bone treat, that's what I'm trying to mimic. 

I used a dog bone shape cookie cutter to cut my shapes out, this dough really holds it's shape, so you can use pretty much any type of cookie cutter that you'd like, you could also just take a pizza cutter and cut strips, make life a little easier on yourself. 

Told ya how well the dough holds up! This food is expensive, so you don't want to waste it! So make sure you reuse all of the dough that is leftover from all of the shapes. I add just a tiny bit of water to the mixture so the mixture is just as easy to roll out as the first batch.

Feeling fancy? You can stamp your dog's name into the uncooked dog treats, if you're a hoarder of useless, but at times extremely useful items like me and just happen to have mini letter stamps.

The stamp looks really cool on the uncooked dough, but unfortunately doesn't show once baked.

All cut out and ready to bake! I baked the treats at 375 for about an hour. You want the dog treats to be hard, but not burnt. Really, what you're doing is just drying out all of the water. 

All baked! After the dog treats cool down, there's only one thing left to do.....

Treat?!?!

Dog approved!!!!

Old Factory Candles

I'm a candle and fragrance FANATIC!!

I have a closet that dedicates itself to holding and protecting the families precious candles, plug ins, melts..anything that has a scent when either lit or plugged in. That being said, I am pretty knowledgeable in candles.

We purchase new candles weekly, if not daily and the moment a new scent comes out from a line that we usually purchase my family and I react as though it's Christmas morning. These Old Factory Candles may just be making its way into the fragrance closet!

I ordered the "Vaction" pack of candles which includes Sea Breeze, Hawaiian Lei, and Awapuhi. The candles are a nice neutral white color in a clear glass container with soy wax making the candles fit in with any home decor. The tops of the candle jars are plastic and black, my only negative is the candle lid, it's just a tad cheap, but that's the only fault in the packaging and design of the candles.

My favorite scent in the 3 pack is the Awapuhi scent. Though all 3 scents are true to their name and description. I live in Florida and the Vacation pack really does smell like a Tropical vacation. The scents aren't overwelming, but they are noticeable and very soothing and relaxing.

The candles burn pretty well and they seem like they last, I burned one for a good 6 hrs last night and the wick never went off, the scent was the same strength that it was 5 minutes in after first lighting the candle. After the 6 hrs, there is still plenty of wax and wick left.

I am a fan! I can't wait to try the baby shower bundle and also the Wildflowers bundle! I love how these are made in the US and are hand poured.

I received these candles in exchange for my unbiased opinion. You can purchase these candles here....

http://www.amazon.com/Candles-True-To-Scent-Hand-poured/dp/B00NR8LBIM/

Roadhouse Grill Yeast Rolls

When I first moved to Florida I had moved to a town called Coral Springs and if you know anything about Coral Springs then you know about University Drive, it's pretty much the main street in the whole city that has the lot of restaurants. One of those restaurants was this place called Roadhouse Grill and it was this huge establishment that served your traditional Americana meals, they had buckets, literally, buckets of peanuts everywhere, and you just threw the shells on the ground, it was a pretty cool place. The one item on their menu that made the place shine was their yeast rolls. The rolls were light, fluffy, sweet little pillows of heaven sent amazingness.

Like I've said in previous posts, I'm not from Florida originally, and I've moved around quite a bit and had traveled often before moving to Florida and my family and I had come across other roadhouse type of restaurants, the peanuts, the same type of food and atmosphere, but I can't remember if those places had the same rolls. The Roadhouse Grill was a chain, but as far as I knew, it was just a Florida chain, but I could be wrong. The Roadhouse Grill chain that I was familiar with has since closed, there are no more Roadhouse Grills, there are however, Texas Roadhouse Grill restaurants, I've never been, but they're out there and they have the same rolls!

I've always loved the rolls and since now I have the most amazing Kitchenaid mixer in the world, I decided to pull the old dough hook out and make some yeast rolls!

I got the recipe from http://deliciouslyyum.com/texas-roadhouse-rolls/

Texas Roadhouse Rolls 

Ingredients

1. 2 1/4 teaspoons (1 envelope) active dry yeast
2. 1/4 cup lukewarm water
3. 1 cup lukewarm milk
4. 3 tablespoons melted butter, slightly cooled
5. 1/4 c. sugar
6. 4 cups all-purpose flour
7. 1 large egg
8. 1 teaspoon salt
9. melted butter for basting rolls

Instructions

1. 1. Combine yeast and lukewarm water in the bowl of your stand mixer and let stand for 10 minutes (until yeast starts to foam and bubble).
2. 2. Add milk, melted butter and sugar to the yeast mixture and give it a good stir (using the paddle attachment). Add 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups of flour to make a medium batter. You're looking for a pancake-like consistency. Next, add egg and salt and incorporate well. Switch to the dough hook and with the mixer running on medium speed, add remaining flour. Continue mixing for 5 minutes or until dough is smooth.
3. 3. Sprinkle some flour onto the counter and place dough on top. Let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, grease another bowl with oil and place dough inside. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and place in a warm place until dough has doubled in size, about 1 hour.
4. 4. Remove from oven and punch dough down. Place dough on floured surface and roll out into a square about 1/2 inch thick. Using a pizza cutter, cut dough into desired shapes. Place dough squares onto a parchment-lined baking sheet (or two, depending on how many rolls you end up with). Cover with a towel and let rise again until doubled in size, about 45-60 minutes.
5. 5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and bake for 10-15 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Remove from oven and immediately baste with melted butter. Serve dinner rolls warm with additional butter.

Notes

1. Rolls are best when served on the same day, but will keep up to 3 days in an airtight container in the fridge or up to 4 weeks in the freezer.

 

The Ingredients

  

Combine yeast and luke warm water. Bloom yeast for 10 minutes until the mixture foams and bubbles, toils and trouble

This is what the mixture looks like after 10 minutes

 

Add milk, melted butter and sugar and mix until incorporated 

Add 1 1/2 cup flour, the mixture will resemble pancake batter (Premeasure your 4 c of flour before you start adding any flour)

Add egg and salt and mix until incorporated 

Switch to the dough hook and add the remaining flour, knead for about 5 minutes

This is what your dough will look like, the dough will be sticky, unlike other bread doughs

Pour on a floured surface and cover with a dish towel

Rest the dough for 10 minutes

Put your rested dough into a greased bowl and cover with a dish towel

Let dough rise in a warm place for an hr (I put my dough in the oven with the heat on 175)

After an hour your dough should have doubled in size

Punch the risen dough down and form a loose smooth ball, roll dough out to about 1/2 inch thick rectangle and slice out your shapes with a pizza cutter

Place your pieces on your pans lined with parchment paper 

  Let your rolls rise in a warm place for an hr, covered with a dish towel (Again, I put the rolls in my oven to rise)

 Risen rolls, we are halfway there to success!

Bake for 10-15 minutes

 Be amazed! 

 Brush the warm rolls with some melted butter and serve!

 

 An appropriate Roadhouse style dinner

So fluffy!

Christmas Cookie Cook Off 2014

Man, preparing for Christmas was exhausting this year, actually,  Christmas in general was exhausting this year. My Christmas cookies took me 3 days, from morning to night, nonstop to complete. This was the result.