Prosciutto-Gruyere Strombolis & Harvest Apple Tarts

Continuing on with our Cooking Light series...I decided to make these strombolis last night.  They were so easy to make...about 10 minutes to gather all the ingredients (there are only 5!) and roll them all together.  It was nice to come home after a long day at work and literally just pop these into the oven in minutes.  And...they were yummy too.  Of course, no stromboli is complete without some marinara sauce, so I whipped that out as well.

Prosciutto & Gruyere Strombolis

by Cooking Light

1 (11-ounce) can refrigerated French bread dough

2 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto

1 cup trimmed arugula

1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Gruyère cheese

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

 

Preheat oven to 425°.

Unroll dough onto a baking sheet; pat into a 14 x 11-inch rectangle. Cut dough into quarters to form 4 (7 x 5 1/2-inch) rectangles. Top each rectangle with 1/2 ounce prosciutto, 1/4 cup arugula, 2 tablespoons cheese, and 1 tablespoon parsley.



Beginning at short side of each rectangle, roll up the dough, jelly-roll fashion; pinch seam to seal (do not seal ends of rolls). Arrange rolls 4 inches apart on baking sheet.

Bake at 425° for 10 minutes or until rolls are lightly browned. Serve warm.

Harvest Apple Tart

by Angie at Cocina Diary

Then I decided that we needed a quick dessert.  I've been wanting to try this Harvest Apple Tart recipe that I saw on my friend, Angie's, cooking blog a while back.

Let me just say that if you haven't visited her blog yet, you're missing out.  It's called the Cocina Diary and it's fabulous! 

This recipe is another easy 5-ingredient fix (okay, so it's 6 ingredients) and you should have every ingredient in your pantry already.

Here's what you get:

Complete and utter deliciousness!  Good thing I have some puff pastry and more apples left. I might have to make this again tomorrow evening!

Apple Kuchen

Okay, so remember how I said I had a butt-load of apples this week and needed to get rid of them? Well, I had so much that made this particular recipe twice this week. Once on Tuesday for my dad's potluck at work and the other last night for a Christmas party. Needless to say, it's so wonderful a dessert that my dad's co-workers have supposedly been bugging him for the recipe. I also received a few good reviews last night! According to my German friend, Anna, kuchen (when she says it, is sounds like she says "koo-hen") means cake. I like to think of this recipe as the German rendition of our classic "dump cake" because you literally just dump a few ingredients together and voila! You've got a super-duper delicious dessert in no time!

I got this recipe from Elegant Effortless Entertaining, a compilation of recipes from The Society of Daughters of the United States Army (DUSA) that I purchased at a holiday fair when I was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Above, you'll see that I simply cut some butter into your standard packaged yellow cake mix. I baked it for a few minutes and laid my granny smith apples on top.

Here, I topped the apples with an egg-sour cream mixture and baked for about 30 more minutes. What you get is what you see below--the cake turns a golden brown (oh, there's some coconut in the cake) with a nice creamy apple topping! It tastes good both warm or cold, and makes a great breakfast too. Mmmmm...mmmmm...good! Try it...you'll be surprised how easy it is to make.

Apple Kuchen

(from Effortless Entertaining by DUSA; recipe provided by Georgann Maertens Ozbolt)

1/2 cup soft butter

1 package yellow cake mix

1/2 cup coconut

1 egg

1 (20 oz.) can pie sliced apples or 2 1/2 cups chopped apples

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut butter into dry cake mix until crumbly; stir in coconut. Pat mixture lightly into an ungreased 9x13x2 inch pan, building edges up. Bake 10 minutes.
2. Arrange apples on crust. Mix sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle on fruit.
3. Blend sour cream and egg. Drizzle over apples. Bake 25 minutes, until edges are brown. Do not overbake!
4. Serve warm or cold. Serves 10 to 12.
   

Candy Apple Pie

I bummed this recipe off of Susan's blog--She's Becoming Doughmesstic--a month or two ago. I decided to make this (1): because I bought more than a dozen granny smith apples at the grocery store last week and (2): because I have a Christmas party to go to tonight. I actually made this earlier in the week as a test and fed it to my family. They loved it! So I'm making it again for the masses. This pie is extraordinary! It's like eating apple pie and cheesecake at the same time and you'll see why. It's no wonder this pie was named the winner of Good Morning America's "Pie of Emeril's Eye" Contest in 2000. So here, we've got a golden graham cracker crust. Sitting on that is a layer of caramel sauce topped with chopped pecans. Above that, a delicious array of fried apples, laced in cinnamon, brown sugar and all things heavenly! Delicious!

Here topping the apples is a sweetened cream cheese mixture that made our cheesecake-like topping. After placing this in the oven for about 30 minutes, I had a nice golden layer of cheese filling on my pie. I can taste it now!

And then a whipped cream frosting was spread over the pie and laced with caramel and chopped pecans. It is seriously my favorite apple pie ever! You have to try it. I have another apple recipe that I'll be posting later on that is just a good and even easier to make--so stay tuned!

Candy Apple Pie
(by Mimi Hodge)

Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
1 cup chopped pecans
Apple Filling:
5 granny smith apples (peeled, cored, sliced very thin)
5 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Cream Cheese Topping:
8 oz. cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar
Topping:
3/4 cup heavy cream, whipped
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup caramel ice cream topping
1/4 cup chopped pecans

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the crumbs, sugar, cinnamon and melted butter. Mix well and press into a 9.5 - 10 inch pie plate and up the sides. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes until golden in color. Remove pie shell from oven and cool completely. Pour caramel into pie shell and sprinkle with 1 cup chopped pecans. Refrigerate pie shell while making apple filling.
3. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt butter and add brown sugar, salt, and cinnamon. Stir with a wooden spoon. Add apples and stir. Cook over medium to medium-high heat for 15 to 20 minutes until apples are soft and tender. Let cool for 10 minutes and pour into pie shell. Reduce oven to 350 degrees.
4. In a medium bowl, using a hand mixer on low speed, combine cream cheese and sugar for about 1 minute until smooth. Add egg, lemon juice, and vanilla and beat for 1 minute until fully blended. Pour over apple filling in pie shell. Bake for 30 minutes until an inserted knife comes out clean. Remove pie from oven and let cool. Refrigerate for 4 hours. Let stand outside the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
5. Top with whipped cream, caramel and pecans and swirl with a knife. Slice and serve.

Blueberry Apple Pie

I got this recipe from one of my favorite bloggers, Pamela of Cookies With Boys. It looked so yummy and I needed a dessert to accompany the pasta I made for my family on Friday. You would be amazed by how easy it was to make, especially since I cheated an used Pillsbury's ready-made pie crust. All you have to do is toss the apples, blueberries and a few other ingredients and dump them into the pie shell and voila! You've got a stupendous dessert to serve and enjoy.


I actually used double the pie topping, which I probably could have done without. It just made the pie more rich! As Pam said, the pie was a little runny, and I agree. But it did thicken a little bit more as it sat and paired very nicely with cool whip!



Here's the finished product! Finger-lickin' good, I tell ya! I'd like to thank Pam for sharing such a wonderful recipe on her blog. Check it out!


Blueberry Apple Pie
(Adapted from Cooks.com)

2 c. sliced and peeled tart apples
2 c. frozen blueberries
1 c. sugar (used 3/4 c.)
2 tbsp. flour
2 tbsp. butter(skipped)
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg(skipped)
2-3 tbsp. lemon juice(skipped)

9 inch pie shell topping:
2 tbsp. flour
2 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. sugar

Combine all ingredients and place in the pie shell. Mix topping ingredients together and sprinkle over the top. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes then 350 degrees for 30 more minutes. Cool for about five minutes. Serve and enjoy!