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.

Operation Baking Gals: Round 5 & Elfster Secret Santa

I sent out my packages just in the nick of time. Better late than never, right? These last two weeks saw tons of Operation Baking Gals putting together their packages for Round 5! Along with Team Sweet Dumpling, hosted by Ellen of Sweet Dumpling, I baked a few cookies and and sent them with a bunch of other goodies to our Marine--Lance Corporal Steven Forrester, a 21-year-old infantryman on his second deployment. I don't know much about Steven other than what was expressed to us by his mother, but he sounds like a terrific guy and I am so glad that we could brighten up his holiday overseas this way. As I mentioned in previous posts, my brother-in-law is a Marine, so I'm automatically one of Steven's biggest fans. Here are some of the things I sent: trail mix, gum, a sack full of candies to hand out to the locals (since he's always out on patrols), and a holiday jar full of chocolate chip cookies! Yummy! I hope he likes them.

I also sent out my Elfster Secret Santa stuff for my Tuesdays with Dorie Secret Santa. I didn't think to take pictures of what I sent, but it would have been a dead give-away for my secret santa (if she follows my blog!). I hope she likes it too. Ahhh, the spirit of giving! My favorite thing about the holidays!

TWD: Buttery Jam Cookies

Good thing Heather of Randomosity and Girl picked another cookie for this week's recipe challenge. I needed more cookies to fill my Christmas jars. I have a meeting with my realtor tomorrow morning and it'll be the perfect gift to send her home with! These cookies were so simple to make and they were delicious! Since there was no picture in the book for them, I thought they were those cookies with jam thumbprinted in the centers. I had no idea we'd actually be mixing the jam in! The only jam I had in stock was strawberry,which explains the slightly pink tint to my cookies.

They were soft, moist and the hint of ginger made them simply wonderful. I woke up late today, so I'm having them for breakfast with some tea. Yummy! Thanks Heather for making this Tuesday easy and delicious. Skip on over to her blog for the full recipe!

TWD: Grandma's All-Occasion Sugar Cookies

This week's recipe was chosen by Ulrike of Kuchenlatein. The full recipe can be found on her blog. On Black Friday, I purchased these cute Christmas cookie jars and thought that these cookies would be perfect to go in them and give to my neighbors. I was right! Isn't Santa just cute? I am sure my neighbors are going to love these cookies. I tasted about three cookies and made myself stop, otherwise those jars would have been half full! They are really delicious!

The recipe is so simple, although I ended up with a pretty dry dough even though Dorie said that it should be soft and creamy. Oh well, they still came out great. I put some orange zest in mine and then sprinkled them with my Pampered Chef Cinnamon Sugar Sprinkles. Yummy! I think I'll be getting more jars and filling them up with these again. Next week, we've got more cookies on the menu. I'm happy about that. They make such perfect gifts for the holidays!

TWD Bailout & Macadamia Nut Pie

I barely have enough time to update my family blog, let alone make this post. However, since I have to bow out of TWD this week--due to illness (I think I've had the flu the last two days), recovering from Thanksgiving weekend visitors and events, not to mention finals week (my last week of grad school!)--I figured it would only be fair to leave you all with the recipe for the Macadamia Nut Pie I made for my family's Thanksgiving dinner. All of my family spent a good amount of time growing up in Hawaii, since my maternal grandparents immigrated there from the Philippines and resided there for years. This pie brought back so many wonderful memories of the islands. It was very well received by the entire family as I've been asked many times since that day when I'm going to be making it again. The answer is soon, very soon!

I used my deep dish pie baker since I had to make Dorie's Twofer Pie that same day. I also cheated and used Pillsbury's refrigerated pie crusts. I've been using those a lot lately. They're just so nicely priced and convenient! Just so you know, I didn't really cheat. The recipe called for refrigerated pie pastry anyway....so there!




Here, my sister is digging into the sweet, yummy goodness of the pie. To be honest, once the first piece was served, the pie didn't last any more than five minutes--well, my family is big and everyone has a voracious appetite anyway, so I'm not surprised. As with all other desserts I make, I got the first piece and I was hooked. This recipe is just a really neat twist on the traditional pecan pie and is truly divine. You've got to give it a try...and the recipe? Super simple! Check it out!

Macadamia Nut Pie
(adapted from Taste of Home, Thanksgiving, November 2008 issue)

1 sheet refrigerated pie pastry
3 eggs
1 cup dark corn syrup
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups chopped macadamia nuts

1. Unroll pastry and place in a 9-in. pie plate; flute edges and set aside. In a small mixing bowl, beat the eggs, corn syrup, sugar, butter, and vanilla until combined. Stir in the nuts. Pour into pastry shell.
2. Bake at 325 degrees for 50-55 minutes until center is set and top is golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Refrigerate leftovers.

I still have a few more Thanksgiving recipes that I need to post, so stay tuned!

Thanksgiving with Dorie: Thanksgiving Twofer Pie

Wow! It's been forever since I've made a post. With school being busy just before Thanksgiving break, working for my mom this entire week and having hordes of family members come in from all over the U.S. (and having them stay over at my place), I just haven't had the time. Until now! And I'm happy to be back. This week, we were given an extension for this week's recipe challenge since everyone would be busy preparing their Turkey Day feasts. This week's recipe--a pumpkin and pecan pie combo (hence, the "twofer" nickname) chosen by Vibi of La Casserole Caree --was the perfect dessert for my family's meal last night. The recipe is featured on her blog and received pretty good reviews from my family, even though it shared counter space with my more-favored Macadamia Nut Pie (which I'll post about later).

I know a lot of people can't stand pumpkin, but I love, love, love it...especially at this time of the year. I thought it would make a sensational accompaniment to the traditional pecan pie. This is what the pie looked like after filling the partially-baked pie shell with the pumpkin filling and then topping it with the chopped pecans.

Here, the pecans are soaking in a bath of the pecan filling, which consisted of dark corn syrup, eggs, brown sugar and some other yummy goodness!

As rude as it was, I insisted on having the first slice. I have a HUGE family and I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to take a test test so I could make a proper review. Now even though this pie was outdone by the aforementioned macadamia pie, it was delicious in it's own right. Others agreed. The pecan crust as well as the pie crust were so nicely crisped and the pumpkin neutralized the sweetness of the pecan filling. Perfecto! I'll definitely be making this one again!

Please stay tuned for more thanksgiving recipes. I've been doing so much cooking and baking lately that I'll be making posts for the next few days!