Tag: apple

Categories
Dessert

A salted caramel pie is quite ‘apple’ing

Salted caramel honeycrisp apple pie is a great twist on a classic, with the crunch of pecans and the sweetness of caramel and apples.
Salted caramel honeycrisp apple pie is a great twist on a classic, with the crunch of pecans and the sweetness of caramel and apples.

One of the cooking habits I have developed over the years is to push recipes just a bit.

I love to double spices, add extra ingredients and play with proportions. Normally, that works out really well for me. I love the extra flavor an additional teaspoon of vanilla can provide, and there’s nothing like the taste of a bit of extra cinnamon.

Of course, sometimes that doesn’t work out for me. This week, I pushed the envelope a little too far. For the salted caramel apple pie I tried, I purchased a jar of salted caramel dessert topping, and while the recipe only called for one-half cup of it, I looked at the rest of that jar and thought, “Yeah, but what if I just empty the whole thing on there?”

It was a fantastic idea, until the caramel decided to create a steady, sticky stream inside my pie carrier. I mean, it was still delicious, don’t get me wrong, but cleaning up caramel wasn’t the most fun I’ve had lately.

So, the recipe I tried comes from the blog “Inspired by Charm.” You can find the original at https://inspiredbycharm.com/salted-caramel-honeycrisp-apple-pie/. I did double the cinnamon and nutmeg in my version below, but if you want to push past the listed amount of salted caramel, I’ll leave that up to you.

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Salted Caramel Honeycrisp Apple Pie

Salted caramel honeycrisp apple pie is a great twist on a classic, with the crunch of pecans and the sweetness of caramel and apples.
Course Dessert
Keyword apple pie, honeycrisp apples, pecans, salted caramel

Ingredients

Pie Ingredients

  • single pie crust
  • about 5 to 6 large Honeycrisp apples peeled, cored and sliced
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Topping Ingredients

  • 12 tablespoons butter cold
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup quick oats
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup pecans chopped
  • 1/2 cup or more salted caramel dessert topping

Instructions

  • Roll out the pie dough and place into a deep pie plate. Place in the refrigerator while you prepare the rest of your ingredients.
  • Preheat the oven to 375, and place a rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil on the bottom rack for catching overflow from the pie.
  • In a large mixing bowl, combine the apples, lemon juice, sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
  • For the topping, combine the butter and flour using a pastry cutter or two forks until the mixture is crumbly. Stir in the brown sugar, oats and salt.
  • Pour the prepared apples into the dough and then crumble the topping evenly over the top of the apples.
  • Bake for 60 minutes, and then add 1/2 cup of the chopped pecans and bake an additional five minutes.
  • Let the pie cool to room temperature and then chill in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
  • Pour the caramel sauce over top of the pie and then top with the remaining pecans.

This pie seems like it would be overly sweet, but it was actually really well balanced, thanks to the pecans and not a lot of added sugar on the apples. 

We really enjoyed it, even though I had to nest my pie into a second pie pan to try to contain the mess. Joey just rolled his eyes and enjoyed his piece of apple pie. At this point, he knows better than to try to stop me.

This piece first appeared in print on Dec. 10, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Cookies Dessert

You’ll love these caramel apple cookies to bits

Caramel apple oatmeal cookies have bits of caramel and fresh apple sprinkled throughout a soft oatmeal cookie dough.
Caramel apple oatmeal cookies have bits of caramel and fresh apple sprinkled throughout a soft oatmeal cookie dough.

While hunting for something in the freezer recently, I caused a bit of an avalanche of frozen food and discovered a bag of caramel bits tucked away on the bottom that I was gifted a few weeks ago by someone cleaning out their pantry.

I’ve never used caramel bits in baking before, and although I was tempted to just open the bag and eat them like candy, I decided it might be better to transform them into something so I could share the caloric wealth with family and friends.

From what I can tell, Kraft might be the only vendor that sells something called “caramel bits,” but the recipe I found for some caramel apple oatmeal cookies could also be achieved by buying normal-sized caramels and chopping them up.

I will also admit that this is clearly more of a fall recipe, but I’ll eat caramel any time of the year.

This recipe comes from the blog “Brownie Bites” by Erin Browne. You can find the original post at http://www.browniebites.net/caramel-apple-oatmeal-cookies/. I doubled the vanilla in my version.

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Caramel Apple Oatmeal Cookies

Caramel apple oatmeal cookies have bits of caramel and fresh apple sprinkled throughout a soft oatmeal cookie dough.
Course Dessert
Keyword apple, cookies, oatmeal, salted caramel

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3 cups old-fashioned or quick oats
  • 11 ounces caramel bits
  • 2 small Gala apples peeled, cored and diced

Instructions

  • (You’re going to refrigerate your dough, so no need to preheat your oven yet.)
  • Beat the butter and sugars until fluffy, then beat in the eggs and vanilla.
  • Mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and oats until everything is well combined.
  • Stir in the caramel bits and diced apples.
  • Refrigerate your dough for about three hours or overnight. (I sped this up by putting mine in the freezer for an hour instead.)
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare two baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper.
  • Scoop the dough in about two-tablespoon-size scoops and place them about two inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown.
  • Refrigerate the rest of the dough while the first batch bakes.
  • Let the cookies cool before placing them in a container. If they’re too warm, the caramel bits will want to melt out of the bottom of the cookies.
  • Using two baking sheets will let you keep going with the rest of the dough while each batch cools.

I normally advocate for putting warm cookies into an airtight container pretty quickly after coming out of the oven, but in this case, these are such soft cookies that they hold up better if you let them cool down before storing them.

I really liked the flavor of these, and while I thought at first I should add in a little cinnamon, too, these didn’t need it. They were great the way they were.

This is probably a good sign that I should clean out my freezer more often. Who knows what kinds of treasures are hidden away in there? More likely, who knows what kinds of strange, freezer-burned mysteries may be concealed beneath bags of frozen vegetables?

This piece first appeared in print on July 25, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert Uncategorized

You’ll love this recipe from the bottom of your ‘tart’

A rustic apple tart is easy on the eyes and the taste buds. It would be perfect with a scoop of ice cream.
A rustic apple tart is easy on the eyes and the taste buds. It would be perfect with a scoop of ice cream.

There’s something intimidating about pastry. It’s hard to roll out perfect circles or to put it into pie pans without it cracking.

Plus, there are just too many people online who are true artists with dough, and that is extremely intimidating when I start hunting for new recipes.

The recipe I tried this week, though, is meant to look a little rough around the edges, and I managed to create something that looked delicious without worrying at all about getting fancy with my crust.

This recipe’s author is Jenn Segal. She used to work as a professional chef and has a cookbook, “Once Upon a Chef.” You can find this on her blog by the same name at https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/rustic-french-apple-tart.html. I doubled the vanilla and cinnamon in my version.

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Rustic Apple Tart

A rustic apple tart is easy on the eyes and the taste buds. It would be perfect with a scoop of ice cream.
Course Dessert
Keyword apple, pastry, tart

Ingredients

Crust Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 12 tablespoons cold butter
  • 1/4 cup cold water

Filling Ingredients

  • 4 cups peeled baking apples cut into 1/8-inch slices (I used honeycrisp)
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 rounded teaspoons cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons butter melted
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt

Topping Ingredients

  • About 1 tablespoon flour
  • 1 egg beaten
  • About 1 tablespoons sugar turbinado or regular
  • 1 tablespoon apricot jelly

Instructions

  • For the crust, pulse the flour, salt and sugar together a couple times in a food processor to combine them. Cube the butter and add it to the food processor and process until it’s about pea size. Add the water and pulse a few times until it’s just combined. (The dough will look very crumbly, but it’ll come together.)
  • Dump the dough mixture onto a floured counter and knead it until it comes together smoothly, adding more flour as necessary. Form it into a disk. Roll it out into about a 10-inch circle on the floured surface and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet with a rim.
  • Put it in the refrigerator while you peel and prep the apple mixture. Place the apple slices, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, butter and salt into a large bowl and stir to combine.
  • Remove the dough from the fridge and slide the parchment onto the counter. Roll it out to about 18 inches and about 1/8-inch thick, and slide it back onto the pan (it won’t fit very well, but that’s no worry).
  • Sprinkle about a tablespoon of flour onto the dough and then place the apples in concentric circles, overlapping them as you go. Leave about two inches around the edge of the circle.
  • Fold the sides of the dough towards the center of the tart. It’ll create a two-inch rim around it and an opening in the middle. Pinch it together at the seams so it’ll stay put. Brush the dough with the beaten egg and then sprinkle the whole tart with the sugar.
  • Bake for about an hour or until the apples are soft and the crust is a golden brown.
  • Transfer the tart to a rack and let it cool. Combine the apricot jelly with 1-1/2 teaspoons water in a small bowl and microwave for about 20 seconds. Stir and brush onto the tart.
  • Cut into slices and serve warm.

Our whole house smelled amazing while this tart was baking, and I was so proud of myself when it came out of the oven. It looked fantastic.

I’ll have to keep this one in my recipe box for any time I want to impress guests with a “fancy” dessert but don’t want to stress over making one.

And I suppose if someone thinks it looks a little too unpolished, I’ll remind them that the word “rustic” is right there in the recipe title, so I clearly did everything right.

This piece first appeared in print on March 29, 2018.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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