How To: Crumb Crust Apple Pie From Scratch

I must admit... It is hard to find an easy way to cook a crumb crust apple pie from scratch. But with a lot of essay and errors and cook book research I came up with I think is the most easy way to cook a crumb crust apple pie from scratch. Try this one, you will be delighted! How To: crumb crust apple pie from scratch

2 c. plus 2 tbsp. unsifted all-purpose flour 1 tbsp. granulated sugar 1/2 tsp. salt 3/4 c. vegetable shortening 3 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. water Crumb Topping (recipe follows) 6 Granny Smith apples or other tart apples 3/4 c. firmly packed light brown sugar 1 tsp. ground cinnamon Milk 1 tbsp. confectioners' sugar

Prepare pie crust: In large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, granulated sugar and salt. With pastry blender or 2 knives, cut shortening into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Stirring gently with fork, gradually add 3 tablespoons water until stiff dough forms. Add more water, if necessary. Form dough into two balls, one slightly larger than the other. Wrap and refrigerate larger ball. On slightly floured waxed paper, roll out smaller ball of dough to an 11 inch round. Invert pastry into 9 inch pie plate; remove waxed paper and fit pastry into pie plate. Refrigerate while preparing topping and filling.

Prepare Crumb Topping; set aside. Peel, core and coarsely chop apples. In large bowl, combine chopped apples, brown sugar, cinnamon and remaining 2 tablespoons flour, mix well. Transfer apple mixture to pastry lined pie plate mounding apples slightly at the center.

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. Place baking sheet or piece of aluminum foil on the lower rack or floor of oven to catch crumbs. On lightly floured waxed paper, roll remaining ball of dough into a 12 inch round. Invert pastry onto apple filling and remove waxed paper; press pastry edges together and trim even with rim of pie plate. With small knife, make eight 1 inch slits randomly, in top crust of pie to allow steam to escape.

Lightly brush top of pie with milk; pat Crumb Topping all over pie. Bake pie 30 minutes; reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F. and loosely cover pie with aluminum foil to prevent over browning. Bake pie 40 minutes longer. Cool pie on rack at least 40 minutes. Before serving, in small bowl, combine confectioners' sugar and remaining 1 teaspoon water to make glaze. Drizzle over pie and serve.

CRUMB TOPPING:

In medium bowl, combine:

1 c. unsifted all-purpose flour 1/3 c. sugar 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp. salt

With pastry blender or knives, cut 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Briefly rub mixture between fingers to blend in butter. Squeeze some mixture together to form larger crumbs, if desired. Makes 8 servings.

So making a crumb crust apple pie from scratch wasn't too hard after all wasn't it?

Child Friendly Recipes - Fruit Pizza

Child friendly recipes are fun to create. What makes a child friend recipe? A recipe that incorporates fun and good foods. Fruits and vegetables are favorite ingredients in child friendly recipes. Using these fresh ingredients provide vibrant colors that are appealing to children while also providing a nutritious meal.

Fruit can be cut into small sizes so a toddler can experience the texture as well as the taste of these healthy food group. Fruits or vegetables make excellent finger foods and can be easily added to fun recipes that children love. This fun "fruit pizza" is an example of a food project that allows children to select fruits in different colors and create a healthy snack while having fun creating fun faces.

Allow children to choose colorful fruits at the store or farmers' market. Turn the kids loose in the kitchen creating imaginative faces on this delicious fruit pizza. Odds are, they will snack as they create--and like what they taste.

Child Friendly Fruit Pizza

Ingredients

*Graham cracker piecrust

Filling for pie:

*1/2 cup fat free or low fat cream cheese
*1 tablespoon sugar
*1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
*1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
*1 tablespoon 1% milk

Toppings:

Suggestions for fruit pizza faces:
*Strawberries for the nose
*Kiwi fruit or seedless grapes for the eyes
*A banana for the mouth

The choices for making the face are only limited by their imaginations. The kids can choose pineapples, mandarin orange, grapes or any fruit they like.

Instructions:

To Prepare the Filling:

1. Whisk together cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon juice.
2. Add just enough milk to the mix to make it spreadable onto the crust.
3. Spread the cream-cheese mixture with a rubber spatula.
4. Spread to the edge of the crust.
Now its time for the kids to get involved.
*Allow the kids to arrange the fruit onto the cream cheese mixture.
*Don't worry if it is not perfect. It is perfectly nutritious and fun.
*Children may want to add sprinkles or chocolate chips. Let their imaginations run wild.
*Refrigerate the pizza for at least 1 hour.
*Slice with a sharp knife and serve.

The kids will be impatient and want to eat the pizza right away. This pizza cream cheese mixture is almost set but will cut easier if refrigerated for at least 1 hour. Let the kids help you with the cleanup. They will be anxious to taste their creation.

Chocolate Dessert - Something for Everyon

Who doesn’t like a rich, delicious chocolate dessert to end a great meal? In fact, a great chocolate dessert recipe can make an otherwise bland meal seem great. They say people remember the end of the meal more than the beginning. So, it’s no surprise that most chefs recommend you put a little thought into choosing a great finishing recipe and luckily, a chocolate dessert will more often than not, fill the bill superbly and easily!

How to Find a Great Chocolate Dessert Recipe

I know I am a chocolate freak and I think there is truly nothing better than enjoying a home-made dessert. But the best part is there are so many recipes to choose from that it’s just so easy to be a chocolate dessert freak! So, I’m going to share one of my real favorite recipes. It is called the double chocolate chunk cookie recipe, and for this you will need: 2 cups all-purpose flour; ¾ cup Nestle Toll House baking cocoa; 1 tsp baking soda; ½ tsp salt; 1 cup butter or margarine, softened; 2/3 cup granulated sugar; 2/3 cup packed brown sugar; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 2 large eggs; and 1 ¾ cups Nestle Toll House semi-sweet chocolate chunks.

First you need to preheat the oven to 350°F, it is important that the oven has reached baking temperature, and then combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl, and beat the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a large mixer bowl until it is perfectly creamy. Then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition; gradually beat in the flour mixture, stir in chunks, then drop by rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Now let them bake away for about 9-11 minutes. You will see the cookies puffing up and the centers will still be soft. Check by inserting a skewer or strand of raw spaghetti. Then allow them to cool on baking sheets for a couple of minutes after you take them out of the oven, and remove to wire racks so that they can cool completely.

I know you will just love this simple recipe. It is so easy but really satisfying even as a dessert. To dress the cookies up a bit and to make them more of a formal chocolate dessert, you may like to try the following finishing touches.

Option One

Arrange two cookies in a small desert bowl. Pile whipped cream between the cookies then crumble two small meringues over the top. Dress up with fresh raspberries and top with a small amount of extra whipped cream.

Option Two

Place a layer of fresh strawberries on bottom of serving bowl. Carefully slice one cookie lengthways and place one half on top of strawberries. Add layer of whipped or thickened cream that has been flavored with orange liqueur. Place other half of cookie on top. Add more fresh cream and garnish with a few strawberries.

Bon appetit!

Prepare Your Meals Ahead of Time

Being a mother, a parent, a student, and an employee, I do not have the time or the desire to prepare fancy meals for dinner every night of the week. With the hectic life I lead, I was finding it extremely difficult to put a meal on the table much before 9:00 or 10:00 at night. I needed to find a way to feed my family earlier and healthier and take out food was not a viable option. I finally figured out a neat little solution to my problem that seems to work fairly well. I plan and prepare all my dinner dishes a week ahead of time and freeze them.

I start by making a menu of what I would like to make for dinner for each night of the following week. Often times, I will plan this menu so that I can utilize the leftovers from one meal in a different meal. For example, I will buy a half of a ham and cut enough ham steaks off of it for one meal. Then I will take what is left of the ham and chop it into cubes and make scalloped potatoes or potato soup out of them. Another example would be hamburger. I cook an entire package of hamburger at a time. I prepare one half of the hamburger for spaghetti or goulash and the other half for something like Taco’s or Sloppy Joes. These little tricks save me a lot of time. They also tend to save me a lot of money because I buy the meat in bulk, which costs less.

If I know the following week is going to be especially hectic, I will plan meals like a big pot of soup or stew. I know that these dishes will have plenty of leftovers and I can get two nights worth of meals out of them. I also choose dishes that I know I can freeze without ruining the food. I recommend waiting to cook any pasta you will need for your meals until the night you need it. Pasta does not tend to freeze very well. You can still prepare the meat ahead of time and freeze it though.

After I have planned my menu, I make a list of what I need to prepare all of my meals and I take a trip to the grocery store. Once I have all of my ingredients, I set to work preparing the meals.

I prepare all of the meals on the same day and then I freeze them until the day I plan on having that meal for dinner. Then I take it out of the freezer that morning and let it thaw out. By dinnertime it is thawed and all I have to do is reheat and serve. I know it seems like a lot of time to spend cooking in one day but it will save you from having to do it during the week when you are exhausted and don’t feel like cooking a big meal.

Sometimes, instead of pre-cooking the food I will just prepare the ingredients for cooking. For soups or stews, I will cut up the carrots, potatoes, celery, onions etc. and put them in a freezer bag and freeze them. You can even cook the meat and freeze it after it has cooled. On the day that I want that particular meal, I just put all of the ingredients in the crock-pot and let them cook on low all day. When I am ready to eat dinner that night, my meal is ready with without having to put forth a lot of effort.

By cooking my meals ahead of time I have solved my dinnertime troubles. Now dinner is on the table no later than 6:30 and my family is much happier.

Making Food With Your Coffee Maker

So most of us love coffee as a drink, and more often that not a means to stay awake during the day, but how often do we think to use coffee as an ingredient in the food we eat? You could be using that coffee maker to prepare your main course and not just at the end of the meal.

Immediately you will think of desserts or chocolate, which are the most common uses of coffee in food, and we will discuss these in more detail, but you shouldn’t limit your imagination to sweet product. Coffee can also give a real kick to barbeque glazes, marinades, chili and even some casseroles.

Before you start throwing instant granules into all your dishes, bear in mind that fresh coffee produces the best flavor. You want to use freshly ground beans, preferably ground yourself if you have the equipment. If you need to brew the coffee, make it with clean filtered water and don’t make it until you actually need it. Generally coffee to be used in food should be at least twice as strong as drinking coffee depending on your tastes.

One popular savory sauce to make use of coffee is meatloaf sauce, which is best served with Australian meatloaf. You need to mix a tablespoon of coffee with a small amount of water, some tomato ketchup, Worcester sauce and a little dry red wine. Vinegar, a squeeze of lemon, dark brown sugar and some vinegar are the rest of the ingredients to add to the zesty concoction.

You should cook the meat at three hundred and seventy five degrees Fahrenheit for thirty or so minutes, before adding the sauce and continuing cooking for an additional forty five minutes.

A popular use of coffee in sweet food is espresso brownies, which will make any social occasion a success. Mix together sugar, a pinch of salt, and some butter over a low heat. Add some vanilla to taste and broken up chocolate, preferably sweet milk chocolate to contrast with the bitter coffee. Add some finely ground dark roast coffee, such as an Italian or French roast.

Mix all the ingredients together and then allow slight cooling. Fold eggs and flour into the mixture whilst still a little warm. The resulting combination should be baked in a moderate oven for thirty minutes and allowed to become cold before sampling.

There are so many possibilities when using coffee in your food, cakes, gateaux, cookies and ice creams all taste fantastic with a coffee flavoring. Even a simple sponge can be livened up with coffee icing or coffee cream filling.

The popular Italian dessert tiramisu is becoming a global favorite with its rich combination of espresso, marsala, sponge and mascarpone cheese.

A number of cocktails are now incorporating coffee. As well as the well known Kahula, various coffee liqueurs such as Tia Maria make versatile cocktail ingredients.

A final possibility is coffee syrup, a perfect topping to almost any desert or ice cream. You just combine sugar with good quality double strength brewed coffee and boil to dissolve the sugar. Simmer over a lower heat until the mixture thickens and then allow to become cool.

So get a little creative with your coffee machines and see what innovative dishes you can come up with using coffee as the special ingredient.