Apple Pie

Fresh, warm, Apple Pie.  How can you ever go wrong.  I like to leave it without any crust on top, yum!

Pie Crust

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cold water

1.  Mix shortening, flour, and salt together with a fork or a pastry blender until very crumbly. Add as much water as needed to hold together, and mix lightly with a fork.
2. Roll gently on a floured pastry cloth to about an inch larger than pie plate. Fold carefully in half, lift to pie plate, and unfold. Press into pan. For a single-crust pie, trim with a small knife to about 1/2 inch beyond rim. Fold up, and pinch so edge of pie is raised from rim.

Pie Filling
1 pie crust recipe

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced

1/8 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
2. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
3. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.

Waffles

Perfect for any time of the day.

I have them plain with Maple Syrup or add 1/2 to 1 cup of Blueberries, Chocolate or White chocolate chips, or anything else you fancy.  Yum!

2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cups milk (I used almond milk to make a dairy-free version)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon white sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.  Preheat waffle iron. Beat eggs in large bowl with hand beater until fluffy. Beat in flour, milk, vegetable oil, sugar, baking powder, salt and vanilla, just until smooth.
2. Spray preheated waffle iron with non-stick cooking spray. 
3. Pour mix onto hot waffle iron. Cook until golden brown. Serve hot.

Plain

Chocolate Chip

Blueberry

White Chocolate

Homemade Oreos

Wow, I can't believe how much these taste like real Oreos. 
And, they are dairy free, just like the real deal.

These are a must on you To-Bake List!!

For the chocolate cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup vegetable shortening, room temperature

1 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the cookies:

1. In a large bowl combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the butter until light and creamy, about 1 minute. Add the sugar and brown sugar and beat until well combined. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low speed until combined. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Remove the chilled cookie dough from the refrigerator. 
5. Roll the dough into small balls, about 2 teaspoons of dough per ball, and them on a baking sheet. 
6. Press down on the balls to slightly flatten the tops. Bake for 6-8 minutes. They will appear soft when done, but they will harden more as they cool. 
7. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes, before removing to a wire cooling rack.

For the cream filling:

1. In a small bowl beat the butter and shortening until creamy and combined. Add the confectioners' sugar and vanilla and beat until creamy. 
2. Spread filling between two cooled chocolate cookies. Repeat.

Baked Apple with a Twist

I made these for dessert for Thanksgiving dinner, as it was something light after the huge meal we were going to eat.

The twist is orange zest and whiskey. Yummy!

You will need:
2 tbsp unsalted butter
4 large apples
½ tsp cloves
3 tbsp brown sugar
Zest of 1 orange
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
1 ½ tsp whiskey
¼ cup raisins


1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.
2. Use an apple corer to remove the cores from your apples.
3. With a knife, score around the middle of each apple. This prevents the apple from bursting during the cooking process.
4. Lightly butter the bottom of a baking dish and place the apples in it.
5. Cream the butter in a small bowl with brown sugar.
6. Add in spices and orange zest and mix well.
7. Add in the whiskey and raisins, then stuff it into the apple core.
8. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

Brownies - Gluten Free

If you weren’t told they have been made with rice flour, you could never tell.  Definitely will be making these again!

1/3 cup butter (use dairy free butter for dairy free brownies)

2 squares unsweetened chocolate

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

2/3 cup Rice Flour (Club House used)

1/8 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

¾ cup chopped nuts or raisins (optional, but I prefer not to)

1.    In medium saucepan, melt butter and chocolate over low heat.

2.    Stir in sugar and let stand 5 minutes.

3.    Beat in eggs and Club House Pure Vanilla Extract until light and fluffy.

4.    Stir together Club House Rice Flour, baking powder, salt and nuts or raisins (if using).

5.    Add to chocolate mixture and mix until smooth.

6.  Pour into lightly greased 8 x8 inch (20 x 20 cm) pan. Bake at 350°F (180°C) for 20-25 minutes. Cool on rack before cutting into squares.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies - Gluten Free

Another first time recipe to try out gluten free desserts. Very easy to make.


1 cup of sugar
1 cup of brown sugar
2 cups of peanut butter
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup shredded coconut
2 cups chocolate chips (dairy free is possible)


Mix together in a large bowl and let cool in the refrigerator for an hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Drop heaping teaspoons of dough onto cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes (at least) bscore removing from cookie tray to a cooling rack. The cookies are soft when warm and can fall apart.

Peanut Butter Cookies - Gluten Free & Dairy Free

This recipe is so easy and perfect for everyone out there with Gluten and Dairy allergies.  It is the perfect sugar fix.


All you will need it:
1 egg
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Whisk egg until frothy (1 minute).
3. Add sugar and whisk until pale yellow (2 minutes).
4. Add peanut butter and mix thoroughly.
5. Drop teaspoon fulls onto cookie sheet and bake for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on size.
6. Let the cookies cool for at least 20 minutes, until they are harder and can come off cookie tray without squishing. 

Finished Product

Berry Sorbet

Perfect for a hot summer day.

2 cups water
1 1/2 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
4 cups of berries, defrosted (either raspberries or mixed -blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries)

In a large pot, melt sugar and water on medium-low heat.
Add berries and salt and remove from heat.
With hand blender, blend berries until combined.
Strain half of blended berry mixture, through a fine wire strainer, into a large air tight container. If you don't want any seeds in the sorbet, strain all of the berry mixture.
Pour the non-strained berry mixture in the air tight container as well.
Refrigerate or put in the freezer until fully cooled.
Pour into ice cream maker and let it mix for 15 to 20 minutes.
Freeze for 2 hours or until desired consistency.

Banana Coconut Milk Pancakes

For breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  These are the best pancakes I have ever had. 

My dad would make them camping with a pancake mix and using coconut milk instead of regular milk and added bananas into the mix as well.  He was told about the recipe in a cooking class and they were called Malaysian Pancakes.

Try them with syrup and butter, or even jam.

I like making them from scratch, so here you go.

2 1/4 cups flour

1  tbsp + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1  tbsp + 1 1/2 tsp white sugar

1 can coconut milk (400 ml)

3 eggs

3 tbsp vegetable oil

2 bananas, mashed

In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.  In a separate bowl, mix coconut milk, eggs, oil, and mashed bananas.  Add to flour mixture and stir until combined.

Heat a lightly oiled frying pan over medium high heat or an electric frying pan to 375 degrees. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Dad's Favorite Angel Food Cake

This is the best Angel Food recipe ever.  It is a family favorite.  We can go through one (large) cake in a sitting.  

You will need to buy cake flour, if you do not already have it at home.  Same with almond extract.  Those are the 2 items I did not seem to have stocked in my cupboards.

1 cup cake flour sifted

1 ½ cup granulated sugar, sifted and split into 2 x ¾ cups

12 egg whites

1 tsp cream of tartar

¼ tsp salt

1 ½ tsp vanilla extract

1 ½ tsp lemon juice

½ almond extract

1 small bowl

1 extra large bowl

electric mixer or whisk

angel food or other cake pan

spatula

1. In a small bowl sift 1 cup of cake flour with ¾ cup of granulated sugar and set aside.
2. Beat 12 egg whites with cream of tartar on medium speed until they become fluffy. Add the other ¾ of sifted sugar gradually and mix until it becomes pillowy.
3. Continue to beat on medium speed and add vanilla, lemon juice, and almond extract. Mix until thoroughly combined.
4. add sifted flour and sugar mixture to egg mixture 1 tablespoon at a time and fold in with a spatula (very gently), until all of the flour is mixed with the egg mixture and it is combined into a fluffy, pillowy batter.
5. Pour batter into non-greased cake pan. Tap on counter a few times to release unnecessary air bubbles. Bake at 300 degrees for 40 to 60 minutes, depending on your over. The top should be a light golden color and spring back when you touch it with your finger.

Ready to pour into the pan.

The Finished Product!

Lime in da Coconut Sorbet

This was the second recipe I made when I received my ice cream maker.  My parents' friends came over out of the blue and I started making this.  I asked everyone if they wanted some, and they all said "only a little bit."  The whole recipe was almost finished by the time they left.  I brought the rest of the recipe to work and gave it to 4 of the ladies that were in that day.  They loved it too.

My parents still say that this is their favorite recipe, but not in my opinion.  They like it because it is tart and not too rich. 

Here is the recipe for the second batch I made:

2 ½ cups thick coconut milk

¾ cup granulated sugar

½ cup of fresh lime juice

Zest of 1 lime

1. Place coconut milk and sugar in saucepan and bring to a boil while stirring and boil for one minute.
2. Remove from heat and cool for 1 hour.
3. Add lime juice and zest then chill for 8 hours.
4. Pour into ice cream maker and let it mix for 20 minutes. Store in air tight container until hard.
   
   
   
   
   

   

   Here is the mixture after everything has been
   added together. It sat in the fridge overnight
    until it was fully cooled.  I then mixed it before
   I poured it into the ice cream machine.

   

   Ready to be put to work.

   
   

   

   8 minutes into mixing.

   
   

   

   13 minutes into mixing. Almost done!

   
   

   

   In airtight container after an hour in the freezer.
   Mixed to thicken quicker.