Update

Wow....It seems like forever since the last time I made a post. My absence is partially due to my college course work which seems to be getting more and more difficult as I near graduation, which I am extremely proud of but afraid of accomplishing. Another reason is due to the fact that I am looking for new recipes to try and my needing of a new more clear camera to take pictures. Anyway, I will be back with over 10 recipes that are sure to expand your waistline due to Thanksgiving being around the corner. I may post some non-dessert recipes along with the 10 dessert recipes so keep an eye out for those as well. In closing, I hope everyone enjoys their holiday and as always don't forget to stop and ask "What's Baking?"

Sky high apple pie

When I think of fall I think of Halloween, crisp air, pumpkins, spices and apples.  Sure there are many other things that remind me of fall but those 5 things do something weird to me. They give me a warm feeling inside like warm apple pie….lol…That is why I have decided to mix 2 of my favorite fall reminders together to get this delicious version of apple pie.  Now some people may call it an apple cobbler because of the nontraditional 13x 9inch pan that is used in place of the 9 inch pie pan, however I have a huge family who loves apple pie. So I’ve decided to make what I call a sky high apple pie…lol. Now before you start this recipe I use something in this pie called “Instant clear gel”. It’s a powdery substance that is used to thicken sauces and fillings while helping maintain the clear color to certain fillings like apple pie. I order this as well as a lot of other cool items from this amazing website called www.thebakerskitchen.net  Also, for this recipe you will need a food processor to aid in the creation of my flaky pie crust. If for any reason you do not have a food processor do not freak out ( act insane…lol) just use a pastry blender that you can either pick up from Wal-Mart like I did for $5.00 or from www.amazon.com as well as a flexi mat for rolling dough. Again do not freak out you can easily grab a fork and receive the same results with the flaky crust. The only kicker to this pie crust is that every last ingredient for this crust should be chilled. Remember the colder the ingredients the flakier the crust. So once you have all your needed items feel free to start experiencing my sky high apple pie with my delicious and flaky crust.

I added a little canned whipped cream because we ran out of vanilla ice-cream...lol

It was so amazing and even better when eaten while hot...ummmmm

 Flaky Pie Crust
Ingredients:

2 ½ cups of all purpose flour

1 teaspoon of kosher salt

1 tablespoon of granulated sugar

1 cup of very cold unsalted butter cut into small pieces

Or ½ cup of very cold unsalted butter and ½ cup of very cold butter flavored shortening

¼ cup of ice cold water (use ice cubes to keep water cold while mixing other ingredients)

Directions:

1. Mix together all the dry ingredients

2. Quickly cut butter and/ or shortening into the flour mixture until mix resembles coarse cornmeal

3. Slowly drizzle water onto mixture tablespoon at a time while working mixture with your chosen tool (food processor, fork or pastry blender)

4. Quickly form dough into a ball, lightly wrap in saran wrap and flatten slightly

5. Refrigerated for 30 minutes to 1 day, but in this case 1 hour will do

6.  If it is necessary let the dough sit wrapped in saran wrap for 5 minutes then begin to roll out dough on a lightly floured work area. The shape does not have to be perfect because it is only the bottom crust. We are going to repeat all steps in order to get our top crust.

Apple Pie filling:

10 cups  of sliced and thickly diced apples (I used a mixture of red and green apples for a total of 13 medium sized apples)

¼ cup of lemon juice

¾ cup of all purpose flour

3 cups of granulated sugar

½ cup of brown sugar (you can always omit this )

1 teaspoon apple pie spice

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground all spice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup of instant clear gel or ½ cup of all purpose flour

6 tablespoons of butter

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon milk

4 tablespoons sanding sugar

Directions:

1.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2.       In a large bowl toss the sliced apples with ¼ cup of lemon juice

3.      Combine sugars, flour and spices in a separate bowl set aside

4.      Add apples to a large bowl and toss with flour/sugar mixture

5.       Line 1 of the pie crust into the 13 x 9 inch pan

6.      Add apple mixture into the pan

7.      Dot with butter

8.      Place second crust on top of pie filling

9.      Add the 2^nd layer of crust and use fork to poke holes across top crust

10.   Seal the edges of the crust with a fork or by hand

11.  In a small bowl, beat the egg yolk and milk, brush mixture over top crust

12.  Sprinkle sanding sugar or regular granulated sugar over top on the moistened crust

13.   Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until apples are tender

Nut free- Banana Nanner bread

If there is one thing that I love it is bananas, but the one thing that I hate about these potassium filled fun fruits (I promise I am sane) is that they brown and bruise so easily. Nevertheless, please believe that all is not lost, use these browned nanners (as my 3 year old nephew calls them..lol) and make the most delicious and moist banana bread you have ever tasted. There are a few banana bread recipes floating around the world but I really do not like nuts, so you will not find any in this recipe.  However I will not forget about those who love nuts in their nanner bread, it is easy to add your preferred nuts into this delicious recipe. Please take a minute to look at your bananas if they are more brown than yellow then jump into this recipe but if they are more yellow than brown  you are more than welcome to add another half cup of sugar. Remember the more brown the banana the more the batter will be naturally sweet. So come on…..start this recipe!

Banana Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups of all purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup of softened unsalted butter or margarine

½ cup of granulated sugar

1/2 cup of brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 ½ cups of mashed ripe bananas 4 medium

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon banana extract

 Directions:

1. Prehaet oven to 325 degrees

2. Grease a medium to small loaf pan

3. In a medium bowl mix flour, salt and baking soda and set aside

4. In a separate bowl cream together butter and sugars until mixture is light and fluffy

5. Beat in eggs one at a time mixing thoroughly and scarping sides of bowl frequently

6. Alternatley add flour mixture with bananas

7. Mix until well blended while scraping sides of the bowl frequently

8. Pour mixed batter into prepared pans and bake for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into loaf comes out clean.

Fold in one cup of walnuts or pecans if you prefer it with nuts.

Strawberry cupcakes with Lemon Frosting

The best thing about the fall season to me is definitely the fashions and smell of apples and pumpkins. Yet the worst thing is the scarcity of seasonal fruits like sweet strawberries. That is why I have decided to make my goodbye summer Strawberry- Lemon cupcakes. These are two fruits that I believe represent the warmer months (there are many more but just go with the flow…lol). This recipe makes around 29 cupcakes if the paper cups are filled correctly. So without further delay here is my recipe, Enjoy!

Strawberry Cupcakes 
Ingredients:
2 sticks of unsalted butter
2 cups of granulated sugar
4 large eggs
3 cups of all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cups of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons of strawberry extract
3 cups fresh diced strawberries

2 drops of red food coloring to give batter the “typical” strawberry color

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line cupcake pans with liners.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy for 3-5 minutes
3. Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition

3. In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt

4. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk.
5. Mix for 3 minutes, then fold extracts, red food color and strawberries in the batter
6. Fill the cupcake liners three-quarters full
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
8. Cool cupcakes in the pan.

Lemon Buttercream

Ingredients:

1 cup softened  butter

 or ½ cup of butter and ½ cup of high ratio shortening( use all vegetable shortening)

Zest of 2 lemons

Juice of 2 lemons

4 cups confectioners' sugar

2 lemon, juice and zest of

1 ½ tablespoons of lemon extract

2 ½ tablespoons of heavy whipping cream

Directions:

1. Combine butter, shortening and sugar, beat until well combined

2. Add lemon zest, juice and sugar until well combined

3. Add heavy whipping cream until desired consistency is reached

Banana Cupcakes with Nutella frosting

Have you ever had an abundance of overly ripe bananas and did not have a single clue as to what to do with them…..Make banana cupcakes! Today I had a few bananas that were too brown for me too eat but I felt like a waster just throwing them out, so I opened my recipe book and decided to make banana cupcakes with Nutella frosting. Nutella frosting to me is the best accompaniment that I could think of for banana cupcakes. However if you like something different by all means try it. Let’s begin the ingredient and directions are below:

Ingredients for cupcakes:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ cups of sugar

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½  teaspoon salt

1 cup of unsalted butter, melted

3 cups mashed bananas

4 large eggs

½  teaspoon pure vanilla extract

½ banana extract

 

Directions:

1.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.      Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners (this recipe makes 36 cupcakes)

3.      In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt

4.      Make a well in center of flour mixture

5.       In well, mix together butter, mashed bananas, eggs, and extract.

6.      Stir to incorporate flour mixture (do not over mix).

7.      Dividing evenly fill muffin cups with batter

8.      Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean  which is about  25 to 30 minutes

9.      Let cupcakes cool, let’s start on the frosting

Nutella frosting:

2& 1/4 cups of unsalted room temperature butter

6 &1/2 cups of confectioners' sugar

1 cup of milk

2 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 & 1/4 cups of room temperature Nutella

Now you can frost the cupcakes using whatever method you may like however, I normally use a disposable frosting bag and a #1m cake decorating tip. Check out the picture!!!!

Upside down Pineapple Cake

Lately I have been slacking in the area of baking for many reasons, but today I am more than ready to make-up for all the days that I have already missed with a delicious upside down pineapple cake  recipe. This is probably the easiest cake recipe that I own….Mark my words! Let’s get started with the non-edible materials, first you will need a 13x9 inch rectangular pan, mixing bowl and mixing utensil. Now, for the ingredients I find it more than convenient that I measure all the ingredients before I mix anything together. This allows me to work more efficiently without stumbling over my ingredients.  Below are the ingredients and directions:

Ingredients:

Batter:

1/3 cup softened shortening
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup milk

Topping:

4 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter

½ cup of light brown sugar packed

1 cup of crushed pineapples drained

6-8 pineapple circles depending upon how much pine apple you like

6-8 maraschino cherries place strategically

Directions:

1. Preheat oven at 350 degrees

2. Spread the 4 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter into the bottom of the 13x9 in rectangular pan (Do not worry about greasing the pan as you would with a traditional cake recipe)

3. Crumble the ½ cup of brown sugar into the bottom of the pan onto of the melted butter

4. Sprinkle the drained crushed pineapple across the pan

5. Place the pineapple rings into the pan, you should be able to get at least 6 rings into the bottom of the pan, if you want more then add more

6. Now place the maraschino cherries in the circle of each ring, again if you want more add them between each ring.

7. Set this pan aside as you will pour the finished cake batter on top of this mixture

8. Pre-measure all ingredients before you begin to mix anything

9. Cream softened shortening and ½ cup of butter.

10. Add the eggs into the mixture, mix well

11. Add Vanilla and continue to mix

12. Add dry ingredients for the batter and the milk alternately with one another starting with the dry ingredients and ending with the milk.

13.  Bake for 30 to 35 minutes; do not stick a toothpick too far down into the cake when testing for its doneness.

14. Let cake cool for 5 minutes, while the cake is still hot take a butter knife and go around the sides of the cakes releasing it from the cake pan. Now flip the rectangular cake onto a rectangular plate or cake board.

You can either let this cake cool further or dig right into it while it’s warm, but I do suggest that you let it cool for about 10 minutes. The cake will still be warm but it will not burn your tongue…lol

Getting to know the real me....

I thought that starting a blog would be tough being as though I do not like opening up to people too much, for fear of having people judge, criticize and scrutinize me and my work.  So fearfully it took me 2 weeks to come up with a blog title and subject material. I thought of “sweet tooth baking”, “That’s so random” and “Cookies &cream and all that’s in between”. None of those titles worked for me, obviously.  However, the one question that is repeatedly asked to me even when the answer is apparent is “What are you baking?”, so for short I decided on “What’s Baking?” That describes my baking process perfectly. I never know what it is I will be baking until I’m looking at my ingredients and leveling my measuring cups. So always feel free to leave feedback on what you all will want me to bake, because I am sure I will enjoy the challenge.