Apple Crumble Cake
…featuring my Harry Potter mug. >D

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. Here’s a recipe for what I made for my family. It’s a great desert for the fall if you (like me) hate pumpkin pie, and also getting sick of all the apple pies. Or maybe you just want to break away from tradition. I thought it was odd to make a cake for an apple crumble, but it works!

3 apples (I used McIntosh), peeled, cored, thinly sliced
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tbs brown sugar
Bring to a boil in a sauce pan and then reduce heat, cover, let simmer for about 10 minutes (or until tender). Drain well and let cool.
3/4 cup butter (soft)
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time until blended.
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
Mix in the flour with baking powder and salt. Alternate with the milk until blended.
Grease a 9 inch square baking pan (I used a 9 inch spring form. Worked fine). Pour in 2/3 of the batter. Then spread the apple mixture over it, adding the final layer of batter over that.
1 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup cold butter
Mix together until it looks like coarse crumbs. Use a fork, fingers, or a food processor. Whatever works for you.
Add 1 cup (120g) of chopped walnuts.
Sprinkle mixture over the cake.
Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes. My toothpicks aren’t long enough to insert all the way into the cake to check if it’s done, so I use a piece of spaghetti.

Happy Baking (and Thanksgiving)!

-KT

Summer Fruit Crumble

So what to do when my mother comes over with 1 pound of plums, plops them down on my table with a “Bake something”? Think of the most simple and lazy recipe ever. Crumble. Or as I like to call it, “Lazy Baker’s Pie”. I also had three peaches that were really ripe, so I cut those up and added them.

1 pound of plums (about 2 cups), cut into eighths and pitted. If they are small then fourths are fine. Cut the peaches into the same size. No need to take off the skins.
1 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs cornstarch
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup oats
1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 tbs butter

Toss plums and lemon juice together in a baking dish. Mix cornstarch with 1/3 cup of brown sugar in a bowl, then toss with fruit.
Mix 1/3 cup of sugar with oats, flour, and cinnamon. Blend in the butter with a fork, and/or (my favourite way) your fingers. Crumble the mixture over the fruit.
Bake at 400 for 25-30 minutes.

Don’t be too concerned about the amount of fruit. As long as it fits into the dish you’re fine.

Happy Baking!

-KT

Thank you so much! I’ll try not to disappoint. And good luck with your baking.

Hershey’s Cookies and Cream Cookies

6 chocolate bars for $1 you say? DEAL! I love Hershey’s Cookies and Cream chocolate bars. Almost as much as I love cookies. So for this recipe I forgo the chocolate chips, and used a chopped up candy bar. It’s foolproof! Of course it’ll taste good.

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3-4 chocolate bars, chopped up (to the size of chocolate chips)

Beat sugar, butter, and vanilla until creamy. Add the egg. With a wooden spoon stir in the flour and baking powder. Fold in the chocolate. Add as much as you like, but make sure they don’t fall off of the cookies when you roll them up.
Place on a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and bake at 350 for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes it looked like they needed a little more time, so I turned the oven off and let them cook for about 3 more minutes with the left over heat.

Best served warm and with a glass of milk. YUM!

Happy Baking!

-KT

P.S. Instead of the chocolate bar, use 2/3 cup of chopped Brazil nuts, and 4 oz dark chocolate. It’s crunchy and gooey, and delicious.

Yogourt and Blueberry Pie

Crust
1 1/2 cups graham crackers (Recipe I used says use granola, but this still turned out great)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
In food processor (or in my case, Magic Bullet), pulse crackers with sugar and cinnamon until fine crumbs form. I did about 3 crackers at a time to make sure they all get crushed. Drizzle in butter, and process until crumbly.
Press into a 9 inch pie plate and up the sides. Chill while the over preheats to 350.
Take out and transfer onto a wire rack after 15 minutes.

Filling
1 cup plain yogourt, drained in either a cheesecloth or coffee filter set over a sieve and a bowl for 30 minutes.
8 oz brick cream cheese, soft
3 tbsp sugar
1tsp vanilla
With electric mixer on med-low, beat cream cheese until very smooth. Add sugar and vanilla. Add strained yogourt and beat until smooth.
Pour filling into cooled crust and chill for 6 hours.

Topping
1 cup blueberries
Honey (to drizzle)
Add blueberries on to before serving, and drizzle with honey to add some sweetness (since there’s not very much sugar in the filling).

Hope you enjoy this (somewhat) more healthy version of a cheesecake!

Happy baking!

-KT

Parmesan Muffins with Rosemary

1 2/3 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
2 tbls olive oil
1 cup plain yogourt
1 tbls chopped rosemary (substitutes are: thyme, or oregano)

Flour, baking powder, salt and Parmesan in a medium bowl and stirred together.
Beat eggs, oil, yogourt and rosemary in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth.
Slowly add in the dry ingredients.
Spoon batter in to a buttered 12-cup muffin tin, and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
Muffins should be slightly brown and springy.
Serve warm as a dinner roll with some butter and you’re good to go.

Happy baking!

-KT

P.S. Eat left over plain yogourt with some honey and fruit. Or, like me, use as a face mask! Wash your face first, then apply 2 layers (about 1 tbls). Let sit for 20 minutes, then rinse. This helps if you have dry skin and red patches.

Apple and Cream Cheese Cake

2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon (add extra if you really like cinnamon like me)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup butter, soft
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp almond extract
3 eggs
1/4 cup milk

Topping
2 large tart apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2 tbls lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbls flour
1 tsp cinnamon (again, add more if you like)

Butter and flour a 13 x 9-inch pan.
Mix dry ingredients except sugar in a medium bowl.
Beat cream cheese, butter, sugar, and extract in a large bowl until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time until mixed in.
Add dry ingredients, alternating with the milk until it just comes together. Start off using the mixer on low, then use a wooden spoon. This always allows me to get to the bottom of the bowl, and I don’t over mix.
Spoon into pan.
Place apples into a medium bowl, and toss with lemon juice.
Mix sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl, then coat the apples with it.
Arrange the slices over the batter, then bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes. Check with a toothpick to see if it’s done.
Best served warm and with whip cream or ice cream.

Happy baking!

-KT

Canada Day Cookies

I know I’m late putting this up, but I had a full busy day on Canada Day, then I had work the next day, and I went to Pride yesterday, so I’m finally getting this up now…on the Fourth of July…SUCK IT AMERICA! Kidding…kinda… >D

Recipe
1 cup soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups flour
Red food colouring

Cream butter, sugar, vanilla and salt together. Then slowly add in the flour, mixing it with a spoon or your hands. It may seem that the dough is not coming together, but don’t add any water yet.
Separate the dough into thirds, and work with the larger 2 thirds first. This will become the outside red parts of the flag.
Mix in a few drops of red dye with a tablespoon of cold water, and mix it into the dough. Keep adding coloured water until you get the right texture so that you can roll them out into rectangular logs. Be careful to not add too much water though. And only add food colouring with the water, not by itself or else it will not mix into the dough, and you’ll just get red dots.
Keep the remaining dough white, adding water like you did with the red batch.
Form one log of red dough on some plastic wrap, then the white, then red again. Wrap up and chill for a few hours, or overnight.
Take dough out of the fridge about half an hour before you want to start to bake so it will be a bit easier to cut. Then just slice up the log and place on a cookie sheet. The sections may fall apart, but you can form them back together on the cookie sheet. Just warm out the dough with your fingers a little bit so they stick.
Bake at (what else) 350 for 12 minutes. You know when they are done by poking the sides. If they are hard then they are done (the middle may still be soft, but they will harden as they cool. Leave them in for longer and the bottoms will burn).
Cool COMPLETELY before icing.
For the icing I used a standard butter cream recipe, and split it in half since a full one is meant to ice a cake. Even after icing these cookies and the brownies I made, there was still extra. I kept the extra in the piping bag and froze it.

Happy Baking (and belated Canada Day)!

-KT

Cause I don’t know hoooooow. D:
I would probably just send you the premixed dry ingredients with instructions on what to do.

Quiche

Yes yes, I know, this is technically cooking, not baking. But I use the “bake” option on my stove when making this, so I’ll let it slide.

This was surprisingly easy to make. I roughly followed a recipe, but I added a few things, and used another quiche recipe as well.
I titled this simply “quiche” and not “veggie quiche” because this recipe is just guidelines. Feel free to add or take away anything you want. I don’t cook meat at home, but if you want you can add bacon. Spinach would be really good in this as well. I used Cheddar cheese, but this will be just as yummy with any other kind you have hanging out in your fridge.
Phyllo dough can be bought frozen, and the most important thing I learned while making this is to allow it to thaw out 5 hours before you plan to make it.
This should be able to feed 2 people, even though it looks quite large.

6 sheets of phyllo dough
Veggies (I used a handful of already mixed up frozen veggies, plus a tomato)
2 Eggs
1/2 cup of milk
Melted butter
3 tbles flour
1/2 cup grated cheese
Dry mustard
Salt and pepper
Basil
Parmesan cheese

Cook vegies in a frying pan, and set aside. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, then whisk in eggs and milk. Add cheese and veggies.
Spray a pie plate with cooking spray, and line with sheets of phyllo dough, brushing on melted butter so they will stick together.
Then pour in your filling, and add sliced tomatoes on top. I clipped some fresh basil from my garden and added that, then sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.
Bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes. 
Check the quiche at 15 minutes, and if the edges are looking really brown, but the middle isn’t cooked, line with foil.

Happy baking!

-KT