Slow Cooker Apple Butter

Slow Cooker Apple Butter

15 gala apples, peeled, sliced and cored
1 cup sugar (I used raw sugar, but brown sugar would be good here too)
1 1/3 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Place ingredients in slow cooker, stir.  Cook on low for 8 hours or overnight, or until apples have softened and turned to a dark, caramel color and the mixture has thickened to a spreadable consistency.

Stores well in the freezer or, using sterilized jars, process in a water bath canner for 10 minutes if you're below 6,000 feet elevation (or 15 minutes if you're above 6,000 feet elevation).

Enjoy on a warm baguette or toast.

"My name is Kassy.  I'm currently a stay-at-home mother of three.  I like to spend my free time crafting, cooking and, well, creating in general, I suppose.  When asked what kind of crafts I do, I'm usually left at a loss for words, as I have a severe case of "crafty ADD" and have WAY too many self-taught hobbies.  I have another blog called "Tinsnips and Scissors" where I share about the things I love, things that I've made (a tutorial or two), recipes and my weekly menu plans.  Head's up: I'm also an excessive user of punctuation..."

Bisquick Heath Bar Chocolate Chip Cookies

Bisquick Heath Bar Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from this recipe
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 egg
2 3/4 cups Bisquick baking mix
1 cup milk chocolate chips (6 oz)
1/2 cup crushed Heath bar

Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, mix butter, sugar, vanilla and egg. Stir in Bisquick mix.  Fold in chocolate chips and Heath. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.



"My name is Kassy.  I'm currently a stay-at-home mother of three.  I like to spend my free time crafting, cooking and, well, creating in general, I suppose.  When asked what kind of crafts I do, I'm usually left at a loss for words, as I have a severe case of "crafty ADD" and have WAY too many self-taught hobbies.  I have another blog called "Tinsnips and Scissors" where I share about the things I love, things that I've made (a tutorial or two), recipes and my weekly menu plans.  Head's up: I'm also an excessive user of punctuation..."

Oreo Brownies

For my first post, I would love to share this amazing recipe I adapted the other day. Oreo creme filled brownies. These are super simple but a little time consuming since you must let the brownies cool completely before spreading the creme. Onto the recipe:

Ingredients:

Brownies: full disclosure, I used a box mix so please feel free to use your favorite recipe or your favorite box mix.

Creme Filling:

• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 Tbsp. hot water 

Chocolate and Oreo Topping:

• 2 cups milk chocolate morsels
• One row of Oreos (about 10-12 Oreos)

 Directions:

1. Bake brownies  in a 9x13 pan
2. Allow brownies to cool completely, I placed mine in the refrigerator as soon as the pan had cooled off
3. Create creme filling by combining the shortening, vanilla, sugar, powdered sugar, and hot water and mix with beaters or stand mixer until smooth (approximately 2 minutes)
4. Spread creme filling over brownies. To do this, we placed different dollops of creme topping in different sections of the brownies. We then used our hands (wearing gloves) to spread completely over the brownies. The spoon made it difficult to smooth without ripping the brownies
5. Melt chocolate in the microwave in a microwave safe bowl. Every 30 seconds I checked the chocolate and stirred to ensure it wouldn't seize up
6. While you are melting chocolate, place your Oreos in a plastic bag and smash up. I just used my hands to crush them but I am sure a roller would work too
7. Pour melted chocolate over the creme covered brownies and be sure to cover entire pan
8. Quickly add Oreos on top of the warm chocolate to ensure they will stick
9. Cool brownies again in the fridge to harden chocolate
10. Use a sharp knife dipped in hot water to cut into the brownies and store in an airtight container.
11. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from this recipe here: http://makingmemorieswithyourkids.com/2014/03/oreo-cream-filling-brownie-bars/

"My name is Sarah and I am the owner and lead designer at Classy Media. Ever since I was a little girl, I loved creating new things or upcycling old things into something beautiful. I have a close knit family full of creative minds. My love of crafting was sparked by my Grammy and my Mom. I can be found knitting, baking, experimenting with cooking, taking photos, designing, and reading. I love finding creative ideas online and making them my own."

French-Style Country Bread

Hello! My name is Kassy and I have too many baking supplies ("Hi, Kassy!").

For real, though. Especially flour.

I shop at Costco and buy the gigantic two-packs of 10 lb. bags of unbleached all-purpose flour (so I have one or two of those)... my mom recently decided to go low-carb, so I acquired another, oh, three or so 5 lb. bags of different kinds of flour... then I also have cake flour, self rising flour, baking mix, etc. in my cabinet.

...and we have a potential big change for our family coming up in the next few months, so I need to clear some of this out...

So, to remedy this "problem" I've challenged myself to bake more and buy less, of course!

I made this loaf of bread last week.

It was awesome...  I'm making it again right now.

French-Style Country Bread

(recipe from King Arthur Flour)


Sponge Starter (Begin 2 to 16 hours ahead)

1 cup (8 ounces) cool to lukewarm water, preferably spring water (90 to 100°F)

1/2 teaspoon active dry or instant yeast

1 1/4 cups (5 1/4 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour

1/4 cup (1 ounce) King Arthur White Whole Wheat or Traditional Whole Wheat Flour

Dough

All of the sponge starter (above)

1 cup (8 ounces) lukewarm water, preferably spring water (l00 to 115°F)

3/4 teaspoon active dry or 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

3 3/4 to 4 cups (1 pound to 1 pound 1 ounce) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour

1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

To Make The Sponge: Stir all of the sponge ingredients together to make a thick, pudding-like mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and leave on a counter overnight or for at least 2 to 4 hours. If you're making this in a bread machine, place the sponge ingredients inside, and turn the machine on for just a few seconds to mix the ingredients together. Turn the machine off and close the cover. Let the sponge rest for 4 hours or overnight (anywhere between 2 and 16 hours is fine, the longer the better).

To Make The Dough: Stir down the sponge with a spoon and add the water, yeast, sugar, most of the flour (hold back about 1/2 cup to use if required), and salt. Knead the dough, adding more flour as necessary, to make a soft dough, 10 to 12 minutes.  After the dough has finished kneading, place it in a lightly greased bowl, and continue as directed below.

Big Tip: Mix ingredients together using up to 80% of the flour called for: it will be a loose, messy mass. Let the dough rest for 12 minutes, and you'll see it change in texture, to be come much smoother. Continue, kneading and adding additional flour as required. Overall, the dough handles better once its had time for the flour to absorb the water while resting and relaxing. By using this method, you'll tend to add less flour, and have much bigger holes in your finished bread.

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl or plastic container, cover with lightly greased plastic wrap and a damp towel, and let it rise until almost doubled (depending on the weather, this could be l to 2 hours). If you're going out, or if you prefer, let the dough rise slowly in the fridge. If your dough has been refrigerated, allow it to come to room temperature; it'll warm up and rise at the same time. After its first rise, deflate the dough gently, but don't knock out all the air; this will create those "holes" so important to French bread. Form the dough into a round ball. Place two cookie sheets atop one another, and place a semolina- or cornmeal-dusted piece of parchment paper on top. Gently place the ball of dough on the cookie sheets, seam-side down. Cover it lightly with a tea towel, and let it rise the second time until it's puffy and about 40% to 50% larger, anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes (depending on the weather, luck, and magic). Slash or cross-hatch the bread with a sharp knife or lame. Dust it with a little flour.

Preheat the oven to 475°F. Slash the bread, spritz water into the oven with a clean plant mister, and place the bread in the oven. Reduce the heat to 425°F and spritz with water every few minutes for the first 15 minutes of baking. Bake the bread for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until it tests done. 

Yield: 1 large round bread or two medium breads, 10 to 12 servings

"My name is Kassy.  I'm currently a stay-at-home mother of three.  I like to spend my free time crafting, cooking and, well, creating in general, I suppose.  When asked what kind of crafts I do, I'm usually left at a loss for words, as I have a severe case of "crafty ADD" and have WAY too many self-taught hobbies.  I have another blog called "Tinsnips and Scissors" where I share about the things I love, things that I've made (a tutorial or two), recipes and my weekly menu plans.  Head's up: I'm also an excessive user of punctuation..."

December FotM recipe round-up: Our 2013 Holiday Sweets

To make up for the lack of posts this month, here's a round-up of recipes for the cookies and sweets that we made (with LOTS of help from my mom and kids) this holiday season...

ginger cookies

Santa's favorites

sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies with royal icing

cranberry bliss bars

buckeyes

rolo pretzel thingies

peppermint patties

peanut brittle

hot cocoa cookies

figgy cookies

What kinds of recipes did you make this holiday season?

December FotM Recipe - Figgy Cookies

In honor of my love of Figgy Pudding but the desire to make it easier to eat I combined oatmeal cookies with Figgy Pudding....and voila!....Figgy Cookies!!!


We also cut a corner in the Christmas present department by quadrupling the dry mix portion of the recipe, portioning out (we put half the dry ingredient amounts from the recipe below in each jar) and giving some out as gifts....with instructions of course (listed below recipe).


Figgy Cookies

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ginger
• 1/16 teaspoon clove
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup figs
• 1/4 cup dates
• 1/4 cup rasins

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

2. In large bowl, cream together butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Gradually beat into butter mixture. Stir in oats and raisins. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown. Cool slightly, remove from sheet to wire rack. Cool completely.

4. PREP 15 mins

5. COOK 10 mins

6. READY IN 1 hr

Brandy Icing

• 1/2 cup brandy, simmered for about 15 minutes to cook off most of the alcohol
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

1. Stir together ingredients until smooth.

2. Dunk cookies, top side down into glaze (or drizzle over the cookies if you'd like them a little less sweet).

Jar Cookies

Add the following to your jar mix...

(there is 2 ⅓ cups of mix in each jar)

• 6 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Note: Don't forget to include a tag with baking instructions on the jar!

These things are so delicious that Kassy didn't even think about taking

a picture of them until she was half done eating the last one!  Oops!

December FotM recipe: Hot Cocoa Cookies

I first made these cookies about two years ago when we first moved into our current home.  I fell in love before I even tasted them.  They taste like a warm hug.  Chewy chocolate, cinnamon and cayenne.  Delicious.

Then I had a brilliant idea:  curry instead of cayenne.  Holy crap.  YUM.

This Christmas, since Nikki and I both gave them as gifts along with some homemade hot cocoa mix (recipe coming soon), we left out the cayenne and cinnamon and used a combination of granulated sugar, red sanding sugar and white sparkle sugar (a.k.a. sprinkles).  We ended up with a nice, generic, sugar coated chocolate cookie, which is exactly what we were going for.

We also turned the basic recipe into a jar mix, which would make a great gift as well…  just include a small bag of the sugar/whateveryouwanttorollthedoughballsin in the top of the jar, along with some baking instructions.

Hot Cocoa Cookies 

(recipe from Martha Stewart’s Mexican Hot-Chocolate Cookies)

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1 ½ cups sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

¾ cups sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon chile powder (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. 

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. 

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down side of bowl. Add eggs and beat to combine. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture and beat until combined.

In a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, and chile powder (if using). 

Using heaping tablespoons, form balls of dough and roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Place, about 3 inches apart, on parchment-lined baking sheets. 

Bake until cookies are set in center and begin to crack, about 10 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cookies cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely. (Store in an airtight container, up to 1 week, or freeze for up to three months)

To make jar mix: mix all ingredients except eggs and butter, place half of the mixture into a quart-sized mason jar.

To make cookies from jar mix: cream together one egg and one stick of butter.  Stir in dry mix until dough looks consistent.  Bake at 400 for about 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

October FotM recipe: Roasted Butternut Squash and Apple Soup with Rosemary & Chipotle

We both LOVE Butternut Squash soup, so for week 3 of our “Food of the Month” adventure we decided to pull some ideas together and make our own (a first for both of us).  We also prepped and froze the delicata squash for next week’s recipe.  

You can make soups from any squash your heart desires.  If you are unfamiliar with the tastes  presented by different squashes, you can always buy small fruits to sample flavors first.

Before we get started on the soup, we’ll need to roast some squash for it…

Roasted squash:

Wash outside of squashes and slice in halves.  Scoop out seeds and set aside , if you’d like, for roasting or to store for planting (see Tip: Squash & Pumpkin Seeds for more information).  Coat baking sheet with olive oil/butter, place squash on sheet and drizzle with olive oil /butter.  Bake at 400° for 30-45 minutes, or until it’s fork-tender, turning the pan and spraying with oil or basting with butter halfway through (at 15-20 minutes).

...before roasting...

...after roasting...

...peeling...

...for the compost bin!

...cut up and ready for soup!

Freezing squash:

Before freezing, it is recommended that squash be roasted or otherwise cooked to prevent an “off taste.”   Cut or puree the cooked squash before freezing.  Generally it’s best to vacuum seal, however using a freezer bag and squeezing all of the air out should work fine, it just won’t store quite as long, we stored our delicata squash in a freezer bag for using next week.

...prepped and ready for freezing...

Roasted apples, onion and garlic

Coat baking sheet with olive oil or butter, place apples and onions on sheet and drizzle with olive oil or butter, season with salt and pepper.  Cut the top off a garlic bulb, place in aluminum foil square (big enough to wrap around bulb), coat with olive oil (recommended) or butter, wrap bulb and put on baking sheet with apples and onions.  Bake at 400° for 20-30 minutes, or until soft and browning, stir at ten minutes and every five minutes thereafter until fork tender.  Squeeze the garlic cloves out of bulbs onto sheet and discard garlic “paper.”

...before...

...after...

...beauty shot...

Apple Butternut Squash Soup with Rosemary & Chipotle
(find a printable version of this recipe here)

1 medium butternut squash, about 2.5 pounds

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

1 sprig of fresh rosemary

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground chipotle powder

1 medium yellow onion, diced
1/2 head garlic

1 large [honeycrisp] apple, cored and roughly chopped

5 cups chicken or vegetable stock (to make it vegetarian)

Juice from half a lemon, 1 1/2 tablespoons

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Fresh thyme, for garnish

Crème Fraiche, garnish (we used this recipe)

NOTE: Leave out the creme fraiche and butter, and sub the oil of your choosing to make it vegan.

...homemade chicken stock, of course...

(store-bought is fine)

...everything in the pot...

...simmering nicely...

...time to puree...

Directions:

Roast the squash, apple, garlic and onion in the oven per instructions above and set aside.  In a medium pot over medium-low to medium heat, add the butter, 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, rosemary, nutmeg, and ground chipotle powder (Oh My!  This smells sooo good!), cook until fragrant (around 30 seconds).  

Add the roasted squash, onions, apples and garlic, plus four and a half cups of stock, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to bring to a low simmer, cover, and cook until the squash is tender, (about 30 minutes). Using an immersion blender, puree until smooth.

Add the remaining stock to thin, if desired. Season to taste with the lemon juice, Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Serve in bowls and garnish with a dollop of crème fraiche (or sour cream or Greek yogurt), black pepper, and fresh thyme.

Storage Tip: Keep it in fridge for a couple days, but freeze it if you will not be eating it right away.

It was delicious!

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