Toll House Pie

I'll make this quick because I'm suffering from post-holiday-can't-get-my-butt-in-gear syndrome. If you want an easy, but delicious dessert, this is your baby. I've been hearing my friend MaryBeth talk about this pie for awhile now, and she has graciously shared the recipe. At first I had a hard time imagining a chocolate chip cookie inside of a pie crust, but this works. It really does! I could see topping this with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but everyone liked it all by itself.

Toll House Cookie Pie

2 eggs

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

1 cup walnuts, chopped

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 9-inch pie shell


Heat your oven to 325 degrees F. In large bowl, beat the eggs at high speed until foamy, about 3 minutes.

This is what mine looked like:



Beat in flour, sugar, and brown sugar until well blended, then beat in the butter.


Since this only has 1/2 cup of flour, the consistency will be light, like chocolate chip cookie dough is before you add all the flour:



Next, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts, and pour (mine was thick so I used a spatula to scoop it) into your prepared pie crust:



Bake 55-60 minutes or until knife comes out clean.

Finished pie:




Yum! Thanks again, MaryBeth!

Thanksgiving Eve and Cider Pumpkin Bread

Twas the night before... oh wait, that's the wrong holiday. It's 10:30 pm and I have already made my pie crusts. Four of them. I had to turn on the ceiling fan by the time I was on the third one because I was sweating from patting out that dough while standing next to a 450 degree oven. Slaving over a hot stove is about right!

The crusts are pre-baked and cooled, ready for the various fillings in the morning. My sweet potatoes are cooked and the Whiskey Maple Cream Sauce I made for the pecan pie is done and everything is in the fridge ready for finishing before we head over to my parent's house tomorrow.

The last thing I'm doing tonight is trying a new recipe I found while browsing the Food Network website. So far, I haven't been able to get links to post here, but if you search the recipe title on their site you will find it. It was submitted by a viewer and not one of the Food Network chefs, so the "FN chefs have not tested this recipe and therefore, we cannot make representation as to the results." Fine. Good thing they have me to do their work for them. Anyway, judging by how yummy the batter tasted, this one will be a keeper! I didn't have time to deal with photos tonight, but I'll post the recipe anyway.

Cider Pumpkin Bread

2 cups brown sugar (I won't say "packed", because when was the last time you ever saw a recipe where you don't pack the brown sugar?)

2 cups pumpkin puree (1 can)

2 eggs

1 cup oil

1 cup apple cider

4 1/2 cups flour

2 Tablespoons baking powder (No, this isn't a typo, it really says 2 tablespoons)

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

1 cup raisins (If you don't like raisins, leave them out... I did.)

1 cup walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine brown sugar, pumpkin, eggs, oil, and cider. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture and mix until moistened. Add raisins if you like them, and walnuts, and mix thoroughly. Divide the batter into 2 portions and pour into 2 greased loaf pans. Just to be different, I sprinkled some sugar on top of the batter. Place in oven (Really? Did they think we wouldn't know to do that?) and bake for 50 minutes. Cool in pans on rack until room temperature. Remove from pans and serve.

My loaf pans are these ginormous 10 inch things, so my quick breads usually turn out wide but not very high. This time I am experimenting with some of those little disposable foil loaf pans. These measure about 5 x 3-ish inches, and come in a package of 5 for $1.50 at Walmart. This recipe filled 7 of them. Since the pans are small, I cut the time down to 40 minutes - just guessing here. I just took a quick peek, and with 8 minutes of baking time left, they look beautiful! I will take a picture when they are done and post it later after the holiday craziness is over.

In the meantime, I want to wish everyone a blessed Thanksgiving holiday. I know that I have so much to be thankful for today. More than you know.

Okay, the timer just went off. *runs into kitchen* I cannot wait to show you these loaves. They are gorgeous, 40 minutes was perfect. I did the "insert toothpick" test and it was perfectly clean. The sugar on top makes them look nice and sparkly, which is really cool if you like sparkly things. Hopefully they will cool quickly so I can wrap them up so I can go to bed. It's been a very long day!

Coming soon... Pecan Pie with Whiskey Maple Cream Sauce (courtesy of Pioneer Woman), and Toll House Pie (courtesy of my good friend Mary Beth.)

Update 11/26 Everyone was laughing at me yesterday because I made them wait until I got my pictures of the food before they could eat. The pumpkin bread is delicious! It's very moist, and the sugar on top adds a nice, subtle crunchy sweetness. This will be my go-to recipe for the future.

Here is the batter all ready for the oven:



One of the finished loaves:



A couple of slices: I love the pretty pumpkin color of this bread. I had it for breakfast this morning.

Pumpkin Pie... Round 2 & Pastry Flour

Okay, true confession time. When I was typing the recipe in my last post I realized that I had misread the ingredients for the pie filling. Instead of 3/4 cup brown sugar, I thought it said 1/4 cup. Blame it on the bifocals. Yeah, that works for me. That, along with the fact that I had completely forgotten to try my new pastry flour, is the reason why I decided to make another pie. The one with not enough brown sugar looked pretty, but it did not really taste very good. If I had tasted the filling I would have noticed it wasn't right. I don't know why I didn't, I usually am all over tasting stuff. Needless to say we each tried a piece and the rest ended up in the trash. If I had a nickel for every time I had to throw something in the trash because I screwed it up, well, I would definitely be able to quit my day job. So... here we go again!

Here's the scoop on the pastry flour. Arrowhead Mills Organic Whole Grain Pasty Flour. I found it at Whole Foods. See there in the background how I already have my oven preheated to 450 like a good girl? Yep, I'm doing it right this time.



This is a whole grain flour made from spring wheat, which is softer and has less gluten than the hard winter wheat used to make all-purpose flour. It is supposed to be better for pastries and cakes because of it's lighter texture. I like that it's whole grain. I admit I don't really care about it being organic, but I know that is important to some people so I consider it a plus. My favorite thing is that it's made from wheat grown in Colorado. I love anything to do with Colorado.

I can tell the difference in the color of the dough with this flour.



When I partially baked the crust, I noticed the edges had already started to brown. I usually use one of those pie shields to keep the crust from over-baking, but since this filling recipe fills even a deep dish pie pan almost to the top, a pie shield would leave it's mark in the finished pie. That will never do, because it has to look pretty. The good thing is that the crust didn't puff up during the pre-baking process. I'm much happier when I don't have to do an intervention with my food.



I made the same pumpkin-eggnog filling as before, only this time I made sure I did it right and tasted it. Yum. I also am 2 for 2 on getting it into the oven without spilling. Yay me... yeah right. Guess who forgot to reset the oven timer after she turned the heat down to 300? I guess I really did need to practice before turkey day after all. All is well though, with a little babysitting it all turned out just fine.

This pie is much prettier than the other one.



All dressed up and ready for tasting.



The filling on this one is wonderful, with just the right amount of sweetness and spice. The crust... well, let's just say I am disappointed. It looks good and is flaky enough, but I think the whole grain makes it more coarse rather than that nice delicate flakiness you expect in a good pie crust. I also think the whole wheat flavor is too strong. The crust should complement the filling, not compete with it. If you use a lot of whole grain products you might like this, but I'm really glad I tested this now before I crank out all my Thanksgiving pies next week.

If anyone out there wants to borrow a cup or two of pastry flour... call me.

Pumpkin Pie

Is anybody else staring into space with your mouth hanging open in shocked disbelief that Thanksgiving is a week from tomorrow? That means the next time I blink my eyes it will be here, so I had better start thinking about getting ready. My job is always pies, so today I am doing a dry run of my pumpkin pie. Nah.. I really don't need practice, I just can't wait another week to eat pumpkin pie. Of course I'm mad now, because I found "pastry flour" at Whole Foods last week and wanted to try it, but just now realized that I completely forgot about it. Oh well, I had King Arthur flour in my cannister and that always works just fine.

I have several different pie crust recipes, and I'm always looking for the perfect one. Today I pushed the "easy" button and made the Pat-A-Pan Pie Crust from one of my favorite books, The Amish Cook's Baking Book. This is a great crust if you are teaching your kids to cook because you make it right in the pan, and you get to put your hands in it, but it doesn't terrorize your kitchen by leaving a huge mess. It's flaky and crispy, and super easy. It only works for a single crust pie though, you can't double it and it's too tender to roll out or transfer to another pan. For single crust pies and/or if you're in a hurry it's perfect.

Pat-A-Pan Pie Crust

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 Tablespoons cold milk

Place the flour, sugar, and salt in a 9-inch pie pan and mix with your fingers until evenly blended. Mixing anything with your hand is fun, so do it. In a measuring cup (use a 2-cup one for this) mix the oil and milk with a whisk until it looks creamy.



Pour oil/milk mixture over the flour mixture and mix with a fork until is completely moistened.



Now pat the dough with your fingers until it is even on the bottom and all the way up the sides. The book says now to flute the edges, but I don't think this crust really works very well for that because it's not a real firm dough, in fact it will feel a bit oily when you have your hands in it. I'm using an old vintage deep dish pie pan which I love because all I have to do is press the dough into the already fluted edges, and it's good to go.



Now you can either prebake the crust if you need to, or partially bake it. I always partially bake my crusts when I'm making a single-crust pie, I think they just turn out more flaky on the bottom, and I hate a doughy bottom crust. To partially bake your crust, heat the oven to 450. Prick the crust all over with a fork, then place a sheet of heavy-duty foil in the pan and press it down against the crust inside the pan so it covers the entire crust. Bake it for 6 minutes, then remove the foil and bake an additional 4 minute. Set it aside to cool while you prepare your filling. Keep a close eye on this, if it starts to puff up just poke it more with that fork.

Now for the filling. I use the Pumpkin Pie recipe from The Fannie Farmer Baking Book by Marion Cunningham. No, she is not Richie's mom. This book has been my "baking bible" for years, but I am guilty of going rogue for this one because I substitute eggnog for the evaporated milk. Even if you don't like eggnog don't be afraid to try this. You can't really taste the eggnog, but it gives it a nice but subtle extra layer of flavor and creaminess that you can't beat. Don't even bother with the recipe on the back of the Libby's can, it's nowhere near as good as the woman who is not Richie's mom's recipe. Trust me on this, you won't be sorry.

Pumpkin Pie

1 partially baked pie shell
2 cups pumpkin puree, either cooked fresh (I have no idea how to do this) or canned. (I use 1 can of Libby's, be sure you get straight pumpkin and NOT pie filling.)
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups evaporated milk or heavy cream (or eggnog)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp powdered ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp allspice

(or use 3 1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice instead of the individual spices)

Heat oven to 450. In large bowl, beat together the pumpkin and eggs. Add the milk/cream/eggnog and sugar, then the salt and spices. Beat until smooth. Pour into the cooled pie shell and bake for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 300 and bake for about 30-40 minutes, or until the filling is almost set. A sharp knife inserted just off center will come out clean, with traces of custard on it. The center should not be completely firm. In my oven, 35 minutes was a little bit too long, so start at 30 minutes and then you can always leave it in a little longer if needed.



Even with this deep dish pie pan, the filling really fills it up. I baked this on a foil lined pan in case I spilled it because it's hard to get it in the oven without spilling. I did good this time, no spills! You would never know I could get anything in my oven without spilling, as evidenced by the number of crusty burned spots that reside on the bottom of my oven.

Finished pie:



Pumpkin pie is never complete without a healthy dollop of whipped cream. I love the "extra creamy" Cool Whip, and my brother's family swears by the canned Reddi Whip, which is actually real whipped cream. The best ever though, is the homemade whipped cream that my grandma used to make. There's no right or wrong, just whatever you like and have time for. I remember one holiday gathering when I was a kid, my Aunt Margie literally buried my slice of pie under a small mountain of that sweet, creamy goodness. She said it was because I needed to put some meat on my bones. Well, thanks Aunt Margie, it worked...

Boutique Day

No posts for almost a week means exactly what the title of my last post said - crunch time! There has also been no cooking at my house this week. The days before a show are always crazy because I'm trying to get a million things done. The boxes of candles need to be unpacked and re-organized because at the end of a show all I usually want to do is get the heck out of there, so I end up throwing them all back into the boxes with reckless abandon. I don't know which scents ended up in which boxes, and it's always a mess. I also need to take inventory so I can replace any popular sellers that are running low, and this time I made some new ones because I added a couple of new scents this week. Since I'm on my own for this show, I have to make sure I have the supplies I need in case I actually sell something - shopping bags, tissue wrap so the candles don't bang around inside the bags, business cards, pens, calculator, tablecloths, lots of small bills to make change... you get the idea. All the vendors were also required to donate an item for the door prize raffle. Of course, in the midst of all this work, I still have to go to work at my real job. Making the candles is the fun part, but I still have to do the packaging, labeling, adding price tags and warning labels, and then there is cutting and tying those cute little strips of homespun that I think adds a unique personal touch to my candles. It can all get pretty tedious though, especially when the cat decides one of my tubs or boxes is a good place for a nap, or when I stand up for a split second and sit back down on one of the dogs. Damn, those girls are quick!

This is a little bit of my week in pictures:

Freshly poured candle wax waiting to set up and cool. The little strip of red at the bottom of the jars is the color they will be when they are finished.



I wanted to use my new mini-cinnamon bun mold to make some more tarts. These are just cute little chunks of scented wax that you can melt in a tart warmer, there is no wick and no flame. I wanted to make them look more realistic so I experimented with coloring the wax and adding some real cinnamon. The "icing" is scented wax colored white. If I add the icing while the wax is very hot it looks more like a glaze, but if I let it cool a bit it looks more like thick, rich frosting. I was very pleased with the result. Don't these look good enough to eat?



I wanted to do something creative with some quart jars I had on hand, so I stocked up on those cute little fall "picks" at Hobby Lobby when they were 1/2 price. I spent a few hours one afternoon cutting them up and filling the jars, then topping it with a votive cup and one of my own hand-poured votive candles. I want to do the same thing with Christmas lights and tiny ornaments, but since this boutique was held in a synagogue I was not allowed to have any Christmas items. I think these would make a lovely Thanksgiving centerpiece - and I still have a few left!



I finished all the last minute preparations yesterday, and we loaded everything up last night. We were up bright and early this morning so I could be there by 8 am to set up. Last night was pretty cold, so once everything was set up and the jars started to warm up, it was funny to listen to some of the lids go "ping" just like they do after you've been canning and your jars begin to cool. Anyway, here is my display table all set up and ready to go:



Another view:



Today's boutique was a short one, only 5 hours. I met some new people and reconnected with old friends, and even sold a few candles! It was all good. Next weekend I will load it all up again and spend a fun afternoon at my friend Carrie's house. Carrie is a Pampered Chef consultant - she started after I quit, and unlike me, she has been very successful. She is having an open house and has graciously invited me to bring my candles. We did this last year and it was great fun! She invited a few other ladies as well - there were purses, jewelry, and Dove chocolate. You heard me. I hope she's back again this year, because there were samples.

The next step for me is making a decision about whether or not I want to continue doing these shows next year. I would by lying if I didn't say that all the hard work and preparation with no guarantees of selling a single thing isn't getting a little old. There are some options I need to explore first, but it's possible that there might be a website in my future. Stay tuned...

Crunch Time!

Sunday is my second craft boutique this fall, so this week is crunch week. I have plenty of inventory left from last month, so mainly I just need to re-group, re-organize, and try to make a few new things by Saturday. Now, I've had a full month to get ready, but one of the things I do best is procrastinate, so here I am, with only 5 days left, wondering how I will get it all done. Somehow I always do, and if I don't accomplish everything I wanted to, then so be it. I am learning to let go of thinking that I have to be super-woman and crank out a massive inventory each year. Now I think I will get done whatever I can and not stress over it if I don't.

How did I get myself into this? About nine years ago (honestly, I've lost track of the time, but I think it was about nine years.) a friend of mine was holding a craft show in her barn. She had this really cool old rustic barn that she had allowed some friends to clean up and use as a place to sell their crafts. I stopped by to check it out, and happened to be wearing an old denim shirt that I had taken some black craft paint mixed with fabric medium and stamped big moose all over it. My friend's crafter friends loved my shirt so much they invited me to make more of them and join them in their next show. Long story short, this blossomed into some great friendships and a group of five women who spent the next 5 years or so renting a U-haul truck and hauling our stuff all over the area to every craft show we could get in to. After awhile I felt like I hadn't really found my niche yet. I was making wreaths, stamping shirts, but I needed something that was just mine. Two of the girls sewed, one did woodcrafts, and the other specialized in apples. She made huge caramel apples the size of a small third grader - seriously, you could cut it up into chunks and feed a room full of people they were so big! I got to thinking that it would be nice if we had some candles, and I also found an instruction book on how to paint canning jars and turn them into cool candle holders. I searched around online and bought little bits and pieces of candles supplies and asked a lot of questions, and started making votive candles in my kitchen. I only ever intended to do votive candles, but I loved it so much I kept branching out. I watched and learned, and now I am making all kinds of really cute things. Painting jars became another passion, and in the process I became a jar junkie. I now have a modest collection of old canning jars, but a gazillion boxes of jars that I just know I will get around to painting someday. At least if I don't, I can always fill them with yummy scented wax, right?!

I painted these jars last year. Unfortunately, we had a rough summer at work and I didn't get any painting done this year, but I'm anxious to start again for next year.



After awhile, we all agreed that the physical labor of doing all the shows was taking it's toll and we didn't want to do it anymore. Besides all the work that went into making the merchandise, there was loading up all the tubs and boxes along with our display pieces. Then we drove to the venue, unloaded the truck, set everything up, and then stood on our feet for 6-7 hours hoping people would buy our stuff. At the end of the day we had to pack up, load the truck, drive home, and unload it again. It was beastly hard work! The downside was that there is no guarantee your lovingly made crafts will sell. One show I might sell $600 and the next time not even break $100. You have to really love it because you aren't necessarily going to make any money. Now I just do a few shows on my own, and sell to anyone who asks. I have considered a website, but I never seem to have the time to set something like that up. I'm happy with what I do now though.

Here are some candles I made last year using the cheese-shakers jars I got from a restaurant supply website. This one is made in Citrus Blackberry scent, I made the berries using a silicone embed mold. The "crust" is make with Grandma's Pie Crust scent. I poured the wax into a small cake pan, and when it was almost hard but still warm I scraped it up with a fork so it would look like crumbs.



This one was a little simpler, the yellow is made with Lemon Meringue Pie scent.



Apple Pie here. I didn't make these apple slices, but I now have a mold so I will be able to do it myself. I painted the outside with the same red wax to make it look like apple peel.



Another view with the lids on:



I don't have the jars to make them this year, but I would like to do them again because they were very popular and I sold out of them last year.

These are the petite cinnamon buns I made for this year. I used to make them bigger, but I like these better. They are a little bigger than a votive candle, and the pan saves you from having to find something to burn them on.. when it's done just toss the whole thing. Of course, you always have to use common sense when burning candles, and watch so the pan doesn't get too hot when the candle burns down.

Aren't these cute?




I made them by pouring the pillar wax into a jelly roll pan lined with heavy duty aluminum foil. The pan really needs close watching, because you have to catch it before the wax becomes hardened or it won't roll up. When it's set all the way through but still warm and soft, cut the wax into strips and carefully roll it up in the shape of a cinnamon roll. I set the roll on a flat surface and mold the whole thing in my hands until I get the shape I want. I will then poke a hole in the center using a bamboo skewer, and put in the wick. When it's fully hardened I drip white wax over the top to look like icing. I use a blend of two different Cinnamon Bun scents to get the perfect cinnamon roll scent. This is another one of those occasions where the kids would think I was baking, they smell that good.

The turkey roasters are on as we speak, melting my wax so I can start cranking out new, yummy candles. Time to get busy!

Apples, Apples and More Apples

Autumn and apples just go together. Like pumpkins and Halloween. I don't think about apples all that much during the rest of the year, but when fall comes I can't seem to get enough. My dad loves anything made with apples, so this time of year is when I like to take him his favorite treats. During the summer I brought him freshly made apple fritters from the Farmers Market in Omaha's Old Market. They were made by a Greek family from Lincoln, they own a restaurant there called The Parthenon. I've never seen apple fritters that big before, when I brought one home it took us 3 days to eat the darned thing! I have lots of apple recipes, but this time I made an easy batch of applesauce because I was pressed for time this week, and that big bowl of apples sitting on my countertop were losing their shine and needed to be dealt with. I will happily share more apple recipes another day.

We had two apple trees in our backyard when I was growing up. Red Delicious. Our neighbors had an apple tree that supposedly grew seven varieties of apples. I don't know if it did or not, but it made for good conversation. It was fun to chomp into a fresh picked apple right off the tree.. sometimes we even ate the green ones. The worst part though, was when my dad mowed the lawn. He would always send us out to pick up the apples that dropped on the ground so he wouldn't chop them up with the mower. I hated picking up the nasty brown mushy rotten ones or finding one with a hidden treasure of either an icky, gross worm, or even worse, a honeybee. I always seemed to manage to find the ones with the bees, after which I would run into the house and have my mom take care of my latest beesting.. which turned out to be a sort of mixed blessing because it got me out of helping my brothers finish the work of picking up the fallen apples.

When my own kids were younger we would load up in the fall and head to one of the many orchards found in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. There was one over near Oakland, Iowa that I remember well. We would come home with 3 or 4 of those big brown grocery bags full of all kinds of different apples. I would then put on my Domestic Goddess hat, get out the canning supplies, and put up pints and quarts of applesauce, apple pie filling, apple jam, apple butter, and more applesauce. Okay, I confess I only attempted to make apple butter. I am many things, but patient is not one of them when I'm waiting for a big pot of applesauce to cook down into apple butter. Apple butter never really happened in my kitchen. I really tried though. Really. I love apple butter, I even put it in pumpkin pie sometimes.. but I am content to buy jars of thick, delicious apple butter made in someone else's kitchen.

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I don't really have a recipe for applesauce. I tried to find one online, but the ones I saw were for small batches, and I had a lot of apples.



So, I got out a big pot, and started to heat up some leftover apple cider. I had about 3/4 of a half gallon jug, so I dumped it all in. Water works just as well though. Be sure and use good cooking apples. I had McIntosh and Cortland apples, but Jonathans would work as well.

While the liquid is warming, cut your apples into quarters and remove the core. You can peel them too if you like, but I leave the peels on because I like the pinkish color the peels give the finished product. Add your quartered apples to the pot. Leaving the peels on is good to do also if you are making jam or jelly because apples have natural pectin.




Some of the apples disintigrated and some of them still clung to the peels even though they were nice and soft. This is what they looked like:



I used a large slotted spoon to move the cooked apples to a big bowl to cool. It was taking longer than I wanted for them to cool, so being the impatient person that I am, I dumped them all into a big, rectangular pan. They cooled much quicker in the big pan. When they were cool enough to handle, I removed the peels. Some of the peels were already separated, and some I had to scrape the pulp off. I had thrown in some Gala apples that I needed to use up, but ended up throwing them out because they didn't cook well. They were still hard after cooking, and I couldn't even get the peels off. Now, if you have one of those stainless steel food mills, you can just run everything through that and be done much more quickly. You will get a much smoother applesauce if you use one. Of course, then you have to clean that thing up. Good luck with that. I have become much less of a gadget person because I hate cleaning it all once I'm done with it.

I prefer a more rustic, chunky applesauce, so once I got the peels off, I squished up the remaining apples with my hands until I got the consistency I wanted.



The pan full of applesauce then went back into the big pot of apple cider cooking liquid, and I added some Splenda, a little sugar, and cinnamon. Taste your sauce, because the amount of sugar you use depends on the type of apples you have. My apples were sweeter, so I'm guessing I added about a cup of Splenda/sugar to the whole pot.



I turned the heat down to medium-low, and let the applesauce simmer down for a couple of hours to let some of the liquid cook off so it wouldn't end up a runny, drippy mess. If you are canning, at this point, you can fill your jars and proceed according to your instructions for water bath canning. I filled a few Ziploc containers and am storing them in the refrigerator.

My dad will be happy to see me tomorrow morning when I drop off another of his favorite apple treats! I love you Daddy.