Mini Apple Pies

Mini Apple Pies

Oven Temperature: 425 Degrees

Prep. Time: 1 Hour

Cook Time: 30 Minutes

Total: 1 Hour 30 Minutes

I have something to admit. I have never made a pie before. It wasn't until last month that I made my first pie. Of course, the credit has to go to Pinterest. You see, I lovvvvvveee babies. Personally, I think if you take any regular size anything and make it into a mini baby size, it's just automatically cuter. So, you can imagine how I ooooohed and awwwwed when I saw these babies. I was determined to make them. Fortunately for me, we had a ton of apples and enough butter to make these little masterpieces. I'm not gonna lie; I was more enthusiastic to try making a pastry crust for the first time then I was to actually eat the pie. It's not that I hate Apple Pie. I like Apple Pie; I really do. I'll eat it if it's the only dessert there, or if I have to choose between it and some baby food pie like pumpkin. That being said, I'm not crazy about it. I mean, if you say Apple Pie, I don't drool like I would over a doughnut, or a lava cake. However, I was still really excited to make it. And, boy am I glad I was, because this has changed the image of Apple Pie in my mind forever.
This Apple Pie has the perfect amount of sweetness. The Granny Smith apples sweeten it perfectly while the Jonagold apples add the perfect texture to it. The brown sugar and cinnamon caramelize the apples so nicely leaving them sticky, tart, and delicious. The apples plump up as they cook and retain the perfect balance of texture. The nutmeg gives this gooey caramel mess a nice little kick. Then, you add the lemon juice. It sizzles. It adds a freshness, and just puts the cherry on top. The dough is ever so flaky and just welcomes the filling as it is poured into these little crust cups. As they bake, the filling sizzles, it bubbles out the top of the crumb topping and a golden brown color shades the top of each pie. You can hear the gooey bubbles as they sizzle and slowly pop. Then, you take a bite. That bite. The crust flakes. The crumb topping crunches perfectly. The apples are soft with a bit of texture. You get the cinnamon, and then the hint of nutmeg. The whole thing together just marries in your mouth. The spices bring in the warmness of the holiday season, and the light crispness of the apples welcomes the cold crisp weather outside. It's the perfect feeling, the best feeling. Nothing can ruin it. Nothing.

Ingredients:

Piecrust
2 1/2 Cups Flour
3 tsp Sugar
1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter (Cubed and Chilled)
6 tbsp Vegetable Shortening (Chilled)
5-6 tbsp Ice Water

Filling
2 Pounds Apples (Personally I use whatever I have. Granny Smith and Jonagold work great!)
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
2 tsp Cinnamon
1/8 tsp Nutmeg
2 1/2 tsp Cornstarch
1 tsp Lemon Juice

Egg Wash
1 Egg
1 tbsp Cold Water

Directions:
Start by peeling, coring, and cutting the apples. You want them to be about 1/4 inch slices. In a pot, add the apples, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, and cornstarch. Cook covered on medium heat for about 20 minutes, until the apples are tender. Uncover and continue to cook stirring occasionally for another 10 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Turn off the heat and set aside in a bowl until cooled.

You can do this step in a food processor or in a bowl. I did it in a food processor. I will include instructions for doing it by hand.

Begin by pulsing the flour, and sugar together. Add the butter and shortening and blend until you have coarse crumbs. You want this mixture to look like crumbs. If you are doing this by hand, mix the sugar and flour; with a pastry cutter or a fork, cut the butter and shortening through the flour. Now you will add the ice water. Whether you do this by hand or with the food processor, you need to add the ice water slowly. Drizzle the water in and pulse the food processor If doing this by hand, just continue to cut the water through the crumbs. You want the dough to come together. In the food processor, the dough will just all combine and stick to the blade. By hand, you will have to knead the dough to allow it to combine nicely. Either way, do not over-knead! Wrap the dough, and place in the refrigerator or two hours, or in the freezer for 30-40 minutes.
When the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Lightly flour a surface and roll the dough to 1/4" thickness. Spray the cupcake tin and set aside. With a cookie cutter or glass or tupperware or anything you have on hand, cut circles slightly larger then the cupcake opening. Work quickly so the dough doesn't dry. Fit the circles into the cupcake openings and gently fill with the apple filling. Fill it generously because the filling will shrink as it bakes. Dot the top of each pie with a little butter.

You can make the crust topping in many different ways. You can use small cookie cutters and just place shapes, or you can lattice the top crust. Personally, I have recently found it easier to place the leftover dough in the food processor to get little crumbs. I top each pie with a generous amount of crumbs, and OMG they are perfectly crisp when they come out of the oven. Whichever route you decide on is fine, just make sure to blend the egg with the water to make an egg wash and brush the tops of each apple pie. This will help the crust to brown evenly.
Bake until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling. Remove from the oven and allow the pan to cool for 5-10 minutes. With a knife, go around each pie to loosen. Use a spoon to gently remove the pie. Enjoy!

Green Bean Casserole . . . NOT French's®

From Scratch Green Bean Casserole

Oven Temperature: 350 Degrees

Prep. Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total: 1 hour

I love the holidays. I don't celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas, but something about the holiday season makes me feel good inside. As you all know, I am muslim, so I celebrate Eid. However, that doesn't stop me from loving all the pretty decorations, the soothing music, and of course the extended mall hours. Oh, and those nifty decorations that sync with the radio! OMG. Anyways, I also love how Pinterest gets overwhelmed with holiday recipes. I love being able to read about people trying to cook a legit thanksgiving dinner, and how it usually ends up coming out of cans or ready made boxes. We used to have a thanksgiving dinner at a used-to-be-family-members every year. Of course, most of it was ready prepared food, but it's the thought that counts, right? Never mind that the canned cranberry sauce looked like jello gone wrong, or the fact that it tasted like fluoride. It was still a dinner, with family, and with lots of dessert. As you know, I love dessert. Enough with me talking about dinner, Let's get to the good stuff.

We have a family friend that invites us over for dinner every once in a while. She makes this amazing green bean casserole, and I can never get enough of it. So, one day I got up the courage and asked for the recipe. She smirked at me and laughed a little. I got curious. Then, she continues to tell me that it's the easiest recipe in the world. That it's on the back of every box of French's onions. What rock have I been living under?! So, one day she comes over with a bag full of groceries. I open the bag and the contents shocked me: 4 cans Green Beans, 1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup, and 1 box French's onions. I pulled out my casserole dish and got to work. You throw in the 4 cans of beans with the can of soup and some milk. Top it off with onions, and throw it in the oven. Couldn't be easier. I took it out of the oven, but for some reason I couldn't eat it. You see, I hate canned food. All of a sudden that beautiful casserole went from amazing, to look-a-like hospital food. I was disappointed. Extremely disappointed. So, from that day, my mission was to make it from scratch. From start to end, I would make all of it. And I did. 

This green bean casserole starts with a nice buttery roux. Its got onions. Its got garlic. Its got mushrooms, and its got milk. Then you add some nice green beans. They've been steamed a little, but have a crunch. They're beautifully green, not a musty rusty can green, the true color green. You throw it all in the oven, and then you top it with fresh fried crispy onion strings, and WOW. Oh. My. God. Your life will change forever. That easily amazing concoction you used to make will look like cafeteria food next to this. Never again will you go back. Never again will you share that recipe. And never again will you take that short cut. Because this is the real thing. It's the real taste, the real amazing kind of food you wished you knew about. Make it. You will never regret it. I promise. 

Ingredients:

20 oz. Frozen Green Beans or Fresh

Pot of Boiling Water (For Blanching)

Bowl of Ice Water (To keep the Beans Green)

Mushroom Sauce

8 oz. Mushrooms (Sliced)

1/2  large White Onion (Diced)

2 Garlic Cloves (Minced)

2 tbsp Butter

2 tbsp Flour

1 1/2 Cups Milk

4 oz. Cream Cheese (Cubed)

1 tbsp Fresh Parsley or 1/2 tbsp Dried Parsley

1/4 tsp Black Pepper

2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce or Soy Sauce

Onion Strings

1 1/2 large White Onions

2 cups Buttermilk or 2 cups Milk with 2 tbsp Vinegar or Lemon Juice

2 cups Flour

1 tbsp Salt

1/4 tsp Black Pepper

1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper

Oil (For Frying)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9x13 pan or 2-quart casserole dish. Start my blanching your green beans. Boil some water and drop the beans in there. Cook them for about 3-4 minutes, until they are cooked but still have a nice crunch. Take them out of the hot water and immediately put them in the ice water. This stops the cooking process and prevents your green beans from turning that gross rusty can brown color. 

Next, take a pan and throw 1 tbsp of the butter in there. Let it melt and then add the onions, garlic, and mushrooms. Cook on medium heat until your mushrooms smell great and your onions are a nice light golden brown. Now, add the rest of the butter and allow it to melt. Throw in the flour and stir your mixture constantly for 2 minutes. This is preparing the roux. It's whats gonna keep your sauce nice and thick.

Now, slowly add in the milk while you are still stirring. Keep stirring and cooking until you sauce is thick and bubbly and amazing. Add in the cream cheese and stir that fat in until it marries with everything else. Add in the parsley, pepper, salt, and sauce. Bring to a nice soft boil and turn off the heat. Now, take the green beans out of the water and dump them into this nice creamy sauce. You can cut the green beans in half if they are too long. Mix them in well and dump all this into your buttered dish. Put it in the oven and set a timer for 25 minutes.

While it's cooking, slice your onions thinly, and soak them in your buttermilk for 10 minutes. Mix the flour with the salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. While the oil is heating, strain the onions and throw them into the flour. Coat them all nicely and when the oil is nice and hot, fry them until they are a golden brown. Check on the casserole. You want it to be hot and bubbly. When it is, take it out of the oven and top it with the onions. Feel free to mix some in there, and then top it off with the rest. Serve while it's hot. Recall your last bite of canned casserole, because it will stay your last. Never again will you go back. Enjoy! I sure did!

Tiramisu Cupcakes

Tiramisu Cupcakes . . .

Oven Temperature: 325 Degrees

Prep. Time: 1 hour

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total: 1 hour 20 minutes

Tiramisu is known as a classic and decadent dessert. You are bound to find some "Homemade" version of it at probably any Italian restaurant you go to. Being muslim, I cannot drink alcohol. Therefore, I have never actually gotten to taste tiramisu because it usually has some form of alcohol in it. Now, I know I could have made it myself, but I am the kind of person that likes to make everything from scratch. I didn't really make it if I bought the cookies, bought the coffee, and bought the cream. Right? So, I never made it, because I am weird like that. Now you can only imagine my excitement when I got a request for tiramisu cupcakes. This was coming from an addict, from someone that loved tiramisu, from someone that had tried it in all its forms, and from someone that I looked up to. This meant that they're opinion mattered to me. I had to perfect them, I just had to.

These cupcakes are just jawdroppingly beyond amazing. They are that  good. The cupcakes themselves are fluffy and dense in the weirdest way. They are amazingly moist and have like an almost crispy sweet edging. Combine that with espresso syrup that they are lovingly and delicately brushed with and you have this ridiculous coffee, sugary, cakey concoction. Then you have the frosting. That frosting. Oh. My. God. 

The mascarpone itself is a rich creamy cheese. Now, at $6.00 for 8 oz of it, my frosting had better taste damn good. The frosting is airy, rich, creamy, and slightly sweet. The first bite is different. You want to take another one. You take the second bite, and the frosting hits the crispy edges of the cupcake, the sweetness of the coffee, and the actual crumbs within the cake, and you are just in heaven. Literally. Enough said.

This recipe is pretty straightforward one. However, it is also one that requires extreme attention to detail. I am pretty OCD about details, so the recipe should be easy to follow, and you should get pretty decent results if you follow it word by word. This is definitely a recipe that I would not use substitutions in—unless I stated a specific substitution within the recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Cake

1 1/4 Cups Cake Flour (*See Substitute below)

3/4 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1/4 Cup Milk

1 tbsp Pure Vanilla Extract or 1 Vanilla Bean Split lengthwise (Scraped)

4 tbsp Unsalted Butter (Cubed and Softened)

3 Whole Eggs AND 3 Egg Yolks

1 Cup Granulated Sugar

Coffee Syrup

1/2 Cup Espresso or DARK Coffee (HOT)

1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar

Frosting

1 Cup Heavy Cream

8 oz Mascarpone Cheese

1/2 Cup Powdered Sugar (Sifted)

Decoration

Unsweetened Cocoa Powder for Dusting

*Substitutions

*For 1 1/4 Cups Cake Flour:

Measure 1 Cup Flour and REMOVE 2 tbsp Flour. Add 2 tbsp Cornstarch.

Measure 1/4 Cup Flour and REMOVE 1/2 tbsp Flour . Add 1/2 tbsp Cornstarch.

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Line your muffin tins with paper liners. This recipe will make exactly 18 cupcakes. After you line the tins, spray the top, that way the cap of the cupcake doesn't stick when the rise during baking. 

Sift your cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a small pot, heat your milk, and vanilla extract (Or Scraping with the pods, you'll have to strain the mixture after though). Heat through, but DON'T boil. When bubbles form around the edges, remove from heat. If you used vanilla beans, remove the pod and strain. If not, skip this step. 

Now, you should set up a double boiler for the next part. Make sure the bowl is large enough to fit all the ingredients as they will expand. In the bowl you are going to use, whisk together the whole eggs, egg yolks, and the sugar. I used an electric mixer for this step. Now, place this bowl over the pot of water. Turn on the heat and allow the water to boil. Make sure to whisk this mixture continuously by hand for about 4-6 minutes. You want the sugar to dissolve and for the mixture to be warm. Remove the bowl from the heat. Now, using an electric mixer, whisk this on high speed until the mixture is thick, pale, and yellow. You want it to be able to hold a ribbon across the surface for a few seconds when the whisk is lifted. 

Next, you are going to fold in the sifted flour mixture. You want to fold it in three separate batches so your batter doesn't deflate. Now, take about a half cup of batter and mix it into the milk mixture in order to thicken the liquid for easy folding. Now fold the milk mixture into the rest of the batter. You just want to combine the ingredients. 

Next, evenly pour the batter into the cupcake tins. As I said before, you should get exactly 18 cupcakes. You want to rotate the pans halfway through baking for even baking. Bake until the edges are light golden brown, which is about 20 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean. Place the cupcake tins on wire racks until they are completely cool. You want to leave the cupcakes to cool completely before removing from the tins. 

To make the syrup, mix in the coffee and sugar and set aside to cool. 

When the cupcakes have cooled, brush the tops with syrup. I take a pastry brush and dip it in the syrup, brush the cupcake, and then repeat for each of the cupcakes. Then you repeat the process until you are out of syrup. This way they have time to absorb, and they are all evenly soaked. They may drip a little, but I assure you this amount of syrup is perfect if you follow these steps. Don't try to just put even tsp's because then they wont absorb it all and they will drip. If you do it like this, they will be perfectly moist. They may drip a little, but these cupcakes are so fluffy, that I guarantee you they will absorb all of it. 

While the cupcakes settle a little, make the frosting. You want to use this frosting immediately  so don't make it until you need it. In a small bowl whisk the whipping cream till stiff peaks form. Don't over whip or it will be grainy. In another bowl, whisk together your mascarpone cheese and powdered sugar until smooth. Now slowly and gently fold in the whipping cream into the mascarpone mixture. 

Using a sandwich or freezer bag, pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes. Don't dust with cocoa until before serving. If you are not serving till the next day, just wrap and place them in the refrigerator. Allow them to come to room temperature for about an hour before serving. Dust with cocoa powder. Enjoy!