Rainbow Cupcakes :)

I made these today and they were so fun and cute :)

Mini Apple Pies

I'm a really big fan of pies.  The problem is that it would sit at my house until my roommate ate it all ourselves.  It's too much of a hassle to give pieces of pie away.  I had this brilliant idea of making mini pies so that I could share them!

First I took one granny smith apple and peeled the skin off. The first time I made these I cut the apple chunks too big and it was hard to get very many in the pies and after they had baked the filling was pretty sad looking inside.  Make sure that the apple chunks are tiny! The more you can get to fit in the pies the better!  Put the apple chunks into a mixing bowl I then mixed in 1/4 cup of both brown sugar and regular sugar.  I added about 2 tablespoons flour maybe a tiny bit less (I was revising a recipe I had found).  Then lastly add a 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and a 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg.  Stir all of these ingredients around until the apple pieces are completely covered.

For the dough I just used a pillsbury premade pie crust. I actually tried a generic brand too, but everyone agreed that the pillsbury crust was better.  I laid the pie crust on a cutting board and rolled it out to be a little thinner.  The crust was a little too thick without rolling it out.  I had to experiment with different cups that could cut out the right size circle shape. Try a few cups or round objects so you get a nice circle of dough that can fit in the mini cupcake pan.

After I put all of the dough circles into the pan I generously filled them with the apple filling.  The apples shrink so don't worry about them overflowing too much.  I actually put a tiny dollop of butter on top of the apple filling before I put on the pie top.  For the top of the pie you can do any sort of design with the extra pie dough.  I decided to be fancy and create a woven top (which took forever).  I spent probably 45 minutes making the tops of these pies (luckily lord of the rings was on.)

With the oven at 350 degrees bake them for about 15-20 minutes or until the edges are brown.  Take them out, let them cool and serve with some vanilla ice cream!

Ingredients
1 Granny Smith apple
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Pie crust
Butter (optional, but it makes it extra tastey!)

Wonton Soup!!

 

Ok so I got this soup from a book I have at home. It turned out really well and my family loved it!
First I chopped up a glove of garlic and a teaspoon of cilantro.  I put 4 oz of ground pork, the cilantro and the garlic into a bowl and mixed it together.

I then took wonton wrappers and started putting a dolop of the mixture in the center of it.  I then wet the edges of the wrapper before I folded it over and sealed it.  When sealing it I made sure to press all the air out.

After I used all the mixture to fill the wontons I started on the broth

In a large pot I put a tablespoon of canola oil and 8 oz mushrooms. I let the mushrooms simmer until they became soft and then I added the shredded cabbage.  I let it simmer for a couple more minutes while stirring.  I then added the three 14 oz cans of chicken broth and brought it to a boil.  I then put in the salt and pepper and then added the wontons. I let the wontons cook for about and hour just to be safe.  When I poured the soup into the bowls I sprinkled some chopped green onions on top for decoration.

Ingrdients

WONTONS

1 small clove garlic

1 teaspoon chopped cilantro

4 ounces ground pork

12 3-inch square wonton wrappers

SOUP

8 ounces mushrooms

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 cup shredded Chinese or Napa cabbage

3 (14-once) cans chicken broth

salt and pepper

2 green onions

Smore Cookies!

These are pretty easy to make.  Roll 1 inch balls of chocolate cookie dough and flatten it down wwith your hand.  Add a piece of hersheys chocolate  and mini marshmallows. After removing them from the oven add pieces of graham cracker. Yum :)

Cupcakes!!!

Sohonestly this wasn't my favorite recipe, so I'm not going to post it. I just thought they looked super cute! I made them for my teammates birthday :)

Sweet and Savory Palmiers

 While watching the food network I came across these sweet and savory palmiers. I didn't really follow a recipe. I just winged it and I actually really enjoyed the results.  The first palmiers I made were the savory.  I chopped up some sundried tomatoes, garlic and basil leaves and put them in a blender.  I added some salt and pepper and the live oil.  After blending I added the parmesan cheese and blended the mixture until it created a paste.  I layed out a puff pastry and generously spread the mixture from edge to edge. I then took the edges of the dough and folded it in about an inch on each side.  Then I folded the edges over again until the met in the middle. I cut off the edge and then cut slices about an inch thick. Make sure to put it on a jelly rollpan or a pan with edges or the oil will run off into the bottom of your over (gross and messy trust me). I put them in an oven heated at 400 degrees for about ten minutes.  Just watch it and you will know when they are nice a golden brown.
Ingredients
1 1/4 cup sundried tomatoes
4 cloves garlic
5 cups basil leaves
salt/pepper to taste
3/4 cup olive oil
1 cup grated parmesan
1 sheet frozen puff pastry sheet

 

As for the sweet palmiers just take a sheet of the puff pastry and generously cover it in cinnamon and sugar. Trust me when I say generously, otherwise they aren't sweet enough! I wish mine were a little sweeter, but they were still tastey. I didn't use a recipe, but I am sure there are a ton of easy recipes online.  I think it's pretty easy just to add cinnamon and sugar though :)

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

  Ok so I absolutely loooove this recipe.  I found it on a website called our best bites.  It is probably the best cupcake I have made in awhile!  I am just going to post the recipe as I found it because I didn't change anything when I made them.  However, when I made them I noticed the center of my cupcakes sank in like this

I read a few other reviews of this recipe and many others had the same problem.  Since I'm no baking experts, I don't know how to fix it, but honestly after I put the frosting on t wasn't a big deal.  Alright here is the recipe from www.ourbestbites.com

CUPCAKES:

1 1/4 c. all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 c. firmly packed dark brown sugar (dark brown sugar is REALLY important!)

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. butter, softened

2 large eggs at room temperature

1 tsp. vanilla

1/2 c. milk

Preheat oven to 350. 

line 18 cupcake holders with foil liners

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

 In another bowl, combine sugars and butter together on medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until combined. Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the milk in 1 additions, beating on low speed until just combined; scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling about 2/3 full.

Bake 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes and then transfer the cupcakes to the wire rack and allow to cool completely.