Super Easy - Rustic Apple Pie

From: http://www.chsugar.com/ click on Recipes


Ingredients:
Prepared pastry for one-crust 9-inch pie.

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425°F. Roll pastry to 11-inch circle. Transfer to foil lined cookie sheet.


Apple Filling:

Ingredients
1/2 cup firmly packed, C&H Pure Cane Golden Brown Sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
4 cups sliced, peeled, Golden Delicious apples (about 5 cups)
C&H Pure Cane Powdered Sugar

Instructions:
In a large bowl, mix brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Add apples and toss to coat well. Spoon apples into center of crust, leaving a 2-inch edge. Fold pastry up onto apples, pinching edge at 2-inch intervals.

Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F and bake 30 minutes longer, or until apples are tender. For a special touch, sprinkle the top with fresh blackberries. Before serving, dust with powdered sugar.

Quick Tip:
When you bake a pie, you need to choose an apple variety that can stand up to the heat. Other varieties good for baking include Rome Beauty, Cortland, Stayman, Granny Smith and Winesap.

Serving Size: 6

Decadent Chocolate-Hazelnut Torte

This recipe is from the Fall/Winter 2010 Pampered Chef Catalog. It was so good that I had several requests for the recipe. Jenn suggested I post it here - good thinking!

3/4 cup whole blanched hazelnuts without skin (I couldn't find any in Winslow so I used chopped mixed nuts instead)
1 small package devil's food cake mix (9 oz.), or 1 & 2/3 cups out of a regular size cake mix.
1 jar chocolate hazelnut spread (Nutella, it's usually next to the peanut butter)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 8 oz. container cool whip

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a cake pan or 8 1/2 x 11 Pyrex baking dish with nonstick cooking spray with flour. In a mixing bowl or Kitchenaid stir together 1/2 cup of the nuts, cake mix, 1/3 cup Nutella, sour cream, and egg. Mix well. Bake 12 - 14 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (Mine took around 20 minutes)
Let cake cool a few minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack. Cool 10 minutes, then transfer to your serving platter of choice (or I guess you could just leave it in the Pyrex pan).
For icing/filling, combine remaining Nutella and 1 & 1/2 cups of cool whip. Mix until smooth. Spread icing evenly over cake, top with remaining cool whip in any fancy/cute way you want to, and sprinkle remaining nuts over cake.

I'm not usually a chocolate fan, but this cake was GOOD, fun, very pretty to look at, and super easy to make!

LeAnn's Rocky Road

by: LeAnn Moss

LeAnn writes,
"I really don't have a recipe for it. I just fill a bowl full of marshmallows and some peanuts. Then mix them a bit. Melt my dipping chocolate then mix it in with the marshmallows until they are covered pretty good. Then put onto tinfoil and shape into a log and wrap the tinfoil around it and refrigerate until it hardens. Then slice and enjoy."

Almond Joy Candy

by: Crystal Murdock

3/4 cup instant mashed potatoes, prepared with water but without butter or salt
1 teaspoon Almond flavoring
1 lb. coconut
3-1/2 cups powdered sugar
Almonds
Dipping Chocolate
White Chocolate, optional

Mix almond flavoring in mashed potatoes. Add coconut and powdered sugar, mix well. Roll mixture into small balls and place on waxed paper. Place an almond on each ball and slightly press down. Dip each ball and almond in chocolate and return to waxed paper to dry. Drizzle with white chocolate if desired.

Jam Crumb Bars

The cookie party was lots of fun last night! I have a few recipes now, and will continue to post as more come in. I'll start with mine:

Jam Crumb Bars
Corri Havlicek, from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook
Jam suggestions: raspberry, strawberry, peach, or apricot

3 sticks butter, softened, cubed
2 ¼ cups almonds, finely ground
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ cups sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups jam, light colored is best

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly spray a 10 x 15 cookie sheet, set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together almonds, flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or work in with your fingers until the mixture resembles pea-size crumbs with a few larger clumps.

Transfer half the crumb mixture to prepared baking sheet; set aside remaining mixture, cover. Using the back of a large spoon, press dough evenly into the pan, then with a rolling pin, roll along the dough to smooth and even. Dough should be firmly packed, with no holes or cracks. Bake, rotating the pan halfway through, until lightly golden all over, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

Evenly spread jam over cooled crust. Scatter with remaining crumb mixture, squeezing some of the mixture so that large clumps are visible and evenly distributed over the top of the jam. Bake, rotating the pan halfway through, until the topping begins to turn light golden brown, 20 – 22 minutes. Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Run a knife around the edges of the pan to loosen, cut into 2 x 3 inch bars.

Cranberry Pretzel Salad

This recipe and the following one were served at the Relief Society Christmas Party and were requested to be posted here. They're yummy...


Crust:
¾ cup butter
2 ½ cups pretzels, broken up into small pieces, but not crushed
¼ cup sugar
Melt butter, mix with pretzels and sugar. Press into a 9 x 13 pan. Bake 10 minutes at 400 degrees. Cool completely before adding cream cheese layer.

Cream Cheese layer:
1 – 8oz. cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 tub Cool Whip
Whip cream cheese and sugar until creamy, fold in Cool Whip. Spread on top of cooled pretzel crust. Keep cool in preparation for next layer.

Cranberry topping:
6 - 12 ounces fresh cranberries, crushed in a blender, but not liquefied (I've never done it, but you could probably use the whole cranberry sauce in the can)
1 orange, peeled and diced
1 – 15oz. can crushed pineapple, plus juice
1 apple finely diced, with or without peel
1 large box Tropical Fusion jell-o (6 ounces total), dissolved in 2 cups boiling water. I have found this jell-o only at Wal-Mart
½ cup chopped nuts, optional
Prepare jell-o, add all fruits and their juice, and chill until just syrupy. Stir, then pour over the cream cheese layer. Refrigerate until set. Just before serving sprinkle with nuts.

This is a combination of recipes from The Essential Mormon Cookbook and the Worldwide Ward Christmas Cookbook.

Double-Crusted Chocolate Covered Sweet Surprise Cheesecake

I made this cheesecake for Terri's birthday the 24th of September. Don't ask her how old she is...it's a touchy subject. LOL! Just kidding.
This recipe seems hard with lots of instructions, but it's super easy, I promise. It's just written out to make it easy to understand and prepare, so it looks long. And you don't need a springform pan, a PYREX 9-inch round would be fine.

Ganache Topping:
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon vanilla

Oatmeal-Pretzel Crust:
½ cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 ½ cups flour
1 ½ cups oats (I used instant)
1 ½ cups pretzels (crushed coarsely)
1 ½ sticks butter (melted)

Filling:
2 blocks cream cheese (at room temperature)
1 ½ cups plain yogurt
3 eggs
1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 bag (10 ounce) miniature Snickers bars

Directions
1. Make Ganache: Put chocolate chips in a glass or steel bowl. In a small saucepan, bring cream and butter to a boil and pour it over the chocolate chips. Leave chocolate and cream alone for 5 minutes, then stir to combine; mix in vanilla. At room temperature the ganache is the perfect consistency to "frost" the cheesecake.

2. Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Use a fork to combine all ingredients for the crust. Lightly grease the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan with butter. Pour half crust mixture (2 1/2 cups) into greased cheesecake pan and reserve other half of crust mixture for later. Use a glass to help you firmly press the mixture down evenly. Bake crust for 8 minutes. Once the crust is out of the oven, turn the oven down to 325°F.

3. Chop candy bars into bite-sized pieces. Use a mixer to blend together cream cheese and yogurt; once they’re fully incorporated, mix in one egg at a time; add sugar and vanilla and mix until everything is just incorporated. Fold in chopped candy and pour mixture into pre-baked crust. Bake for 40 minutes, then remove cheesecake from the oven and evenly sprinkle remaining crust mixture on the top; bake for another 20 minutes.

4. Allow cheesecake to cool completely, then refrigerate for 2 hours. Pour the room-temperature ganache over the cooled cheesecake and spread it out in an even layer (some chocolate will drip down the sides of the cheesecake, but don't worry about spreading it evenly over the sides). Refrigerate for another 2 hours.

Original recipe from www.delish.com

Orange-Pecan Granola

1 cup old-fashioned oats
2 cups wheat flakes (Wheaties Cereal)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
Finely grated zest of 1 orange (I omit this and it's still great!)
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter (I use on 1/4 cup)
1/4 cup honey

Preheat oven to 350. Put oats, flakes, sugar, nuts, zest, nutmeg and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Melt butter with honey in a saucepan over low heat; stir into oat mixture. Spread mixture in a 8x11 in pan. Bake until just golden, about 10 minutes. Let cool in pan.
This receipe came from Amy Hartnett.

Grandma Dorothy's Popcorn Balls

I was cleaning out my recipe file and came across this recipe from my Grandma Dorothy McCrary, my Mom's Mother. It is the best recipe for Caramel Corn! To make this recipe even sweeter, my Grandma was born today, July 31, 1923. She died when I was 12 and in 7th grade. Enjoy...


1 cup Karo Syrup
2 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 can Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk
1 cube butter
10 quarts (40 cups) popped corn, remove all the un-popped kernels or you'll break a tooth.
(A full-size bag of microwave popcorn is 5 cups)

Pop the popcorn first and remove the un-popped kernels.
Have a large mixing bowl ready that has been lightly coated with cooking spray.

Caramel:
Combine syrup and sugar in heavy saucepan and stir together well. Cook on medium heat until it boils. Make sure the sugar is completely dissolved and keep the sides of the pan clean to avoid sugary caramel later. Add milk and butter, cook and stir until it forms soft ball in cold water (about 236 degrees). Cool slightly while putting the popped corn in the prepared bowl, then pour caramel over popped corn and stir, stir, stir.
Spray your hands with cooking spray. The popcorn can now be formed into balls and bagged, or left loose and put in large Ziploc bags. Makes about 18 popcorn balls.

This is her original recipe card in her handwriting.

Peanut Butter Fudge Brownie Bars

1 1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted, divided
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup baking cocoa
1/4 cup milk
1 1/4 cups chopped pecans, divided (optional)
1 pkg. (10oz) peanut butter chips
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl, combine 1 cup melted butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add flour, cocoa and milk; beat until blended. Stir in 1 cup pecans. Pour into a greased 13x9 baking pan. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or just until edges begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. In a medium saucepan over low heat, combine remaining butter and peanut butter chips, stirring constantly. Stir in sweetened condensed milk until smooth; pour over baked layer. Place chocolate chips in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 45 seconds; stir. If necessary, microwave an additional 15 seconds at a time, stirrring after each heating, just until chips are melted. Drizzle bars with melted chocolate; sprinkle with remaining pecans. Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm. Cut into bars. Yield 2 dozen.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars

From the Kitchen of Robin Connell

1 c. butter or marg. softened
1 c. crunchy or creamy Peanut Butter
1 (16 oz.) box powdered sugar
1 ½ c. vanilla wafers crushed
1 (12 oz.) bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ c. whipping cream

Beat butter and PB at medium speed in mixer until well blended. Add sugar and wafer crumbs and beat until well blended. Press mixture evenly into lightly greased 9x13 pan lined with wax paper.
Stir together choc chips and cream in a medium sauce pan over low heat until melted and smooth. Spread evenly over the top of PB mixture. Chill about 30 minutes or until firm.
Remove from fridge and let stand at room temp for about 10 min. before cutting into 2x2 inch bars.

Rocky Road Fudge

from: Allison Stock
served at our Progressive Dinner December 2nd

1 bag chocolate chips
2 sticks butter, cubed
4 cups sugar
1 can evaporated milk
20 large marshmallows
2 cups nuts
15 large marshmallows, quartered
1 teaspoon vanilla

Set aside the chocolate chips and the butter in a large bowl. In a saucepan melt the milk, sugar, and 20 large marshmallows. Bring to a boil and continue boiling until the mixture turns a caramel color. This requires stirring constantly for 20-25 minutes. Dump this boiling hot mixture on the chocolate chips and butter and stir quickly! Before the mixture sets up add the nuts, vanilla, and cut marshmallows. Spread onto a cookie sheet to cool and serve.

Chewy Cocoa Brownies

from: Terri Miller
(Very Best Baking web site)

1 2/3 cups sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, melted
2 tablespoons water
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/3 cups flour
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)
powdered sugar

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees. Grease 13 X 9 baking pan.
COMBINE sugar, butter and water in large bowl. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in medium bowl; stir into sugar mixture. Stir in nuts. Spread into prepared baking pan.
BAKE for 18-25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out slightly sticky. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cut into bars