Mini apple pies

My rommmate and I attempted mini apple pies! We used a muffin tin to bake the mini pies in.

 

We cheated and used the 99 cent Jiffy pie crust (just add water!), and we were actually really impressed with the results.

 

The filling was an in-exact mixture of chopped apples (skin removed), cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, lemon, and butter. Luckily,we had extra filling to snack on, it was like candy!

We even added little lattice crusts to the top, brushed them with raw egg, and topped them with a little pad of butter.

We baked them at 300 degrees for about 50 minutes (we kept the temperature low because we weren't sure how they would cook). 

They came out pretty cute, if I do say so myself, and they were really delicious!

Chocolate rolls

Mmmm... study food!

Pillsbury Crescent rolls with a warm gooey chocolate center!

I unrolled a few rolls, added a strip of chocolate chips, rolled them up, baked them at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes, then I devoured!

Made studying calculus a bit more bearable :)

Happy Easter!

Had a great Easter, drove down from Boulder to see the family and family friends for a few hours.

{dress: INC (Macy's), jacket: Forever21 (Forever 21), shoes: Buffalo London (Germany)}

I got to wear my pretty new dress...

...and I gorged myself on the fruit and margarita dip (recipe here, plus orange zest) that my Mama made. 

Now the weekend's almost over and it's back to reality, but at least I still have a little Easter candy left over :)

Key lime pie

Mmmmmm... My Mama and I attempted a key lime pie for the first time ever. This was my first time making a pie and my Mama hasn't had very much experience with this so it was kind of just a free for all. We loosely followed the recipe found here, but we messed up some of the steps and this may have been the cause of our issues with this pie.

We didn't have the total amount of graham crackers needed for the crust so we just used about 1/2 a pound of graham crackers and thus used a little less melted butter as well. This worked well for the size of pan we were using, which must have been smaller than the one used for the original recipe.

 

Once we baked the crust (which didn't actually hold together...) we poured in the key-limey goodness which also didn't really stay together when baked. We did add the ingredients in the wrong order though...

Basically we made really delicious granola and covered it with really delicious pudding.

In the end we just decorated it nicely, scooped it out of the pan and enjoyed it for the taste, not the texture (which was fine if you just pretended you made pudding on top of granola).

We also filled little ramicans with a layer of the crust and a layer of the key lime mixture.

In the future I think we will try other recipes and maybe try this one again, since we are clearly pie novices!

Mini cinnies

In order to celebrate finishing my first calculus test, I made mini cinnamon buns, or mini cinnies (!), with the boyfriend.

We made them using Pillsbury rolls, butter, cinnamon, granulated sugar, powdered sugar, and vanilla. We didn't measure anything out, just eyeballing it instead. 

We pre-heated to 350 degrees and laid out the Pillsbury rolls, cut in half. The seams where one would ordinarily tear the rolls apart, we pinched together to form two rectangles.

We mixed equal parts cinnamon and sugar.

We melted butter and spread it all over the rectangles. We left about half an inch un-buttered on one edge.

Then we spread generous amounts of the cinnamon/sugar mixture over the buttered portion.

We rolled them up starting with the buttered edge, pinching the un-buttered edge to the roll.

We sliced them into half-inch pieces and spread them evenly on a pan.

They baked for 8 minutes.

Finally, we made icing from a mixture of  melted butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla.

Yummy!

Mondel bread

My roommate's mother makes delicious mondel bread (somewhat similar to biscotti) and although hers is from a secret family recipe, I was able to find one of my own online that produced similarly yummy results when slightly altered. 

I used:

1 c. sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 c. oil

3 c. all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 cup dried cranberries

Cinnamon and sugar

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl (except the cinnamon and sugar listed last)

Make two "loaves" of dough on a greased baking sheet

Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes

Remove from the oven and slice into 1/2 inch pieces. Return to oven for 10-15 minutes (or until golden brown)

Then enjoy with a drink!

Last day of break

On my last day of break, I enjoyed a relaxing day full of food. 

My parents came up to Boulder and we enjoyed a nice snowy afternoon at a nearby coffee shop with hot chai and adorable truffles (from left: white chocolate decadence, Gran Marnier, mint, and sea salt caramel). I have started reading The Hunger Games in anticipation of the upcoming movie, and got a decent portion read today.

This was followed by a delicious sushi dinner, my absolute all-time favorite food. I was absolutely stuffed...

...but I still had room for dessert! Moshi-covered ice cream balls. The pink were strawberry flavored, the yellow mango flavored, and the green green tea flavored. Super yummy. What a delicious end to a great break!

Cheese blintzes

Made some amazing cream cheese blintzes with my Mama. Lots of fun to make, and ended up being the perfect mix of sweet and not too sweet. Basically they consisted of crepes, with a cheese filling, and a blueberry compote on top. We started with the recipe from here and came up with the blueberry compote on our own:

Crepes:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups milk

3 T butter, melted

2 T granulated sugar

2 eggs

1/2 t. vanilla

1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

additional butter (for pan)

Combine all the ingredients and blend until smooth. The batter will be thin.

Heat a 10-inch pan to medium, add a thin layer of butter, and pour 1/3 of a cup of batter into the pan. Rotate the pan to spread the batter into a thin layer, and let it cook until lightly brown. Flip the crepe and brown the other side.

Filling:

1 cup cottage cheese

1 cup softened cream cheese

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 t. vanilla

Combine the ingredients and mix. The filling won't become smooth, even if blended.

Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of filling into the middle of a crepe and fold up the sides.

Once all blintzes are complete, it's compote time. 

 Blueberry compote:

1 1/2 cup blueberries

1/3 cup granulated sugar

3 tbsp water

1 tsp lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan. Heat until bubbling.

To serve: heat the blintz and cover with warm compote, powdered sugar, and whipped cream. Then enjoy!

Spiced tea cakes

Got this new bundt and candy pan for Christmas and have been dying to try it out!

How cute are these little shapes?

Anyways, searched for spiced tea cake recipes online and ended up working off of this one and adding some extra spices. Here's how I made them:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cream together the butter and sugar.

Beat in the eggs and the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add this to the butter mixture.

Add the cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

I put the batter into my pan, but if you don't have one like this you can just drop teaspoon-sized amounts on a greased baking pan. Bake for about 8 minutes.

Mine overflowed a bit while baking, so I scraped off the top layer when it had cooled and ended up with some extra cookie-like creations that aren't quite as pretty to look at but are still super delicious, especially with powdered sugar sprinkled on top.

Here are the final spiced tea cakes, with a mixture of granulated sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on top. They turned out better than I could have anticipated, and they taste just as good as they look!