Cracker Toffee

Our oven was on the fritz for a few weeks from the day before Thanksgiving until about a week and a half ago.  Two oven parts later, it was finally fixed and I was eager to get back to baking!  The first thing I chose to make was a homemade toffee recipe since I knew I had all of the ingredients on hand.  I used this recipe, but I didn't do any extra toppings-- I just left mine plain.  

Ingredients:

-saltine crackers (about a sleeve)

-1 c. butter (2 sticks)

-1 c. brown sugar

-10 oz. chocolate chips (about a cup and a half) 

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350* Fahrenheit.  Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet with a rim. 

2. In a medium pot, melt the butter and brown sugar together. 

3. Lay out the saltine crackers in a single layer on the parchment paper covered cookie sheet. 

4. In the medium pot, bring the butter and brown sugar to a boil, and continue boiling for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly. 

5. Pour the butter mixture over the saltine crackers and spread to cover all of the crackers.  

6. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes.  

7. Once removed from the oven, sprinkle chocolate chips over the top and let sit for 5 minutes. 

8. After 5 minutes, spread chocolate chips with a rubber spatula or mixing spoon to evenly cover all of the toffee.  

9. Place in fridge or freezer to set.  

10.  Once cooled, break into bite-sized pieces.  I've cooled this both ways (in fridge and in freezer) and placing in the fridge makes for a much easier time when it comes to breaking toffee into pieces.  Store extra pieces in the fridge. 

11. Enjoy!

Here's some of the steps in pictures. 

Preheat oven to 350* Fahrenheit.  Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet with a rim. In a medium pot, melt the butter and brown sugar together.

Lay out the saltine crackers in a single layer on the parchment paper covered cookie sheet. 

In the medium pot, bring the butter and brown sugar to a boil, and continue boiling for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour the butter mixture over the saltine crackers and spread to cover all of the crackers.  Bake in the oven for 5 minutes.

Once removed from the oven, sprinkle chocolate chips over the top and let sit for 5 minutes. 

After 5 minutes, spread chocolate chips with a rubber spatula or mixing spoon to evenly cover all of the toffee.  

Place in fridge or freezer to set.  Once cooled, break into bite-sized pieces.  I've cooled this both ways (in fridge and in freezer) and placing in the fridge makes for a much easier time when it comes to breaking toffee into pieces.  Enjoy!

Store extra pieces in the fridge.

Until Next Time,

Much Love, Reba

Apple Hand Pies

Michael and I got creative in the kitchen last night and whipped up some super simple apple hand-pies!  We happened to have all ingredients on hand, but these would be a cinch to get on a weekly grocery trip also!

We used the recipe that came in the mini cookbook with our Cosori Air Fryer. My changes and/or tips are noted in italics. 

Ingredients:

1 medium apple, peeled and diced into bite size pieces (I diced mine very finely)

2 1/12 tablespoons of granulated sugar

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1 sheet pre-made pie dough 

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon milk

Directions:

1. Combine the diced apple, granulated sugar, butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a medium saucepan or skillet over low-medium heat.  Bring to a simmer. 

2. Simmer for 2 minutes, then remove from heat. 

3. Allow the apples to cool, uncovered at room temperature for 30 minutes. 

4. Cut the pie dough into 5-inch circles (I found a cereal bowl of the right diameter and used that.  I was able to get 4 fairly circular-shaped pieces.)

5. Add the filling to the center of each pie crust circle and use your finger to apply water to the outer ends.  Some filling will be left over (that's what the recipe says, but I divided the filling to give every pie the same amount and I had none leftover.)

6. Crimp the pie shut and cut a small slit on the top (I lightly poked a fork into our pies instead).

7. Select Preheat on the Air Fryer and adjust temperature to 350 degrees, and press Start. 

8. Mix together egg and milk to make an egg wash and brush over top of pies (I did have quite a bit of egg wash leftover). 

9. Place the pies into the preheated air fryer and cook at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, until pies are golden brown. 

Here's my star chef (isn't he adorable?!)

These were so delicious!  My parents came over to bring us some fresh peaches and they both tried a pie.  My mom liked them so much that she says she might request these for a birthday dessert!  If that isn't a seal of approval, I don't know what is!

Until Next Time, 
Much Love, Reba

Maple Apple Blondies

 Over the weekend, my mom's sister drove into town from Michigan and she brought a bounty of awesome fall treats!  She gifted us with apples, real maple syrup, and apple cider!  No joke, I had been browsing Pinterest the night before she came (not knowing what she was bringing) and I pinned this fall recipe from "A Latte Food." It involves apples and maple syrup so it was the perfect recipe to try out this weekend!  I whipped up these "Maple Apple Blondies" on Sunday morning and I'm not that ashamed to say that the pan is almost gone!

Find Recipe here. 

Maple Apple Blondies (originally from A Latte Food).  My tweaks to the recipe are shown in italics below.

Ingredients

Blondies

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Apple Filling

• 2 large apples chopped finely
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Maple Glaze

• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line an 11x7 pan with tin foil (or spray with pan with cooking spray). **(I used a 13x9 inch pan)

Apple Filling

1. On med-low heat, cook apple filling mixture for about 3-4 minutes. Pull off heat and allow to cool.

Blondies

1. Cream butter until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Add in brown sugar and granulated sugar, and mix until well combined.
2. Add in eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Add in salt and vanilla extract. Mix until combined. (I accidentally added the salt to the dry ingredients, and it didn't seem to hinder anything). 
4. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and cinnamon together. Add to the wet ingredients and stir until combined.
5. In the bottom of the pan, spread half the blondie batter evenly, using a spatula (or your hands--batter is very thick, so I prefer to spread with my hands).
6. Spread apple filling all over the layer.
7. Top with remaining blondie batter and spread evenly.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean. (The cake tester (toothpick) was key because they don't completely look done at that point, but the toothpick indicated they were ready.)

Maple Glaze

1. Melt butter, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and cinnamon over low heat. Once melted together, pull off the heat. Sift in powdered sugar, and whisk until fully combined. Allow to cool for 8-10 minutes so the glaze can thicken.
2. Allow bars to cool for about 10 minutes, then pour the glaze over the bars and allow it to set.
3. Slice into squares and enjoy!

This is how the pan of blondies looked after the maple glaze was spread on the warm bars. 

How perfectly fall is this dessert?!

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba

Peach Cobbler

Cobblers are such a great dessert because they are so easy to make!  And if you know me, you know I like easy when it comes to baking!

We've had some jarred peaches in our pantry and neither Aaron nor I just eat jarred peaches just to eat them. So I knew we needed to find some way to include them in a baked good or they'd just continue taking up space in my pantry.

Aaron likes the "cobbler" part of cobbler, and I've oddly been in the mood for a warm peach dessert, so peach cobbler was obviously the right choice!

Anytime I read a recipe that includes "fresh peaches" which I don't have on hand this time of year, I just replace it with jarred peaches (and I keep typing jarred instead of canned since the peaches I have are in glass jars, but canned would work just the same).  I researched a recipe that included fresh peaches, and I had to read a little further to see that part of the amount of sugar requested was actually used to create a syrup for the fresh peaches.  I just removed that part of the recipe entirely and used jarred/canned peaches in place of the fresh peaches and the extra sugar called for.

***

For an 8x8 pan, I used the following measurements:

1/4 c butter (half of a stick)
1/2 c AP flour
1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 c milk
1 1/2 c jarred/canned peaches
Ground cinnamon for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 375.
Melt the butter in the 8x8 pan.
Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and milk in a bowl just until moistened.
Once the butter melts, pour the flour mixture over the butter but do not stir it into the butter.
Add the peaches on top of the flour mixture in the pan but do not stir it all together.  It's okay if a little juice/syrup from the peaches gets into the pan also.
Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until top is a nice golden brown.

Serve warm, and add a scoop of vanilla ice cream for extra oomph!

***

Cobblers are the perfect easy dessert since they're just a "dump and go" kind of thing.  We'll probably be making lots of cobblers as our weather down here is tricking us into thinking it's early summer although we're barely past the middle of February!

Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba