Apples and after the holidays!

Well.. Well Well..

Christmas was quite fun and New years was quite fiery ( get it ... fireworks)

Christmas was way too good to me.. I asked for a DSLR camera to further my blogging and to take pictures of my travels .. I didnt expect to get it.. maybe next year or in a few years.. since this Christmas we were in NY but as soon as we got home from NY we had Christmas with Jons parents.. I had opened all my presents and there was one box left.. as I peeled back the wrapping paper I noticed the word Canon on it.... I was so overwhelmed .. I cant believe they got me the camera.  I'm still so excited about it 

Im slowly taking more pictures with it .. it is way better than my phone camera. 

I think I am going to mainly use it for blogging pictures.  


My next mission is recreating a recipe. While I was at the store buying groceries ( see; alcohol for the inauguration) I was in the baking aisle and I happened upon Girl Scout flavor baking mixes.. I decided on the Thin Mint Brownies.  I made them today because honestly what is better than baking on a saturday?

hmmm

If I can attempt to find girl scout cookies near me I will use the actual thin mints .. if not I will try to recreate the flavor using chocolate and mint ... heres to a challenge.. :P 

Another recipe I made this week was Apple Sticky Buns.. I discovered a new type of apple since it was the Apple of the month at Kroger .. It's called a  Pacific Rose and its a Gala/Splendour cross.  Its perfect and sweet and crisp. I found a recipe to use them but by the time I went back to the store .. it wasn't on display anymore.. so I just picked up some organic Gala apples.. 

It still turned out delicious. This recipe is pretty labor intensive. You make the dough by scratch and you have to let it rise. I found this recipe from Produce made simple. 

Organic Gala Apple Sticky Buns



Recipe: Apple Sticky Buns

Ingredients

For the dough:
• 3 1/2 cup (875 mL) of all-purpose flour, divided
• 1 1/4 oz (35 g) package of fast rising (instant) yeast
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) warm milk (125ºF/50ªC)
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) grated Pacific Rose apples, all excess moisture must be removed
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) butter
• 1 tbsp (15 mL) granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp (5 mL) salt
For the filling:
• 1/4 cup (60 mL) butter, softened
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) brown sugar
• 2 tsp (10 mL) cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) nutmeg
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) grated Pacific Rose apple, all excess moisture must be removed
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) crushed pecans
For the salted caramel:
• 1 1/2 cups (375 mL) granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (60 mL) water
• 2 tbsp (30 mL) salted butter, cold
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) heavy cream
• 1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract
• a pinch of salt
Extra topping:
• 1 cup (250 mL) pecan halves, or roughly chopped pecans

Ingredients : 

For the dough:
1. Pour 1 cup of the flour in a medium bowl, add yeast. Set aside.
2. Heat milk to about 125ºF in a pan over medium-low heat on the stove. Once the desired temperature is reached pour the milk over the flour and yeast in the bowl you set aside.
3. Mix until well combined, then cover the bowl with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and set in a warm spot in your kitchen for 30 minutes.
4. Drain all excess moisture from the grated apples by placing them in cheesecloth ( or paper towels) and squeezing until all the liquid is out. 
5. Uncover the bowl, add apples, butter, sugar, egg and salt to it and mix by hand until combined. Stir in 3 1/4 cups more of the flour you divided into the bowl. Mix by hand until dough is combined. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and begin to knead by hand. Keep the remaining 1/4 cup of flour you divided earlier nearby to add as needed while you are working the dough. Now start to roll the dough over on itself, continue kneading it this way until the dough becomes soft and easy to work with, you can add bits of flour as you go as you feel you need to. It takes about 5 minutes to really work it into a soft, workable dough.
6. Lightly butter a glass bowl and place the dough inside of it. Cover with plastic wrap, and set the bowl in a warm place in your kitchen, allow it to rise until it doubles in size. This should take anywhere from about 45 to 60 minutes, depending on the warmth of your kitchen.
Filling the dough:
7. Once the dough has doubled in size, remove it from the bowl and place it on a lightly floured surface. Use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll the dough into a rectangular shape, about 16 x 11 in size, or so.
8. Spread the softened butter evenly over the dough with a spatula. Leave a 1/8-inch edge on the long side that is farthest away from you. You'll need that edge to seal the dough.
9. Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a bowl and spread over top of the butter, as evenly as possible, leaving a 1/8-inch edge. Toss the grated apples (remove all excess moisture first!) over the sugar mixture, leaving a 1/8-inch edge. Spread the crushed pecans over top of the apples, leaving a 1/8-inch edge.
10. Starting on the long edge, roll the dough lengthwise to form the rolls. Tighten slightly as you roll. Once you get to the edge you left, dab it with water to help seal it. Pinch the ends to seal completely. Place the sealed side down. Using a knife, serrated works well, trim each end off so any uneven bits are gone. Discard those pieces. Now cut the rolled dough into 12 equal size pieces. Cover with plastic wrap while you make the caramel.
For the caramel:
11. Combine sugar and water in a medium size saucepan and place over medium-high heat until all the sugar dissolves. This should take approximately 3 minutes. Bring the syrup to a boil and allow it to bubble up without stirring it. You can swirl it if needed, but don't stir it. Keep a close eye on it to watch it for it to start to turn a light amber colour. Watch closely because caramel can burn very quickly. Once the mixture begins to caramelize and turn amber, remove it from the heat and add the cold butter. Add the heavy cream, the mixture will bubble up then smooth out. Stir until it's smooth, if it doesn't smooth out quickly you can place the pan over low heat until it does. Add the vanilla extract and salt, mix well. Allow the caramel to cool for about 10 to 15 minutes.
12. Putting it all together:
13. Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with non-stick spray. Place some pecans in the bottom of each well. Spoon in about 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of caramel into the bottom of each well over top of the pecans. Now uncover your dough and place one roll in each well, cut sides down, so they sit on top of the pecans and caramel. Don't worry, the pan gets inverted later so the caramel and pecans end up on top of the rolls. Cover the rolls with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight. Cover the remaining caramel and set aside for the morning.
Morning Cooking Instructions:
14. Remove the pan from the fridge and place in a warm spot in your kitchen. Allow the dough to rise again, it should double in size once again. This should take between 1 to 1.5 hours.
15. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Once the oven is at desired temperature place the pan on the middle rack, and place a foil lined cookie sheet on the bottom rack to catch any drips from the caramel bubbling up.
16. Bake for about 18 to 22 minutes, or until tops are brown. Remove from the oven. Invert the pan immediately over a baking sheet or platter. Reheat remaining caramel and pour over top before serving.
17. These are best served hot on the day you make them.

Another thing that I made recently was a breakfast pizza. I went to the store and I was going to get pizza ingredients ( sausage, pepperoni,green peppers, onions), well I managed to get breakfast sausage instead of italian sausage so I had to think quickly and decided to invent my own pizza and turn it into breakfast pizza. There's a few other breakfast pizza recipes out there, but they had differing ingredients.  Some made a gravy like sauce others used a cheese sauce , I decided to use salsa since we had a bit leftover. I first spread the sauce over the dough and then sprinkled some cheddar over the sauce then I cooked the sausage and layered that over the cheese then I cracked a few eggs on top.  It was really yummy and all the flavors melded together pretty nicely.  

Breakfast Pizza mmm!

Anyone have any recipe ideas or challenges for me?  I hope you are having a good weekend. Now off to figure out what to have for dinner  bye guys~