Friday, January 29, 2010

Snowed In = Apple Brown Sugar Tart

I woke up this morning to find my apartment covered in snow and school cancelled, which means...baking time!!
So being the foodie/nerd that I am, when I get alittle bored I pull out a cookbook and start reading. Well a good family friend of mine, let me borrow her dessert cookbook. So I started reading...and what I found to my delight was an tart recipe, a skill I have not yet tried! Here it goes!

What you need:
Filling: Crust:
- 4 green apples, peeled and thinly sliced - 6 Tbs. unsalted butter
- 1/3 cups of sugar - 2 Tbs. sugar
- 1 Tbs. flour - 1 large egg plus one yolk
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract - 1 1/2 cups of flour
- 1 tsp. cinnamon - 1 Tbs. baking powder
Brown Sugar Topping:
- 3/4 cups flour
- 1/2 dark brown sugar
- 6 tbs. butter
- 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Lets start with the filling. Begin with thinly slicing your peeled apples. Put them into water as you slice, so that they don't turn brown. Put the rest of ingredients into a plastic bag and add your drained and dried apples. Shake around till the apples are all coated. Set aside.



Topping Time!
Mix all the ingredients except, butter, together in a large bowl. Then using your fingers pull apart the butter and mash it into the flour mixture. It's alittle messy but it should look like little bits of of butter covered in flour..
Sorry I forgot to take a picture of the finished topping, so here it is pre-butter

Crust, its a must!
With a mixer, blend sugar and butter. Slowly add the egg and extra yolk.Then add the flour till it comes together.Pull out the dough, and start pushing it into the tart shell with your fingers. Till the the crust comes up the sides of the shell. Use a measuring cup to help you press the dough into the shell.

Now with every part together, put the filling into the crust, and cover the apples with the crumble mixture.

Bake in the oven for 50 minutes at 325. And Ta Da!!! Apple Tart!!

Best Night Ever...with Chicken and Dumplings!

So tonight goes on my top 10 list of great nights.... Watching Julie and Julia, and eating homemade chicken and dumpling, college style! Now don't worry of course I'm going to share it with ya'll... so here it goes!

This recipe is from my mother's cookbook. I love this book, it's practically falling apart, recipes torn out and stuck back in random spots, it's the best! It was created by my grandmother( or Gran as I call her) when my mom got married and moved off!

What you need:
- 2 chicken breast thawed
- 3 cans of low sodium chicken broth
- one can of biscuits ( not the flaky kind)
- pepper and salt to taste





So first you need to bring both your water and broth to a boil in separate pans. Once the water comes to a boil place your chicken breast in the water for about 20 minutes or till the chicken is firm to the touch. Take your chicken out to cool off before handling. After cooling, using your fingers shread the chicken into bite size pieces.

While you are waiting for the water and broth, take your biscuits and cut them into fourths( as seen in the previous picture). Depending on the size of your biscuits, you might want to cut them smaller because they puff up!
Now add your biscuit pieces slowly till they are all combined. Wait 5-10 minutes for biscuits to puff up and cook.
Then add your chicken back with the dumplings, bring to a boil and ENJOY!!

Almost like mom's, maybe better, and definately easier!