Desserts | Apron Strings

Paper Bag Apple Pie Recipe – Easy Enough for Kids to Make (Using a Paper Bag and a Surprise Ingredient!)

October 7, 2011 in Desserts

Easy and Foolproof: The Ultimate Apple Pie

Where did that “Easy As Apple Pie” saying come from anyway? It must have been started by someone who never actually made an apple pie. I have always found the iconic All-American apple pie to be deceptively difficult to make. Crusts can be tough or bland (pleaseÂ try our foolproof crust recipe and your life will be forever changed!)Â Filling can be dry or runny, bland or sickeningly sweet. Apples too hard or too mushy. Trust me – I have made all of these mistakes and more, and lots of bad apple pies - until now!

The Perfect Bite of The Perfect Apple Pie

This filling is made by shaking the apples with a flour and sugar mixture and is absolutely idiot-proof. I invited a group of teen girls (ages 12 and 13) over to prove this pie could be made by anyone who had only mastered one cooking technique: microwave re-heating. The pies were perfect! Perfect crust! Perfect apples! Perfect filling!

You can’t possibly go wrong with this filling method, because only a thin coating of the flour mixture sticks to the slices when you shake them in the bag. Just use the coated slices and toss out the bag with the excess flour mixture and you will never have a dry, gummy filling again! I used the basic approach of Cook’s Illustrated – with one exception. The recipe called for lemon juice, but I was out. So, I substituted apple cider vinegar ( Hey! this is an apple pie, after all) and the acidity was perfect!

Do yourself and your loved ones a favor and try this pie. It is now the apple of my eye!

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Tags: apple dessert, apple desserts, apple pie, apple pie apples, apple pie filling, apple pie recipe, apple pie recipes, apple pie ricetta, apple recipe, apple recipes, easy apple pie, fall dessert, fall desserts, fruit pie, fruit pies
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Easy Candy Apple Tart Recipe – Four Ingredients and a Trip Back to Childhood in Just One Bite

September 19, 2011 in Desserts

Classic Candy Apple Flavor in an easy Tart recipe

As a kid, I looked forward every fall to those crunchy, sticky chewy bright red candy apples. You know the kind – with that stick-to-your-teeth coating that you have to pry off of your teeth.

So, I saw an easy apple tart recipe a few days ago in a magazine using apple jelly brushed on top as a glaze. I thought of that shiny, cinnamon-y glaze that is on candy apples.

I decided to try and infuse the apple jelly with those cinnamon red-hot candies we ate as kids for that spicy sweet-hot candy apple flavor. This works like a charm! The red hot candies give the apple jelly that classic flavor and as a bonus, they add a rosy color to the tart as a beautiful finish.

If you use a purchased pie crust, this tart only has FOUR ingredients. Yes, you read that right: FOUR ingredients. Of course, by all means use your favorite home made pie crust for an even yummier result. Or, come back here in a few days when I post my completely foolproof Never Fail Pie Crust that even kids can make. Really.

Either way, this tart is an easy riff on apple tarts. I recommend you make one every single week this fall. Then,Â just stand back and wait for the rave reviews when your house smells all cinnamon-y and this stunning dessert comes out of the oven.

Happy Fall, everyone!

Another view of this four ingredient Candy Apple Tart

– posted by Donna

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Tags: apple dessert, apple pie, apple pie recipe, apple recipe, apple recipes, apple tart, easy dessert, easy tart, tart recipe
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Frozen Peach Souffles Recipe – Lighter Version – Made in Remembrance for 9/11

September 9, 2011 in Desserts

Bake to Remember – what a lovely thought. Marla at Family Fresh Cooking has started a lovely way for bakers to pay homage to the victims of terrorism who lost their lives on 9-11-2001. Making something delicious comforting and then gathering friends and family members to share love, support and gratitude for our lives and our freedoms – a beautiful way to honor those who fell that day as our nation watched in horror – live on every television screen in America.

I remember watching in horror and then talking on the phone with many loved ones that day – I don’t know why, but perhaps because we needed the comfort of each other on a dark day.

My lovely co-blogger and daughter Anne called me that day. We had only been reunited as a birth mother and daughter a short time by then, and I remember feeling honored that she chose to reach out and call me and we shed tears together that day.

So I think thatÂ Bake to Remember is a fitting tribute: to make a special dish and hold each other close.

In honor of one of my grandmothers, who loved peaches so much she had a small orchard in her yard, and Grandparents’ Day this Sunday, I decided to join the Bake to Remember event with these luscious little frozen peach souffles. Frozen souffles are so refreshing in the last days of summer, and peach is one of my very favorite flavors. I added almond extract to the dish because almond and peach are a match made in heaven.

Most frozen souffles use real whipped cream, but I decided to go light and used a low calorie whipped topping and low fat cream cheese. But, if you want to go all out on a calorie blitz, the real deal is always good, too. Then, since baking is not required, I used stevia in place of the sugar for a sugar free version. These are just as good as the full fat version – and so cool and refreshing. My hubby, who has type 2 diabetes, ate two!

I’ll be making these again on Sunday, with loved ones close, in remembrance.

– posted by Donna

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Tags: fresh peach recipe, low fat dessert, low fat recipe, low sugar dessert, low sugar recipe, peach dessert, peach desserts, peach recipes
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Peaches and Cream in Pistachio Phyllo Cups – Summer Bliss on a Plate

September 1, 2011 in Desserts

I just love peach time of year. My favorite way to eat peaches is to hold a ripe juicy peach over the sink and eat it while it drips from my elbows – not even worrying about wiping the sweet juiciness off my face.

This recipe just might be a contender for my second favorite way: soft creamy peachy middle and crunchy phyllo outside. What could be yummier than that? I can’t think of a single thing.

I am blessed to live in the Rocky Mountains, where peaches are perfection this time of year. Fresh peach pie is one of the best things about summer.

But then I saw this idea in Fine Cooking magazine, and, yes, I still get an actual paper magazine delivered to my home mailbox by an actual mailman. I know. Weird.

These little phyllo cups would be so yummy for so many things – anything that is pie-worthy, for example.

I made my own creamy fluff instead of using ice cream. And I used butter and sugar brushed between the phyllo layers.

CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED: Â this was a huge hit at our house. YOU MAY NEED A 12-STEP DESSERT ADDICTION PROGRAM AFTER EATING THIS DESSERT.

Happy Peach Time, Y’all.

– posted by Donna

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Tags: fresh peach recipe, fresh peaches, peach dessert, peach recipe, phyllo recipe
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Lemon Pie Parfait Recipe – A Quick and Easy No-Bake Update of Grandma’s Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe

August 8, 2011 in Desserts

Lemon Pie Parfaits - An Update of Grandma's Lemon Meringue Pie

My grandma’s lemon meringue pie was astonishingly good. It is one of my very favorite food memories. As a small child, I hoped and prayed that my grandma would make it every single time I went to visit.

It was her signature dish, and her secret to the powerful lemony tang was kept under wraps until a few weeks ago, when my mom entrusted me with the secret. Here it is for all our Apron Strings friends: when Grandma made the lemon curd for the pie, she let the lemon rind simmer with the curd in the pan and then discarded it before spooning the curd into the pie shell.

So, with the secret unveiled I was longing for that bright fresh taste. But, OK, it’s confession time: I’m not good at baking pies. Oh sure, I suffer through it during the holidays and make the same pies every year, which are a hit, but mostly because my family loves me and forgives my baking inadequacies.

So, I thought, since the best part of the pie is the lemon curd – why not make that and then serve it in a parfait with crumbled shortbread cookies and whipped cream?! And, I just zested one of the lemons and added the zest to the curd for that same bright, lemony taste.

I am proud to report that my creative avoidance of baking has once again paid off in a big way. These parfaits take minutes to put together, they don’t heat up your house like pie baking does, and they have that same powerful lemon tang that my grandma’s pies had. So, let me recap: Easy, Quick, Flavorful. A culinary trifecta!

The perfect way to end a summer day!

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Tags: easy lemon dessert, lemon curd recipe, lemon merengue, lemon pie, lemon recipes, no bake dessert, no bake recipe, summer dessert
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Grapefruit Gelato in Five Minutes: Your New Favorite Summer Dessert Recipe

July 11, 2011 in Desserts

Say gel-ahhhhh-to

It’s officially the dog days, and you have a summer soiree to attend tomorrow. “What can I bring?” you asked. “Oh, just a little something for dessert,” they replied. But the very thought of baking something in this heat makes you deflate with fatigue. You still want to bring something homecrafted – some kind of ice cream would be great, but you don’t have an ice cream maker. What to do?

You spend a grand total of 5 minutes prepping this mock-gelato, that’s what. And then you’ll make it again and again and again. Really. Because it really is only 4 ingredients, Â it really does only take 5 to mix it up, you really don’t need an ice cream maker, and, best of all, it really does work.

I know it may sound a little weird, but trust us. We swear it will surprise you. Something about the way that the acid in the citrus combines with the fat in the cream (and yes, you must use cream; we tried it with half & half and it just didnâ€™t work texture-wise, though the flavor was still a total delight) creates a perfect dense, creamy texture that is so akin to â€˜realâ€™ gelato, though the technique is very different.

The original called for lemon, which is equally delicious, but there’s something about the subtle tang of the grapefruit here that Donna and I both were tickled by – so creamy & subtly tangy. It’s also incredibly rich.Â And it truly is amazing how well the texture comes out without churning!Â The whole thing is a revelation.

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Tags: citrus desserts, citrus recipes, dessert recipes, gelato, gelato recipes, grapefruit, grapefruit dessert, grapefruit gelato, grapefruit recipes, homemade ice cream, ice cream recipes, summer desserts
35 Comments »

Red, White and Blueberry Cookie Tarts – An Easy Festive Dessert for Your Patriotic Fourth of July Feast

June 26, 2011 in Desserts, Oh My!

Blueberry and Strawberry Topped Cookie Tarts

What’s better than cookies or fruit tarts? Cookies that are morphed into fruit tarts.

These pretty little cookie tarts are super easy to make and so festive! Isn’t it nice of Mother Nature to give us Americans strawberries, raspberries and blueberries just in time to create red, white and blue desserts? God Bless Mother Nature as well as America!

I used sugar cookies from a bakery, but if you want to make your own, so much the better. If you’re feeling a little more ambitious, you could make our Five Minute Homemade Puff pastry. No, we are not making this up: it really does take only five minutes of prep time from scratch.

The cream cheese frosting recipe (below) I used is my favorite all-time frosting that I have made in 30 years. It is light, fluffy and so flavorful. It really shouldn’t be called “frosting,” it should be called “fluff.” I use almond extract so as not to muddy the color, and almond is a delicious flavor with most any other dessert ingredient. It’s used sparingly here – one of those background flavors that makes you say “HmmmmÂ . . . what’s in here???”

Happy Fourth Everyone!

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Tags: berry dessert, fourth of july dessert, fruit dessert, patriotic desserts, patriotic recipe, picnic dessert, picnic food, picnic ideas, picnic recipe
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Foolproof Sorbet and the Amazing Trick That Makes It Work: Our Easy Strawberry Lemon Zest Summer Sorbet Recipe

June 9, 2011 in Desserts

Strawberry Lemon Zest Sorbet

I have always been afraid of sorbet. Terrified, really.

I thought it was one of those seems easy but is really deceptively hard things to make. Like the Tarte Tatin of the frozen dessert world.

If you add too much sugar, your sorbet will be soupy. If you don’t add enough, it will freeze as hard as a rock. But, the thing is – you won’t know until it’s too late and is already in the freezer trying to freeze.Â . . . Thus causing you to run screaming from the room, wishing you had chosen to write an edgy political blog instead of a food blog. . . . but I digress . . . .

Dara at Cookin’ Canuck, aÂ fabulous food blogger I follow, recently did a sorbet that looked so delicious, I summoned my courage to attempt my own sorbet. After strolling around the world wide web,Â I came across a kitchenÂ trick/geeky science experimentÂ to make a foolproof sorbet.

Zoe at Zoe Bakes, a chef turned food blogger, recently shared this amazing trick for making the perfect sorbet: an egg. Yes, a whole uncooked egg is they key. No, you don’t use it as an ingredient. You use it as a test to arrive at the perfect sugar/fruit juice combo. You put it in your un-frozen sorbet mixture and if it sinks, the sorbet needs more sugar. If it floats, just like the David Letterman WILL IT FLOAT gag, kitchen edition, that means your sorbet has the perfect sugar-to-juice ratio.

The great thing about knowing this trick is that you can make ANY kind of sorbet with this technique. Really, ANY juice can be made into this sorbet now that you know the floating egg trick. Basil-lemon juice sorbet? Sure. Blackberry-rosemary sorbet? No problem. ANY juice will work with this technique, so go ahead – live it up! Try your own flavor combos!

So, you just keep adding simple syrup to your juice until the egg finally floats! I love kitchen magic tricks!

Here’s how it looks when your sorbet is perfect:

When your egg floats to the top, your mixture is perfect!

Never fear again – the perfect sorbet is just one floating egg away!

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Tags: easy dessert, easy sorbet, foolproof sorbet, perfect sorbet, sorbet ice cream, sorbet recipe, sorbet recipes, strawberry dessert recipe, strawberry dessert recipes, strawberry sorbet, summer dessert
12 Comments »

No-Bake Nutella Chocolate Ice Box Cake Recipe – A Perfect Dessert for Hot Summer Days, Updated from My Childhood

May 26, 2011 in Desserts

No-Bake Chocolate Nutella Ice Box Cake

My grandma’s ice box cake recipe is one of my favorite food memories.

I have lots of other happy memories of her as well.

My great grandma’s hair was a thing of beauty and amazement to me. When I was lucky enough to sleep over at her house, I just couldn’t wait until nighttime. She would sit at her dressing table surrounded by her pretty perfume bottles and soft horsehair brushes and ivory broaches. It was the 1960′s everywhere but in Alta’s bedroom, where it was still the 1920′s. She would take the combs out of her put-up hair and it would cascade down to her waist, soft, wavy and billowy like I just knew a mermaid’s hair would be.Â Sometimes she even let me brush it, the biggest thrill of all. Softer than a dream, and shiny from the rainwater she saved to wash it in.

My Grandma Greenhaw loved us grand kids and we knew it by the way she let us “help” her. We sliced ripe summer tomatoes from the garden and arranged them fan-like on the plates. We peeled cucumbers and squash. And the biggest honor of all was helping with the Ice Box Cake.

It wasn’t a cake, really. It was graham crackers with whipped cream – layers and layers and layers until we ran out of crackers. Then, we stuck it in the Ice Box for what seemed like eons, waiting and waiting and waiting impatiently until it was soft and luscious and, well, cake-like. The way it works is that the moisture in the whipped cream softens the graham crackers and turns them into thin cake-like layers. It was a treat fit for a queen and her royal court. We giggled and ate so much our tummys hurt and then she read us stories until she began to nod her head and we all headed off to bed.

I decided to update Alta’s Ice Box Cake, using chocolate graham crackers, something she wouldn’t have dreamed of, and smeared with Nutella, also unknown to Alta, before slathering on the whipped cream. The flavors are richer than Alta’s, but the texture takes me right back to nights on her porch eating Ice Box Cake until we were sick. It’s the perfect “cake” for summertime, because there’s no baking required. No heating up your already steamy kitchen. And My! Oh My! is it luscious.

Alta Frances Greenhaw - circa 1920 (above) and 1970 (below)

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Tags: easy dessert, ice box cake, no bake dessert, no bake recipe, nutella dessert, nutella recipe, summer dessert
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Paper Bag Apple Pie Recipe – Easy Enough for Kids to Make (Using a Paper Bag and a Surprise Ingredient!)

Easy Candy Apple Tart Recipe – Four Ingredients and a Trip Back to Childhood in Just One Bite

Frozen Peach Souffles Recipe – Lighter Version – Made in Remembrance for 9/11

Peaches and Cream in Pistachio Phyllo Cups – Summer Bliss on a Plate

Lemon Pie Parfait Recipe – A Quick and Easy No-Bake Update of Grandma’s Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe

Grapefruit Gelato in Five Minutes: Your New Favorite Summer Dessert Recipe

Red, White and Blueberry Cookie Tarts – An Easy Festive Dessert for Your Patriotic Fourth of July Feast

Foolproof Sorbet and the Amazing Trick That Makes It Work: Our Easy Strawberry Lemon Zest Summer Sorbet Recipe

No-Bake Nutella Chocolate Ice Box Cake Recipe – A Perfect Dessert for Hot Summer Days, Updated from My Childhood

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