queen michelle

Candy Apple Pie

First off I want to thank the fall weather for encouraging me to gain 12 pounds this season. THANK YOU!

Last Friday we attended our first Halloween party, in which we were 2 of the three people at the party who dressed up. It was not our first time looking like idiots on the subway and it sure as hell won’t be the last. I am trying to do this new, nice, grown up thing when I go to parties; bringing food. Not a six pack of Budweiser, a nice homemade treat. When I crowd sourced and asked the age old question, “Pie or candy apples?” I was promptly told “CANDY APPLE PIE”. I was so on it.

I googled the aforementioned phrase and (un?)surprisingly a bamillion recipes came up. There is officially nothing google doesn’t know. I picked the first one that came up, threw on an apron and started peeling apples.

This recipe is kind of insane? A crust made of graham crackers, pecans, caramel, butter and brown sugar?! OW. Then came the apples, which were reduced in a brown butter sauce. THEN I was supposed to put a cream cheese layer on top of that, but I did not have it my heart to kill everyone at the party, so I omitted that step. The top was only some homemade whipped cream and pecans and MORE caramel. Did I say only? (Un?)Fortunately due to the pecans I couldn’t even tast this sugar behemoth, but I heard it was great! I also heard it was “disgustingly sweet”, which, no shit, it’s a CANDY APPLE PIE.

ScooOOOOoooooby Snacks!

Yay October! Yay for sweaters and wool socks and pumpkins. Yay for Halloween and whiskey and baking. I am a cold weather creature and actively keep my oven off during the summer months. Currently, my “recipe” file is packed to the rafters with bread, pie, cookies, PIE, brownies, candy and cider ideas. But never have I ever thought about making crackers. CRACKERS! Crackers. As a baker I love sweets and a colorful assortment of goodies; but as a human I’m a salt lover. Give me a bag of Ruffles over a plate of cookies any day. Any. Day. This makes no sense but I am fortunate because that means I don’t have to buy all new clothes when I put on a bamillion pounds for eating everything I bake. That’s what I have work and a fiance for. When I came across a cracker recipe it was exciting because for some reason it honestly never occurred to me that people could make crackers, yet I was also a little apprehensive because this is something that I would eat all of.

 I am visiting my biff fo liff this weekend and want to shower her with treats. I decided on whoopie pies and crackers. Whoopie pies, while adorable and totally fun to make, fall into my “eh, you eat ‘em” category. The crackers on the other hand…I used this recipe; I was sold when I was reading the reviews and one of them said they are like “fancy Cheese-its”. I’m in! The process is like a combination of making bread and pie and sugar cookies. You cut in the butter like bread, chill the dough like pie dough, and roll it out like you would for sugar cookies. I used a small dog bone cookie cutter because of course I did. It was SO fun. Like, I’m embarrassed at how much fun I had. You make all these little bones and then egg wash them and sprinkle them with salt and WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?! I was literally jumping up and down. Soooo. I made 6 dozen of them, ate about 2 dozen of them, and packed up the rest for my biff.

They DO taste like fancy cheese-its. They are chock full with cheddar cheese, poppy seeds and my excitement. A winning combination!