Not your mom's apple pie

One of the desserts I ate the most growing up was apple pie – homemade apple pie. My mom makes the best apple pie and I’m pretty sure she could make it in her sleep if she needed to. One time when I was moving into one of my many apartments she managed to decorate my entire apartment and bake a pie at the same time, peeling apples as she walked. I don’t think my friend Nicole had ever been more impressed.

Well needless to say, I’m not my mom. I found a recipe for a Simple Apple Tart by Alice Waters and thought I’d try my hand at that. It’s probably one of the smarter decisions I’ve made in my life. I found the tart to be a great alternative to pie.

Now, some people (I won’t mention any names Nora and Sara) think that I prefer a more “old fashioned” or “weird” dessert. If you feel that way as well, you can look at this as a modern apple pie….you know, if it makes you feel better.

Simple apple tart
By Alice Waters (found on Smitten Kitchen)
-2 pounds apples peeled, cored and sliced (Golden Delicious or another tart, firm variety)(save peels and cores) 
-2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
-5 tablespoons sugar for tart (I only used 3)
-1/2 cup sugar for glaze

Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees

There are 2 ways to do this, in a tart pan or free form (Galette). I don’t have a tart pan so I did it free form. I rolled the dough and placed it on a piece of parchment paper on a big cookie sheet. I kind of cheated slightly, I used store bought dough. Either way – it’s still good!

Once your dough is ready, overlap the apples onto it. Leave enough room around the edge of the dough to fold it up over the apples.

Take your melted butter and brush it over the apples and onto the dough edge. Sprinkle the Sugar all over the apples and the dough edge.

Bake on the center rack of the oven until the apples are soft and the crust is golden brown – about 45 minutes.

For the glaze, put the peels and cores in a large saucepan, add the ½ cup of sugar and pour in a little bit of water, about 2 cups. Simmer while the tart is cooking.

When the tart is done and cooled brush the glaze over the apples and crust and discard the peels and cores.  Slice and Serve (a little ice cream never hurt anyone).

The holiday's are here....

…And with the holidays come the sweets. At work there are baskets of goodies on a daily basis. At home, I’m forced to make treats for a cookie exchange with my friends. My dad has a huge sweet tooth there is always ice cream in the freezer and m&m’s in the pantry, so when I went home for thanksgiving this year I had to make him something. After much searching I settled on a recipe for Peanut Butter Fudge….it’s amazing.

I think the secret ingredient here has to be the Marshmallow fluff! I don’t think I’ve had marshmallow fluff since I was 11 and my Aunt Margaret made me my first Fluffernutter sandwich. The fluff makes the fudge much creamier than normal fudge. This stuff is addictive; you can’t have just one piece. The trend at our house over the thanksgiving weekend was to grab a piece every time you walked through the kitchen.

This a pretty easy recipe, and what i liked most is that I had all the ingredients except for the fluff.

Peanut Butter Fudge
-2 cups granulated sugar
-2/3 cup milk
-1 cup fluff
-1 cup peanut butter creamy or chunky (i used creamy)
-1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

Boil sugar and milk in a medium saucepan until soft ball stage, or about 236 degrees on a candy thermometer.

Once it reaches about 236 degrees, remove it from heat and stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Pour fudge into greased 8x8 pan (i used a round pan) and chill.  I let it chill about an hour before cutting.