Caramel Applesauce Cobbler

Another apple dish I love to make is a cobbler or a crisp. Just taking a bite into the warm apples bursting with cinnamon makes my mouth go happy. Topping off a crisp or a cobbler with some homemade Vanilla Bean ice cream or a Pecan Bourbon Ice Cream, makes my mouth go into a food coma.

Here's a recipe for a Caramel Applesauce Cobbler. It's a version of a pie I use to have at my grandma's. Enjoy.

Ingredients: 1/2 c butter, 12 large Granny Smiths*, 2 c sugar, 2 TBSP fresh lemon juice, pie crust*, Vanilla Ice Cream*,  1 c pecans, 1/4 c bourbon

Instructions: (1) Toast pecans then chop. Stir softened ice cream, pecans, and bourbon together. Freeze for 4 hours. (2)Preheat oven to 425F. Melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add apples, sugar and lemon juice. Cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring often, until apples are a caramel-color. Spoon into a greased 2qrt baking dish. (3) Cut pie crust into 1/2" strips and arrange strips in a lattice design over filling. Place remaining strips on a baking sheet. (4) Bake strips at 425 for 8-10 minutes or until golden.  Bake cobbler for 20-25 or until crust is golden. Server warm with pastry strips and ice cream if desired.


*I substituted Spencer apples for this recipe but usually make it with Granny Smiths.
*I make my own pie crust but you can save time and purchase a refrigerated pie crust from a local grocery store.
*I usually make my own vanilla ice cream but if I'm running behind or totally forget, I'll use Brigham's Vanilla Bean.

Spiced Caramel Apple Bread Pudding

 Apple Picking is one of my favorite this to do in the fall. If I can't have warm sunny weather every day, then a cool crisp day picking apples from a local family farm is where I want to be. Sometimes I get luck and have some warm apple cider donuts while picking apples. I'm not big on warm apple cider for a drink. Last season friends of our went with us to pick apples. At first we were all set on the types of apples we wanted to pick but as soon as we were introduced to the SPENCER, we gave up our other options and just filled with bag with Spencers. If you haven't tried a Spencer apple, you are missing out. They are delicious, sweet, crunchy...kind of puts a Honeycrisp apple to shame; in my opinion.

Here's a recipe for an apple bread pudding. I usually make this with Granny Smith apples but will be trying it out in a few weeks with Spencer apples once I get back from apple picking with friends. Enjoy.

Ingredients:  1 Granny Smith Apple, .5 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 a loaf of Italian bread, cooking spray, 3 eggs, 1.5 c milk*, 1 c apple cider, 1/4 c packed brown sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, .25 tsp nutmeg, .25 c pecans, .75 c sugar, 1 tsp corn syrup, .5 c evaporated milk, 1.5 tsp butter, 1/3 c water

Instructions:  (1) Peel and chop the apple and saute it and .25 tsp of cinnamon in a lightly greased skillet over medium-high heat for 2 minutes or until tender. Cut bread into bite-size pieces and add bread and mixture to a 11x7" baking dish that has been coated with cooking spray. (2) Whisk eggs, milk, cider, brown sugar, vanilla, nutmeg and remaining cinnamon. Pour over bread mixture and cover and chill for 1 hour. (3) While pudding is chilling, preheat oven to 350F and bake chopped pecans on a baking sheet for 8-10 minutes. Sprinkle sugar in an even layer in a small saucepan and stir together syrup and water, and pour over sugar in saucepan. Cook, WITHOUT stirring, over med-high heat for 12-14 minutes or until sugar is dissolved and mixture is golden. Remove from heat and gradually whisk in milk. Stir in butter and pecans. (4) Preheat oven to 350F, if not already warm from toasting pecans, and bake mixture for 45 minutes or until top is crisp and golden brown. Serve warm with sauce.

*I usually use whole milk but you can use 2% if you want.

Pumpkin Caramel Pecan Bread Pudding

Image from Southern Living.

There are few bread puddings that I like and this is one of them. I got this recipe awhile ago from Southern Living Magazine. It was a hit when I made it one Thanksgiving. I love the caramel pecan sauce. It reminds me of eating pralines. Having individual ramekins, makes this dish more personal but you can cook it in one large dish* if you don't have them.

Enjoy.

Ingredients:  4 large eggs, 2 cans (15 oz) of pumpkin*, 1.5 c milk, 1 c half-and-half, 1 c sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, .5 tsp sea salt, .5 nutmeg, 1.5 tsp vanilla, 1 loaf of French bread, 1 c pecans, 1 c packed light brown sugar, .5 c butter, 1 TBSP corn syrup

Instructions: (1) Whisk eggs, pumpkin, milk, half-and-half, sugar, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, .5 tsp vanilla in a large bowl. (2) Cut bread into 1" pieces (about 10 c) and add bread pieces to mixture. Stir to coat thoroughly. Cover with Saran-Wrap and chill for 8-24 hours. (3) Preheat oven to 350F. Spoon mixture into individual 6-oz ramekins that have been lightly buttered*. Place ramekins on a foiled lined baking sheet. Bake for 50 min. and shield with foil after 30 min. (4) While pudding is baking, make sauce by adding pecans to a medium skillet and heat over med-low heat, stirring often for 3-5 minutes. Add brown sugar, butter, corn syrup to a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally for 3-4 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in 1 tsp vanilla and pecans. (5) Drizzle sauce on ramekins and bake for 5 minutes more or until sauce is heated through and begins to boil.

*I usually make my own puree from freshly grown sugar pumpkins from a local organic farmer.
*If you are using ramekins, you will need about 12. I use PAM to spray the ramekins.
*If you are baking as one dish, spoon chilled mixture into a 13x9 baking dish that has been lightly buttered. Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Add sauce and bake for another 5 minutes.

National Pecan Pie Day

July 12 is National Pecan Pie Day, just in case you didn't know. Pecan Pie is considered a specialty Southern dish. Usually it is served at holiday meals and consists mainly of pecans, corn syrup or molasses. Chocolate or bourbon whiskey are popular additives to the traditional Pecan Pie.

Tradition has it that the French invented the pie soon after settling in New Orleans. Supposedly they were introduced to the Pecan by Native Americans. No early recipes prior to 1897 can be found and popular cookbooks like Fannie Farmer and The Joy of Cooking didn't include a recipe until the 1940s. The Corn Products Refining Company, the makers of Karo syrup, popularized the dish and state that the pie was a "1930s discovery of a new use for Karo syrup by a corporate sales executive's wife."

This pie is very sweet. Us Southerners love our sugar and the only type of pecan we use are Georgia Pecans.

Here's a recipe for Pecan Pie. We use my granddaddy's pie crust and I can't give you that recipe or the family will kill me. Use whatever pie crust recipe you have and if you don't want to waste time making crust from scratch, purchase a prepared pie crust or the boxed pie crust located with the canned biscuits. I hear they taste just as good.

Ingredients:   2/3 c sugar, 1/3 cup butter, melted, 1 c corn syrup, 1/2 tsp sea salt, 3 eggs, 1 c pecan halves/broken

Instructions:  1. Preheat oven to 375F.  Prepare pastry and line pie plate with crust. 2. Beat sugar, butter, syrup, salt and eggs with an electric beater. Stir in pecans and pour into prepared pie plate. 3. Bake until set, usually 40-50 minutes. Chill for at least 2 hours. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

*After chilling the pie, you can freeze the pie for 3 hours uncovered then cover it and freeze for up to 1 month.
*Decrease the corn syrup to 3/4 cup and add 1/4 cup brandy to the mix for a Brandy Pecan Pie. You can also use bourbon.
*Melt 2-1 oz squares of unsweetened chocolate with the butter to make a Chocolate Pecan Pie.

Pralines

LSU is playing 'Bama in the BCS champion ship game tomorrow night. Let's Geaux Tigers!!!!
Since I've posted a King's Cake recipe early this morning and made a shrimp-chicken-sausage gumbo this afternoon, I figured I would post a recipe of one of my favorite cookies, Pralines.

The recipe posted below is one from a lady from Louisiana named Marie. She was one of the custodians that worked at the school my mom taught at. To earn extra money, Marie made and sold her Pralines. My mom had her son in class and Marie gave my mom her recipe for Pralines. Marie was known for NOT giving out her recipes so my mom was honored. Little did Marie know, my mom really doesn't do any experimental baking/cooking. I spied this recipe in one of my mom's old cookbooks that was filled with recipes given to her from people from church, school, and other locations.

The history of the praline dates back to 17th century France when the chef of the sugar industrialist, du Plessis-Praslin, individually coated whole almonds with caramelized sugar. Praline refers to an confection that is made of nuts and sugar syrup or any chocolate confection containing  ground powder or whole nuts. Belgium, France, and America all make pralines different. The American praline came into being in the 19th century when chefs would substitute pecans for the almonds and use cream to thicken the confection. American pralines have a consistency like fudge and can be very sweet.

My first time making Pralines was for a cookie swap one Christmas. It really didn't take me long to make the pralines but I did learn a very valuable lesson. While the mixture is cooking on the stove to get to that soft ball stage, make sure to be wearing oven mits because if the mixture bubbles and lands on any exposed skin, IT will burn. I loved the pralines but my Yankee husband didn't like them. To him they were too sweet and had pecans in them. I didn't mind because that meant extras for me.

Enjoy Marie's Praline recipe. If you ever travel to New Orleans, you will see these sugary treats almost everywhere you go. You will see a lot of Aunt Sally pralines but you can also find pralines made by a local baker. You should at least try them once. If they are too sugary for you, just means more for me!

Ingredients: 12oz can of evaporated milk, 2 c sugar, 1/2 stick butter, Pecans, vanilla

Instructions:  Mix milk, sugar, and butter in a pan and cook until thick like fudge. Drop a small amount of the mixture into cold water and see if a soft ball forms. If it does, remove from heat and add pecans and vanilla. Drop mixture on a buttered cookie sheet or butter Al foil. Cool completely.