Peach Strawberry Pop Tarts

Zach and I took the long way home from our Jersey Shore vacation and decided to drive the 20+ hours back to Miami with our lovely Ethel. Believe it or not, despite Ethel's diva nature, she is absolutely spectacular on long distance car trips. Of course, we have to stop a little more frequent with the pup in our care, but it is well worth it. Especially, when we stopped at a gas station about halfway through our Georgia drive and stumbled upon a precious peach and pecan stand. I couldn't help, but get my hands on some of the freshly picked peaches, and I made a friend too ;) When in Georgia...

Upon our return home, I decided to whip up some peach strawberry pop tarts for a special breakfast treat. The recipe below includes the use of Pillsbury Crescent dough sheets, but I only recommend using this type of pre-made dough if you intend on eating the tarts soon after baking and want a softer crust. For better keeping and long lasting crunchy pop tarts, I prefer making homemade dough like this recipe HERE. See all tart details below. Life sure is peachy! xo RCN

Ingredients - You will need the following for 1 dozen 6" tarts (dough + filling):

4 soft peeled peaches cut into small cubes

2 heaping cups of full strawberries then cut into small cubes + a few quartered for topping

3 Pillsbury Crescent Dough Sheets, each sheet cut into 8 equal size rectangles

Sprinkle of flour for cookie sheets and laying out dough

1 1/4 cup Sugar

3 tablespoons Raw Honey

1/4 teaspoon Cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon

1 1/2 tablespoons Lemon Juice

1 1/2 tablespoons Orange Juice

For the iced topping:

3/4 cup confectioners sugar

1 Tablespoon Milk

1/4 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F. Roll out defrosted/thawed dough and cut each dough sheet into 8 equal sized rectangles. Lay dough rectangles onto floured cookie sheet, set aside. Combine chopped fruit (peaches peeled too) and all other ingredients into a medium size mixing bowl. Once combine spoon filling into center of half of the dough rectangles. Cover the filled rectangles with the remaining dough rectangles. Use a fork to pinch shut the edges of the overlapping dough. It's okay if some filling oozes out sides, it'll give them character. Bake for about 20 minutes +, until all edges start to brown. It's important that the dough appears hard at edges. This helps to insure the bottom of the tarts are fully baked. Remove and let cool. Lastly, combine in small bowl 3/4 cup confectioners sugar, 1 Tablespoon of milk and 1/4 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract. Place glaze mixture in ziplock bag and snip corner off bag. Squeeze icing gently across tops of tarts in zigzag formation. Top with fresh cut strawberries (quartered). Enjoy!

Confetti Cookies

I spent the last few nights in NOLA celebrating my girlfriend Roxie's bachelorette. We had a wonderful time. I won't mention too many details about the trip, but we thoroughly enjoyed the food and drinks in New Orleans. We ate dinner at Seaworthy and Sylvain, brunched at Wilma Jean and Commander's Palace, munched on beignets from Cafe du Monde, and of course tried pork belly, shrimp, and roast beef Po'boys from a few different places.

I brought along some colorful celebratory cookies to have back at the house for when we weren't eating a million other snacks. These were simple to make, as I didn't use a homemade recipe. Sometimes, you just don't need homemade, especially in a time crunch! 

Instructions:

I divided pre-made Pillsbury sugar cookie dough and rolled into small balls and flattened with my hands. I varied the cookie sizes, the smallest being the size of a dime. Once the cookies were baked and cooled, I prepped the cookie icing. When following the directions to heat the icing, I only zapped in microwave for 10 seconds on 50% heat. I also let the icing sit for a minute before beginning to spread onto the cookies. Most importantly, I used a tooth pick to evenly divide and spread the onto the cookies. The alphabet cookie cutters and icing came from Michael's Craft Store. The icing portion part of this project took the longest, so give yourself a little time to work on this if you are making a lot of the confetti cookies. In the end, they are fun and worth it! 

This weekend was full of champagne, sweets, and lots of other food and drinks. I think I am in need of a little detox these next few weeks! xo RCN 

Apple vs. Pumpkin

The question arises at dessert time every Thanksgiving with my family. "Pumpkin or Apple?". The most common answer spoken is, "Both". However, I can recall a few years when an apple pie was absent and other options, like cookies were available. This year, Zach and I are headed to my parent's home in New Jersey, and we are bringing the pie. Apple vs. Pumpkin is too difficult for me to decide, so I will be making both.

 I discovered the perfectly adorable and delicious recipe for mini pumpkin pies on the Diva's Can Cook blog. The recipe for both the filling and dough are easy to make. Do not be afraid of the dough. Follow the instructions and you should have no issue. My only advice is to continually add a little flour to your counter surface as you flatten out dough and begin cutting crust shapes out.  The dough will be sticky the more you fuss with it and will stick to counter if there is not enough flour on your surface. For a very easy apple pie filling I used a recipe from Pillsbury designed specifically for mini pies. Okay, so the question still is, Apple or Pumpkin?  You tell me in the comments section below.  

Enjoy! xo RCN

MY ADJUSTMENTS TO RECIPE: I doubled the dough recipe and split it between both my apple and pumpkin pie fillings. This will yield about 16 pie crusts with enough extra to lattice the tops of your apple pies. I decided to change the recipe from bite size to miniature pies by using a 3 3/4" flower shaped cookie cutter, rather than a 2 inch circle cookie cutter. Once I cut out all crusts, I flattened them a little more by hand to make them slightly bigger than 3 3/4", then I placed them into a a full size cupcake/muffin tin, rather than a mini tin. Each individual pie measures out to about the serving size of 2/3 of a regular slice of pie.

LATTICE CRUST FOR APPLE: After cutting out 16 flower crusts, I flattened out extra dough and cut thin strips for my lattice. You will need two, 2 1/2" strips and four 1 1/2" strips for each apple pie crust. Place both the longer strips in a cross format over-top of apple pies, once you have scooped apple filling into the crust. Then, add smaller strips to left, right, top and bottom of your cross shape and alternate them fitting over and under the longer strips of dough. Refer to pic of finished pies above.

ORIGINAL PUMPKIN RECIPE from Diva's Can Cook

Ingredients

Pie Crust (all ingredients should be very cold)

1¼ cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup butter (chopped)

¼ cup butter shortening

¼ cup cold water

Pumpkin Filling

¼ cup brown sugar

¼ cup white sugar

4 tablespoons butter, softened

1 egg

½ cup heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon flour

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (can add more if desired)

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup canned pure pumpkin

Instructions for Crust

1. Preheat oven to 350 F

2. In a medium size bowl whisk together flour, sugar and salt.

3. Cut in butter and shortening until crumbly.

4. Stir in cold water.

5. Stir until dough forms.

6. Press dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

7. When pie dough has chilled remove it from fridge and knead lightly a few times.

8. Flour a work surface and pat dough out about ¼ inch thick.

9. Use flower cookie cutter about 3 3/4"-4" to cut out dough

10. Press dough slightly by hand to flatten a little larger than 3 3/4", at least 4 "

11. Press the perimeter of the pie dough so that they completely fill the tin. 

Instructions for filling

1. In a large bowl combine white sugar, brown sugar and butter until creamy.

2. Mix in egg, heavy cream, flour and vanilla until creamy.

3. Fold in pure pumpkin and pumpkin spice. 

4. Place the batter into the pie crusts using a mini ice cream scoop, about two scoops each.

5. Use a spoon to smooth out and level the filling in each pie.

6. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the centers are set and crust looks golden. Be careful not to over bake, keep an eye while they bake for the last few minute.

7. Pies will be puffy when they come out of the oven, but will sink back down when cooled.  Let stand a few minutes, remove from pan and let cool completely on counter.

8. Top with whipped cream before you serve.

ORIGINAL APPLE FILLING RECIPE from Pillsbury

Ingredients

2 apples, cored, finely chopped (about 1/4-inch pieces) 

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon All-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions for filling

1. In medium bowl, stir together apples, sugar, flour, cinnamon and vanilla. 

2. Divide mixture into pie crusts. (Top with lattice crust, instructions above)

3. Bake 20-25 minutes or until crusts are golden and center is bubbly.

4. Cool for a few minutes and then remove pies from pan to completely cool on counter.