Apple crumble, whipped cream, and failure

Well I planned a totally awesome post today about apple crisp. Then I messed up, and didn't have all the right ingredients. I tried salvaging it, but it just didn't taste very good. Apple crisp is one of my favorite desserts ever, so this week I'm going to post the recipe, and talk about the parts of the recipe I didn't fail at. Which amounts to peeling apples, and making whipped cream. Sorry guys, but Bee's are only human.


Apple peeling a cutting are the worst parts of this recipe. It's not hard, just tedious. Luckily I have the apple destroyer! Available here. I love this device, it's great for cooking, making snack for kids, and people who have braces.

I made the whipped cream after the cobbler was done. I love homemade whipped cream, and it's so easy to make! Sadly I didn't get an ingredient picture, but the list is pretty small. You want to whisk/beat your whipped cream till it looks like the picture above. So good you'll want to eat it by itself!

Apple Crisp Recipe
Adapted from here
Topping:
1/2 cup (65 grams) all purpose flour
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar
1/4 cup (55 grams) light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fresh or ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (84 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup (30 grams) old-fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup (40 grams) chopped walnuts or pecans
Filling:
2 1/2 pounds (1.2 kg) or 6 cups Granny Smith Apples or other firm, tart-tasting apple (peeled, cored, and cut into 1 inch (2.54 cm) chunks)
1 cup fresh blackberries or raspberries (optional)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3 tablespoons (40 grams) white granulated sugar
Apple Crisp: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Butter or spray with a cooking spray, a 9 inch (23 cm) deep dish pie plate or an 8 x 8 x 2 inch (20 x 20 x 5 cm) baking dish. (Can also make 8 individual ramekins.) Set aside.
For Topping: Place all the topping ingredients (flour, sugars, spices, butter, oats and nuts) in a food processor and process until the mixture is crumbly (looks like coarse meal) and there are no large pieces of butter visible. (This can also be done with two knives or your fingertips.) Set aside while you prepare the filling.
For Filling: Place the apple chunks in a large bowl, along with the berries (if using) and lemon zest. Toss with the lemon juice and sugar. Transfer to your prepared baking dish Spread the topping evenly over the apples.
Bake for approximately 30-40 minutes (20 - 25 minutes for individual ramekins) or until bubbly, and the topping is golden brown. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 30 minutes before serving.
Serve with softly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Refrigerate leftovers and reheat before serving.
Makes 4 servings.

Basic Whipped Cream Recipe:
Adapted from here. Lots of good variations on their website.
enough for at least 8 dessert servings
Ingredients:
• 1 pint heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
Preparation:
1. Mix the liquid ingredients in a bowl. Mix any additional dry ingredients with the powdered sugar then mix the dry ingredient mixture with the liquid ingredients.
2. Whip the mixture with an electric hand mixer until raised peaks form in it and hold their shape. It should take about four minutes (or much longer if using a manual hand mixer or whisk).
3. Serve over your dessert and enjoy!

The Bee's Favorites: Limonata

So once a month I'll do a segment called "The Bee's Favorites." In these segments I'll talk about a food/drink product that I enjoy but don't (usually) cook with. Today I'm going to talk about Limonata. Limonata has always been my favorite soda. It is made by San Pellegrino and is generally rather expensive. When I first had one, they looked like this:


Now they have adopted a new look for organic marketing. I'm not a fan, but luckily they still taste awesome!


A Limonata is a sour/bitter lemon flavored soda. They taste kind of like carbonated lemon juice, but sweet. Usually they sell for about $5-$7 for a six pack. They are very worth it. Sometimes places like Whole Foods sell singles if you want to try one, and not spend a whole lot. If you enjoy lemon, and soda that doesn't give you cavities, I'd highly recommend Limonata. Either way, Limonata is The Bee's Favorite of the Week.

Zozobra!

The Bee was born in Santa Fe, NM. Santa Fe has the awesome tradition of having fiestas in August/September, and then burning Old Man Gloom (Zozobra). This is where to watch it tonight streaming live. Think of the movie Wicker Man except without creepy paganistic undertones or dead people. This site has a history and information about it, and I bet you could find Zozobra videos on youtube.
So what does all this have to do with cooking? Well in honor of Old Man Gloom I’m going to be baking a delicious New Mexico treat, natillas on a cinnamon tortilla.
Natillas is a Mexican flan, except unlike flan it’s delicious. I’ve never made it before so this should be interesting.



Ingredients, a fairly short list, I caution you this recipe is very sweet, next time I make it I’m probably going to use only ¼ a cup sugar for the “cooking” part.



So this is what separation of eggs looks like. Five yolks and five whites.



Beat the 5 egg yolks. Add to 1 cup of milk. Mix 1 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of sugar. The batter was surprisingly thin.



Warm 3 cups of milk, 3/4 cup sugar (or 2/3 in my case) and 2 tablespoons vanilla, add egg yolk mixture slowly and boil to thicken. This probably took twenty minutes or so. I have a video of how I was stirring since this recipe needs CONSTANT stirring, seriously. I walked away to grab my phone and it got weird on me. I used medium heat, occasionally turning it to medium high for a few minutes, then back down to medium. Natillas are lumpy so don’t be alarmed.



This is about the thickness you want, like pudding.



Before serving, whip the egg whites to a peak,



Add 1/4 cup of sugar, and mix.
Fold the Natillas. I just went ahead and folded them then put them in the fridge to cool. Yay me! On to cinnamon tortilla shells



Ingredients.



Heat a skillet pan over medium heat, either spray it down or add ½ tbsp margarine. Let it heat up/melt. I took pictures with the spray, but switched to margarine because I felt it worked better.



Add tortilla and spray/add margarine to upward side. Once melted sprinkle 1 Tbsp sugar and however much cinnamon across, and flip. There measurements are not exact, this is up to taste. I prefer things to be less sweet, so you might need more.



Add sugar and cinnamon to other side. Flip constantly or they will burn. I burned one a bit and it made me a sad little Bee.


Once both sides have a light caramel color, remove. They smell so amazingly good!



Immediately press it into a bowl with a spoon. Let cool/harden, and then cover with plastic wrap until ready to use. Sadly I did not have time to spoon my natillas into a cinnamon shell, but I plan to enjoy them tonight.
Farewell Old Man Gloom! This one’s for you 

Natillas - Sweet Custard, adapted from here
Ingredients,
1 Cup Milk
5 Egg yolks
1 cup Flour
3 cups Milk
1 cup Sugar
2 tbsp Vanilla
Beat the 5 egg yolks. Add to 1 cup of milk. Mix 1 cup of flour and 1/4 cup of sugar. Warm 3 cups of milk, 3/4 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons vanilla, add egg yolk mixture slowly and boil to thicken. Before serving, whip the egg whites to a peak, add 1/4 cup of sugar and fold the Natillas and sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg.

Cinnamon Tortilla Shells, my own original recipe
Ingredients,
1 Flour tortilla, (preferably not burrito sized like mine)
1 Tbsp of margarine, halved OR butter flavored cooking spray
2 Tbsp sugar, separated
Sprinkle of cinnamon
Heat a skillet pan over medium heat, either spray it down or add ½ tbsp margarine. Let it heat up/melt. Add tortilla and spray/add margarine to upward side. Once melted sprinkle sugar and cinnamon across, and flip. Add sugar and cinnamon to other side. Flip constantly. Once both sides have a light caramel color, remove and immediately press it into a bowl with a spoon. Let cool/harden, and then cover with plastic wrap until ready to use.

Temperamental fluffernutters, and hurt fingers

About a year or two ago I decided to make peanut butter cookies. My fiancé was out with friends and I felt like baking. He’s not a peanut butter cookie fan so I figured it would be a great time to make them. However, I had never made them before so I wasn’t aware how thick the dough can be.
While I was mixing my mixer suddenly got stuck and stopped. I was concerned so I stuck my fingers between the beaters to try and get the dough dislodged. I dislodged it and the mixer started right back up, mixing my fingers. Oh my goodness did I scream! I haven’t screamed that hard since I sprained my elbow. I pulled the cord out of the wall and tried to dislodge my fingers. I couldn’t. I grabbed my phone with my free hand and called my fiancé screaming and crying and scaring the crap out of him. He rushed home, and together we dislodged my fingers. They weren’t broken but they hurt for days. I eventually baked the peanut butter cookies and they were so not worth it.
I hadn’t been daring enough to try and bake any again, until now!
A fluffernutter is originally a sandwich where marshmallow cream is smeared on one slice of wonder bread, and creamy peanut butter is smeared on the other. Lucky for you The Bee hates sandwiches so I’ll be making cookies. Well maybe luckily.



Ingredients, I was surprised there was no flour. Peanut butter cookies are not my strong point as will be evident soon. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray two baking sheets (or one if you're lazy like me and don't want to do dishes) with cooking spray and set aside.



In a medium bowl, mix the peanut butter and sugars together until creamy and smooth. I'm not sure if this is creamy and smooth, but my mixer was on high for a long time, and I got tired of mixing. Since the original recipe didn't have picture I just guessed. However I encourage you to beat longer if you want your mixture to really have the creamy smooth look.



Add in the egg and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined. Again, not sure what well combined is, so I guessed. It looks kind of different from the other one.



Add the salt and baking soda. Stir until mixed together.



Add marshmallow cream a stir till just combined (swirled.) This deviates from the original recipe, but I hate marshmallows and didn't want a marshmallow cream center. I think that the swirling was a huge mistake as my cookies came out not awesome. I was originally going to post a different recipe, but the ingredients were literally egg, peanut butter, and marshmallow cream which sounded kinda sketchy. Next time I'd leave out this step and just make peanut butter cookies



Spoon dough into balls, about 1 tablespoon of dough for each cookie. Place the cookie dough balls on the greased baking sheets, about two inches apart.



Bake for 6-8 minutes. Remove baking sheets from the oven. Move cookies to a wire rack and cool. I didn't get a good cooling picture, but these were cooked for six minutes and came out great. I like them gooey in the center, so they might be a little raw for some. I burnt my first batch, badly, as the original recipe has them baking for 10-12 minutes.
Although I had problems with the recipe that didn't stop my I-hate-peanut-butter-cookies fiancé from gobbling up about six of them

Fluffernutter Cookies

Adapted from here

Ingredients
1 cup Creamy Peanut Butter
½ cups Brown Sugar
½ cups Granulated Sugar
1 whole Egg
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
¼ teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 cup Marshmallow Cream

Preparation Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray two baking sheets with cooking spray and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, mix the peanut butter and sugars together until creamy and smooth.
3. Add in the egg and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined.
4. Add the salt and baking soda. Stir until mixed together
5. Add marshmallow cream a stir till just combined (swirled)
6. Spoon dough into balls, about 1 tablespoon of dough for each cookie. Place the cookie dough balls on the greased baking sheets, about two inches apart.
7. Bake for 6-8 minutes. Remove baking sheets from the oven.
8. Move cookies to a wire rack and cool.

Stay sweet and savory!
The Bee