Salted Caramel Apple Pie

I promised my family I'd post this incredible apple pie recipe that I put together this year. We had more than enough apples on our tree in the backyard, so I was all about apple recipes for quite a while.

Plus, I know when Fall is getting near when I start cooking with apples and cinnamon. Mmmmm mmm!

It feels good using fresh produce grown in the backyard. 

I put together three different recipes and made some tweaks to each one to make it my own. I actually attempted this pie two different times and made any necessary changes the second time. The result was...miraculous.

The crust I used is now my go-to pie crust recipe. It is from Williams Sonoma and I don't change anything from the written recipe. I definitely use the mixer version and use my kitchenaid. I've made this crust multiple times and it is always flaky and delicious! 

  

The topping is a crumble topping from The Pioneer Woman. Any recipe that she posts is going to be good, in my experience. I've used this crumb topping recipe a lot, but I fear that the full recipe is a little too much. I have three-quartered the recipe below since I think that's the perfect amount of topping.

E found the pie filling recipe, which I also altered a tad bit to make it absolutely divine. The first time I made it, I sprinkled 1/8 tsp or so of salt over top of the finished filling before adding the topping. However, the salt amount was perfect when I substituted salted butter for the unsalted butter in the caramel sauce.

I hope you enjoy this pie as much as we did! Finish it off with a dollop (or two) of vanilla ice cream and you have yourself something special.

Pie Crust:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups flour

• 1 Tbs. sugar

• 1/4 tsp. salt

• 8 Tbs. (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch cubes

• 3 Tbs. very cold water

1. To make the dough in a stand mixer, fit the mixer with the flat beater, and stir together the flour, sugar and salt in the mixer bowl. Add the butter and toss with a fork to coat with the flour mixture. Mix on medium-low speed until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal, with the butter pieces no larger than small peas. Add the water and mix on low speed just until the dough pulls together.
2. Transfer the dough to a work surface, pat into a ball and flatten into a disk. (Although many dough recipes call for chilling the dough at this point, this dough should be rolled out immediately for the best results.) Lightly flour the work surface, then flatten the disk with 6 to 8 gentle taps of the rolling pin. Lift the dough and give it a quarter turn. Lightly dust the top of the dough or the rolling pin with flour as needed, then roll out into a round at least 12 inches in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick. Makes enough dough for one 9-inch single-crust pie or one 10-inch galette. 

Caramel Apple Filling:

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup salted butter

3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup water

6-7 granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced

1. Melt butter in a sauce pan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add granulated sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and water. Bring to a boil. Reduce temperature, and simmer for 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with sliced apples, mounded slightly. Top with the sugary caramel sauce.
3. Cover with a top crust, using whatever technique you feel comfortable with. I used the crumb topping. (See recipe below).
4. Bake 15 minutes at 425 degrees F. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F, and continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes.
5. Once finished baking, let sit out for at least 4 hours, preferably closer to 12 hours. This is a perfect pie to make the day before.

Crumb Topping:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup, plus 2 Tbsp. flour

9 Tbsp. butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup, plus 2 Tbsp. quick oats

pinch of salt

1. Cut the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter, then add in brown sugar, oats, and a pinch of salt.

T-shirt Rag Quilt: BYU

A couple weeks ago I posted the machine-quilted t-shirt quilt I made for Shaner and V-man out of Shaner's old t-shirts. Well this week, I finished a new t-shirt quilt. I had this dream of making a machine-quilted "Y" (for BYU) out of all of my old blue and white/gray t-shirts. However, when I pulled them out of the old tupperware that the Madre had sent down to me, I realized that about 2/3 of the 56 necessary t-shirts were already prepped for a rag quilt! I decided it'd be much more convenient and time-efficient to just prep the other t-shirts and make a "Y" rag quilt.

And that's just what I did.

The "prep" stage that I keep speaking of is the cutting and filling of each shirt. Cut each one to 12 1/2 inches. I used an 8x7-shirt design to make a queen-sized quilt. After I drew it out on the computer, I knew just how many dark vs. light shirts were needed. 

After cutting the shirts to size, it is time to cut the flannel to the same size. Each square of flannel is then placed between the front and the back of each t-shirt square and they are sewn together with a large X (corner to corner seam on each square).

After each shirt is "prepped", it is time to lay them out in the design and order you want. I tried to keep shirts that were too similar further away from each other.

Gather up the shirts row by row and leave in separate piles. I had eight different piles at this point. Then sew together the seven t-shirts in each row, being sure to make the actual seam show on the FRONT of each shirt. I used a 5/8-inch seam. On each end (top and bottom of entire quilt and sides of each row), sew a 5/8-inch seem as well, even though no shirts are being connected there. After each row is complete, sew the tops of each new row to the bottom of the previous row until the entire quilt is sewn together and has ugly seam lines all over.

The back of the quilt should appear like this, with clean seams. 

Next comes the tedious but essential part of this project: trimming the seams. JoAnn sells short-nosed clippers meant specifically for this project. They cost a pretty penny, so I used a 40% off coupon for it and it was much more affordable. Trim each seam about 1/4-3/8-inches apart using the clippers. In addition, trim the outer edges (where I previously mentioned you needed to add a seam) in the same manner.

And the rag look is finally showing through.

After trimming the seams, there will be A LOT of thread and lint pieces from the trimmed edges. To remove that and to finish the rag look, simply wash the quilt on a light wash and then dry it. Because of the large amounts of lint, however, I dried it in four or five different 10-20 minute cycles, cleaning the lint out between each cycle. It worked like a charm!

Here is what the finished seams look like up close.

  

And here are the edges where you added the extra 5/8-inch seam.

And there you have it! Now V-man has a nice "Y"on his huge bed, and this quilt actually fits!

Strawberry-Vanilla Checkerboard Cake

Since Sissy was born, I haven't been able to keep up with the blog much. This post is from way back in April. In fact, it was our Easter dessert this year! It looks quite fancy, but it's really a simple process.

To begin with, I made two different cake batters: fresh strawberry (from The Kitchen McCabe) and vanilla (from The Baker Upstairs).  In fact, I used the same vanilla cake recipe that I used for my Vanilla Cream-filled Cupcakes with Fresh Strawberry Buttercream. I halved each cake batter recipe for this one.

Using a checkerboard cake pan set, first grease and flour each of the three pans. Place the strawberry and vanilla cake batters in the pan sections, alternating each. Then place the three pans in the oven and bake them at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool the cakes on a cooling rack until completely cool.

Once cooled, remov the cakes from the pans and place them on top of one another to make a three-tiered rectangular cake.

I topped these with my favorite whipped cream topping. All it takes is freshly-whipped cream, slightly sweetened with powdered sugar and vanilla, and a yogurt flavor of your choice. I chose to use strawberry. Once the cream is whipped and sweetened, fold in enough yogurt to give it a fresh fruit flavor. Then cover the cake with it! This whipped cream topping is also perfect for fruit dip if you have some leftover...or for eating plain.

I garnished with fresh strawberry halves as well.

I hope you get a chance to try this sometime! It's definitely a show-stopper when you have guests over.