Apple Spice Cake (with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting)

The days are getting shorter and turning cooler, the leaves are beginning to change color, and apple season is here!  Time to start baking all those traditional fall goodies.  I'm not much of a pumpkin recipe gal, but I love pretty much everything apples!  Below is one of my favorite fall desserts.  I like to use a tart apple as the sweetness of the cake counteracts the tartness.  I hope you enjoy this dessert as much as my family does!

Ingredients (cake):
2 c. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. butter, softened
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. warm water
3 apples, chopped

Ingredients (frosting):

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. butter, softened
3 c. powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. maple syrup (real or "fake" can be used)
1 tsp. (or more) maple flavoring

Oven Temperature:  350 degrees
Baking time: 45 minutes, or until cake is golden brown

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and salt.

In a separate bowl (I used my KitchenAid mixer), cream together the butter and sugar.

Add in the eggs and vanilla.

In a small bowl or glass, combine the baking powder and warm water...it should bubble!

Once the baking powder and water have been stirred up well, add it to the butter and egg mixture and mix all well.

Finally, add the dry ingredients from your first bowl into the mixing bowl.  A smooth batter will form.

Go ahead and start working on getting the apples ready to go.  Any kind of apple will do you and you can chop the pieces as large or small as you want.  I like finding pieces of apple throughout my cake, so I chop them to a medium-size.

Pour the apples into the batter and gently mix in by hand--a spatula works well.

Pour the batter into a 9x13" pan.  You will need to use your spatula to spread the batter evenly throughout the pan as the batter is fairly thick.

Go ahead and place the cake in the oven and bake for approximately 45 minutes.  While the cake is baking, it's a perfect time to get started on the maple frosting.

Gather your frosting ingredients; if possible, allow the butter and cream cheese to soften up in advance so that the job is a bit easier and you have a smooth frosting.

Simply combine all of the above ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix until smooth.

After 45 minutes or so, the cake should be ready.  Go ahead and place it on a cooling rack.  Allow it to cool fully before putting the frosting on it.

Once the cake has cooled, generously spread the frosting over the top and serve!

3-Ingredient Fruit Dip

This recipe was shared with me by one of my good friends.  One taste of it and I was hooked.  Even more so when I learned that it only had 3 ingredients, all of which I typically have on hand.  Delicious with any kind of fruit although I find it especially appealing in the fall when apples are in season.  Nothing beats dipping an orchard-fresh apple into this dip!  (Although it tastes great with store apples, too!)  Hope you like this dip as much as our family does!

Ingredients:

1 8-oz. block of cream cheese, softened
1 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Throw your cream cheese (preferably softened; mine was not, therefore my dip doesn't look as creamy as it could) in a bowl.

Add the brown sugar and mix until it's combined.  You could easily use an electric mixer for this step and save yourself some work.  I usually think of these things after the fact and do things the hard way.

Add the vanilla and stir that in as well.

Slice up your fruit and serve with this delicious dip!  Keep dip refrigerated when you're not using it.

Chicken Pot Pie

These things are so easy to make.  The most time-consuming part is if you make your crust from scratch.  (Notice I said time-consuming, not difficult!)  But either homemade crust or store-bought crust works well with this recipe.

Ingredients:

Vegetables,cubed/sliced--of your choice (I used carrots, potatoes, frozen corn and frozen peas)
Chicken, cooked and cubed (can also use beef or any other meat)
Onions, chopped--to your taste
**White sauce plus 1 c. chicken (or beef) broth and reserved veggie broth **Read directions below before making the white sauce as there are a few additions to the recipe.
Pie crust (homemade or store bought)

Slice up your vegetables and place them in a small saucepan along with water.  Turn stove top on medium heat, cover, and allow the vegetables to cook for about 10 minutes, or until tender.

In another sauce pan, melt the butter as directed in the white sauce recipe, but also add in the chopped onion and saute in the butter until translucent.

Add in the flour, salt, and pepper per the white sauce recipe.  Then add the milk along with 1 c. broth.  By this time your veggies should be soft and you can drain them, but reserve that liquid and pour it into the white sauce as well.  Cook the sauce until it begins to thicken and comes to a nice consistency.

At this point, you will add the chicken and the veggies to the white sauce and stir them all together.  My chicken looks a little funny in this picture; normally I would use cubed chicken, but I have a bunch of pre-cooked, chopped chicken in my freezer ready to throw into a variety of recipes, so that's what I used here to save some time.

Pour the filling into your waiting pie crust.

Carefully cover with 2nd pie crust.  Cut slits in the top crust to allow the steam to escape during baking.  (You may want to place a cookie sheet underneath the pot pie while it bakes in case any liquid cooks out of the pie.)

Bake for at least 45 minutes, until the pie crust turns golden brown.

Allow pot pie to rest for about 10 minutes before slicing into it.  The longer it sits, the more the sauce thickens up.  Cut into pieces, serve, and enjoy!

Flaky All Butter Pie Crust

I LOVE this pie crust recipe.  I used to have a hard time making pie crusts, until I found this recipe.  Not only does it taste great, but it's simple to roll out because it's not as dry as traditional crusts, add to that maximum flakiness and you have a winner!  Keep in mind that you can use this crust for both sweet and savory dishes--if using it for savory, simply omit the sugar from the recipe.  I used this recipe to make a delicious blueberry pie as well as chicken pot pie.  Both tasted fantastic!!  I hope you find this recipe as easy as I do.  Sure, nothing is more simple than buying the kind in the box at the store, but those don't taste as good as the real deal and I promise, this really is an easy dough to work with! :)

Ingredients:
2 1/2 c. flour
1 Tbsp. sugar (omit if using a savory filling)
1 tsp. salt
2 sticks butter
1 c. ice cold water **note, you will not use all the water

Baking time: varies depending on what you are making, but approximately 60 minutes
Baking temp: 450 degrees for first 10 minutes, then drop the temp to 350 for remainder of baking time.

Start out by getting your ice water ready--fill a 1-cup measuring cup with water to just under 1 c. and add a few ice cubes to make sure it stays cold.  The key to making a great pie crust is to keep the ingredients cold!

Mix your dry ingredients in a large bowl, then cut in the cold butter.  Some people use their food processor for this step, but I prefer using my pastry cutter--you have better control over the size of the butter chunks.  Visible chunks of butter means a flakier crust--the butter melts as it bakes, leaving a hollow, flaky area behind!

Pour about 1/2 c. of the cold water into your bowl and begin to mix it in with the dry ingredients.  You want the dough to start to clump together, so add water as necessary.  I use a spoon for the initial stirring of my ingredients.  You can see in this photo that the dough is starting to stick together, but there is still a lot of dry areas, so more water needs to be added.

After adding more water, my dough now looks like this:

It's a bit wet looking, but that is okay, it turns out just fine and is easier to roll out because it's not dry and cracking/falling apart.  Once your dough is sticking together nicely, remove the spoon and use your hands to separate the dough into 2 fairly equal portions.  If you are making a double-crust pie, you'll want one of the lumps of dough to be slightly larger than the other as you need to cover a little more surface area for the bottom crust.  Flatten the dough lumps into a disc-shape so that it's easier to roll out later, and then cover in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, longer if possible.  (Can you see the lumps of butter in my dough in these pictures?)

After your dough has chilled, it's time to take out one of the discs and roll it out.  For the best success in rolling out your dough, make sure your working surface is well-floured and be sure to generously flour the top of the dough surface, too.  Always roll from the center of the crust outward.  I like to roll it a couple of times from the center to the outer edge, then spin the dough 1/4 turn and repeat, etc. If the dough starts to stick at all, simply add more flour to your work surface under that area--it'll still turn out great!

This dough rolls out very easily and very well.  You want to have your dough be 3-4" wider than the size of your pie plate.  I used one of my bowls that has a 12" diameter to get the right size as well as make a nice circular "cut" in the dough.

Now you want to carefully place the pie crust into the pie plate.  Trim any excess dough from around the edges.

Repeat the above instructions for the second disc of dough.  If making a double-crust pie, add your filling and then cover with the second crust.  In this instance, I made a chicken pot pie.  You can get as elaborate with the crust as you like.  Just for fun, I braided the edge of my crust.  Don't forget to slit the top crust of the pie before you bake it to allow the steam to vent out!

Bake per the above directions.  Try to let your pie rest for at least 5-10 minutes before cutting into it, so that the filling has time to set.  We had a hard time waiting quite that long, so it looks a little messy, but it tasted so good!!

And we can't forget the blueberry pie!