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Yummy Link: Cup Pies

YumSugar — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 03:08:31 -0800

If cupcakes are cute because they're individual cakes then the same must be said for cup pies! - Eggs on Sunday

Thanksgiving Tip: Calculate How Much Food You'll Need

YumSugar — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:42:21 -0800

For an elaborate meal like Thanksgiving, it's crucial to consider how much food you'll serve. Too little, and you'll leave guests wishing they could gobble up more; too much, and you'll wind up with Thanksgiving leftovers for weeks. To make sure your food doesn't go to waste, take time to do some adequate planning. A few pointers, when you read more.

Come Party With Me: Potluck Thanksgiving - Desserts

partysugar — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:50:13 -0800

If you've volunteered (or been assigned) to bring a dessert to a Thanksgiving potluck, don't run to the nearest bakery. You can bake a delicious homemade treat that will impress your friends and family! Start by selecting an unexpected dessert like caramel-walnut pie. It's similar to classic pecan pie, but is made with walnuts instead. Next give yourself plenty of time to make the pie and if necessary, experiment with the recipe. Although the resulting pie, with its rich Fall flavors, is scrumptious, the technique to put it together is wildly simple.

The dough is store bought and the filling requires nothing more than a whisk, measuring cups, and a bowl. To give this easy, yet divine Thanksgiving dessert a try, keep reading.

Bite-Size Pumpkin Pies With a Baklava Twist

YumSugar — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:00:46 -0800

After drooling over Party's pumpkin cake and these pumpkin pies, I wanted to experiment with my own unique concoction: a traditional pumpkin pie filling with baklava-inspired crust and streusel topping. With a belly full of Thanksgiving fixings, eating a whole piece of pie can be a rather daunting task, so I made bite-size pies to satisfy everyone's sweet tooth. The pumpkin pie filling and walnut-oatmeal streusel are simple to make, but the cinnamon-sugar phyllo cups are more time consuming due to the very delicate nature of phyllo. All three of the components can be made in advance and quickly assembled and baked the day of, prior to serving. These mini pies are light, crunchy, and nutty with a scrumptious creamy pumpkin pie filling! To make your own tiny pumpkin pies with a baklava twist, read more.

Bite-Size Pumpkin Pies With Baklava Crust
Adapted from Martha Stewart Living magazine

Ingredients

Walnut-Oatmeal Streusel
6 tablespoons old-fashioned oats
3 tablespoons chopped walnuts
3 1/2 tablespoons flour
Pinch of salt
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon honey
Phyllo Crust
5 sheets of phyllo, thawed and room temperature
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Pumpkin Pie Filling
7.5 ounces solid-pack pumpkin
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/8 cup honey
1 egg
1/8 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions

Make the walnut-oatmeal streusel: Preheat oven to 350. Combine oats, walnuts, flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl.
Melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in honey. Stir into oat mixture.
Spread streusel on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake, stirring occasionally until light gold and crunchy, 12 to 15 minutes.
Let cool on baking sheet on a wire rack. Streusel will keep, covered for up to 3 days.
Make the phyllo crust: Preheat oven to 350. Combine 1/2 cup sugar and 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Gently place one layer of phyllo dough on a large cutting board. Brush with a thin layer of butter and sprinkle cinnamon-sugar mixture. Repeat this step five times until all 5 sheets have been used.
Cut phyllo into 2 by 2 inch squares. Remove each square and gently press and fold the edges into the mini muffin tin. Bake for 5-8 minutes until phyllo cups are golden.
Make the pumpkin pie filling: combine pumpkin, brown sugar, honey, egg, cream, cornstarch, vanilla, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger in a large bowl.
Sprinkle a bit of streusel in the bottom of each phyllo cup. Spoon in a small amount of pumpkin pie filling in each phyllo cup. Bake at 350°F 15-20 minutes until the pumpkin filling is firm.
Sprinkle a little strusel on each and serve warm.

Makes 30 bite-size pies.

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Reader's Recipe: Hearty "Cleaned Up" Chicken Pot Pie

YumSugar — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 07:58:13 -0800

For some reason, I have been craving chicken pot pie for the past few weeks. I'm not sure where the craving came from, or why, but I do know that I need to make one sooner than later. I've got a few recipes in my repertoire, but I decided to see if there were any great recipes online. Lucky for me, I didn't have to look too hard. My first stop was TeamSugar and reader suzanne has provided a great looking chicken pot pie that's she's altered from The Best Light Recipes cookbook. To check out what suzanne has come up with, read more

Recipe submitted by suzanne

This recipe (from "The Best Light Recipes Cookbook") started out at 380 calaories and 9g fat (instead of the usual 510 calories and 28 g of fat...) The changes I made did not alter the taste or texture at all... just brought the fat and calories even lower. Serves 8

It's delicious and satisfying. give it a try!

Light Chicken Pot Pie

- 6 medium carrots peeled and sliced
- 3 celery stalks sliced 1/4 in. thick
- I medium onion chopped fine
- 2 garlic cloved, minced
- 2 tsp. fresh Thyme or 1/2 tsp. dried
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 2 bay leaves
- 6 medium skinless boneless chicken breasts trimmed of all fat
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 cup frozen green beans
- 1 cup skim milk
- 2 Tbsp. minced fresh parsley leaves
- pinch salt and ground black pepper
- 1 Kroger frozen pie crust (4gm per serving) taken out of the shell, moistened, a bit formed into a ball and rerolled into a thin round circle.

1. Heat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Combine carrots, celery, onion, garlic, thyme and 1/2 tsp. salt in a cooking pot. Cook in 4 cups chicken stock until vegetables are soft and tender. Stir in white wine and bay leaves and bring to a simmer.
3. Place the whole chicken breasts into the vegatable/sauce mixture and cook until the chicken is not pink in the center - about 12 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate and allow to cool.
4. While the chicken cools, whisk the cornstarch into the milk and add to the simmering pot. Simmer until thick, then turn off heat.
5. Take out the bay leaf, stir in the peas, green beans and parsley and season with salt and pepper
6. When the chicken is cool enought to handle, shred it and then cut into bits sized pieces. Stir the chicken into the sauce/veg mixture.
7. Use a turned over ramekin as a cookie cutter and make 8 pie crust circles for topping the pot pies.
8. Evenly divide the mixture into individual ramekins and top each with a pie crust round. Brush each pie crust round with egg white or milk.
9. Bake until the crust is golden brown and the sauce is bubbly... 20-25 minutes.

Serve on a dinner plate alongside a fresh salad. Mmmmmmmmm!!!

Savory Sight: Quiche With Potato Crust

YumSugar — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:00:16 -0700

Suffice it to say we've been obsessed with everything eggs, as evidenced by everything from breakfast tarts to our search for stylish Easter egg cups. The eggcellent endeavor has yet to end: I flipped for this eggy, cheesy vegetable quiche that staff member Garrick made over the weekend. I love quiche to begin with - but it's the baked-til-crisp potato hash crust that I've completely fallen for. To see how the quiche got its unique crust, read more.

For the filling, Garrick included mild-flavored enoki mushrooms.

The quiche also included a mixture of parmesan, Emeril's Essence seasoning, leeks, and mushrooms.

Made-from-scratch potato crust was molded into a deep pie dish and baked. A potato ricer helped to extract unnecessary moisture from russet potatoes.

The crisp and golden leek and mushroom quiche.

Must Read: The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever

partysugar — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 07:45:08 -0800

Due to the difficult economic climate, in the past couple of months, the casserole - a one-pot dish that feeds a crowd and often consists of budget-friendly ingredients - has made a strong comeback. To fully embrace the trend, I recently obtained a copy of The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever ($24.95) by Beatrice Ojakangas. It's filled with over 500 casserole recipes, and to find out what I thought of this cookbook, read more.

Pros:

The book takes a healthy approach to casseroles by encouraging home cooks to make their own sauces to replace the "cream of" soups.
There's a loose interpretation of the word "casserole." According to the author, casserole can "refer either to the dish that the food is cooked in or to the food itself." So, while there are plenty of classic casserole recipes, there are also tons of recipes for one-pot, baked dishes.
The book covers every type of cuisine and cooking procedure, from classic breakfast dishes to Moroccan-influenced dinners to casseroles for two.

Cons:

Some of the recipes lack important details. For example, step two in the chili con queso recipe says to "melt butter in a small skillet and add the green onions and poblano peppers. Saute for 5 minutes." The recipe fails to mention the temperature of the stove.
The ingredient lists have too many options, leaving it up to the home cook to decide what to include in the casserole. A recipe will say "heavy cream or sour cream" "4 slices of bacon or 1/2 cup cooked ham." Surely the casserole tastes different depending on which ingredient is used. I prefer for the cookbook author to tell me which one tastes better.
There are virtually no color photographs. In fact, there are almost no photos at all.

Recipes: The focus of this book is clearly the recipes and there is definitely something for everyone. Here are the casserole recipes I would like to make:

All of the hot cheese slather spreads in the appetizer section
Cheese and sausage breakfast pie
Chicken Marengo
Chicken, polenta, and morel casserole
Beer-baked Irish beef
Fiesta casserole
Casserole-braised lamb shanks
Crab melt casserole
Corn and chive pudding
Peaches and cream dessert casserole

Imagery: There are about 16 color photographs in the entire book. Although these images are mouthwatering and professional, some seem a little too stylized.

Overall Rating: If you love casseroles or use the oven to do most of your cooking, you will love this book. The insane quantity of recipes guarantees that you'll be using it in the years to come.

Reader Recipe: Diabetic Chocolate Mousse Pie

YumSugar — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 07:56:31 -0700

One of my parent's closest friends is diabetic. Unfortunately, I didn't find out until after I made a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies for him. My sister and I felt really proud of our baking accomplishments, walked over to his house, delivered our goods, only to return home and have my mom say, "You know he can't eat those, right?" Luckily the grandkids were in town and devoured all the cookies, but it got me hunting around for a good diabetic dessert recipe. Turns out I didn't have to look very far, as TeamSugar member rlveronica recently posted a fantastic looking Diabetic Chocolate Mousse Pie. It looks tasty enough for even the biggest sweet-fiend and friendly enough for her diabetic dad to eat. If you want to check out the recipe, read more

Recipe submitted by TeamSugar member rlveronica.

My father is a diabetic and doesn't get to enjoy desserts anymore, so I thought I'd make a pie that he could eat and not feel guilty about!

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup whipped cream (I used Cool Whip Free)
3 tbsps of cold water
1 tsp vanilla extract
14 tsp artificial sweetener (I used Splenda)
1 tsp unflavored powder gelatin
1 store bought or homemade graham cracker pie crust

1. In a small saucepan, soften gelatin in cold water
2. Low heat 'til gelatin dissolves completely
3. Mix in a bowl: cocoa, vanilla & whipped cream until stiff
4. Add sweetener and the liquid gelatin and beat until well mixed
5. Place the mixture in a graham cracker pie crust
6. Chill for 30 minutes to 1 hour

(I added the rest of the whip cream on top!)

source

Yum Market Finds: Baking Must Haves

partysugar — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 13:58:33 -0700

To be an extraordinary baker like YumSugar, not only do you need skills, patience, and time to practice, but you need the necessary tools as well!

As I was looking through the Yum Market on TeamSugar, I noticed that you've saved a lot of the essential basics. Now is a good time to take a look through your cabinets and pantry to make sure you have plenty of sugar, flour, and baking soda for the upcoming holiday baking.

Also check for the important equipment: kitchen timers, mixing bowls, cookie sheets, measuring cups and spoons. If you are more advanced, you may want to get some of the special extras highlighted below. A cake decorating gadget, pie caddy, springform pan, and cake stand are all fabulous to have, but not 100% crucial.

I plan on adding this cute little individual pie slice pan to my growing collection of baking tools. Found by ljc_sugar, this will be wonderful for pies, puddings, soufflés, mini cakes, and much more.

To learn more about the bookmarking feature of TeamSugar please read GeekSugar's explanation.

Come Party With Me: Fall Dinner - Menu (Dessert)

partysugar — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:13:56 -0700

Nothing says early fall more than apple pie. However, I want to surprise my fall dinner party guests, so instead of making classic apple pie or apple crisp, I'll make an apple buckle.

A buckle is a simple streusel topped cake similar to a dessert coffee cake. It is typically made with summer fruits, but this nontraditional version wonderfully showcases fall apples. It will pair perfectly with a dessert wine or a cup of just brewed coffee, so get the recipe now read more

Autumn Apple Buckle
From Food & Wine magazine
Image Source

Crumb Topping
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
Pinch of salt
1 stick (4 ounces) plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
Batter
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup half-and-half
2 pounds Granny Smith apples--peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch dice
Sweetened sour cream, for serving

Preheat the oven to 350°. Butter and flour a 10-inch springform pan.
Make the Crumb Topping: in a food processor, pulse the flour with the brown sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest and salt. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles moist sand. Add the walnuts and pulse 3 times. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and press into large crumbs.
Make the Batter:in a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder, ginger and salt. In a large bowl, using a handheld electric mixer, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the honey. Add the lemon zest, vanilla and eggs and beat until smooth.
Add the dry ingredients in 2 batches, alternating with the half-and-half and beat at low speed until smooth. Fold in the apples.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Sprinkle with the crumb topping. Bake the buckle in the center of the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the topping is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool for at least 1 hour before unhinging the springform and removing the ring.
Cut the buckle into wedges and serve with sweetened sour cream.

Serves 10-12.

Make ahead: The buckle can be refrigerated for up to 2 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.

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