Right to womanhood...

I think for men the "right to manhood" is usually when they get their first car.  For ladies, I think it is baking an apple pie.  As shocking as it may sound, I have never baked one from scratch on my own until this year (gasp).  

This fall some girlfriends and I went to Country Line Orchard, about 45 minutes outside of Chicago.  I figured if I was going to bake an apple pie from scratch I may as well pick the apples too.  My all time favorite apples are Honeycrisp and Pink Lady, but they were not in season at the time.  

I settled on Gala which would still be in my top 5.  I didn't want to bake with Granny Smith because I feel like EVERYONE uses granny smith in pies.  "They give it so much flavor" is what I always hear.  Well, personally I didn't want my pie to be super tart so I went with the more subtle Gala.  The picking was fine, but I was bored after about 5 minutes.  The selection was pretty picked over (no pun intended) so I had to really search for the good ones.  Luckily I am tall so I was able to grab some of the apples that were left up top.

After picking the apples we decided to go through the corn maze (again bored after 5 minutes).  Before going in the guy running the show told us that the maze was pretty muddy and if we didn't want to slip and fall or get dirty then we should buy booties.

Only two of us decided to buy them - yes, we looked like morons.

The worst part is that there was hardly any mud in the maze.  Maybe a small section that was easily jumpable for a full grown adult.  Next time I am risking it.  After all that fun it was time to actually bake the pie....  I used a recipe from momswhothink.com

Pie Crust Recipe

Makes two 9-inch pie crusts

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, chilled and diced
1/2 cup ice water

Directions:

1. Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl.

2. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

3. Stir in the ice water, a Tablespoon at a time, until the crust mixture forms a ball.


4. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

5. Sprinkle flour onto rolling surface. Roll dough out, then divide in half. Roll each half to fit a 9-inch pie plate.

6. Place crust in pie plate, pressing evenly into the bottom and sides.

Filling Ingredients:

8 cups sliced,peeled apples - about 3 lbs.  

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

3/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 Tablespoons butter

1 egg yolk

1 Tablespoon milk

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, toss the sliced apples with lemon juice.

2. Combine sugars, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg; add to apples and toss well to coat.

3. Fill pastry lined 9 inch pie pan with apple mixture. Dot with butter.

4. Place second crust on top of pie filling, cut slits in top of crust to vent. Seal the edges of the crust with a fork or by hand.  - I chose to lattice the top.

5. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolk and milk. Brush mixture over top crust.

6. Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes.

7. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake 40-45 minutes more or until crust is golden and filling is bubbly.

I forgot to brush with the egg mixture, then tried to do it last minute while it was baking.  That is why it looks kind of weird on top.  Regardless, this pie was AMAZING.  Couldn't get enough of it.  

enjoy!

j

Suite Life

Well, my last post was a little premature.  My friends and I actually booked a last minute trip to South Beach for the night.  We had one hour to pack and get ready from the time we booked.  Crazy.  It was a blast, but I didn't have any time to snag a cupcake as it was a ridiculously short trip.  However, I was able to grab a sweet treat in Connecticut.

I have always said Connecticut is very vanilla.  Nothing much to it - very mediocre.  When I was in Norwalk, CT I stopped at Cake Suite, and I found it appropriate to get a vanilla cupcake.  I did go a little crazy and get one with chocolate icing and sprinkles.   

Icing - Chocolate.  Very smooth and had a light flavor that I really liked.  Cake - Pretty dry.  Not that great.  Yellow cake with chocolate icing is one of my all time favorite combos, but this one was just okay.  Cake Suite specializes in actual cakes for a special occasion and probably bulk cupcakes too.  I don't think they sell a lot of cupcakes "off the rack".  You can see the display below...

Not all that appealing - close to the floor and only a handful of varieties.  I probably wouldn't go back to Cake Suite, so hopefully Connecticut has another spot I can try!

xx

j

They say money doesn't buy happiness...

but, money does buy spontaneity.  Sitting around with friends this morning we were inspired to take a last minute trip to Vegas...for the night.  Unfortunately, prices were rising by the minute...seriously.  At one point we thought we had a roundtrip flight for $230.  Gone.  Then $350.  Gone.  We couldn't move fast enough, and now we sit here still in Chicago.  What a bust.  I need my own plane.  

Obtain private jet = 2012 goal.

Enjoy the weekend!!

Donut is the new Cupcake

Is it donut or doughnut??  I see it both ways.  Personally I prefer donut because I am lazy and it is less letters for me to type.  Anyway...I have always been a fan of donuts.  I'm going to blame this love on my grandfather.  I spent a lot of time at my grandparents house as a child, and my grandfather would always wake up, drive to the local bakery, and come back with a dozen donuts!  I LOVED those donuts and the quality was great.  Much better than the manufactured Dunkin and Tim Hortons we eat today.  Don't get me wrong, if I pass a Tim Hortons I will still stop and get a little box of Tim Bits.

It appears the donut trend is catching on outside of the chains we have grown up with over the years.  Not too long ago a hole-in-the-wall shop popped up in downtown Chicago - Doughnut Vault (http://thedoughnutvault.tumblr.com/).  Located just around the corner from Gilt Bar (love).  I call it hole-in-the-wall because it is just that.  You walk into a hallway where there is one girl a register and a couple bakers racks of donuts - that's it. 

One Friday morning, my friend Justin and I decided to go see what the hype was all about.  We had heard many stories about people waiting in line for an hour so they could get their donut of choice - I'm not kidding.  I didn't want to wait in line for an hour, for a donut, that's absurd.  Doughnut Vault opens at 8:30AM so I figured arriving by 8AM was reasonable.  30 minutes for a donut = not absurd.  I am not great at the whole twitter thing, but I tried following doughnut vault that whole week because they post tweet updates on the line and the inventory.  From my research 8:00 seemed perfectly reasonable.  When we arrived, there was only one other person waiting outside.  We were a bit confused as we expected to be arriving to a line of at least 20.  We quickly pulled out our iPhones and mapped the nearest Starbucks (lemons into lemonade).  There was a bux around the corner, so we went and grapped a cup then headed back to the vault.  By the time we got back there were about 10 people waiting.  This was at 8:20AM.  Not too bad.  They finally opened the doors and the line quickly grew behind us.  As you may know I am incredibly indecisive (read: i had to get one of each flavor).   I decided to bring a dozen back to my team for everyone to try.  I was able to try a piece of each flavor - I had to in order to judge fairly!

I LOVED the simple boxes

Heaven

The "stacks" came in these great little sacks (sack of stacks!)

Perfection

Buttermilk Old Fashioned

Gingerbread

Vanilla Glazed

Chestnut Glazed

Chocolate Glazed

Overall, I loved the doughnut vault and thought they were all delicious.  My favorite was the vanilla glazed and my least favorite was the buttermilk old fashioned.  They also have flavors of the week from time to time so I will have to go check those out.  My guess is that there won't be much of a line once winter actually hits here in Chicago.  I would def reco going and trying each one, but get there early because according to their tweets they are usually sold out of their best flavors by 10AM. 

enjoy!
j

Ann Arbor is a W

onderful little spot to grab a cupcake.  This fall I made my first trip to Ann Arbor. Growing up in Ohio I was pretty much raised to hate all things Michigan.  Now, ironically I spend at least 40% of my time there.  I spend most of my time in Western Michigan, but occasionally journey east. During my first trip to Ann Arbor I turned to my trusty Yelp! app to find some cupcakes.  I ended up at just baked.   

I didn't realize until later that this is actually a chain of cupcakeries located throughout Eastern Michigan. I normally don't love chains, but it was a rookie mistake.  Since it was fall I decided on the Apple Cider cupcake.  You better believe I spent a good long time going back and forth between the Pumpkin Pie and Apple Cider, but let's face it...the icing was much more appealing on the apple cupcake.  

1) Icing - Great texture and flavor.  I could def taste the cinnamon. 2) Cake - Very moist and perfect consistency.  I think it could have used a smidge more apple flavor.  3) Presentation - I am a big fan of the large icing swirl.  4) Creativity - I believe apple cider is quite creative in the cupcake form.  Would have been perfect with a side of spiced rum!  Just like college. 5) Overall - very happy with this cake.  I would absolutely go back and get it again.  

So, if you are ever in Ann Arbor (or pretty much anywhere in Eastern Michigan) I would def reco just baked.

enjoy!

j

Welcome Back!

Happy New Year!!!! I hope you all rang in the new year in style.  I decided to hit up NYC for NYE and it was amazing.  Now that I have recovered from my 4 day bender I am back and ready to blog it up.  I apologize for disappearing for the last couple months, but I have good reason.  I was baking my tail off for the holidays.  As you know I generally stick in the cupcake world, but I decided to completely engulf myself in Christmas cookies.  I baked probably 15 different types of cookies.  Yes...15.  Then, for some ridiculous reason I thought it would be a great idea to gift them to all of my family and friends.  That would have been fine if everyone was here in chicago - nope.  I flew with lbs and lbs of cookies from Chi to Cincy and then to Florida.  I lost a lot of cookies to breakage in transit, but it's the thought that counts, right?

Regardless, the cookie madness is over and I am back to cupcakes.  I have quite a few to catch you up on that I baked/tested since last October, so stay tuned!


xx
j