Tuesdays With Dorie: All-American, All-Delicious Deep Dish Apple Pie

I guess this is the month of pies. Two pies in as many weeks. This time I made All-American, All-Delicious Deep Dish Apple Pie (which I guarantee you cannot say five times fast). It was chosen by Emily of Sandmuffin for Tuesdays With Dorie.

Oh, TWD, I hate how much I love you. This is not the best time for me to be slaving over pies - a pile of yet-to-be-written thank you cards await - but I did it, and I'm glad. So is my belly. So is my husband's belly. And tomorrow, so too will be the bellies of his fellow grad students.

Not so glad are my neighbours, who were treated to the musical stylings of our apartment's hypersensitive smoke alarm while the pie was baking. It went off about five minutes after I put the pie (which was not burning in the slightest) in the oven, and then continued to beep every time I dared to stop fanning it for more than, literally, five seconds. By the time my significantly taller husband got home to help me wrap a tea towel around the alarm (just until the pie was finished baking, please don't tell the fire marshall), my arms had quite the workout.


Which is good, I guess, because this pie is amazing and I can't stop eating it. Now, I'm not a huge fan of pie crust, so I went with a crumble topping instead. This was a good choice, I think. The two best apple desserts in one enormous package.

You should make this pie. Visit Emily's blog for the recipe.

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Peanut Brittle

This week's Sweet Melissa Sundays recipe, Peanut Brittle (chosen by JoVonn of The Givens Chronicles) is perfectly timed. Halloween is fast approaching, and peanut brittle is just the kind of thing I associate with the Halloweens of yesteryear, when nobody worried about whether candy had been tampered with. Even in my own childhood, I remember receiving balls of sticky caramel popcorn and candy apples. I imagine that's pretty rare now.

I live in an apartment, so I won't be giving out any treats this year. And sadly, even if I could, I don't think this recipe would make the cut. For whatever reason, it never firmed up properly, staying very sticky and chewy when eaten. It was more like chewing gum than peanut brittle. And it was quite bland.

Still, though, I always love a chance to test out my candy making skills! For the recipe, visit JoVonn's blog.

Tuesdays With Dorie: Caramel Pumpkin Pie

Hi. My name is Kait, and I'm a bad blogger. It's been nearly three months since my last blog post. But I have a good reason, I swear!

I married the love of my life almost two months ago. It was the best day of my life, and worth all of the stress of wedding planning. But the weeks leading up to it were some of the busiest of my life. Immediately after that, I spent two weeks in Europe, and just after that started a brand new job. Suffice it to say, my life is pretty nuts right now. And I find my interest in blogging not waning...but shifting. I'm hoping to start a new blog soon, one that still has a focus on food, but leaves room for me to share all of the other things going on in my life.

In the meantime, though, I'm stoking the embers of this blog with a Tuesdays With Dorie post. As crazy as my life has been, I just can't give up on my Dorie fix. It just wouldn't be right.

And so I made this week's recipe, Caramel Pumpkin Pie (chosen by Janell of Mortensen Family Memoirs) on Thanksgiving Monday, after a morning spent apple packing with my new husband.

Making this pie was, sadly, not the relaxing Thanksgiving tradition I'd had in mind. The pie crust was burnt way before it was even supposed to be done; the caramel was half-burnt and half-raw on my uneven stovetop, and the filling only came halfway up the sides of the crust. Not exactly the outcome I'd hoped for after spending all day making the pie.

Oh, well. Better luck next time!

To see how other bakers fared, visit Tuesdays With Dorie. I think they had better luck than me! For the recipe, visit Janell's blog.

TWD: Chewy, Chunky Blondies

This week's recipe just may be the dessert bar to end all dessert bars: chewy, chunky blondies. They're a lot like chocolate chip cookies, but amped up with toffee bits and coconut and cut into thick squares. I could eat these all day. If someone doesn't take the bowl of them away from me soon, I just might.

Thanks to Nicole of Cookies on Friday for choosing such a stellar recipe! I know my fiance will be begging me to make this one again - assuming I don't cave to my own lack of willpower and make it again tomorrow.

Visit Nicole's blog for the recipe - you won't regret it.

TWD: Lots of Ways of Banana Cake

I've never been known for being patient. So this week's Tuesdays With Dorie pick, Lots of Ways of Banana Cake (chosen by Kimberly of Only Creative Opportunities), was a bit of a challenge for me.

When I want to bake something, I want to bake it now. Banana cake requires waiting for bananas to over-ripen. I don't like baking according to the whims of produce. So after four days of waiting for my bananas to show their spots, I was thrilled to finally make this cake tonight after work.

It was well worth the wait. This cake is light and moist with an irresistible banana-coconut flavour. The added texture of the toasted coconut, present in every bite, elevates the dish for me. It's not often that I go back for seconds of a banana bread (or cake), but I made an exception for Lots of Ways of Banana Cake.

For the recipe, visit Kimberly's blog.