Snickerdoodle Mini Apple Pie Bites

We went apple picking and I had a huge supply of pie apples to use.  This is a quick and easy recipe that has amazing flavor and texture.  I combined several recipes together to make this treat and it was a huge hit!

Makes 72 min pies

Ingredients for Crust:

• 
  
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• 1 egg, plus 1 yolk
• 1 Tbsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2¾ cup flour

Cinnamon Sugar

• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°

1.  In a bowl blend butter and sugar together until smooth.  Add in egg, yolk, vanilla.  In a separate bowl combine baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon and flour.

2.  Slowly add flour mixture to butter mixture.  Mix until smooth and fully incorporated.

3.  Take less than a tablespoon of dough and form a small ball by rolling it between your hands.  Roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Place into a mini tart pan and press into a tart shape with a mini tart shaper or the back of a tablespoon measure.  Fill all spaces in pan.

4.  Bake for 10 min until dark golden brown.  Remove from oven and immediately repress with the mini tart shaper to create a cup shape.  Allow to cool 3 min in pan and remove carefully to fully cool on rack.

Apple Pie Filling:

3 Large Courtland Apples (3-4 cups)

1 TBS flour

2 tsp lemon juice

1 TBS brown sugar

2 TBS maple syrup

1.  Core, peel and dice apples very small.  

2.  Place apples in a large skillet with all ingredients.  Stir well to coat.

3.  Cook, covered on medium for 5-10 min.  Be sure to stir occasionally so your sticky syrup does not burn to the bottom of the pan.

4.  Allow to cool.  

Caramel Topping:

2 TBS butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1.  Combine in a heavy bottom, tall sided pan.  Prepare a sink or bowl of ice water.

2.  Heat slowly to melt butter.  Make sure all sugar is dissolved fully.

3.  Increase heat, bring mixture to a boil. Watch carefully.  Do not overstir.  

4.  When a golden brown remove pan from heat and place pan into the ice bath to stop cooking.

Assembly:

Take cooled cookie crusts.  Spoon in a small amount of warm pie filling (I stored mine overnight and reheated in the microwave).  Drizzle mini pies with caramel sauce.  

Enjoy!

Ob"suess"ed with Reading

To celebrate Read Across America Day and Dr. Suess' birthday our classrooms are decorating their doors and having a week's worth of fun reading-based activities.

Our Kindergarten classrooms share a small common hall that leads into a larger hall.  Our side of the Kindergarten quad went with "The Lorax" while our other Kindergarten rooms did "Cat in the Hat".

We found some wonderful Pinterest inspiration for our Lorax door.

Our truffala trees are inexpensive pipe insulation and yellow duct-tape.  The tops are 9 layers of tissue and floral wire.  We were guided by Mrs. Lodge's Library.

The Onceler door was inspired by a few birthday decorations and modified to fit our space.  He has his hook and a long piece of yarn holding the bucket.  Don't forget to pay the onceler for his tale....$0.15, a nail and a great-great grandfather snail shell are featured falling into the bucket.

In our large hallway we decorated the wall.  Here we have our beautiful rolling hills with truffala trees.  There is a lovely pool with the humming fish and our kindergartners made the Swamee Swans in the sky and the Barbaloots playing in the grass.

The Barbaloots were done by one of our classes and their teacher used Crafty Morning for directions.

The Swamee swans seemed seriously under-represented on Pinterest.  I had to get very creative with this project.

We started with:
Orange Finger Paint
8.5"x 11" card stock
Yellow construction paper
Yellow feathers
Googly eyes
glue stick
liquid craft glue

We had two staff members helping the kids to get their hand-prints just right.  We started off by using only one hand.  Painting it with orange finger paint and placing it down on the card stock.  We then rotated the card stock 180 degrees and repainted the same hand.  The placed it with the palm overlapping.  Your goal is to make the thumb of the hand-print the tail and head of your bird with the fingers extended but close together to make the wings.

These dried over-night and we completed the project the next day.  I cut beaks for each student out of yellow construction paper.  They then chose which thumb was the head and glued down the beak at the end with a glue stick.

A teacher then provided each student with a small amount of liquid glue and two small yellow feathers.  The student placed these by the beak and that created the fluffy necks of our Swamee Swans.

Finally we glued on googly eyes with liquid glue and left them to dry.  A staff member cut around the birds and we added them to our wall mural among the clouds.

Monster High Birthday Party

For my daughter's 9th birthday she asked for a Monster High theme party at our local bowling alley.  I had a lot of fun with the colors on this one.

I started with a hot pink table cloth.  I bought a roll of zebra print ribbon to use on the table and the cake.

I purchased black plates and then got the Monster High balloon, cake napkins, and table confetti.

For the cake my daughter requested a kit-kat cake.  We've seen a lot of these on Pinterest and went with colors that were like our theme decor.

For the cakes I used a white cake mix that only uses egg whites.  This creates a true white cake.
I used two boxes of cake mix total an 9" round cake pans.

The first cake box I split the batter in half.  Using neon pink food coloring I colored half the batter.  Using a 1/3 cup scoop I scooped out a scoop of white then poured a scoop of hot pink directly on top of the first.  Alternating until I used half the total amount.  I repeated this for the second pan.  Bake as directed on the package.

The second box of cake mix I split the batter in half.  Using neon teal/blue food coloring I colored half the batter.  I repeated the same steps as the first set of cakes.  I only used one of these two cakes for the final cake.  This technique gives you a zebra stripped cake when baked.

Using a high-fructose corn syrup free vanilla cake frosting I layered one pink/white zebra, then a blue/white zebra and then a second pink/white zebra.  The cake was three layers of cake total.  I covered the entire cake in vanilla frosting.

Using 10 regular sized packages (4 sticks per package) of kit-kats I pushed the kit-kats into the side of the cake all around the cake.  The ribbon is non-edible and secured with a few dabs of cake frosting.

I purchased the candy Monster High decorations and attached them with piped cake frosting.  To make the #9 candy decoration I used a tombstone cookie cutter.  I melted wilton candy melts and poured them into the cookie cutter on top of a piece of wax paper.   I froze it for 5 minutes to make the candy melts solid again.  I used clear corn syrup and painted the sides of the tombstone and dipped in blue sugar.  Again I froze it for 10 minutes to set the corn syrup.

I think made the #9 out of melted candy melts with a piping bag onto a piece of wax paper and froze to set.  After cooled I painted it with corn syrup and dipped in pink sugar.  I think used more piped wilton candy melts (white) to attach the #9 to the tombstone.  I then used pipped candy melts to attach the candy pearls.  Again I froze it to set for about 15 minutes.

I had tried "gluing" everything with corn syrup first and once I set it vertically everything fell off - it was a mess - use the candy melts.  It might be a bit more time consuming but it will set more solid.

To keep the candy melts liquid I would pinch the end of the piping bag and run it under hot water.  Do not get water on your candy melts - it HATES water.  I dried off the piping bag well before returning to my work.

The gift bags for the party were simple teal party boxes with zebra print tissue paper.  They contained a rainbow loom bracelet in Monster High colors, Monster High pencil, nailpolish and stickers and some homemade bone candy.

Candy bones are pretzel sticks with mini marshmallows on each end.  They are dipped in white wilton candy melts and set on wax-paper to harden.

We had a ghoulishly good time!

Mint Cookie Truffles

It's that time of year again!   Those cute little girls selling fabulous cookies are knocking at your door.

For a Valentine Day Chocolate bake sale I decide to make mint cookie truffles.   I used thin mints because I have a girl scout and can't resist filing the freezer.

I found some inspiration on Pinterest but decided to try something different.   I was able to make 5 dozen truffles.

2 boxes of thin mint cookies (9oz packages)
1 container of cake frosting (I prefer the brand that uses real sugar)
1 bag dark cocoa candy melts (12oz)
Wax paper
Chocolate dipping tool

In a large zip-close bag or a food processor pulverize the cookies into a fine dust.

I started by adding only 1/2 the can of frosting.   Get your hands in there and work the frosting and cookie mixture until it will hold together in a ball.   While I worked I added more frosting slowly to the mix to make sure the cookie crumbles held together.  In the end I used 3/4 of the frosting.

 Form the cookie mixture into small balls and place on a wax lined cookie tray.  Refrigerate for 30 min.

Melt candy melts according to the directions on the package.  Spread a large sheet of wax paper on your counter.   Dip each cookie ball and cover fully.   Scoop the cookie ball out of the chocolate with your dipping tool and tap the tool on the side of the bowl.   This will remove excess chocolate.   Wait until the chocolate stops running off the ball and then place it on the wax paper to set. If you don't tap off the excess you will run out of chocolate before all the balls are coated.

After the chocolate sets you can either add decorations, like a contrast color drizzle on top,  or colored sugar.  I chose to leave them plain this time.

These have just the right amount of sweetness with the dark chocolate coating.   First test the cookie mixture still had done crunch to it!   We'll have to see what they are like in a few days.
Be sure to store these in a cool location or in the refrigerator.   Enjoy!