Apple Pie!

Can you guess what this is?

Probably, since it’s the title of this post.

Today, to reduce the amount of cooking I have to do TOMORROW, I decided to make dessert for Christmas dinner. And I chose to make apple pie.

I wasn’t going to make the crumble topping, but I messed up one of the ready-made pie crusts, so I had no choice.

Here’s the recipe!

Apple Pie with Crumble Topping

Ingredients for the Crumble Topping

• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 cup all purpose flour (I’m sure whole wheat, spelt, oat, etc. would also work well, but I didn’t try it.)
• 1 stick butter

Mix light brown sugar and all purpose flour in a bowl, then add softened butter*, and mix until crumbly.

*-I first put in 1/2 stick of softened butter, but it wasn’t getting crumbly, so then I added 1/4 stick of butter, but it STILL wasn’t getting very crumbly, but there was some progress. Then, I added 1/4 stick of MELTED butter, and it finally got crumbly. You can *probably* switch up proportions of melted butter to softened butter, but I can’t personally vouch for this. 

Ingredients for Apple pie filling*

• 7 apples (I used golden delicious)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

Slice the apples about a 1/4 inch thick (or less, based on your preference) and put in one very large bowl or 2 large bowls. Mix the last 4 ingredients together, then distribute evenly over the apples and make sure they are all nicely coated.

*-I had quite a bit of the mixture left over, so you could probably reduce the recipe by 1/3 or possibly half it.

Additional Ingredients

• Ready made pie crust
• 2-4 T butter, chopped into cubes

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Put the ready made pie crust in a 9 in. glass pie dish. Prepare the apple pie filling and crumble topping. Pour the apple pie filling into the pie crust, and make sure its even. Pour the topping over it, and bake in the oven until golden brown. After removing from the oven, take it out and let it cool before serving.

I’ll be having mine with vanilla bean ice cream and some delicious chocolate chip cookies.

My new go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. THE BEST EVER!

I know my last post was chocolate chip cookies also. And those cookies were delicious too. But then I stumbled across ANOTHER chocolate chip cookie recipe, that I absolutely HAD to try. They are super chocolate-y, soft, chewy, and just plain old awesome. They are Jacques Torres’ Chocolate Chip Cookies, and they are AMAZING.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies I Have Ever Eaten.

Adapted from this recipe. Makes about 43 cookies. (Note: I halved the recipe, because 1. I didn’t want  8 1/2 dozen cookies, and 2. I wouldn’t have had enough butter. The recipe still made 43 cookies, so it was more than enough. But they are going to go pretty fast, so next time I might double it and freeze half the dough.)

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup plus 2 T granulated sugar
• 1 cup plus 2 T brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups plus 1 T whole wheat pastry flour (or plain ol’ pastry flour, if you prefer it.)
• 1 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1/2 T salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 T vanilla extract
• 1 lb chocolate (chips, chunks, etc. I used semi-sweet chocolate chips.)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.* Set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer cream together the butter and sugars.

Add the eggs one at a time, and mix well after each.

Set the speed to low and add the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt**, vanilla and chocolate. Mix until it is well combined.

Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Using heaping, rounded tablespoons, drop the cookie dough onto the cookie sheets about 2″ apart.***

Bake until golden brown or for about 10-15 minutes. (Could be more, could be less.)

Let cool slightly before transferring on to wire cooling racks.

If you want them to stay soft, store them in plastic containers.

*Do not use wax paper. I made that mistake, thinking it was the same thing. Obviously I am not a trained chef, so when I opened the oven to check on the first batch, my oven was smoking like crazy. Needless to say for the second batch I removed the wax paper from the cookie sheets and cooked the cookies on the bare cookie sheet. It worked because the cookie sheet was greasy from the wax paper. Save yourself some trouble, and use parchment paper.

**I added the salt into the mixture, not knowing you were supposed to sprinkle it on top of the cookies. They still tasted amazing, but if you use salted butter I wouldn’t add the extra salt, although you could probably add it on top, if you like.

***I wasn’t sure how far they would spread, so because it bothers me when they spread into each other, I played it safe and gave them PLENTY of room. But my cookies didn’t spread very far, so I’m sure they would have been fine a little closer together. But keep them at least an 1 1/2″ apart.

These are seriously the best cookies I’ve ever tasted.

Welcome to my blog! (And chocolate chip cookies!)

Just add cookies. Which is exactly what I plan on doing right after I welcome you.

Welcome to Justaddcookies! There’s a whole lot of other dessert blogs, but you managed to stumble across mine, and here is your prize! A chocolate chip cookie recipe!!!

Chocolate-Chip Cookies (with a healthy twist!)

Makes about 28 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 stick of butter, softened (or margarine)
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar (packed)
• 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 eggs (Or if you like, 1 egg and 2 egg whites)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups mini (or large) chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 F. In a bowl (or whatever else you may use..?) combine first three ingredients. (WWPF, baking soda, salt.)

In another bowl (preferably large) beat butter and sugars (light brown and granulated) until light and fluffy with a mixer at medium speed. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until well combined, then reduce mixer to a lower speed and beat in your flour mixture until just blended. (You don’t want to over-mix, it will mess up the texture of the cookies!)

Stir in chocolate chips with a big spoon.

Drop the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet by the tablespoon, 2 inches apart. (For best result, round the tablespoons of cookie dough)

Bake until golden. (It took about 9 minutes for me, but my oven cooks fast, so about 10-12 minutes for a normal oven.)

After removing from the oven, let the cookies cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack with a spatula. (Or whatever else you may use. Just not your hands. You don’t want to burn them!)

Enjoy!!!

(If you want to keep the cookies soft, store in a plastic container. If you’re more of a crunchy cookie person, store them in a glass container.)