Apple Bread with Cinnamon & Walnuts

Another fall favorite! The quick bread.

I'm not sure where I got this recipe. It seems to be one of those things that just ended up in my recipe collection years ago and I can't call it my own but I make it often enough that I no longer need to look at the recipe card (which for me is RARE! ha!).

I love this because it's easy, I usually have all the ingredients on hand and like most quick bread recipes, you bake it in two loaf pans so you can eat one now and freeze one for later! It's great for breakfast or dessert and everyone that I've made it for has loved it. Bonus. I like to sneak whole wheat flour into the bread (50/50 all purpose and whole wheat). It comes out a little heavier and doesn't rise as much as using all white flour but it makes me feel a little less bad about eating it!

Ingredients

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 cups diced apples
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional of course!)
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and grease two loaf pans. Set aside.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Next, beat the eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla together in a large bowl. Stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Fold in apples and walnuts (if using) and stir together gently. Pour evenly into the two loaf pans and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes (or until toothpick inserted comes out clean). Let cool before removing from loaf pans.

Slice and enjoy for dessert (it's great with ice cream or a rum glaze), breakfast or a snack!
All text and photographs (except where noted otherwise) © 2008, 2009 Food is to love / Andrea Quigley

Apple Crisp (Mom's recipe!)

It's fall. And I apologize once again for being so quiet! Things have been busy and while I have been cooking and baking plenty, I haven't found the time to post anything. J and I still haven't closed on the house. It's a long story, but the short version is that our sellers are working on getting approval for a short sale and that is taking some time. Trying to be patient and not get too bummed about it but it is what it is and I can't do anything to speed up the process. Just keeping my fingers crossed that their short sale is approved and everything goes as planned. Anyhow, back to food!

The air has definitely gotten cooler, the leaves have changed and are falling off the trees, and I'm reaching for a sweatshirt or fleece every night. That means it's time to bake lots of stuff with apple or pumpkin in it! Went apple picking with J a few weekends ago so first up: Apple Crisp!

This is my Mom's recipe. It's super easy and one of the things I like about it is that it doesn't contain oats! Nothing against oats for breakfast or in an oatmeal cookie but I personally don't think they belong in apple crisp. At least in not in mine!

Ingredients

5-6 apples, peeled, cored and sliced (I use Cortland for baking)
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the sliced apples in a rectangular baking dish (9x12 or 9x13), piled high (cut more apples if you need to). Mix the white sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon together in a small bowl and then sprinkle on top of the apples and mix with your hands to coat. I love spice so I use a little more cinnamon and nutmeg than the recipe calls so add whatever amount suits your taste.
Next put the flour, brown sugar and butter in a bowl. Using two forks, cut in the butter to coat the pieces with flour and sugar until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Distribute on top of the apples and pat down. Bake for 30 minutes or until the apples are tender and the topping is browned.Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. Happiness!All text and photographs (except where noted otherwise) © 2008, 2009 Food is to love / Andrea Quigley

Cookies & Cream Heart Attack Bars

Yeah, that's right. I call these Heart Attack bars. I'm sure that's not going to get me any ranking in the search engines, haha, but it was a fitting name back when I came up with the idea. It's a mixture of chocolate sandwich cookies, butter, cream cheese and sugar, the only thing I could add that would make it worse for you is bacon and I have a feeling that wouldn't taste so good here.
I've got to apologize because I don't have any pictures of the bars cut up into squares. I was making them for a cookout I was going to and we were running late so I ended up just grabbing the pan hot out of the oven and bringing it with us (the squares need to chill for a while before cutting) and cutting them there. So, it's hard to tell what you're looking at but they're really yummy so it doesn't really matter does it?

Ingredients

1 package of Chocolate sandwich cookies (with vanilla filling)
2 8oz packages of light cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 stick of unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place sandwich cookies in a large plastic freezer bag. Seal. Using a meat tenderizer (or something equally blunt), smash the cookies in the bag until all are roughly crumbled. Try not to tear the bag because it will make a big mess! Put the crumbled cookies into a medium-sized bowl and pour the melted butter over them. Stir to combine. (The butter will help the cookies form a "crust" and also prevent the bars from completely sticking to the pan.)

In another bowl, mix the remaining ingredients (cream cheese, sugar, egg, and vanilla) with an electric hand mixer until smooth.

Spread half the cookie mixture in the bottom of a 13x9x2 baking dish. Carefully spread the cream cheese mixture evenly over the cookies and then top with the remaining cookies. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the top is set. Let cook and chill for 2 hours before serving. Cut into 24 squares and make sure to eat any crumbs left in the pan.All text and photographs (except where noted otherwise) © 2008, 2009 Food is to love / Andrea Quigley

Raspberry Butter Cookies for Madelyn

My niece Madelyn is allergic to eggs and peanuts so the last few holidays I've worried about making sure there is something sweet that she can eat. It's not fair for the rest of us to be scarfing down cakes and cookies and telling her that she can't have them. For Easter, I made these. These are a hit. Not only did she have something to eat when the rest of us were eating dessert but she took some home and kept asking for more. That's a compliment! The raspberry jam is optional. I usually do half with and half without.

Oh, and did I mention that making these butter cookies is insanely easy???!

Ingredients

2 sticks butter, softened
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
couple tablespoons of raspberry jam

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put all the ingredients (except of the jam) in a large mixing bowl and beat together with an electric mixer for a long time. You're probably looking at 10 minutes or so. It will start off very crumbly and dry, and will slowly turn into a thick and creamy batter. It'll look like frosting (and smell like a vanilla shake!).

On a parchment lined baking sheet, drop rounded teaspoons of batter at least an inch and a half apart. I use a second spoon to remove the dough from the teaspoon. Double check your oven's temperature (If you don't already have an oven thermometer, get one, they're super handy). If it's higher than 350 the cookies will burn after 10 minutes. Once you know the oven is 350, bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes. Take them out before they brown on top. The bottoms should be golden.

When they come out of the oven, let them rest on the cookie sheet for a minute or two and then using the back of a 1/4 teaspoon gently press into the cookie (to leave a slight impression of the spoon). Don't press too hard or too deeply. You just want to make a tiny reservoir to hold the jam. Using the same 1/4 teaspoon, fill with jam and drop a little less than 1/4 teaspoon into each cookie. Remove to a cooling rack and let cool.

The cookies can be left out overnight and stay fresh. If you want to cover them, keep them in a single layer and cover with foil slightly tented. The jam will take about 12-15 hours to fully dry. But you'll eat them faster than that so it doesn't matter!


All text and photographs (except where noted otherwise) © 2008, 2009 Food is to love / Andrea Quigley

Walnut Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing

It seems like every other food blog I stumble across is nothing but baked goods with cupcakes seemingly holding rank at #1, so I felt it was time to post a sweet just so I could fit in! As I've mentioned before, I have some trouble with dough (making it, working with it etc.) and while I may occasionally have a craving for a cinnamon roll, it's not strong enough for me to even attempt to make my own dough! So that's where store bought raw pizza or bread dough comes in handy. It cuts the work load in half so you can have warm gooey cinnamon rolls on the table and in your belly in about an hour and 15 minutes!

Makes 9-10 rolls

Ingredients

1 lb defrosted pizza / bread dough
flour to sprinkle on work surface
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/3 cup + 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 tablespoons brown sugar (packed)
3 tablespoons white sugar

For the Icing

4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of milk or cream

In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, white sugar, cloves, cinnamon and walnuts. Put aside.

On a lightly floured work surface, and using a floured rolling pin, roll out the pizza/bread dough into a rectangle that is at least 10 inches long by 7 inches wide (larger is ok but smaller and it will be hard to cut enough rolls). Use a pastry brush to brush melted butter all over the surface of the rectangle and then sprinkle the sugar and walnut mixture on top. From one of the long sides of the rectangle, roll up tightly and press on the edge to form a seam. Using a sharp knife, cut into 9 or 10 equal pieces and place on a greased cookie sheet (I save my pastry brush and brush the leftover melted butter on the sheet).

Let the cinnamon rolls rest in a warm area for 25-35 minutes. They will puff up a bit (don't expect an enormous size change. You'll be waiting all day if you are!). While you are waiting for your rolls to rise, make the icing by beating together the softened cream cheese, confectioners sugar, vanilla and cream until smooth.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until tops are slightly brown and gooey. Be careful not to over cook because the dough will get really tough! Let cool for a few minutes and frost each one before eating.

All text and photographs © 2008, 2009 Food is to love / Andrea Quigley