Southern Pecan Pie

I usually like to make a pecan pie each year around Thanksgiving since they taste soo much better homemade. Since I didn't have much time for baking this past year with boards right around the corner, I decided to make some for dessert last night.

Southern Pecan Pie

1 piecrust, homemade or frozen
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 1/3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
2 1/2 cups toasted pecan halves


1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Cook pie crust for 10 minutes then remove from oven (leave oven on). While piecrust is baking, combine corn syrup, brown sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and butter in a medium bowl. Beat eggs and add to mixture.

2. Finely chop 1/2 cup of toasted pecans and line the bottom of the cooled piecrust with them. Rough chop 1 cup of pecans and add to the wet ingredients. Reserve 1 cup of pecans for decorative top.

3. Pour wet ingredients into the pie crust over the finely chopped pecans.





4. Add whole pecan halves in a decorative pattern starting with the outer row. For each row I like to put the fatter end of the nut towards the outside of the pie so they fit a little better.





5. Bake for 40-50 minutes until a sharp knife inserted into the pie comes out clean. Cool completely before serving.




I like to serve my pecan pie with vanilla bean ice cream and whipped cream, but this pie is so good to almost don't need it.

Hope you enjoyed!

Halloween Cookie Set

I decide to make some pumpkin spice sugar cookies and decorate them for Halloween this year. I picked up two awesome copper cookie cutters at the end of last season from William Sonoma for $1.99 a piece (a steal, I know). One is a skull and crossbones, the other is a large ghost.

To make the project a little more interesting I added a spider and it's web, tombstones, and two types of pumpkins with cutters I purchased from The Cookie Cutter Company. The Cookie Cutter Company has a great assortment of cookie cutters, most in the $1-$2 range and I beefed up my Wilton 100 piece set with tons of extras, without breaking the bank.

 The whole Halloween set

Spiders and their webs

Spooky ghosts

A step by step guide for the skull and crossbone cookies can be found here.

Enjoy.

Be sure to follow me on instagram @rocky092 for more cookie and baking posts



Homemade Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

I had some more pumpkin purée to use before it went bad so I decided to make some pumpkin spice pancakes for breakfast this morning. Served with butter and hickory syrup, they were fluffy and delicious, the perfect fall morning treat. 

Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup pumpkin purée

1 egg

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 tablespoons white vinegar

3 tablespoons brown sugar

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat two large fry pans on medium heat. Measure all wet ingredients in a mixing cup and mix well. 

2.  Measure all dry ingredients into a medium mixing bowl and combine. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix until just combined. 

3. Add one tablespoon of butter to each fry pan and melt. Using a measuring cup, ladle approximately 1/4 cup pancake mix onto pan. Cook 4-5 pancakes per pan, waiting to flip until a few bubbles rise to the top of the pancake (these pankcakes fill not form as many bubbles as normal pancakes would, be careful not to burn them).

These pancakes are just about ready to flip

Keep cooked pancakes warm either on a tray in the oven set to warm, or on a plate in the closed microwave. 

6. Serve warm with butter and syrup or any other fall toppings you may like. 

Enjoy!!

Be sure to follow me on instagram @rocky092 for more baking, brunch, and food posts

P.S. These also freeze great. Just seperate pancakes by a small piece of wax paper and stick into a sealable plastics bag. When ready to eat just remove however many pancakes you'd like and reheat. 

Mary Beth's Apple Cobbler

This weekend we went to a local apple festival near the farm. In addition to selling apples they have various baked goods, home cooked Polish food (pierogi and haluski), candy, and my personal favorite, chocolate covered caramel apples. We also picked up two bottles of Razz's hickory syrup which tastes amazing on anything from grilled peaches to sausage and squash. Hickory syrup is similar to maple syrup but with a smokier, woodsier taste. I've never seen hickory syrup anywhere other than from this vendor, at this festival, and we finished ours up so quickly last year I knew I had to grab more. The website also has a ton of recipes you can find here.

After spending the day eating all the different treats the festival had to offer, we picked out a bag of Honeycrisp apples, which are my favorite (not including ones covered in chocolate and caramel), and headed home to bake some more treats.

Since Honeycrisp apples are too good to eat any other way than fresh, we used apples that we picked from my cousins orchard the day before. They have a few trees filled with apples and pears that are great for baking as well as eating fresh. Since everyone I know loves apple cobbler, that's what we decided to bake. A recipe using the pears will be posted later this week.

I was lucky and had my cousins as baking assistants,

they peeled almost all the pears and apples for me!

Mary Beth's Apple Cobbler
This recipe is from my future mother in law, I just add a little bit of nutmeg since I love it and some oatmeal for extra texture.

7 large apples
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup instant oatmeal
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 sticks of cold butter, cubed

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Peel and slice apples into bite size chunks and place into a buttered rectangular baking pan. (I doubled the recipe when I made it, so I used two baking pans)

2. In a separate bowl mix together the dry ingredients until well combined. With a pastry blender (or a large fork if you don't have one handy) combine the cubed butter with the dry ingredients until only small pieces of butter remain. Spread mixture thickly on top of the apples.

3. Bake cobbler for 45 minutes or until apples are soft and cobbler topping is golden brown and crunchy.

I served mine with homemade ice cream, either pumpkin spice, vanilla bean, or both. The cobbler is amazing right out of the oven, the heat from the cobbler starts thawing the ice cream and makes things all melty and wonderful.

Hope you enjoyed, let me know if you have any questions!

Pumpkin Spice Challah Bread

I wasn't joking when I said that I was obsessed with pumpkin spice everything in the fall. In the last week and a half I've used 3 cans of pumpkin purée. And it's only October.

On the drive home I had a craving for challah bread. Knowing I had some leftover pumpkin purée, I wondered if I could make pumpkin spice challah bread. I got home and immediately looked up a recipe, and set out to experiment with my first batch ever. 

Pumpkin Spice Challah Bread

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 1/4 cups warm water (110 F if you have a thermometer handy)

1/4 cup honey

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 eggs, one for dough, one for egg wash

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup pumpkin purée

1 tablespoon cinnamon 

2 teaspoons ground nutmeg

1 teaspoons ground ginger

6 cups all purpose white flour 

Yields 2 loaves of challah bread

1. Place warm water in bowl of stand mixer. Sprinkle active dry yeast over top and set to the side.  In a small measuring cup, measure out honey and add pumpkin, oil, one egg, salt, and spices. Combine well. 

2. Add contents of mixing cup to water/yeast mixture and attach to a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Turn speed to stir and slowly begin adding the flour. Add a single cup at a time waiting until most of the flour has been incorporated before adding the next cup. 

3. Once all the flour has been added, mix for an additional 8 minutes or until the dough clumps around the hook. The dough should no longer be sticky to the touch and should spring back after it's touching it. (If the dough is too sticky, gradually add small amount of flour until the right consistency is reached, 1/4 cup at a time). 

4. Remove dough from mixer bowl, shape into a ball, and place in a glass bowl to rise. Cover bowl with a damp cloth and find a warm spot in your kitchen to let the dough rise for 1.5 hours or until doubled in size. 

Here the dough has almost risen enough, only a little bit more to go

5. After the dough has doubled in size, divide in half and knead for 5 minutes on a floured surface. Divide the dough half into thirds and using a rolling/stretching motion, roll out into logs approximately 1.5 inches in diameter. Firmly pinch ends of logs together. Braid the three strands of dough, firmly pinching the end of the braid to secure. Repeat for the second half of dough.

6. Place each half on a greased baking tray and cover with the damp cloth. Allow the braided dough to rest for another hour.

While the dough was resting I munched on, you guessed it, pumpkin seed brittle! I bought it at Trader Joes and it's a nice blend of pumpkin pie spices and pumpkin seeds.

 7. During the last 10 minutes of the dough resting, preheat oven to 375 F. Beat 1 egg with one tablespoon of water to make egg wash. Liberally brush each loaf with wash. Bake loaves for 40 minutes until golden brown and bottoms sound hollow when tapped. Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour before slicing. 

Super tasty with spread with a little of Trader Joe's pumpkin butter. Awesome and well worth the wait!

Hope you enjoyed!

Be sure to follow me on instagram @rocky092 for more recipes and food posts

Homemade Pumpkin Ravioli with Pumpkin Cream Sauce

Fall is my favorite time of year and one of my favorite things about fall is pumpkin spice everything. Today I finally decided to try making pasta from scratch, more specifically, pumpkin ravioli from scratch. I couldn't find the exact combination of ravioli and sauce I had in mind, so I mixed and matched a couple of recipes to get just what I was looking for.

Pumpkin Spice Ravioli with Pumpkin Cream Sauce

For the Pasta:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

3 eggs, and one more for egg wash

1 tablespoon olive oil

Cornmeal

For the Filling:

7.5 oz  pumpkin pie filling (1/2 can)

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

2 tablespoon paremesean cheese

Salt and pepper

For the Sauce:

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 can pumpkin pie filling

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon butter

1. In a mixer fitted with a dough hook combine flour and salt. Turn mixer on low and add eggs one by one waiting until each egg has been incorporated before adding the next. Slowly drizzle in olive oil and mix a few minutes more until dough clumps around dough hook. 

2. Remove dough from bowl and knead on a floured surface for 10 minutes. 

(Above: before kneading, Below: after kneading)

3. Drizzle dough with olive oil and wrap loosely in plastic wrap. Let dough rest for 30 minutes. While the dough is resting combine the 7.5 oz of pumpkin pie filling, pumpkin pie spice, parmesan, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well and set to the side. 

4. For the sauce combine the cream and pumpkin pie filling in a pot over medium heat and stir well. Once simmering, add Parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook for 7 minutes until slightly thickened, remove from the heat. 

5. When the dough has finished resting, divide in half and re-cover portion not being immediately used. On a floured surface, pull dough into a log and flour top surface. With a rolling pin, flatten into a long rectangle and roll out as thin as possible (to 1/16 of an inch or the height of two stacked quarters).

I used a the thinnest set of rolling pin guides from a pack I had purchased for making sugar cookies. 

     I used the red guides shown above

6. Lightly press the larger end of a shot glass along the lower edge of the dough leaving 1-2 inches between pressings.  This acts as a guide for filling and ensures even spacing of ravioli. 

7. Brush egg wash over the lower half of the rolled out dough where the guides are spaced. Place a heaping teaspoonful of filling into the center of each guide.

8. Gently fold top half of dough over the teaspoons of filling. Starting from the top of each filling mound, lightly press air out from between filling and dough. Firmly Press dough together at the base of the filling to secure ravioli. Repeat for each mound of filling. With a sharp knife, trim excess edge leaving a 1/4 inch skirt around the mound of filling. 

9. Spread a thin layer of cornmeal into a baking sheet. Transfer ravioli from floured surface onto baking sheet. Dip the tines of a fork into flour and press tines along edge of ravioli to firmly seal. 

10. Bring a wide pot of water to a boil. Repeat steps 8-13 for the second half of dough. Once water is boiling, add ravioli to water making sure not to over crowd the pot (you may have to cook in multiple batches to prevent ravioli from sticking). Cook for 4-5 minutes stirring once gently. While ravioli are cooking, reheat sauce, bringing to a simmer. Remove from heat and finish with one tablespoon of butter. 

11. Once ravioli are finished cooking, remove gently with a slotted spoon. Plate ravioli and top with pumpkin cream sauce and extra Parmesan cheese. 

This was a perfect pumpkin kick to my tastesbuds after a busy day at work. 

Hope you enjoyed!!

Be sure to check out more of my food love on instagram @rocky092

A Weekend at the Farm and a Recipe for Jelly

As the summer comes to a close the weather cools down and leaves begin to change. Weekends spent picking produce from the family garden slows, and the days are filled with more leisure activities. 

The weather was beautiful so I started the weekend with a short run on some of the trails that are cut throughout our property. 

Julie, our family's Yorkie, is a bonafide country girl and lead the way through many of the fields. We also stopped to catch our breath and I snapped a picture of "the princess". 

Many of our fields are lined with wild berry bushes and grape vines, only the latter being in season now. I made a mental note to myself to come back with a picker to gather some of the Concord grapes and find something to make with them, but more on that later. 

The end of our run brought us up through the chicken coops though many of the girls were out roaming the yard and perched in the orchard. 

After I was showered and changed from the run I went back and picked a large bucket filled with Concord grapes. These grapes grow wild all over the farm but we never really picked more than a couple of bunches to have on the table. I found recipe and set out to make my first batch of Concord grape jelly. 

Concord Grape Jelly

5 lbs Concord grapes

5 cups sugar

3 tbsp lemon juice

1. Measure out 5 lbs of grapes and separate the meat from their skins puréeing the latter with 1 cup of sugar.

2. Combine the purée with the skinless grapes, remaining 4 cups of sugar, and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice in a low pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook for 25 minutes. 

3. Run mixture through food mill in order to remove seeds and solids. Return liquids to pot and simmer over medium heat for an additional 20 minutes stirring frequently. 

You can also remove any foam that bubbles on the sides of the pot while the mixture is cooking. 

4. To test for doneness, drop a small spoonful of jelly onto a chilled plate and let sit for a minute. The jelly is done when the plate is steeply angled and the mixture no longer runs. Cook no longer than an additional 20 minutes. 

This recipe yielded 6 half-pints of jelly which we canned for use throughout the year. 

That's all for now, thanks for reading!!

Be sure to follow me on instagram @rocky092