Birthday Strawberry Jam Bars

Gooey Jam Bars

To celebrate Kevin's birthday I made him Strawberry Jam Bars because I remembered him liking raspberry ones I made a long time ago. I followed the recipe pretty closely but I think I used the whole jar of jam (the recipe calls for one cup of jam, but my jar of jam was a little bit more than that).

I think this recipe is quick and easy and a crowd pleaser...who doesn't love jam? You can change up the jam to whatever you have on hand or whatever you like best. Also, they have a good amount of rolled oats in them so they trick you into thinking they are healthy (with a stick of butter plus all that jam they really aren't that healthy...).

Once again the recipe comes from Joy of Baking!

Nutella Cookies Take Two

Nutella Cookies

Awhile ago I made Nutella sandwich cookies and since they were such a great hit I thought I'd make just the cookie part again. I used a different recipe this time and although the recipes were very similar I liked the previous recipe more. Maybe it was because the cookies were sandwiched together with ganache last time =)

The cookies still came out pretty tasty because you can't really go wrong with Nutella and chocolate.

Here's the recipe.

Thanksgiving Pecan Pie

Thanksgiving Pecan Pie

I'm really behind on posting recipes! This recipe is from Thanksgiving and it's a traditional pecan pie. I accidentally rolled the crust too thin so the bottom crust was a little too thin. I liked the filling from the pecan tassies better than the pie filling and it was easier to make. I'm wondering if the tassie filling would work in a whole pie. The changes I made to the recipe were that I chopped up the pecans before putting them into the crust and I omitted the rum from the filling.

The recipe is from Joy of Baking.

Too Cute Tassies for Two Cute Twins

Little Pecan Tassies

For Stacy and Steph's birthday I made them Pecan Tassies. They are basically pecan pie made miniature in mini muffin tins. I made a pecan pie for Thanksgiving a few weeks later and I actually prefer these mini versions more. It might be the recipe or it might just be because tassies are just so darn cute!

The recipe comes from one of my favorite baking websites Joy of Baking. I followed the recipe exactly and they came out pretty well. I don't think mine are quite as pretty or uniform as the original recipe but tasty nonetheless. It was a little difficult to push the dough into the mini muffin tins and I realized later that it is important to make sure to push the dough all the way down to avoid air pockets in the finished tassies.

Pecan Tassies are a great alternative to baking a whole pie as they are quick and easy to make and taste just as good (if not better) than a pie. 

Fallin' for Fried Apple Pies

Fried Apple Pies Covered in Powdered Sugar

This is a really late post, but for Halloween I decided to make Fried Apple Pies. Apples are definitely a Fall fruit so I thought it would be perfect for a Halloween celebration. While they are somewhat 'reminiscent of McDonaldss apple pies I can't tell for sure as I can't remember ever eating a fried apple pie from McDonalds! 

The recipe came from here and I made just a couple changes. I used about a teaspoon of vanilla extract instead of the vanilla bean. Also, with 5 apples I ended up with a lot of extra filling. I thought my apples were just regular sized but I guess they were on the larger side. I would maybe cut this down to 4 apples (it would be better to come up with an amount in cups...). Besides that, after a couple of pies were fried they were opening up at the seams. Ryan suggested we poke holes in the tops and this definitely helped stop them from expanding too much and opening.

They were pretty tasty even though they were not fresh out of the oil when we ate them. I'm sure they would have been even better piping hot!