Strawberry Pie

Nothing reminds me more of my Nana & Poppa than good old fashioned homemade "Strawberry Pie" They used to make this every summer for the Family. (well not this exact recipe, but close enough)

Hot & bubbly right out of the oven..nothing smells better that this...

Though my Poppa always made his crust from scratch. Ok...Shame on me..This is my first attempt to make a Fresh Strawberry Pie..I did NOT make the dough from scratch(this time), I wanted to master the filling first..because seriously it is not as easy as it looks. It could be too runny, to chunky, to thick..But I know I did the perfect pie because my hubby ate half of it on his lunch break. I made this for our company on Sunday, looks like I am making a second one for tomorrow..this pie is Not going to last long in this house.



In the picture above...always prick the dough with a fork around the whole shell. This will prevent the shell from lifting and making weird bubbles.


Start with some freshly washed and hulled berries and mix them with 1 cup of sugar, 1 tbsp of cornstarch, 1-8tsp of salt and 3-4 cups of berries.
Those are some red juicy strawberries;

No. that is not snow below, That is the giant mound of Sugar covering the strawberries. Could you Imagine it snowed Sugar??? ...I didn't tell you this was a Fat Free pie! Seriously joking.




Fill the uncooked Pie crust with the filling mixture. The sugar will pretty much melt onto the berries looking like a glaze.

And some about 1 tbsp of butter on top. You do this after you pour the filling into the 9 inch pie crust.



Then cover the filling with the top. Crumple\staple the edges of the pie to get it to stick on. And using a pasty brush rub on a tiny bit of milk and some melted butter. Make sure to cut some holes in the middle to allow some steam to escape.
Place on a baking sheet in the oven at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes, then lower the temp to 350 degrees and cook for another 20 minutes or until the crust starts to golden brown and the berries start to bubble..

Keep an eye on your Pie.... If you notice the edges are getting too brown like I did....I had to place strips of tin foil around the edges of the crust about 25 minutes while it was cooking.

Note: **It is VERY important to eat this with Vanilla Ice cream**


Enjoy!!

Cookies

Any Ideas what this is going to say??.......unscramble if you please....
oh, and there are a few extra letters to mess you up. My family will get this right away.

Did you figure it out???

OLIVIA!!!!!!

yes these are her tiny toes....so cute eh? But you cant eat them!

I just realized that already my daughter will be 5 months old this Saturday. Wow where did the time go? I thought Id make some cookies in honor of her..(too bad she cant eat them yet...but WE can! )

So something horrible happened....the letter "O" was smushed! .....
So sad. it did look pretty. lets all pretend that it never happened...better yet...just dont even look at the letter "O"....
Looks like now her name is "Livia"...

Just some simple cookies. These cookies are made of Vanilla sugar cookies..and iced with royal icing (the brown icing is made of Chocolate royal icing).. I got the color scheme idea from my daughters baby blanket. pink with brown polka dots. Since she cannot eat these..just yet..she can be comforted by her blankey and we can be comforted by indulging in these cookies.

Sorry...just had to throw in another cute baby feet picture...
A little side tracked..we were talking about cookies right?!

Lollipop cookies (Elmo)

These Elmo cookies were made as a loot for my neices 2nd birthday and she is a Sesame Street fan! The cookies are sugar cookies, and decorated with Royal Icing.



How to make Cookie Lolipops:

* First I made my usual favorite Vanilla Sugar cookie recipe (which you can find on my site).
* Then I cut out the dough with Stars and circle cookie cutters from my 101 cookie cutter set.
* Right before I baked the cookies, I used lolipop sticks and pressed into each cookie about half way and covered the stick on the back of the cookie with extra dough the make sure that the stick is going to stay put.
*After the cookies have cooled. I out lined them all with white royal icing using tip # 3 for piping. Then let that cool for at least 30 minutes. this outline is going to prevent the thinner icing from leaking out the edges when filled in.
Then fill in the cookies with a thinner consistancy royal icing with the color of your choice..this is called "flooding"

Elmooooo!!!

Sunshine Award

I am so flattered! I was just given a special award from a follower of my blog. She is from www.kimmama.com . check out her Blog. I just recieved the Sunshine award! Thankyou thankyou! I am so happy to see that all my hard work pays off and is making others happy.

Quoted from her site

" I am going to make this award a little more elite by passing it on to only one. And the winner is…
Ashley from Baking with Ashley
Because there is nothing more full of sunshine and happiness than adorable and delicious cupcakes and other goodies."

Thanks Kim!

Choco-Mint dipped cookies

1 1/2 cup mint-chocolate chips
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter -- softened
1/2 cup brown sugar -- firmly packed
1/4 cup sugar -- granulated
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375F degrees. Melt 3/4 cup of the mint-chocolate chips in a the microwave , stir until smooth. Remove from heat; cool to room temperature.
In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, sugar, and vanilla extract; beat until creamy.
Add melted chips and egg; beat well. Gradually blend in the flour mixture. Stir in remaining 3/4 cup of mint-chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake at 375Fdegrees for 8 to 10 minutes.

Allow to stand 2 to 3 minutes; remove from cookie sheets. Cool completely on wire racks.


After they are done baking, I used chocolate candy wafers and melted them in the microwave for about 30 seconds.

When the chocolate is melted, dip half of the cookie into the chocolate and cover the area well. dont forget to double dip. Then right after when the chocolate is still wet sprinkle colorful sprinkles to decorate. use whatever candy you like.


My daughter had lots of fun with these cookies. A really fun recipe to do with the kids.




I love white Chocolate....my weakness. the mix of the white chocolate and the Mint is so good. especially when warm. I think I sent half the batch to work with my husband so I wouldnt eat them. Crazy good cookie!!!

Strawberry Muffins

2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour, sifted
1/3 c. granulated sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1/2 c. oil
1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. sliced strawberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Beat eggs, blend in oil, vanilla, and milk. Add liquid to dry ingredients, stir quickly, just until moistened. Fold in strawberries. Spoon into well-greased 2 1/2 inch muffin tins or paper-lined muffin cups. Bake at 400 degrees F. for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire rack. Serve warm.

Spring is in the Air....

Chocolate cupcakes-- with royal Icing blossoms, buttercream icing for grass and Sugar cookie Lady-bugs.. Arnt they Cute?!

It all Started with a little mini-lady bug Sugar cookies.........



Then they started to come to life with some red buttercream icing....




Did some piping with tip # 23, doesnt quite look like much yet, sort of looks like green hair.

Icing was colored with (Wilton icing color...leaf green color) , still doesnt look like much yet... do you know what it is going to be?

Some wild grass...for the Lady bugs to hang out on.

And some more.....


Some Spring Blossom candies made of Royal icing...yum!


What to do with the Flowers? I thought I'd turn them into lolipop flowers and stick them in the cupcakes. In order to do that...some chocolate wafers had to be melted as glue.


Melt, melt, melting.....

And stick them!

And Voila!