Cranberry Apple Pie- Double Crust

I baked this pie in 2021. I have baked it several times since, but I never blogged it. These photos are from 2021. I am finally getting to it! I think I like cranberries in pies because they give such a yummy tartness like Rhubarb. They tint the apples a pretty blush pink that is so lovely.  So pretty for a festive table. There are a lot of photos, so the recipe is right after this next photo.

Cranberry Apple Pie

1 double-crust pie dough, nine-inch

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon reserved for top of pie

3 tablespoons butter, salted

pinch of salt

1/4 cup orange juice, zest first and set zest aside

4 medium-sized tart apples, peeled and sliced (about 6 cups sliced)

1/4 cup cornstarch, or all-purpose flour

2 cups fresh or frozen cranberries, reserve 6 or so berries for garnish(optional)

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon apple pie spice; Penzey's has a great one

2 tablespoons butter, cubed

1 tablespoon heavy cream

1. Place one pie crust in the bottom of a deep dish 9-inch pie plate; leave enough crust on the edges to crimp later. Place in fridge to chill.
2. Stir brown sugar, sugar, butter, salt, and orange juice into a pot over medium-high heat. Stir until the sugars are dissolved.
3. Toss apples and cranberries in cornstarch or flour, orange zest, and spices. Add to the pot. Cook until the mixture has slightly thickened and the apples are just getting soft, they will continue to cook in the oven.  Remove from heat and set aside. (Cooking the filling is optional; you can mix all the filling ingredients together. Reserving the butter. Place mixture into an uncooked pie crust, then dot with cubes of butter. I like my apples a little more tender and find that I can control how watery the filling is by cooking first.)
4. Preheat oven to 425* F.  
5. Roll out the second pie crust. Cut strips for a lattice, or use cookie cutters to cut out some shapes to vent the dough. 
6. Remove the pie plate from the fridge and fill it with pie filling. Dot with 2 tablespoons of cubed butter.
7. Place the top crust on the pie and crimp the edges. I do my lattice work on the pie as opposed to placing the assembled lattice on the pie.
8. Brush the top crust with heavy cream, and sprinkle sugar on top. Place reserved cranberries between the weaving of the lattice. (or in the cutouts if you used a cookie cutter)
9. Place pie on a rimmed cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 350*F and bake until the crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbling. 45minutes to 1 hour. Make sure to shield the crust if it is getting over-browned.
10. Let cool before serving.

You can see my apples are not mushy and really cooked, but the filling is not watery. 

For ease, I like to roll my pie crust between two sheets of parchment. Once rolled out, I can place the whole thing in the fridge to chill if it's getting too warm. 

For this pie, I braided some of the lattice pieces.

Wonky, but it's all done. 

Baked up beautifully.

Thank you for visiting this little blog.

 

Chocolate Chip Cookies (Crispy edges, chewy centers)

Another Chocolate Chip Cookie. This one is crisp on the edges and chewy on the inside. This is a recipe I would make again. I really like the texture. I might use a few tablespoons less sugar next time. 

Cream Puffs

My middle made these for her French Class and I figured why not update this old post from 2008? You can find the original post here and below is the updated version. So easy to make and they taste so good.

Chocolate Chip Toffee Cookies (Chewy)

Rich, flavorful, chewy with crispy edges. I love chocolate chip cookies and this recipe has all the elements I just mentioned. The browned butter and dark brown sugar give these cookies a butterscotch toffee flavor and the dark brown sugar makes them chewy. I do have quite a few other recipes on this blog.  I can't help it. This one, the Gideon cookies, the Kiss Me  Chocolate Chip Cookies, so many yummy ones. Just pick one, the Skillet Chocolate Chip cookie is the easiest.

As far as this recipe I will definitely make them again. With or without the Toffee chips. I would love to put nuts in them, but my child can't eat nuts. I use less chocolate and toffee in these than most people would but we love the cookie like this.

This is a great batter to customize.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Fudgy Skillet Brownie

I was craving Mexican Hot Chocolate donuts and the Chocolate Chili ice cream from Florean Fortescue’s Ice-Cream Parlour at Universal Studios. Of course we can't get there so  made these brownies and they always hit the spot. 

If you are looking for a fancier brownie, try these Fudgy Cheesecake Brownies.

Jeaow For Sour Fruits

This is one of my favorite snacks. It's sweet, spicy, and salty, the mangoes and fruits are tart. My mouth waters everytime I think about it. It makes me crave baby mangoes and sour fruits. My cousins when I used to visit them loved this. Julie used to make this sauce for us and we would go pick fruits like crab apples and other fruits around the neighborhood to snack on. So much fun.

Coconut Cherry Pandan Cupcakes

These cupcakes are made with this Pandan Sponge cake batter here. My favorite cake. For the frosting, I made it as written but added coconut cream, a drop of red food coloring and almond extract along with the coconut extract. The pipette is a shot of cherry juice. SO yummy.

Nice and fluffy inside.

Thanks for reading Give Peas A Chance!

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Coconut-Lime Bars, Lime Bars

Lime bars, and twist off of a yummy classic treat. During this shelter in place, my middle child has been baking up a storm. These Lime Bars are just one of the yummy treats she's baked. We have an abundance of limes, so I'll be freezing some of the juice also. We didn't add food coloring to these bars to make them green but the specks of lime zest against the yellow make them pretty. We also have used Natural Erythritol in place of the powdered sugar and it worked very well. I have two huge bags of this stuff that DH purchased. So if you want to make this with less cane sugar, you can use that.
The original recipe was for Lemon Bars, I'll post the Lime Bar recipe and then the Coconut-Lime Bar recipe below that. The Coconut-Lime Bars are a yummy twist. I used to make a coconut shortbread that is a favorite of ours.
Some tips:
Use a glass pan. Spray it with cooking spray then line it with parchment paper, then spray the parchment paper. The filling is a bit sticky and this will help you get your Lime Bars out of the pan.

Brownie Batter Cookies

Today I have two cookies to share. Both are easy to make and require minimal ingredients, they are very similar but one will yield a thinner cookie, the other a thicker cookie. There's an Italian place here that makes these amazing thin brownie batter cookies and I have been meaning to recreate them for a while now and like some people during this shelter in place I have a little more time at home. My first batch of cookies came out like the last photo. Thicker, a bit chewy on the edges, just not thin. They were still delicious though and we will make them again. I just wanted thin, chewy in the middle and a bit crispy like brownies from the edge of a pan. The result is the cookie you see in the first and second pictures.
Which cookie do you think you'd like better? I like both, and it just depends if I'm in the mood for a thicker chewy cookie or a thinner crisp-edged cookie.

Copycat Gideon's Bakehouse Cookies

I have so many Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes on this blog, but let's face it, sometimes you want them chewy, cakey, extra chocolatey. Mood. Right? For extra chocolate richness, this is the recipe you want. If you've ever been to Gideon's Bakehouse or the Polite Pig at Disney Springs you may know about these cookies. Voted the best cookie in Florida they are really yummy. There's rich chocolate, vanilla, and a tender cookie that's a little underbaked but not raw. They are in my top two favorite cookies at Disney Springs, the other being the Jammy Dodgers at Cookes.

Butterfly Blush- Color Changing Sushies

Hello everyone! Sorry I've been so absent. I hope you are all doing well! My youngest recently had a birthday party and I wanted to serve something fun to go along with the roll your own spring roll bar we had. I thought about having a bubble tea/boba tea bar but I wasn't sure which flavors to offer and such. Looking in my tea cabinet I saw my jar of Butterfly pea flowers. I make tea with them and cook with them quite a bit. I though they would be fun to use.

Bunches of Berries in Bars

One of the fantastic things about our move is that I found a great wholesale fruit and vegetable source. I admit, typing that out it sounds lame. I'm okay with that though because this awesome place will have avocados by the case, 48 for $37.50, blueberries in 9 ounce packages 12 for $7-10, 12 ounce packages of raspberries 14 for $14, 10 artichokes for $8,  organic packs of produce that end up being $1 a pound. It's amazing and awesome. That's how these bars came about. We love fresh berries and were eating them by the handful. The kids were taking 14 ounce packs of raspberries for lunch.  I purchased 28 packs. Yes 28. In the end I had 3 packs that needed to be used up. We ate a bunch. I still have blueberries in my fridge that I can freeze for later also.

Donut Bread Pudding

This is really good.  Dangerous but good.  The Dunkin donut's near our church gave us a bunch of donuts... so you know. Why not try a bread pudding with them.  I've seen it made before, but I've never had it. I've also never had that many leftover donuts. 

Nam Vahn Sakoo- Tapioca Pudding with Taro Root

Nam Vahn Sakoo- Tapioca pudding with Taro root.

Nam Vahn Sakoo is a tapioca pudding in coconut milk with tender pieces of taro in it. I've seen it in Lao, Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese cuisine. Nam Vahn Sakoo or Nam Van Sakoo is the Lao pronunciation. Generally this dessert is served warm with toppings like sesame seeds, crushed peanuts, or coconut flakes. I prefer it with no toppings, and will even eat it out of the fridge cold. This isn't an overly sweet dessert but you can add more sugar if you prefer it sweeter.

Coconut Sticky Rice With Mango (Pandan and Butterfly Pea Flower)

Coconut Sticky Rice with Mango, Khao Niew Mak Houng is something I've blogged before. Twice actually.
Here in 2008.
Here in 2013 with Forbidden Rice.

Non-Dairy Creamer, Paleo Coffee Frappe

Non-Dairy Creamer that is Whole30 and Paleo compliant.

If you've been following my Instagram (@peasknees), you know that I recently finished my first round of Whole30. I had a whole month where I didn't drink any coffee. I drank tea twice with this "creamer" like this, and the rest of the time I drank my tea plain. I have to say I really missed my cups of tea in the afternoon with half and half and sweetener - which is normally one dehydrated Stevia leaf. I still miss sweetener but I found something I really enjoy in both coffee and tea. Cold or hot.  This doesn't taste dairy half and half. But it makes drinks creamy and adds flavor. It's really good.

Rainbow Jello

Rainbow Jello cups.

I haven't had Rainbow Jello is years. This is not a hard dessert to make at all. It's really quite simple, just time consuming. You make each layer after the prior layer has set. That perhaps is the hardest part, the waiting. If you don't time it right you get messy layers (as shown above). You can make this is a large pan and just the Jello into squares after also.

Bubble Tea, Boba, Tapioca Pearls

Tapioca Pearls.

I've already posted these tapioca pearls in the Instant Pot with my Mango Lassi post, but now that its close to spring time I thought I would repost them alone. That way we can get ready for warm weather drinks. Do you like Bubble tea? What is your favorite? Smoothies? Tea? Iced coffee?

Coconut Pandan Popovers

Coconut Pandan Popovers

I know, I'm on a Pandan kick lately. I can't help it, it's like the vanilla of Southeast Asia. These popovers are so yummy and the custard like center is so yum.  They are a fusion of Southeast Asian flavors and the American Popover which is almost like a Yorkshire pudding. It's a perfect fusion of flavors, texture, and culture.
We like these Coconut Pandan Popovers plain, drizzled with sweetened condensed milk, or with butter- plain, strawberry, or honey. I've made them for breakfast, brunch, a snack, to have with tea. I'm not even sure when people eat sweet popovers. We have no rules here apparently. I hope you'll try these though. They are so good

Coconut Pandan Sponge Cake

If you ask me what my favorite cake is my answer would probably be this Coconut Pandan Sponge cake, Chinese bakery vanilla sponge cake, Chocolate cake... I like other cakes a whole lot, like Hummingbird cake, and Whole Wheat Carrot cake. I think this Coconut Pandan is top 2, top three at the least.  I got this recipe from a sweet girl on Instagram. I changed the flavors to what we like. It's so yum.