Mini Apple Crisps in Jars

These lovely little jars are filled with sheer yumminess. I don't even want to tell you how fabulous the kitchen smelled when I pulled them still bubbling from the oven. Bliss Crisps. Better name.

I made a test batch before sending these off to a friend with a newborn baby boy. We gobbled up those first four test jars before the sun went down. Maybe even before dinner. Okay. We did.

Funny thing was that when the second helpings were reheated in the microwave a few hours later, they almost seemed too sweet. And if you know me at all, I never say that ANYTHING is too sweet. It's sheer blasphemy in the kitchen of most bakers. You may want to omit the honey if you find the same is true for you. Perhaps the scoop of ice cream sent the sugar rush over the top.

In any case, you are going to LoVe this recipe! It comes together in just a few minutes and can be made ahead and baked as you sit down to dinner for a mouthwatering, warm, lick-the-spoon clean dessert. Not sure how you could lick the jar but where there's a will, there's a way!

Mini Apple Crisps in Jars

By Deborah Stauch, www.Once-Upon-A-Pedestal.blogspot.com

Photos show double recipe

Serves 4

Equipment

(4) 8 oz Mason jars with wide mouth

Pam spray

Grater with small holes

Jellyroll pan of ice

Plastic wrap

Jellyroll pan (reuse the same one from the ice) lined with Silpat , baking parchment or foil

Ingredients

Filling

                  3 Fugi apples

                  1 T lemon juice

                  1 T honey

                  1/2 t cornstarch

                  1/2 t salt

                  1/2 t cinnamon

Topping

                  1/3 c firmly packed brown sugar

                  1/2 c flour

                  1/4 c Old Fashioned Rolled Oats

                  1 t cinnamon

                  4T grated cold butter

Optional (just kidding – ice cream is never not an option with warm apple crisp)

                  Vanilla ice cream

                  Cinnamon sticks for garnish

Method

1.  Preheat the oven to 375 F. Spray the inside of the jars with non-stick spray and wipe out the excess with a paper towel.

2.  Peel and core apples. Slice and cut into bite sized pieces. Place apple pieces in a bowl. Add lemon juice, honey, cornstarch, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

3.   Mix the brown sugar, flour, oats and cinnamon together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

4.   Grate the butter onto a sheet of plastic wrap over the pan of ice using the smallest holes on the grater. Place the pan in the refrigerator or freezer if kitchen is too warm.

5.   Distribute the apple mixture evenly between the four jars. Sprinkle the topping on top of the apples and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. Divide the grated butter into four rough portions and pile on top of the oat mixture being careful that the topping and butter aren’t spilling over the rim. Wipe jar exterior if needed. Do not add the lids.

6.     Line the jellyroll pan previously used for the ice and place the jars on top. Bake for 30-40 minutes covering the jars loosely with foil after 20 minutes to prevent further browning. Serve at once with ice cream and a cinnamon stick garnish if desired.

To make in advance:

Prepare filling, topping and grated butter. Fill jars with apple mixture only. Add lids and refrigerate until assembly time. Add the oat mixture and butter as you sit down to dinner and you can have a fresh warm dessert without all the fuss.

To give as a gift, tie a mini spoon and fork around the lid with bakers twine. Add a small doily (Martha Stewart at Michaels) and tuck the jars in a basket along with reheating instructions.

To reheat:

Remove the lids and set the jars on a cookie sheet in a 350 F oven until topping is crisp but not over brown. The crisps can also be heated in the microwave but the topping will be less crunchy. Use care when handling the hot jars.

If you need more convincing, here's a quick video of them happily bubbling away before they met their demise. Such a short but happy life they led . . .

Inspired by http://thefreshmancook.blogspot.com/2012/10/apple-crisp-jars.html

Surprise Inside Cake - Hidden Acorns and Oak Leaves

Hope you are enjoying the wonderful fall weather where ever you are! Fall and Spring hold a special place in my heart. Spring maybe more so because the leaves aren't dropping like flies. But the acorns are SO cute. Hard to pick a favorite.

This is the cake that the 2 ingredient chocolate candy acorns were used for.

The colors did NOT turn out like I'd hoped so I thought you might like see them in black and white.

Here's the original. I like the no color version best for now. Agree? Someday I'll have a do over. Just not this fall.

Happy Caking!

Surprise Inside Cake - Hidden Mini Polka Dots in Pumpkin!

Mini polka dots in fun Halloween colors hidden in this twice baked Magic in the Middle cake.

UPDATE: You can learn how to make your own surprise inside mini polka dot cake here.

Happy Fall!

Surprise Inside Cake - Hidden Mickey Mouse

Here's another twice baked cake for you. I usually plan the final photo a bit more but on this particular day it was just, "Stick a fork in him, he's done." Poor Mickey.

UPDATE: A few of you have asked for a tutorial but I'm sorry to say I didn't make a complete one for this cake. I live at high altitude or "at altitude" per the specialty cook books so the recipes I use most likely won't work the best for most of you. Here is a brief summary of what I wrote down at the time but you can use your favorite pound cake and frosting recipes and it should turn out just fine.

and here's a link to someone that took a bit more time to document the process a little later on . . . http://www.momfluential.net/2014/03/04/hidden-mickey-cake/

Happy Caking!

Deborah

Surprise Inside Cake - Mini Skeletons

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It's never too early to get some practice in for Halloween!!!

                    

You've probably already seen these tiny bone sprinkles around for several years now. I don't recall ever seeing the skulls.

                    

If I did, MY head wasn't in it at the time and I just walked on right by. But one day not too long ago, I was in my favorite new baking supply store and mixed in with all of the fun Halloween pans and purple/lime/orange/black sprinkles were these wee little heads. Right next to the bones which were right next to the coffin pans. Which is how it should be.

The name of the store is GYGI (pronounced, "Ghee, Ghee") and it's like a kitchen store on steroids. If you're ever in the area, you simply must plan a few hours minutes to drool. Take a cloth. It's that bad good.

                                                 

On some of the packaging Wilton calls them "Jumbo" but jumbo they are not. See how little they are?

I picked up one container each of the bones and heads and home I went to play forensic anthropologist. Or something like that. No lab coat or anything. Not even an apron. Armed only with sheer guts and a small polka dot knife.

It wasn't long before I'd arranged the pieces into this cute little guy. No rib cage but he stands tall just the same. I think I was happiest with the bow tie. Until I cut a bone in half to make the hands. Ta Da! Hello there Mr. Bones!

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He looks right at home in Wilton's coffin pan . . .

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. . . but it only makes 6 treats at a time. He also needs a third bone in his spine to make him taller and more to scale. Note that he has 2 leg bones instead of one. To give him a leg up on the competition. Okay. Lame. Well he's not lame. Technically he's dead. Moving on . . . 

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Six treats are not a problem if you're making chocolate Rice Krispie Treats where half or more of the batter isn't setting about while you bake but not so great if you just mixed up an entire cake mix.  (UPDATE: I've had pretty good luck baking the remaining batter even though it's set around a while. Cover it and pop it in the frig until you're ready to fill the pans again.) This pan would be great for a small gathering or family dessert where you only need to make six of something.

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I opted for a shorter fatter coffin cookie cutter from Wiltons' Vampire set and baked the cake in thin layers in 2 jelly roll pans which gave me 21-22 treats. You could use this same idea for cookies or brownies without too many alterations.

                

Dig in!

               

Surprise Inside Skeletons

Yield 21 mini cakes

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Equipment

(2) 12 x 17 x 1 inch jellyroll pans
Paring knife
Coffin cookie cutter (3.5 inches tall x 2 inches wide at fattest point) 

Baking parchment to fit jellyroll pans
Small offset spatula
Small bowl of water
Paper towels
Small art paint brush
Piping bag with #3 round tip
Cooling rack 12 x 17 for decorating
Small bowls for candy parts (optional)

Ingredients

Chocolate cake mix plus oil, water and eggs per package
(2) 16 oz cans chocolate frosting
Baking spray with flour
Wilton Bone Sprinkles (3.53 oz/100g) (21 uses slightly less than half of the container)

Wilton Skull Sprinkles (3.5 oz/99g) (21 doesn't even put a noticeable dent in the container)
Optional:
Frosting, fondant, gummy worms, cookie headstones, cookie crumbs for decorating

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray the pans with non-stick baking spray. Line the pans with parchment and spray a second time.

Prepare cake mix as directed on package. Divide batter evenly between the pans and smooth to a thin even layer using the offset spatula.

Bake for 6 minutes watching closely and turning pans at 3 minutes for even baking. Dampen enough paper towels to cover each pan.

Remove pans from oven and immediately press the damp paper towels on the top of each pan to flatten the layers.

Use the bottom of the pans to help level. This just takes a couple of seconds when the cakes are hot.

Set aside pans to cool completely.

                    

While cakes are cooling, cut 21 bones in half with the paring knife.

Separate 21 white skulls from the container.

Fill the piping bag with chocolate frosting.

Invert the cooled baked layers onto clean parchment sheets. Cut 21 shapes from each layer (3 rows of 7) with the coffin cookie cutter.

Save the remaining crumbs for decorating the grave yard to look like freshly dug graves if desired.

Set the cut shapes onto parchment lined jellyroll pans and it's on to the good stuff . . . 

Decorating

                    

Trial run: place one set of the bones in place on top of one of the coffin shapes or inside the coffin cookie cutter in order to learn the spacing and angles of the bones.

Use this as your temporary pattern.

Fill a small bowl with water.

Dampen paint brush as needed and wipe excess off on paper towel to remove any frosting smudges from the bones as you work. But only if you're a bit messy like I am.

Pipe small dots of chocolate frosting onto the coffin shapes for the head and bow tie and attach them to the dots.

Pipe a small line for the center of the skeleton, about 1 1/4" long or the length of 3 bones. Attach the bones to the line.

Pipe small segments for the arms and dots for the hands and attach the bones to the dots.

Pipe an upside down "V" for the legs, starting at the center of the lowest center bone. Attach legs.

Pipe 2 segments for the feet and attach them. Legs and feet will resemble a loose "W"shape.

Repeat 20 times, leaving half of the cut coffin shapes plain to be used as the lids.

Pipe a small border around the edge of the coffin and set the lids over the assembled skeletons. Freeze until firm for decorating ease.

                    

Place the frozen coffins on the cooling rack over the jellyroll pan to catch the excess frosting as it drips.

                    

Heat the remaining chocolate frosting in the microwave until pourable.

Time varies by microwave but in mine the time was about 2 minutes total at 40% power, one minute at a time.

Tap the frosting bowl on the counter to remove bubbles. Spoon the frosting over the tops of the coffins and down the sides.

Repeat until a smooth finish is achieved. Reuse and reheat the frosting drippings as needed.

Transfer the coffins to their resting place and decorate the exteriors as desired.

Here are just a few of the many possibilities:

- Use gray frosting to write funny sayings on cookie headstones

- Arrange the coffins in a graveyard setting using the leftover cake crumbs as fresh dirt

- Add gummy worms, bats, spiders, ghosts, witches and cats to dress up the scene

- Use fondant or modeling chocolate and the coffin cookie cutter to cut lids for the coffins   

  and cut strips to form the sides for a more finished look

Some funny headstone ideas I found online:

          Theo Later

          U.R. Gone

          I.M. Goner

          Ray N. Carnation

          Dustin T. Dust

          Lev Itation

          G.I. Miss You

          Trudy Departed

          Rust N. Peace

          Rest N. Pieces

          I.L. Beback

          M.T. Tomb

          Underneath Lies Mr. Jones, Sadly now a bag of bones

Happy Haunting!!!