Cooking/Baking and Blogging or Blogging and Cooking/Baking?

I can’t decide if I am cooking more because I am writing this blog, or if I am writing this blog because it gives me an excuse to cook more.  Either way, I know my boyfriend is happy, and I will be writing another cooking/baking post J

This weekend, my boyfriend went to the historic West Side Market here in Cleveland to purchase a few items for our Saturday cookout.  While he was there, he brought home some Gala apples because it is most definitely apple season.  

I decided to get fancy and try to make apple pies, and not just any regular pies but mini apple pies.  It’s not clear how this idea came about, but who doesn't appreciate a "mini" desert.  Although I have a well stocked kitchen, I don't own any tart pans.  Still committed to this mini apple pie idea, I headed to the  internet to search for alternatives.  One site suggested muffin pans as a perfect substitute for tart pans.  Satisfied I could make the muffin pans work, I found a recipe on a vegan cooking website, made a few pro-dairy changes and cheated a bit by using store-bought pie crust.

To avoid ultimate failure, I also added an old standby ingredient to the pies: homemade whipped cream.  This relatively simple treat is both amazingly tasty and delightfully simple to make.  You can impress your friends without too much effort and cover up any mistakes you made in the baking process.

Here’s the easy recipe:

Ingredients:

1 half pint container of heavy whipping cream

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

You will also need:

1 hand whisk or electric mixer

1 metal bowl that has been chilled in the refrigerator

Directions:

Pour the cream into the cold metal bowl.  Add the vanilla and powdered sugar.  Beat (either with the hand whisk or the electric mixer) until stiff peaks have formed.  Refrigerate for a few moments and serve with your favorite fruit, ice cream, cookie, granola etc.

Op, the oven timer just went off.  Let’s go see how the pies turned out…

I started with just making three little pies (we had to try one).
I made a traditional top and one with the lattice top.

They look decent, and my boyfriend says they taste delicious with the homemade whipped cream.  I'm always skeptical about my baking ability so I will chalk this success up to a good recipe

Apple pie always makes me think of fall.  What instantly makes you think of the autumn season?

-Almost halfway through the work week!