Salted Caramel Apple Pie

Good morning! I feel like it's been forever since I've shared a recipe, so to get back in the swing of things, I present a quick and easy Salted Caramel Apple Pie. It's just the thing to warm up a cool autumn afternoon.

What you'll need:

• Pre-made pie crust - I used Jus Roll Light Puff Sheet. (I told you this was quick and easy! You're welcome to make your own pie crust if you have time though, you crafty bakers, you!)
• 4-5 Bramley apples, or cooking apples of your choice
• small bag of pretzels
• sea salt
• 1 397g can of Carnation Caramel

What to do:

Preheat your oven according to the directions of your pie crust.

I was super cheeky here and used a pie crust that had already been rolled out for me, so I simply draped the crust onto my pie pan and pressed it into place.

Next step is to press the pretzels into the pie crust - an idea completely inspired by Joy the Baker's Instagram feed, which is insanely delicious and to be checked out if you haven't all ready done so. Thank you Joy the Baker! 

Next time I make this, I'm doubling the number of pretzels and spacing them closer together.

Next you'll need to peel and finely slice your cooking apples, like so:

Then pour the caramel over the pretzel-y pie crust, and lightly sprinkle it with a pinch of sea salt.

 Arrange your thinly sliced apples in a spiral over the crust layer.

Then drizzle this first apple layer with caramel sauce and a pinch of sea salt, and lay down another spiraled layer of apple slice.

Finally, drizzle the remaining caramel over the top layer of apple slices, sprinkle with one more pinch of sea salt, and pop into the oven for 30-45 minutes, again taking into account the directions for the pie crust you use.

Let cool for at least five minutes before slicing. I ate this on its own (and a little more of it than I should have, if I'm being honest), but it would be really tasty warm and a la mode. What pie isn't, really?

Somoa Brownie Cupcakes

My favorite Girl Scout cookies were always (and still are) Somoas. This definitely fits with my general love of the chocolate/coconut combination (see this post for additional evidence). Unfortunately for my taste buds/fortunately for my daily sugar intake, delicious Somoa cookies are only available during "cookie season".

These Somoa Brownie Cupcakes should fill the void during off-season though. What do you think?

Somoa Brownie Cupcakes - YUM!

Somoa Brownie Cupcakes

(Inspired by Somoa Girl Scout cookies, makes 2 dozen)

What you'll need:

For the brownies:

• 150g flour
• 200g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 150g unsalted butter
• 100g dark chocolate
• 50g milk chocolate
• chocolate powder
• vanilla

 For the topping:

• 3.5 cups shredded coconut
• 14 oz caramels
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 tbls milk
• 3 oz chocolate

What to do:

Preheat the oven to 180C/360F. 

Evenly spread the shredded coconut on a cookie sheet and pop into the oven for 5-10 minutes, or until lightly toasted. Move the coconut around with a spatula a few minutes into the toasting process, so that it toasts evenly. You'll set this aside for the topping.

While the shredded coconut is toasting, melt the solid chopped dark and milk chocolate and 75g butter in a double-boiler. Stir constantly and remove from heat once a little over half of the chocolate is melted. Continue stirring and the heat of the melted chocolate will melt the remaining chunks. Set aside for a moment after melting - you'll use this soon.

Next, beat the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and chocolate powder with a mixer - low speed unless you particularly want chocolate powder to coat your entire kitchen. Gradually add in the melted chocolate, then the flour.  Mix until fluffy - I used an electric mixer on medium for about 2 minutes.

Fluffy brownie batter

Lightly butter a muffin tin, and spoon in the brownie batter. Fill about 1/2 of the full. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until they pass the toothpick test! Let cool before icing.

Ready to go in the oven.

Once your brownie cupcakes are in the oven and baking away, you can start on the topping. Chop the caramel pieces, and melt in a saucepan over low heat with the milk. Stir constantly. This will take some time.

Melting caramels

Once the caramels are (finally!) melted, pour in the toasted coconut and mix thoroughly. This should be a reasonably sticky topping, and not at all liquid-y once the coconut is stirred in. If your caramel coconut topping can be poured, rather than spooned, add more shredded coconut!

Stirring in the toasted coconut

Once your brownie cupcakes have cooled, spoon the caramel coconut topping over each one. Be generous. 

Finally, melt the remaining chocolate with the double-boiler and pour into an icing bag (or a plastic sandwich bag with a small hole snipped in the bottom corner, which is what I did!). Squiggle a little chocolate design on top of the coconut caramel topping, so each brownie cupcake will now really look like a Girl Scout Somoa cookie!

Voila! A close up of the final product!

I hope you enjoy these! I definitely did!

Galaxy Cookies

I've been meaning to share my recipe for Galaxy Cookies for a while now, but was waiting for an excuse to bake them again! This particular batch will be traveling out of town with me this weekend. I do not foresee any of them lasting through Monday.

Galaxy Cookies!

These are a frequently requested cookie in my house. I use Galaxy Caramel chocolate, but you can use any soft-caramel filled milk chocolate you have on hand and still call them Galaxy Cookies, if you'd like to!

What you'll need:

(Makes about 3.5 dozen cookies)

• 400g self-raising flour
• 150g soft light brown sugar
• 200g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 2 eggs
• 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 200g Galaxy Caramel bar

What to do:

Preheat oven to 180C/360F.

Get to work chopping up your chocolate bars. Roughly chopped pieces a little bigger than chocolate chips/morsels work well. You don't need to be super precise here.

If you use a different kind of chocolate, aim for the same caramel center consistency as above.

Set the chocolate aside and combine the butter, vanilla, sugar, and eggs in a mixing bowl. Mix on a low/medium setting until everything is well blended (no big butter lumps remaining). 

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and pinch of salt. Then gradually combine this into the wet mixture. When you've reached the same consistency as the picture below, you're finished with this step.

Now it's time to mix in the chopped chocolate. My handheld mixer did not like this part; I kept to a low speed for less than a minute in an attempt to preserve it's lifespan.

Not too fussy about chunk size!

All blended and ready to go!

When the chocolate chunks appear to be spread throughout the dough in a reasonably proportional way, you're ready for the final (somewhat sticky) step.

Roll the cookie dough into balls that fit nicely into the palm of your hand, place evenly on a cookie sheet, and pop into the oven.  Bake for about 10 minutes for a flexible cookies, closer to 12 if you like them on the crisp side.

Cooling off.

 Let cool for a minute or two before removing from the cookie sheet. Enjoy!

Will you be taking these with you to a family gathering or picnic with friends this weekend? I would highly recommend doing either one (or just baking for a cozy night at home!).