How To Make Easy Apple Dumplings

Author: Allison  //  Category: Desserts

Easy Apple Dumplings
 

Ingredients for Easy Apple Dumplings

2 (8 ounce) cans crescent rolls
2 sticks butter
1½ cups brown sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 ½ cup 7 Up (or other lemon soda)
2 Apples

Instructions for making Easy Apple Dumplings

Butter a 13 x 9 inch baking dish.
Preheat the oven at 350 F.
Peel and core apples, than cut each apple into 8 slices
Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll and place in a buttered dish.
Melt butter, stir in sugar, vanilla and cinnamon, and when it’s thickened, remove from heat and pour over the dumplings.
Pour the soda in the middle and along the edges of a pan(not over the rolls)
Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until they become golden brown.
Serve warm.

NOTE* 2 Apples to makes 16 dumplings

How To Make Caramel Apple Milky Way Bars

Author: Allison  //  Category: Desserts

 

Ingredients
For the Cookie Layer
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. shortening
2 Tbsp. sour cream
1/2 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/4 c. flour
1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
2 c. chopped Milky Way candy bars (I used the Caramel Apple)

For the Cheesecake Layer
1 pkg. cream cheese (8 oz.)
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1/4 c. caramel ice cream topping
2 Tbsp. flour

For the Topping
4 oz. caramel candies (about 14 squares)
4 Tbsp. heavy cream
1/4 c. chocolate chips
1/2 tsp. shortening

Instructions
For the Cookie Layer
Cream the butter, shortening, sour cream, and sugars until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla. Sift together the flour, crumbs, baking soda, and salt and slowly add to the butter mixture. Stir in the candies by hand. Press half the mixture into a greased 8 inch pan. Pour the cheesecake mixture on top. Drop the rest of the dough by spoonfuls gently on top of the cheesecake. Bake at 350* for 45 minutes. Let cool completely. Drizzle with caramel and chocolate. Refrigerate.

For the Cheesecake Layer
Beat the cream cheese and sugar together until creamy. Add the egg and caramel and beat again. Stir in the flour. Pour on cookie dough in pan.

For the Topping
Place the caramels and heavy cream in a small saucepan. Heat and stir until melted and creamy. In a small microwave safe bowl, place the chocolate chips and shortening. Heat for 20 seconds. Stir and repeat until melted and smooth. Place in a bag and cut one corner off.

Notes
*The Caramel Apple Milky Ways are a seasonal candy, so feel free to use regular Milky Ways instead. *You can also bake this in a 9×13 pan by decreasing the bake time to 30 minutes.

 

How To Make Apple Snickerdoodle Cobbler

Author: Allison  //  Category: Desserts

 

Ingredients:

Cookie ingredients:
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2/3C flour
1/4C unsalted butter, softened
1/3C sugar, plus 1/2C
1 egg
3/4 tsp cinnamon

Apple ingredients:
8C apples (roughly 6-8 apples depending on their size)
1/4C brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

In a small bowl combine first four dry ingredients for the cookie dough. In a separate bowl or stand mixer, cream butter and 1/3 cup sugar. Add egg followed by premixed dry ingredients. Mix until dry ingredients are blended into the dough well. Chill dough until easy to handle, at least several hours.

When ready to continue, preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a small bowl combine 3/4 teaspoon and 1/2 cup sugar. Set aside.

In a large bowl add 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Peel, core and slice apples. Add to brown sugar and cinnamon mixture, tossing to coat. Transfer apples to an 8×8 baking dish.

Form 1 inch balls of dough and roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place coated dough balls on top of apples, press down lightly to slightly flatten.

Bake for 45-55 minutes or until apples are tender and cookie topping is lightly golden.

Allow to cool slightly prior to serving. Serve with optional whipped cream or ice cream. May be stored chilled for several days.

How To Make Skittles Vodka

Author: Allison  //  Category: Alcohol

Skittles Vodka

Ingredients needed for Skittles Vodka

One 1.75 liter bottle of vodka (avoid the cheap ones)
Five 8.5 ounce flasks or bottles
One 1 pound bag of Skittles
Five empty plastic water bottles
A funnel
Bowls for separating the Skittles into flavors
A measuring cup
Coffee filters or paper towels

Instructions for making Skittles Vodka

You’ll also want to cover your workspace with newspaper or freezer paper – this infusion can get messy. If you’re making a different sized batch, here’s the formula you need to know: I used 60 Skittles to 6 ounces of vodka, which yields about 8 ounces of infused vodka. If you want to make 1.5 times that, or 3 times that, just multiply your amounts.

Start by simply separating the Skittles into flavors. You want 60 of each.

Fill your water bottles with 6 ounces of vodka each. It doesn’t need to be exact – you can always even it out later by pouring in a bit more vodka to the ones that come out with less.
Pour the Skittles of one flavor into one infusion bottle, then pour the next flavor of Skittles into the next infusion bottle, and so on until all five bottles have a pile of Skittles soaking in the vodka.

You could certainly be more sophisticated than I was here, and use a funnel to pour the Skittles of each flavor into one of the bottles. The reason Skittles vodka tutorial. I did it this way was that I felt it would be easier to wash each flavor of Skittles off my hands before moving onto the next one than it than to get that flavor out of the funnel each time – that plastic tends to hold onto the flavors, skin doesn’t.

Now your infusion bottles all have Skittles in the bottom. Give each bottle a good shake – the more, the better. In my picture here, you can see that the colored candy coating has already rubbed off into the vodka, but the white insides of the Skittles still have a lot of dissolving to do. After shaking them, set them aside for a few hours. It’s a good idea to shake them again then, especially if you’re making a bigger batch. My Skittles all dissolved overnight. Once they’re all dissolved, you’ll notice a lot of white muck floating at the top.

There are a number of ways to strain this stuff and get all the white gunk out. Some people prefer paper towels, but I used coffee filters and found they worked just as well. I put a funnel inside a measuring cup.

Then I put four coffee filters in the funnel. It’s hard to say exactly how many you’ll need, since not all coffee filters are exactly the same. I’ll tell you one thing I did learn, though: orange and green needed more filtration than the others. I discovered this when I thought I was finished, and found a little bit of white stuff still floating in those two flavors. No problem, though: I just strained them again through one more coffee filter, and that took care of it. So if you find you haven’t strained it thoroughly enough, the good news is: you can always fix that later.

Then I poured one of the infusions into my strainer setup. I had to pour about a quarter of my infusion in, then wait for some of it to soak through, then pour another quarter in, until I was done. (If the strainer clogs with white gunk, use a spoon to scrape the white gunk out of the way.) In the end, you’ll have about 8 ounces of Skittle infused vodka. Then I dumped the funnel and coffee filters into one of the bowls I’d used earlier for counting out Skittles, to catch drips as I carried it over to the sink. I washed everything out for re-using (except the coffee filters, of course – those I just rinsed before disposing of, so the sugar wouldn’t attract ants).

Then I took the liquid from the measuring cup and poured it into a flask, via the now-clean funnel. You can see here that the green is a little thick, and it shouldn’t have been – that’s why I ended up having to re-filter it. Then I rinsed the funnel out again.

Repeat this process for each flavor.

Stick them in the freezer for several hours or overnight preferably.

Now you have your Skittles Vodka