Snickerdoodle Apple Pie Bites

These little apple pie bites are super easy to make, don't take very many ingredients, and they are soooo good! I made them back in September and kept meaning to post the recipe before Thanksgiving. I made them again during Thanksgiving break & everyone really loved them. They are still yummy a couple days later after sitting out on the counter too. :)

Ingredients:

1 pkg snickerdoodle cookie mix 

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 egg

1 can apple pie filling

caramel ice cream topping

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F. 

Stir together cookie mix, butter, and egg in large bowl, until a soft dough forms.

Scoop out the dough into small balls and roll them in the cinnamon/sugar mixture that came in the cookie mix package.

Place each ball into a greased mini muffin pan.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until edges start to turn golden brown. Immediately after removing from oven, make an indentation in the top of each cookie. 

I used a little wooden Pampered Chef tart shaper that looks like this but you can use the back of a spoon if you want.

After cooling for a couple minutes, gently pop out each cookie cup and place on a wire rack to cool completley.
Chop apples in the apple pie filling and scoop into each cookie.
Drizzle caramel topping over cookies and top with a sprinkle of the remaining cinnamon/sugar.

Enjoy!!

Coconut Cream Pie

 

This is seriously THE BEST coconut cream pie recipe around, and let me tell you why:

1.  No cooking and stirring (in my case burning).

2.  It's thick and rich.

3.  It's easy!

4.  It tastes like you spent all day making it.

I made this for Thanksgiving, and I was a little nervous because I had never even tried the recipe before.  The only thing that went wrong was that I tried to use the roll-out crusts, and they kind of shrunk in the pans, (because I don't know what I'm doing) so I had to run out and buy frozen ones. Lesson learned. haha :)

However, I got lots of compliments on it and my SIL even said, "This is definitely not a pudding pie".
It does have pudding in it, but it's really rich - it tastes more like a cheesecake.  YUMMY!

For the crust:  You can use a graham cracker crust, or make your own flaky, flour crust if you are talented like that.  The frozen ones aren't that great, but the filling made up for it.  :)

I doubled the filling ingredients to make 2 pies, and I used the 9" deep dish - perfect!

Filling Ingredients: 
1 (8 oz) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 cup cream of coconut (non-alcoholic, found in the drink mixer section)
1 (3.4 oz) pkg. coconut cream instant pudding mix
1 (6 oz) pkg. sweetened, flaked coconut.  (toast some to mix in, and also to sprinkle on top)
2 (8 oz) tubs frozen whipped topping, thawed (one is for the top of the pie, or you can make your own)

Directions:
In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and cream of coconut until smooth.  Add pudding mix, blend well.

Stir in coconut until combined and then fold in whipped topping.

Pour into cooled pie crusts.

Spread the second container of whipped topping over the filling, or put into pastry bag and squeeze like you do cupcakes. 

Toast a little coconut in a 400* oven for 3-5 minutes - watch carefully so it doesn't burn! Sprinkle over the top of the pie - BEAUTIFUL!

Caramel Apple cupcakes

I meant to put this out before Halloween, however it is still yummy, and so cute!

Ingredients:

1 pkg spice cake mix
2 chopped pealed tart apples

20 caramels
1 cup chopped pecans or toffee bits
3 Tbsp evaporated milk

Directions:

Prepare cake batter according to directions.  Fold in apples.

Fill paper lined muffin pan 2/3 full.

Bake 350* for 18-20 min or until toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Let cool completely.

In a small saucepan cook the caramels and milk over low heat until smooth.  Spread over cupcakes and sprinkle with pecans or toffee bits while caramel is still warm (I did a little of both).  Insert wooden Popsicle stick in each cupcake. 

Apple Crisp

It's FALL!!  I love fall!  My mom had TONS of apples and last week we made applesauce.  (First time ever - wasn't too bad.)  I also dried a bunch of apples, and even made some caramel apples - YUM!  I still had more apples left, and I realized I hadn't made APPLE CRISP in a long time.  I can't believe this recipe wasn't already on here!

I have been making this apple crisp for over 20 years and I still loooove it!  It's super easy, and sometimes I make it all up in the pie dish, wrap it in plastic, and put it in the fridge until I'm ready to bake it.  What is better than WARM apple crisp?  Not much. haha :)

Ingredients:

5 - 6 medium apples, peeled & sliced (enough to fill your dish)

1 c. rolled oats

3/4 c. flour

2/3 c. margarine

1 c. brown sugar

1 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Place apples in baking dish.  Mix other ingredients until well mixed and crumble over top of apples.

Bake at 350 F - 45 minutes, or until bubbly around edges.

Butterfinger Pie

 

I had a birthday on Saturday! Yep - and I'm really old! haha  The tradition in our house is that you get to choose what kind of cake you want for your birthday.  (One year my son wanted Krispy Kreme doughnuts, so we stacked them all up and put candles on top.)  Well, this is what I chose for my "cake". YUMMY!

 

This was probably the easiest pie I've ever made. Just a couple ingredients mixed together and dumped carefully poured into a pre-made crust.  Plus, Butterfingers are one of my favorites!

 

Butterfinger Pie  

source

 

Ingredients:

 

Oreo pie crust
8oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 of a 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup powdered sugar
8 oz tub Cool Whip, thawed
8 fun-size or 3 full-sized Butterfinger candy bars, chopped (plus extra for garnish)

Directions:

Combine cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, peanut butter, and powdered sugar in a large mixing bowl and mix until smooth.

Fold in Cool Whip. Add in chopped Butterfingers.

Pour into pie crust, cover and freeze until firm.

Add more chopped Butterfingers to the top before serving.

You can either serve it from the freezer (like ice cream pie) or thaw completely and eat all gooey and soft.  I like the ice cream way - yum! :)

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Streusel Topping

This is one Kara asked me to post or she was going to. :) I can't really take credit for it though as I found it on another site a few years ago. I have made it every year since and have someone ask for the recipe everytime!

Ingredients:
2 16 oz. cans sweet potatoes
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup pecans, chopped

Directions:
1. Heat sweet potatoes to boiling and drain. Mash with butter.
2. Add sugar, salt, eggs, milk and vanilla and mix well. Pour into ungreased 9 in square glass baking pan.
3, Mix broun sugan, butter, flour and cinnamon with fingertips until nixture is crumbly. Stir in nuts.
4. Spread on top of sweet potato mixture and bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Yams--two versions.

Melanie asked for this--Happy Thanksgiving all!!

Marshmallow yams:

I use three of the large (1 lb. 13 oz.) cans of yams.  Of course adjust it for your family size.
brown sugar
margarine
1 bag miniature marshmallows

Cut half the yams into smaller bite-size pieces into a casserole dish.  Place thin pieces of butter here and there on top of the yams.  Sprinkle generously with brown sugar.  Cover yams with marshmallows.  Repeat all layers with remaining yams, some butter, brown sugar and finishing with marshmallows. 

Bake uncovered at 350 for 30-45 min.  Yams should be hot and bubbly inside, but make sure the marshmallows are golden brown but not burned.



Coconut yams:

1/3 c. chopped pecans
1/3 c. coconut
1/3 c. brown sugar
3 T. flour

Mix together and add 3 T. melted butter.  Spoon over canned and bite-size yams and bake as above.

I usually double the topping when I use three of the big cans of yams--I love extra topping!!  Adjust for the amount you are making.

Turkey Oreo Cookies

I don't know if you can tell, but it's fall again.  Time to start cooking again and most importantly making yummy treats.  My sister-in-law made these super cute turkeys for all the kids at our Thanksgiving dinner last year, and my kids kept asking me if we were going to have them again this year.  So apparently they were a big hit! 



Ingredients:

Oreo cookies
Reese's Peanut Butter cup miniatures
candy corn
Whoppers
chocolate frosting
yellow frosting
red frosting (opt)

Directions:

Squeeze a little chocolate frosting inside one Oreo.  Place 5 candy corns tip down into the Oreo (where you put chocolate frosting).  Next dab more chocolate frosting on the other end of the Oreo and stick to another Oreo to make the base.

While those are drying, unwrap your peanut butter cups.  Take a sharp knife and cut a sliver off of one end and glue it to the base of the Oreo using chocolate frosting.

Using more of the chocolate frosting, glue a Whopper to the top of the Reece's.

Break the tip off a candy corn, and glue it using yellow frosting, to the Whopper, making a beak.  You can then make they eyes with yellow and the gobbler with red (if you like) adding a black sprinkle or a drop of chocolate frosting for the center of the eye.

Corn on the Cob Cupcakes

Corn on the Cob Cupcakes

I've seen these done in the summer using just yellow and white Jelly Bellies and a Starburst for melted butter.  But when I saw this I thought it was the cutest thing EVER!

Ingredients:

Any flavor cake mix
White frosting
yellow food coloring
all the Yellow, brown, white, tan, red and orange Jelly Bellies you can get :)

Directions:

Make cupcakes as directed or using your own recipe
Frost the cupcakes with the yellow frosting.  Press 3 cupcakes together and decorate in rows using the Jelly Bellies.  Make sure to do random patterns so you get the speckled corn look.

Decorate with corn corn husks!

(This is the summer version)

Pilgrim Hat Cookies

Pilgrim Hat Cookies

Super easy cute cookies!!

Ingredients:  

Keebler Fudge Striped cookies
Reese's Peanut Butter cup miniatures
Yellow frosting

Directions:

Turn cookies upside down.  Frost the top of a peanut butter cup with the yellow frosting.  Place the cup face down in the center of the cookie.   Draw a square buckle using the yellow frosting.