Sweet Spot

I’m not a huge fast food person.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, if it’s offered to me I will 8 times out of 10 accept it. Unless you follow up the invitation with “we’re going to Taco Bell” or “we’re going to Long John Silver.” I’m pretty much not going to those two restaurants. Ever.  No offense if that is your thing, it’s just that I would pretty much rather eat my toenails than enjoy a meal from one of those joints.

On the flip side, I definitely have my favorite fast food getaways. In-N-Out, Wendy’s, and Arby’s. I am also the person that gets the same thing every time I visit these establishments. With Arby’s it’s always been (since I was like 5 years old, I swear) a roast beef sandwich, curly fries and a cherry turnover. My meal is not complete unless I finish it off with a cherry turnover. I hate looking in the drive through window and seeing them sitting there, being warmed by the easy bake light they stick them under but I do my best to forget that part and just enjoy the flaky, cherry, vanilla drizzle goodness.

I have wanted to recreate them at home for a long time but they always get pushed back on the “to bake” list. Not today friends, not today. I had a leftover sheet of puff pastry after making these AMAZEBALLS appetizers from Averie over at Averie Cooks (hi fellow San Diego blogger!!) for our July 4th party. While contemplating how best to use this puff pastry, those heating lamp cherry turnovers popped into my head and instantly, I knew what I had to do.

I didn’t have any cherry filling, or fresh cherries for that matter so I went with apple turnovers instead. Granny Smith apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar- you can’t go wrong.

These would be fun served with a few scoops of vanilla bean ice cream, however, they are just as delicious when eaten alone….after just being frosted…while they are still warm….sitting on the baking sheet….I wouldn’t know, but that’s what I hear.

Let’s get started, shall we?

Here is our cast of characters for this go around:

Preheat the oven to 400°

Wash, peel, core and chop your apples. They don’t need to be really tiny but a good small chop will do.

Toss those into a bowl and set them aside.

In a small bowl mix together the sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and dash of salt.

Now, combine the dry ingredients and the apples and mix until well combined.

Set this mixture aside and grab your puff pastry.  The box I bought came with two sheets and this recipe provided enough filling for both sheets or about 20 mini turnovers.

Start by lightly flouring your surface, then grab your rolling pin and roll out your pastry sheet. This is how mine started:

And this is how big it was after I rolled it out. You don’t want it tissue thin, but it should be thin enough to get 20 circles out of one sheet.

I used this medium sized circle cookie cutter by Wilton. I bought it at Michael’s. Press down and turn to cut the circle completely. After cutting as many circles as will fit, re-roll the remaining pastry and cut more circles. Repeat with your second pastry sheet.

Here are my circles:

Grab your bowl of apple filling and your Tablespoon. Place 1 Tablespoon of pie filling on 1/2 of your circles. The remaining circles will be used as the tops!

Place one of the empty circles on top of each filled circle and grab a fork. In order to seal the edges completely you will want to slide your fork under the edge of the circles and lift up, fold the edge over slightly and press down creating a crimped and  completely closed edge. Continue all the way around each pastry circle.

One of the best things about Puff Pastry is how forgiving it is. They don’t look super cute before you pop them in the oven but they come out adorable!

Place your sealed turnovers on a Silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet and place them in the oven. Bake for 18-20 minutes keeping an eye on them as they bake. You want them to be a golden brown when the buzzer goes off.

They come out so golden and flaky and ready for their caramel drizzle! Speaking of caramel drizzle, throw it together now!

Place the mixture in a small ziploc and cut off the tip of the one of the bottom corners. Drizzle the caramel sauce all over each turnover and let it cool. It will harden a bit as it dries.

Aren’t they adorable?!

if you try these please come back and let me know what you think, I love comments!!

Have a wonderful weekend, here is the printable recipe:

I love a good pancake.

Thick, fluffy, buttermilky. Yum.

My favorite place to get Buttermilk Pancakes is at Butterfield’s in Scottsdale, AZ.

“Have mercy!” says John Stamos a la “Full House.” P.S. I totally ran into John Stamos at Disneyland one time. I have creepy over the shoulder “he’s not looking now, take it!” photos to prove it. But…that is a chestnut for another time. Anyhoo…..back to pancakes.

Butterfield’s is one of a kind. Their ‘cakes’ (as they call them) are made fresh from scratch every morning and include such flavors as “S’moreo” and “Strawberry Shortcake.” It’s true, check out their menu!

I came across this fun recipe on Pinterest and knew instantly I had to try them. I am a big fan of candy/brownie stuffed cookies so why not try a stuffed pancake? Fun!

These were a bit sticky to make and I think I got more batter on my fingers than I did on the actual apple slices, but, man oh man was it worth it. These are so unique and really very scrumptious. I added only one little step- cinnamon & sugar! Oh, and I used buttermilk instead of regular milk but you don’t have to!

Check out the recipe and make these for your family & friends next time you have a house full of guests. Or, make them for yourself on Saturday morning and eat the whole batch. I won’t tell anyone.

Let’s do this thang….

Here is our Cast of Characters: (<— I just realized the other day that The Pioneer Woman uses this phrase too. I must have subconsciously “borrowed” it from her. As long as she doesn’t mind, I would kind of like to keep it. It will be my tribute to her….I really do love and adore her and all of her AMAZE-BALLS recipes.)

The first thing you’ll want to do is wash and core your apples.

 Now, slice your apples into approximately 1/8″ slices.

Sprinkle about 1t of cinnamon sugar mix onto each slice. You can make cinnamon sugar by combining 1/2C sugar and 1T cinnamon.
I went over my slices a few more times with the cinnamon sugar mix after taking this pic. I am very fond of cinnamon sugar.

Now, let’s mix up the batter. The recipe uses Bisquick but you could substitute your favorite pancake recipe if you’d like. Bisquick may have some funky things in their ingredient list, but I really just don’t care. It’s easy and fast and tasty.

Now, grab an apple slice and skewer it on a toothpick. Dip it into your batter a few times ensuring the whole slice gets well covered. You may need to add a little bit more buttermilk if your batter is too thick. I had to play with the consistency a little bit.

Grease your griddle and throw these little buggers on. Let them get golden brown around the edges before flipping them once. Cook for a few more minutes and remove to a plate.

Have your butter and syrup handy and load it on. The original recipe includes an apple cider syrup that I didn’t make. Time constraints people. Plus, Aunt Jemima is my lifelong friend and I like her just fine.

These are fun, very tasty and even though a bit messy- very worth it. The printable recipe is below! Enjoy and let me know what you think in the comment section!

So we started delivering our cookies late night last night. Well, not us personally. By “we” I mean another small business we partnered with in Pacific Beach called PB Munchies. If you follow Seaside Sweets on Facebook or on Instagram you’ve heard about it…more than 10 times. Sorry for the annoyance, we’re just really excited. This side of our business has been talked about for a long time and the logistics of the whole thing just never seemed to work out. Then, we discovered PB Munchies and it was like kismet. Perhaps something less dramatic… it was perfect timing. Really, just perfect.
It’s definitely scary to put yourself out there like that. Opening your product up for public review, opinions and suggestions is nerve wracking- to me anyway. I prefer to live in a fantasy land where everyone loves everything I bake and thinks the price points are all perfect! But, I suppose that leaves no room for growth and without growth, what are we? Nothing, I tell ya! So….grow we must. I shall learn to thicken my skin and accept constructive criticism. However, small disclaimer: I’m Irish (remember this?!) and we aren’t known for controlling our tempers. So…if you have something nasty to say please be forewarned- I have a biting tongue! I apologize in advance.

Since everything in my world has been about cookies lately, I thought it would be a nice break to venture out of the world of diabetes enducing sweets and enjoy an absolutely scrumptious breakfast treat- buttermilk spice muffins. But these aren’t just any buttermilk spice muffins. Are you familiar with the chain restaurant MiMi’s? Have you indulged in their to die for, gigantic muffins? They really are something special and I have a tiny place in my heart for this one. I found this recipe in the “Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3” cookbook (go figure, right?). While I have found a few of these recipes to be a bit off, this one is pretty dead on. I encourage you to give them a go and let me know what you think. These would be awesome for Mother’s Day Brunch in bed!

Let’s begin, shall we?

Here is our cast of characters:
“But Kelly, there’s no picture…”
I know….because I TOTALLY FAILED and somehow just forgot to take one. Lame? Yes. A testament to how delicious these are that I just completely forgot to gather the ingredients and wanted to get right into baking? Also yes.

On that note…preheat your oven to 350°.

Place your butter and sugar in your stand mixer (or use a handheld mixer) and mix on high for about 30 seconds. It should look fluffy!

Next, add your eggs and oil and mix until creamy.

Sift together your flour, nutmeg, salt, baking soda and cinnamon.

Add the dry ingredients to your wet ingredients, pour in your buttermilk and mix it all together on medium – medium high until well combined.

In the restaurant they make these in a super size muffin pan (6 cups to a pan). If you don’t want them that big, why? I kid…no but really, why?

You can line a standard muffin pan and make smaller ones, no biggie. They taste the same, just smaller than you would get in the restaurant.

Decide which pan you want to use and line it. Fill each cup about 2/3 full.

In a smaller bowl, combine your topping ingredients; chopped walnuts, sugar, ground nutmeg and ground cinnamon. Mix it all up.

Sprinkle about 2t of the topping mixture onto each muffin. Press it down just a little bit so all of that yumminess sticks into the batter while it bakes.

Seriously. How delicious does that look? YUM.

Bake them up and let them sit a few minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

As a side note, I made a little honey butter for these and it was extra scrumptious.

If you try these, let me know! Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by! Here is the printable recipe: