Sweet Spot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello friends!

Whew- I’m back. It’s been a while but…I. AM. BACK.

I am kicking off my return in the most colorful of ways, just in time for all of the food blogs to begin posting their best Easter treats. I didn’t make a new St. Patrick’s Day cookie this year because, well, I did one last year and I like it just fine. You can check out my Celtic Knot Cookies here if you’d like.

Now back to Easter.

These are very easy (they have 3 ingredients people…..3.) and your kids can help, which is always fun. Unless your kids don’t listen well in the kitchen, and then it’s not fun at all. Let me re-phrase…if your kids listen well in the kitchen and enjoy baking than these will be lots of fun to make together!

These little gems are nothing new and I’m pretty sure the concept of mixing anything and everything with melted marshmallows is something the cavemen drew on the walls back in the Stone Age. These are just fun because they are super colorful and have that delicious fake fruit taste to them that only Trix can capture. Also, we are going to put them into a cupcake pan to create fun sized individual treats- perfect for kid hands! My big mitts can actually hold 2 at a time so I have that going for me…

Let’s do this.

Here are the characters for this go around: 3, count ‘em, 3.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First thing’s first- melt that butter!

In a good size pot over medium heat, melt your butter completely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t turn your heat up too high in an effort to speed this process along. One of the tricks to gooey krispy treats is to let everything melt slowly, over medium heat. Patience Daniel son.

Once your butter is completely melted, dump in your mallows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now stir. You’ll want to get the marshmallows pretty evenly coated in the melted butter and then let them rest for 20-30 second intervals. Continue to mix, stir and rest until you have a lovely pot of melted, gooey, marshmallow deliciousness.

Now, it’s time for these little cuties.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dump in 4-5 Cups depending on how gooey you like your treats. I prefer a maximum goo level so I do a few extra mallows and about 4C of Trix.

Mix the Trix and the mallows together until not a trix is uncoated in mallow decadence.

What happens next is totally up to you. This is like those “choose your own ending” books I used to love in Middle School, do you dump it all into a 9×9 pan? Or, do you spray the cups of a cupcake pan with Pam and press the Trix into cute little bundt like treats? You must decide….

I went for the cupcake pan because it’s fun and I don’t have to struggle through chopping up a pan of sticky treats.

After spraying your pan (whichever you choose) with a bit of Pam, dump the mix in and press down with a spatula (also greased in a little Pam) until the surface is as smooth as you can get it. Either let the mix dry in your pan, or if you did cups, spray a long piece of foil with Pam (lots of Pam going on here!) and dump the cups out onto the foil. They will stay formed, don’t worry. Give them an hour or so to firm up and “dry”, if you will. They will look like this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After they have dried a bit, dig in and enjoy the gooey Trix goodness!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to print out the recipe below

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 will accept any event as a reason to bake up something delicious. Kids soccer game this weekend? Of course I’ll make citrus muffins for the team! What’s that, you have a meeting at work on Wednesday? I’ll make some festive jumbo cookies for you and your co-workers. This goes on and on…luckily my husband is pretty understanding of my need to be constantly baking something!

Since tomorrow night is one of my favorite awards shows of the year, I felt compelled to make something in keeping with the theme of the event. Movies, actors, Hollywood- what comes to mind? Well… scandal,  fashion and money, yes- but what else? POPCORN!! And not just any old popcorn, Paula Deen’s Caramel Corn! I have been making this recipe for a few years now and I refuse to try another one. It’s the stubborn Irish in me I suppose. It’s just so easy, requires so few ingredients and doesn’t take all day to accomplish. Plus, it’s a Paula Deen recipe so obviously it’s a winner. Now, because I am ridiculous and love adding on fun little yummies in almost everything I bake, I add about 1/4C of Toffee Bits to my batch of popcorn. It adds a wonderful nutty taste and really brings out the butter in the recipe. This addition is totally optional and you could always substitute with something else like, oh I don’t know, chocolate chips, coconut flakes, peanuts, etc. The caramel acts as a nice little adhesive for anything you might want to add. Let’s get started, shall we?

Here is our cast of characters:

Preheat your oven to 200°.

This recipe calls for 8 quarts of popped popcorn. After a few google searches (there are 4 Cups in 1 quart) I determined that 4 bags of popcorn was about 8 quarts. I used microwave popcorn because I don’t have a fancy air popper. Also, this movie theatre butter popcorn was on sale at my grocery store so…in the cart it went. If you wanted to use kettle corn or even save a few calories and use light butter I assure you it turns out just as wonderful. The caramel is the star in this recipe so use whatever popcorn you have.

Pop up your corn and dump it into a bowl.

Take the time to shake the unpopped kernels to the bottom of the bowl, then transfer the popcorn to a large roasting pan, leaving the kernels behind and eventually, in the trash.

There is nothing worse than biting into a gooey chunk of caramel popcorn only to practically crack a molar in half because a kernel was hiding inside. ouch.

Now, over medium heat in a large pan, you will stir together your butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and salt.

Let it come to a boil and keep it boiling for about 5 minutes. It will look something like this:

The recipe doesn’t say anything about stirring it while it’s boiling but I had the overwhelming urge to do so at least once, so I did it. Stir as you see fit.
After 5 minutes, remove your pan from the heat and add the baking soda. Now you definitely need to stir. Make sure you get the baking soda as mixed in as possible. You will see your mixture turn to a funky kind of liquid foam….trust me, it’s a delicious liquid foam.

Once your baking soda is mixed in, grab your roasting pan of popcorn and pour half of your caramel mixture all over it. Stir the popcorn for a minute or two or until incorporated.

If you are going to add the toffee or something else, now is the time to add 1/2 of it- just sprinkle it all over. Grab the remaining caramel and pour it over the popcorn. Add the last 1/2 of your toffee or topping and mix, mix, mix until you feel your popcorn is caramel covered to your liking.

Place your roasting pan in your oven and set the timer for 1 hour. You will need to stir it every 15 minutes so I set my microwave timer in 15 minute increments so I don’t forget, because I do that a lot.

After stirring every 15 minutes for 1 hour, remove the pan from the oven and dump the popcorn out onto wax paper.

It is a cardinal sin for any caramel to remain stuck to the bottom of the pan so use any means necessary to scrape ALL caramel from the pan, then dump it on the popcorn. Spread the popcorn out and break up any large clumps that have formed, unless that is your favorite thing, then leave them! Let it dry for a few hours and then store it in a tupperware for up to a week. After a week it will still be delicious, but does start to get a bit soggy/stale. I’m not going to lie, I still eat it but that’s just me- it’s a weakness.

Enjoy and please share with me what you would add in, or did add in- I love new ideas!

Also, a serving size of 1 cup will add about 135 calories to your day. (Prepared as written by Paula Deen, with the addition of toffee.)

Thanks for stopping by!!