It's that time again...

Guess what!!! It's time for Whipped again! I am so exciting to be able to participate in this and to work with the lovely Leti of Becoming Lola again. We are also working on a little something else but that's a secret for now. You are all going to love it though!

Anyway, let's get back to Whipped. It's week 1 and the secret ingredient list had some pretty good choices on it. 

Here they are:

sprigs of asparagus

apple sauce

self-raising flour

porridge oats

greek yogurt

I chose apple sauce. I wanted to be ambitious and use greek yogurt as well but that didn't quite work out. This week was rather hectic so I didn't have time to research as much as I wanted to for recipes. So, since I was in a time crunch I opted to find a simple recipe that included a cake mix. I love using cake mixes and adding a little something special to them. I found this recipe on the Duncan Hines website. 

Old Fashioned Applesauce Spice Cake

via Duncan Hines

1 pkg spice cake mix

3 large eggs

1 1/4 c apple sauce

1/3 c vegetable oil

1 c chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Spray cake pan and set aside.

Combine cake mix, eggs, apple sauce and oil in large bowl. Stir until well combined. If using nuts then mix in now. Pour into cake pan.

Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let cool thoroughly.

For the frosting I used a pre-made cream cheese frosting and mixed in 1/2 tsp cinnamon. I would have much rather made this icing but like I said it just wasn't in the cards this week.

Check out Whipped and join us! It's so much fun!

Apple pie pouches and an apple volcano!

Another week of Whipped has gone by. I'm going to be really sad when it's over. It's so much fun! It's really gotten me out of my blogging rut. I am hoping to start posting more than once a week! Anyway, this week's ingredients were red wine, apples and orange juice. Those 3 didn't seem to go together at all at first but then I found something! My Mom and I were looking through some recipe books and we came across apple dumplings, which is basically an apple, cored and peeled, wrapped in a biscuit and filled with a brown sugar mixture. Sounds good huh? Well, my Mom made 2 apple dumplings and I decided to make mine a little differently. I made a sort of apple pie pouch. I think it turned out a little better and definitely easier to eat. We topped them both with an orange glaze.

Apple Pie Pouches with Orange glaze

8 medium apples

1 1/4 cups brown sugar

1/3 cup butter

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. lemon zest

1 can of biscuit dough

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Core and peel apples then dice into small pieces. Mix the brown sugar, butter, salt, cinnamon and lemon zest. Roll out half of the biscuits and put equal amounts of the apple pieces into the center of each rolled out biscuit. Top each pile of apples with equal amounts of the brown sugar mixture. Roll out the other biscuits and top each apple mixture with one and roll the edges of the two biscuits together. You can cut little marks into the top of each pouch like you would an apple pie if you like. It turns out pretty cute! Bake for 25 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown.

If you want to make the apple dumplings (aka apple volcanoes) like my Mom did, do the same thing except don't dice the apples just peel and core them. Wrap each apple in a rolled out biscuit and then fill the center with the brown sugar mixture.

Orange Glaze

adapted from Tyler Florence.

2 tblsp. unsalted butter

2 cups powdered sugar

2 oranges, zested and juiced

Combine all ingredients and heat in saucepan on medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture begins to thicken. If it isn't thickening then you can add more powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time. When it begins to thicken, remove from heat and stir until it is slightly cool. Drizzle on top of apple pouches and dumplings.

images source

This week the hubs had something to say about our creations...

"Man, what a pastry!"

Chocolate Toffee Rice Pudding

It is week 1 of the Whipped Challenge and the 3 random ingredients I had to work with were red onions, toffee and rice. I tried really hard to figure out a way to incorporate all 3 ingredients into a recipe but I just could not think of one thing! I finally decided to just leave out the red onions and go for the toffee and rice. I was a little worried about this recipe because I've never made rice pudding and the only pudding I've ever really made was from a box. So, this was a whole new experience. I searched and searched for the perfect rice pudding recipe and I finally decided to just make my own with the guidance of a few that I had found. For being the first time I've ever made my own recipe I think I did pretty good! This is a great recipe to use if you have leftover rice from the night before.

Chocolate Toffee Rice Pudding

3/4 cup uncooked rice

1 1/4 cup water

1 1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tbsp. butter

2 1/2 tbsp. cocoa

1 egg, beaten

1 tsp. corn starch mixed with 1 tbsp. water

1 cup toffee bits, plain or chocolate dipped, either one will work

Boil the 1 1/4 cup water and add the rice, cook until rice in tender. Or you can use leftover rice if you have some. If using leftover rice, you will need 1 1/2 cups of cooked rice.

In medium saucepan, add together rice, milk, sugar, vanilla, butter, cocoa, egg, corn starch mixture, and 1/2 cup of toffee bits. Set at a low/medium heat and bring to a boil stirring frequently to prevent a film from forming on the bottom of the saucepan. Simmer until mixture begins to thicken, this should take about 20-40 minutes. (It will thicken more as it stands once it is taken off of the heat.) Once it starts thickening, remove from heat and move to refridgerator to chill. You can press a piece of wax paper onto the top of the pudding before you put it into the refridgerator to prevent a film from forming over the top. Once chilled, serve with the rest of the toffee bits sprinkled on top.

I got inspired by the book "Cooking From Above," in case you couldn't tell.

Note: Can also be served while warm, it is just a little more thin than if you chill it.

I did change the recipe a little from the way I made it. I started out adding all my ingredients into a double boiler which did not allow the mixture to thicken correctly. Once I transferred it to a saucepan and just boiled it normally it thickened up very quickly. This is why some of my pictures are of when I was using the double boiler. Don't worry though the saucepan works so much better and is ten times easier anyway.

I really enjoyed this recipe. It reminds me of chocolate gravy that my Mom makes a lot for breakfast with biscuits. It turned out very chocolatey and yummy. The only drawback I found was the texture, the rice adds a little bit of an odd texture to the smooth and creamy pudding. I would definitely make this again though, I think I can get over my texture weirdness. My husband loved it! He ate an entire bowl before it even had a chance to chill!

I can't wait until next week's ingredients!!

-M-