Low Carb Apple Pie Dessert

I've been following a Keto diet for several months and am happy with my current 28 pound loss.  With Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays looming around the corner I've been planning ahead and have worked out my very own Apple Pie Dessert that is really delicious.  So good that I'm ready to share it plus a pumpkin spice latte and my thrift/dollar store door wreath with you.

Apple themed party with a DIY Apple Craft

A crisp breeze is blowing through the sky bringing fall smells with it.  Deep reds, oranges and yellows are showing in the landscape, I close my eyes and remember walking through an apple orchard to pick my own basket full.  I can hardly wait to sink my teeth into the juicy ripe red fruit.  I decided to  invite some friends over for a fall themed party featuring apples.  My theme was born out of an apple challenge and I will share with you a simply adorable and super easy apple craft I whipped together in about an hour plus a cider recipe.

  

Party Appetizers and Finger Foods

Stuffed jalapeño, meatloaf slider, 9 layer dip, potato skin, baked fried pie, chocolate strawberries

We Americans do love our football.  I’m more about the commercials and food than the game, especially when it’s not a very exciting game like the XLVIII Super Bowl game.  What I thought was a party for two happily became a party for three when big girl grand came by on her way home from work.  Here are some of the recipes for the appetizer/finger food Sunday night we shared.

How to make a fresh apple upside down coffee cake with Nutella

Hubs walked slowly through the kitchen looking around hopefully for something sweet to eat this morning and finding nothing exciting slowly walked to his office.  I took the hint and looked to see what I had that would satisfy a sweet tooth and would enhance the cup of coffee I had been sipping and savoring.  Two apples were in the fruit bin so... 

Baked Fried Apple Pie

This is another easy and simple apple dessert recipe that can be made for two or ten.  It's also a recipe the kids will love making with you.  So get the two main ingredients of biscuits and apples, plus butter and spices out and you can turn an apple into dessert in less than 30 minutes. Don't forget a big scoop of vanilla ice cream and maybe some caramel ice cream topping...

Cake mix, apples and Dulce de leche

In the mood for something tasty, but not really in the mood to spend forever making it?  That’s how I feel today so it’s time for an “Almost Homemade” recipe.  Looking in the pantry I see one of those mini boxes of Jiffy cake mix but plain cake just won’t satisfy. While checking the fridge I see a can of hubs home made Dulce de leche and and apple out of the fruit bowl give me what I’m looking for. 

Now I feel really focused and can hardly wait to see if this turns out (which it does).  First, turn on the oven and spray a cupcake tin with baking spray.  It takes only a few minutes to beat the Jiffy cake mix up.  Another 2 minutes to dice an apple, add a few pinches of cinnamon and nutmeg and using the quarter cup measuring cup, measure the mixture into the cupcake pan.  Stick it in the oven for 20 minutes. 

The hardest part?  The 20 minute wait!  When I took it out hubs and I both tried the cakes hot.  Good, add a spoon full of the Dulce de leche…great. 

Recipe:

• cake mix (follow directions on box)
• 1 finely diced apple (2 if using a regular size cake mix)
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• Mix cake according to box directions, add the other ingredients and stir.  Measure into prepared cupcake pan and bake 350° F for 15-20 minutes.
• Garnish with prepared Dulce de leche or brown sugar icing.  Heck, try some warm caramel sauce.

Baked Apple Dumpling

What can be as American as Apple Pie?  Apple Dumplings.  I love them because they are fast, easy, delicious and the presentation can be fabulous.  You only need some baking apples, pie crust, brown sugar and cinnamon sugar plus a dollop of whipped cream.

1929 Cook Book

I love cook books, don't you?  I buy them because they entice me, for wedding gifts, for "luv you" gifts and for no reason at all!  I haven't counted them, but there are more than two very large plastic bins full.  I know this because we have been preparing our house for market, packing up the clutter.  Clutter.  That is practically an insult to my beloved cook books! [scowl]

I brought one bin full in to my mom's a couple of weeks ago to allow my sister and our girls to look through them.  We all share a love for cook books. [satisfied smile]  This particular bin held two of my favorites.  The first is a Better Homes & Garden Cook book I received from my dear Aunt for a wedding gift in 1970.  It is tattered and torn and scribbled in from use.  The first page I have written a note to my oldest grand daughter.  She asked to have it when I part from it or from this earth.  On page 148 is a sugar cookie recipe.  The note beside it says 7/8/2006 tea party with Grandad and the invitation we made together for her to present to him is there. [nostalgic sigh].

The second book is one my mother in law gave me.  It is a Good House Keeping book that was not sold, but given as promotions with magazine subscriptions.  It is a 1928 8th edition.  I brought these two books back home with me.  I couldn't bear to put them in storage, so I plan to pass them to my BG Grand and my daughter the very next time they come over.  [happy dance]

Some 1929 Recipes

Apple Fritters

2 medium-sized sour apples

Batter mixture

Powdered sugar

Pare, core and cut apples in eighths.  Cut in slices and add to batter.  Drop by spoonfuls and fry in deep fat. Then roll in powdered sugar.  (I added a little cinnamon and cut the apple in tiny chunks.  The larger pieces were a bit too crisp in the final product)

Banana Fritters

4 bananas

2 teaspoonfuls lemon juice

Powdered sugar

Batter mixture

Peel, scrape and cut bananas in halves, lengthwise, Then  cut in two pieces, crosswise.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar and lemon juice.  Let stand thirty minutes.  Drain, dip in batter, and fry in deep fat.

Batter:

1 cupful flour

1 1/2 teaspoonfuls baking powder

3 tablespoonfuls powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoonful salt

1/3 cupful milk

1 egg

Mix and sift dry ingredients.  Combine milk and egg well beaten and add to dry ingredients, while eating constantly. 



Saturday Tuna Salad

Tuna salad sandwiches are on the menu today with a little something special.  Almost everyone can throw one together in a couple of minutes making this a quick and easy lunch that is diet friendly. 

Saturday Tuna Salad 

Here is the base plus the options:

Apples Dumplings for 1 or 2

There were two apples just sitting in the fruit bin calling out my name as I walked by.  They said "buy us, we'd make a really good baked apple..."  So I picked up the perfectly shaped red fruit and headed to the check out line.  After a light supper (we still just "sup" at our house)  I rummaged through the pantry and freezer to find ingredients that compliment the apple flavor.  I pulled out a Pillsbury ready crust, some chopped pecans, Carmel bits, cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar.  I really wanted raisins or dried cranberries, but there weren't any.  I love the smell of baked apples almost as much as the taste.  So does hubs.  The nice thing about this recipe is that I could make just two for us.

I trimmed the crust from this cicle out of the box to a smaller square.

Pour the last of the brown sugar syrup over the dumpling & serve

Baked Apple Dumpling for 1 or more

Pre-heat oven 375 F.
For each apple, cut a square about 8" from pie crust.
Core the apple and cut a little off the top to make a funnel shape.
Sit the apple in the middle of the crust square.
Sprinkle a little cinnamon and nutmeg in the core opening of the apple.
Push a few Carmel bits into the core opening of the apple and a pinch of chopped nuts.
Pull the crust up and around the apple.  Press the seams tightly closed but leave an opening at the top to allow the apple to vent.
Place the apple(s) in a baking dish.  No need to grease the dish.
Make a basting liquid with 4 or 5 Tablespoons of brown sugar and about the same amount of water. Pour some over the pastry covered apple.  Baste with the brown sugar liquid a couple of times while it bakes.
Bake 375 F 50-60 minutes.  The crust will be golden brown and the smell will be divine.

If you have them, and if there's space, you can alternately add a few raisins or dried cranberries with the Carmel bits, or instead of the Carmel - or try substituting 2 or 3 mini marshmallows instead of the Carmel. 

1 kind act:  make  an extra baked apple for hubs lunch tomorrow. It's the least I could do since he made the supper. :-)

Party linked up at Throw Back Thursday