Pear Pie

I always find that the hardest part about making pies, is making the crust. If you want to save yourself some time, use a ready made pie crust! The rest is easy. Here we go. 

Pear Pie
Adapted from allrecipes.
8 Servings

Ingredients
1 ready made pie crust, 9" unbaked
6 pears, peeled, cored and sliced
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, beaten

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until smooth, then beat in the eggs one at a time on medium speed until light and fluffy. Stir in the flour, cinnamon and vanilla, followed by the pears. Place the pear mixture into the pie crust.

Bake for 1 hour, or until the pears are soft and the centre of the pie is set. Cool completely before serving.

I tasted it warm (a la mode of course) and at room temperature. It's best when it's cool.

Our Favourite Carrot Cake

My husband is a huge fan of carrot cake. Sometimes when you buy it from the store or a restaurant, the flavour isn't as good as when you make your own. So, why not just make your own then? This is the best carrot cake recipe I've tried, and it's not difficult. Sometimes I make only half the recipe and still get a good size cake out of it. You can easily serve 8 people with half the recipe. I think the crushed pineapple helps keep the cake moist too! It called for vegetable oil, but I always use canola. Come to think of it, I don't remember ever purchasing vegetable oil. 

Our Favourite Carrot Cake
Adapted from allrecipes.
16 Servings

Ingredients
6 cups grated carrots
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup raisins
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions
In a medium bowl, combine grated carrots and brown sugar. Set aside for 60 minutes, then stir in raisins. 

Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray and flour two 10" round cake pans and set aside. Sometimes I also cut a round of parchment for the bottom.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs for a minute on medium speed, until they get a little fluffy. Beat in the white sugar, oil and vanilla, then, switch to a spoon and stir in the pineapple.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and stir into the wet mixture just until everything's combined.

Now stir in the carrots and nuts and divide the batter between the two pans. 

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. I allow mine to cool in the pan for about 1/2 hour. If you try to remove the cakes while they're hot, they may just fall apart. 

Serve the cake as is, or top with your favourite cream cheese frosting. 

Here are some recipes you could try for the frosting.

Philadelphia Cream Cheese Frosting
easy cake ideas Cream Cheese Frosting
Pryia Rao's Recipes Cream Cheese Frosting (this one has white chocolate in it)

Homemade Butter - Secret Recipe Club

This challenge I was given yet another fabulous blog to choose a recipe from. Sid's Sea Palm Cooking is the blog and if you're looking for Tapas ideas, you'll definitely want to go have a look!

While Sid has an amazing selection of delicious recipes, I chose to make butter. I'm thinking now that I may have chosen something a little too simple, but before I saw it on Sid's blog, I never thought about trying to make my own. If I didn't try it now I may never have tried it at all! It's so easy you won't believe it. After I made it, I used it to fry some veggies. It works just like real butter. Oh wait, it IS real butter!

I agree with Sid, making your own butter is expensive. You can get butter on sale for less than it would cost you to buy the cream to make it, but it's still fun and your friends will be impressed when you tell them you made it.

After the whipping cream stage, a little more beating will turn it into this.

Keep whipping and the liquid will start to come out.

Now it's drained. I should have whipped a bit longer but it still worked!

Butter!

Ingredients

Heavy Cream (35%)

Salt (optional)

Directions

Place the cream in a large bowl and whip it on medium speed until it turns into whipped cream. Looks pretty right? 

You're not done yet. Keep whipping. Oops, now it looks curdled! Your whipped cream is ruined! BUT don't throw it away. Keep whipping! The solids will separate from the liquid and you will have butter! 

Drain off as much liquid as you can, then whip a bit more. There may still be some liquid left to whip out. I think I could have whipped it slightly longer because I  noticed some liquid coming out when I put a blob in the hot pan to melt. You can also add some salt if you like. Store the butter in the fridge. I'm not sure how long it lasts but Sid suggests freezing it if you're not going to use it within a few days.

You can use the buttermilk in your baking.  You could also add some cinnamon or herbs and spices to the butter. Wouldn't that be fun?!

Cardamom Tea Cakes - Secret Recipe Club

Who likes cardamom? We do! We use it in Yazdi Cupcakes and it’s also in our tea. If you can’t find tea already flavoured with cardamom, just drop a few pods in to brew with your loose tea. Crack the pods or poke them with a knife to get some of the flavour out.

When I saw this recipe for Cardamom Tea Cakes on Melissa’s blog, Smells Like Brownies, I knew this was the recipe I was going to choose for the April Secret Recipe Club Challenge. Melissa is mom to a cute baby boy and a fruit hater, but I won’t hold the fruit thing against her, because she obviously likes chocolate and I’m okay with that!

I cut the recipe in half because the more sweets I make, the more sweets I eat. I’m still on Weight Watchers, so that’s not a good thing. I also added rosewater because I really like the flavour of the Yazdi Cupcakes and thought it might be nice in these tea cakes. Mine didn't look like Melissa's, but they were delicious. My husband asked me why I didn't make more. 

This is my 3rd month participating in the challenge and it’s a lot of fun. I only wish I had time to visit everyone else who plays. Last month I made Spaghetti Squash with Sauce, and the month before I made Peanut Butter Cups. This time I was almost tempted to make Camp Hanover Fudgies, but it’s got chocolate and peanut butter, so I didn't want to make the same type of food twice for the challenge. It doesn’t mean I won’t make them for no reason though!

My first batch was a bit crumbly. I chilled the dough first.

I also forgot to dip them in sugar.

Cardamom pods.

Cardamom tea.

Here's my second batch. I used the whole egg the second time.

The texture was less crumbly and more cakey.

I didn't chill the dough this time, and I remember to dip them in sugar.

Cardamom Tea Cakes

Adapted from Smells Like Brownies

Makes 20 Tea Cakes | Points Plus per Tea Cake:

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg yolk, room temperature (1 whole egg works too)

1/2 teaspoon rosewater

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1 cup all purpose flour

Extra sugar for dipping

Directions

In a large bowl, cream the butter and 1/3 cup of sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 3-5 minutes). Scrape the bowl now and then during mixing.

Beat in the egg yolk, rosewater, cardamom, and baking soda and continue to mix until combined. Now stir in the flour. I switched to a wooden spoon here because I like to make things harder than they need to be. Actually, I just don’t like adding flour using an electric mixer, because it ends up all over my kitchen and then I have to clean it up.

Cover and chill dough for 1 hour, or until firm.Or don't chill it. It works either way.

Preheat oven to 350F. I like to use a silicone liner or some parchment on my cookie sheets, but Melissa recommends using an ungreased cookie sheet. I’ll leave that up to you.

Shape the dough into 1 inch balls and place them on the cookie sheet. I was able to scoop the un-chilled dough with my small cookie scoop, the chilled dough was too firm.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges and bottom start to turn golden.

Cool the tea cakes on the cookie sheet for 1 minute before transferring to wire racks to cool completely. Once cool, dip the tops into the extra sugar. You could also dust them with powdered sugar, but your kids will make a mess on your rug and furniture. I prefer to find money between the cushions.

I bet these would be nice with some raisins. Maybe next time!