Dessert Recipe: Snickerdoodle Pie

I made two of these yesterday...one for Tyler's cakewalk at the kid's Harvest Festival and the other for us to try, because you can't send a new recipe anywhere without trying it first, right? ;) It was soooo good and the aroma coming out of my kitchen yesterday was amazing! The recipe is a little involved, but so worth it. It's a cross between a cake and a snickerdoodle cookie all rolled into one and baked in a pie. Healthy it's not, but everything in moderation! I forgot to take a picture of it before we cut ours and Tyler took his to school, so here's a picture from the Better Homes and Garden's website, where I found the recipe. Enjoy!

Snickerdoodle Pie

Prep time: 40 min.

Baking time: ~44 min. (depending on your oven, see note at the bottom)

Cooling time: 30 min.

Stand time: 30 min.

Ingredients:

1 recipe Single-Crust Pie Pastry, or 1 rolled refridgerated unbaked pie crust (1/2 of a 15 oz. package)--I actually used a frozen 9-inch deep dish pie crust in pan, thawed, and it turned out fine

1 Tbsp. raw or course sugar

1/2 + 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon, divided

2 tsp. butter, melted

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

1/4 c. butter

3 Tbsp. water

2 Tbsp. light colored corn syrup

1/2 + 1 tsp. vanilla extract, divided

1/4 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1/4 c. powdered sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

1 egg

1/2 c. milk

1 1/4 c. flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. For the crust: Prepare pastry and line a 9-inch pie plate with crust. In a small bowl, combine raw or course sugar with 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Brush melted butter over unbaked pie crust and sprinkle with 1 tsp. of the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Set aside.

For the syrup: combine brown sugar, 1/4 c. butter, water, corn syrup, and 1/4 tsp. cinnamon in a saucepan. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Boil gently for two minutes. Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat the 1/4 c. of softened butter with a mixer on medium speed for 30 secondes. Beat in granular sugar, powdered sugar, baking powder, salt, and cream of tartar until well blended. Beat in egg and 1 tsp. vanilla extract. Gradually beat in milk until combined. Beat in flour. Spread evenly in unbaked crust.

Very slowly, pour syrup over pie filling in crust. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture over the pie. Cover crust edges with foil.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 minutes*(see note at bottom), then carefully remove foil and bake for 20 more, or until top is puffed and golden brown, and a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool for 30 minutes on rack. Serve warm. Makes 10 servings.

Nutritional Information:

Calories 385, Total Fat (g) 17, Saturated Fat (g) 8, Cholesterol (mg) 49, Sodium (mg) 289, Carbohydrate (g) 53, Fiber (g) 1, Protein (g) 4, Vitamin C (DV%) 0, Calcium (DV%) 4, Iron (DV%) 9, Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet

*By the way, I had to add an extra 10 minutes to each the 25 and the 20 minute baking times, thus making the total baking time to be an hour and 5 minutes. Please adjust the baking times to your ovens at home.

Fish and Poi Wit Some Local Kine Grindzzzz!!!

I wrote this almost a year ago, but somehow never published the post. Since I haven't blogged in awhile, I decided to post this unfinished blog while I read over my posts and visit the memories. :)

"...I like my fish and poi, I'm a big boy, lomi salmon, pipikaula, extra-large lilikoi...squid and chicken luau, don't forget the lau lau, beef or tripe stew just to name a few, oh yeah! Can't forget papa's speciality and mama's poi mochi. Smoke meat, shoyu poke with da rice can make a bad day fill you nice..."

I'm sooo craving local kine food right now. :( Thank goodness we have an L and L here and other Hawaiian bbq restaurants, along with a nice mix of Asian grocery stores or else I'd be doing a lot more cooking than I usually do (which hasn't been a lot lately. LOL)! Alex and the kids are on the way home from Alexis' soccer game and are stopping to get me a Pork lau lau combination plate w/chicken, a portuguese sausage musubi, an order of 5 malasadas and a large fruit punch. No, I'm not planning on finishing it all in one sitting...who doesn't like a little taste of everything? ;-) Our L and L here isn't nearly as ono as the authentic ones in Hawaii, but it will do for a craving fix. (Sidenote: My husband is such a sweetie! He's also stopping at Lourde's Ice Cream to get me a halo halo! Awww! :) Yum!)

Anyway, anywhere else pales in comparision to the selection of food from Hawaii, and it's nice that I was fortunate to grow up among such diversity.

Good Ol' Childhood Comforts

I am in comfort food heaven right now! My family doesn't know this, but I've been pretty home sick lately. We haven't been home to Hawaii since 1998 and being that my brother, sister and their families are still living there, not to mention close friends that I grew up with in that island paradise, it gets harder to be away as the years go by. You would think that it would get easier to be away, but nothing truly beats the comforts of home and your childhood. So what did I do? I ordered myself a care package of comfort snacks from Crack Seed Center! Mmm...onoliscious! I guess I got a little carried away $48 later (not including the $16 in shipping because of the weight) but I'm loving it now! This is what I ordered:

1/4 lb. of sweet sour lemon
1/4 lb. of shredded li hing mui
1/4 lb. of rock salt plum
1/2 lb. of pickled peach
1 lb of pickled mango with li hing mui
1/2 lb. of pickled apricot
1/4 lb. of komaru senbei
1/2 lb. of hachimitsu balls (kimi balls)
1 box (60 pcs) of Fusen Gum

Now I wasn't being a glutton...although I probably will have a taste of everything. I ordered the senbei for my husband to try and the hachimitsu balls and the gum for the kids. Yesterday my package of delights arrived and I not only had to tear into it right away, but couldn't stop eating! HAHA My husband had to pry the package out of my hands! First I thought that I would just have a little taste of the tourist seed sample that they included, but there was just no way that I could stop at that. One pickled peach, two pickled apricots, two pickled mango pieces with a li hing mui seed that was in it, one sweet li hing mui, and red fingertips from the pickled mango later, my husband was intervening for the sake of my high blood pressure and hiding the box from me! It may not sound like I ate much, but I had all of this AFTER we had gotten back from Alex's birthday dinner at the Outback Steakhouse and AFTER we had his Haupia birthday cake that I ordered from Zippys. (Sidenote: Outback's french onion soup, bleu cheese chopped salad and lamb chops are all soooo delicious and mail order from Zippys is always worth it, even if the price of shipping is more than the item ordered!) I was sooo full, but I had to have a taste of home. :) It was nice! Aaah...love it!

When I was younger, I would go to the crack seed store every single time we went to Pearlridge or Ala Moana Shopping Center or would always wind up getting some from Gibson's whenever we were there. You could kind of compare it to Pavlov's experiment with the dogs and the association with the bells, because just seeing those huge jars with the bell-shaped dome lids would be enough to make anyone's mouth water! If you grew up from Hawaii or have ever been there, you would know what I'm talking about. They always had such a HUGE selection to choose from and sometimes it was hard to decide what to get. Would it be the juicy li hing mui? Pickled apricots? Rock salt plums? Ahi jerky? Oh the decisions! When you tell them what you want, you order by weight. For example, "I'd like a 1/4 lb. of li hing mui and a 1/2 lb. of shredded ginger please." I always found it funny how the counter person would always get it to the precise weight, picking and choosing the size of the seed or just the right pinch of the shredded stuff to get you to that amount. I would never think about complaining about paying a little extra because it came out to be a few ounces over. LOL It's interesting how they take such care in precision, and if it was over, they would take a little out and put some back in until it was exactly that weight! What customer service! And as for the gum that I ordered? I used to buy it for 2 cents a piece from the candy counter at the shopping center that I rode my bike to when I was little. I loved the little Japanese blue tatoos that were on the other side of the wrapper and the gum itself is so yummy! Anyway, it was nice to be transported back to my childhood for a little while. :) If anyone needs me, I'll be here with my goodies! ;)