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.

Noooo!

I am devistated! In my hunger haze, I found myself checking out the Zippys online menu to salivate over the pictures, and then clicked over to the online ordering site...

Are you kidding?! Is this a bad joke? How could you do this to us mainland people? Now where will I order my dobash and haupia cakes? Luckily, there's an Asian grocery market here that has frozen Zippys chili, hamburger curry, and napples, as well as other Hawaii favorites. That's not the point, though! :( I am truly sad. (sigh) I can't take this...I need a nap!

Fasting...Ugh!

Later this afternoon, I have to go and get some blood work done at the doctor's office, so I'm fasting today and hating it. :( I haven't eaten since 8:30 last night! Hello?! I'm from Hawaii and Hawaii people were not made to fast. It's just not in our DNA. It's only supposed to be a 12 hour fast, but I wanted to wait until Alex could take me and that won't be until this afternoon. Ugh, I have a hunger headache! I'm also diabetic...is this even healthy for me? I thought they said that I couldn't skip meals? AND WHY ARE THERE SO MANY FOOD COMMERCIALS ON TV?! I'm sorry. I promised that I wouldn't complain in my blogs so much. Today's just not a good day.

I'm constantly running a mental list in my head today, of things that I want to eat after my blood tests. So far everything is Filipino food such as dinuguan, bangus, pinakbet, puto, kusinta, rice, beef sinigang, beef caldereta, etc. I'd go for Zippys too if they had that here--zip pack, chili frank, beef curry, zip min, oxtail soup, fried noodles, wun tun min, katsu, surf pack, broasted chicken (do they still have that? Or is it just fried now?), hamburger steak, teriyaki... Ooh, Korean food sounds so ono as well! Korea House! I'll take the dinner combination #1 with the bbq chicken, beef and pork, with a side of mundoo, some bi bim bap and soju. Don't forget my sides--kim chi, pickled turnip, seaweed, etc., and extra cucumber kim chi please! I see a comfort food pattern developing. By the way, does anyone know a recipe for those triangular Chinese rice cakes that the manapua man sells? I miss those. I tried to make it once but it was a bad recipe and it came out to be more of a weird looking mochi than a rice cake. E-mail me if you have a recipe. :) Ok, I have to stop talking about food because all I have is my trusty Evian bottle for the day. Hmph!

On a serious note, this makes me thankful that my family and I have a good place to live, and we're not out on the streets wondering where our next meal is coming from. Thank you God for providing a good life for us, and giving us the blessings that you do each day.

Spam Wha?

Spam hot dogs? Are you kidding me? These were spotted at Costco in Hawaii, of course! Hawaii people love Spam! Spam musubis, fried spam with eggs and rice, teriyaki spam, grilled spam at the beach, spam spam spam! I remember going grocery shopping with my mom when I was little and we would stock up on a case or two of spam when it was on sale. In our house, it was like toilet paper. If there was a good sale and the store had a limit, my mom, my sister and myself would have to stand in line so that we could stock up without being limited. At one time, we had 9 people in the house, so imagine how much food Mom and Dad had to buy!

Spam hot dogs though? I think I'm a little scared to try this. I don't even do the spam burger recipe on the back of the regular spam can. It's uncharted territory...unsailed waters venturing into the Burmuda Triangle! It could ruin my love of spam! Sorry, I had a melodromatic moment. Inhale. Exhale. Balance. I wonder if we'll get this here on the mainland?

Has anyone tried this? E-mail or comment and give me a review!

Char Siu Chicken Anyone?

I didn't know how difficult it was to find a char siu chicken recipe! Originally, I was planning to use the Noh's brand, but then changed my mind because I wanted it to taste a little more authentic. Not that the Noh's alternative is so bad, because it's actually quite ono! I just want to make a marinade and save the flavor packet for another day (maybe for a quickie char siu recipe for some homemade manapua!) Should I just use the pork kine char siu marinade recipe? I figured that the chicken version would have a little bit of a difference since chicken and pork have slightly different flavors, so I googled char siu chicken but didn't find anything. I can't believe that no one from Hawaii has a char siu chicken recipe online. Wait, I take that back. I did find one, but he used the Noh packet. LOL Suggestions anyone? All right, I'll go and check the Hawaii nei cookbooks then.

On a Filipino food note, I made some hot rice and some pinakbet yesterday. Mmmmmmm! It was so good, that it's enough to make your lips pucker and make you psst! psst! and yell hoy to your fellow Filipinos! ;)