Monday, September 12, 2016

Fall Fun Series: APPLES!


Apples!


Dessa's Homespun Scents Apples & Cinnamon = perfection. 


My Candles From the Keeping Room Apple Jack & Peel wax apple. Don't ask me to melt it yet. I am still petting it. 

As a creature of habit there are a few things that conspire after the fall decorations began to make an appearance in the Johnson household. One of those things is baking a Fresh Apple Cake, which I did last weekend, and the other consists of adorning my person with all things fall scented. 

But first! Pinterest. 


I decided to search out a new apple recipe on that famous time-suck we all know and love. Mini apple pie cookies. I can never resist mini things. I used this recipe here. Watch out for annoying ads and pop-ups. Sorry.

As you can see in the photo above, I began to struggle and was about to chalk this up to a Pinterest fail. But they turned out all right in the end.


I cheated and used pre-made pie crusts. I think the 3 tablespoons of corn starch were way too many. I honestly think 1 teaspoon would have been enough. I also cut up the apple chunks smaller than the recipe called for before cooking them. The idea of chopping them after they were cooked (and hot and sticky) did not appeal to me. I lacked a circle cookie cutter (need a train, dog bone, dino or random shape... got that covered) so I implemented my critical thinking skills and came up with a mason jar lid. Worked in a pinch. But I will put a circle cookie cutter on my wish-list now.


I ate two. Adam ate three. I thought "ok" and he thought "yum." I took the rest to my Pop-Pop who loves apple pie. 



This bad boy is one of the few rich gourmand scents that I love. A heavy caramel and toffee and candy apple cornucopia: Corvin's Apple Fest from Solstice Scents. A sweet IG friend gifted me this and I have been so thankful for it. 

What kinda apples are rolling around in your corner of the world? Anything appley you want to share for us to enjoy? Please do! As long as it doesn't deal with crunching an apple in my ear. Then I'm out. 

28 comments:

  1. I have Burt's Bees Caramel Apple lip balm, and I'm melting RG Harvest Bake Sale (apple-pumpkin blend) at the moment. Oh, I have some Caramel Apple Milky Way minis in the candy dish too. Not too much appley fun happening around here.

    ~Deb

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    1. I have never heard of that! We use the original Burt's Bees and love it, so I will keep a weather eye out for the Caramel Apple one. And candies bars and apple? Yes, please! That is plenty of apple goodness to be getting on with. Hope you had a good day <3

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  2. I've just been picking apples from our dwarf apple tree!

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    1. What?! How cool!!!! I saw an apple tree for the first time this summer, it had immature apples on it but I can only imagine how cool it is to hand pick apples and eat them right there. And dwarf?! Even better.

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  3. Fabulous post! That CFTKR Apple looks so real! I love that you tried a new apple recipe; those cookies look complicated but delicious! I have tons of apple goodness going on on my blog. :)

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    1. You do have tons of apple goodness!!! This was a fun post to do. I loved reading yours. I think the pumpkin one will be fun too.

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  4. Our apple tree has apples for the first time this year! I've been melting some apple scents but I'll be melting more as the month goes on. Next weekend we go to the apple festival in Smicksburg, then apple picking with my mom in October. I love it!

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    1. Are you planning on making anything with your first harvest apples?! How cool, Carrie!!! An apple festival sounds like bliss. I imagine ciders and pies and cakes and everything with apple flavor and scent. I wish I could go apple picking but apples tend to not do so well this far south. Maybe one day I will get to! Have fun for me!!!

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    2. I'm not quite sure what our apples are, but I think I'll try to bake something with them. Our kitchen is the last room we need to renovate and my husband wants to do it in a few years-in the meantime, I get to deal with a crappy oven that cooks unevenly. :( I love the apple festival. It's also in PA Amish country and its just so intriguing to see their way of life.

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    3. I love Amish areas! So beautiful and quaint. I would like to visit PA one day. Hope you get a new oven soon!!! That would kill me!!

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  5. That Candles From the Keeping Room Apple Jack & Peel wax apple is AMAZING! SO cute!! <3

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    1. Right?! How can I melt that?! Pure torture. It does smell good too. Maybe if I get another one on the way I will give it the stab.

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    2. Do we know when she;s restocking next?!

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  6. Those apple pie cookies look so cute! I wouldn't have the patience to make something like that even with pre-made pie crusts!

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    1. LOL!! I ALMOST didn't have the patience. Once the strips of crust started disintegrating I was all rolling eye over it. But then I figured I had come this far. Better press on. I am glad I did in the end because my grandpa appreciated having some baked goods. He lives alone and is in treatments for colon cancer and doesn't get to enjoy much anymore. Made it worth it.

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  7. Those cookies are little works of art and are cuter than a full-sized pie for sure. And CFTKR kills it with their wax shapes, also little works of art. Great blog prompt, got me all fall ready:)

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    1. Thanks!! If I made them again I would tweak it a bit. But they really weren't too bad. I was just being impatient and not really feeling it. I like to be in a zen mood to bake. Carol really does make some realistic looking wax shapes. I love her pewter platter wax gardens and settings. Thank you for joining!!! I have loved reading your blog and getting to know you! This one was a fun prompt.

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  8. Julie, this is great! You put such care into your posts, and the photos always look great. Those little pie/cookies look adorable, too, but yikes, I too know the sting of faulty Pinterest recipes (sorry, you want me to try and WHIP honey into cold milk? Umm, oh-kaaaaayyyyy....) I think that Dessa tart looks super cute, too - I wonder if the little pigmented bits (is that what they are?) are supposed to look like maybe cranberries or some kind of chutney? In any event, it's a gorgeous colour.

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    1. Thank you Sandra <3 I do try to coddle my blog a little. It is my creative outlet. Whipping honey and milk sounds like a nightmare. But oddly yummy. The hyper-pigmentation on the Dessa tart is either unmelted dye or unincorporated fragrance oil. But it does make for a super cute mottled look. Like the skin of a pomegranate. Some vendors do have their dye chip shavings swirl in unmelted to give a tie-dye look. I like it. Cranberry Chutney.... mmmmm... that was my very first candle love. Best Yankee scent ever. I have not had it in several years.

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  9. That Apple melt is the cutest thing ever!!!
    I've been eyeing that Apple pie cookie recipe for awhile, but have never taken the plunge. They turned out great!

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    1. Isn't it?! How can I melt that??

      Hmmm... I bet if you spread it with your homemade apple butter instead of caramel it would taste amazing.

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  10. There's something about the moodiness in these pictures that have me all warm inside. I think your apple cookies are picture perfect.
    Funniest thing I read today - petting your CFTKR candle!!

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    1. Thank you! I was really playing outside the editing box. I thought I would have picked a photographic style by now but I am having too much fun dinkering around.

      You know how it goes with super cute wax that can be hard to get. You pamper it. I do want to melt it though this season so poke and prod me a little. I can't take it with me when I am gone.

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  11. picture perfect pinterest looking crossed pie crust! Love it!

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    1. Thank you! It certainly did not feel like it would be picture perfect but it ended up working out.

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  12. I love all things apple! That wax apple is adorable!! I couldn't melt it lol.
    Your little apple pie cookies look yummy. They are so cute.

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    1. Me too!! I try not to get sick of them since I got not really melt them in the fall and winter but I do like them with spice.

      I will have a hard time melting it for sure!! Do you save cute tarts?

      Thanks! My weakness for mini things gets me every time.

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