Caution....Women Eating Dessert....Do Not Disturb!

I cannot think of a better way to spend an evening than by getting together with some of your favorite women friends for an all girls night. Nothing but great food, endless conversation and dessert of course! A million different topics, laughter and giggling so loud it could raise the roof…….until dessert is placed on the table. In an instant all goes quiet, then it starts; “ooooooh, aaaaah, oh my God is this good” then for one brief moment your kitchen sounds more like the bedroom on a really good night. Nothing quiets a woman like a very rich, very creamy, very sticky, very decadent dessert…. I know because I did not utter a word until I scraped the last little bit of sticky goodness off the plate almost taking the designs with it!.
My dear friend Christine planted the idea in my head about coming up with a dessert using one of our favorite treats, “Schutts Homemade Fry Cakes”. Schutts is an apple and cider mill located in Webster NY. It is a family tradition for many Rochestarians. It’s a charming little place wafting with the aromas of fall; cinnamon, clove, apples and lets not forget the smell of fry cakes sizzling away in the hot oil”! They make their fry cakes fresh daily they are sooooo good to eat warm with a glass of their fresh pressed cider or how about one of their infamous apple freezes (a must try)!
Anyhow, Christine and I played around with several ideas for recipes using their fry cakes and ultimately agreed on this one. Please give it a try, you will not be disappointed, if not from this area use your own favorite local ingredients.

Caramel Apple Fry Cake Sundaes

Amounts will vary depending on number of people you are serving.

Ingredients Needed:

Fry cakes (use your favorites) we decided on the sugar cinnamon fry cakes for this recipe.
Apple pie filling (homemade or canned works just fine)
Vanilla Ice Cream or whatever flavor you prefer
Caramel Sauce (jarred or homemade)
Candied Walnuts

Just lightly warm apple pie filling, place fry cake on a plate, spoon a little apple pie filling on top add a scoop of ice cream. Drizzle with caramel sauce and sprinkle with nuts and just repeat the process depending on how many you are serving!

To candy the walnuts place 1 cup of walnuts, 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar in a fry pan set to medium. Watch closely and stir often so it does not burn takes about 15 minutes but just eyeball it you will be able to tell when all nuts look like they are encased in crunchy candy.

They've Turned Me Into a Flan-atic

My family in California taught me their recipe for “California Flan”. I believe that the only reason that it is called this is because the people who are making it are from California. This recipe is similar to a great many flan recipes that are already out there. Don’t get me wrong this is a really good recipe, I have had flan on different occasions and some were better than others. I find some recipes for flan to be overly complicated, this one is not and it is also very smooth and creamy unlike some that are a little gelatinous. I would have to say that my family turned me into a big fan of flan.

California Flan

3/4 cup sugar

4 eggs

1 cup water

1 can sweetened condensed milk

2 teaspoons of vanilla

Place sugar in a small heavy skillet. Heat slowly until sugar melts and turns golden brown (watch carefully, it will caramelize quickly). Pour into a warm 1 quart baking dish. Tip and turn the dish quickly to coat the bottom and sides thinly. Beat the eggs in a large bowl until foamy. Stir in the milk and beat it until well blended. Add the water and vanilla. Stir again. Pour into the caramel coated dish. Set the dish in a larger baking pan on the oven shelf. Pour 1 inch of boiling water in the larger pan. Bake in a preheated oven for 1 hour at 300 degrees until almost set, but still soft. Do not over bake, as it will set as it cools. Remove at once from the pan of water and cool on a wire rack. Chill. When ready to serve, loosen sides with a knife and invert onto a plate.

Apples in a Blanket of Caramel....Yum!

When I was little my mother and I would always make Kraft Caramel Apples. We always did it one or two days before Halloween (under the guise that we would pass them out when family and friends stopped by for Trick-or-Treat). For some reason we never seemed to have enough to go around (I wonder why)? We had a hard enough time leaving them alone to let the caramel harden. It’s really hard to resist warm buttery caramel especially when mixed with the flavor and texture of a sweet, tart, crisp apple. Other than putting the sticks into the apples and removing the cellophane from all the caramels to put in the saucepan to melt, they really were a very easy treat to make. Well now I guess they are even easier thanks to the microwave oven. I don’t think it really makes much difference the only plus I can see using the microwave instead of the stovetop would be less chance of scorching the caramel.

Microwave Kraft Caramel Apples

4 or 5 medium size apples
Wooden sticks
1 (14 oz.) bag Kraft caramels
2 tbsp. water

Wash and dry apples; insert stick into stem end of each apple. Microwave caramels and water in small, deep glass bowl on high 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 minutes, stirring after each minute until sauce is smooth (if caramel sauce is too thin, let stand about 2 minutes before dipping apples). Dip apples into hot caramel sauce; turn until coated. Scrape excess sauce from bottom of apples. Place on greased wax paper. Store in refrigerator. Let stand at room temperature 15 minutes before serving to allow caramel to soften. Increase amounts according to number of caramel apples you wish to make.