Apple Fritters

I made these apply fritters a couple of weeks ago and let me tell you...they were d-licious! If you don't know what an apple fritter is, it's kind of like a donut (doughnut?) Or more like a donut/doughnut hole really but with little chunks of apple in them. I've only made apple fritters once or twice before and I think I was in middle school. So it's been a while. I didn't take a picture (sorry) it was like 9:30pm when I made these bad boys and didn't waste any time attacking them hot out of the oil. Which I don't advise doing unless you want to dance around waving your hands in front of your face because your mouth is burning. There's also a glaze recipe included that looks amazing but I went the powdered sugar route. Next time.
P.S. if you want a photo..or several..visit the original recipe from The Pioneer Woman.

Apple Fritters
The Pioneer Woman

Prep Time: 15 Minutes
Cook Time: 10 Minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Servings: 8

Ingredients
FRITTERS
2 cups All-purpose Flour
½ cups Sugar
3 Tablespoons Sugar
2-¼ teaspoons Baking Powder
1-¼ teaspoon Salt
2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
2 whole Large Eggs
¾ cups Whole Milk
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2 Tablespoons Melted Butter
2 whole Granny Smith Apples, Peeled And Diced
Powdered Sugar (optional, For Dusting)

GLAZE (optional)
1-½ cup Powdered Sugar
¼ teaspoons Salt
¼ teaspoons Vanilla
¼ cups Milk

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with a fork, then add milk, melted butter, and vanilla.
Gently fold dry and wet ingredients together until just combined (do not overmix.) Fold in apples. Add enough apples to make a very chunky batter. You want the apples to shine though!
Heat a couple of inches of canola oil over medium to medium-low heat. When it gets hot, drop a little drop of batter into the oil. If it sizzles immediately and rises to the top, the oil is ready; if it burns quickly, turn down the heat.
Drop teaspoons of batter into the hot oil, six or eight at a time. Sometimes they’ll flip over by themselves; sometimes you have to flip them. Just watch them and make sure they don’t get too brown, but cook them long enough to make sure the batter’s cooked through, about 2 to 2 1/2 minutes total.
Remove and drain on a paper towel. Dust very generously with powdered sugar, or dip fritters in a light doughnut glaze (mix all glaze ingredients together, then dunk warm fritters).
Serve warm!

May be heated the next day in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes.

Kit-Kat Bars

I love kit-kats. If I could only eat one candy bar for the rest of my life it would probably be kit-kat. I can eat way too many of those before i'm sick of them. These are called Kit-Kat Bars, however they don't really taste like a kit-kat. They taste like a butterscotch bar.. next time i'm going to reduce the butterscotch chips and use more chocolate chips and see if that helps. I like butterscotch, but I was thinking this would taste more like chocolate since that's what a kit-kat is. But they are really good! They have a nice crispy crunch from the crackers. They're one of those things where I cut off a little piece at a time and by the time i'm done i'll have eaten a huge chunk of it.

Kit-Kat Bars

Ingredients:

2 sticks Butter
½ cups Milk
1 cup Brown Sugar
½ cups White Sugar
2 cups Graham Cracker Crumbs
1 box (16 Oz. Box) Club Crackers
1 cup Chocolate Chips (I used milk chocolate)
1 cup Butterscotch Chips
⅔ cups Peanut Butter

Directions:

Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add milk, brown sugar and white sugar. Bring that to a boil and add graham cracker crumbs. Reduce heat to low and cook for 5-6 minutes, stirring constantly or frequently to avoid scorching. I learned that one the hard way.
Put a layer of Club crackers on the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan. Pour half of the graham cracker mixture over that. Add another layer of crackers, then the other half of the graham cracker mix, followed by a third layer of crackers.
Melt chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and peanut butter. Use to frost the bars by spreading it evenly over the top layer. Chill until firm then cut and serve.

Day 26: Peppermint Patties (No Bake)

It kind of sucks knocking doors. Usually we knock on a few before someone opens the door. We have a baby, and cookies it's not like we're salesmen..Today we went to 2 places then the 3rd was another chiro student's place. Then we knocked on a door and the man (i dont think he had very good english) just said no no no and that was about it we said ook...And the person next to him Matt saw peek through his blinds but they didnt open the door. Then the next one was a lady, she wasn't feeling very good and she didnt want our cookies, she said we woke her up so we just said ok maybe we'll come visit you when you feel better. Then the last house was a man and woman they were from China and had poor English but atleast they were nice. They took our cookies and said they've been here since 1996, the woman used to live in SF. It's awesome when you get people that are really friendly, it's a lot easier to keep it up but when people don't care it's like why bother? Anyway, we've meet a lot of good people and that's what it's about!
This recipe was found on joyofbaking. I don't really know what these would be classified as..not really a cookie, maybe candy? mint? Anyway these taste just like the York candy or those little ones in the bag with the silver and green wrapper. They're gluten and egg free for anyone with those issues. They are soo easy to make and takes no time at all! Except while they're chilling..but put them in the freezer and they're done in no time! It depends on how big/thick you make yours but I got 19 out of this recipe.

Peppermint Patties

Ingredients:

2 cups confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 tsp. mint extract or 1 tsp. peppermint ext.
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp. heavy cream
8 oz. dark or bittersweet chocolate
1 tbsp. vegetable shortening

Directions:
1. With standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream the sugar, butter, extracts and heavy cream. Add the ingredients in that order so they combine correctly.
2. Once the ingredients are combined, turn the mixer to medium speed and beat another minute or 2 til the mixture looks a bit like a paste.
3. Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper and using a teaspoon , scoop out a small amount of the mixture and roll between your palms a 1" ball.
4. Once all the balls are made, flatten each one with your fingertips to make a patty.
5. Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
6. While they're chilling, melt your chocolate and shortening in a double boiler or in the microwave and let it cool to room temp.
7. Take the patties out of the fridge and coat each one in the melted chocolate/shortening mixture, using the 2 forks (spoons work better for me though) to help you turn them over to coat well on each side.
8. Put them back in the fridge to chill again 2 hours.
9. Store any leftover patties in the fridge, separated with waxed paper.

Day: 18 No Bake Cookies

We went by 3 places today. One of which was another student's place. We didn't realize they lived there, but it's ok because we still got to deliver to people we don't know. One man we went to didn't accept the cookies, he said he just ate and was full. The next place was an old lady, she said she fractured her hip just last week. She eats cookies though and accepted them. Both her and the man we visited had been living in their places for about 30 years. The lady asked if we had a black and white cat, which we did but went missing almost a year ago. She said he used to come up and sit on her lap when she was on the porch. I'm surprised she remembered him.
Ok, another no bake recipe.These cookies are so so easy and they taste pretty good! That is, if you like oatmeal because there's a lot of it. It only takes about 5-10 min. to make these. I just put them in the freezer for 10-15 until they're firm instead of waiting an hour. So start to finish in 20 min. you're done and eating!
*I made 1/2 the recipe and ended up with about 12 cookies

No Bake Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups white sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pinch salt

1/2 cup chunky peanut butter

3 cups quick cooking oats

Directions:

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the cocoa, sugar, milk and butter. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Boil for 1 minute.
2. Remove from heat and stir in the salt, vanilla, oats and peanut butter.
3. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto waxed paper. Allow cookies to cool for at least 1 hour.

Day 17: Chocolate Chip Ball Surprise

We met a few people today. The first place we went to they were really cool. They found a turtle on the sidewalk today and had him in a box by the door. We've seen them with some kids before so we thought they were their kids, but it was their grandkids. The garages around here are open (there's no doors) so you can see right in and we've noticed before that theirs is made into a "man cave." I guess the lady that lives on the other side of the unit is never home so she doesn't mind if he uses the whole garage and in return he mows her lawn. The next place we went to was a pretty big family. Both sides of that unit are family, in 1 side lives a lady and the other side is another family member (brother in law or something). But they were really nice as well, and even offered us some of their pizza. Both families we visited today seemed interested in the health talk but they both also had parties that day. I guess that's what we get for planning it on Memorial Day weekend. We did get their info. though so we can let them know when the next one is.
I've made today's cookies a couple of times before. The recipe comes from a food network contestant in a cookie contest. This wasn't the winner, but it's really good. I made them today since we were out of eggs (these are egg and also gluten-free). They taste somewhat like peanut butter and chocolate rice krispy treats.

Chocolate Chip Ball Surprise

yield: 30 cookie balls

Ingredients:
1/2 c. unsalted butter, room temperature

2 c. creamy peanut butter

3 c. powdered sugar

3 c. rice krispies, crushed

1 c. semi-sweet mini chocolate chips

2 (12 oz.) pckgs. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, using your hands, combine butter, peanut butter, sugar, rice cereal, and mini chocolate morsels. Roll mixture into 1 inch balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet and place in the freezer. In a double boiler over simmering water, melt semi-sweet morsels. Stir constantly until melted and smooth. Dip frozen balls into chocolate and place back on parchment lined baking sheet. Place in freezer for 5-10 min. until the chocolate has set. Store the balls in an airtight container at room temperature.