Oh Nuts! Giveaway Winner

Hey Guys! I completely lost track of time and forgot to pick the winner. Oops. Anyway, thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway. Today's lucky winner is Terri!

I'll be contacting you immediately to get your prize to you. Stay tuned for future giveaways, everyone!

Wayfair Review

Wayfair is giving me the opportunity to review another product soon. With over 200 stores, Wayfair offers everything from cookware, kitchen furnishing, tv stands for flat screens, furniture for your entire house, and luggage. This makes it extra difficult to decide which item to choose!

I'm considering reviewing another cooking item or appliance, though I might possibly shift gears and get something a little different this time. I have a bit of time to decide so stay tuned!

Cool things and Christmas cookies

This weekend was pretty busy. My family and I built our annual gingerbread house for the contest here. Wow. I'll be blogging about that this week. Amid a sea of sugary dust and flour, we managed to build the house in 3 days. This sounds great until you see the house and realize we're crazy.

Also, I got featured in a Woman's Day blog, Snack Smart. Every Friday they feature a snack idea from food bloggers. Abby contacted me and asked if I'd like to participate, so I said yes! Pretty neat.

And now for Christmas cookies. Here's a round up of some Christmasy cookies I've blogged about in the past. Some of them are recipes I've recreated, some are recipes from cookbooks.

• Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies


• Gingerbread biscotti


• Lime wreathes, aka ciambelle


• Chocolate chiperoos


• Coconut chocolate biscotti


• Peanut butter espresso cookies

apple custard crumb pie

Hop on over and enter the Oh Nuts! giveaway for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate!

Hope you guys had a happy and tasty Thanksgiving. This is one of the pies we baked for the event. My mom got this recipe from a friend of hers a while back and it makes for a unique addition to the lineup. It features slices of apples baked inside a sour cream custard center and topped with a crispy, nutty crumb topping.

The filling gets placed into a par-baked pie crust. I tried the pie crust from How To Eat A Cupcake. It's similar to others I've made, only it has a bit of baking powder. I found this gave the baked crust a slightly denser feel, though still flaky. I also noticed that as I baked this crust it kept the nicely crimped edging more than usual. However, I still need work figuring out my pie crust issues, namely that the bottom refuses to crisp. It's as if the filling seeps into the crust and prevents it from crisping. I meant to brush the bottoms with beaten egg whites, but oh well.

My mom also cooked the apple slices in a sugar syrup so that the apples would cook a bit and not be as firm in the filling. You could saute yours until the apples started to feel tender if you wanted. The apples were then drained and mixed with the filling.

The pie gets baked until the custard can be poked with a knife and comes out clean. Then...

Topped with the crumb topping, including whole pecans, then returned to the oven to crisp and become golden brown.

Recipe after jump

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Print this recipe

apple custard crumb pie
Recipe by my mom's friend

Ingredients -

1 9-inch deep dish pie crust, par-baked
8 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced into 1/8 - 1/4 inch slices (if you're cooking the apple partway first, slice them 1/4 inch thick)
1 2/3 cup sour cream
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 large egg, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

Topping -

1 cup nuts, whole or coarsely chopped
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

Directions -

1. Preheat oven to 400°F and place the pie plate on a large rimmed baking sheet. In a large bowl mix together the sour cream, sugar, flour, egg, vanilla, and salt; stir in the apples and stir to coat. Pour into pie shell and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F and bake for 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.


2. While the pie bakes, prepare the topping. Mix the nuts (if coarsely chopped) with flour, both sugars, cinnamon and salt. Stir in the butter and continue mixing until mixture comes together. If nuts were left whole, stir them in now.


3. When pie is ready, remove from oven. Top with coating, dolloping from a spoon. Bake for 15 minutes or until the topping is crisp and golden. Let cool at room temperature before serving.