Apricot Fried Pies

Before I get started talking about this treat, I want to apologize to you, my dear readers.

Things are going to be a bit more quiet around here.

I've decided that since I'm ready to pop here in a couple weeks, that I need to step back a bit from being in the kitchen.

Therefore, I'm going to go down to posting once a week for a while.

I'm just so tired that I've been having trouble keeping up with the baking/cooking schedule I had set for myself in order to post new recipes for you all twice a week.

I hope you all understand and stick with me through this!

Can I bribe you with baby pictures when he comes?? LOL!

Anywhoooo.

Let's talk food!

Apricots.

I love apricots.

I think this is definitely one of those underrated fruits.

Unfortunately, they are only around for a short time during the summer. But I'm willing to jump on them when they are around!

Apricots mean summer to me.

They mean spending time at my grandma's house.

Playing in the huge dog house out back.

Playing in the shed when my grandparents left it open.

Playing catch in the huge field across the street.

Lying in front of the air conditioner unit in the dining room.

Open windows, cool night breezes and nothing but the sound of chirping crickets as we lay beneath a single bed sheet.

Ice cream before bed every night.

And fruit.

Endless fruit. Fresh from my grandma's garden.

We would eat cantaloupe and green apples with salt. Yes, salt on both.

Tomatoes. Picked ripe off the vine.

Strawberry jam.

Homemade apple butter.

And apricots.

Mine and my mother's favorite thing my grandma did with apricots were to make these individual apricot friend pies.

They were amazing!

Sadly, when my grandma died, most of her recipes died with her.

But I've been trying to replicate these pies.

The problem is that my grandma died when I was young, so I don't have much to go on.

I made these pies this past weekend for my mom. She said they were delicious, but they weren't her moms.

That's okay. My mom ate half of them by herself anyway (I made her share the rest).

Though these aren't my grandma's fried pies, they are pretty amazing anyway.

The tart apricot, paired with a sweet glaze (this was my addition to the pies) really compliment each other well.

These are definitely going to be a summer staple in my home.

Let's get in the kitchen!

Peel, pit and slice you apricots. Pour your sugar over the top, stir them up and let them sit about an hour or 2.

Roll out your dough and cut it into circles. My grandma used to use a pink plastic plate for this. I used a large round cookie cutter. Place a good amount of the apricots on top of the dough circle.

Fold the pies, pinch the ends together, then crimp the edges with a fork to keep them closed.

Toss the pies into some oil and cook until golden brown, about 1-2 minutes per side.

When they are cooked through, place them on a paper towel lined plate to dry.

We tried some of these freshly fried, but found they were MUCH better then next day. They were mushier, which made them more like my grandma's pies.

Throw together a glaze of powdered sugar and milk, drizzle onto the pies. Let the glaze set, about 30 minutes (if you can keep your hands off of them).

Then serve and enjoy!!!

Apricot Fried Pies

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Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 pounds apricots, pitted, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• Pie Dough (Can use 1 package of store bought as well)
• Oil
• Glaze (optional): 1/2 cup powdered sugar to 2 Tablespoons milk

Directions:

1. Place apricots and sugar in large bowl. Cover and let sit about 1-2 hours until soft. Taste fruit to make sure it has reached the desired sweetness.
2. Heat about 3 inches of oil to 300 degrees F.
3. Roll out dough and cut into 4 inch circles.
4. Place a heaping Tablespoon of apricot in the center of the dough circles. Fold, pinch ends together then crimp with a fork.
5. Place pies into hot oil and cook until golden brown, about 1-2 minutes per side.
6. Remove pies from oil using a slotted spoon and set on a paper towel lined plate to drain and dry.
7. If you so choose, make your glaze. Stir together the powdered sugar and milk. Add more powdered sugar to make glaze thicker, or more milk to make it thinner. It's your preference. 
8. Drizzle glaze over pies.
9. Let glaze set about 30-60 minutes.
10. Serve and enjoy!! (I found the pies were better enjoyed the next day).

Mini Pumpkin Beignets with Spiced Sugar

Do you ever get inspired by comments on your blog posts?

I hadn't up until I shared my pumpkin donuts.

On that post, my girl Ingrid made this comment:

"I like pumpkin! :) 

My mouth is watering . They look and sound good especially with a spiced glaze? Yes, please. 

Hmmmm, I wonder if I made these beauties for the kiddos they'd stop begging for your banana beignets! Manna, I kid you not EVERY day Devon asks me for them, which gets his siblings asking."


Thinking about the mini banana beignets I made while looking at pumpkin donuts definitely got my wheels spinning.


I decided I wanted to try my hand at making a pumpkin beignet. Yum!!


So me and my idea went to Google. 


I started by looking up regular beignets hoping I could just modify. I found this recipe but didn't want to wait for yeast to rise. I wanted something quick and easy.


Then I typed in pumpkin beignets and found a blog called French Revolution that had posted these pumpkin beignets. 


They looked amazing to me so I quickly set about making them.


They were as quick and easy as I was hoping. And they tasted amazing!!


When The Hubble took a bite of a freshly fried and sugared beignet he looked at it thoughtfully. Then he told me it was like eating deep fried pumpkin pie.


Spending much of my childhood in the South...that sounded heavenly to me! I mean...who could turn down deep fried pumpkin pie?!?! 


I loved these so much that I'm going to shared them with you today!


Again, my beignets aren't the most gorgeous things. They aren't perfectly round. But they sure are tasty. And SO worth the small amount of effort.


So let's get to cooking!


Place about 3 inches of canola oil into a large pot or dutch oven. Heat to 325 degrees F.

First up! Grab your ingredients: flour, brandy, golden brown sugar, butter, pumpkin, ground cloves, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, salt, eggs and granulated sugar (not pictured here because I spazzed out and forgot it).

In a medium sauce pan toss in the pumpkin, brandy, 6 tablespoons of water, brown sugar, salt, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves and 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger. Cover and cook over medium low heat until the butter melts, stirring occasionally.

While the pumpkin mixture is cooking we can get the spiced sugar ready. In a small shallow bowl, combine the granulated sugar and the remaining teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves and 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger. Mix well to combine.

When the butter is all melted and the pumpkin mixture is ready, remove from heat and dump in the flour all at once. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture is well combined. Return to the heat and continue stirring until the 'batter' pulls away from the sides of the pot; about 30-45 seconds. Remove from heat and place in a large mixing bowl. 

Stir the mixture around in the mixing bowl until it cools. Once sufficiently cool, add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well in between each addition.

Until all the eggs are added and the batter is well mixed.

Drop about a teaspoon of rounded batter into the hot oil and let cook until golden brown; about 1-2 minutes on each side depending on heat of oil.

Remove from oil with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel lined plate to drain.

While still warm, roll the beignets through the spiced sugar mix until well coated.

Place on another plate to cool.

And unless you have willpower made of steel...go ahead and grab one and take a bite. Then marvel in the deliciousness that is deep fried pumpkin pie. 


I was thinking just now, if you want to take these up a notch...you could probably add some graham cracker crumbs to the spiced sugar. Yum!!!


Enjoy!


Mini Pumpkin Beignets with Spiced Sugar
Adapted from French Revolution


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Ingredients:


Beignets:

• 3/4 cup canned pumpkin
• 2 tablespoons Brandy
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3 tablespoons golden brown sugar
• Pinch salt
• 6 tablespoons water
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
• 3 large eggs

Spiced Sugar:

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions:

1. Place about 3 inches of canola oil into a large pot or dutch oven and heat to 325 degrees F.
2. In a medium saucepot, combine pumpkin, brandy, water, brown sugar, salt, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves and 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger. Cover and cook over medium low heat until the butter melts, stirring occasionally.
3. While the butter melts, make spiced sugar by combining all ingredients and mixing well. 
4. When butter melts, remove pot from stove and add in flour all at once; stir vigorously with wooden spoon until well combined. Return to heat and continue stirring until batter pulls from sides of pot, about 30-45 seconds. 
5. Remove pot from heat and pour dough into large mixing bowl. Stir dough to cool.
6. Once dough is sufficiently cool, add eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition until all eggs are added and batter is well combined.
7. Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of batter into heated oil. Cook until golden brown, about 1-2 minutes on each side depending on heat of oil.
8. Remove beignets from oil with a slotted spoon and place on paper towel lined plate to drain.
9. While still warm, roll beignets through spiced sugar until well coated, remove to separate plate to cool.
10. Serve and enjoy!

Mini Banana Beignets

Okay. That might not be the best picture and these might not be pretty and round but man oh man were these things good! G-E-W-D, good!

So you know when you are walking through your kitchen and you see...out of the corner of your eye...your bananas have turned! Oh no!!! You quickly start going through your mind as to what you can make. Banana bread, banana muffins, banana ice cream. Yes!

Then you start looking through recipes. Wait, I need 3 bananas?? But I only have 1! What do I do now??

I'll tell you what you do with one overly ripe banana...you make these banana beignets, that's what!

I picked up the September 2010 issue of Food Network Magazine and at the very back they have these little "secret ingredient contests." Each month they tell you what to cook with and this month's winner was Jacqueline McComas with her mini banana beignets.

I quickly set out to make these little pockets of banana heaven to rescue my lone overripe banana from meeting a dark fate with the trash can. Instead, said banana sat happily in my belly as a fried dough puff. I mean, isn't that the way you would like to leave this world if you were a banana??

So let's get to cookin!

You will need: sugar, cinnamon, vegetable oil, salt, cake flour, baking powder, whole milk, an egg, banana extract (optional) and just one overripe banana.

You want to start by placing about 2 inches of oil in a large skillet and setting a thermometer in it. It will heat as we do the other steps.

Now go ahead and whisk together your flour, baking powder, salt, 1/3 cup sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of your cinnamon.

Take your banana and put it in a separate bowl. With the back of a spoon start mashing him up.

Until he's good and smushed.

Now add to the smashed banana your milk, veggie oil, egg and banana extract (if you are using it) and whisk everything together until it's as smooth as possible.

In a small shallow bowl, mix up the remaining teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/2 cup of sugar and set it aside. We won't need this until the end but everything goes fast then and we need it ready.

Next you are going to pour your banana mixture in with your dry ingredients.

And whisk until just combined.

By now your oil should have reached 375 degrees F.

This part goes pretty fast so I didn't get pictures of the whole process but this is how it goes. Working in batches you want to drop rounded teaspoonfuls of the batter into the hot oil. Cook them about 45 seconds on each side until golden brown.

Remove the little guys from the oil with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel lined plate. While they are still warm, roll them in the cinnamon sugar mixture you whipped up earlier.

You will end up with a little plate of heaven like this.

And while you stand there with the nice warm fried banana dough puff thingies...go ahead and pick one up.

And because I know you want to...go ahead and take a bite. Then eat a few more because they are that good! Enjoy!


Mini Banana Beignets
Retrieved from Food Network

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for frying
• 11/2 cups cake flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup plus 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1 overripe banana)
• 1/4 teaspoon banana extract (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat about 2 inches vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until a deep-fry thermometer registers 375 degrees F.
2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/3 cup granulated sugar in a large bowl.
3. Whisk the egg, milk, mashed banana and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in another bowl. Add the banana extract, if desired. 
4. Combine the remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon in a shallow bowl and set aside.
5. Whisk the banana mixture into the dry ingredients until just moistened. 
6. Working in batches, drop rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into the hot oil and fry until golden brown, about 15 seconds per side. 
7. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels, then roll in the cinnamon sugar while still warm.