Salted Caramel Apple Hand Pies

Turns out much/most of my life involves trying to fulfill the whims of my offspring. It is made even more urgent when Michael joins in. James said he wanted apple pies. Someone suggested salted caramel (me? Michael? Who is to say.) Hand pies/pastries were suggested. Then James proceeded to bring it up forever until I finally made it happen. And that is the tale of how I was peer pressured into spending one of my evenings after the kids went to sleep making salted caramel apple hand pies.

(Note: in the course of my writing this Michael saw the pictures and said, "Oh man those were so good! We need them again. Look at Rose's sweet face. She's never had these. Don't you think that face deserve them?" So you see what I'm working with.) 

Anyway-this recipe is actually super simple (more so if you buy pre-made puff pastry and salted caramel sauce but where's the fun in that?) and reallllly tasty. Buttery, flaky pastry with a sweet and salty (and gooey) caramel apple filling. You can use whatever apples you like for the filling and can even make the pastries ahead of time (just make sure to refrigerate them until you're ready to bake--the colder the pastry dough the better the end result!) Yummy yum yum! 

Phyllo Potato Pastries

Truth be told everyone...I've been having a hard time getting back into the swing of things in the kitchen and with the blog post-holidays. Does anybody else feel somewhat adrift? ...No? Just me?

Ok that's cool. I'll do better y'all, pinky promise!

Now...this is a pretty classic Kayle recipe--there's potatoes...and there's carbs. But it's fun and different and kinda classy (I think) because flaky and delicious phyllo dough is wrapped around shredded and seasoned potatoes and onions and it's all baked to tasty perfection.

I think these are great especially as an entertaining food--because the recipe makes a lot, and there's something about phyllo dough that just screams "I'M FOR GUESTS!" to me *shrug*. Unfortunately we were not having any company when I made these so it was up to Michael and I to eat them all. And if any eaters were ever up to the task...it was us. 

They're quite delicious and I'm definitely keeping them in mind next time I need something to bring to a party!

Whole Wheat Italian Gougères

I had such lofty intentions to make these "Italian" gougeres. I thought roasted garlic and Parmesan cheese....perfection! I considered adding additional seasonings but didn't think they'd be needed.

Welll....learn from my mistake my friends. These gougeres ARE tasty. But-the way I made them they turned out a bit bland. As a result, I've adjusted the below recipe to use more cheese and garlic and I urge you to add some seasonings. They'll be better that way.

Don't let me scare you away though! LOOK AT THE PHOTOS-these are tasty tasty, pretty pretty gougeres! Plus--they're whole wheat and have flax meal in them! So a bit healthier! In fact, you can even tweak this recipe and change out the flavor combos to your taste. You could use cheddar and scallions or onions or...I dunno...whatever you like! But first...let's give this Italian version a try, shall we?

Alright-I'm trying to be normal and just talk about food like I would any other week....how am I doing? Convincing? You totally can't tell that I'm getting married this Saturday and am kind of freaking out because I'm so excited/nervous/anxious/worried/excited again....right?

Oh good. Because you know I've totally tried to barely even talk about my wedding on here.*

*sarcasm...yes...I know I've been incessant and can talk of almost nothing else. Sorry!

Michael insisted I start calling these "puffs". He felt like I was being snobby with my constant "I made gougeres!" "Do you want a gougere?" "Don't forget there are gougeres..." His initial request was that I refer to them as "biscuits" which they are NOT biscuits. They're way to light and airy and soft! So then he amended I could call them puffs. Which...since gougeres are made from choux pastry just like cream puffs...I sort of can accept that.

So...puffs or gougeres...Italian or French or just perfectly YOU...give 'em a try!

Ginger-Nectarine Galette-Guest Post with The Spiffy Cookie

Hallo again my friends!! I've got another awesome guest post for you today! Erin of The Spiffy Cookie has guest posted on here before and she's one of my best blog/real life buds--she recently moved to Ohio and it's so awesome to only be 2 hours away from each other! Because then if I see her post a particularly delectable treat I know I can just hop into the car to go beg her for some...that's logical, right?

Enough rambling, over to Erin!

Why hello there Cooking Actress readers! My name is Erin and I blog over on The Spiffy Cookie, but don't let the name fool you, there's far more than cookies and desserts. Of course I say that right before diving into a dessert recipe, but I digress. I'm super excited to be here today and consider myself lucky to not only know Kayle through the blogging world, but in real life as well.

I met her for the first time while visiting NYC 2 years ago and then guest posted for Kayle when she was in the process of moving to Ohio. Little did I know at the time that I soon would join her and live just 2 hours away! We've already reunited once and have plans to visit the KitchenAid experience center here in Ohio after she's done getting hitched. Hurry up and get married already!

But enough about our shenanigans, I know that what you really want is a slice of this galette. To me, galette just means a fancy looking, yet lazy free-form pie. You don't even need a pie pan or rolling pin, just toss the fruit with the seasonings, unroll a package or refrigerated pie crust onto a baking sheet (or okay, be fancy and make one homemade), spread out the fruit, and fold over the edges of the pie crust. Viola!

The best part is that if you do decide to make your own pie crust, you don't have to worry about it being perfectly symmetrical or having smooth edges because we're going for a more rustic look anyway. And those nectarines dotted with pieces of ginger will steal the stage no matter what it looks like. But in case your galette is feeling self-conscious, I covered the edges with sliced almonds.

Thanks Kayle for having me today. I'm so happy for you and Michael to be married! You two are the absolute cutest.

Caramelized Onion and Cheddar Gougères-Virtual Baby Shower for Taylor {Greens n' Chocolate}

The food blogging community is seriously amazing. I have made some of the best friends who understand me in a way that I would never have thought possible-especially since I haven't met the grand majority of them. But I read their posts and comments and social media posts almost every day, and I really feel that I know these incredible ladies and that they know me! Which is why I love coming together with other bloggers to celebrate when great things happen in the lives of one of our own. Today is one of those days--we're celebrating Taylor from Greens n' Chocolate as she prepares to welcome her sweet baby boy into the world with a VIRTUAL BABY SHOWER!!!

In my experience with showers and get-togethers of most kinds, small bites/appetizers/snacks are a big hit. Things you can just pick up, pop into your mouth, and carry on about your business. Which is why I decided these gougeres would be a great thing to share for today's baby shower!

What's a gougere-you ask? It's pretty much just choux pastry (choux is the same stuff you use to make cream puffs) that's mixed with cheese. And, in this case, some delicious lightly caramelized onions (cooked down method, not the kind where you add sugar and such) are also mixed in. Which makes for the most amazing light, yet chewy, and super flavorful savory treat.

I also got to break in my new KitchenAid stand mixer making these beauties (AND use an actual piping tip for the first time), which was insanely exciting for me. Almost as exciting as the way I felt when the smell of the gougeres started wafting from the oven.

I seriously couldn't stop eating these. They're sort of irresistible. You can't help but love them--sort of like babies :) Taylor-we're so excited for you and the hubs and I know you're going to make an amazing mom, CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Check out what Taylor's other friends brought to the party!

Mrs. Olson's Kitchen-Quick Jam

Girl Versus Dough-Cheesy Polenta Bites with Blueberry Corn Relish

Fit Foodie Finds-DIY Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch Clif Bars

Making Thyme for Health-Lemon Cupcakes with Fresh Blueberry Icing 

The Cooking Actress-Caramelized Onion and Cheddar Gougères

Cookie Monster Cooking-Strawberry, Cucumber and Mozzarella Phyllo Cups

Garnish with Lemon-Mini Pavlovas with Blueberries and Kiwi

A Kitchen Addiction-Blueberry Lemon Donut Muffins

The Lemon Bowl-Blackberry Ginger Smash with Thyme

Whole Wheat Puff Pastry

Forgive these pictures. I normally try to wait to make and photograph food until the light is good but one night I came home from work and decided I AM MAKING WHOLE WHEAT PUFF PASTRY TONIGHT, LIGHT BE DAMNED!

So....I did. Thusly the lighting in these photos is meh. But stick with me because homemade puff pastry is awesome, but now...not only can you make it preservative-free, you can also make it WITH WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR! I mean...I'm not gonna say it's healthy. There's a lot of butter. But ya know...it's better.

Don't be intimidated by the idea of making homemade puff pastry. It's slightly time intensive but only because you have to chill the dough a bunch of times-so you can do other stuff while the dough chills. You can do laundry, make other food, clean, watch TV....ya know...productive stuff.

But the actual work put in is crazy simple. The hardest part is using your muscles to roll out the dough. Which isn't hard. If my wimpy arms can do it, so can yours!

Then, once you've made your puff pastry, you divide it into thirds--or fourths (because a package of puff pastry is generally about 1 lb. and these recipe yields 3-4 lbs.--this will make it easier to use when you're making recipes that call for the storebought stuff) and then stick it in the refrigerator or freezer. Hooray! And when you bake up the pastry it's wonderfully flaky and buttery (although, sure, less flaky than with white flour) and has this awesome earthy, almost nutty, quality from the whole wheat flour. It's awesome. 

You'll see!

Parmesan Gougeres

Confession: I maaaay have overbaked these. So they're a smidge overbrowned.

Sorry. It's okay though because they still turned out AWESOME!

Gougeres are pretty much French cheese puffs, made with choux (the same sort of pastry that brings you cream puffs). For these Gougeres I worked with what I had--which is Parmesan cheese and some chives and basil from my overflowing herb garden. But you can totally customize these to your preferences/what's in your kitchen!

So here we have airy little mounds of heaven. They're all crisp on the outside and they taste like Parmesan and herbs and they're so light on the inside. These gougeres are crazy addictive-I may have eaten the whole batch within an hour of baking them. Oops. 

It's ok, though. I can always make more. And maybe use cheddar and chives next time! ooooh yum!

Make em. Trust me. They're so much easier than you'd think (don't let the French name fool ya) and they're whipped up crazy quick. Gougeres are also the perfect thing if you're entertaining-instant "oooohs" and "ahhhs" for minimal effort! Huzzah!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Breakfast Pastries

Things are just getting too real for me.

Michael started his new job Sunday (which....he hates). In 2 weeks we'll be moving to Ohio. And my stress levels are through the roooof. So...in times of great stress...you sometimes just need to revert to childhood. That's where these breakfast pastries come in. They're like the poptarts I so loved from my youth but...homemade. From scratch. And filled with delicious chocolate peanut butter instead of that weird chemical-y strawberry filling that I adored for some reason (ok...cuz it's tasty. But when I read what's in it I fuhreeeak out!)

Comfort. With less guilt (cuz I mean...they're still full of butter and all that good stuff.)

These pastries are incredibly flaky and melt in your mouth. And then...obviously...chocolate peanut butter is heaven on earth. Michael had some of these before he left and he said he really liked them (he just wishes the choc pb had been spread throughout the pastry a little more evenly. I agree. So keep that in mind when assembling these lovelies.)

Now...I know making pastries from scratch might sound intimidating and time intensive. But these really weren't. They were ridiculously simple to throw together-the hardest part was rolling them out and assembling them, but that still wasn't difficult. So impress your friends. Impress your S.O. Impress your mom (Mother's Day is in less than a month!). Impress that random dude on the corner. Impress whoever you choose to share these with! And if you don't want to share?

Impress yourself!

Puff Pastry Chocolate Croissants

oooh la la.

Imagine it's a relaxing Sunday morning in Paris. You're out on the balcony, sipping some cafe', and nibbling on a gorgeous, flaky, chocolate filled pastry. *sigh* so lovely.

Do you want to make that dream a reality?

...or...at least...the relaxing with some chocolate pastry part (and maybe coffee, if that's what you're into).

AND do you want to have homemade chocolate croissants that take like 5 minutes of prep time? And then, once they're baked, you have fresh, flaky, buttery pastries full of melted, decadent, dark chocolate....

...oooh. I'm sorry....I just need a minute. They're TOO GOOD!

Chocolate croissants have a super special place in my heart. There was a time in my life, when living in my last apartment, where I would pass my favorite bakery every day and almost every day...I would grab a chocolate croissant. Because I couldn't resist! Now, sadly (or perhaps fortunately?), I don't walk past that bakery anymore, and I have to walk about 20 minutes to get to it. So my chocolate croissant meter has been running pretty much on empty lately.

but now...NOW...I have the capabilities to bake myself up those chocolate filled little beauties at HOME!

Now, if you wanna make this really easy on yourself, you just buy puff pastry to make these (that's how the original recipe was used). But...if you're a little more crazy like me, and maybe want to make everything from scratch, you can use homemade puff pastry (I someday plan to tackle actual croissants, but until then...puff pastry). I happened to have half a batch of the homemade pastry in my freezer (1 batch of the homemade puff pastry makes 4 batches of this croissant recipe) so it was super simple for me, still, to just make these up one morning.

In fact...after using half of that half batch....the next day...I took out the rest of the pastry dough. Because...

I needed mooore.

So addictive. SO PERFECT. I'm really fully in loooove with this recipe. YOU NEED THIS IN YOUR LIFE RIGHT NOW. RIGHT THIS SECOND! In fact...so do I....bye all, I'll be making myself some chocolate croissants.

Homemade Puff Pastry

Ughhh you GUYS! I cannot believe I haven't shared this with you yet! "bad food blogger, bad!"

Um...you may have noticed I've developed a borderline unhealthy addiction to spinach & brie puff pastries. Liiiike...poor Michael jokes that I "supposedly" make them but he wouldn't know because they're uhhh...gone...by the time he gets home. And we're talkin' about me making double batches...8 puffs....oops. 

#sorryimnotsorry

Anywho, since I've been using so much puff pastry, I really wanted to tackle making the stuff from scratch. But I was intimidated. But I told myself "KAYLE! You've gotta buck up and take on this challenge!" So I did. And surprisingly, not that difficult. Yes, there are some steps. But they're pretty simple (especially since I've provided you with a step by step photo guide ;P) and I've already made the homemade puff pastry twice.

I will share with you one downside to these: you end up with blocks of dough instead of the sheets you buy, so when you go to roll out the dough um...it's hard. Like...really hard. I get a goooood work out trying to roll that chunk of dough into a thin sheet. But it's do-able and I always get through it. And if me and my tiny, weak, arms can do it-SO CAN YOU!

Cream Puffs (from scratch)

So like...sometimes it's hard to choose between two things you love.

Hard rock and boy bands.

Kisses or hugs.

Chocolate or cookies.

Cream puffs with pastry cream or cream puffs with whipped cream.

Ya know?

I simultaneously have loved both types of cream puffs, while also never being fully pleased with either.

Turns out you totally don't need to choose at all.

This is THE BEST (I'm like...pretty sure) cream puff recipe, evah!

I was always intimidated by the idea of trying to make a cream puff recipe, because they seemed super fancy and like professional and such (everyone always says they're easy but I was still skeptical). Call me skeptic no more. These actually were pretty easy (aside from the multiple steps, but whatever! If you're feeling lazy just make boxed vanilla pudding and buy whipped cream to fill these. There. Happy?)

The result is a super light and airy pâte à choux and a delightful contrast of the rich pastry cream and light whipped cream. These are best fresh as far as texture for the pâte à choux goes, but I prefer my cream puffs chilled so I just ate em leftover, sogginess be damned! (It's really not bad, and they were super tasty!) Michael said he's not a huge fan of cream puffs, but when I caught him sneaking some and repeated that back to him he said that these he liked. He's nice :)

So are these cream puffs. Make them. You'll be sad you've lived this long without em!

Spinach & Brie Puff Pastries

So...I was planning to write up a post about the Walkers Shortbread Recipe Challenge today.

Buuut, I still need to get all the photos and stuff together, so stay tuned for that! 

In the mean time, for today I'm gonna share with you a vegetarian, savory, treat--since I'm doing the whole no meat on Fridays in Lent thing (*fingers crossed* last year was the first year I ever successfully did this).

So...yeah, like...can we talk about these pastries for a minute?

Puff pastry is just flaky, buttery, goodness. The spinach makes me feel healthy. And brie. 

Oh I love brie. I know it's like fancy French cheese, but...you guys...brie tastes like butter.

Like buttah.

What's not to like?!

The flavor is fairly similar to those mini spinach and goat cheese pies I made, but still unique. It's so incredibly buttery and warm and comforting. I couldn't stop eating them. And the recipe only makes 4. So a day after I made the first batch...I made a 2nd batch. Don't judge me.