Labor Day is one of those food holidays. It is a great way to tuck summer away and start airing out the quilts and afghans. I like Labor Day alot, and I like Labor Day Picnics even more.

We generally just let the entire known universe know that we are cooking out and bring something or not and join us. When the food is gone it’s gone and if there are 7 macaroni salads who cares? It’s all good! Labor Day picnics embody the idea of casual entertaining…And apple pie embodies the idea of Labor Day Picnics! This is a particularly good one. This is, in fact, the BEST apple pie.  Ever. Or at least today. I have, of course, switched it up a bit, you can find the original at epicurious.

Also..just a quick note..I like making real memories with my kids. One thing that I like to do when we are going to have apple pie is to read How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, an absolutely delightful story and a great way to learn about geography.

Crust

• 2 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon apple pie spice ( I prefer my own mix of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  1/3 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening
  7 tablespoons sour cream (trust me..I wondered about this, rebel that I am..and..8 is too much)

Mix flour, sugar, salt and apple pie spice in processor. Add butter and shortening and cut in until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add sour cream and blend in using on/off turns just until dough forms. Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface. Divide in half. Form each half into a ball; flatten into disk. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
Filling

• 3 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
• 1/2 c chopped walnuts
• 1/4 c brown sugar
• 1/2 c sugar
  1/4 cup all purpose flour
  3 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger (more to taste)
• 2 tablespoons bourbon (you can substitute ginger ale if the pastor is coming over..but use a good one like Reeds Jamaican))
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400°F. Toss first 6 ingredients together in bowl.

Roll out 1 dough disk between sheets of plastic wrap to 13-inch round. Peel off top sheet; invert dough into 9 1/2-inch deep-dish glass pie dish. Peel off plastic. Roll out remaining dough disk between sheets of plastic wrap to 13-inch round. Peel off top sheet of plastic. Mound filling in pie dish. Invert dough over filling. Peel off plastic. Pinch edges of dough to seal. Trim excess crust. Crimp edges decoratively. Cut 5 slashes in top of dough to allow steam to escape. Brush top with milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake until golden brown, covering with foil if browning too quickly, about 1 hour. Serve with ice cream and cider bourbon sauce

Cider-Bourbon Sauce

• 5 cups apple cider
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons bourbon (or gingerale)

Makes about 1 cup

Boil apple cider in heavy medium saucepan until reduced to 3/4 cup, about 45 minutes. Add butter and sugar and whisk until butter melts. Boil 3 minutes, whisking occasionally. Remove from heat. Whisk in bourbon. Cool sauce completely before serving.

Chocolate. I like chocolate. I like dark chocolate. I like milk chocolate. I like white chocolate. Chocolate covered cherries…chocolate covered strawberries..chocolate covered raisins…no chocolate covered grasshoppers though.

We host a home group meeting every Wednesday night for our church…Some of you may know them as small groups, or cell groups.  The thing is that if you have people from church coming over, with the possibility of the pastor dropping by, you want to have your house sparkling like..well, sparkling. You want the kids to be perfect, preferably with one of their GOOD school papers laying out in an obvious place so you can yell, ” Thoreau! Get this report on Nuclear Fusion and It’s Role in the Da Vinci Code off the coffee table right now!”…and you want a really awesome dessert. Seriously awesome. A dessert that causes the pastor to mention it in his sermon on Sunday. Thus, chocolate.

Not that I am the type of person to kiss up like that.

Anyway..this cake was good but I felt like it needed something to make it more intense so I changed the amounts of cocoa, added Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa rather than the normal (you can get it on Amazon if it isnt available locally..and it is worth it.) , added chocolate chips, and the praline chipotle glaze rather than plain chocolate.

and this is what was left after the meeting…..

Incredible Chocolate Bundt Cake with Chipotle Praline

10-12 servings

1 c hersheys special dark cocoa

2 c strong coffee

2 sticks of butter (unsalted)

1 1/2 c sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

2 c flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 c milk chocolate chips

1/3 c dark chocolate chips

1/3 c semi sweet chocolate chips

Grease bundt pan and dust with 2 tbs of cocoa. Preheat oven to 325F.

Mix flour, baking soda, and salt  and set aside.

Heat coffee to boiling and stir in butter and cocoa, whisking until smooth. Let cool a bit. Stir in vanilla

Mix sugars and eggs in mixer until fluffy, add coffee mixture alternating with flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour into bundt pan and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until cake tests done. Let cool 10 minutes. Invert pan on cake plate and leave until cool. remove bundt pan. Spoon warm glaze over cake.

Glaze:

1/4 c unsalted butter, melted

1/4 c brown sugar

stir together in pan over medium heat until sugar is no longer grainy. Remove from heat and add:

2 tsp dried chipotle (chopped,not powdered)

1/4 c coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans, almonds, hazlenuts, pistachios, or whatever.

I need to make this so I can eat the entire thing I need to make this so I have a picture of it. I was on Leftover Queen’s foodie forum and someone had asked about cheesecake. Let me just say..I know cheesecake.

WAIT! Not that kind…
Anyway…This is an awesome base recipe. By that I mean that you can change the flavorings, glazes and crust to make a designer cheesecake that would make Cheesecake Factory go out of business. Trust me. I am also pretty sure that if I could bake it in the stove (#2) on Jennifer’s list here at Offbeat Homes  that I would definitely get my own PBS cooking show. Who could resist a lemon curd topped cheesecake cooked in an orange stove? It would be so Peewee Herman meets Julia Child.

Lemon Curd:

5 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
4 lemons, zested and juiced
1 stick butter, cut into pats and chilled

Add enough water to a medium saucepan to come about 1-inch up the side. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Meanwhile, combine egg yolks and sugar in a medium size metal bowl and whisk until smooth, about 1 minute. Measure citrus juice and if needed, add enough cold water to reach 1/3 cup. Add juice and zest to egg mixture and whisk smooth. Once water reaches a simmer, reduce heat to low and place bowl on top of saucepan. (Bowl should be large enough to fit on top of saucepan without touching the water.) Whisk until thickened, approximately 8 minutes, or until mixture is light yellow and coats the back of a spoon. Remove promptly from heat and stir in butter a piece at a time, allowing each addition to melt before adding the next.cool

Gingersnap crust:
2 cups ground gingersnap cookies
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Mix butter and crumbs. to prepare pan. Butter bottom and up 3 inches of the sides. press in crumb mixture of choice on bottom and press a little up sides. Cover bottom of pan (exterior ) with aluminum foil so water can not seep in from the bain marie.

Cheesecake:

32 oz cream cheese- room temp
2 c sugar
6 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
16 oz sour cream

Beat cream cheese and sugar until mixed well at slowest speed. You do not want to incorporate air or the cake will lose the rich density you are looking for.Add eggs one at a time.fold in vanilla and sour cream by hand. Pour into a prepared crumb crust (your choice) in a 9″ springform pan.
Place in a bain marie at 375 for 45 minutes. Turn off oven and let set for one hour. remove from oven, cool and refrigerate covered. Placing paper towel on top of cake will soak up any condensation.

Just before serving run a knife around cake and remove from pan. Spread lemon curd carefully over top of cake, smoothing it so it is like glass. Garnish with lemon twists and candied ginger.
Serves 12.

Oh yeah. This one is perfect in every way. Seriously.

This is an all edges brownie pan..for when you are feeling edgy! I love the crispy chewie edge parts and let’s face it, a square only has so many edges until now… I happened to be surfing and saw this .. Bakers Edge and just thought it was coolness personified.

Hey..don’t forget to check the Home and Dining Channel’s 300 Things You Can DO to Improve Your Home and Dining Experience list..Incredible!!

This is an amazing thing to serve for breakfast. Your family will feel honored, your guests will be enthralled and you might just get your own PBS cooking show. If you do, please invite me on as a guest chef..I really want my own PBS cooking show tomorrow someday.

I love French pastry. You know, honestly, I took a total of 9 years of French, followed by a year of Latin, and then Czechoslovakian in the military…and I can honestly say that I am fluent in European *Foodie* talk (I can also say numerous military terms related to destroying complete buildings in those languages but I use this skill less) and in *Foodie* Babka is one of my favorite words (and has nothing to do with destroying complete buildings, however a really well done babka could render the enemy powerless from the ecstasy of the experience)

This is a really well done babka. There is not alot of ways that I tweak it..I will admit to drizzling melted dark chocolate interspersed with melted white chocolate over the top…This recipe is from the collection on epicurious and will make two loaves. You would think that you might get at least a taste but probably not. It is always gone before I get to the table. Better double the recipe.

For dough
3/4 cup warm milk (105–115°F)
1/2 cup plus 2 teaspoons sugar
3 teaspoons active dry yeast (from two 1/4-oz packages)
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for dusting
2 whole large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened

For egg wash
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream or whole milk

For chocolate filling
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, well softened
2 (3 1/2- to 4-oz) bars fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (no more than 60% cacao if marked), finely chopped
1/4 cup sugar

Make dough:
Stir together warm milk and 2 teaspoons sugar in bowl of mixer. Sprinkle yeast over mixture and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If yeast doesn’t foam, discard and start over with new yeast.)

Add 1/2 cup flour to yeast mixture and beat at medium speed until combined. Add whole eggs, yolk, vanilla, salt, and remaining 1/2 cup sugar and beat until combined. Reduce speed to low, then mix in remaining 2 3/4 cups flour, about 1/2 cup at a time. Increase speed to medium, then beat in butter, a few pieces at a time, and continue to beat until dough is shiny and forms strands from paddle to bowl, about 4 minutes. (Dough will be very soft and sticky.)

Scrape dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Assemble babkas with filling:
Line each loaf pan with 2 pieces of parchment paper (1 lengthwise and 1 crosswise).

Punch down dough with a lightly oiled rubber spatula, then halve dough. Roll out 1 piece of dough on a well-floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into an 18- by 10-inch rectangle and arrange with a long side nearest you.

Beat together yolk and cream. Spread 2 1/2 tablespoons softened butter on dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border all around. Brush some of egg wash on long border nearest you.

Sprinkle half of chocolate evenly over buttered dough, then sprinkle with half of sugar (2 tablespoons). Starting with long side farthest from you, roll dough into a snug log, pinching firmly along egg-washed seam to seal. Bring ends of log together to form a ring, pinching to seal. Twist entire ring twice to form a double figure 8 and fit into one of lined loaf pans.

Make another babka with remaining dough, some of egg wash, and remaining butter and chocolate in same manner. Chill remaining egg wash, covered, to use later. Loosely cover pans with buttered plastic wrap (buttered side down) and let babkas rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until dough reaches top of pans, 1 to 2 hours. (Alternatively, let dough rise in pans in refrigerator 8 to 12 hours; bring to room temperature, 3 to 4 hours, before baking.)

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.

Brush tops of dough with remaining egg wash. Bake until tops are deep golden brown and bottoms sound hollow when tapped (when loaves are removed from pans), about 40 minutes. Transfer loaves to a rack and cool to room temperature.