Pear Pie Cookies

I love pie, but to be honest, I don't love making WHOLE pies, or whole cakes for that matter. Small. I like to keep it small. I get nervous, all the time. What if it doesn't taste good? What if I mess something up? Well, when you make a WHOLE pie, you can't exactly cut into it before you serve it to your guests or at a dinner party. You have to wait it out. Sweat it out. Anxiously await the first slice being cut. The first bite being taken. So whats the solution? MINI PIE COOKIES. If you make minis, you can taste 'em before its time! Yay! Best of both worlds.

This weeks images are shot by my wonderful friend and talented photographer Vince Perritti. They are gorgeous!

Download the recipe card here for keeps. Yields 12-14 3.5 inch Cookies (Yield will depend on size of cookie cutter)

FOR THE DOUGH /

2 ½ cups flour

1 tbsp. sugar     

1 tsp. salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, very cold

We are going to make this dough exactly the same way we made the dough in the Autumn Veggie pies I made for Thanksgiving.

DOUGH DIRECTIONS /

1 / Fill a one cup liquid measuring cup with water, and drop in a few ice cubes; set it aside.

2 / In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar and salt.

3 / Dice two sticks of very cold unsalted butter into ½ inch pieces.

4 / Sprinkle the butter cubes over the flour and begin working them in with your hands. Redistribute the mixture as needed so all parts are worked evenly, really get in there with your hands. When all of the butter pieces are the size of tiny peas stop.

5 / Drizzle ½ cup of the ice-cold water (but not the cubes) over the butter and flour mixture. Using a rubber (silicon) spatula, gather the dough together. You’ll probably need an additional ¼ cup of cold water to bring it together, but add it a tablespoon at a time. Once you’re pulling large clumps with the spatula, take it out and get your hands in there. Gather the disparate damp clumps together into one mound, kneading them gently together.

6 / Divide the dough in half, and place each half on a large piece of plastic wrap. Let the dough chill in the fridge for one hour, but preferably at least two, before rolling it out.

FOR THE FILLING /

4 pears, whichever you like to use for baking, Bosc works well

Squeeze of lemon juice

1 cup brown sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. ginger

1 / Preheat the oven to 350˚F.

2 /  Cut the pears up into all different shapes and sizes, but note, they do have to fit into the cookies so don’t make them too big!

3 / Squeeze a lemon over the cut pears and toss the pears in a bowl with the brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

4 / On a baking sheet, spread the pears out in an even layer. Bake the pears for 30 minutes total, tossing and redistributing at about the 15 minute mark.

FOR FINISHING /

1 large egg

Granulated sugar

ASSEMBLY /

1 / Roll out the chilled dough and using either a large circle cutter or glass start cutting circles. Mine was a 3.5 inch circle, but you can use whatever size you’d like the cookies to be. *If you dough is getting warm from being out of the fridge, get it back in! Make sure the dough never heats too much, its is difficult to deal with and won’t bake as nicely.

2 / Lightly dampen the top of the circle cut out with water, this will help seal it with the top piece of dough.

3 / Place some of your pears on top of the damp side of the dough, about ¼ inch from the end (so you have room to seal it closed).

4 / Place a second circle on top of the pears. Using a fork lightly dusted in flour, press around the entire circle to seal it closed.

5 / With a sharp knife, cut your decorative slits in the pie.

6 / Using a brush (or you hands- hey, I didn’t have a brush yet) apply a light egg wash. Sprinkle sugar on top. * Optional: with any extra dough, cut small decorative shapes and apply to the top of the dough after the egg wash is applied. Also egg wash the extra shape.

7/ Bake the “cookies” for 20-25 minutes or until they are golden brown, light and pie like. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool a bit before eating. They also are great warm with ice cream!

So what do you think? PIE COOKIES?! I think they're pretty FAB and they were a hit, so look like I'll be making them again!

Chocolate Crumb Cheesecake with Brownie Cubes!

This year for Christmas I had a special request from my brother. Cheesecake. Well, I had never made a whole cheesecake, so I brought my tush to the store, bought myself a springform pan and started searching for recipes, I needed a pro to help me out. Enter Smitten Kitchen.

Smitten Kitchen is my favorite food blogger. She makes great cakes (well, she makes great everything) so I knew she would be my gal. Brownie Mosaic Cheesecake was the one. Cheesecake with a chocolate crumb crust, brownies baked INSIDE the cheesecake and a chocolate ganache topping. Done. Done. Done.

RECIPE BELOW, GET BAKING!

Yields 1- 9 inch Cheesecake

FOR THE BROWNIES / 

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate

¾  cup (1 ½  sticks) butter

1 ¾  cups sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

½ tsp. salt

1 cup flour

1 / Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 13×9-inch baking pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over sides of pan. Grease foil.

2 / Microwave chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on high for 2 minutes, or until butter and chocolate are completely melted..

3 / Stir the sugar into the butter/ chocolate mixture until completely incorporated.

4 / With an electric hand mixer, blend in eggs and vanilla.

5 / Slowly add flour and salt to the mixture and mix well.

6 / Spread into prepared pan. Bake 30 to 35 minute or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with fudgy crumbs.

7 / Cool brownies completely before cutting to add to the cheesecake.

8 / When brownies are completely cool (I sped up the process by placing them in the freeze for a bit). When they are completely cool, they will slice nicely with a knife or a pizza cutter. Cut them into ¾ inch squares for use in the cheesecake.

You will have more brownie cubes than the recipe calls for.

FOR THE CRUMB CRUST /

3 cups Chocolate Teddy Grahams (1- 10 oz box) - If you can’t find Chocolate Teddies, you can use a chocolate wafer cookie or Chocolate Graham Cracker

10 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

⅔  cup sugar

¼  tsp. salt

1 / Finely crush the Teddy Grahams (or cookies)

2 / Stir together all of the above ingredients until all the ingredients are evenly distributed with each other.

3 / Butter the sides and bottom of your 9-inch springform pan.

4 / Press the mixture into the bottom of your springform pan and 1 inch up side. You can fill right away with the cheesecake or chill up to 2 hours in the refrigerator.

FOR THE CHEESECAKE /

3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

4 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup sugar

2 cups brownie cubes

1 / Preheat oven to 350°F.

2 / Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until fluffy.

3 / Add eggs, one at a time until incorporated.

4 / Add the vanilla and sugar, beating on low speed until each ingredient is incorporated and scraping down bowl between additions.

5 / Very gently fold in the brownie cubes you baked (and cooled) earlier.

6 /  Place the springform pan in a shallow baking pan. (This is to catch drips, don’t forget to do this, I did and it made a mess in the oven!)

7 / Pour mixture into prepared pan with chocolate crumb crust you prepared earlier.

8 / Bake the cheesecake in middle of oven 45 minutes, or until cake is set 3 inches from edge but center is still slightly wobbly when pan is gently shaken.

Do not take the cake out before the exterior 3 inches look like they are set. It may begin to bubble and brown on the top, but no worries, we are going to cover it with chocolate ganache! Finished cake is more important than the 45 minute time .

FOR THE GANACHE /

½  cup chocolate morsels

2 ounces butter

¼  cup heavy cream

1 tbsp. confectioners sugar

1 / Melt the chocolate and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Make sure the sauce pan is COMPLETELY dry before you begin adding the ingredients. When water gets into the chocolate during the melting process, it doesn’t break down properly. Believe me, I learned this the hard way!

2 / Stir in the heavy cream and confectioners sugar and stir until well combined.

3 / Remove the saucepan from heat, and let settle for about 2 minutes.

4 / Carefully spoon and evenly spread the chocolate mixture over the cooled cheesecake.

5 / Allow the chocolate to firm in the refrigerator. Refrigerate the cheesecake until time to be served.

This cake was absolutely amazing. I urge you to make sure it is set 3 inches in before you take it out, the center of my cake was a bit underdone, but still tasted amazing. I got so many compliments on this baby, someone even said that it looked like it came from a professional bakery (yay me!). The base of this cheesecake is divine, and I wil surely use it again and bake other things INTO it. The brownies were also ace, and uber easy, so save that recipe!

Have you ever baked things INTO a cheesecake? I may be obsessed, what should I do next?

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake Prints

​You can make them too! Every Friday when the recipes are posted, I will also release full size prints of the featured ​sweet, recipe cards and part of the decor I used to decorate! I've got a lot of tricks up my sleeves, so you're going to want to check back every Friday to see what delicious sweet we try next!

Visit my Etsy Shop to get prints, recipe cards and get baking yourself! Blog readers enter code SWEETDEAL  to get 25% off!