As American as Apple Pie

Here's another dessert I brought to our 4th of July party this year.  These apple hand pies were a hit....especially with the hubby and my brother-in-law.  The inspiration for these came from the same post at Our Best Bites that I used for the strawberry pies-on-a-stick that I made for the last day of school.

This time around I went with the all-American apple pie......using the apple pie filling recipe on Our Best Bites.  Since these pies are small and don't take long to finish baking, their recipe calls for grating the apple so that it gets baked in the short amount of time that it takes the crust to bake.  I also used the simple glaze recipe that they included.....to be put on the pies after you have taken them out of the oven.  I used a small squeeze bottle to drizzle the glaze over the hand pies......pretty isn't it?  Although I do have to admit that it made them look more like star-shaped Danishes than star-shaped pies.....but who cares when they're delicious?!

I was planning on making a second batch of them with a peach pie filling.....but I got distracted by the Oreo dessert in the previous post.  Oh well......I'll save that for another summer party.

Check out Our Best Bites for the recipes.....and Enjoy!

This post is linked to:

These Chicks Cooked

Cast Party Wednesday

Full Plate Thursday

Fresh Food Friday

Sweets for a Saturday

Sweet Indulgences Sunday

Monday, Mmm.......Dessert

Turning the Table Thursday

4th of July Cookies

Last night I was busy decorating some sugar cookies that we'll be taking to my sister-in-law's house for 4th of July.  I couldn't decide what design I wanted to try.....so I ended up doing two kinds.   I also should say that I actually baked the cookies about 3 weeks ago, and then stuck them in the freezer when they were cooled.  I took them out of the freezer a couple of hours before I wanted to decorate them......and you wouldn't know that they were fresh out of the oven!  It made it so much easier to not have to bake the cookies and then decorate them in the same day!

First, I tried doing the tie-dyed design that I saw on The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle.  Her's were so cool looking in a rainbow design, but I altered mine to use more patriotic colors (I've got to do the rainbow ones one day.....they're so cool looking!).  For a great tutorial on how do to the tie-dye effect, check out The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle.

The other design I ended up trying was inspired by the cover of Martha Stewart.....the one with the fireworks cookies.  Since I had already piped a red border on all of my cookies, I decided to do a red background on mine, instead of the white that Martha used.

For a great tutorial on how to make the fireworks cookies, check out Bake at 350.  She did a great job explaining them, and hers came out beautifully!

The mistake I made with these guys was not looking at the cover of the magazine again before doing them.  I didn't even realize that I had done these wrong until after they had starting setting up. Basically, instead of making fireworks cookies, I ended up making spiderweb cookies in patriotic colors.....oops!!  I should have been alternating toothpick drags from the center out, and from the outside to the center.  Instead, I just did toothpick drags from the center out.......so I guess when Halloween rolls around I'll know how to do spiderweb cookies :)

Well, off to go make the rest of the desserts I've got planned for the 4th......it should be great having the oven on in this 100 degree weather!!

This post is linked to:
Sweet Indulgences Sunday
A Themed Baker's Sunday
These Chicks Cooked
Sweets for a Saturday