Halloween/ Holidays/Parties/ RECIPES/ Sweets

Caramel Apple Biscuits

Fall has arrived and with it is some of my most favorite flavors, holidays & traditions! I love all things about fall– the changing colors of our midwest trees, lighting candles to cozy up on cool fall evenings, and both the color and the taste of caramel!

Halloween is the first fun fall holiday, and with it comes many traditions our family has participated in, old and new. It has hit hard lately how quickly time passes and I never realized until lately that some traditions are destined for change. As the years pass, our girls get older and some things that excited & brought joy to them years ago, just are not quite what they used to be!

Trick or treating is one of those things, and will only be done by our youngest this year, which is really hard to believe! The older two used to LIVE for Halloween, with the most anticipated moment being when they arrived back to our warm home & dumped their bags of candy out. They would immediately start sorting their candy, lining all the ‘likes’ together and trading out their least favorites. I loved watching it, their rosy cheeks puffed up from smiling so big (and also because they were so full of candy!)

{a recent family photo-2015}

This year, I will be home with my older two girls, Teagan & Colsie, while Todd takes Avery trick-or-treating. I will make a crockpot full of chili, which is our traditional Halloween meal. I do not like being in the kitchen on Halloween, so chili in the crockpot is a great way to be able to offer a warm, comforting meal to my family by making it earlier in the day.

I’ve been thinking about what I could make that was sweet for my older 2 girls who are home with me and not out gathering a bunch of candy. I wanted something easy & festive, and I did NOT want to be in the kitchen for very long. I wanted something that would make the house smell like fall and help us make a new traditions of being home together, passing out candy and eating a great dessert instead of trick-or-treating.

Since I did not want to make anything from scratch, and it IS a holiday after all, I have decided to make my girls Caramel Apple Biscuits using Pillsbury Grands®!

Pillsbury® has been part of a few of our past family traditions, from a family favorite Monkey Bread recipe that came from my aunt, to a Taco Ring recipe from a cousin of mine. Both recipes have been passed around and are favorites at family potlucks. It is only fitting for Pillsbury® to be a part of our new tradition!

When it comes to special occasions, I am totally at peace with taking shortcuts. These little Caramel Apple Biscuits were actually inspired by shortcake! A shortcut shortcake.

I did a little practicing on the recipe to make sure what was in my head would actually work, and boy, did it ever! It turned out beautiful and scrumptious. I think this sweet will be the perfect follow-up to our spicy chili dinner.

I went to Wal-Mart and took advantage of all things store-bought to keep this recipe short and sweet! I grabbed Pillsbury Grands® Buttermilk Biscuits, some already-made apple pie filling, some caramel bits for melting, and whipped cream. I had butter on hand for coating the tops of the biscuits. This little step made me very happy, as I am a big salted caramel lover, and the saltiness of the butter and the biscuits give this recipe a nice salty/sweet balance. It is so good.

It took no time at all to put together, and I think my girls will be quite impressed with how sophisticated it looks. Their palates and tastes have become pretty mature, which I love because they appreciate pretty food that has a variety of flavors and textures.

This recipe certainly has a variety of flavors and textures, with the cinnamon-y apples, the tender biscuits with salty-buttery tops, the ooey- gooey caramel drizzled all over, and the creamy whipped cream. It is key to serve it up warm which keep the soft gooey factor to a maximum! It is super shortcut easy, and really delicious — and I can’t wait to serve this new tradition to my girls on Halloween night!

Caramel Apple Biscuits

{a no recipe, recipe}

1 Roll Pillsbury Grands!® Buttermilk Biscuits, warm from the oven

1 can apple pie filling, warmed up a bit

1 pkg. caramel melting bits or plain caramel’s, melted

Whipped cream

Cube of butter

Bake:

Bake the Pillsbury Grands!® Buttermilk Biscuits according to package directions. Remove from oven and immediately rub tops of biscuits with the cube of butter.

Assemble:

~Cut the buttered biscuit in half. Add a scoop of warm apple pie filling to the bottom part of the biscuit.

~Drizzle with melted caramel. Note: You may need to thin with some milk and stir well until drizzle consistency. I melted mine in the microwave.

~Add the top biscuit.

~Top with a dollop of whipped cream.

~Drizzle the whole thing, including the plate, with more caramel.

~Serve warm

…………..

What is your favorite holiday tradition?

{my youngest, Avery, last year in her ‘nerd’ costume, which she made by herself!}

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Pillsbury. The opinions and text are all mine.

RECIPES/ Sweets

Salty Sweet Peanut Butter Caramel Funky Fritos

I know, I know. This is not the usual type of recipe I post here at New Nostalgia. There is nothing real or healthy about these–AT ALL!

But, sometimes you gotta break the healthy rules and make something junky–especially when it is for a dessert contest! City Impact (where my husband works) was having their annual BBQ Cookout, and something they do every year is a fun dessert contest.

The winners get great gift cards, so I decided to enter something extra gooey sweet!

I started making this recipe about 4 years ago, always in the fall during football season and only once a year.

I put candy corn in it instead of the chocolate candies, which really is the perfect salty/ sweet combination, inspired by the typical peanuts and candy corn mix. It looks very fall and festive.

While munching away on these Funky Fritos, my daughter asked me what was in them. I started listing the 4 ingredients, and when I got to corn syrup, she had a freakout and said “oh man, Mom, I CAN’T BELIEVE you made something with CORN SYRUP in it.”

My husband smiled, shook his head and said “only YOUR daughter would say something like that!” 🙂

Salty Sweet Peanut Butter Caramel Funky Fritos

1 cup white corn syrup

1 cup white sugar

1 cup peanut butter

1 10.5 ounce bag Fritos

Chocolate Candies or Candy Corn (optional)

Pour out the Fritos on a large shallow pan lined with greased parchment paper. Combine the corn syrup and sugar and bring to a boil (I use my microwave for this kind of chore – usually takes about 6-8 minutes for the sugar to be dissolved and you’re set!)

Then stir in the PB til smooth. Pour the mixture over the chips, sprinkle with candies, and chill for about 30-60 minutes. Break apart and enjoy!

RECIPES/ Sweets

Gooey Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes-Easy!

My step-mom was having a birthday and I wanted to bring her a birthday dessert. Something that looked special and was full of chocolate. We share our love for chocolate! I was still in zombie-land due to a medication I was taking, so I knew I had to figure out something simple.

Trader Joes to the rescue! I picked up a box of their chocolate cake mix, chocolate frosting mix, and a bottle of their amazing caramel sauce. I stopped at the craft store to find paper cups that were cute- a special touch. I grabbed 2 Skor candy bars, and got a bit excited as I envisioned myself taking a hammer to them. 🙂 I also grabbed a squeeze bottle that I found it in the cake decorating aisle, it was only a buck. Lastly, I found some candles that sparkle and trick the birthday girl by re-lighting themselves over and over. Hee. Hee.

Of course, any box cake mix, frosting mix and caramel can be used for this, but I am a HUGE Trader Joes fan. Why?

All Products In The Trader Joe’s Label Promise:
NO artificial flavors, colors or preservatives
NO genetically modified ingredients
NO MSG
NO added Trans Fats

Let’s take the cake mix. When I read the ingredients, they were the ingredients you would read on a recipe card. All pronounceable. This is true, REAL convenience food. Taking ingredients I would use to make it from scratch, and putting them together for me.

Trader Joes Cake Mix Ingredients:

White Flour

Wheat Flour

Cocoa

Corn Starch

Baking Soda

Soybean Oil

Salt

Buttermilk

Natural Vanilla Flavor

Pillsbury Cake Mix Ingredients:

Ingredients:

ENRICHED BLEACHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), MALTODEXTRIN, SUGAR, MALTITOL, WHEAT STARCH, COCOA PROCESSED WITH ALKALI, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL, BAKING POWDER (BAKING

SODA, SODIUM ALUMINUM PHOSPHATE, MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE) CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF PROPYLENE GLYCOL MONOESTERS, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, SALT, CELLULOSE, CORN STARCH, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, CELLULOSE GUM, XANTHAN GUM, POLYSORBATE 60, SUCRALOSE (NON-NUTRITIVE SWEETENER), COLORED WITH RED 40, TBHQ AND CITRIC ACID (ANTIOXIDANTS), SOY LECITHIN.

The Pillsbury cake mix has sugar, plus artificial sweetener. Does that make ANY sense to you? Me either. It also adds artificial red food coloring. Many, many food allergies in children are caused by artificial colors. I am not saying these cupcakes are healthy by any means, but I enjoy knowing that they are not full of man- made ingredients, some of which are chemicals. So…on to the good stuff!!

How I made Gooey, Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes:

~Made Chocolate Cupcakes according to the directions on the box of Trader Joes Chocolate Cake Mix

~Made Chocolate Frosting according to the directions on the box of Trader Joes Chocolate Frosting Mix

~Used a hammer to crush 2 Skor candy bars (while still in the wrapper)

~Warmed Caramel sauce and put into a squeeze bottle.

~Squeeze some caramel into the center of each cupcake. This makes them super moist and gooey!

I gotta stop here and take some time to rave about this particular caramel sauce. IT IS SO GOOD. I think it should be called “Salted Caramel Sauce” because there is just enough salty to the sweet to make your mouth water. It is divine.

~Frost cupcake

~Drizzle with more caramel

~Sprinkle with crushed Skor bar

~Enjoy!