Grown-Up Caramel Apple Dippers

October 31, 2020 / theblindpig11 / Leave a comment

You may have noticed that we didn’t write a post last week. We fully intended to bring you a post that had the most perfect Halloween treats. However, we had epic fails. We thought we had two great recipes to share with you, but in the test kitchen things didn’t quite work out as expected. By the time we realized our ideas were not coming together, we had completely lost interest in finding a different idea for a post. But just like a phoenix rises from the ashes, we did stumble upon an easy, delicious caramel treat to share with you.

Grown Up Caramel Apple Dippers are an easy snack to munch on while waiting for trick-or-treaters to make an appearance or for enjoying on your back deck on a sunny fall day. This basic recipe can be finished in less than 5 minutes and the ingredients are things you may already have on hand.

There are four ingredients needed for Grown Up Caramel Apple Dippers – caramels, heavy cream, rum and apples. Place the caramels, cream, and rum in a microwave safe bowl and cook in the microwave for 45 seconds. Remove from the microwave and stir ingredients together until you have a smooth, and creamy blend. Slice apples and serve. That’s it!!

If you are viewing this post via email, visit us at www.theblindpig.blog for a complete recipe for Grown Up Caramel Apple Dippers.

We ate our dippers with our hands, but you may want to serve the dippers with fondue forks, or tooth picks for easier dipping. Our hands had caramel all over them, when we were snapping photos for this post.

Side note, we enjoyed our dippers with a crisp Granny Smith apple, but if you are a fan of Bananas Foster, you might want to try dipping a fresh banana into the caramel, too. Just saying.

What are you waiting for? Grab some caramels and start making yourself some dippers today.

Enjoy Halloween. Stay safe and have fun.

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Turn to Fall with a Caramel Apple Cider

September 20, 2020 / theblindpig11 / 1 Comment

The days have finally cooled down in Dallas and we can see that summer is slowly turning to fall. We have cooler mornings and the sun is setting earlier in the evening. We love fall. Rhonda is pulling out the fall decor in house and planting mums in the flower beds. Fall conjures up images of cozy evenings around the patio fire, spicy smells and rich bold tastes. We like to cook, bake, and mix with darker liquors that have a bold flavor and warming sensation at this time of year. Since we still have daily temperatures close to 90 degrees during September in Texas, we need to transition slowly. This week we are sharing a sweet drink with you — Caramel Apple Cider.

Who doesn’t love the taste of caramel and apples in the fall? The sweetness of caramel with fall’s harvest of fresh apples creates a pleasing combination. This drink has a buttery warm sensation as it touches your lips and taste buds. It is the perfect drink to sip while sitting on your patio on a beautiful fall afternoon.

To make the Caramel Apple Cider you need only a few easy ingredients: Hard Apple Cider (We used Angry Orchard.), fresh lemon juice, and Monin Caramel Apple Butter syrup. You can purchase Monin syrups at many liquor stores. Our local Total Wine has Monin syrups available. You can also find flavored syrups in your grocery story next to the coffee. If you can’t find the Monin Caramel Apple Butter syrup, use a caramel syrup instead.

If you are viewing this post via email, visit us at www.theblindpig.blog for a complete recipe for Caramel Apple Cider.

We are looking forward to our line up of fall cocktails and baking that we have in store for you over the next three months! Make sure to check back with our site often.

We would be completely remiss if we didn’t mention that our favorite hockey team the Dallas Stars are in the finals for the Stanley Cup! This is not usually in our fall line up, but when your team is in the finals, it’s always a good time of year!!!

Craig is taking Blind Piglet #3 on a college visit to the University of Arkansas this afternoon. They are looking forward to the beautiful drive and campus. Rhonda is off to buy mums and pumpkins. What are your favorite fall activities?

Disclaimer: Beverages on this site are meant for adults 21 years of age and older. We do not condone underage drinking. Drink responsibly.

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Borghetti Brownie Caramel Bites

November 3, 2019 / theblindpig11 / 1 Comment

Hey friends! Did you remember to change your clock this weekend? We are always amazed to find how refreshed we feel after that extra hour of sleep. Too bad every weekend didn’t allow us an extra hour.

This week we are sharing our sweet Borghetti Brownie Caramel Bites with you. We have shared Cafe’ Borghetti with you in other recipes, such as Easy Espresso Cake, Espresso Ice Cream Treats, Espresso Fudge, Borghetti Mochaccino, and Borghetti Coke Float. You know that it is super easy to add to any dessert recipe and it compliments chocolate nicely. This week we added a little espresso flavor to our brownie bite recipe to bring out the rich taste of the chocolate and give the bite a flavor boost!

Like many of our recipes, this recipe is super easy. You need your favorite brownie mix or recipe. We used a Betty Crocker brownie mix. You also need a bag of about 35 Rolo candies, Cafe’ Borghetti Espresso Liqueur, chocolate almond bark and some sea salt.

Mix the brownies as directed with an additional ounce of Cafe’ Borghetti Espresso Liqueur. Bake as directed, but pull the brownies out of the oven when slightly gooey in the middle. Allow brownies to cool. Cut the brownies into 2 inch squares. Leave the crust around the edge of the pan. You don’t need that part.

Remember our trick for working with dough in your hands? We shared this trick with you in past posts, like Golden Mint Crinkles. Take a square brownie in your hand sprayed with cooking spray and gently flatten the brownie. Place an unwrapped Rolo in the middle of the brownie and form the brownie around the Rolo. Place on a cookie sheet and refrigerate for one hour.

Melt chocolate almond bark in the microwave using short 30 second spurts stirring in between until the almond bark is smooth and creamy. Dip brownie bites in chocolate until well coated. Drain excess chocolate and place on parchment paper. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt prior to chocolate cooling and hardening. Let brownie bites cool for about 30 minutes and then serve.

If you are viewing this post via email, visit us at www.theblindpig.blog for a printable version of the complete recipe for Borghetti Brownie Caramel Bites.

This treat brings you the best of several flavor combinations. You get the rich taste of chocolate and espresso with a yummy surprise of caramel in the middle. The sea salt does its part to enhance all of the flavors with a little salty-sweet combo. Yummo! Make this treat for a football tail gate, a special treat after Thanksgiving dinner or just because you are craving something salty and sweet.

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Easy Treats that will Trick Your Friends

October 26, 2019 / theblindpig11 / Leave a comment

We are headed South to Houston this weekend to watch Piglet #3 play some hockey. It occurred to us that Halloween is quickly approaching. Although much of Halloween centers around the candy that you will give to children at your front door, we decided to focus on some treats for the adults too. Whether you are planning tricks or sticking close to home to hand out the treats, we have several posts that were created over the years that would make great treats. These treats are so easy to make, you will trick your friends into thinking you spent all day in the kitchen!

Here are our top Blind Pig Halloween goodies.

Salted Whiskey Caramel Corn (3 Gold Stars– a Rhonda favorite!)

Bourbon Pumpkin Dump Cake

Butter Rum Caramel Fondue

Hard Cider Donut Holes

Kerrygold Caramel Shake

Spirited Chocolate Orange Bars

Twisted Mississippi Mud Brownies

If you are looking for some fun Halloween themed cocktails to make. Check out our post from last year — Six Great Drinks for Fall.

Make one treat or all of these for the adults and enjoy some treats of your own as the witches and goblins come a knockin’. Happy Halloween to all of our readers. May your treat bags be full and your tricksters few. 😉 And may the pucks for the blue team make it in the net!!!!

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Christmas Morning Bread

December 16, 2018December 29, 2018 / theblindpig11 / 1 Comment

One of the best things about Christmas is jumping out of bed early in the morning in anticipation of unwrapping presents under the tree. Since our family usually has a big meal planned for Christmas, we don’t tend to eat a huge breakfast. If you have guests staying with you, it’s nice to put your best foot forward at breakfast — especially on Christmas morning. We are sharing an easy, tasty and fresh recipe with you that will delight all of the members of your family on that joyous holiday morning. Your house guests will think that you went all out just for them. You can smile graciously. No need to tell them how easy this delectable breakfast was to make.

This recipe was a combination of a few recipes that we had found over the years. One recipe was from Taste of Home December 2017 issue and the other was from Southern Living December 2009, and then we added in a little twist of our own. This great recipe can be prepped a day ahead and baked fresh in the morning or warmed in the oven. To make Christmas Morning Bread you will need, sugar, cinnamon, frozen bread roll dough, Kerrygold butter, chopped pecans, brown sugar, Templeton Rye whiskey and semisweet baking chocolate bar.

First we started to thaw out our frozen rolls. They were not completely thawed by the time we started to work with the dough, but we think it helped to have the dough slightly thawed. You can make your bread from scratch like Grandma Ruth likes to do, but we opted for the frozen dough which was easier.

Next we combined the sugar and cinnamon. We melted our Kerrygold butter in the microwave. We sprinkled a few of our chopped pecans in the bottom of a sprayed bunt pan. Next we made our whiskey caramel sauce. We placed brown sugar, butter, and whiskey in a small saucepan; brought it to a boil; cooked and stirred for 3 minutes. Then removed from heat to cool.

After about 5 minutes, we poured about 1/3 of caramel in the bottom of the bundt pan with the pecans. This gave the top of our bread a nice sweet glaze.

We prepped our area by having the rolls handy, along with the butter, sugar cinnamon mixture and bundt pan. Next we took a roll. Dipped it in the butter, and then rolled the top 1/2 of the roll in the sugar-cinnamon mixture. We placed the roll in the bottom of the pan. We continued until we had a fairly even layer of rolls on the bottom of the pan. We drizzled caramel mixture and pecans over the first layer of rolls. Then we continued layering the rolls and adding pecans and caramel drizzle over each layer until we had 3-4 layers. Our package of rolls was 3 lbs. We thought, “What the heck. The more the merrier, right?” Wrong. It was too much dough and our rolls overflowed in the oven. Stop at about 2 pounds of dough. (wink)

Next we covered with plastic wrap and placed in a warm toasty spot in our kitchen to rise for about 45 minutes. If you want to bake these Christmas morning, you can cover and chill them in the fridge. We would suggest taking them out and letting them rise slightly before placing in the oven.

When you are ready to bake, place them in an oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees. Make sure to place a baking sheet covered in foil on the bottom oven rack. (Believe us, you do not want to skip this part. We saved ourselves from cleaning up a huge mess by doing this!) Bake bread for 50-55 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, and then invert on a serving plate.

To make the chocolate whiskey glaze you will need to melt the chocolate in a small microwave safe bowl. We melted ours in small bursts of 30 seconds, so we didn’t over cook. When chocolate is melted, stir in 1/4 cup of whiskey and stir until smooth. Drizzle the chocolate whiskey glaze over the top of the bread.

If you are viewing this post in your email, visit us at http://www.theblindpig.blog for a full printable recipe of Christmas Morning Bread.

When we made our bread in our test kitchen, it did not last long. Blind Piglets #2 and #3 and their friends finished it off pretty quickly. We had a few left overs for the next day, and we think it tasted better on day 2.

Are you going to treat your family Christmas morning? Do you need to impress your mother-in-law? Whether you are staying in or headed out, Christmas Morning Bread will be sure to become one of your family’s holiday favs. Let us know if you try it out. We love hearing what you think!

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Not Your Mama’s Apple Crisp

October 21, 2018October 21, 2018 / theblindpig11 / Leave a comment

Hey, good news. It finally stopped raining in Dallas! We have had more rain in the past two months than we sometimes receive in a whole year. It has rained almost everyday for 8 weeks, and this weekend we get to finally see the sun. Alleluia!

To commemorate sunshine, fun and the kind of fall weather that we wish we could have, we are continuing our Apple Festival with a great apple crisp recipe: Not Your Mama’s Apple Crisp (sorry Ruth). Apple crisp is so great, because it is easy to make. In fact, Rhonda has been making apple crisp since the good old days of 4-H cooking class. It is one of those recipes that makes us feel at home. Of course, this time we twist it up a bit with a little Blind Pig magic.

For this recipe, we use our favorite caramel sauce recipe that we introduced in our Zaya Bananas Foster. Empty the contents of a jar of caramel sauce into a 10 inch saute’ pan and place over medium heat. Add a pinch of cinnamon, butter, orange liqueur and rum. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer the sauce a few minutes. Remove from heat and cool.

Next mix old fashioned oats, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Cut in slices of softened butter until crumbly.

Press half of the mixture in a 13 x 9 inch baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. Spread a layer of thinly sliced apples.

Drizzle the apples with caramel sauce, and then sprinkle again with a layer of oat mixture. We continued with three layers. Drizzle 1/2 cup of Angry Orchard Apple Cider over the top.

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Drizzle with 1/2 cup of hard cider, and bake an additional 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven. Apple crisp tastes best served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream over the top. What doesn’t????? If you want to be extra indulgent, drizzle more caramel sauce over the ice cream.

If you are viewing this post in an email, be sure to visit our site at www.theblingpig.blog for a printable recipe.

This dish is hands down a winning recipe on a cool fall evening! This recipe is large and makes enough for about 12 people. It’s the perfect dessert to bring to a friend’s house when invited over for a cozy fall evening. Maybe you should try it tonight?

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Do You Fondue?

March 16, 2018 / theblindpig11 / 1 Comment

fondue 3 ways Do you fondue? We are surprised to learn many people have never tried this delicious and easy dessert with many variations. We show you three of our favorites today.

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Fondue is a Blind Pig Family favorite. We have many great memories of sitting outside near the fire in the evening and culminating the night by chowing down on some heavenly dessert fondue. We like all kinds of fondue, but it seems like the people in our family with the sweet tooth always win out and expect dessert fondue when they hear the name.

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Today we are bringing you 3 easy, fresh, and tasty ways to have fondue. These three delicious options take very little prep and if your house is like ours, there is very little clean up.

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Prior to making fondue, we always prep our dipping ingredients. Our family favorites are: sliced strawberries, chopped apples, marshmallows, cubed angel food cake, graham crackers, sliced bananas, and popcorn. Other great dippers are pretzels, raspberries, blackberries, sponge cake, and brownies. Basically anything that tastes good covered in chocolate or caramel — which is basically everything. Right?

Option 1: Kerrygold Chocolate Fondue. This creamy fondue is made with 1 12 ounce bag hershey’s milk chocolate chips, 1/4 cup of milk, 1 ounce of Kerrygold Irish Cream, and a tablespoon of peanut butter. Place all ingredients into a fondue pot or a small saucepan on the stove — low heat. Stir ingredients until smooth and creamy. When you are ready, pass out the skewers and let the dipping begin!

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Option 2: Espresso Chocolate Fondue. This is a great option for the coffee lovers in your life. Follow the directions listed above for Kerrygold Chocolate Fondue. Add 1 ounce of Caffe Borghetti Espresso Liqueur. Stir until smooth and then dip!

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Option 3: Nutty Butter Rum Fondue. This fondue takes a different turn and is not made with chocolate, but with caramel. The caramel flavor of Zaya Rum compliments this fondue nicely. Put 1 3/4 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of water in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil for 6-7 minutes. Stir in 1 tablespoon of Zaya Rum and cook for about a minute. Remove from heat and stir in the 6 tablespoons of unsalted butter until melted. Stir in 1/2 cup of half and half until the mixture is smooth. Finally stir in 1/2 cup of chopped peanuts. This fondue is great with popcorn and apples. It makes an excellent Fall treat.

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Fondue can be prepared ahead of time and reheated once you are ready to serve. It is fun to make the Kerrygold Chocolate Fondue as a base. Separate the fondue into small little ramekins or shot glasses for guests to use as their own dipper. Just make sure that you serve the fondue warm.

Kerrygold Irish Cream gives this chocolate fondue a creamy texture and taste.

Many of our followers ask us, “What do you do with the food and drinks you make for The Blind Pig?” The answer is that we eat it! If we make something that doesn’t pass our taste testers, we don’t share it with you. Here is a look at the rest of the story, after the posed pictures are complete.

Official Blind Pig Taste Testers.

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The pans were licked clean and there were only 2 lonely slices of strawberries left on the plate. They came and they conquered!

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Now that you know 3 easy ways to fondue, will you fondue? Which one will you try first?

What a week! It was spring break for 3/5 of The Blind Pig household, so there was a flurry of activity. Did you see the sneak peek we put on Instagram? Grandma Ruth was here and we made cinnamon rolls with a Blind Pig twist! No one makes cinnamon rolls like Grandma Ruth.

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