1-15-2022, Trending Recipes and Favorite Amish Photos: Almond Joy Bars, Amish Apple Coffeecake, and Much More!

We are smack in the middle of January and that means cold weather which means comfort food! Stews, casseroles, and cakes are topping the list of trending recipes this week. These are classic comfort foods that bring a sense of warm and sustenance on cold winter days when the snow is swirling outside. So, let's jump right into this week's trendings!

🍳 Trending Amish Breakfast

Lizzie Miller's Amish Apple Coffecake: More about this recipe - Apples are of great value on an Amish farm, being turned into cakes, salads, butters, jams, cider breads, and some are even used as treats for the horses. One of the most popular ways to use an overabundance of apples is in an apple coffeecake. Nothing better than a warm slice of apple coffeecake on a Sunday morning. This Amish apple coffeecake is amazing, so you'll definitely want to try. Click here for the recipe.

Classic Beef and Biscuit Casserole: Here is a bit more about this recipe - This is a classic, hearty dish that you'll find gracing Amish kitchens this time of year. Now the secret to this is not bake the biscuits beforehand, just put them directly on top of the casserole and pop it in the oven and you'll have the ultimate comfort food classic. Click here for the recipe.

Pizza Casserole: More perfect comfort food, a bit more about this - This Amish pizza casserole one of these classic "throw together" casseroles that are so synonymous with Amish cooking. Most Amish moms have a six, eight, ten or more mouths to feed so suppers that are hearty, inexpensive, and easy are prized. The average Amish homemaker is busy with sewing, cleaning, helping children with homework, keeping the stove running in winter, laundry, tending to any sick, writing letters, etc...as the children get older they can and do help with housework but, still, given the myriad of tasks an Amish Mom needs to balance recipes that are hearty and easy carry the day and this recipe is one of those. Click here for the recipe.

Best Beef Stew: Perfect for January! Here is more about this recipe: Among the Old Order Amish, stews are almost as common as casseroles. An Amish homemaker who is busy with canning, cleaning, mending, helping with homework, paying bills, gardening, greeting visitors, and on and on, doesn’t have a lot of free time to head into the kitchen and create a bunch of inventive recipes. Most Amish cooks want tried and true old-favorites on hand, recipes that are reliable "go-to" recipes. These recipes have often been road-tested many times, handed down from grandmother to mother to daughter and so on. Click here for Best Beef Stew.

🧅 Amish Classic Sides

Crunchy Onion Rings: Man, get some barbecue sauce and enjoy the heck out of these. Or maybe some ranch. Click here for the recipe.

Amish Corn Bake: A delicious, melt-in-your-mouth classic corn dish! Click here.

🍮 Amish Desserts

I love the homemade, hand-made label on these candies.

Homemade Almond Joy Bars: Homemade Almond Joy candy recipes are found in many Amish cookbooks and they all follow the same basic formulation. All you need is some coconut, corn syrup, and a few other ingredients (like almonds!) and you are there. A lot of my notes say that these homemade candies keep up to a week, but that batch I bought are now about 3 weeks old and they still taste amazing (I'm trying to show restraint). Click here for the recipe.

Amish Chocolate Dream Pie:

This is a really good pie. Aster and I whipped it up the other day and she gave it rave reviews and so did I. It's a light pie. It almost remembers me of a chocolate sugar cream pie. It has a light, fluffy flavor and texture. You probably could get away with adding more chocolate to it than we did. The recipe calls for a 1 /2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips, but I think you could do 3 /4 and the pie would probably be perfect. I also just threw in a few white chocolate chips and that added a nice touch.

This is a classic Amish pie: light, creamy, and easy to make from ingredients you probably already have in your pantry. Click here for the recipe

Old-Fashioned Milk Pie: Classic recipe, so easy and good!