Apples
Good Humus grows very few apples, but farms around us
do a great job. You will see them in the fruit and the veggie boxes
Apple Pie
I don’t measure too much, choose your pie tin and fill with peeled sliced
apples,
5 cups or so.
½-3/4 cups sugar
¼ four
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
4 tablespoons butter dotted on top of apples
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
Rustic Tart of
Quince, Apples and Pears
I especially like this tart when made with puff pastry, which our local
bakery makes far better than I do. If you can arrange to buy a 16 ounce
piece of fine puff pastry from a bakery, obtain frozen make by Dufour, or
are willing to make your own, then use puff pastry. Otherwise use a Galette
Pastry.
1 pound puff pastry
2 apples such as Golden Delicious or McIntosh
2 ripe but firm Bartlett pears
2 quinces about 16 slices poached in syrup
½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
Whipped cream or crème fraiche
Roll chilled puff pastry into a square ¼ inch thick. Place it on a sheet pan
and refrigerate until ready to bake. Peel and core the apples and slice them
into wedges ¼ inch thick. Peel and core the pears and slice them a bit
thicker. Toss the fruits with the cinnamon and the sugar. Preheat the oven
to 400 degrees. Remove the pastry from the refrigerator, loosely arrange the
fruit in the middle, drizzle the butter over it, then pull the opposite
corners toward each other, they won’t meet. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce
the heat to 375 and continue baking unit the pastry is puffed and golden and
the fruit is tender. 40-50 minutes. Serve with softly whipped cream or crème
fraiche.
Mixed Apple Salad over
Greens
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon olive oil
Dash of salt
Dash of freshly ground black pepper
2 cups chopped Granny Smith apples
2 cups chopped Cameo or Braeburn apple
¼ cup crumbled Blue Cheese
2 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
4 cups torn lettuce leaves-or Arugula
To prepare dressing, combine first 5 ingredients in a small bowl, stirring
well with a whisk.
To prepare salad, combine apples cheese, and bacon. Drizzle dressing over
apple mixture, toss gently to coat and serve over greens.
Soufflé Pancake
with Caramelized Apples
This dinner is the form of dessert was often on our table during the chilly
winter my husband and I spent on the west coast of Ireland.
The Pancake
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons organic sugar
3 eggs
¾ milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup flour
The Apples
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tart apples peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons whisky or bourbon
Aged Cheddar or aged Gouda cheese thinly sliced
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Melt the butter ina 10 inch cast iron
skillet, brushing it once around the sides. Put the remaining pancake
ingredients in a blender, add the melted butter, and blend until smooth,
scraping down the sides once. Or mix everything together by hand. Let the
batter rest while the oven heats. Melt the butter for the apples in the same
skillet, sprinkle on the sugar, and then add the apples. Cook over high
heat, flipping them in the pan occasionally until they begin to caramelize,
after several minutes. Lower the heat once the apple slices begin to color,
turning them with increasing frequency until they are richly caramelized.
Raise the heat, add the whiskey, and bring careful to stand back a bit, tilt
the pan so that it will flame and burn off. Pour the batter over the apples
and bake until golden and puffed 20-30 minutes. Serve immediately from the
pan with the cheese laid over the top.
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Plump Golden Apples
In about 15 minutes you can have a pan of plump, golden wedges of fruit that
resemble fried potatoes, only they melt in your mouth-and they are apples!
4 large apples
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup applejack, Calvados, whiskey or sherry
One 1 inch piece cinnamon stick or a 2 inch piece vanilla bean halved
lengthwise
Peel and remove the core of the apples and then cut the apples into quarters
or sixths. Choose a 10 inch pan with a tight fitting lid that will hold the
apples in a single layer. Melt the butter over medium heat, then add the
apples and sprinkle on the sugar, using the larger amount if they are tart
apples. Raise the heat, shuffle the pan back and forth to mix the apples
evenly with the butter and sugar, and then add the applejack and cinnamon.
Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan, and cook 15 minutes. Check to see if
the apples are tender by piercing them with a knife. If not, cook for a few
minutes longer, or until tender. Remove the lid, raise the heat a little,
and continue cooking, reducing the liquid as you do so, until the apples are
golden, after several minutes. Serve warm.