Apple Palooza

Yesterday we went apple picking in Warwick, NY at Maskers Apple Farm with friends from church. 

The free-all-you-can-eat-apples-while-you-pick policy meant that I went home not wanting to ever really see an apple again. But at least 25 lbs of them are sitting in our fridge, so I have been unearthing my favorite apple recipes. To share the apple/fall love, they are discussed below. Oh, and if you are serious about apples, save yourself the agony of mass-peeling and buy yourself an Apple-Peeler-Corer-Slicer. It will be the best $40 you ever spend, believe me.

Well, maybe not the best you EVER spend. But it will be pretty high up there.

Grandma Mooney's Apple Pie

I am starting with the best, first. This recipe was handed down by my grandmother, and has created probably hundreds of delicious pies over the decades. The beauty is the simplicity. Don’t be tempted to add cornstarch, or lemon zest, or anything else that those fancy-Dan TV people tell you to add. Stick to the simple recipe below, and let the apples speak for themselves.

Ingredients:

·         4-6 cups cored, peeled, thinly chopped apples (the more tart, the better. If you’re going store-bought on the apples, I like Granny Smith)

·         1 Cup white sugar

·         3 Tablespoons flour

·         1/8 teaspoon cinnamon  (I usually bump up to ¼ teasp)

·         Dash salt

·         2 Tablespoons cold butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix apples and sugar/flour/cinnamon/salt. Prepare bottom crust of pie crust (8 or 9 inch pan), place in apple mixture, and dot the top with small pieces of butter. Put on top crust, cut slits for steam, and cover the crust (only the crust, not the whole pie!) with strips of aluminum foil. Bake for 25 mins, remove foil, then bake for an additional 15 mins. Pie is done when crust is golden brown and pie juice is bubbling through the slits.

Now – for those who want a quick (yet still delicious pie), go to the refrigerated section of your grocery store and buy a pre-made Pillsbury pie crust. There is no shame in this, and I will not judge you.  My grandmother converted to Pillsbury crusts at some point, and what’s good enough for Grandma’s standards should be good enough for you! But, if you are feeling truly masochistic (which I occasionally am), my homemade crust recipe can be found at the Strawberry Rhubarb Pie post.

On to the next apple adventure - apple butter! For those who don't know what this is (cough, friends born north of the Mason-Dixon line, cough) its a spicy spread that's sort of a thick applesauce. But better. And excellent on turkey sandwiches, biscuits, toast, pretty much anything. Yum. (And no, there is no actual butter in it).

Apple Butter

• ~10 lbs of apples (15 to 20-ish small/ medium apples, different varieties are ok. If you use a really sweet apple, use less sugar)
• 2-3 cinnamon sticks (or 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon)
• 1 t freshly grated nutmeg (I am supremely lazy when it comes to spices, so “fresh grated” for me means “use spice drawer from our wedding 4 years ago that I’m still working through." But this is probably not an ideal habit, so go for it on the fresh grating if you like!)
• 1 t ground cloves
• ¾ cup orange juice
• ½ cup water water
• sugar to taste (optional, and depending on the type of apples you used, but perhaps 1-2 cups. Or for a slightly healthier version, use 1 cup honey. Or no sugar at all. It's always easier to add more sugar later rather than ending up with butter that seems more like an apple lollipop)

Directions:

Peel, core, and finely chop apples. Put into crock pot with orange juice and water. Mix all dry ingredients separately, then add to apple mix. (If all your apples don’t fit into the crock pot at first, no worries – it will cook down significantly over the first hour and you can add more as there is room in the crock pot). 

This is a set-it-and-forget-it (well, don’t totally forget it) recipe… it needs AT LEAST 12 hours, and depending on the heat of your crock pot, maybe more like 18 hours. More time won’t make the butter burn, it will just make it thicker, so you can let it go until you get to the consistency you like. Once you are towards the end of 12 hours, if you want a smoother consistency, use an immersion blender to blend the mix in the crock pot. Or leave as is for a thicker/chunkier spread.

To make sure that the butter is at least minimally done, take a spoonful and put it on a saucer to cool. If water begins to separate away from the butter, keep cooking the mixture.

Add more spices to taste if you like, and enjoy! I recommend canning… properly canned apple butter can last for a year or more. Recommended eating suggestions: on a hot, fresh buttermilk biscuit… or on a cracker with brie cheese. Yum!

Apple Nut Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

Cake:

2 cups flour

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup butter, softened

 1/4 cup milk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups apples, peeled/cored/chopped

 Topping:

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

2 Tablespoons butter, melted

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions: Combine all cake ingredients except apples in large bowl. Beat on medium speed with mixer, scraping bowl often, until smooth. Gently stir in apples. Spread batter into greased 9x13-inch baking pan. Combine all topping ingredients in a small bowl; mix and sprinkle over batter. Bake for 30-35 mins or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out cleanly.

Apple Bread

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 2 cups peeled, diced apples
• ½ cup chopped walnuts
• 1 teaspoon flour

Directions:

1. Mix flour, cinnamon, soda, salt and baking powder together.
2. Beat eggs and add sugar and oil.
3. Add vanilla and dry ingredients.
4. Stir in apples.
5. Mix walnuts in a tsp of flour and add to batter.
6. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour

 That's it! My loaf pans are fairly large (and my oven is a bit unpredictable in heating), so I ended up baking for ~70 minutes. Just bake until a toothpick comes out fairly clean (at least not gooey).

There you have it - an apple feast!

The Mystic Denisons

First, an apology for the drought in blog posts – between final exams and a recent switch in work roles, August seemed to pass by in a stressful blur. But I am on to a new semester (after a week-long reprieve from school), and happily settling into my new department, so the time has come to resume blogging (and social activities), sleep more, and drink less caffeine. At least until midterms.

We spent Labor Day weekend exploring the city with my parents and trekking out to Mystic, Connecticut. The town had been billed as a sort of seaport-version of Williamsburg, VA, and since my husband and I are William & Mary alumni, I was interested to explore Williamsburg’s NE ‘sister.’

Well, Mystic was and it wasn’t. It was a historic area, with cute local shops (complete with great ice cream at Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream) and a beautiful river area. It was not, however, a true historical seaport town. Mystic was a shipbuilding and whaling town, but the ‘historic’ seaport structures there today were actually moved to the site rather than being actual historical representations. Oh, well. Perhaps it’s our Virginia-bias, but Mystic just didn’t seem quite as cool.

We also visited the Submarine Force Museum, home of the Nautilus, the first US nuclear-powered submarine. The (free!) museum included a tour of the Nautilus, as well as myriad submarine history and artifacts. Another cool moment was visiting the Denison Homestead. Part of my husband's ancestral family tree, the Densinons were some of the original settlers of Mystic. As the Dension website explains:

"In 1654, Capt. George Denison, one of the first settlers of Mystic, CT was granted 200 acres  by Governor John Winthrop Jr. for service to the early militia. Most of his original acreage has been preserved, thanks to the stewardship of  The Denison Society/Denison Homestead, and has been enjoyed by the community and Denison descendents since 1946. For almost 90 years, its open space and many trails have been open to the public."

Pretty cool being related to a family who sailed to America in the 1630s!

We partook of a nice dinner at Mystic’s Latitude 41 restaurant that evening - save for a bottle of Connecticut wine, which turned out to be fairly awful  – hit the local outlets on the way out of town, and returned to NYC.

Other weekend enjoyments included seeing good friends for dinner at the Peking Duck House, marathoning through my recently acquired Once Upon a Time (TV show) addiction, and catching up with family.

A final highlight: sweet circles of fried dough. Yes, dear readers, that chewy/savory moment of breakfast deliciousness: the doughnut.

We originally set out for the Donut Plant on Monday morning, one of our favorite NYC purveyors of gourmet doughnuts. With flavors like peanut butter banana, lavendar, and cashew with orange blossom, the Donut Plant holds a savory place in our hearts.

Alas, this Labor Day deliciousness was not to be: the store was closed for the holiday. However, being married to a bit of a Doughnut Savant, I knew my husband would have a back-up plan, and we seamlessly moved on to his back-up plan: the Donut Pub. 

While Donut Plant is delicious, it is also pricey, and a bit touristy. Donut Pub, however, is as if a local 1960 mom & pop diner managed to cryogenically freeze itself in time.  Inexpensive, tasty (if not quite as Donut Plant-fancy), and brimming with locals, Donut Pub was a great start to our morning, which we polished off with a walk along the High Line, detouring through Chelsea Market food shops and Eataly on the way home.

An excellent weekend of family bonding, ice cream/doughnut savoring, and resting up before the start of a new semester!