Fast, light and healthy dessert is as close as a bag of apples

Mr. Maven finished his lunch this afternoon, with “I’m still hungry.”

“Here, have the rest of my soup. I’m full anyhow.”

“Nah. I want something sorta sweet. What have you got at home?”

I had to think about that. Since I’d come home with a bag of assorted apples yesterday, the obvious thing might be an apple crisp or galette. Hmmmm. Too much butter … flour … calories … work. After I’d iced my knee from skiing today, I had a better idea - homemade applesauce. Really. My homemade applesauce, with a dollop of light cream and a sprinkle of chopped walnuts.

Add a ginger cookie and you’ve really got something elegant enough for a fancy supper with very little fuss. You could serve it warm with a small dollop of vanilla ice cream and nuts. Go crazy.

Here’s what you need to remember - use more than one variety of apple. It took me forever to get this simple rule through my head, but boy, does it work. With this in mind, I’d bought some Braeburn (they were on special for 99 cents a pound), pink lady and honeycrisp.

The Braeburns seem to have become more common in Whole Foods, anyway, and I love them cooked. They are sweet-tart with a hint of spicyness, and hold together well cooked. Honeycrisp apples are a new favorite - but relatively expensive. They are CRISP, hence the the name. They are also low acid, and have a nice all round flavor. The Pink Lady seems very popular everywhere these days, and are another nicely sweet, eating apple that also cooks well. You could also add in Golden Delicious, Rome, Granny Smith, Gravenstein, Winesap, Ida Red or several others. I chose the ones I did, simply because if I didn’t cook them, they are also great for just snacking on.

Any combination will work.

 

Ingredients -

6 apples of different varieties

2 cups of unfiltered apple cider

1/2 cup brandy or cognac

1/3 cup maple syrup

A good pinch of sea salt

A good pinch - or two - of ground pepper

Core the apples. If you prefer them peeled then do so, but I like the added peel. Cut in half, and then each half into about six to eight chunks. Add to a heavy bottomed pot, with the cider, maple syrup, brandy or cognac, salt and pepper. That pepper thing might sound odd, but pepper has a remarkable way of enhancing fragrance and depth - being the ‘foil’ to the sweet notes.

Set the pot, with a tightly fitting lid, over a medium flame and now go out and fill the bird feeders and sweep the back steps. Take a look at it and stir every five minutes or so, letting it cook for about 20 minutes. The apples should be pretty tender by now, and if so, take a potato masher and start to gently mash them.

Mash them to the consistency that you like. I prefer some chunks - just like I prefer mashed potatoes.

You can quit right here, or let them simmer for about another 20 minutes, partially uncovered until the juices cook down a bit more. Keep an eye on them.

Serve warm or chilled.

My only question on great desserts like this - why don’t restaurants offer it? It’s cheap, simple and with a little ice cream and a fancy cookie, a no-brainer.

-maven  

Whole grain apple cake. Simply so good.

This is such an easy cake to make, with all the pluses of whole grains, loads of apple flavor and it even looks pretty. Almost any baking recipe can be converted to whole grain, the only caveat being that you might … might ought to retain at least 50% of the flour as refined flour to keep the wonderful texture and crumb. Doing baked goods with 100% refined flour seems completely silly to me anymore. Why would you do that? If you are ‘converting’ a recipe - always go 50% refined, 50% whole grain at first. Then continue to tinker with it. Some whole grains require a 70% refined/30% whole grain ratio. This is an artistic judgement call.

Give this recipe a try for your holiday gatherings.

Ingredients

3/4 cup flour - this should include 1/4 cup white all-purpose or ‘00’ Italian pastry flour, 1/4 cup whole wheat flour and 1/4 cup barley, millet or oat flour. I like those last three flours for their slightly nutty sweet flavor, and the barley has a high protein content. You can find small bags of these flours - often produced by Bob’s Red Mill - in the grocery store.

3/4 teaspoon of baking powder

Pinch of salt

4 apples - preferably different varieties. Chopped into 1 to 2 inch chunks. No, I don’t peel them. I like the peeling in there. It adds color, fiber and flavor. I’m NOT French.

2 large eggs

scant 3/4 cup sugar - I use Bakers Sugar which is very fine and dissolves/incorporates very quickly and easily. It doesn’t leave little ‘crunchies’.

3 tablespoons either dark rum, dark maple syrup or 2 tablespoons boiled cider

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract - use the best you can afford. I recommend Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla.

8 tablespoons (one stick) of melted unsalted butter that has cooled.

Center the rack in your oven, and preheat to 350 degrees. Butter an 8 inch springform pan. I think you could use any round cake pan for this, if you don’t have the springform. I would put a circle of parchment paper in the bottom if not using the springform.

Prepare your apples by coring and chopping them. Measure out all of your ingredients.

In the bowl of your stand mixer - or any medium bowl - beat the eggs until they are bright yellow and foamy. Pour in the sugar, and continue to whisk to blend. Whisk in the vanilla and rum (or the other flavoring).

Now begin to add your dry ingredients. Always make sure your baking powder is reasonably fresh for best results. If it’s been in the pantry for a year or more, replace it. You don’t want a ‘failure’ over something so trivial.

Add half the flours and half the melted butter, followed by the rest of the flour and remaining butter. Beat/whisk to incorporate thoroughly. You will have a medium dense, smooth batter. Add the apples and fold them through the batter to coat them, using a rubber spatula.

Now scrape it all into the baking pan or springform pan. Even it all out across the pan. Keep your fingers out of it. Yes, it tastes wonderful, but ….

Pop it into the oven. I put mine atop a baking sheet to even out the heat transfer and catch anything that might dribble through.

This puppy will begin to puff up and become something ooooh soooo wonderful. Bake it for about 50 to 60 minutes - mine baked 60 minutes, even in my convection oven which is ‘faster’. When you think it’s done, take a sharp knife and slide it into the middle. If it comes back out ‘clean’, your cake is ready to remove.

Let your lovely cake rest for about 10 minutes on a cooling rack and gather it’s thoughts.

Now, the only tricky part: run a blunt knife around the edge to loosen it. Remove the sides of the springform, if using one. Allow it to cool a bit longer - say 5 to 10 minutes. Then you want to ‘invert’ it onto a platter, big plate or pizza pan. Carefully remove the bottom of the springform pan with a knife or thin cake spatula.

Lay your final platter or plate across the bottom of the cake and invert it again. Voila!

Now, you can be a total pig like me and dive in with a fork … accompanied by a glass of cold milk … or, you can simply let it cool and serve slices with some softly whipped creme and dust it over with some sliced almonds or other nuts.

This doesn’t cut and hold together like ‘cake’. It can fall apart, But who cares? It tastes soooooo good.

YUM FACTOR: Way the fuck up there.

Now, you see why I will never be hired to blog recipes for anybody reputable.

-maven

Awesome and delicious savory apple dishes for autumn

I absolutely love these ideas and can’t wait to try them! Pairing fruit with meat is a no-brainer for yours truly here, although Natacha always told me that it’s not done in Africa. Shame, that. Asian cuisines to Mediterranean to Persian have celebrated the wonderful ‘whole is greater than the sum of the parts’ - utilizing fruits of the season with meats.

Observe.

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Braised greens with potatoes, apples and persimmons. Yeah. That's right.

Yikes. I’m almost beginning to believe that you can do anything with ‘greens’. I love them, and so am puzzled why people don’t use them more frequently and explore more possibilities. I think they’re intimidated by them, which is sad, since they’re powerhouse vegetables that will meld with almost any type of cuisine.

Lately, I’ve really been using a lot of the Lacinto Kale, rather than the old standby Curly Kale of my Swedish relatives. I’ve found that the Lacinto is not quite as bitter, and doesn’t need as much cooking to become tender and delicious. I would still use the Curly Kale in a soup, which is going to simmer a long while. It has the oomph to stand up to that. If you’re saying “I’ve never liked Kale”, then back up and give the Lacinto a try and I promise that you will be surprised.

But, you’re still wondering what the heck I’m doing tossing persimmons in there, aren’t you?

Have you noticed they’re in season? Have you noticed the screamin’ deals on packages of the crunchy types (called ‘fuyu’) in Costco? Have you noticed that they’re delicious, and nutritious?

Fuyu Persimmons - the crunchy, squatty, eat it now type - are easily used where you would use apples or pears. And since Mr. Maven had made a fruit run to Costco and is easily tempted, I had lots of persimmons to go with the apples I’d bought. We’re fruit-a-holics here at Rancho Maven.

This fast and easy braised dish was a hit here, and there were no leftovers. The pan got licked. Not really, but damn near.

This could just be the trick you’ve been looking for to get kids and husbands to love greens, when combined with fruit. Just dish this up next to some grilled brats and mustard, accompanied with beer and some crusty bread.

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Spinach and apple sautee

I love spinach paired with almost any fruit … this is one of those things I learned years back from my Persian friend.

This dish is great with any tart apple - so get what’s in season and the best buy. I could also see myself using Quince - but unfortuately, they’re not always, or often available.

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Pear Bran Muffin recipe is quick, easy and healthy

Updated on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at 23:22 by mavenandmeddler

These muffins were remarkably good - so much in fact that they disappeared in record time. I think using Bran from the store bulk bins is a really better way of getting a light textured crumb rather than using boxed cereals like some bran muffin recipes. The addition of Reds’ Old Mill Graham Flour was another inspired choice.

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