The Not So Ugly Apple Honey Cake

It's time for reflection, apples, and honey.

It is Rosh Hashanah 5784, the first full day of the Jewish New Year - the year 5784 on our religious calendar.  This time is both festive and serious, as we undergo our annual review from Above and reflect on our behavior of the past year/seek forgiveness from those we have wronged/plan for how we can improve and better the world in the coming year.

As far as food, we celebrate with sweet and symbolic dishes.  Apples and honey are prominent in many households.  Last night, my spouse cooked a brisket with apple juice, potatoes and carrots.  For dessert, we had apple honey cake.

It's been a long journey.

When I was young, my Mom served a honey cake for Rosh Hashana that I did not like.  When I was an older teen and became interested in baking, I embarked on an odyssey to find a recipe for a honey cake I liked.

One of the challenges was that so many of the recipes made two loaves of honey cake.  By then, my Mom had passed away and it was just my father and me.  My Dad was diabetic and couldn't eat cake (that was back in the 1960's, when diabetic diets were different) so it was just me.  I put my quest on the back burner for years.

In my later adult years, I returned to the quest.  Although it's a large cake for one or two, I finally found the honey cake of my dreams.

Each year I make an apple honey cake, from a recipe I adapted from the excellent recipe published years ago by Tory Avery.  My cake most likely isn't as good as hers, because I cut down on the oil (thanks to Weight Watchers, which I've been a member of since 2012 with one short break).  Also, I don't put icing on it - I've never been a fan of icing.

It's a joint effort - my spouse shreds the apples and also takes care of removing the cake from the oven.

Getting the apples we wanted was a journey.  We live in an apple growing area and like to use a locally grown baking apple (at this time of year, our plan was Cortland apples).  But the apple crop failed this year due to a late frost- one local grower lost 80% of his crop.  We ended up using supermarket Ginger Gold apples.

The cake's top fell apart when spouse tried to remove it from the pan.  

This definitely isn't a baking blog picture.  To you, it may be an ugly apple honey cake.  I disagree.

To me, it is beautiful personal tradition. 

None of us is perfect.  We can strive for a better coming year.  

May life for you in the coming year be as sweet as this slice of cake.

To my blog readers of the Jewish faith, Shanah tova (good year).

Apple Pear Crisp Recipe

Every year, I seem to blog about apple crisp.  It's a favorite dessert for me to make.  My crisp recipes are lower in calories than many, as I've been a lifetime member of Weight Watchers for several years now.

We are fortunate as we live in an apple growing region.  Here in the Binghamton, New York area, we can purchase heirlooms such as Northern Spy, a wonderful baking apple. 

This year, the pears in the farm stands were so good we decided to mix pears in.

There are many more apple varieties in the farm stands than you can find in your average supermarket.  Many of the older varieties don't ship well, or don't keep well, or don't bear reliably year after year.  But if you can find them, they are worth the effort.

When you do buy an apple, you must ask yourself:  How do you intend to use your apple?

Fresh eating?  My favorites are Honey Crisp, SweeTango, Snapdragon, Autumn Crisp.  Yes, the newer varieties.  If heirlooms were easily available for me, I'd also recommend russets (brown skins).
For baking, my favorite is Northern Spy but you can also try Rome, Jonathan, Jonagold, and Cortland.  There are also dual use apples out there for both baking and fresh eating.

Now, onward to the recipe.

Apple/Pear Crisp (9 inch square pan, serves 9) for People Wanting a Lower Calorie Version

4 large baking apples

1/2 tbsp stevia/sugar blend (or brown sugar, to taste)

2 tsp lemon juice

2 Bartlett pears - you can also use one Asian pear.

Peel and slice cored apples and pears. Mix all ingredients above together.  Place in a 9 inch square baking dish that has been oiled or buttered.

Top with topping.  Keep in mind this is an adaptation of a low-cal topping.  It may not suit you.

Topping (if you aren't watching your weight, this may not be a favorite for you)

1 cup quick oats
1/4 cup unpacked brown sugar
2 tbsp light butter blend such as Olivio Light
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix topping ingredients together and top the apple/pear blend.

Bake at 350-375 degrees for about 50 minutes or until the apple slices are the consistency you want.  

Of course, I didn't think of taking a picture until the next day.

 Let cool, unless you can't wait to eat it. 

I recommend you serve warm or at room temperature.

Enjoy!

The National Loaf

Are you fascinated with the recipes of cultures of hundreds of years ago? Or, perhaps of people struggling in the midst of a historical event within our parents'/grandparents' lifetimes?

I was watching a mini commercial for a program called The Great British Baking Show on our local PBS station.  The presenter, Sue Perkins (who is no longer with the show), talked about British World War II wartime food rationing and something called the National Loaf.  

The National Loaf was part of an effort to make Great Britain more food independent, as imports from Canada and the United States were difficult, if not impossible, to obtain.  Although the British were used to white bread, it was decided bakers could make flour go further by using the entire wheat grain.

This became The National Loaf.  Eating it was mandatory.  One could be fined for throwing it out.  People had no other choice, anyway, it was the only bread available.

Additionally,it couldn't be sold until it was a day old, so that if could be sliced thinner.

The National Loaf was nationally detested.

So, of course, I had to go online to find out how it was made.  I was able to find a recipe, along with a number of discussions attempting to make it as authentic as possible.

I'll  leave it to someone else to try to make it.

But wait!  Some people are trying to bring it back for health reasons  I've read that the British population, as a result of the war time rationing, were actually healthier than before the war. 

Here is a modern discussion of the National Loaf and a different recipe. This might be more acceptable to the non wartime palate.

It could be the ultimate expression of pandemic baking.

Or not.

Does this appeal to you?

Winter Squash and Apples Arriving (With Links to Recipes)

We creep closer to fall.  The days get shorter.  

Local apples and winter squash arrive at farmstands.  Today, I want to blog about both.

We have just the right climate for winter squash here, and have a bounty of squash types.  One university about an hour from here, Cornell University, has developed a number of new varieties.  One, Honeynut, a small extra sweet butternut, I've blogged about before.  It's amazing and it's about the only winter squash we eat anymore.  My link earlier in the paragraph contains a recipe.

This year, we found another new squash, called Koginut.  Well, Robin's Koginut. The description says only it's a cross between two other winter squashes and I have to think one is Honey nut.  The other - ?

Honey nut (left) and Koginut (right)

We cooked a koginut and it isn't as sweet as honey nut, but was still good.

Now for apples...

Monday, the Jewish New Year begins at sunset, just in time for local apples and fall honey.  That means it is time to make my version of an amazing apple honey cake.  The original recipe can be found here.

My modified version can be found here.   I will be making it once again.

There are several reasons why I modified the cake the way I did.  First, believe it or not, I do not like confectioner's sugar/liquid type icing.  Even as a child, I would pass up cinnamon rolls and yeast cakes because I never liked the icing drizzled on them.  I can't explain why.  I still don't like it.  So my version does not have icing.  If you want icing, click the link above.

Second, I've started to use coconut oil more and more as a substitute for oil in my baking   I've never made this cake with anything but coconut oil, and I love it.

Third, instead of the original Granny Smith apples, I prefer tart, local apples.  I'm fortunate to live in New York apple country and there is an abundance of cooking apples grown here.  For Thanksgiving, I make this with  local Northern Spy apples.  Tomorrow I will make it with local apples I bought a couple of weeks ago and I can't quite remember the variety name.

It is so good.  

And best of all, you don't have to be Jewish to enjoy it.

Just a lover of apples and honey. 

Do you have a favorite food of fall? 

Day Late Hamantaschen

In my late teens, I did a lot of baking, all self taught. I would bake for myself and would give gifts to my then boyfriend, now (for many years) my spouse.   As the mother of a young son, I would do some baking with him, too.

I never got to be really good, but I enjoyed scratch baking. 

As I got older, that changed.  It's been years since I've done anything but cake mixes, and I didn't even get into the pandemic baking of 2020.  But recently, the urge to do some scratch baking (with my spouse's help, because he loves cooking so much that he can't stand to see me bake without helping) has hit.

The Jewish holiday of Purim started Thursday at sundown and ended yesterday at sundown.  This holiday is a celebration of a long ago event told in the Old Testament Book of Esther, and how Esther, a Jewish woman married to a Persian king foiled a plot by the evil prime minister Haman to kill all Jews.  A popular cookie for this holiday, hamantaschen, is shaped like a tri cornered hat and has a thick filling.  Traditional filling were poppyseed (what I grew up with) or apricot, but many non traditional fillings are used. 

At the last minute I decided - why not make hamantaschen?  I hadn't made them in oh, over 40 years, after all.  Why not?

The traditional dough can be difficult to work with so I decided on something simple.

I used an "easy Hamantaschen Dough" from Melinda Strauss.  We had European strawberry jam in the fridge so decided to use that as the filling.  I made the dough and spouse did the rolling and cutting.  I did the filling and baking.  It's nice to work together with him in the kitchen.

They look dark because we only have white whole wheat flour in the house.  I was hoping the cookies wouldn't be too tough.  This is an oil based dough, incidentally.  I used canola oil.  Here is the filling - about a teaspoon per cookie.

Melinda's recipe was for 24 cookies.  I cut it in half.  It's just the two of us.  In these times, I didn't have anyone around for a cookie swap.

Probably the ugliest hamantaschen you'll ever see.

These were ready to bake - on parchment paper, on a cookie sheet, at 350 degrees.  I think we made the dough a bit too thick - we baked these nearly 25 minutes, not the 18-22 suggested minutes.

I definitely will never be a food blogger.

But they did taste good.

I have to watch my weight carefully, as a lifetime WW (Weight Watchers) member.  We figured these to be approximately four smartpoints each, but that's an estimate based on points for the ingredients added together and divided by 12.

So, I am publishing this a day late - but no matter, if you make them today or next week, they will still be delicious.

Have you baked recently?

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

The supermarket we normally shop at, here in the Southern Tier of New York State, has a monthly magazine that includes several recipes drawn from various cookbooks.

The December issue had a recipe I decided to bake earlier this week.  I had all the ingredients and it was SmartPoints friendly for the WW (formerly Weight Watchers) program I follow to maintain my weight.

I don't do much scratch baking nowadays but I think this is going in the "yes, I am going to make this again" list.

If you are interested in the recipe here it is.

Basically, it uses old fashioned oats, canned pumpkin puree, and finely shredded carrots. some other add ins, and spices.  It's sweetened using maple syrup.

I used almond milk, as I don't keep dairy milk in the house.  The eggs I used were from someone my son knows and one of them turned out to be a double yolker.  I'm fortunate to live in an area where I can get farm fresh eggs from time to time even in the winter.

Verdict:  I might have baked this a minute or two longer, but they were nice and moist.  I ate several and am freezing the rest.  We'll see how the freezing works.

I haven't made muffins in years.  Several years ago  I would bake corn muffins and blueberry muffins.

How did I get out of the habit, I wonder?  I used to enjoy this activity.

It's interesting how we change with the years.

It's time to rediscover some of my roots.  

 

A Final Blueberry Moment

I've never picked blueberries four times in a single year.  Until this year.

I admit it.  It was recreation.  A chance to get out of the house and be in nature.  Be outside, where (at least for now) it is safer.  I can't say "in silence" because it wasn't silent.  The murmur of pickers near me, ordinarily not an issue, signaled that maybe it was time to pull up my mask.  But only one time was it that crowded.

As someone now semi-retired, spouse and I were able to get there right when the U-Pick farm opened, which helped a lot.

So we picked early berries, late early berries, mid season berries and late berries.  The late berries, we were warned when we arrived at the check-in stand, were either sweet and soft (they would start breaking down right away) due to the heat, or in better shape but tart.

After a short discussion, we decided these would be more for baking, and we chose "sweet and soft". 

Each year, this farm hands out a blueberry recipe brochure to its customers, and I chose one of their recipes, one I haven't made for many years:  Let's call it Double Blueberry Pie. I used the farm's recipe with some small modifications, which you may or may not want to make. I saw so many similar recipes online I decided I could put this online -

1 pie crust (Mine was an experiment, and maybe I'll blog about it one day.  Let's just say I used a homemade graham cracker crust.)  This is a no bake pie, unless you bake your own crust, but it does require a little cooking.  Nice not baking on a hot day.  Our summer has been hotter than normal.

Please keep in mind I try to bake on the "light side" so you may want to go back to the original - for that reason I made some notes.

Filling:

4 cups fresh blueberries (divide into 2 parts, 2 cups each) (apparently you can use frozen but I haven't done it myself, so I don't know if it will work with frozen.)

1/2 cup sugar (original recipe calls for 3/4 cup.  I didn't think it needed that much)

3 tbsp cornstarch

A pinch of salt

1 tbsp lime juice (because that's what I had - the original called for lemon juice)

1 tsp dried lemon peel (not in original)

1/4 cup cold water

1 tsp light butter-like spread (because that's what I had.  Original calls for 1 tbsp butter).

Method

Combine sugar, cornstarch, water, salt until well blended.  Add 2 cups blueberries. Cook over medium heat until the blueberry mixture thickens. 

Then, add the spread, lime juice and lemon peel.  Let cool.

 

When cooled, place the reserved 2 cups of blueberries into the pie crust.  

Pour the thickened cooked mixture over the uncooked blueberries. Cool some more and serve at room temperature or cold.  Hopefully your pie will look better than this, which is reason #479 why I don't publish a cooking blog. (Yes, the crust was a fail, and I will blog about it one of these days.)

And if I did have a cooking blog, it would probably be titled "Because It's What I Had" or something similar, like "I Never Got the Hang of Pie Crust".

That, my dear readers, is the last you will hear from me about blueberries this year (probably).  Can you tell I love them?

We froze several bags worth for the winter, remembering how frozen fruits and veggies vanished during March, April and May.

So....are you a good pie baker?  Or not?

Blueberry Crisp

Guess what I did Friday?  Spouse and I went blueberry picking again.

Like last week, we picked Bluecrop blueberries at our favorite U Pick location.

Blueberry skies once again, and social distancing, greeted us.  We got there just when they opened, something we can do as retired people (even though I work part time), fortunately.  Blueberry picking is very popular here, and I'm happy to say everyone around us complied. 

When we got home, we tasted them and decided they were a bit tart.  They would be great for baking.

Spouse asked me to make a Blueberry Fool, but when we realized just how caloric fools are, I did a little research for a lighter recipe.  I decided to make a Blueberry Crisp.

I've made apple/blackberry crisps, and apple/pear crisps, and once I even made an apple/blueberry crisp.  This time, after doing some research, I found a crisp that used only fresh blueberries (nothing added) and a topping similar to one I've made before.  I decided to make some tweaks (of course) - I increased the amount of fruit, and because I didn't have enough light buttery spread, I used unrefined coconut oil (a solid) for part of the required light buttery spread.

Here's the recipe:

Into an 8 inch square metal pan add 1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries, washed. 

Topping (mix together until well blended).

1 cup quick oats
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 tbsp light buttery spread
2 tbsp unrefined coconut oil (it was a hot day, we didn't have the air conditioning on and it was easy to manipulate) - use unrefined to get the taste of coconut.

Take the topping and spoon on top of the blueberries.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.  Let cool, or eat warm.

For some tastes, this may be too tart. For me, it was perfect. If it is a little too tart, don't hesitate to serve with whipped cream on top.

There was just one problem.  I am on Weight Watchers (WW), and e I have to watch the Smartpoints.  This is a lifetime process.

And as great as that crisp topping crust tastes due to the coconut oil, it has a lot of Smartpoints.  So, my portions have to be small.

Alas, I say, because I've fallen in love with that coconut oil topping.

Hopefully, you can enjoy it, coconut oil and all.

I may have one more blueberry recipe for you before the season ends.  Let me know if you are interested in the comments.

Post Quarantine Baking - Blueberry Clafoutis

As promised the other day, I'm reporting on my Blueberry Clafoutis experiment.

I am not a baker.  I was as a teen, but I abandoned scratch baking a few years ago.  When the March lockdown came, I never indulged in quarantine baking.  In fact, I lost weight.  But now, the baking urge has returned.  It's not the best thing in summer.

Since I'm on Weight Watchers (WW) and try to be good (we'll ignore the half bag of pretzel crisps I stress-inhaled the other day), I strive for low point recipes.

I saw a recipe for Cherry Clafoutis in a supermarket magazine the other day.  This is not exactly that recipe below.   I didn't have a couple of the ingredients so I took a recipe off the internet and combined the supermarket magazine recipe and that one.

Clafoutis is a French creation, a fruit tart made with a sweet batter.  And, best of all, it sounded really easy.

So, of course, I had to start playing with a recipe I hadn't ever made, but that's how I roll.  (And that's why I don't have a cooking blog.)

The recipe had cottage cheese in it.  Why, I don't know (someone who is good at baking will need to explain that) but that was perfect for what I needed to do.

I had cottage cheese (called for in the supermarket recipe) that was expired needing to be used up, and I substituted almond milk (fewer points than dairy milk) for the whole milk the supermarket recipe called for.

(I know, some of you are probably already horrified.  If you are, I suggest you quit here before I further horrify you.  I had a really nice flower post on Wednesday and you might enjoy that post instead.)

For the brave souls who remain:

I had cherries, but felt lazy (and didn't want to spend time depitting), so I used blueberries I had picked the day before.

The recipe called for eggs.  But the chicken eggs I had seemed a bit small so, for one of them, I substituted a duck egg.  I happen to love duck eggs in baking.

Finally, the recipe called for butter to grease the pie pan with, and I don't keep butter in the house.  I used cooking spray.

Anyway, you'll need a 9 inch pie glass pie pan, which I did have.  So this is sort of a combination of two recipes, and my playing around.  If you try to make it, and don't like it, please blame me.

Blueberry Clafoutis

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  If you have butter, grease the pie pan with about a teaspoon.  Otherwise, use cooking spray.

2.  Put about 1 1/2 cups of blueberries into the bottom of the greased pie pan.

3.  Whisk the following together in a bowl: 1 cup almond milk, 1/2 cup small curd cottage cheese, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/2 cup flour (used white whole wheat, since that's what I had), 1 tsp vanilla extract and 3 eggs.  The cottage cheese I used was 2%.  The almond milk was unsweetened plain.

4. Pour over the blueberries.

5.  Bake 40 to 45 minutes. It should be golden when removed.  It will be puffed, and will fall a little as it cools.  Some, because of this, will serve the clafoutis immediately.  I intended this for an after supper dessert, and baked it after lunch, so it sat around a bit.

It can be served warm, room temperature, or (if you wish) cold.  Refrigerate if not used up right away.

So, how did it turn out?

I loved it.  I must note I've never had clafoutis before but I am sure going to have it again.  It was nice and tender, and tasty.

I figured on my WW plan, which does not count points for eggs, if I cut into eight pieces, this was only three Smartpoints each piece.  For six pieces, four Smartpoints.

Baking and Repairing

In just a couple of hours, it will be the year 5780 in the Jewish calendar, and the High Holy Days will begin.  We start at sundown tonight with Rosh Hashanah and end 10 days later with Yom Kippur.

Where I live, it has been an almost perfect day, with temperatures in the 70's and low humidity.  My last large yellow daylily flower has unfolded - unbelievable that it it still blooming this late in the year.

I prepared to bake an apple honey cake for Rosh Hashanah, using local bamboo honey and eggs.

But there is also a lot of sadness.

During the year 5779, my mother in law passed away, along with the wife of one of my cousins and one of my husband's cousins.  Someone at my job was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer that has a high mortality rate.  I went on vacation and he was rushed into surgery because of a serious physical issue caused by the chemo he is undergoing.  A couple of my cousins are going through hard times, physically.  The saying "aging is not for sissies" is a true one.

So what.

I am here.

I am healthy.

The world is waiting for my next move.

It's time to bake that cake.

One thing at a time.

It's time to help repair the world.

Strawberry Margarita Cake For Cinco De Mayo

Today is the Cinco de Mayo (May 5), celebrated in many in the United States as an eating and drinking holiday.  Time for something Mexican.

Today is NOT Mexican Independence Day (that comes in September), but rather, today commemorates a 1862 battle where Mexicans defeated a French army despite being outnumbered.  Eventually, the Mexicans won the war and ousted the French.

During our United States Civil War, this holiday and what it stood for started to gain popularity in the United States.  Now, the Cinco de Mayo is actually more celebrated in the United States than in Mexico.

So, tonight we are going to have some Mexican food my spouse (who loves to cook) is making me.  I decided to chip in and contribute a cake.

It's not my original recipe - it belongs to a blogger - Karen of Baking in a Tornado.  This is how she describes herself:  "I'm Karen, a baking, blogging, beach, ballet, Boston and booze fan. I bake to relieve stress, take pictures as proof, and blog to vent.".  May I add that she also aims to get me to deviate from Weight Watchers by publishing delicious sounding recipes.

Today, I am deviating.  From Weight Watchers, that is. 

That said, her recipe is called Strawberry Margarita cake and you can find the original recipe here.  

The frosted yellow cake is from the box of cake mix, by the way

I had to make a few minor tweaks.

One of the ingredients Karen called for was sweetened lime juice.

I have never stocked sweetened lime juice - I'm not a big cocktail maker. I don't even know how sweet it's supposed to be.

So off to the store spouse and I went, and found that the brand they stocked contained corn syrup.  I am no purist, but corn syrup generally is something I don't want in my food. (Pecan pie is an important exception.) So spouse said, oh, why don't I just add some sugar to lime juice?  And he did.  I have a feeling he didn't add enough.  Moving on....

Since I  had duck eggs in the house, I used duck eggs.  Yes, duck eggs. They are wonderful for baking.  Expensive, though I can sometimes get them cheap.  Years ago, when I owned egg laying ducks...but I digress.

There's also a frosting but I did not make it.  Why?  Because I am one of those strange people who don't normally frost their cake.  But if you want frosting, Karen provides a recipe for that, too, at the link above.

And voilà.

It was delicious - light and moist.

If you do make that cake, please give Karen full credit. 

Weight Friendly Heirloom Apple Crisp

Where I live in upstate New York is in apple growing country, and some of the apples grown here are heirloom varieties.

This is a rerun of several years ago (except for the photos) and an apple crisp perfect for a weight-watching Thanksgiving.

There is a farm near Ithaca, New York, that specializes in heirloom apples.  At least once a year, we visit their booth at the Ithaca Farmers Market to pick up some unusual varieties.

Ithaca, New York farmers market 2018

This was not the best apple year, due to above normal rains, but we were able to pick up some nice apples (even on their side, which this picture seems to want to do).

Frog Pond, Bainbridge, NY 2018

But even in our local apple stores in the Binghamton area, we can purchase heirlooms such as Northern Spy, a wonderful baking apple.

There are many more apple varieties than you can find in your average supermarket.  Many of the older varieties don't ship well, or don't keep well, or don't bear reliably year after year.  But if you can find them, they are worth the effort.

When you do buy an apple, you must ask yourself:  How do you intend to use your apple?

Fresh eating? (my favorites are Honey Crisp, Autumn Crisp, and some of the eating heirlooms, especially the russets.)

Baking? (my favorite is Northern Spy but you can also try Rome and Cortland.)  And, Honey Crisps can be used in baking.

Tart Eating?  Empire is your pick. It used to be my favorite apple.

I, personally, am not a fan of Red Delicious or MacIntosh, but they have their fans.

Which brings me to one of my favorite desserts, apple crisp.  I've published a couple of different Weight Watchers friendly apple crisp recipes.  Here is one. 

I decided to experiment with adding frozen blueberries (which I picked from a U Pick farm in August).  At times, I've also put pears and/or blackberries into my apple crisps.  Yesterday, I decided to make an apple crisp with what I had on hand -  frozen blueberries.

Sorry for my friends outside the United States - you'll have to do your own conversions into metric, oven temperatures, etc.

20 ounce apple and leaves from my yard from a previous year

Fruit Crisp (9 inch square pan, serves 9)

2 pounds baking apples

4 tbsp brown sugar (you can also use 1 tbsp sucralose as an alternative)

2 tsp lemon juice

1 cup frozen blueberries (I didn't thaw them)

Peel and slice cored apples. Mix all ingredients together.  Place in a 9 inch square baking dish that has been oiled or buttered.


Top with topping.  Keep in mind this is an adaptation of a low-cal topping.  It may not suit you.

Topping

1 cup quick oats
4 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp light butter
1/2 tsp freshly ground allspice
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix topping together and top.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes or until the apple slices are the consistency you want.  Let cool, unless you can't wait to eat it.

How did it do? The blueberries dyed the apples nearby purple, but it tasted good.  The topping was "OK" (I'm still experimenting with getting these lower calorie toppings moist.) I think this would be amazing with Northern Spy apples, and I plan to make this for Thanksgiving (November 22) this year.

Do you like apple crisp?

Blueberry Tuesday (with a low cal recipe)

This year, the u-pick blueberries at a local farm were possibly the best I have ever picked.

The bushes were loaded, but they were somewhat low down, not the best place for someone with a bad back who was trying not to get on the ground because she was afraid of ticks.

In some ways, it was worth it, though.  And, needless to say, blueberries are packed with nutrition - and taste.

How to pick the perfect blueberry?  It's easy - go for the white bloom.

They are so good.  I don't put anything on mine - no cream, no sugar, just the pure blueberries.

But I do like them in baked goods.  Since I'm trying to get rid of some extra weight that has come back on during the last three years, I decided to make something a little low calorie.

For my blueberry recipe this year, my back was bothering me so I decided on a quick and easy recipe.

No almond milk blueberry muffins from scratch today. 

No, I made a dump cake. The cake mixworked out to about 150 calories for 1/10 of a cake. The blueberries are not counted on the old Weight Watchers system I use (Points Plus).

I've had dump cakes before but (believe it or not) have never made one.  It was so easy!

Here's the quick and easy recipe.

I didn't have the called for diet soda, but I did have diet Cheerwine from a previous trip down South.  Cheerwine is not wine; it is a cherry soda made in North Carolina that has become popular outside its home area.   And, although the berries are in a commercial container, my spouse and I picked every one of them (and many more).

Layer the blueberries.  Sprinkle the cake mix over.

Sad in a way, but I rarely bake from scratch at this point in my life.  I hope to go back to scratch baking one day.

Add the can of soda (we decided against the nuts).  I baked at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes, using a 9 x 13 pan instead of the 9 x 12 the recipe called for. I also knew, from past experience, that the remaining cake mix that was not hit by the soda just added to the enjoyment. And, because neither of us are big whipped topping fans, this is exactly how it was served.

My spouse loved it!  I wonder if I should say goodbye to scratch baking and stick to quick and easy.  But perhaps, it was the high quality of the blueberries.  It came out to 170 calories for 1/10 of the 9 x 13 pan, which isn't bad at all for someone watching their calories.

Day 24 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #BlogBoost

Hamantaschen

Last week, Jews around the world celebrated a holiday called Purim. 

In many ways, it has become a children's holiday (complete with children dressing up in costumes and going out to homes for treats of candy and other sweets - a celebration, by the way, totally unrelated to Halloween) but the holiday has a grim, adult theme - the undoing of a villain called Haman, who tried to get all of the Jews living in his country killed by their King.  The story is told in the Old Testament Book of Esther.

It is said that Haman wore a three cornered hat, and one of the delights of Purim are three cornered foods, among them a cookie called hamantaschen.

As a college student, I would hand make hamantaschen each year.  The dough, traditionally, should have an orange taste to it.  The filling, in my family's tradition, was prune (lekvar) but as I was not a fan of prunes (and I'm still not), my choice was poppyseed.

Nowadays, there are hundreds of filling recipes available online, if you are so inclined.  Some are not at all traditional.

Candy cane? Peanut butter and chocolate? Cheese and onion?  Why not?

I haven't made hamantaschen in many years, so I don't have a picture of this triangular filled cookie to show you,  but this recipe sounds a lot like the recipe I used to make.

Maybe one day, I'll start to bake again.

I was hoping to join Bellybytes at Mumbai on a High and Shilpa Gupte at Metanoia for their linky party at #FlavoursomeTuesdays but I'm not feeling the greatest right now, so, perhaps next month.

Do you have a favorite holiday recipe - any holiday?

Charlotte Russe #FlavoursomeTuesdays

Two years ago, I blogged about being invited to a 104th birthday party for my spouse's last living aunt.  She lives several miles from my childhood neighborhood in the Bronx.   In fact, I grew up about two and a half miles (four kilometers) from the restaurant where the party was held.  It's in a part of Yonkers that is heavily Irish, and within walking distance of the Bronx border.  (And yes, I'm pleased to announce that this aunt will be celebrating her 106th birthday early next year).

The first time I ate there (for this aunt's 100th birthday) something interesting happened.  I couldn't resist walking after the 100th birthday party - I needed to stretch my legs.  I went out walking with my sister in law and my spouse.

As I walked down the street, I passed a bakery, an Italian bakery.  It had an old sign on it, a sign that may have dated from the 1960's.

Suddenly, something seemed so familiar.  I couldn't shake the feeling that I had been on this street long ago.

My mind took me back over 50 years, back to when many bakeries in the Bronx featured a special treat that is only made by one or two bakeries any more.  It was a street dessert called the Charlotte Russe.

I loved this special treat.

The Bronx Charlotte Russe was simple- a round piece of spongecake, with whipped cream and topped with a cherry.  You bought it in a push-up cup - you pushed it up from the bottom as you ate.  It was more of a cool weather delight.

I remember taking a bus with my mother to a place in the Northern Bronx where I got my hair cut, and she would visit her life insurance agent to make a monthly payment on a small life insurance policy.  Then, she would buy me a Charlotte Russe.

One day soon after, on Facebook, someone from the Bronx posted a picture of a Charlotte Russe.  I knew what it was right away.  Some things you never forget.

The Russe was sitting on a box from the Holtermanns Bakery in Staten Island.  So I went online, and, sure enough, Holtermanns still makes these gems of sweetness.  Although, perhaps, not for much longer, as the push up cups are becoming harder and harder to find.  And, it seems they don't always use the spongecake - they use pieces of pinwheels or other cakes that didn't sell.

But Staten Island was a long way from the restaurant where the 104th birthday party was held.

Now, in 2017, I see Holtermanns Bakery still makes Charlotte Russe, at least if their website is up to date.  But for how much longer, I wonder?  I've found a second bakery, Francesco's in Hicksville, Long Island, that may also be making them (a comment on Trip Advisor), but I can't find absolute proof on their website.

Will I ever eat a Charlotte Russe again?  Will I ever feast on its whipped cream?

Do you have a favorite food that is no longer made or hard to find?

Join Bellybytes at Mumbai on a High and Shilpa Gupte at Metanoia for #FlavoursomeTuesdays.

Last Summer Tuesday - Honey Apple Cake

Tomorrow, besides being the last summer Wednesday of 2017 for us in the Northern Hemisphere, it is the start (at sundown) of the Jewish New Year.

Two of the traditional foods for this happy occasion are apples and honey.

Both apples and honey are produced locally in my area of upstate New York.  So, I like to combine the two every year.  I have a favorite apple honey cake recipe I'd like to share with you.

It isn't my recipe but I have adopted it as "mine". Sort of.

I made it slightly differently from last year.  Here is this year's recipe.

AM's 2017 Version of Tori Avey's Apple Honey Cake

3 large eggs (I was fortunate enough to use free range brown eggs from a local farm)
3/4 cup honey (local buckwheat honey from the Finger Lakes, which is quite dark, and is a good fall honey)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup unrefined coconut oil melted gently in microwave (this is solid at room temperature) mixed with 1/4 cup canola oil.
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups King Arthur's White Whole Wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon, freshly ground
3/4 tsp Penzey's pie spice
4 apples, peeled, cored and shredded (you will also want to use the resulting liquid)

Here, you get an idea of how dark buckwheat honey is

 I had local ginger gold apples in the house, and also a pippin apple I had never eaten from the local farmers market called Saint Edmund's Pippin.  This is actually more of a cider and fresh eating apple, but it's what I had.

You will bake this in a 9 inch Bundt cake pan.

Method (sorry, not metric)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

While oven heats, mix the wet ingredients:
In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs until frothy.
Whisk in honey, white and brown sugar, melted coconut oil, and vanilla

Then mix the dry ingredients:
In a smaller bowl, sift together flour, baking power, baking soda, spices.

Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, stir to blend.  You don't want any dry ingredients, but you also don't want to over beat.

Fold in your shredded apples and liquid from the apples.

Spray your bundt pan with cooking spray, coating the inside evenly.

Now, pour your batter into the pan.  You don't want to overfill (Tory Avery, who wrote the original recipe, warns you not to fill more than 3/4 full.)  Smooth the batter on the top so that it is flat and even.  You do not want any air pockets.  I press down on the filling gently with a spoonula.

Bake for approximately 75-90 minutes.  When the edges darken and pull fully away from the sides of the pan, and the cake is browned, test with a toothpick.  This is a moist cake, so you don't want to under cook.  But, you don't want to overcook it, either.

All done - wonderfully dark (not burned)

I don't put a frosting on this although the original recipe calls for one.

In the mood for more apple recipes? Check this blog out.

Do you have a favorite apple recipe?

Honey Apple Cake and Other Recipes

Now that many of us in the United States wish we never lay eyes on another piece of cooked turkey (I'm not one of them - I could eat turkey nearly every day), I've decided we need to do even more cooking.

Enjoy this short list of recipes published by various bloggers this week, followed by my version of an apple honey cake I made for Thanksgiving this year.

First up, Denise from My Life in Retirement provides the main course - a special roast turkey.

If you are a vegetarian, you can do some birding instead, as narrated by Alice's Grand Adventures (no recipes, just walking and viewing).

Next, Jo from Food, Life and a Scent of Chocolate contributes A beef recipe (if you don't like turkey)

And finally, Jo provides us with a German favorite buttery "bienenstich"- Bee Sting Cake.

Which leads me to my version of an amazing apple honey cake.  The original recipe can be found here, and I assure you you don't have to be Jewish to love this cake.  Or, to enjoy my version of it.

There are several reasons why I modified the cake the way I did.  First, believe it or not, I do not like confectioner's sugar/liquid type icing.  Even as a child, I would pass up cinnamon rolls and yeast cakes because I never liked the icing drizzled on them.  I can't explain why.  I still don't.  So my version does not have icing.  If you want icing, see the link above.

Second, I've started to use coconut oil more and more as a substitute for oil in my baking   I've never made this cake with anything but coconut oil, and I love it.

Third, instead of the original Granny Smith apples, I prefer tart, local apples.  I'm fortunate to live in New York apple country and there is an abundance of cooking apples grown here.  For Thanksgiving, I made this with  local Northern Spy apples.

Sorry, metric readers, you are on your own with this.

AM's Version of Tori Avey's Apple Honey Cake

3 large eggs (this past week, I was fortunate enough to use free range brown eggs from a local farm)
3/4 cup honey (local buckwheat honey, which is quite dark, and is a good fall honey)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 1/4 cup unrefined coconut oil melted gently in microwave (this is solid at room temperature)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups King Arthur's White Whole Wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon, freshly ground
3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
4 tart baking apples, peeled, cored and shredded (you will also want to use the resulting liquid)

You will bake this in a 9 inch Bundt cake pan.

Method

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

While oven heats, mix the wet ingredients:
In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs until frothy.
Whisk in honey, white and brown sugar, melted coconut oil, and vanilla

Then mix the dry ingredients:
In a smaller bowl, sift together flour, baking power, baking soda, spices.

Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, stir to blend.  You don't want any dry ingredients, but you also don't want to over beat.

Fold in your shredded apples and liquid from the apples.

Spray your bundt pan with cooking spray, coating the inside evenly.

Now, pour your batter into the pan.  You don't want to overfill (Tory warns you not to fill more than 3/4 full.)  Smooth the batter on the top so that it is flat and even.  You do not want any air pockets.  I press down on the filling gently with a spoonula.

Bake for approximately 75-90 minutes.  When the edges darken and pull fully away from the sides of the pan, and the cake is browned, test with a toothpick.  This is a moist cake, so you don't want to under cook.  But, you don't want to overcook it, either.

For me, this cake is a wonderful alternative to apple pie.  Do you have a favorite recipe to share?

Day 27 of NaBloPoMo.

Local Saturday - Apple Fail (and a Recipe)

I live in an apple growing area of upstate New York, but this year has not been the kindest to the growers.

A late freeze after a mild winter.  A drought.

We went up to Ithaca, New York last weekend to buy some of the heirloom apples we love so much for heirloom apple crisp (yes, please try my recipe).

This is what we found.  Just a few bins with small apples.

I didn't think there was anything wrong with them.  I look forward to the annual buying of these most tasty of apples, and was grateful there was a crop at all.

Yes, the apples in the bottom bin are brown.  The brown varieties (russet) are some of my favorites.

Americans tend to be very picky about the looks of their produce.  Things get discarded if they don't look "perfect".  Americans do not want blemishes, small items, or other defects in their fruit.  So much fruit and other produce goes to waste - it's a disgrace.

I'm grateful for the apples we were able to buy from these growers.   And when I make the apple crisp, I'll let you know.

Here's the recipe I used a couple of years ago:  this will something nice to make on a cold, blustery day like today.  But I have a pear in the house, and may use it instead of the blueberries.

Fruit Crisp (9 inch square pan, serves 9)

2 pounds baking apples (I used 20 Ounce)

4 tbsp brown sugar (you can also use 1 tbsp sucralose as an alternative)

2 tsp lemon juice

1 cup frozen blueberries (I didn't thaw them)

Peel and slice cored apples. Mix all ingredients together.  Place in a 9 inch square baking dish that has been oiled or buttered.
Top with topping.  Keep in mind this is an adaptation of a low-cal topping.  It may not suit you.

Topping

1 cup quick oats
4 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp light butter
1/2 tsp freshly ground allspice (since I, amazingly, didn't have cinnamon on hand)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix topping together and top.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes or until the apple slices are the consistency you want.  Let cool, unless you can't wait to eat it.

Day 22 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge.

Local Saturday - Blueberry Hill (And a Recipe)

It's blueberry time in upstate New York.

Blueberries have to be my favorite fruit.  They are nutritious, they last a long time in the refrigerator, and, if you live in blueberry growing country (which we do), they are so easy to pick.

Here's how.

Yes, I've blogged about picking blueberries before.

But we didn't know how good the crop would be.  Between a late freeze after a mild winter and a drought, we just didn't know.  So we visited a U Pick farm, not too far up a hill, and were delighted to see the berries.

I never get tired of blueberry picking.  Very little stooping.  No thorns. Friendly to the knees.  And you can really get into a rhythm, especially when the berries are abundant, as they were today.  The berries were ready to pick, with the white "bloom" that indicates full ripeness.  This bloom, incidentally, rubs off with a lot of handling.  But it is abundant on berries you are picking fresh off the bush.

The farmer spoke to us as he weighed our picked berries and said he didn't know how long he would be picking because the birds were attacking his fields.  Worse than ever, the attacks were, he said.  Nothing seemed to be discouraging the birds.  I wonder if that is related to our drought.

So, I hope we get another picking done later this month.  This time, we will be sharing with my mother in law, who we moved up here from downstate New York last August.

And maybe I'll even get her interested in some blueberry muffins.

Here's how I made them.  Spouse and I agonized over them for a while, as we wanted to make a low fat version, but we didn't have the ingredients handy.  So finally we settled on this (almost) tried and true recipe.  The coconut oil (instead of regular veggie oil) and unsweetened cashew/almond milk (I don't keep dairy milk in the house anymore, although I still eat dairy) were new, and we hoped the substitutions would work. I've substituted

Blueberry Muffins (with Cashew Almond Milk and Coconut Oil
Note, my substitutions are in ( )

As always, I apologize to my readers using the metric system. You'll need two bowls.  If one is larger than the other, use the larger one for the dry ingredients.  Also, prepare muffin tins (about 18 regular size) with either cooking spray or muffin liners.

2 cups flour (I used white whole wheat, which is a light colored whole wheat flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon (I fresh grind mine)
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk (I used unsweetened cashew-almond; I suspect you could also use almond)
3/4 cup sugar (I decided to use light brown sugar)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used unrefined coconut oil)
1 cup fresh blueberries

Method.  
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
1.  Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in bowl.  Mix well.
2.  In other bowl, beat the two eggs lightly. 
3.  Stir in milk, sugar and oil.
4.  Quickly stir egg mixture into dry ingredients. You should only stir until blended, DO NOT OVERSTIR, DO NOT BEAT.  The less handled, the better the result.

5.  Carefully stir in blueberries.   Spoon into the tins.  Recipe called for 18 - I got 15, but I think I overfilled a little as some bubbled to the oven floor when I baked. (It's been a few years since I last made muffins.)  If you have empty tins, partially fill them with water so they don't warp.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15-17 minutes, until they spring back to touch.  Let cool.

Verdict:  I liked them.  Tender.  Not sure if a diehard muffin fan would, because (to me) they came out a tad bit oily.  I have a dirty oven floor now, so I would put a little less in the tins. 

Calorie count?  Well, these aren't weight watching type muffins - if you want those, you may want to investigate this site.  And, their regular blueberry muffin recipe.
 
Do you bake muffins?  What is your favorite?