Rustic Spiced Pickled Apple Tart

 

First of all them me assure you, spiced pickled apples are the bomb!  Very tasty and delicious.  So as previously mentioned, I'm tartin' em them up...rustically.

Rustic Spiced Pickled Apple Tart

tart dough
1-1/2 cups
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. salt
6 oz. (1-1/2 sticks) cold butter, cubed
1/3 cup cold water

assembly
4 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. flour
pickled apple slices (approx. 3 apples worth)
1 tbsp. melted butter

Mix together 1-1/2 cups of flour with the cinnamon and salt.

Cut in the cold butter cubes with a pastry blender or fork until the mixture forms pea-sized crumbs.  You can also put ingredients in a food processor and pulse on low until it crumbs.

Make a well in the center of the mixture and pour in the water.  Using your hands, knead the ingredients together until they form a ball.

Roll out onto a floured surface and knead for 2-3 minutes.  Roll out with a rolling pin to a thickness of approximately 3/8".

Cover a large cookie sheet or pizza pan with parchment paper.  Use the rolling pin to roll up your flattened dough and transfer to the papered surface.

Mix together the remaining 2 tsp. flour with the sugar and sprinkle across the surface of the dough.

Lay out the apple slices in a round pattern in the middle of the rolled dough, leaving a 3" border uncovered.

Fold the dough over the apples, as neatly or not as you'd like.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes then brush the edges with the melted butter.  Loosely cover with foil and bake an additional 15-30 minutes until the crust is golden brown and the apples are tender and cooked through.  Mine baked up in 46 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool on rack.  Serve up with a scoop of your favorite frozen dessert or, for a change, throw a couple of cheese slices on the side. I recommend cheddar!

In case I haven't tooted my own horn lately...best tart ever!  I am a total food genius. :D  Toot! Toot!

Spiced Pickled Apples: Part I

I'm excited about this one.  Had never heard of pickled apples before but they came up in a conversation about country foods.  My friend Blair's grandma used to make them and as she sat there drooling at the memory of pickled apples, I started thinking that this would be a great post idea.  Then I started thinking about things I could do with pickled apples, like make a rustic tart. Mm-mmm.

Step 1 in this road to rustic tart scenario is actually making the pickled apples themselves so I searched around to find some recipes and then picked and chose the parts I liked best and came up with the one below.

Figured I would start them this weekend, we'll let them pickle up during the week, then next weekend, we'll tart 'em up.

Spiced Pickled Apples

2 cups apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar (not packed)
2 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. allspice berries
1 tsp. whole peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
3 Granny Smith apples, cored and sliced

In a medium saucepan, simmer all ingredients except the apples until the sugars and salt dissolve.

Place the sliced apples in a non-conducive bowl and pour the liquid mixture over them. Let it sit until it cools to room temperature, then put in a jar with a sealed lid and let sit for a week until ready.

NOTES

A lot of the recipes I looked at removed the peel from the apples before pickling, but I left mine on because I like the skin. We'll see how that works out.

If you're not familiar with whole peppercorns, allspice berries, or star anise, this is what they look like (below).

Apple Cider Slushy

 

Ai-ai-ai, can't believe I survived October!  So I have been wanting to do this write-up since I went to the NC State Fair this year.

Every year I always make a stop in the apple area...yes, I am doing another apple post (I LUV APPLES!)...and yes, the NC State Fair has an area dedicated to apples.  Usually I grab a cup of hot apple cider, but this year, I branched out and tried a "Freezie." Basically, an apple cider slushy and it was super delish!  I've been wanting to try it at home and finally got a chance to purchase my own ice cream maker.  So for your viewing/my tasting pleasure, I made a batch of apple cider slushy.  Big smiley face.

Apple Cider Slushy

With Ice Cream Maker -- following the machine's instructions, pour 2 cups of cold apple cider into the freezing component and spin for 30 minutes.  Scoop and serve.

Sans Ice Cream Maker -- place a 9x13" metal cake pan in your freezer and let chill for 10-15 minutes, pour 2 cups cold apple cider into the chilled pan and let sit.  Check and stir every 20 minutes until frozen through.  Scoop and serve.

Chocolate Caramel Apples with Albino Spiders

 

Inspired by a trip to the NC State Fair this weekend, the impending arrival of my all-time favorite holiday, and continuing with my recent All Apples All the Time posting, I bring you a twist on an old favorite...chocolate caramel apples with albino spiders! Okay, the spiders are white chocolate but that doesn't sound nearly as cool.

Chocolate Caramel Apples with Albino Spiders

apples
6 small red delicious apples
1 (14 oz.) package microwaveable caramel
8-10 oz. chocolate candy melts, CandiQuik or candy coating
6 skewers (8") or candy/caramel apple sticks

albino spiders
2-4 oz. white candy melts, CandiQuik or candy coating
small disposable piping bag or small baggie

PRE-PREP

Here's a great way to get your caramel to stick better to the apple.  Boil a small pot of water.  Do a quick dip and rinse with your apples, then dry them off with a paper towel.

 

The hot rinse will help remove any shiny wax on the skin of the fruit and give it more of a matte finish.  This will help your caramel stick better. A shout out to my friend, Kathy, for that very helpful and effective hint.

APPLE DIPPIN' TIME

Skewer your apples. I  recommend using a more heavy duty stick because the combined weight of the apple + caramel + chocolate is going to required something more than the little popsicle sticks provided in the caramel apple kit.

I went with a microwaveable caramel coating

because it took less time than making caramel

from scratch and was much less messy too.

Heat your caramel according to package directions.  Coat your apples with the caramel.  Place them on a lightly greased cookie sheet or sheet of wax paper.  Place in the fridge to set while you melt the chocolate.

Melt the chocolate candy coating until smooth.

this is actually a full 16 oz. pack of chocolate, discovered

that I did not need all of it for this project, but you'll

see what I did with the leftover chocolate in an upcoming post

 

Remove the apples from the fridge.  Fold the excess caramel that's pooled under the apple back onto the apple.  Caramel should be malleable to fold and press without sticking to your hands or falling off the apple.

With the help of a spatula or spoon, coat the caramel-coated apple with the candy coating.  Gently shake off any excess and place on a sheet of wax paper on a cookie sheet (or in my case, on a wood cutting board).

Place the chocolate-coated apples back in the fridge to allow the chocolate to set.

SPIDERS (Optional)

Melt the white candy coating.

Fill a disposable piping bag, or small baggie with a small hole cut in the corner, with the melted chocolate.  Pipe the chocolate onto a sheet of wax paper.

To create the spiders you can draw four long lines that cross in the middle and then pipe a big blob in the middle -- voila! Albino Spider!  You want to make sure the "legs" aren't too thin or they'll break when you try to remove them.  Should only take a minute or two for the spiders to set.

To attach the spiders to your chocolate caramel apples, dip a butter knife or small pastry knife in a hot mug of water. 

 

 

Shake off excess water and while the knife is still warm, melt a small spot on the top of the apple and on the back of the spider, then press them together.  Should immediately attach.

 

And done!

Comment APPLEez-vous?



Is it me or are there a lot more apple choices in the produce section these days?  It's a little mind-boggling to think that this is just a miniscule representation of the 2500 some varieties of apples grown in just North America alone!

 

I thought it might be nice though to present a little Who’s Who guide based on the ones you find available most often in your grocery store. 

Braeburn
Background:  originated in New Zealand in 1952, named after Braeburn Orchard where it was first grown commercially
Parentage:  believed to have been developed from a chance crossing between a Lady Hamilton and a Granny Smith apple
Color:  yellow undertone with a streaky red overtone
Taste:  uniquely sweet and tart flavor (a definite reflection of its parentage)
Culinary use:  a good multipurpose apple that’s great for cooking, tend to hold their shape and don’t release a lot of liquid (so especially good for tarting)

Cripps Pink
my personal favorite
Background:  originally bred in Western Australia by John Cripps from whom they get their name, also known as the Pink Lady
Parentage:  cross between Golden Delicious and Lady Williams
Color:  blushed pink with hints of red
Taste:   very fragrantly sweet and crispy
Culinary use:  best for enjoying raw, great for salads

Crispin
Background:  hails originally from Japan, known as a Mutsu, but renamed to Crispin in the 1960s
Parentage:  cross between a Golden Delicious and a Japanese Indo apple
Color:  bright yellow green
Taste:  sweet, refreshing, super crispy
Culinary use:  good for eating, baking, freezing, roasting or cooking, also great for salad and pies, but most importantly, makes a darned tasty hard cider

Fuji
Background:  developed in Japan in the 1930s, began to be grown stateside in the 1980s
Parentage:  cross between Red Delicious and a Virginia Ralls Janet
Color:  bi-colored red and yellow
Taste:  sweet and firm, rounded
Culinary use:  great for plain eating and in salads, but also makes a great applesauce

Gala
Background:  originated in New Zealand, brought to the US in the 1970s and now one of the most popular apples in America
Parentage:  cross between a Golden Delicious and a Kidd’s Orange Red
Color:  vary in color from creamy orange to red and/or yellow striped
Taste:  crisp, juicy, very sweet but mild
Culinary use:  best raw for snacking and as a salad topping

Golden Delicious
Background:  shares only its name with Red Delicious (not just a lighter version), used as a cultivar (i.e., the parent apple of many varietals)
Parentage:  was a chance seedling cross between a Grimes Golden and a Golden Reinette
Color:  light yellow with an occasional green blush
Taste:  sweet and mild with a juicy crispness
Culinary use:  good for baking, freezing, saucing or eating raw, makes good applesauce or apple butter

Granny Smith
Background:  got its name when it was chance discovered in 1868 by “Granny” Anne Smith of Rude, New South Wales
Parentage:   believed to be a possible descent of a French crabapple
Color:  probably the most widely recognized apple with green skin and occasionally a red blush
Taste:  tart tart tart and super crispy
Culinary use:  all-purpose apple great for cooking, baking, stewing or eating raw slathered with creamy peanut butter (mmmmm)

Honeycrisp
Background:  developed at the University of Minnesota’s Horticultural Research Center
Parentage:  cross between a Macoun and a Honeygold
Color:  similar in appearance to a Braeburn only with more green undertones
Taste:  light honey sweet flavor, but with a crunchy crispy tartness
Culinary use:  good for snacks and salads, also makes a good applesauce

Jonagold
Background:  developed at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva
Parentage:  cross between a Golden Delicious and a Jonathan apple
Color:  can be either golden green or greenish gold and brindled red
Taste:  tart and sweet, very juicy
Culinary use:  good for raw snacking and salads, makes a good sauce, good for baking and freezing too, make a great fried apple (just add butter and cinnamon)

McIntosh
Background:  named after John McIntosh who discovered the sapling in 1811, started selling the fruit in 1835, it was introduced into commercial production in the 1870s and was a widely common used apple in the Northeast
Parentage:  it’s a cultivar (so a parent itself)
Color:  bi-colored red and green
Taste:  juicy, tangy, and tart with tender white flesh
Culinary use:  best for snacking, makes naturally pink tinted applesauce, delicious as a cider, great in pies and tarts but FYI, it cooks down really easy so make sure to cut slices thick or add a thickener otherwise it becomes mush
FYI:  apparently Jef Raskin of Apple, Inc. named the Macintosh line of PCs after this apple

Northern Spy
Background:  discovered around 1800 in East Bloomfield, NY
Parentage:  believed to be descended from a Wagener apple
Color:  green base color with “stripings” of red
Taste:  juicy and crunchy, mildly sweet but with a slightly acid edge, is high vitamin C
Culinary use:  reputed to be one of the best apples for desserts and pie as well as juices and ciders, but kind of lives up to its name in that they are very hard to find

Red Delicious
Background:  originated in Peru, Iowa where it was discovered in 1870s as a chance seedling, one of best knows types recognizable by its elongated in shape with a “footed” bottom (like a plastic soda bottle)
Parentage:  just kind of found on its own
Taste:  sweet, crisp, and juicy but with a slightly bitter thick skin
Color:  various shades of red
Culinary use:  best eaten fresh and raw, especially good for salads

 

Apple BBQ Sauce

 

This one is a two-fer post.  Not only do you get the lowdown on an easy-to-make applesauce, you get a fun new way to use it too.  Two recipes, what a treat!  It's almost like its Halloween already.

Apple BBQ Sauce

1 cup applesauce (see recipe below)
3/4 cup chili sauce
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tsp. Worchestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. fresh cracked black pepper
1/4 tsp. dried basil
1/8 tsp. garlic powder

Mix all ingredients together and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes to allow flavors to blend.  Spicy and refreshing!

Warm before serving, can be used as a baste or sauce to dip in.  Goes great with grilled pork chops or chicken breasts.

I made mine using chunky applesauce, so pureed it in the blender before using to make it smooth.


Super Saucy Apples

2 Golden Delicious apples
2 Granny Smith apples
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup Sugar in the Raw

Peel, core and rough chop the apples.

Put apples in a saucepan with the water and sugar.  Cover and cook over medium heat for 20 minutes.

 

Remove from heat and allow to sit about 5 minutes.

For chunky sauce, mash cooked apples with a potato masher or fork.

For a smoother sauce, put cooked apples in a blender or food process and puree.

Transfer to a non-reactive bowl (ceramic or glass, not metal or plastic) and refrigerate.

To make cinnamon applesauce, add 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon.

Mother's Choice: Sunday Apple Fritters

A hearty congraduations to all those earning degrees this weekend and a most wonderful Happy Mother's Day to those celebrating their special day today!

In honor of the holiday, today's recipe was chosen by Guinea Pig Mom.  We went back to one of my other favorite cookbooks to try this one out for you.  From the Southern Living Off the Eaten Path by Morgan Murphy (Oxmoor House, 2011), she asked me to whip up a batch of yummy apple fritters from Lucille's Roadhouse in Weatherford, Oklahoma.  You gotta love a woman who's happy with fried dough for a gift.  I love you Mom!

Sunday Apple Fritters
Oklahoma, page 181, Off the Eaten Path

Canola oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 large apples, unpeeled and finely chopped (about 3 cups)
2/3 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
Powdered sugar

Pour oil to depth of 2 inches into a Dutch oven (or electric wok); heat to 350 degrees.

Combine flour and next 3 ingredients.  Stir in chopped apples, tossing gently to coat.

Make a well in the center of the mixture.  Whisk together milk, vanilla, and eggs until blended.

Add to flour mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.

Drop batter by rounded tablespoons into hot oil. 

Fry fritters in batches, 1 to 2 minutes on each side, or until golden.

Drain on paper towels.

Sprinkle fritters with powdered sugar.  Makes 3 dozen.

NOTES

Off the Eaten Path author's note -- "We tested with Braeburn apples." And so I figured why not do the same. In post-consumption discussions with the Guinea Pigs, it was decided that you could also use not-totally ripe peaches, firm strawberries, pears, or mango in lieu of the apples and it would work well too.

The reason I used an electric wok to fry mine up was because (and I know this may come as a shock), I don't actually own a Dutch oven.  But the advantages to using the wok instead are (1) I can still set the temperature easily and (2) because of the shape of the wok, even though I use less oil I still have a wide surface area to fry the fritters up in.

As a variation, you could sprinkle your fritters with cinnamon sugar instead of powdered sugar.

Did I mention these were REALLY good?

Apple Pie Cake

Yes, MORE comfort food!  (Apparently I am in need of a lot of comfort these days).  Everybody loves apple pie, well, most everyone except maybe me, but I love cake, so here is a tasty twist on an American classic that will give everyone a warm belly feeling and make your kitchen smelled DEE-licious.

Apple Pie Cake

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

In a medium bowl, mix all the dry ingredients.

Add in the eggs and melted butter and mix well.  The batter will have a consistency that's less like a cake batter and more like a really moist, gritty cookie dough.

Core, peel and thick-slice your Granny Smith apple.  I cut mine into 1/4" slices and then cut the slices in half, gives you a better apple-to-batter ratio when you spread it in the pan.

Gently fold the apple slices and walnuts into the batter.

Spread the batter in an 8x8" greased baking pan.  And yes, for the record, spreading slippery dough-batter in a greased pan is not unlike running on ice in shoes -- it's going to go everywhere and nowhere that you want it to, but if you remain calm and be patient, it will work out.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.  Remove and allow to cool before tearing into and devouring the pan. Not saying I did, but somehow a third of it mysteriously disappeared after photographing it.

NOTES

One sliced Granny Smith apple will measure anywhere between 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 cups.  I've put up to 2 cups worth in and it the recipe still works fine.

When you melt your butter, you want it to have a creamy yellow color/consistency.  From experience, the recipe doesn't work if your butter gets separated (has a clear yellow layer). I usually heat mine in the microwave for 15 seconds (for room temp butter), let it sit in there another 5 seconds and then whisk it with a fork to blend the non-melted parts in.  If it doesn't de-lump completely, then microwave it for another 5-7 seconds and that should do the trick.

The thing I like about this cake is that the sugar in the mix bakes into a nice crispy crust on the top of it so it's crunchy on the outside and soft and moist and cinnamony-appleicious in the center.

If you want to change it up a bit, in the summer you can use peaches slices instead of apple.  To get the best slices for baking, you want to use a softly firm fresh peach, somewhere between hard and crunchy (like I like mine) and juicy squiggy.