Apple Carrot Zucchini Bread

 I am officially out of zucchini, but I had one small summer squash left, so I managed to squeeze out one more zucchini bread recipe!

 

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 c. organic sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 c. whole wheat pastry flour 
• 1/2 c. all-purpose flour  
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1-2 tsp cinnmamon
• pinch of ground cloves
• pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1 cups shredded carrots
• 1/2-1 cup shredded zucchini or yellow squash
• 1/2 cup diced, peeled apple
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease and flour an 8x4 inch loaf pan.
3. Blend butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla together.
4. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg together.
5. Fold dry ingredients into wet along with carrots, squash, apples, and pecans.
6. Pour into prepared pans.
7. Bake until golden brown, approximately 1 hour, or until toothpick or knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Applesauce Walnut Bread

This is one of the few quick bread recipes in Fannie Farmer that calls for 'fresh' fruit or vegetables. I say that, but in actuality, it doesn't. But since I used fresh apples to make the applesauce for this, it's about as close as Fannie gets. A real disappointment, too, because I love making breads and cakes with fresh fruit or zucchini (that goes without saying at this point, right?)

What wasn't a disappointment was this bread. It was quite delicious, much better than the apple bread I made before. Again, I couldn't taste the apples at all, but my husband took one bite and said, "Wow, you can really taste the applesauce." So I guess my taste buds weren't working right! However, it was still very good, and highly recommended.


For this, I used:

• 1 stick butter
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 c. white flour
• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 c. applesauce
• 3/4 c. walnut pieces

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 & butter a loaf pan.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar

Add eggs & vanilla and mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients. Add to butter mixture and stir to combine well.

Stir in applesauce & walnuts and pour into loaf pan. Bake 55-75 minutes, watching closely at the end. I always have to add extra time to the baking time suggested. I think I cooked this for 60 minutes, maybe 65, and it was perfectly done.

Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Slice and enjoy. I like mine slightly warm, with butter and perhaps honey.

Apple Sauce (applesauce)

Yes, I'm one of those cliche girls who just loves fall sooo much I have to post about it every year. But come on, what's not to love? Sitting by a toasty fire for the first time all year, and actually enjoying the heat instead of suffering it, as we do in summer? All the fun activities that come with the season, with the coolness that makes us want to get out and actually do something more than lie on top of the AC vent and sweat? Or the fact that we can wear jeans and sweaters again? But most of all, how can anyone not love all the flavors that come with fall--toasty pumpkin seeds, pumpkin lattes, hot apple cider, and of course, cinnamon and nutmeg in everything! I for one, embrace the cliche and wholeheartedly admit that I adore fall. And with opportunities to take pictures not just of leaves, but of the gorgeous, colorful food that comes this time of year, how can I not?

I made this recipe one morning because my mom had given me some drops off her apple tree. If you've ever gotten drops, you know that they spoil fast! So I had these bruised apples starting to go bad, and I needed a way to use them all up at once. Hence, a tiny batch of apple sauce (made about 1.5 cups after I cut out all the spots and cores and boiled it down to applesauce). I was stoked when I saw that it used a cinnamon stick, since I'd bought some recently for my son to try and because they reminded me of my own childhood, when my mom had these on her spice rack and on rare occasions, would let us kids have one (or maybe we snitched them when she wasn't looking, I can't remember).

I made a very simple sauce, leaving out the butter in Fannie's recipe. Don't get me wrong, I love butter, but in applesauce? Weird.

For this small batch, I used:
About 4 apples, cut, cored and spots removed
1/2 cinnamon stick
a bit of water

Peel apples if not organic. I use organic, and I like the extra fiber, so I leave the skins in.
Cut apples and put in a pan with a bit of water in the pan if it begins to stick, along with the cinnamon stick
Cook until apples are soft
Run through a foley mill or food processor. This will make it smooth even with the skins in. Also, leaving the skins in makes it a gorgeous pink color.

Sausage-Stuffed Apples

This recipe is from my mom's old Boston Cooking School Cookbook, and is not found in my updated Fannie Farmer Cookbook. It's a shame, too, because this was a very interesting dish. It didn't really seem like dinner, but it had sausage, so I wouldn't call it dessert. It would kind of fit in the breakfast category, but it didn't taste at all like a breakfast food! I made it for dinner, so I guess it's a dinner dish.

For this, I used:

• 1 lb. ground sausage
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 c. onion, chopped fine
• 8 apples
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar
• (optional: 8 strips bacon...I didn't have any or I'd have used it)

Instructions:

Cook onions, garlic and sausage in a skillet for about 10 minutes or until sausage is completely cooked.

I used drops from my mom's tree, so if they look a little scrubby, that's why!

Core the apples meanwhile.

Stuff the cavity in each apple with sausage (I really had to pack it in and still ended up with a bit extra)
Sprinkle sugar over the tops
If using bacon, drape a strip over the top of each apple
Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes until apples are soft.

These turned out well. The first night, the apples were a little crisp still, but we reheated the leftovers the next day and the apples cooked until soft, as they are supposed to be. It was good both nights. The sugar made a crispy sheen on top of the apples, and the sausage and apples complemented each other nicely. This is a good apple dish that can be a main course, and it was nice to find a use for apples that wasn't a dessert. This was a little different than a usual dinner course, but not bad for a change of pace.

 

 

Apple Walnut Zucchini Bread

This is another recipe I made from the wonderful compilation found on this blog. I didn't like this one quite as much as the banana bread, but it was still pretty good. The spices were a bit strong for me, and I couldn't taste the apple at all, which was a disappointment. I didn't want to put in extra (one seemed like a wee amount) because I wasn't sure if it would make the bread soggy.

I probably won't make this again, since I have so many recipes from that blog, including another apple bread. But if you like very spicy apple bread, this one will do the trick.

For this, I used:
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 white cup flour
1/2 cups sugar
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1 apple, grated
1 cup grated zucchini
2 eggs
1/3 cup coconut oil
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
dried apple slices (optional--I didn't have these, so didn't use them)

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flours, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and baking soda.
 
3. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, grated apple, zucchini, coconut oil and lemon juice.
4. Gently fold this mixture into the dry ingredients, being careful not to overmix.
5. Stir in the chopped walnuts.
 
6. Pour batter into a greased and floured loaf pan.

7. Bake for about an hour, or until browned and a toothpick comes out clean.
 
Like I said, this bread was just okay. Last time, I made banana zucchini bread and it was a little soggy. This was the opposite--a little dry. But, it got eaten, both at dinner with pork chops and sauteed squash and the next morning for breakfast. It didn't hang around on the counter for long, so I guess it was passable. 

Mulligatawny Soup

I've heard of mulligatawny soup before, but it was one of those words I'd heard while never really knowing what it was (like vissisous). Apparently it's an Indian dish that made it's way over here a long, long time ago. I looked it up on Pinterest and all the recipes used lentils, but Fannie's uses meat, listed as an optional ingredient. With or without meat, she doesn't mention lentils. Since I was trying to make a FF recipe, I followed hers rather closely, with the exception of using a red pepper in place of celery, since I don't have celery and it would be criminal to buy a vegetable at this point, with my counters overflowing with homegrown organic veggies of all sorts (except the celery variety).

Here's my adaptation for this:

Ingredients:

4 tbsp butter
1 diced onion
1 diced carrot
1 diced green pepper
1 diced red pepper (or a couple stalks of celery, which I didn't have, so I used peppers)
1 diced apple
1 jalepeno, minced (or 1/8 tsp. cayenne)

1 lb raw beef
1/3 c. flour
1 tbsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
6 c. water (or use beef broth if you have it)
2 crushed cloves
1 large tomato, chopped
salt & pepper to taste

3 c. cooked brown rice

optional garnishes: slivered almonds, cashews, or chilled banana slices. I didn't use any of these. I used some plain yogurt for garnish, because it's what I usually eat with Indian food.

Directions:
Melt 2 tbsp. butter in large pot

  Add vegetables and meat (everything down to the flour) and cook 15 minutes on low heat, stirring often.

 Add other 2 tbsp. butter, flour, nutmeg & curry powder and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add water, cloves, tomato, salt & pepper and simmer 30 minutes.

Serve in bowls atop rice, with preferred garnish.

I'm not a huge fan of Indian curry, so I wasn't crazy about this, but it was okay. My husband liked it well enough, and my son ate it one day as well. Since it makes a big pot of soup, we ended up having it for dinner a couple times, though my son requested a cheese sandwich the second night we had this. It's a good soup if you like curry. Otherwise, I'd skip this one.

Apple Crisp

Ever since I was a kid, this has been one of my favorite desserts. Apple pie can't hold a candle to my mom's apple crisp. I've made her recipe several times, but this time, I wanted to try Fannie's. I did use oatmeal in the topping, whereas Fannie's recipe uses only flour. The technique is much different than my mom's, but it turned out really good! To me, this is more like a cobbler, with the topping having a cobbled look, whereas I think of apple crisp as having a crumb topping. But, it was still very good and I think I will be making Fannie's version again for sure.

For this version, I used:

4 c. chopped or sliced apples (peel if not using organic)
1/2 c. oatmeal
1/4 c. whole wheat flour
1/4 c. white flour
1/2 c. sugar

1 tsp. non-aluminum baking powder
1 egg
1 stick butter, melted

Chop the apples and put in the bottom of an 8x8 baking pan.

 

In a small bowl, mix oatmeal, flour, sugar, and baking powder

Add egg to flour mixture and mix it in until everything is moistened

Spread evenly over apples in baking pan. You may have to move the batter around some on the apples to cover them as much as possible. The batter will be very thick and a bit clumpy.

Pour butter slowly and evenly all over surface of batter. Use the back of a spoon to spread it and make sure everything is buttered.

 

Bake 25-30 minutes at 350. 

 

That last step (before cooking) sounded very strange to me, and I was sure it wouldn't be nearly as good as my mom's. But it was really good! The topping did indeed have a 'crispy' skim on top. It was buttery and just sweet enough. It baked into a cobbled type topping. If I ate this without knowing what it was, I'd call it apple cobbler. It had just enough topping, and since I'm not a fan of regular pie crust, I found this to be a wonderful alternative. Highly recommended. 

 

Dutch Apple Pudding

I found this recipe in my mom's old Boston Cooking School Cookbook. Unfortunately, it's not in my edition of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook. Which is a shame, because this was just about the yummiest apple pie type dish I've ever tasted!

I used:

4 small apples from my mom's tree (use 2 large apples from the store, peeled)

1/2 c. walnuts
1/2 c. organic sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. aluminum-free baking soda
Optional: cinnamon/nutmeg OR lemon juice

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Butter a pie pan
• Beat the egg, then add sugar and beat that in.

Dice the apples (should be 1-2 c).

 

Add to sugar/egg mixture and toss to coat.

Add flour, baking powder and nuts and pour into pan. I had to pat it down some to get apples mostly submerged.

Bake 20-25 minutes, until top is lightly browned.

Drizzle with heavy cream.

Mangi, mangi!

This is possibly my new favorite dessert. We ate it for breakfast and it was very indulgent! I cut the sugar in half (FF says 1 c.) and it was still so sweet I had to drink unsweetened coffee with it to cut the sweetness. I'd say it was a little too sweet. But soooo delicious (and, my sugar-addict son informed me, just sweet enough!), especially the way the sugar made this barely-there crunchy shell on top. It was so thin you could hardly feel the crispiness before it melted in your mouth. You can see it in the above pic next to the apple. It made this spun-sugar web thing on top that was TO DIE FOR.

I made this a few days later at my mom's house because it was so good the first time (and not very big--we ate the whole thing for breakfast). My mom wanted me to use xylitol for a sweetener, and it didn't make the 'crust' on top like sugar did, and wasn't nearly as good. It was just okay. I'm glad I used cinnamon at her house or it would have been boring. So do not use a sugar substitute on this one! It requires sugar (but you could try cutting the sugar to 1/4 c. if your apples are sweet).

This recipe is super easy and SO delicious. I may try it with gluten-free flour soon and update this post if it's any good. Now go make yourself some apple 'pudding'!