An Apple A Day

Classic Apple Cake

The script is right out of the movies.  It is a perfect Fall day that calls for a sweatshirt or a light sweater.  Bus Boy, excited by his adventure, drives to the farmer’s market in Kosovo in pursuit of fresh fruit and vegetables.  Images of the Union Square Greenmarket and a refrigerator stocked with colorful fruits and vegetables dance in his head.

Upon arrival he forces himself to temporarily erase past memories of the Union Square Greenmarket and adjusts his expectations accordingly.   He comforts himself with the idea of “fresher” ingredients than he has cooked with during his stay in Kosovo and continues on toward the lot of rusty vans.

The Farmer's Market in Kosovo

The Best Fruit and Vegetable Stand at Farmer's Market in Kosovo

Apples draw his attention.  He confidently approaches a farmer, points to his beautiful bounty and asks, in broken Serbian, to purchase three apples.  The farmer stares at him blankly and responds with a simple, forceful, “no.” Bus Boy makes a second request, hoping it is his accent or incorrect grammar that is eliciting such a forceful response. Again, the answer is “no.” They look at each other in silence, both seemingly confused.  After a few moments the farmer picks up a barrel of apples and offers them to Bus Boy.  He laughs and makes a large dramatic gesture to emphasize that he is only one person.  The farmer is not amused and again offers him the barrel.  This time Bus Boy takes the barrel, places is it on the ground and picks out three perfect apples.  The farmer shakes his head in a definitive “no.”

Growing up in Massachusetts, visiting apple orchards in the Fall and even picking apples off the tree in my front yard were a regular part of my life.  I love the sweet Macoun apples followed later in the season by Pink Ladys and nothing beats the refreshing tartness of a Granny Smith apple. While I may not have an opportunity to visit nearby orchards in New York City, I do have access to the best apples New York State has to offer at the Union Square Greenmarket.  Forever a fan of taste tests, I bought a few varieties of apples last weekend ready to experiment.  Inspired by a New York Times review of the cookbook, “The Apple Lover’s Cookbook” by Amy Traverso, I dreamed all of the amazing apple recipes that I could share this week.

On Friday afternoon I received a call from Bus Boy.  We barely said hello before he announced that his first trip to the farmer’s market was a success – maybe too much of a success.  He asked me for apple recipes – a lot of apple recipes.  As you may have suspected Bus Boy did not buy three apples or even six apples but an entire barrel of apples.  It is a good thing that apples last a long time.  Lucky for Bus Boy they last even longer in the refrigerator.  And we all know that he has plenty of space in his refrigerator.

Baked apples are a comforting, delicious, healthy and easy Fall dessert. Every October my mother would bake Courtland apples in a somewhat complicated recipe that included eight ingredients and two types of sugar that she adapted from “The Joy of Cooking.”  They taste amazing but I wanted something that was simpler and excluded the sugar.  I chose six apples – Courtland, Macoun, Pink Lady, Macintosh, Red Delicious and Granny Smith – for my taste test and filled them with five ingredients – cloves, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon and dried cranberries.  I chose the flavors from my favorite apple pie ingredients!  Once stuffed with just a pinch or two of the selected spices the apples went right in the oven for an hour.  I took my taste test very seriously, carefully analyzing the sweetness, softness and overall appearance of the final product.  Surprisingly, the baked Granny Smith had the most complex flavor.  It had a nice sweetness, great texture (it didn’t turn into apple sauce) and just the right amount of raw apple favor.  Eating the baked Granny Smith apple wasn’t quite like eating the stuffing of an apple pie but it was close – and healthier!

For every major Fall feast, including Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Thanksgiving, I make apple crisp and I never tire of it!  It is a simple recipe that is half the work of making a pie and you can prepare the apple crisp crumble topping ahead of time and put it in the freezer to use later. This Yom Kippur, in a rush to finish the desserts before dinner, I didn’t peal the apples and, honestly, I didn’t notice a difference in taste.  It is the perfect go-to recipe!

Finally, I baked an apple cake from the recipe collection of the famous blog Smitten Kitchen.  This was the recipe that gave me the most problems (I made three cakes) but now that I have mastered its quirks I am happy to add it to my repertoire and share the recipe with you!  The preparation for the cake is quite easy.  It was the baking that was my problem. On my first attempt I kept the cake in the oven for too long which resulted in a very hard outer crust. On my second attempt I did not bake the cake long enough which resulted in half of the cake on the floor when I took the cake out of the pan.   On my third, and only successful attempt, I took the cake out of the oven after exactly ninety minutes.  Be certain that your oven maintains the accurate temperature throughout the baking process by peaking at an oven thermometer every thirty minutes!   Once out of the oven, allow the cake to cool completely – nearly an hour!  If the cake is even a little warm the top and bottom will come apart and the middle section of apples will spread across your counter when attempting to release the cake from the mold.   Once cooled I was able to enjoy the moist cake literally filled with apples!  My favorite part of this cake is the apple center and the crisp cinnamon soaked apples on top.  If you are an apple lover this cake is definitely worth the time and effort.

Nutritionally, there is some truth to the famous saying, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away!”  A medium apple (about 3 inches in diameter) is low in calories (95 calories per apple) and high in fiber (4 grams per apples).  Additionally, apples are a good source of vitamin C and beta carotene.  Nutritionist Caren recommends always carrying an apple with you in your purse or in your car.  Without the fuss or mess of a fruit that needs to be peeled it is the perfect on-the-go snack!

I told Bus Boy to add an apple to his briefcase each day for a mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack and encouraged him to experiment in adding apples chunks in his yogurt, cottage cheese and even salads.  Bus Boy was more anxious to test the three new recipes.  I was happy to share with him some of my favorite recipes as well as my favorite childhood memories of picking apples.  In the end, the farmer’s market negotiation was a blessing in disguise – creating a funny story and many recipes to share.

Classic Baked Apples

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 65 minutes

Yield: 4 Apples

 

4 large Granny Smith apples, (peeled optional).

Ginger, 2 pinches

Cinnamon, 2 pinches

Cardoman, 1 pinch

Cloves, 1 pinch

40 cranberries

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Cut 1/4 inch off the top off each of the apples.  Place the tops of each apple aside.

3.  Fill the apples with 2 pinches of ginger and cinnamon, 1 pinch of cardoman and cloves and 10 cranberries.

4.  Cover the apples with their tops and bake for 1 hour.  The apples should be soft enough to easily place a knife through their center.

5.  Allow to cool and enjoy!

 

Classic Apple Crumble

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 70 minutes

Yield: 10-12 servings

 

Topping:

2 ½ cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup (packed) light brown sugar

1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup (2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes

 

Filling:

4 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, halved, cored, each half cut into 6 slices

2/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Vanilla ice cream

 

1.  Preheat oven to 375°F.  Spray 13 x 9 x 2 inch glass baking dish with nonstick spray.

2.  Mix oats, brown sugar, and flour in a bowl.  Add butter rub in with fingertips until topping comes together in moist clumps. (This mixture can be made ahead. Cover and chill for 24 hours or freeze for months.)

3.  Mix all filling ingredients in large bowl to coat apples.  Transfer to baking dish.  Sprinkle topping  evenly over the apples as thick or thin of a layer as you desire .  Freeze any leftover topping for future use.

4.  Bake until the apples are tender and the topping is brown and crisp, about 55 minutes.  Cool slightly.  Spoon warm crumble into bowls.  Serve with ice cream.

 

Classic Apple Cake

very minimally adapted from “Mom’s Apple Cake,”  smittenkitchen.com, Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

Classic Apple Cake

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 75 minutes (plus 60 minutes to cool)

Yield: 6-8 servings

6 McIntosh apples, peeled, cored and chopped into chunks
1 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar

2 3/4 cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup coconut oil (grapeseed or vegetable oil are great alternatives)
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup orange juice, room temperature
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs, room temperature
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a tube pan with butter.

2.  Toss apples with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

3.  Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

4.  If not already liquefied, melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan over a low heat and allow to cool.  In a medium bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar and vanilla.

5.  Mix wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.  Add one egg at a time.  Scrape down the bowl to ensure all of the ingredients are incorporated.

6.  Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Spread half of apples over the batter. Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top.

7.  Bake for 90 minutes.  Allow to cool COMPLETELY before releasing the cake from the pan.