I love it when I blunder on a new recipe and it instantly becomes a favorite. Last week I found three new "keeper" recipes in a single day!
For a the birthday party of a dear family friend last week, I decided to try making an apple-inspired meal. This is what I came up with...
- October Cider Beans with Smoked Apple Chardonnay Chicken Sausage
- Whole Wheat Granny Smith Apple Bread
- The bread was served with a choice of two homemade toppings -- Walnut Butter with Apple Cider Reduction or Fresh Granny Smith Apple Butter
- Tossed Salad with Pink Lady Apple and Apple Cider Vinaigrette
- Honeycrisp Apple Spice Cake with Maple Fluff
It was one of those happy meals that manages to come off almost perfectly. In particular, the Cider Beans, the Apple Bread, and the Apple Spice Cake are things I want to make again (and again and again and....) The first two recipes I found in a library book called In Praise of Apples: A Harvest of History, Horticulture, and Recipes by Mark Rosenstein (Asheville, NC: Lark Books, 1996). That night after everything was piled into the dishwasher and the counters were wiped off, I went right to my computer and ordered a copy. (Click on the photo below for an Amazon link.) Such a lovely and inspiring book that also happens to be crammed with good information!
As for dessert, I roamed one of my favorite cooking websites, AllRecipes.com, until I found a cake that sounded wonderful. It was!
I skipped the raisins and reduced the cooking time by about ten minutes. The result was a spicy yet not overpowering tube-type cake that has an interior almost moist and soft enough to eat with a spoon. That quality is thanks to the fresh apple bits making steam inside the batter as it bakes. At the same time, the exterior of the cake becomes caramelized and streusel-like. The Maple Fluff (found in my mom's recipe box) was good, but really what this cake needs is to be served hot-from-the-oven with good quality vanilla ice cream.
AllRecipes calls this recipe "Apple Spice Cake." Hmmm. Not quite it. I'm adding the word "pudding" to the title because this cake reminds me of all the best qualities in an excellent English steamed pudding. Click HERE for the recipe. It won't win beauty contests, but it will win you friends!
Yesterday was a gray, rainy Monday. It became a cozy day, though, as soon as friends dropped by and I whipped up another Apple Spice Pudding Cake to slide into the oven. Cut into quarters, Eli and I delivered parts of it to three other families and spread a little early autumn joy. And the whole house smells lovely now.
(Christopher Idone's Apples: A Country Garden Cookbook is one of the most lovely cookbooks I've seen in a long time. If you don't feel like cooking or baking apples, paging through this is almost just as good!)
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